Fall 2002 Graduate Seminar (PHY599.02)

Nuclear and Particle Physics and Astronomy

Instructors:

Nuclear and Particle Physics: Professor Thomas Schaefer,
email thomas.schaefer@sunysb.edu, C-135, tel 2-4489,
Office hrs: Tu 11:30-13:00 or by appointment
Particle Physics and Astrophysics: Professor Chang Kee Jung,
email chang.jung@sunysb.edu , D-141, tel 2-8108,
Office hrs: M 3:30-5:00 pm or by appointment

Place and Time:

Mo 2:00-3:30, Room S240.(Note change in time!)
First meeting: Mo, Sep. 9, 2002.
No meeting on Mo, Sep. 16 or Tu, Sep. 17, 2002.
Second meeting: Mo, Sep. 23, 2002.
The Calendar of Scheduled Talks
Homepage: http://tonic.physics.sunysb.edu/~thomas/teaching/phy599/index.html

(For electronic article access, try the university license to APS Journals (Physical Review) and other journals or the electronic preprint archive at Los Alamos); for searching published work in astronomy, the ADS abstract service is excellent

Objectives:

Obtain experience in giving oral presentations.
Learn some of what is happening in these fields.
Learn about research activities at Stony Brook.
Attend colloquia and judge them on presentation/clarity.

Rules:

Each student will give one talk.
Students must meet with an instructor and turn in an abstract at least one week preceding the talk.
Students must attend all talks; attendance will be taken.
Students must participate in the course by filling out the student participation form after each presentation.
Scheduled talks may not be postponed.
Students are encouraged to ask questions and give criticisms of talks, at least once during the course of the semester.
Students are responsible for researching the literature and contacting the local experts.
Students may consult the instructors on the organization, layout, and content of their presentation at any time, but will be solely responsible for the final product. Materials used in presentations should be drawn mostly from published materials (journal papers, preprints, etc.). Photos, figures, plots and other information can be obtained from webpages. However, students are strongly discouraged from directly using other people's transparencies including expert adviser's.
Students are strongly encouraged to arrange a practice talk in front of fellow students few days preceding their presentation.

Grade:

Physics content of presentation 50%
Quality of presentation 35%
Active participation in class discussion 15%
Attendance will be taken. Unexcused absences will result in a lower grade

Structure of the presentation:

(see also the list of suggestions)

Plan for 30 minutes of presentation with 5-10 minutes additional for discussion during and after the talk. An important aspect of giving talks is to stay within the alloted time and still provide all the the relevant information. Your goal is to make your fellow students learn something.
Use the overhead projector with transparencies or a laptop computer screen projector (if you plan to use this system, you will need to reserve it ahead of time from the instructional lab).
No long and complicated derivations! Emphasize the physics and concept behind.
Below are some suggested topics. If you wish, you may choose another topic with the approval of the instructors. Generally, the topic will be fairly broad.
Try to convey an idea of what the topic is about, at the level of your fellow students.
Prepare a written abstract with references (See the APS format example, and the LATEX source, w/ apsab.sty), to be handed in on the Monday before your talk.

Special Notes:

Any excuses (medical or otherwise) are to be documented, and discussed with the instructors in a timely manner. If you have a physical, psychological, medical or learning disability that may impact on your ability to carry out assigned course work, we urge that you contact the staff in the Disabled Student Services office (DSS), Room 133 Humanities, 632-6748/TDD. DSS will review your concerns and determine, with you, what accommodations are necessary and appropriate. All information and documentation of disability is confidential.

Topics in Nuclear Physics

Jet Quenching: Particle jets arise from quarks or gluons scattered with large momentum transfer. In heavy ion collisions the scattered quarks and gluons traverse matter and should lose a large amount of energy if the density is high. Jet quenching was recently observed in PHENIX. Discuss the result, focusing on either theoretical or experimental aspects.
Jacak, Drees

J/Psi suppression, a signature for deconfinement of quarks: In collisions of heavy ions fewer J/psi mesons are produced than expected from summing independent nucleon-nucleon collisions. This was predicted as a signature of quark-gluon plasma formation. Briefly describe the concept of quark gluon plasma. Discuss the mechanism of suppression of the J/psi and recent data.
Drees, Jacak

