International Summer School “Strong interactions beyond simple factorization”
May 27-June 5 UConn Physics Department hosted an international summer school Strong interactions beyond simple factorization: collectivity at high energy from initial to final state. The school was supported by an NSF grant to Prof. Kovner and was devoted to modern approaches to the physics of high energy hadronic and heavy ion collisions.
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Amelia Henkel, Graduating President of the Undergraduate Women in Physics Club, speaks about her time at UConn
Amelia Henkel, graduating Double Major in Physics and Human Rights, and President of the Undergraduate Women in Physics Club, speaks on the CLAS website about her passion for physics and human rights, and how she mastered challenges in her remarkably interdisciplinary curriculum. “We really need to interact with other disciplines,” says Amelia, “because that’s […]
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Astronomers Assemble View of Evolving Universe
The University of Connecticut’s Katherine Whitaker is part of a team of astronomers who have put together the largest and most comprehensive “history book” of the universe from 16 years’ worth of observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.This image, a mosaic of nearly 7,500 separate Hubble exposures, presents a wide portrait of the distant universe and contains roughly 265,000 galaxies that stretch back through 13.3 billion years to just 500 million years after the Big Bang.
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UConn Physics Professor elected to AAAS
UConn physics professor Nora Berrah has been elected to the historic and prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences. This year, more than 200 individuals were elected to the academy with compelling achievements in academia, business, government, and public affairs. Berrah, who was head of the physics department from 2014 to 2018, has been recognized […]
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UConn Astronomers React to First Photo of a Black Hole
This image is the first ever taken of a black hole, captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project. The black center is a direct view of the event horizon of a supermassive black hole with a mass of 6.5 billion times the Sun, lying at the center of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. The bright ring is emission from hot gas just above the event horizon, with an asymmetric shape caused by gravitational lensing of light in the strong gravity of the black hole. The EHT collaboration captured the image using a network of 8 radio telescopes that spanned the Earth.
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2 for the price of 1: UConn researcher finds new mechanism making double ionization an efficient process
An international research team headed by Dr. Aaron LaForge from the research group of Prof. Nora Berrah in the Physics department at UConn has recently discovered a new type of decay mechanism leading to highly efficient double ionization in weakly-bound systems. The team has published its results in the science journal “Nature Physics”. Ionization is […]
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Kate Whitaker wins the Sloan Fellowship!
Original UConn Today article here Rising Star in Astrophysics Receives Sloan Foundation Fellowship February 19, 2019 – Jessica McBride – Office of the Vice President for Research Kate Whitaker, assistant professor of physics, stands next to a telescope inside the observatory on top of the Gant Complex on Feb. 14, 2019. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo) As […]
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Goodwin School 3rd grade visits the Physics Learning Labs
About one mile from the Gant plaza, Goodwin Elementary School teaches some really bright kids. On January 15, 2019, science teacher Nancy Titchen and Goodwin teachers brought the entire 3rd grade class on a field trip to the Physics Learning Labs mock-up studio for some science fun. Students enjoyed a liquid nitrogen show, witnessed quantum […]
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Nora Berrah Named 2018 AAAS Fellow
Physics professor Nora Berrah has been named a 2018 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Prof. Berrah has been recognized for her distinguished contributions to the field of molecular dynamics, particularly for pioneering non-linear science using x-ray lasers and spectroscopy using synchrotron light sources. View full story on CLAS website.
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Hands-On Approach to Physics
Step into a fall 2018 class section of PHYS 1602: Fundamentals of Physics II, and you’ll find a scene that’s far from the large introductory science lectures common on most college campuses. Anna Regan ’21 (CLAS) utilizes a whiteboard to try out solutions during her group’s problem-solving tutorial. (Bri Diaz/UConn Photo) To start, the class […]
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Faculty Profile: UConn Astrophysicist Cara Battersby
A young Cara Battersby once scrawled out the phrase “Science is curious” in a school project about what she wanted to do when she grew up.
This simple phrase still captures Battersby’s outlook on her research about our universe.
Recently shortlisted for the 2018 Nature Research Inspiring Science Award, Battersby has been working on several projects aimed at unfolding some of the most compelling mysteries of galaxies near and far.
“I’m really interested in how stars are born,” Battersby says. “They’re the source of all life on Earth.”
Battersby is leading an international team of over 20 scientists to map the center of the Milky Way Galaxy using the Submillimeter Array in Hawaii, in a large survey called CMZoom. She was recently awarded a National Science Foundation grant to follow-up on this survey and create a 3D computer modeled map of the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.
