Physics & Astronomy News
Rodriguez and Giammanco Retire
CONGRATULATIONS! to Beverly Rodriguez and Jim Giammanco on their retirements after 26 and 22 years in the department respectively. We will miss them both!
LSU Research Collaboration Takes Discover Cover
Space is generally considered to be an inhospitable, lifeless place. But, are there lifeforms that could actually survive these harsh conditions?
Paper Published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Geoffrey Clayton and collaborators have used data from the Spitzer Space Telescope to discover solid buckyballs in space. Their paper has been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
LSU astronomers discover origin of thermonuclear supernova
Graduate Student, Ashley Pagnotta and Prof. Bradley Schaefer discover origin of thermonuclear supernova - SNprogenitor.
Fermi GBM Instrument
The Fermi GBM instrument has recently observed the black hole source Cyg X-1 making a transition from a soft gamma ray state to a hard state. The result is announced in Astronomical Telegram 3802. The earlier GBM occultation result showing that the Crab Nebula gamma ray flux varies in time, together with the observations of unexpected gamma ray flaring from the Crab, is listed as Astronomy Magazine's #2 result of the year in astronomy.
Gambini and Pullin's New Text Listed #2 on Amazon's Physics of Gravity Collection
Rodolfo Gambini and Jorge Pullin's new text A First Course in Loop Quantum Gravity was recently listed as #2 on Amazon.com's collection of Best Sellers in Physics of Gravity, second to the Kindle edition of Albert Einstein's Relativity: The Special and General Theory. Based on the reviews, though, the Gambini-Pullin text gets two stars more than Einstein.
Probing Loop Quantum Gravity with Evaporating Black Holes
A paper in Physics Review Letters by Postdoctoral Researcher, Jacobo Diaz-Polo and collaborators has demonstrated how to use the evaporation of microscopic black holes to provide an observational test of loop quantum gravity. The paper has been featured in physorg.com and nextbigfuture.com
Schaefer Attends 2011 Nobel Prize Ceremony
Bradley Schaefer, as a member of the Supernova Cosmology Project, attended the 2011 Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm. Saul Perlmutter, leader of the Supernova Cosmology Project, and Adam Reiss and Brian Schmidt of the High-z Supernova Search collaboration shared the 2011 Nobel Physics Prize on behalf of the observing teams that discovered "dark energy".
A gravitational wave observatory operating beyond the quantum shot-noise limit
The LIGO Scientific Collaboration has demonstrated the ability to use squeezed light to increase the detector's sensitivity. The paper was published in the Sept. 11, 2011 issue of Nature and online.
Professor Publishes First Undergraduate Loop Quantum Gravity Text
Jorge Pullin and Prof. Rodolfo Gambini of the University of the Republic of Uruguay, recently published a first of its kind textbook with the Oxford University Press - Titled "A First Course in Loop Quantum Gravity" .
Exploding star helps explain creation of the universe, LSU scientist says
Far infrared and millimeter observations of Supernova 1987A made with the Herschel satellite by Geoff Clayton and collaborators reveal the presence of a population of cold dust grains with a mass close to half a solar mass. The observations, reported in Science 7 July 2011: 1205983, imply that supernovae can produce the large dust masses detected in young galaxies at high redshifts.
T2K Long Baseline Neutrino Oscillation Experiment Has Announced New Results
Thomas Kutter, Martin Tzanov, and Bill Metcalf's T2K (Tokai to Kamioka) long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment has announced a new result. Using neutrinos produced in an accelerator at Tokai outside Tokyo and detected in the underground Kamiokande laboratory 185 miles away, T2K has reported observing a new variety of neutrino oscillations from muon neutrinos to electron neutrinos.
Welch Named to College of Science Hall of Distinction
Major General Jasper A. Welch, Jr., BS in Physics in 1952 from the Department of Physics & Astronomy, has been named to the College of Science Hall of Distinction. Major Welch is a former advisor to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Defense Science Board, the Secretary of the Air Force, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense, defense policy coordinator for the National Security Council, member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and member of the National Academy of Engineering.
College of Sciences Spring 2011 Choppin Honors Convocation
Congratulations to undergraduates who received awards at the College of Sciences Spring 2011 Choppin Honors Convocation: Zach Cummings and Robert Cross (Keen-Morris Award for Outstanding Senior); Bill Freeman, Daniel Lun, and Nicholas Cannady (Senior Research Award); Chase Brignac and Greg Tobin (Department Service Award); Alex Browne (Outstanding Geaux Teach Student); and Daniel Lum (College Honors).
Plick Awarded College of Science Distinguished Dissertation Award
Congratulations to William Plick, who won the College of Science Distinguished Dissertation Award at the College of Science's Spring 2011 Choppin Honors Convocation for his Ph.D. thesis, "Quantum Light for Quantum Technologies".