Faculty position in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
Faculty position in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics with a particular interest in quantum dynamics and ultrafast processes. We are currently inviting applications for a full-time tenure track faculty position in the Department of Physics in Theoretical Atomic, Molecular, and Optical (AMO) Physics at the rank of Assistant Professor, to begin in August 2021. An […]
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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?
[Read More]Recent Events
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Graduate Student Phillip Price, Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, PhD Dissertation Defense1:00pm
12/9
Graduate Student Phillip Price, Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, PhD Dissertation Defense
Wednesday, December 9th, 2020
01:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Storrs Campus Video meeting
Graduate Student Phillip Price, Department of Physics,
University of Connecticut
We propose a model that combines magneto-association across a Feshbach resonance with STIRAP into a continuous and coherent process to form ultra- cold molecules. This can add to the toolbox of ultracold coherent chemistry and potentially enable the production of more ultracold molecules species. To that end, our proposed method should prove beneficial when the Feshbach molecule state has a very short lifetime, with the additional benefit of working within existing experimental setups. -
Anahita Alavi, University of California, Riverside, "Dwarf Galaxies Before Exciting Future Observations: The Importance of Extragalactic HST UV Imaging Surveys", Astronomy Seminar12:00pm
12/9
Anahita Alavi, University of California, Riverside, "Dwarf Galaxies Before Exciting Future Observations: The Importance of Extragalactic HST UV Imaging Surveys", Astronomy Seminar
Wednesday, December 9th, 2020
12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Storrs Campus online
Anahita Alavi, University of California, Riverside
Dwarf Galaxies Before Exciting Future Observations: The Importance of Extragalactic HST UV Imaging Surveys
Dwarf galaxies (M*/M0 < 109) are the smallest and least luminous but most abundant galaxies in the universe. These galaxies are at the forefront of many important questions in galaxy formation theory, yet observationally we are only just beginning to constrain their physical properties, especially at high redshifts. Therefore, it is not surprising that JWST, Roman Telescope, and Euclid will be devoting some part of their time to study these galaxies via their stellar continuum and/or nebular emission lines at various redshifts.
In this talk, I will show how the combination of our deep UV imaging with WFC3/UVIS camera on HST and extensive spectroscopic observations with MOSFIRE spectrograph at the Keck observatory and grism data from WFC3 Infrared Spectroscopic Parallel Survey (WISP) allowed us to 1- observe dwarf galaxies at high redshifts (i.e., 1 (i.e., 1 < z < 3 ), which have always been below the detection limits of many surveys, and 2- better understand the formation and evolution of this population of galaxies via studying their number density evolution (i.e., luminosity function), star formation history (i.e., bursty SFH) and dust attenuation. In addition, I will introduce our new large UV imaging surveys with HST (UVCANDELS and UV Frontier Fields II), which will further explore the high-redshift dwarf galaxies. These UV surveys are vitally important because some of their primary science goals, such as studying the escaping ionizing radiation from galaxies, cannot fundamentally be studied by JWST. Relatedly, I will present our recent work of searching for escaping ionizing radiation from low-mass galaxies at high redshift. -
Condensed Matter Physics Seminar10:00am
12/8
Condensed Matter Physics Seminar
Tuesday, December 8th, 2020
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Storrs Campus online
Peter Littlewood, University of Chicago
Dynamical phase transitions at many body exceptional point
Spontaneous synchronization is at the core of many natural phenomena. Your heartbeat is maintained because cells contract in a synchronous wave; some bird species synchronize their motion into flocks; quantum synchronization is responsible for laser action and superconductivity. The transition to synchrony, or between states of different patterns of synchrony, is a dynamical phase transition that has much in common with conventional phase transitions of state -- for example solid to liquid, or magnetism -- but the striking feature of driven dynamical systems is that the components are "active". Consequently quantum systems with dissipation and decay are described by non-Hermitian Hamiltonians, and active matter can abandon Newton's third law and have non-reciprocal interactions. This substantially changes the character of many-degree-of-freedom dynamical phase transitions and the critical phenomena in their vicinity, since the critical point is an "exceptional point" where eigenvalues become degenerate and eigenvectors coalesce. We will illustrate this in several different systems -- a Bose-Einstein condensate of polaritons, models of multicomponent active matter such as flocks of birds, generalised Kuramoto models, and others. We argue that there is a systematic theory, generalized phase diagram, and corresponding universality classes for these dynamical systems.
Fruchart et al., arXiv:2003.13176
Hanai et al., 10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.185301
Zoom Meeting: https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/67773156040 -
Prof P. Mannheim, Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, "The Ginzburg-Landau Theory of Phase Transitions", Graduate Student Seminar12:15pm
12/4
Prof P. Mannheim, Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, "The Ginzburg-Landau Theory of Phase Transitions", Graduate Student Seminar
Friday, December 4th, 2020
12:15 PM - 01:15 PM
Storrs Campus online
Prof P. Mannheim,
Department of Physics,
University of Connecticut
The Ginzburg-Landau Theory of Phase Transitions
We discuss the Ginzburg-Landau theory of phase transitions from both macroscopic and microscopic perspectives. We discuss applications to ferromagnetism, superconductivity, and the Higgs boson.