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Welcoming Barrett Wells as new department head
In August 2018, Professor Barrett Wells entered as the new head of the Physics department, following Professor Nora Berrah. Barrett is an experimental condensed matter physicists with a robust research program involved in both synthesis and advanced experimentation around novel phases of quantum materials. Barrett brings to the department strong administrative talent, having served […]
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UConn Physics major wins national recognition for research
Connor Occhialini – Finalist 2018 LeRoy Apker Undergraduate Achievements Award by Jason Hancock One of our star undergraduates, Connor Occhialini, has won national recognition as a finalist in the 2018 LeRoy Apker Undergraduate Achievements Award competition for his research in the UConn Physics department. The honor and distinction is awarded not only for the excellent […]
[Read More]Search for teaching laboratory technicians
Laboratory Technician II (UCP 4) Department of Physics College of Liberal Arts and Sciences University of Connecticut The Department of Physics seeks 2 dynamic and energetic applicants to join its teaching laboratory team. The Department is undergoing a deep renovation of teaching pedagogy in large-scale learning labs with full support of the University. The successful […]
[Read More]Postdoctoral Research Associate: Galactic Center, Star Formation, ISM, numerical or observational
University of Connecticut, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Physics Department Postdoctoral Research Associate: Galactic Center, Star Formation, ISM, numerical or observational Job Summary: Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Associate to join Prof. Cara Battersby’s research group in the Astrophysics Program at the University of Connecticut. The successful candidate will work closely with the group […]
[Read More]Postdoctoral Research Associate: Galaxy Formation and Evolution
University of Connecticut College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Physics Department Postdoctoral Research Associate: Galaxy Formation and Evolution Applications are invited for a postdoctoral research position in extragalactic astronomy at the University of Connecticut in collaboration with Professor Kate Whitaker. The successful candidate will focus on the analysis, interpretation and modeling of space-based multi-wavelength data […]
[Read More]Tenure-track faculty position in Astrophysics at UConn/CCA
University of Connecticut College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Department of Physics Assistant Professor in Astrophysics The Department of Physics at the University of Connecticut invites applications for a tenure-track position in Astrophysics at the rank of Assistant Professor with an anticipated start date of August 23, 2019. This is an open search with a […]
[Read More]Open Search: Faculty position (APIR)
University of Connecticut College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Department of Physics Assistant Professor In-Residence (Storrs Campus) The Department of Physics at the University of Connecticut invites applications for positions at the rank of Assistant Professor in Residence with an anticipated start date of August 23, 2019. Two positions will be filled at the UConn […]
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Physics Nobel prize 2018
The Physics Nobel prize in 2018 was awarded to Gérard Mourou (École Polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay), Arthur Ashkin (Bell Laboratories and Lucent Technologies), and Donna Strickland (University of Waterloo) for ground-breaking inventions in the field of laser physics.
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Department, alumni celebrate career of Prof. Doug Hamilton
Friday afternoon on April 20, 2018 the UConn Physics Department held a colloquium in honor of Professor Douglas Hamilton on the occasion of his retirement from active service on the faculty. The colloquium was MC’ed by Prof. Jason Hancock, who surveyed the highlights of a career spanning four decades marked by notable accomplishments in research, […]
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Dissertation Defense, Niraj Ghimire- Density Matrix Renormalization Group studies of interacting dipoles in a zigzag chain- Ph. D. defense11:00am
6/26
Dissertation Defense, Niraj Ghimire- Density Matrix Renormalization Group studies of interacting dipoles in a zigzag chain- Ph. D. defense
Wednesday, June 26th, 2019
11:00 AM - 01:00 PM
Storrs Campus Gant West Room 103-A
Dissertation Defense
Niraj Ghimire
Physics Department
University of Connecticut
"Density Matrix Renormalization Group studies of interacting dipoles in a zigzag chain"
The goal of my research is to simulate quantum mechanics, which is known to be a very challenging problem even for the most advanced supercomputers of today. The system I have chosen consists of molecular dipoles in a quasi-one-dimensional optical lattice. For the first part of the talk, I will discuss the situation where the dipoles are polarized in the plane of the lattice at half-filling and double occupancy is not allowed on any lattice sites. The dipoles can hop around between sites and the interactions between them can be attractive or repulsive, with the hopping and interaction allowed up to second neighbors. I am particularly interested in the zero-temperature quantum phases induced by geometrical frustration, a situation where not all the interactions are satisfied. By mapping the dipoles in this lattice to a spin-1/2 model and by using the numerical approximation method known as density matrix renormalization group (DMRG), I have studied this system and produced a complex phase diagram.
