SLAC Today is
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In this issue:
Coke Bottle Quantum Physics
DOE/INFN Undergraduate Summer Exchange
SLAC Celebrity Gossip: Neil Young Spotted in Lab-designed Tee
Thursday - April 9, 2009 |
Coke Bottle Quantum PhysicsDon't be fooled by the collection of empty soda bottles in James Cryan's
office at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Cryan isn't a caffeine fiend—the
cola bottles are for science. As a graduate student with the PULSE Institute for
Ultrafast Energy Science, he is studying how nitrogen gas responds to
stimulation by an optical laser, and he needed a container for the gas. Instead
of ordering a cell and waiting for it to arrive, Cryan cast about for something
close at hand—and happened upon one of the empty "It only cost us a dollar, so it's probably one of the cheapest things in the lab," Cryan said. "Plus, we recycled." Nitrogen is a diatomic molecule; in a stick-and-ball picture, it looks like a dumbbell. In a cloud of nitrogen, the sticks aren't aligned in any particular way. But when a short optical laser pulse blasts the gas, the nitrogen molecules snap to attention, parallel with the pulse's electric field. Afterward, the molecules keep spinning, but not randomly—in a little while they fall into alignment again. Nitrogen molecules are quantum mechanical objects; their angular momentum, a property related to their rotation, can take on only certain values. If some of the molecules rotate at a certain speed, others are rotating twice as fast, others three times as fast, and so on. As the rotation continues, there are "revivals" of alignment—the molecules line up again and again. Read more and see video of Cryan's lab setup... DOE/INFN Undergraduate Summer ExchangeCalling all undergraduates in at least their third year with backgrounds and interest in physics, engineering or computing studies, and the desire to combine research and travel! The Summer Exchange Program offers a marvelous opportunity to work directly with scientists in Italy and to absorb the rich culture there. The deadline for applications is April 27. The exchange, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science and Italy's National Institute for Nuclear Physics, sends U.S. undergraduate students to Italy for eight to ten weeks to work with scientists on projects. Italian students have similar opportunities stateside. Potential research areas include particle physics, astro-particle physics, nuclear physics, theoretical physics, and detector physics. Information about the Italian program may be found on the DOE/INFN Summer Exchange Program 2009 call for applications. Information about the DOE program at SLAC may be found on the SLAC/INFN Summer Exchange Program page. For additional information, contact Harvey Lynch (x3691). Ciao! SLAC Celebrity Gossip:
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