Reference: P. D. Mannheim, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. 94, 125 (2017). -
Prof. Steven Longmore, Liverpool John Moores University, "Ecosystems and Life", Astronomy Seminar10:00am
12/2
Prof. Steven Longmore, Liverpool John Moores University, "Ecosystems and Life", Astronomy Seminar
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2020
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Storrs Campus online
Prof. Steven Longmore, Liverpool John Moores University
Ecosystems and Life
Abstract: I will cover two topics united under the theme of ecosystems shaping the potential for life. In the first half, I will present recent results showing that the architecture of planetary systems is shaped by their environmental ecosystems, in particular the degree of stellar clustering around their host star (Winter et al, 2020, Nature, 586, 528). We identify old, co-moving stellar groups around exoplanet host stars in the astrometric data from the Gaia satellite and demonstrate that the architecture of planetary systems exhibits a strong dependence on local stellar clustering in position-velocity phase space, implying a dependence on their formation or evolution environment. After controlling for host stellar age, mass, metallicity, and distance from the Sun, we obtain highly significant differences in planetary (system) properties between phase space overdensities and the field. The median semi-major axis and orbital period of planets in overdensities are 0.087 au and 9.6 days, respectively, compared to 0.81 au and 154 days for planets around field stars. 'Hot Jupiters' (massive, close-in planets) predominantly exist in stellar phase-space overdensities, strongly suggesting that their extreme orbits originate from environmental perturbations rather than internal migration or planet-planet scattering. Our findings suggest that stellar clustering is an important factor setting the architectures of planetary systems. In the second half of the talk, I will discuss how we are using astrophysics research techniques to help ecologists protect ecosystems, save critically endangered animal species, and stop peat forest fires that are a major contributor to climate change.
Webex link: https://uconn-cmr.webex.com/meet/cab16109 -
Prof. H.Haggard, Bard College, "Why do so many black holes measured in gravitational waves have zero spin?", Particle, Astrophysics, And Nuclear Physics Seminar2:00pm
11/30
Prof. H.Haggard, Bard College, "Why do so many black holes measured in gravitational waves have zero spin?", Particle, Astrophysics, And Nuclear Physics Seminar
Monday, November 30th, 2020
02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Storrs Campus online
Prof. H.Haggard, Bard College
Why do so many black holes measured in gravitational waves have zero spin?
Black hole entropy is a robust prediction of quantum gravity with no established phenomenological consequences to date. We use the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy formula and general-relativistic statistical mechanics to determine the probability distribution of random geometries uniformly sampled in phase space. We show that this statistics (in the limit \( \hbar \to 0\) ) is relevant to large curvature perturbations, resulting in a population of primordial black holes with zero natal spin. In principle, the identification of such a population at LIGO, Virgo, and future gravitational wave observatories could provide the first observational evidence for the statistical nature of black hole entropy. -
Prof. Sang Wook Cheong, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, "Trompe L'oeil Ferromagnetism", Condensed Matter Physics Seminar9:30am
11/30
Prof. Sang Wook Cheong, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, "Trompe L'oeil Ferromagnetism", Condensed Matter Physics Seminar
Monday, November 30th, 2020
09:30 AM - 10:30 AM
Storrs Campus online
Prof. Sang Wook Cheong,
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University
Trompe L'oeil Ferromagnetism
The characteristics of ferro-(ferri)magnetism with non-zero magnetization include magnetic attraction, magnetic circular dichroism, and magneto-optical Kerr (MOKE), Faraday, and various anomalous Hall-type (Hall, Ettingshausen, Nernst, and thermal Hall) effects. Non-magnetic or antiferromagnetic materials in external electric fields or other environments (called specimen constituents) can share symmetry operational similarity (SOS) with magnetization in relation to broken symmetries. These specimen constituents can be associated with non-zero magnetization and/or show ferromagnetism-like behaviors, so we say that they exhibit Trompe L'oeil Ferromagnetism. Examples include linear magnetoelectric materials such as Cr2O3 under electric fields, Faraday effect in chiral materials such as tellurium with current flow, magnetic field induced by the motion of Neel- or Bloch-type ferroelectric walls, and magneto-optical Kerr (MOKE), Faraday effect, and/or anomalous Hall-type effects in certain antiferromagnets such as Cr2O3, MnPSe3, Mn4(Nb,Ta)2O9, and Mn3(Sn,Ge,Ga). A large number of new specimen constitutes having SOS with Magnetization will be discussed, and require future experimental verification of their ferromagnetism-like behaviors, and also theoretical understanding of possible microscopic mechanisms.
Zoom Meeting:
https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/61226950287 -
We will have two presentations and by Los Alamos theorists:, Condensed Matter Physics Seminar9:30am
11/24
We will have two presentations and by Los Alamos theorists:, Condensed Matter Physics Seminar
Tuesday, November 24th, 2020
09:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Storrs Campus online
We will have two presentations and by Los Alamos theorists:
9:30-10:00 Shizeng Lin (Los Alamos)
Switching of valley polarization and topology in twisted bilayer graphene by electric currents
The associated manuscript is available at https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.02611.
10:00-10:30 Jian Xin Zhu (Los Alamos)
Signatures of Spin Polarized Fermi Arcs in the Quasiparticle Interferences of CeBi
Ref.: arXiv:2008.10628
10:30-11:00 Discussion
Zoom Meeting:
https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/62068067873