Statistical Mechanics of Nuclear Collisions: The number and spectra of particles produced in heavy ion collisions is well described by statistical emission from an equilibrated gas of hadrons. Data indicate that hadrons decouple at a temperature near 170 MeV, near the QCD phase transition between quarks and hadrons. Describe the measurements, statistical analysis and interpretation.
Shuryak, Prakash, Jacak, Hemmick

Particle Interferometry: The space-time extent of the collision region formed in nuclear reactions can be studied by measuring the interference between two identical outgoing particles. Measurements at RHIC show a surprise: the sizes are no larger than at lower energy, even though RHIC produces more particles and more explosive collisions. Explain the technique and discuss the recent results.
Jacak, Hemmick, Brown, Shuryak

Elliptic Flow of Matter The high particle multiplicity in heavy ion collisions produces high pressure and non-isotropic particle emission patterns. The anisotropy at RHIC is large and indicates rapid equilibration followed by hydrodynamic expansion. Discuss the phenomenon and to what extent it indicates quark gluon plasma formation.
Shuryak, Hemmick

Where are the quarks inside nuclei? Discuss scattering of leptons from nuclei and dilepton production via the Drell-Yan process to probe quark and antiquark distributions. What do we learn from such data about the quark structure functions, and what is the effect of the nuclear medium?
Jacak, Marx

Where is the spin of the proton? Results from deep inelastic scattering experiments using polarized electrons and polarized protons indicate that the quark spin contribution to the spin of the proton is essentially zero. Review these experiments and discuss upcoming attempts at Brookhaven to measure the polarization of gluons inside the proton.
Jacak, Schaefer, Shuryak

Measurements of the Electron Neutrino Mass: Discuss the various experiments to measure electron neutrino masses from beta-decay endpoint measurements and double-beta decay. Give the latest results and discuss the relation of these results to the recent observations of neutrino oscillations.
Shrock, Jung

Parity Non-conservation in Atoms: The strength of parity violating transitions in atoms allow determination of standard-model parameters at low q-squared. Discuss the experiments and the model sensitivities.
Sprouse, Orozco

Nuclear Sizes and Moments from Hyperfine Laser Spectroscopy: Precise data on nuclear charge radii and electromagnetic moments can be obtained from hyperfine spectroscopy using lasers. Discuss how these experiments are done. Give examples of deduced nuclear properties such as the nuclear compressibility. Also discuss the use of laser spectroscopy to trap radioactive ions to study parity non-conservation in atomic transitions.
Sprouse

Nuclear Structure at the Extremes of Neutron-Proton (Isospin) Imbalance: Topics include - physics at the proton/neutron drip-lines, n-p pairing, neutron halo nuclei, radio active beam (RIB) facilities, octupole deformations in fission fragments. Concentrate on one of these subjects.
Fossan

Nuclear Structure at Extreme Angular Momentum: Super-deformed (axis ratio 2:1) nuclear states have been identified at angular momenta up to 70. Discuss the theoretical basis why axis ratios of 2:1 and even 3:1 are stable. Explain recent experiments which use the large Ge arrays to measure super and hyper-deformed bands in a systematic fashion.
Fossan

Super-Heavy Nuclei: Well-founded nuclear model calculations have predicted a stable (lifetimes between 1 and 100 years) island of very heavy nuclei near Z--1 14 and A--300. A few such nuclei have recently been detected. Discuss the theoretical basis for the super-heavy island and the possible approaches to it by use of heavy ion reactions. Discuss the (somewhat controversial) results from recent experiments.
Sprouse, Jacak

Nuclear Liquid-Gas Phase Transition: Under the influence of heat and pressure nuclear matter is expected to undergo a liquid-gas phase transition. This is the boiling point of nuclear matter. Report on recent experiment showing fragmentation of nuclei into large clusters (droplets) at intermediate energies (several 100 MeV/u) which are interpreted in terms of such a phase transition. Discuss the theoretical connection of these experiments with a phase transition from a nuclear liquid to a nuclear gas phase.
Jacak

Topics in Elementary Particle Physics

Discovery of the Top Quark: Discuss the discovery and the measurements of top quark production cross section and the top quark mass by the DØ and CDF experiments. Discuss the signatures and methods used, and the significance of the precise measurement of the top quark mass for the prediction of the Higgs boson mass.
Grannis, Hobbs

