ATLAS/LHC talk tomorrow

September 10th, from 10:00 am to 11:00 am Prof. Oakham will be giving a talk in room 1154 HP on the topic of ATLAS and the LHC which turns on tomorrow. This talk is open to everyone.

Coffee Talk: Extra Dimensions!

Tonight's first ever Phys Soc Coffee Talk featuring Bruce Campbell went swimmingly and was received well by all! I think it's safe to say that this will become a regular occurrence. Keep posted for the next chance to meet a faculty member, other physics-enthusiasts, and learn about something you won't learn in lectures.

Here are some pictures from tonight (courtesy of Sam Dejong, applied phys).

This first one is of some of the students who attended the talk. From left to right there is Hass AbouZeid (applied phys), Alex Weekes (math), Mauricio Buschinelli (aerospace eng), and Renée Yoxon (that's me, experimental phys).

This is Dr. Bruce Campbell at the beginning of the talk giving the motivation for studying extra dimensions.


If you have any questions about the coffee talk or would like to e-mail us some feedback please contact us at the info on the right. Thanks to Dr. Bruce Campbell for taking the time to give us this great talk and thanks to everyone who came out to enjoy it.

See you all tomorrow at the CAP lecture and the squash tournament!

February/March Update

Hi everyone,

Now that reading week is over the physics society has many events underway. Here is an exhaustive list of planned events for the rest of February and into March.

Phys Soc Coffee Talk: On Thursday, February 28th, the physics society will be sitting down with Bruce Campbell, a member of the Carleton Theory team, to host a discussion entitled "Things That We Don't Know". The discussion will be held at Rooster's on the 4th floor Unicentre from 6 to 8pm.

Canadian Association of Physicists Lecture: On Friday, February 29th, Eldon Emberly from Simon Fraser University will be giving a talk entitled 'How cells measure space and time'. This will take place in Unicentre 180 at 10am. Don't miss it!

Abstract:

You don't have to look far to see the sophisticated technology that we have developed to measure space and time, whether it be the complex inner-workings of a watch or the GPS equipped compass that you might use on a backcountry expedition. But what about microorganisms? How is a microorganism, which calculates via biochemical reactions, able to make accurate measurements of time and space? In this talk I will highlight some of the amazing biological circuitry that cells use to keep time, showing how physical modeling can be used to gain insight into how these clocks function. But cells are also capable of measuring space - it's essential

that developing organisms put tissues where they are meant to be. I will discuss how cells measure their spatial location and how they overcome the complications of living in a noisy chemical environment.

Squash Tournament: The annual tournament will be held on February 29th and March 6th from 4 - 7pm . To sign up, talk to Steven Crane, visit HP 2221, or e-mail cuphyssoc@gmail.com. It's not too late to sign up! There is a 5$ registration fee.

Hockey Tournament: This will also be held in March. If interested in playing in this tournament talk to Mike Cunningham or Hass AbouZeid, visit HP 2221, or e-mail us. Dates also TBA.

Sudbury Neutrino Observatory: The plans for our annual trip to snow are underway. Please send us an e-mail early if you are interested. Priority will be given to upper year students who have not visited SNO yet. Plans will be finalized once we have an idea of how much interest there is.

Upcoming Phys Soc Executive Elections: It's that time of year to elect the exec members for the coming academic year. If interested in being nominated or nominating someone else drop by HP 2221 or send us an e-mail.

Hope to see you all on Thursday!

Renée

Hot on the trail of particle dark matter: liveblog

Renée here - liveblogging from the back of Tory 208. Today, Dan Hooper from Fermilab is giving a talk on the subject of dark matter. I'll be giving live updates as the hour progresses.

Abstract:

Over seventy years, the evidence has steadily grown that much of the Universe's mass is non-luminous. Still today, however, we have not identified what makes up this mysteriously dark substance. Many experimental programs that hope to change this are underway, including deep underground detectors, gamma-ray telescopes, neutrino and anti-matter detectors, as well as particle colliders. Each of these efforts are searching for clues of dark matter's identity. With the new technologies needed to observe these particles rapidly developing, the hunt to discover dark matter's identity is well underway.

1:16pm - Dan Hooper is setting up his computer. Heather Logan begins to introduce to the speaker. A few more people trickle in. Dan has published a book on dark matter (Dark Cosmos: In Search of Our Universe's Missing Mass and Energy) and was a post doc at Oxford. Dan speaks.

1:17 - slide 1: A Brief History of Dark Matter. Dan explains that there has been too little luminous matter in galaxies and and clusters of galaxies for many decades and how by the end of the 1970's the existence of dark matter was obvious.

1:19 - slide 2: What is Dark Matter? There are two hypothesis': MaCHOs (Massive Compact Halo Objects) and WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Particles)

1:20 - slide 3: MaCHOs. The result of the end points of stellar evolution. Black holes, neutron stars, etc are MaCHO candidates for dark matter.

1:22 - slide 4: Problem's with MaCHO.

1:24 - slide 5: A Brief History in the WMAP Sky. Dan explains the "age of precision cosmology"

1:25 - slide 6: "The world is full of thinsg which nobody by any chance ever observes." - Sherlock Holmes

1:26 - slide 7: Dark Matter. Dan explains the dark matter imprint in the cosmic microwave background. We have never seen dark matter interact with anything but gravity. Postulate: Maybe DM doesn't exist, maybe we don't understand gravity.

1:27 - slide 8: MOdified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND). Quite succesful in explaining how galaxies behave, not clusters though. MOND cannot be applied to cosmology.

1:29 - slide 9: DM and MONDs of the Past. Dan compares DM and MOND theories.

