Awardees at Physics Department annual
research poster exhibit, April 24, 2019.
Prof. Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell,
Discovery of Binary Pulsars
23rd Annual Katzenstein Lecture
University of Connecticut
November 8, 2019
- Prof. Bell Burnell with UConn Women in Physics, November 2019
- Annual awards event honoring outstanding teaching assistants
- Introductory Physics applies hands-on approach to learning
- Annual department hike up Mt. Monadnock, October 2019
Professor Nora Berrah Awarded a Blaise Pascal Chaire d’Excellence to Conduct Research in France
Professor of Physics Nora Berrah has been awarded the International Blaise Pascal Chaire d’Excellence, a prestigious honor whose previous winners include scientists and scholars from a wide range of disciplines, including multiple Nobel laureates. Her award was selected by a committee of scientists and voted on by the Permanent Commission Regional Council of the Région […]
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Professor Munirul Islam: Celebrating His Life and His Legacy
Members and friends of the Physics Department gathered online Saturday morning, April 10, to share memories and thoughts of appreciation for Prof. Munir Islam who passed from this world on March 11, 2021. The meeting was led jointly by Profs. Win Smith and Mehdi Anwar, with expressions of appreciation and sympathy for the family by several members of the department past and present. Prof. Mannheim has offered this written tribute to our colleague and friend.
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The passing of Dr. David Katzenstein, a friend and benefactor of the UConn Department of Physics
Dr. David Katzenstein, a friend, and benefactor of the UConn Department of Physics, passed away on January 25, 2021 due to Covid-19. David was the son of Henry Katzenstein, the first Physics Ph.D. from UConn and a major benefactor of our Department. Currently, both the annual Katzenstein Distinguished Lecture and the Katzenstein Prize for a […]
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A Signal from Beyond
UConn astrophysicist Chiara Mingarelli is part of a team of researchers who recently published data on a hint of a signal that sent ripples of excitement through the physics community. These monumental findings are the culmination of twelve and a half years of data gathered from NANOGrav — a network of pulsars across the galaxy — all in the hopes of detecting gravitational waves.
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UConn Physics alumnus Dr. Michael Wininger
UConn Physics alumnus Dr. Michael Wininger (BS, 2003) was recently featured in the professional journal O&P Almanac (Orthotics and Prosthetics). The article describes how his eclectic background, beginning with degrees from UConn, has enabled him to lead innovations in several areas of health research. Mike is currently an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Biostatistics Department […]
[Read More]Upcoming events
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Apr
19
Particle, Astrophysics, And Nuclear Physics Seminar2:00pm
Particle, Astrophysics, And Nuclear Physics Seminar
Monday, April 19th, 2021
02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Storrs Campus online
Dr. Vladimir Tishchenko, Brookhaven National Laboratory
First result of the Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab
The Brookhaven muon g-2 experiment E821 measured the muon magnetic anomaly to a
precision of 540 ppb (parts per billion). The difference between the Standard Model theory value and the E821 experimental value ultimately became 3.7 standard deviations.
Is it a sign of new physics or a fluctuation? To answer this, a new experiment has been developed at Fermilab which uses the Brookhaven storage ring with the new muon beam and detectors. The Fermilab experiment has announced its much anticipated first results based on Run-1 data collected in 2018. In my talk, I will give a brief overview of the
g-2 experiment and talk about the Run-1 measurements with highlights in beam and spin dynamics effects.
