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Spotlight:

Carl R. Hagen Wins 2010 J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics

093009: Carl R. Hagen, Professor of Physics at the University of Rochester, was both thrilled and surprised today when he learned that he is one of six recipients of one of the most prestigious prizes in his field: the 2010 American Physical Society's J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics. The annual prize recognizes and encourages outstanding achievement in particle theory.

Hagen was honored by the American Physical Society for "elucidation of the properties of spontaneous symmetry breaking in four-dimensional relativistic gauge theory and of the mechanism for the consistent generation of vector boson masses." He shares the prize with Robert Brout and Francois Englert of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Gerald S. Guralnik of Brown University, Peter W. Higgs of the University of Edinburgh, and Tom W. B. Kibble of Imperial College.

"Hagen is one of the most important theoretical particle physicists of his generation," says Nicholas P. Bigelow, Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. "This prize is long overdue. I cannot express strongly enough how proud we are to have Carl Hagen on our faculty."

A March 2008 article ("Nobelist Steven Weinberg Praises Professor Carl Hagen and Collaborators for Higgs Boson Theory") on the Department website describes the crucial contribution regarding the Higgs boson theory made by Hagen with his collaborators Guralnik and Kibble. It points out that three independently formulated papers describing the theoretical mechanism appeared in Volume 13 of Physical Review Letters in 1964. They were by Gerald Guralnik, Carl Hagen, and Tom Kibble; by Peter Higgs; and by Francois Englert and Robert Brout. All three papers were written from different perspectives, and each made a distinct contribution.

And now, all six professors are sharing the 2010 J. J. Sakurai Prize for their suggested methods that give mass to vector bosons.

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Additional News

100609: UR Physicists Determine Mass Difference between Top and Antitop Quarks

A team of physicists in the Department has performed the first direct measurement of the mass difference between a quark and its antimatter partner (antiquark). Quarks are the fundamental particles that make up protons and neutrons, the stuff that regular matter is made of. Before antimatter was discovered, Paul Dirac introduced it as a requirement of the laws of quantum mechanics and Einstein's relativity. Scientists have been producing and studying antimatter such as antiprotons, antineutrons and antielectrons (or positrons) for many decades. All antimatter particles are supposed to have the same masses and lifetimes as their matter partners, but with opposite electric charges. Indeed, the masses and lifetimes of antimatter particles have been measured and found to be identical to their normal matter counterparts. Even more complicated objects such as pions, kaons, light nuclei, and hydrogen atoms appear to agree with this matter and antimatter "symmetry."

Studying isolated quarks is challenging because they combine with other quarks to form heavier and more complicated particles very rapidly -- between 10-22 seconds -- before they leave the regions of their creation.

Nonetheless, the heaviest of the quarks, the top quark, behaves differently: it decays so fast -- in around 10-24 seconds -- that it has no time to form any compounds. And that is the quark that the Rochester scientists have used to check the mass difference between a quark and its antiquark.

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United States Marine Gustavo Maravilla-Hernandez Serves in Iraq While Taking Physics 141 and Math 171Q

092909: United States Marine Gustavo Maravilla-Hernandez is serving in Iraq while taking Physics 141 and Math 171Q. You might wonder how he does it: being a Marine and taking some of the most challenging courses offered by the University of Rochester.

It started in Fall 2008, when Gustavo was enrolled in Physics 141, Math 171Q, Biology 112, and Chemistry 131. In December, the Marines called him to action, and he was sent to pre-deployment training and then to Iraq in April 2009. He's been in the military since mid-2007 with his contract expected to end in mid-2013. He'll return to Rochester at the end of October 2009, but Gustavo could be deployed again in mid-semester, you never know.

When asked how he juggles such a busy schedule, Gustavo says, "Sometimes, it's extremely difficult to find time to do homework or study. We make a lot of sacrifices, and besides, we need time to sleep and eat, too." A typical day for Gustavo also includes a lot of physical training, plus military development, operational support, and various presentations. He even finds time to squeeze in lectures about Physics and recently taught fellow Marines about Newton's Law of Motion and how to "prove a derivative."