1:30 - slide 9: Picture of a bullet cluster from NASA/Chandra Press Release Aug 21, 2006. Dan point out Baryonic matter (hot gas) and Total Mass in the image. Conclusion: Not a simple modification of gravity, it is in fact DM. The End Of MOND!/? A Challenge For MOND.

1:33 - slide 10: But what are the WIMPs?

1:33 - slide 11: The Field of Particle DM Candidates. Picture of the US electoral candidates.

1:34 - slide 12: The Thermal Abundance of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles.

1:35 - slide 13: The Weak Scale and Weakly Interacting Massive Particles. Weak interaction yields a picobond, an indication that DM originates from EW physics.

1:37 - slide 14: Supersymmetry. Symmetry between bosons and fermions - an extension of the Standard Model.

1:38 - slide 15: Why Supersymmetry? With supersymmetry, fermion and boson loops cancel each other. WIth supersymmetry, all 3 forces unify at a single energy.

1:40 - slide 16: Supersymmetric Dark Matter. Possible WIMP candidates from supersymmetry include Neutralinos and Sneutrinos, but Sneutrino was excluded by direct detection.

1:42 - slide 17: Supersymmetry at the Tevatron.

1:43 - slide 18: Supersymmetry at the LHC.

1:44 - slide 19: Astrophysical Probes of Particle DM. Direct detection and indirect detection.

1:45 - slide 20: Direct Detection.

At this point, many slides are going by explaining WIMP detection, the XENON 10 limit, WIMPs worldwide. I'll drop the slide numbering now.

1:47 - slide: Indirect Detection of DM. Wimp Annihilation, Fragmentaion/Decay, Sychrotron Radiation.

1:48 - slide: Indirect Detection with Gamma-Rays.

1:49 - slide: Gamma-Rays From the Galactic Center.

1:50 - slide: Indirect Detection With Neutrinos. High E neutrinos used. The IceCube detector is explained. It's a full cubic kilometer.

1:52 - slide :Indirect Detection With Anti-Matter. Upcoming experiments, PAMELA, AMS-02, will measure the cosmic anti-matter spectrum.

1:54 - slide: Indirect Detection With Positrons. HEAT experiment reported an excess of high-E positrons in 3 balloon flights.

1:58 - slide: Indirect Detection With Sychrotron.

2:00 - slide: WMAP As A Sychrotron Telescope. Images are shown to illustrate how WMAP images are generated. The "WMAP Haze" is explained as a 20 degree bright spot in the center of our galaxy. Very difficult to explain astrophysically.

2:04 - slide: DM in the WMAP Sky. Finkbeiner suggested that the WMAP Haze could be sychrotron from electrons/positrons produced in DM annihilations in the inner galaxy.

2:05 - slide: The Remarkable Match Of The WMAP Haze To The Signal Expected From DM. The properties described as "very vanilla".

2:07 - slide: Summary. The search for DM is very exciting, many models have been ruled out with direct detection experiments. Hard sychrotron emission from the inner galaxy observed by WMAP is a compelling signature of DM annihilations. LHC is almost certain to discover low E supersymmetry if it exists in nature, but it's hard to theorize about what will be discovered. A few years from now, our understanding of DM will almost certain be very different - either a discover is made or new ideas needed.

2:11 - Applause. Dan plugs his book, and so will we: Check it out!

2:13 - Questions are taken. What fraction of the mass of the sun would be DM? A 10th of a percent - a surprisingly small amount. Heather Logan asks a technical question. Dan breaks out the chalk.

2:16 - More applause.

Wow, that was a fast-paced and interesting talk! The Physics Society would like to thank the physics department for setting up the talk and Dan Hooper for giving such an accessible talk!

Welcome back

Welcome to the 2008 winter term! Now that we're two weeks into class, things have finally gotten underway. We have lots of fun things planned for this term, so here's a brief overview of what's in store:

Next week there will be an undergrad level seminar on dark matter. The speaker is Dan Hooper from Fermilab and he will be speaking at 1:15pm in 208 Tory on Tuesday, the 22nd.

Abstract:

Over seventy years, the evidence has steadily grown that much of the Universe's mass is non-luminous. Still today, however, we have not identified what makes up this mysteriously dark substance. Many experimental programs that hope to change this are underway, including deep underground detectors, gamma-ray telescopes, neutrino and anti-matter detectors, as well as particle colliders. Each of these efforts are searching for clues of dark matter's identity. With the new technologies needed to observe these particles rapidly developing, the hunt to discover dark matter's identity is well underway.

For more information see the physics seminar webpage.

On Wednesday, January 30th, the physics society and the math society will be joining forces for a pub night! Check the posters around Herzberg for more information.

Also on the 31st (tentatively - weather permitting), the phys soc will be taking a trip to the top of the Herzberg building for look through the observatory. The date will be finalized as it approaches.

The phys soc will be starting a series of evening discussion groups with different members of the faculty next month. Our first one will be with Bruce Campbell on the 14th of February from 6pm to 8pm at Rooster's. Come have a coffee and take advantage of this opportunity to get to know a faculty member and learn something you probably didn't know about physics! Topic TBA.

The annual squash tournament will be held at the end of February. To sign up, talk to Steven Crane, visit HP 2221, or e-mail cuphyssoc@gmail.com. Dates TBA when finalized.

Also, two hockey tournaments are in the works. To sign up for those, talk to Mike Cunningham or Hass AbouZeid, visit HP 2221, or e-mail us. Dates also TBA.

Well, that's it! Keep checking the feed for more information about upcoming events!


Renée Yoxon, Co-VP CUPS
Experimental Physics Undergrad