Neutrino Physics

This is a review article on the latest news in the field of neutrino physics by S. King. The comment says that this is suitable for a general audience. Don't you believe that! :) A general PHYSICS audience, maybe, but not the general public.

Still, anyone with a physics background might find this highly useful to get caught up in the fast-moving area of study in neutrino physics.

Zz.

ScienceDebate2008

With the US Presidential election looming, the whole political process has been active for the past few months. However, one conspicuous element here is missing - a clear view on the candidates' science and technology knowledge and policy. As usual, science takes a back seat (way back) in these matters.

Lawrence Krauss and Chris Mooney want to change that. They are organizing a ScienceDebate2008 for the presidential candidates.

This fact -- combined with the undisputed importance of scientific research and innovation to national prosperity and competitiveness -- explains the recent emergence of a group called ScienceDebate2008. Under its auspices, scientists, university presidents, industry leaders, elected representatives and others have endorsed a call for the current U.S. presidential candidates to participate in a debate, or a series of debates, dedicated to issues in science and technology. More specifically, the candidates should answer questions about the environment, medicine and health, and science and technology policy.

I hope this takes off. However, I don't quite know how big of an influence it would be to the general public. Are these the issues that would sway their votes one way or the other? Would the perceived importance of science be a factor when these candidates debate about science issues?

Zz.

UK Pulls Out Of The ILC

This is a MAJOR bombshell and could spell doom to the International Linear Collider project.

The United Kingdom has decided to pull out of the ILC due to budget cutbacks.

The ILC, which will collide beams of electrons and positrons, is being planned as the next accelerator following the Large Hadron Collider, which is set to come online at CERN in 2008. The UK has played a significant role in building the LHC and the withdrawal will come as a blow for the particle-physics community.

The US, via the Dept. of Energy, has already indicated that no decision on the building of the ILC will be made before 2020 (or even later), prompting Fermilab to come up with an interim Project X. With the withdrawl of the UK, would the US (or maybe Japan) be next to pull out? Any one of these countries pulling out will signal the death of the ILC, I would think.

Zz.

Relativity Visualized

I came across this paper in the European Journal of Physics:

"First-person visualizations of the special and general theory of relativity", U. Kraus, Eur. J. Phys. v.29, p.1 (2007).

The author presents a description of a class in which he tries to impart a visualization of various aspects of Special and General Relativity. I suppose this can make the conceptually-difficult aspects of Relativity easier to illustrate. But what is neat is that he also have a website that has all of these illustrations.

You can check out all the visualizations yourself. Some of them are in German, but from what I've read, more English versions are coming.

This website might be useful to students trying to learn Special and General Relativity.

Zz.

Symbolic Manipulators Affect Mathematical Mindsets

This preprint is a rather "entertaining" reading, and you don't say that very often with things like this.

This work examines the impact of the availability of symbolic calculators, such as Mathematica, on physics students. It appears that the students are more "free" to explore the mathematical solutions using different paths. However, the study concluded that the students appears to not be able to make the connection between the mathematics and the physical meaning of the mathematics.

The students show admirable flexibility and creativity as they try different calculation strategies and representational forms. Rather, the difficulties associated with Mathematica use appears to arise from more subtle issues. They arise from a local coherence in their thinking that leads them to focus on computational aspects of the problem while suppressing the connection with the physics and with extended mathematical meanings.

I got very fascinated with several of the transcripts of the conversation between the students as they struggle to solve physics problems. I just hope they knew they were being recorded. :)

Zz.

UK Physics Professors Criticise Cuts in Budget

Looks like all those promises of more support for science funding in the UK isn't coming true.

Professors from Cambridge, Oxford and more than 20 other universities issued an unprecedented statement criticising ministerial plans to cut scientific research grants by 25 per cent over the next three years.

That is dreadful.

Zz.

Physics Laws Flawed?!

Not so fast, Mister!

There is a major concern when a news report doesn't do a COMPLETE reporting and make it appear as if this is a done deal.

One of the continuing controversy and continuing area that is still being investigated is the idea that the fine structure constant might be different during the earlier time of the universe than what it is now. Most of the evidence that seems to point to such possible variation has come from astrophysical observation, whereas most of the terrestrial-based observations have placed a more stringent upper limit on possible such variation.

This news report is presenting the "rebuttal" from the J.K. Webb camp[1] of a paper by Srianand et al.[2] that contradicted their earlier report[3].

Physicists have been chasing results like these for a number of years, but since 1999, Murphy and his co-researchers have been ahead of the pack. They’ve published a series of observations from the Keck Telescope in Hawaii as further evidence of a varying fine structure constant. But, a few years ago, another research team claimed that data from a different telescope contradicted Murphy’s observations.

However, he’s been able to prove that the contradictory work itself was flawed. “We’ve shown that the way the data was analysed was faulty,” he said. “Their procedures were faulty so the numbers that came out are meaningless. Our paper points this out. When you replicate their analysis and fix their problems, you get a very very different answer indeed.”

This is fine and dandy. However, by leaving it as is, it gives a very misleading impression that this "proof" done by them is a done deal. This is false because in the same issue of PRL, Srianand et al. gave their own comment[4] against the analysis done by Murphy et al. In it, they made the argument on why they stand by their earlier results.

