Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2012
Volume 57, Number 3
Saturday–Tuesday, March 31–April 3 2012; Atlanta, Georgia
Session A1: Plenary Session I: Kavli Foundation Keynote Session |
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Sponsoring Units: APS Room: Regency Ballroom VI-VII |
Saturday, March 31, 2012 8:30AM - 9:06AM |
A1.00001: 100 years of Cosmic Rays - from the ionisation of air to beyond the LHC Invited Speaker: Alan Watson The study of cosmic rays has impacted on many disciplines, including astrophysics, particle physics, carbon dating and radio astronomy: it has thus had scientific and societal impact. They were discovered in 1912 as a result of the efforts by some of the most distinguished scientists of that era, puzzled by their inability to explain the discharge of ionisation chambers. I will describe some of the early work that led, \textit{inter alia}, to the discovery of the positron, the muon and the first strange particles and thus to the birth of particle physics. In 1938 it was found that showers of particles that arrive at the earth simultaneously are produced by primary cosmic rays of $\sim $10$^{15}$ eV, about 10$^{5}$ times more energetic than any particles that had been contemplated before. I will discuss how study of these showers has led to the discovery of cosmic rays of energies as great as 3 x 10$^{20} $eV, challenging our understanding of where and how they are created. Data from the Pierre Auger Observatory, the largest cosmic-ray detector ever built, is now being used for astrophysical studies and to give glimpses of some hadronic physics at centre-of-mass energies more than 4 times greater than are accessible at the LHC. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, March 31, 2012 9:06AM - 9:42AM |
A1.00002: The Plasma Physics of Cosmic Rays Invited Speaker: Ellen Zweibel Cosmic rays produce some of the most energetic emission in the Universe. They play a key role in the dynamics and energy balance of galactic gas, and allow us to probe galactic and intergalactic magnetic fields in the present epoch and over cosmic time. The acceleration and propagation of cosmic rays, and the mechanisms by which they interact collectively with their environments, are largely plasma physics problems. I will briefly review some salient aspects of cosmic ray astrophysics and describe recent progress toward understanding cosmic ray plasma physics. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, March 31, 2012 9:42AM - 10:18AM |
A1.00003: The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer Invited Speaker: Samuel Ting |
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