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
UConn Researcher an Architect for Astronomical Survey Making Observations Toward a New Understanding of the Cosmos
November 2, 2020 – Elaina Hancock – UConn Communications The Sloan Digital Sky Survey’s fifth generation – a groundbreaking project to bolster our understanding of the formation and evolution of galaxies, including the Milky Way – collected its very first observations on the evening of October 23. Image: The Sloan Digital Sky Survey’s fifth generation […]
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The passing of UConn Physics Professor Emeritus, Arnold Russek
Arnold Russek, a theoretical atomic physicist, born July 13, 1926, in New York, passed away on October 13th, 2020, in Colorado. As a young man of 18, he served honorably as a radio engineer in the Pacific during WWII. He earned his Ph.D. at the Courant Institute at New York University in 1953, and taught […]
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AAS Author Interview with Gloria Fonseca Alvarez
UConn graduate student Gloria Fonseca Alvarez was featured with a video in the Author Interview series produced by the American Astronomical Society (AAS). In this video, Gloria talks about her work to understand the inner environments of black holes. The paper highlighted in the video shows that the orbits of emission-line gas around supermassive black holes are often smaller than expected from previous observations.
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Stretching Makes Superconductor
Most superconductors only work when they’re super cold. Chemists and metallurgists have experimented with different combinations of elements for years, trying to get superconductors that work at temperatures close to room temperature. Sochnikov and his students are thinking about it differently. What if mechanical changes such as squeezing or stretching could make a material a superconductor?
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Longtime Science Pioneer Passes Away
Throughout her long life, Cynthia Peterson educated and enriched her family, her students, and her community through science, discovery, and a lifelong enthusiasm for teaching prospective scientists. Through community outreach and during her many years as a professor, Cynthia taught many that wonderment can be found simply by looking up at the night sky.
[Read More]Upcoming events
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Jan
27
Astronomy Seminar11:00am
Astronomy Seminar
Wednesday, January 27th, 2021
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Storrs Campus online
Prof. P. Mannheim,
Department of Physics, University of Connecticut
Is Dark Matter Fact or Fantasy -- Clues from the Data
We discuss arguments both in favor of and against dark matter. With the repeated failure of experiment to date to detect dark matter we discuss what could be done instead, and to this end look for clues in the data themselves. We identify various regularities in galactic rotation curve data that correlate the total gravitational potential with luminous matter rather than dark matter. We identify a contribution to galactic rotation curves coming from the rest of the visible universe, and suggest that dark matter is just an attempt to describe this global effect in terms of standard local Newtonian gravity within galaxies. Thus the missing mass is not missing at all — it has been hiding in plain sight all along as the rest of the visible mass in the universe.
Webex link: https://uconn-cmr.webex.com/meet/cab16109Contact Information: Prof. C. Battersby
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Jan
29
Graduate Student Seminar12:15pm
Graduate Student Seminar
Friday, January 29th, 2021
12:15 PM - 01:15 PM
Storrs Campus online
Prof C. Battersby,
Department of Physics,
University of Connecticut
With the participation of Dr. Daniel Walker, and graduate student H Perry Hatchfield
The Milky Way Laboratory
Our own Milky Way Galaxy is a powerful and relatively nearby laboratory in which to study the physical processes that occur throughout the Universe. From the organization of gas on galactic scales to the life cycle of gas and stars under varied environmental conditions, studies of our Milky Way underpin many areas of modern astrophysics. I will present a brief tour of our Milky Way Laboratory, including 1) high-mass star formation from surveys of our Galaxy’s disk, and 2) how observing and simulating our extreme, turbulent Galactic Center (the Central Molecular Zone) can help us learn more about how gas is converted into stars during the peak epoch of cosmic star formation.Contact Information: Prof. V. Kharchenko
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Jan
29
Physics Colloquium (Prof. Stewart Prager, Princeton University)3:30pm
Physics Colloquium (Prof. Stewart Prager, Princeton University)
Friday, January 29th, 2021
03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Storrs Campus Remote colloquium
Prof. Stewart Prager
Princeton University.
Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction
Title: The Increasing Peril from Nuclear Arms: and how physicists can help reduce the threatContact Information: Prof. Andrew Puckett
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Feb
3
Condensed Matter Physics Seminar11:00am
Condensed Matter Physics Seminar
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Storrs Campus online
Prof. J. Haraldsen, University of North Florida
Examining multi-band effects on the electronic compressibility of a 2D electron gas: Insights into the negative compressibility of LAO/STO
In this study, we investigate the consequences of two electronic bands at the negative electronic compressibility (NEC) cross-over point for a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) using a simple homogeneous model with Coulombic interactions and first-order multi-band coupling. We examine the role of effective mass and relative permittivity in relation to the critical carrier density at the cross-over point through a comparison of one- and two-band models. In general, it is shown that the population of a second band, along with the presence of inter-band coupling, can dramatically change the cross-over carrier density. Given the difficulty in determining and confirming multi-band electronic systems, this model provides a potential method for identifying multi-band electronic systems using precise bulk electronic properties measurements. To help illustrate this method, we apply our results to the observed NEC in the 2D electron gas at the interface of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (LAO/STO) and determine that, for the known parameters of LAO/STO, the system is likely a realization of a two-band 2D electron gas. Furthermore, we provide general limits on the inter-band coupling with respect to the electronic band population.
Zoom link: https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/62759109592Contact Information: Prof. A. Balatsky.
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Feb
26
Professor Stella Offner (Physics Colloquium)3:30pm
Professor Stella Offner (Physics Colloquium)
Friday, February 26th, 2021
03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Storrs Campus remote
Prof. Stella Offner, UT Austin
Physics Department Colloquium
Title and abstract: TBDContact Information: Prof. Cara Battersby
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