For the second part of the talk, I will discuss the situation where a dipole is trapped in each lattice site such that the dipole moment vector can be oriented in any direction. The dipoles interact with one another via dipole-dipole potential and also interact with the external field, but they do not hop around between lattice sites. I will talk about some results for this classical model. Then I will explain how I have mapped it to a spin-2 model (which is quantum mechanical) and explain some results obtained using DMRG.
Major Advisor: Dr. Susanne Yelin
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
11:00 AM
Gant Science Complex
GW-103A -
Soroush Khosravi Dehaghi, Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, "Femtosecond Laser Transient Spectroscopy of Carotenoids and Carbon Nanotubes", PhD Defense2:30pm
1/23
Soroush Khosravi Dehaghi, Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, "Femtosecond Laser Transient Spectroscopy of Carotenoids and Carbon Nanotubes", PhD Defense
Wednesday, January 23rd, 2019
02:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Storrs Campus GW103A
Soroush Khosravi Dehaghi,
Department of Physics,
University of Connecticut
Femtosecond Laser Transient Spectroscopy of Carotenoids and Carbon Nanotubes
Carotenoids and semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotubes, which are both nanoscale carbon-based quantum mechanical systems, were studied using different optical spectroscopy techniques.
The lifetime of the S\(_2\) excited state of the carotenoids were estimated using a model-based lifetime analysis routine. It was found that the addition of a conjugated carbonyl group to the carotenoid has several crucial effects on the optical response due to the alteration of the delocalized conjugated \(\pi\) molecular orbital of the molecule. These effects include the shortening of the lifetimes of the excited states, the change in the decay mechanism from the S\(_2\) excited state to the S\(_1\) excited state, and the unresolved vibrational peaks in the steady-state absorption spectrum.
The decay of the E\(_{22}\) excited state of (6,5) semiconducting carbon nanotube dispersed in flavin mononucleotide with water was observed using transient grating spectroscopy. The lifetime of this excited state was estimated to be 450 ± 50 fs. A very strong single-frequency oscillatory component was observed in the transient grating decay profile. -
Electric Form Factor of the Neutron from Asymmetry Measurements, Doctoral Dissertation Oral Defense of Richard Obrecht11:00am
1/4
Electric Form Factor of the Neutron from Asymmetry Measurements, Doctoral Dissertation Oral Defense of Richard Obrecht
Friday, January 4th, 2019
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Storrs Campus Gant West, P-121
Electric Form Factor of the Neutron from Asymmetry Measurements
Field of Study: Physics -
Jonathan Kwolek, Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, "Studying Charge Exchange in a Hybrid Ion-neutral Trap", PhD Defense1:30pm
11/30
Jonathan Kwolek, Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, "Studying Charge Exchange in a Hybrid Ion-neutral Trap", PhD Defense
Friday, November 30th, 2018
01:30 PM - 03:30 PM
Storrs Campus GW121
Jonathan Kwolek,
Department of Physics,
University of Connecticut
Studying Charge Exchange in a Hybrid Ion-neutral Trap
Interactions between neutral and ionized atoms are medium-range, and the spiraling nature of these collisions can lead to long interaction times and large cross sections. The field of ion-neutral interactions is bolstered by methods from atomic physics, which allow us to accurately control and determine the quantum-states of the reactants. Atomic physics opens the door to studying these interactions over a large range of energies, in order to observe interesting effects from the ultracold to hot temperature regimes.
The hybrid-trap enables the concentric trapping of a sample of cold atoms and ions. The dissertation discusses our exploration into the controlled reactions in the Na+Ca^+ system, including measurements of sympathetic cooling and a charge-exchange rate which changes as a function of energy and atomic state. The quantum-state distributions of Na in our magneto-optical trap is also explored, as well as its agreement and subsequent deviation based on a predictive model. The measurements of reaction rates indicate a reaction-energy threshold in two different reaction channels, which can be corroborated by theoretical investigation. -
Ice cream social2:00pm
9/14
Ice cream social
Friday, September 14th, 2018
02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Storrs Campus GW-121
The Physics Graduate Student Association (PGSA) invites all members of the Physics Department to our annual ice cream social event, to introduce our new graduate students and undergraduate majors and welcome everyone back who has recently joined us or returned for the new academic year.