Search for the Higgs Boson: Discuss the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson which will be carried out at LEP, at the upgraded TeVatron, and at the Large Hadron Collider. What are the different strategies as function of the mass and the prospects for success?
Grannis, Hobbs, Rijssenbeek

Precision Measurement of the Z Boson Parameters: Measurements at the SLAC SLC collider and the CERN LEP collider of the Z boson mass, width, and production cross section. Relevance to tests of the Standard Model.
Hobbs, Grannis, Rijssenbeek

Large Extra dimensions and Grand Unification at the Electroweak Scale: Discuss the recent theoretical developments in trying to obtain Grand Unification of the elementary forces in the neighborhood of the electroweak scale (1 TeV) by postulating the existence of "large" (mmm to mm) extra dimensions. Review existing and ongoing experimental research in gravity at the sub-millimeter scale, and predictions for physics at the Tevatron and the large hadron collider LHC at CERN.
Van Nieuwenhuizen, Hobbs, Rijssenbeek

Precision Measurement of the W Boson Mass: Discuss the precision measurement of the W mass at the FNAL TeVatron collider by the DØ and CDF collaborations and by the four LEP collaborations. Discuss the two measurement methods and the achieved and predicted precision. Explain its importance as a test of the Standard model.
Rijssenbeek, Grannis

Detection of Neutrinos from the Sun: Discuss the major ongoing experiments (Super-Kamiokande, SNO, Davis, Gallex/GNO, Sage) that measure the flux of solar neutrinos. Give their latest results and the implications of these results on standard solar models and the standard electro-weak model. Summarize the concrete plans for new experiments.
Jung, McGrew, Yanagisawa, Gonzalez-Garcia

Detection of Neutrinos from Supernovae: Neutrinos from the supernova SN1987a are the only astrophysical neutrinos observed other than solar neutrinos. Discuss the supernova neutrino production mechanism, observation of neutrinos from SN1987a, experimental observation methods and future prospects.
Jung, Yanagisawa, Lattimer

Atmospheric Neutrinos and Neutrino Oscillations: Discuss the origin of atmospheric neutrinos and the expected fluxes of electron-type and muon-type neutrinos. Discuss the experimental measurements that differ from the predicted values and possible explanations for the discrepancy. And finally discuss the recent Super Kamiokande results that show evidence for neutrino oscillations, and supporting evidences from other experiments.
Jung, McGrew, Yanagisawa

Ultra High Energy Cosmic Ray Events: There are two ground based experiments: AGASA and HiRES that claims to observe cosmic ray events beyond so called "GZK cut-off". These events are the highest known particle interaction events (~10e20 eV). Explain GZK cut-off. Give the latest results from these experiments and explore possible scenarios/explanations for these extraordinary events. Summarize the plans for new experiments.
Jung, McGrew, Yanagisawa

Long Baseline Neutrino Oscillation Experiments and Lepton Mixing matrix: Observations of neutrino oscillations by the underground experiments in the atmospheric and solar neutrinos have revolutionized the particle physics. There are efforts to further confirm this findings using accelerator produced neutrino beams and to measure the lepton mixing matrix elements, which doesn't exist in the Standard Model. Give the latest results from the K2K experiment and summarize the plans for new experiments (MINOS, CNGS and JHFnu).
Jung, McGrew, Yanagisawa, Shrock

Neutrino Astrophysics: Recently there have been several plans for experiments to observe very high energy astrophysical neutrinos in the range of 100 to 1,000 GeV. Review these plans and discuss their significance. Jung, McGrew, Yanagisawa

Mixing and CP Violation in the B-Bbar System: Description of the theoretical basis and experimental techniques, including recent results and future prospects with the Fermilab TeVatron Collider detectors and B-factories.
Rijssenbeek, Grannis, Smith

Search for Proton Decay: Discuss why many GUT theories require proton decay. Give an overview of the experimental situation, and present the current results and limits.
Jung, McGrew, Yanagisawa, Shrock

Search for Supersymmetric Particles: Discuss the basic concepts of supersymmetry, and search techniques. Present recent results and future prospects for the discovery of supersymmetry.
Hobbs, Jung, van Nieuwenhuizen, Shrock