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Astrophysicists Move Closer to Understanding the Beauty Behind Stellar Jets:
Department of Energy Awards $2.8 Million to Simulate Jets in the Laboratory

092909: Certain stars stream vast amounts of matter into space, creating some of the most beautiful objects in astronomers' telescopes. But while the astronomers can enjoy the beauty, they can't explain it.

Adam Frank, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester, is hoping to change that.

Earlier this year, Frank and his colleague, Eric Blackman, professor of physics and astronomy, were part of what he called "one of the greatest astrophysical experiments that's ever been done." Recreating a stellar event in a laboratory is extremely difficult, says Frank, since most astrophysical phenomena require an entire star, "which is hard to fit in a lab."

But Frank, along with Professor Sergey Lebedev's team in the Department of Physics at Imperial College London, replicated the physics of a stellar jet in a laboratory, matching the known physics of jets amazingly well. That experiment was conducted using the Imperial College's MAGPIE pulsed power facility. Now, the U.S. Department of Energy has awarded Frank and his team $2.8 million to take the experiment to the next level.

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Gregory S. Bentsen Wins 2009 Physics Honors Prize

092309: The Department of Physics congratulates Gregory S. Bentsen, the 2009 recipient of the Physics Honors Prize, which is awarded annually to the top-performing undergraduate in the freshman/sophomore Honors Physics sequence. In consultation with the Chair of Undergraduate Awards Committee, Gregory's instructors in PHY 141, 142, 143, and 237 selected him for the honor, which includes a copy of The Feynman Lectures in Physics volumes, a paid membership in the AAPT, and a subscription to Physics Today.

 

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Jamie M. Dougherty Receives Jane and Frank Warchol Scholarship from the Society of Vacuum Coaters

092309: A member of the Class of 2011, Jamie M. Dougherty has received a one-year Jane and Frank Warchol Scholarship from the Society of Vacuum Coaters (SVC). Since Fall 2008, Jamie has been doing research for The Optics MANufacturing Group in the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, under the supervision of Senior Manufacturing Engineer Nelson LeBarron and Senior Laboratory Engineer Pete Kupkinski.

 

 

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Riccardo Betti Wins Edward Teller Medal for Fusion Research

092309: Riccardo Betti, senior scientist in laser energetics, professor of mechanical engineering and physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester and director of the Fusion Science Center for Extreme States of Matter, has won the Edward Teller Medal for his research into laser-driven fusion at the University's Laboratory for Laser Energetics. The award is named after Edward Teller, the co-founder of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and one of the key designers of the hydrogen bomb. Only two honorees are chosen to receive the award every other year. Betti was presented with a silver medal and $2,000 on Sept. 10 at the International Conference on Inertial Fusion Sciences and Applications in San Francisco, Calif.

 

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Emil Wolf Proposes Method to Determine the Phases of X-ray Beams Diffracted by Crystals

092309: In a recent PRL paper, Wilson Professor of Optical Physics and Theoretical Physics Emil Wolf introduces a technique that overcomes the long-standing difficulties relating to measuring phases of diffracted x-ray beams in structure determination of crystals. The current methods incorrectly assume that x-rays are monochromatic, and as Wolf points out in a recent physicsworld.com article, this type of beam is not found in nature and cannot be created in the lab. He proposes that physicists use spatially coherent x-rays that can be produced in the lab and that they measure beam correlation functions to obtain missing structural data.

 

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Andrew Jordan Wins National Science Foundation CAREER Award

080509: Assistant Professor of Physics Andrew Jordan has won a prestigious NSF CAREER Award with $425,000 in funding over a five-year period. The CAREER award is given to promising scientists early in their careers and is selected on the basis of creative proposals that effectively integrate research and education.

According to the UR press release, Jordan will use the award to "further study how quantum mechanical systems become entangled--a strange property of two or more objects where one object can no longer be adequately described without full mention of its counterpart--even if the individual objects are spatially separated by millions of miles. This interconnection leads to correlations between observable physical properties of these remote systems, which cannot be described with classical physics of any kind. Jordan investigates how it might be possible to monitor and control quantum states, such as entanglement, to provide new insights into the functioning of the quantum world, and to possibly better manipulate quantum information for use in future computers or telecommunication."

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