Bulletin of the American Physical Society
14th Annual Meeting of the Northwest Section of the APS
Volume 57, Number 7
Thursday–Saturday, October 18–20, 2012; Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Session G1: Plenary Session II |
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Chair: Brian Milbrath, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Room: SFU Harbour Centre 1900 Fletcher Challenge Theatre |
Saturday, October 20, 2012 8:25AM - 8:30AM |
G1.00001: Welcome |
Saturday, October 20, 2012 8:30AM - 9:06AM |
G1.00002: Next-Generation Muon g-2 Invited Speaker: David Hertzog The Brookhaven muon g-2 experimental result---now more than 3 standard deviations greater than the Standard Model prediction---continues to generate significant theoretical interest. It represents one of the strongest hints of new physics. What could this be, and perhaps more importantly, is it real? To answer this, an even more precise experiment is being designed at Fermilab using the unique complex of accelerators associated with the so-called Intensity Frontier campaign. The E989 experiment will re-employ the original BNL storage ring, but otherwise much of the measurement equipment, beam delivery, and key elements related to muon storage, will be new. I will describe this exciting effort, including the latest thinking on how to move the very large superconducting coils across the country. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 20, 2012 9:06AM - 9:42AM |
G1.00003: Obliquely Incident Solitary Wave onto a Vertical Wall Invited Speaker: Harry Yeh When a solitary wave impinges obliquely onto a reflective vertical wall, it can take the formation of a Mach reflection (a geometrically similar reflection from acoustics). The mathematical theory predicts that the wave at the reflection can amplify not twice, but as high as four times the incident wave amplitude. Nevertheless, this theoretical four-fold amplification has not been verified by numerical or laboratory experiments. We discuss the discrepancies between the theory and the experiments; then, improve the theory with higher-order corrections. The modified theory results in substantial improvement and is now in good agreement with the numerical as well as our laboratory results. Our laboratory experiments indicate that the wave amplitude along the reflective wall can reach 0.91 times the quiescent water depth, which is higher than the maximum of a freely propagating solitary wave. Hence, this maximum runup 0.91 h would be possible even if the amplitude of the incident solitary wave were as small as 0.24 h. This wave behavior could provide an explanation for local variability of tsunami runup as well as for sneaker waves. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 20, 2012 9:42AM - 10:18AM |
G1.00004: Minerva: Big Exoplanet Science from Small Telescopes Invited Speaker: Nate McCrady The Kepler mission has identified over 2300 candidate planets in the past two years, adding to the over 500 confirmed exoplanets from radial velocity (RV) surveys. One of the most striking results of these surveys is that the number of planets increases rapidly with decreasing size. There may in fact be more Earth-like planets in the Galaxy than stars. There must be terrestrial planets around nearby stars, though few have yet been discovered. Finding these planets requires high precision RV observations and high cadence transit observing to densely sample the orbital phase. Minerva will surmount these obstacles with a dedicated observatory for detection of super-Earths and close-in Earth-like planets. Our array of four 0.7-m telescopes will operate in two modes: jointly with a high precision fiber-fed spectrometer capable of detecting the RV signal of an Earth orbiting a low mass star, and independently for photometric transit detection surveys. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 20, 2012 10:18AM - 10:48AM |
G1.00005: BREAK |
Saturday, October 20, 2012 10:48AM - 11:24AM |
G1.00006: Atom trap loss, elastic collisions, and technology Invited Speaker: James Booth The study of collisions and scattering has been one of the most productive approaches for modern physics, illuminating the fundamental structure of crystals, surfaces, atoms, and sub-atomic particles. In the field of cold atoms, this is no less true: studies of cold atom collisions were essential to the production of quantum degenerate matter, the formation of cold molecules, and so on. Over the past few years it has been my delight to investigate elastic collisions between cold atoms trapped in either a magneto-optical trap (MOT) or a magnetic trap with hot, background gas in the vacuum environment through the measurement of the loss of atoms from the trap. Motivated by the goal of creating cold atom-based technology, we are deciphering what the trapped atoms are communicating about their environment through the observed loss rate. These measurements have the advantages of being straightforward to implement and they provide information about the underlying, fundamental inter-atomic processes. In this talk I will present some of our recent work, including the observation of the trap depth dependence on loss rate for argon-rubidium collisions. The data follow the computed loss rate curve based on the long-range Van der Waals interaction between the two species. The implications of these findings are exciting: trap depths can be determined from the trap loss measurement under controlled background density conditions; observation of trap loss rate in comparison to models for elastic, inelastic, and chemical processes can lead to improved understanding and characterization of these fundamental interactions; finally the marriage of cold atoms with collision modeling offers the promise of creating a novel pressure sensor and pressure standard for the high and ultra-high vacuum regime. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 20, 2012 11:24AM - 12:00PM |
G1.00007: Inspire Curiosity, Promote Understanding, Explode Soda Invited Speaker: Sandra Eix Pyrotechnical demonstration shows, summer camps,and larger-than-life exhibits. Is this a theme park or an educational institution? We'll explore what informal science education has to offer, and ponder why and how a science centre does what it does best. Be forewarned: this presentation may involve audience participation and rubber chickens. [Preview Abstract] |
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