CP Violation in K Decay: Review the evidence for CP violation and outline the phenomenology of the K0-anti-K0 system. Discuss recent measurements of CP violation and the prospect for further progress.
Grannis, Shrock

g-2 Experiment: Review the current claim from the BNL g-2 experiment that their measurement disagrees with the Standard Model prediction, and associated controversy. Why is this important?
Grannis, Shrock

Topics in Astronomy

Supermassive Nuclear Black Holes: Discuss evidence for their existence in both active and quiescent galaxies.
Evans

High-redshift Galaxies: The formation and early evolution of galaxies.
Evans, Lanzetta

Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis: Describe the present understanding of nucleosynthesis and discuss resulting constraints on particle physics and cosmology.
Lanzetta

Quasar Absorption Lines: What do they tell us about intervening galaxies and gas.
Lanzetta

Supernovae: Discuss the process of explosive star death in detail. Or, discuss the observational and theoretical understanding of how the ejecta interact with the interstellar medium, and produce what we see as supernova remnants.
Lattimer, Prakash, Brown

Neutron (Quark?) Stars: Discuss the structure, "birth", and evolution of neutron stars. Discuss recent measurements of the radius of an isolated nearby neutron star.
Lattimer, Walter, Brown, Prakash

Ultra-luminous Infrared Galaxies: Ultra-luminous infrared galaxies have total luminosities that rival those of quasars. Discuss what they are and how they were detected.
Solomon, Evans

Star Formation and Chemical Enrichment: Discuss the process of star formation and formation of the natural elements (nucleo-synthesis) during the epoch of galaxy formation.
Solomon

The Inflation Paradigm: What is it and what does it predict?
Yahil

Dark Matter in Galaxies: Discuss the discovery of invisible ("dark") matter in our and other galaxies. Discuss its proposed distribution and form, and the various proposed types of dark matter. What are its cosmological implications?
Yahil

Gravitational Lensing: Discuss the phenomenon, origin, discovery and use of gravitational macro-lensing. Discuss lensing by galaxies and clusters of galaxies. Alternatively, discuss observations of gravitational micro-lensing towards the galactic bulge and Magellanic closed. What have we learned from these about the structure of ordinary and dark matter in and around our Galaxy?
Yahil

Microwave Background, its Fluctuations and Dark Energy: Discuss the discovery of the cosmic microwave background. Focus on recent measurements of the fluctuations of the microwave background. Include recent balloon experiment results. What are the cosmological implications of these results?
Yahil

Gamma-ray Bursts: Discuss the basic properties of gamma-ray bursts and the post-1997 developments in our understanding of these cosmic fireworks.
Brown, Prakash

Extrasolar Planets: Discuss the techniques used to find planets around other stars, the results of searches to date, and the implications for our understanding of solar-system formation.
Peterson

Gravity Waves: Discuss the theoretical relevance of gravity waves, the likely astrophysical sources of gravity waves, and past and future progress towards detecting them.
Lattimer

Supernovae and the accelerating universe: Give a critical assessment of recent evidence from supernova studies that the cosmological constant is non-zero, and discuss the implications of a non-zero cosmological constant.
Lanzetta, Yahil

Star and Planet Formation: Describe what we know about the process. In particular, discuss what chondrules tell us about the conditions in the early solar system.
Walter
Solar flares: What new light do the recent TRACE images/movies throw on the interaction between magnetic fields and the plasma in the solar atmosphere?
Walter

Last Updated: Sep 6, 2002

Experts:

expert Room telephone e-mail

Axel Drees Physics C105 2-8114 Axel.Drees@sunysb.edu

Rod Engelmann Physics D106 2-8087 engelmann@sbhep.physics.sunysb.edu

Aaron Evans ESS-452 2-1302 aevans@mail.astro.sunysb.edu

David Fossan Physics C104 2-8113 fossan@nuclear.physics.sunysb.edu

Maria Concepcion Gonzalez-Garcia Math Tower 6-115A 2-7971 concha@insti.physics.sunysb.edu

