Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2013
Volume 58, Number 4
Saturday–Tuesday, April 13–16, 2013; Denver, Colorado
Session B7: Invited Session: Experimental Studies in Weak Interactions - Scientific Legacy of Stuart Freedman |
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Sponsoring Units: GPMFC DNP Chair: John Schiffer, Argonne National Laboratory Room: Governor's Square 16 |
Saturday, April 13, 2013 10:45AM - 11:21AM |
B7.00001: The Early Experiments Invited Speaker: Gerald Garvey Stuart Freedman obtained his PhD at Berkley with an experimental thesis providing very strong evidence against theories requiring local hidden variables. He then came to Princeton in 1972 and began collaboration on a search for second-class currents. These measurements are quite difficult as the effects are the order of 1{\%}, demonstrating Freedman's drive to take on hard but important experiments. After carrying out some relatively standard nuclear physics measurements he moved on to Stanford in 1976. There, Freedman was involved in identifying measurements sensitive to the existence of light axions. He also carried out searches for various exotica that might be produced from cosmic rays or the SLAC beam stop. During this time he was collaborating with us at Argonne investigating nuclear parity violation and time-like axial beta decay. In 1982 Freedman came to Argonne where he worked on fundamental issues in neutron beta decay. He also initiated what was to become one of his trademarks, demonstrating that surprising peaks in the e$^{+}$-e$^{-}$ spectrum observed in very heavy ion collisions were spurious. He further launched his first neutrino oscillation experiment. This period of early research was marked by a remarkable diversity of subject matter and approach. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 13, 2013 11:21AM - 11:57AM |
B7.00002: Precision Studies at the Neutrino Frontier Invited Speaker: Karsten M. Heeger Neutrinos were proposed as a remedy to explain nuclear beta decay and are now essential in our understanding of the Universe. Neutrinos determine the abundance of light elements, are critical to supernova explosions, and may hold the key to understanding the matter-antimatter asymmetry. Studies of neutrinos from the Sun and nuclear reactors have confirmed the prediction of solar models and provided evidence for neutrino flavor oscillation. The observation of neutrino oscillation is amongst the major discoveries and demands that we make the first significant revision of the Standard Model. The search for neutrinoless double beta decay is the only experimental approach to probing the Majorana nature of neutrinos and will provide insight into the fundamental nature of neutrino mass. I will review Stuart Freedman's contributions to neutrino physics and in advancing the field to precision measurements. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 13, 2013 11:57AM - 12:33PM |
B7.00003: Laser Trapping of Radioactive Atoms Invited Speaker: Zheng-Tian Lu Stuart Freedman conceived the idea of laser trapping radioactive atoms for the purpose of studying beta correlation effects. ``This is really the theorist's view of a radioactive source,'' as he fondly claimed. It is ideal because the atoms form a point source, compressed in both position and momentum space, with no material walls nearby. The Berkeley group succeeded in trapping $^{21}$Na (half-life = 22 s) atoms [Lu et al., PRL 72, 3791 (1994)], and determined its beta-neutrino correlation coefficient $a=0.5502(60)$ to be in agreement with the Standard Model [Vetter et al., PRC 77, 035502 (2008)]. Other groups have joined this effort with searches for scalar or tensor couplings in the weak interaction. Moreover, the technique has been extended to trap very short lived $^8$He (0.1 s) to study its halo structure or the very long lived $^{81}$Kr (230,000 yr) to map the movement of groundwater. [Preview Abstract] |
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