CST Physics Update Spring 2018

Page 1

College of Science and Technology

Non Profit Organization U.S. Postage

PHYSICS

PAID

College of Science and Technology 1803 N. Broad Street 400 Carnell Hall Philadelphia, PA 19122

Philadelphia, PA Permit No. 1044

UPDATE SPRING 2018

For more news, go to phys.temple.edu

Department enhances physics curriculum The Physics Department has introduced several curriculum enhancements: • a new course on oscillations and waves for sophomores; • the 3-credit, one semester computing course is now three 1.5-credit half-semester courses; • a new 1-credit, half semester introduction-tophysics seminar for incoming freshmen; and • new courses in astrophysics, as well as atomic & molecular physics. According to Darius H. Torchinsky, the assistant professor who led the faculty curriculum committee, “We introduced the waves and oscillations course to fill a gap during the first semester of the sophomore year when our majors took no physics classes.” The department has also transformed its single three-credit introductory computing course into three 1.5 half-semester courses. Says Matthew Newby, assistant professor of instruction, “Students who had no prior programming experience were having a hard time and those who had some experience were finding it too easy.” Students with no programming experience will take the first two courses and those with some experience will take the second and third courses. Finally, the introductory seminar course features research talks by faculty, graduate students and non-Temple physicists. “We wanted to get incoming students excited about physics and their career possibilities, as well as help create a stronger physics community,” says Torchinsky.

New BS degree in data science The Physics Department and the other five College of Science and Technology departments are now offering an interdisciplinary BS degree in data science with a concentration in computation and modeling. “Rather than wait until students enter graduate school to acquire advanced computing skills, this prepares undergraduates to use advance skills—either directly after their graduation in industry or in the field of their choosing in graduate school,” says Matthew Newby, assistant professor of instruction.

Lasers probing stronglycorrelated materials Assistant Professor Darius H. Torchinsky’s research focuses on the physics of strongly-correlated electron systems, a broad term that describes materials from iron- and copper-based superconductors to so called “heavy” fermion systems and 4d and 5d transition metal oxides. After a doctorate and post-doctoral fellowship at MIT and post-doctoral scholar position at CalTech, Torchinsky came to Temple in 2015, focusing on emergent behaviors that arise when the interactions between electrons in such materials become very strong. “When you tweak the system, such as changing the composition slightly, squeezing it at high pressure or adding a magnetic field, you wind up getting radically different electronic behavior,” he says. “We’re trying to understand what all these forms of order that the electrons assume have to do with each other.” To understand these phenomenon, Torchinsky uses cutting-edge tools of modern nonlinear and ultrafast optical spectroscopy—including spectroscopic tools that he himself has developed. These include a laser probe that produces light pulses which last for a millionth of a billionth of a second. He likens directing the laser at the materials he is investigating to hitting a bell with a hammer. “When a bell is struck, it resonates at a particular frequency, and many components of a material behave in a similar way,” he says. “We measure the materials’ response to the laser on a time scale that’s on the order of from a millionth to a billionth of a second to a thousandth of a second.”

Chair’s Message It has been an exciting year for the Physics Department at Temple, with plans to continue growing stronger in the years ahead. Professor Jeff Martoff won a $1.2M award from the Keck Foundation to build and execute an ambitious experiment to search for “sterile neutrinos.” Earning such a highly competitive award, Martoff will construct the Heavy Unseen Neutrinos from Total Energy-momentum Reconstruction (HUNTER) experiment in collaboration with researchers at UCLA and Houston. Cultivating strong leadership is part of the department’s success. This past year, Maria Iavarone was promoted to professor and Nikolaos Sparveris promoted to associated professor with tenure. I am so pleased to play a role in helping cultivate the careers of younger faculty. At the recommendation of a committee chaired by Assistant Professor Darius H. Torchinsky, the department enacted undergraduate curriculum changes. Students now have new courses in computing and theoretical physics, as well as new elective courses in astrophysics and atomic & molecular physics. Finally, for the first time in 10 years, an external committee visited the department and provided feedback and advice for future directions. Next year’s newsletter will discuss our response to their recommendations.

Martoff wins prestigious $1.2 million grant to investigate dark matter Professor C. Jeff Martoff has been awarded a prestigious $1.2 million grant to investigate dark matter—which the National Academy of Sciences calls the No. 1 question facing astrophysicists. Although dark matter has not been directly observed, physicists believe it comprises most of the mass of the universe because of its gravitational effects on objects and particles in space. “The whole thing is very embarrassing to physicists, or should be if they have any sense,” Martoff says. “On one hand, we’re saying we know how everything works, from atoms to the solar system, in great mathematical detail, and yet on the other hand, we know there’s a big piece missing. More than two-thirds of the universe’s mass is made out of something we don’t understand at all and have not even identified.” Current methods in the race to find dark matter include particle accelerators— the 17-mile-diameter CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland is the largest—and sensitive detectors located in labs deep underground. Both methods target “weakly interacting massive particles” (particles known as WIMPs), which are predicted in elementary particle theories and are widely considered good candidates for making up the dark matter. Although more and more stringent WIMP searches have been done, they continue to come up empty. Martoff will test a new, highly interdisciplinary technique and seek a different candidate for dark matter. With colleagues from the University of California, Los Angeles—where he will be spending his 2018-19 fall/spring sabbatical—and the University of Houston, he will be building a 12-foot-long “tabletop” spectrometer to search for the presence (or absence) of sterile neutrinos. If detected, they would constitute the first visible evidence of a good candidate for a dark matter particle. continues on page 3

Please contact me if you want to visit the department. It would be an honor to show you our new facilities and introduce you to our new faculty members.

Jim Napolitano Professor and Chair

phys.temple.edu

This Keck-supported vessel will be a 12-foot-long vacuum. Each partner institution is responsible for building a certain subsystem.


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.