News

Slowing and Stopping Images
040508: Associate Professor John Howell reported in January of 2007 that his group showed how to slow images down to "300 times lower than the speed of light" and preserve the amplitude and phase of the image. He also stated that, "we're working on systems that slow images down to 10 million times lower than the speed of light." Howell and his Quantum Optics team of Ryan Camacho, Curtis Broadbent, and Irfan Ali Khan used a technique known as slow light. When close to a narrow resonance feature, the group velocity of the light can be very slow. His team used naturally-occurring resonances in a cesium vapor to precisely slow images and delayed them for about 10 nanoseconds while retaining their properties.

Now the group (above from left to right: Ryan Camacho, Praveen VudyaSetu, and John Howell) has stopped images in a hot gas of Rubidium atoms for about 10 microseconds and is working toward a goal of a millisecond (Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 123903). The new process changes the light field into an atomic excitation, then reads out that atomic excitation and converts it back into a light field. This differs from the method used in January of 2007, in which the light propagated slowly through a dilute vapor. In the stored light technique, the light field is interconverted into a coherence in the atoms and then read out at a later time. Remarkably, the storage process remains robust even given the diffusion of the rapidly moving atoms.

Nobelist Steven Weinberg Praises Professor Carl Hagen and Collaborators for Higgs Boson Theory

030308: In October 2007, Nobel Prize Winner Steven Weinberg reminded a new generation of physicists about the crucial contribution regarding the Higgs boson theory made by Professor Carl Hagen of the University of Rochester and his collaborators. Weinberg's comments were part of his invited presentation at a conference celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and J. Robert Schrieffer's (BCS) theory of superconductivity.

The method suggested by Professor Hagen and others gives mass to vector bosons and is an essential ingredient in the unified electroweak theory for which Sheldon Lee Glashow, Abdus Salam, and Weinberg shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics. In their acceptance speeches, they all gave equal prominence to the contributions of three independent teams who had predicted the existence of the Higgs boson, as it is now commonly called.

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.

Building Super-Amplifiers in Nano-Electric Systems using Strange Weak Values

020508: In a recent Physical Review Letters (PRL 100, 026804) article, Assistant Professor Andrew Jordan and third-year PhD student Nathan Williams describe how to implement one of the most bizarre predictions in quantum mechanics: a strange weak value in a nano-electric system. For a quantum system, their proposed method could provide an electrical current that exceeds the current supplied by the analogous classical system by factors of hundreds or thousands; that is, their device could boost a nano-amp to one amp or even to ten amps. This new method could also be used to determine whether an experimental system is a quantum mechanical device.

Finally, the 'Planet' in Planetary Nebulae?

Astronomers at the University of Rochester, home to one of the world’s largest groups of planetary nebulae specialists, have announced that low-mass stars and possibly even super-Jupiter-sized planets may be responsible for creating some of the most breathtaking objects in the sky.

The news is ironic because the name "planetary" nebula has always been a misnomer. When these objects were discovered 300 years ago, astronomers couldn't tell what they were and named them for their resemblance to the planet Uranus. But as early as the mid-19th century, astronomers realized these objects are really great clouds of dust emitted by dying stars.

Now, Rochester researchers have found that planets or low-mass stars orbiting these aged stars may indeed be pivotal to the creation of the nebulae's fantastic appearance.

Embryonic Solar System Assembly Seen for the First Time

082907: Using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, a team of astronomers led by Professor Dan M. Watson of the University of Rochester has observed the onset of planetary-system formation, a process nobody has seen until now. The group's exciting first look at the creation of an embryonic solar system yields many new insights about the physics and chemistry of evolving astronomical objects.

Publishing their results in the August 30, 2007 issue of Nature, the researchers note that the Spitzer Space Telescope enabled them to see water, in the form of ice, "raining" from a cloud enveloping the infant star NGC 1333-IRAS 4B approximately 1,000 light years away from Earth. The ice is vaporizing as it lands supersonically on a dense, dusty disk surrounding the baby star, a long-sought phenomenon called a disk-accretion shock. In time, planets will form within the dusty disk.

PAS Graduate Student Amy Wakim Attends Meeting of 26 Physics Nobel Laureates

050809: Amy Wakim, now a fourth-year graduate student in Professor Bigelow's lab, won the honor of attending the 58th Meeting of Nobel Laureates at Lindau, Germany in June of 2008. Nominated by the University, Amy was selected by the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) from a large pool of applicants sponsored by the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, Mars, Inc., and ORAU.

Of the week Amy spent with 26 Physics Nobel Laureates in Germany, she says, "It was extremely inspiring. For example, Professor Dr. Douglas D. Osheroff of Stanford University, who won the Nobel in 1996, told us about his experiences in graduate school. He also said that while it's important to immerse ourselves in physics, it's also important to maintain a balance in life." The key point that Amy took home with her is that, to do well in research, luck is involved but ninety-nine percent of success is due to dedication and hard work.