Fred Goldhaber ITP, MT6-113 2-7975 goldhaber@insti.physics.sunysb.edu

Paul Grannis Physics D142 2-8088 grannis@sbhep.physics.sunysb.edu

Tom Hemmick Physics C107 2-8111 hemmick@skipper.physics.sunysb.edu

John Hobbs Physics D108 2-8084 hobbs@sbhep.physics.sunysb.edu

Barbara Jacak Physics C102 2-6041 jacak@skipper.physics.sunysb.edu

Chang Kee Jung Physics D141 2-8108 alpinist@sbhep.physics.sunysb.edu

Ken Lanzetta ESS 456 2-8222 Kenneth.Lanzetta@sunysb.edu

James Lattimer ESS 455 2-8227 James.Lattimer@sunysb.edu

Robert McCarthy Physics D104 2-8086 mccarthy@sbhep.physics.sunysb.edu

Clark McGrew Physics D134 2-8299 mcgrew@nngroup.physics.sunysb.edu

Deane Peterson ESS 454 2-8223 Deane.Peterson@sunysb.edu

Michael Rijssenbeek Physics D134 2-8099 rijssenbeek@sbhep.physics.sunysb.edu

Martin Rocek ITP MT6-116A 2-7965 rocek@insti.physics.sunysb.edu

Robert Shrock ITP D146 2-7986 schrock@insti.physics.sunysb.edu

Jack Smith ITP MT6-111 2-7973 jsmith@insti.physics.sunysb.edu

Philip Solomon ESS 449 2-8231 Philip.Solomon@sunysb.edu

Gene Sprouse Physics C109 2-8118 sprouse@nuclear.physics.sunysb.edu

George Sterman ITP MT6-115A 2-7967 sterman@insti.physics.sunysb.edu

Peter van Nieuwenhuizen ITP MT6-110 2-7972 vannieuwenhuizen@insti.physics.sunysb.edu

Amos Yahil ESS 461 2-8224 Amos.Yahil@sunysb.edu

Chiaki Yanagisawa Physics D138 2-8105 chiaki@sbhep.physics.sunysb.edu

expert	Room	telephone	e-mail
Axel Drees	Physics C105	2-8114	Axel.Drees@sunysb.edu
Rod Engelmann	Physics D106	2-8087	engelmann@sbhep.physics.sunysb.edu
Aaron Evans	ESS-452	2-1302	aevans@mail.astro.sunysb.edu
David Fossan	Physics C104	2-8113	fossan@nuclear.physics.sunysb.edu
Maria Concepcion Gonzalez-Garcia	Math Tower 6-115A	2-7971	concha@insti.physics.sunysb.edu
Fred Goldhaber	ITP, MT6-113	2-7975	goldhaber@insti.physics.sunysb.edu
Paul Grannis	Physics D142	2-8088	grannis@sbhep.physics.sunysb.edu
Tom Hemmick	Physics C107	2-8111	hemmick@skipper.physics.sunysb.edu
John Hobbs	Physics D108	2-8084	hobbs@sbhep.physics.sunysb.edu
Barbara Jacak	Physics C102	2-6041	jacak@skipper.physics.sunysb.edu
Chang Kee Jung	Physics D141	2-8108	alpinist@sbhep.physics.sunysb.edu
Ken Lanzetta	ESS 456	2-8222	Kenneth.Lanzetta@sunysb.edu
James Lattimer	ESS 455	2-8227	James.Lattimer@sunysb.edu
Robert McCarthy	Physics D104	2-8086	mccarthy@sbhep.physics.sunysb.edu
Clark McGrew	Physics D134	2-8299	mcgrew@nngroup.physics.sunysb.edu
Deane Peterson	ESS 454	2-8223	Deane.Peterson@sunysb.edu
Michael Rijssenbeek	Physics D134	2-8099	rijssenbeek@sbhep.physics.sunysb.edu
Martin Rocek	ITP MT6-116A	2-7965	rocek@insti.physics.sunysb.edu
Robert Shrock	ITP D146	2-7986	schrock@insti.physics.sunysb.edu
Jack Smith	ITP MT6-111	2-7973	jsmith@insti.physics.sunysb.edu
Philip Solomon	ESS 449	2-8231	Philip.Solomon@sunysb.edu
Gene Sprouse	Physics C109	2-8118	sprouse@nuclear.physics.sunysb.edu
George Sterman	ITP MT6-115A	2-7967	sterman@insti.physics.sunysb.edu
Peter van Nieuwenhuizen	ITP MT6-110	2-7972	vannieuwenhuizen@insti.physics.sunysb.edu
Amos Yahil	ESS 461	2-8224	Amos.Yahil@sunysb.edu
Chiaki Yanagisawa	Physics D138	2-8105	chiaki@sbhep.physics.sunysb.edu