Webex meeting URL: https://uconn-cmr.webex.com/meet/tcb04001/Contact Information: Prof. T. Blum
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Apr
20
PhD Dissertation Defense1:30pm
PhD Dissertation Defense
Tuesday, April 20th, 2021
01:30 PM - 03:30 PM
Storrs Campus Video meeting
Graduate Student Candost Akkaya, Department of Physics, University of Connecticut
Entanglement Entropy in Gauge Theories
Studying long range correlations in non-abelian gauge theories is important to understand the interaction between charged states in their non-perturbative regime. One can study the entanglement properties of these theories to probe their long range structure. However, calculating entanglement entropy is a complicated endeavor and even in free theories since the calculation raises various technical difficulties. We present a way to study the entanglement properties of field theories in their continuum limit by considering the theory of free photon in 3+1 dimensions with a bipartition of local degrees of freedom by a plane. We calculate the entanglement entropy by integrating over the degrees of freedom in one half space using an approximation that assumes slow variation of the magnetic fields in the longitudinal direction. We discuss the differences in the contribution of longitudinal and transverse modes and conclude that the long range entanglement arises due to the necessity to solve the no-monopole constraint condition for the magnetic field.
Meeting link: https://zoom.us/j/99867842922?pwd=Qlg1aDIzUTJ6bWpsRklTYUxpRWdHUT09Contact Information: Prof. A. Kovner
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Apr
20
Special Nuclear Physics Seminar2:00pm
Special Nuclear Physics Seminar
Tuesday, April 20th, 2021
02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Storrs Campus WebEx
Devi Adhikari
Idaho State University
Title: Neutron Skin Measurement of 208-Pb using PVeS
Abstract:
As the size of an atomic nucleus gets bigger and bigger, the neutron-proton asymmetry becomes more and more prominent. This asymmetry characterizes the Symmetry Energy which affects the nuclear binding energy and other nuclear properties. While the central core of the nucleus is composed of symmetric nuclear matter, the extra neutrons in heavy nuclei are pushed out to the surface of the nucleus, forming a pure outer neutron skin layer. In contrast to the proton distribution inside a nucleus, which has been accurately measured with electron scattering, the previous measurements of neutron distributions have suffered a lack of systematic precision. PREX-2, which ran in Hall A of Jefferson lab from summer to fall of 2019, used the parity-violating signature of the weak interaction to measure the neutron distribution in $^{208}$Pb nuclei with unprecedented precision. Subtracting the previously measured proton distribution ($R_p$) from the neutron distribution ($R_n$), PREX-2 reports the neutron skin thickness in $^{208}$Pb nuclei. The measured neutron skin has a broad range of applications from calibration of the facility for radioactive isotope beams (FRIB) to neutron star structure. This talk will focus on PREX-2 measurement and highlight its broad implications.
https://uconn-cmr.webex.com/meet/anp13021Contact Information: Prof. Andrew Puckett
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Apr
23
Phiala Shanahan (Physics Colloquium)3:30pm
Phiala Shanahan (Physics Colloquium)
Friday, April 23rd, 2021
03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Storrs Campus remote
Prof. Phiala Shanahan, MIT
Physics Department Colloquium
Title and abstract: TBDContact Information: Prof. Thomas Blum
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Apr
26
Particle, Astrophysics, And Nuclear Physics Seminar2:00pm
Particle, Astrophysics, And Nuclear Physics Seminar
Monday, April 26th, 2021
02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Storrs Campus online
Zach Harris, Department of Physics, University of Connecticut
Resurgence and the Euler-Heisenberg Effective Action
Perturbation theory is one of the most accessible tools we have for studying quantum
systems and quantum field theories. For most interesting problems, these expansions in the relevant small parameter are formally divergent. However, resummation techniques have been developed to make sense of such expansions, and provide access to a rich substructure relating perturbative physics to non-perturbative physics which was obscured by the divergence. This unification of perturbative and non-perturbative physics is a manifestation of resurgence — a mathematical phenomenon which we use to study perturbative expansions in QED. We present a modified Padé-Borel analysis of the one-loop and two-loop Euler-Heisenberg QED effective action, and demonstrate with remarkable precision our ability to re-sum weak magnetic field expansions to learn about the strong magnetic field and electric field regimes. At two-loop order, we successfully decode novel, non-perturbative structure in the Schwinger pair-production rate — the rate at which a constant electric field will polarize the vacuum.Contact Information: Prof. G. Dunne
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