Professor Emil Wolf Wins OSA/SPIE 2008 Joseph W. Goodman Book Writing Award

073008: Wilson Professor of Optical Physics and Theoretical Physics Emil Wolf has won the 2008 Joseph W. Goodman Book Writing Award presented by the Optical Society of America (OSA) and the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE). His winning book is Introduction to the Theory of Coherence and Polarization of Light, which was published in September 2007 by Cambridge University Press.

According to Jose M. Sasian, the Chair of the Award Committee, "The joint Committee from both Societies made the decision based on [the observation that Professor Wolf's book provides] the first truly unified treatment of coherence and polarization, as well as the extremely high potential for the volume to become a widely adopted textbook worldwide."

The Joseph W. Goodman Book Writing Award is funded by J.W. and H.M. Goodman, and recognizes a recent and outstanding book in the field of optics and photonics that has contributed significantly to research, teaching, or the optics and photonics industry. Professor Wolf will be honored at an upcoming OSA or SPIE meeting of his choice. (lhg)

Benjamin Schmitt Wins Fulbright Award

042508: Benjamin Schmitt (BS, Physics; BA, Mathematics; BA, German) is one of five UR students who recently earned 2008-2009 Fullbright Awards, national scholarships that foster international academic and research collaborations. The Fulbright Awards are among the most prestigious honors in the world, with international collaborations in well over a hundred countries.

Benjamin will spend his Fulbright year in Germany conducting physics research at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg and pursuing a master's degree in astronomy and astrophysics at Heidelberg University. He is a Renaissance Scholar, recipient of the German Book Award, and member of the Sigma Pi Sigma National Physics Honor Society.

Five-Year Multimillion Dollar Contract Renewed for Laboratory for Laser Energetics

Source: Matthew Daneman, "Feds renew funding for UR laser lab," Democrat and Chronicle (November 21, 2007)

One of the key sites on the planet for trying to develop fusion as a potential power source will continue to get the federal support that keeps it operating at least for another five years. The U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration has renewed its commitment to fund University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics for another five years. That pot of federal money which could amount to $351 million between now and November 2012 makes up the bulk of what keeps the laser lab operating, said director Robert L. McCrory.

Appointments and Promotions in 2007

	Professor Nicholas Bigelow (Experimental and Theoretical Quantum Optics) was elected to his first three-year term as Department Chair (July 1, 2007 - June 30, 2010).
	Regina Demina (Experimental Particle Physics) was promoted to Professor of Physics in Fall 2007.
	Professor Jianhui Zhong (Experimental Medical and Biological Physics) was re-appointed to his third 3-year joint appointment term as Professor of Radiology and Physics (July 1, 2007 - July 1, 2010).
	Phillipe Fauchet (Experimental Condensed Matter Physics), Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Optics, was re-appointed to his second joint appointment term as Professor of Physics (July 1, 2007 - July 1, 2010).
	Assistant Professor John Howell (Experimental Quantum Optics) was recommended for promotion to Associate Professor of Physics with unlimited tenure in Fall 2007.

Eric Prebys (PhD, Physics, 1990) Appointed Leader of U.S. LHC Accelerator Research Program (LARP)

062108: Eric Prebys, head of the Proton-Source Department at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) and one of our outstanding former Physics graduate students, has been appointed leader of the U.S. Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Accelerator Research Program (LARP). Eric will lead activities at affiliated universities and at four major U.S. national laboratories: Brookhaven, Fermilab, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. LARP's mission is to develop advanced instrumentation and new superconducting magnets for the LHC in Geneva, Switzerland. More than 50% of U.S. experimental particle physicists are working on the LHC project, including University of Rochester faculty who are working on the Compact Muon Spectrometer (CMS) experiment.

At the University of Rochester, Eric was a Sproull Fellow and a PhD student of the late Fred Lobkowicz on Fermilab experiment E706 from 1984 to 1990.

Kevin Short (BS, Physics, 1985) Wins Grammy Award

022708: It's not often that a physicist wins a Grammy award. But Kevin Short, who earned his BS in Physics along with a BA in Geological Sciences from the University of Rochester in 1985, scored a Grammy on February 10, 2008. Kevin is currently a professor of mathematics at the University of New Hampshire and won his Grammy for being the master engineer on a team that restored a 1949 wire recording of a Woody Guthrie concert. He attended the ceremony, and with his wife Michelle, represented science in a lavish concert hall adorned with the singing stars of today.

During his undergraduate days at the University of Rochester, Kevin was elected to the 1984 College Division Academic All-American Baseball Team. In December of the same year, he won a Marshall Scholarship and came close to winning a Rhodes Scholarship. He later earned his PhD at Imperial College in London for research into general relativity and mathematical physics.

Until he won his Grammy Award, Kevin was most famous for discovering Chaotic Compression Technology, which uses mathematical chaos theory along with signal processing to analyze audio, video, and image data. His technology is used whenever someone downloads ring tones and songs to a cell phone.