Regardless on who you believe, this issue isn't settled, especially considering the nature of the "evidence" and the degree of certainty. This is certainly different than the impression one gets after reading this news article. It is unfortunate that they only reported on the first comment but not on the response to that comment. Someone has not been doing his/her homework on this.

Zz.

[1] M.T. Murphy et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. v.99, p.239001 (2007).
[2] R. Srianand et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. v.92, p.121302 (2004).
[3] J.K. Webb et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. v.82, p.884 (1999).
[4] R. Srianand et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. v.99, p.239002 (2007).

Oppeneimer Comes To The Opera

I mentioned earlier that Dr. Atomic will be making its operatic debut at the Chicago Lyric Opera this coming January. The Chicago Tribune has a preview of this work that is currently in rehearsal.

I'm not much of an opera buff, but I am certainly considering attending this one. It isn't often that there's something related to either physics or physicists on stage. The last one that I attended was "Copenhagen" on Broadway, and it was outstanding. So if this is as good as the original review of the San Francisco premier, maybe I can sit through an opera for a couple of hours. :)

Zz.

Woman to Lead SLAC

It's sad that in 2007, we still have headlines when a woman is appointed for a top position. Still, this is a noteworthy accomplishment. Persis Drell has been appointed as the new director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator laboratory. This comes at such an important turning point in SLAC's history as it morphed itself from a high-energy particle collider into a light source.

It is a bit amusing that the San Jose Mercury News that this news report came from is still calling SLAC as an "atom smasher". It's transformation into the LCLS smashers nothing at all. :)

Zz.

Knot Physics

This is the kind of "string" theory that I can deal with. :)

A couple of physicists have studied how a piece of string eventually end up with knots, and how that depends on its length.

In the end, one law emerged: The longer the string, the more likely it is to form a knot. String that was 1.5 feet or shorter never got tangled up. But “as the string gets longer, the probability of a knot forming goes up and up,” Smith says, at least to 18 feet. Flexibility matters, too. The more pliable the string, the more likely it is to knot spontaneously.

I'm not quite sure how such a knowledge would be useful elsewhere (topology?).

Zz.

Dark Energy: The Decade Ahead

This is a terrific article on the physics of Dark Energy, and what we can expect in the next decade or so. It was written by two of the leading figures in this field, Eric Linder and Saul Perlmutter.

There's also a rather good article on the history of the discovery of the accelerating universe that led to the idea of dark energy. It was written by Robert Crease. Not only is the story interesting, but it tells you of the workings and the competition between different groups within the same field and trying to study almost the same thing.

Zz.

No, Science Does Not 'Rest On Faith'

This is a very pointed and sharp rebuttal to Paul Davis' New York Times essay that claimed that science also practice a degree of "faith".

The public and repeatable testing of hypotheses distinguishes science as the most successful form of inquiry ever. Among other things it shows that it is officially not in the business of accepting anything "without question, without examining the grounds". Davies and others who describe science as "ultimately resting on faith" are thus not only wrong but do much irresponsible harm to it thereby.

I very much agree. I think it is highly irresponsible to make such a statement, because those who seek to undermine science will use it without understanding the differences.

Zz.

Major Physics Breakthrough In Understanding Supersolidity

I guess one of the major news of this week is the new discovery of the sheer modulus characteristic of a He in the "supersolid" phase[1] (assuming that it did become a supersolid).

Day and Dr. Beamish have taken this research a different direction. In an experiment not done before, they cooled the solid helium and manipulated the material another way -- by shearing it elastically. In doing so, they found that the solid behaved in an entirely new and unexpected way -- it became much stiffer at the lowest temperatures.

A perspective of this work in Nature[2] has a bit more info:

A supersolid can exhibit other anomalies, for instance in the speed at which sound passes through it. Sound speed depends on the shear modulus of the solid, as well as the density of the superfluid component. To assess why the solid behaves in the way it does, it is thus important to measure the shear modulus independently of the superfluid density. This is precisely what Day and Beamish have now done with solid helium.

Again, the authors' experiment3 is conceptually simple. They placed solid 4He between two parallel plates, known as piezoelectric shear transducers. They moved one plate, the driving transducer, in a direction parallel to the second plate. The solid helium transmits the resulting elastic shear stress between the plates, and this is measured by the second transducer. Day and Beamish find3 that the shear modulus of helium rises by up to 10% as the temperature is reduced from 0.2 to 0.02 kelvin. More significantly, the temperature dependence of this large increase in shear modulus closely tracks the changes in period in the torsional-oscillator experiments.

Fascinating stuff coming out of supersolidity lately.

Zz.

[1] J. Day and J. Beamish, Nature v.450, p.853 (2007).
[2] A.T. Dorsey and D. A. Huse, Nature v.450, p.800 (2007).

String Theory In the Era Of The Large Hadron Collider

Whether you buy into String Theory or not, this is a good article to read in this month's issue of Physics Today. Michael Dine discusses the issues surrounding String Theory, and whether the LHC can produce anything to verify String Theory.

Zz.

Physics of Information: From Entanglement to Black Holes

So, if you're in Waterloo, Canada tomorrow (Dec. 5th, 2007), you might want to see if you can attend this. It sounds like such a fun thing to do for physics geeks! :)

Do ideas about information and reality inspire fruitful new approaches to the hardest problems of modern physics? What can we learn about the paradoxes of quantum mechanics, the beginning of the universe and our understanding of black holes by thinking about the very essence of information? The answers to these questions are surprising and enlightening, but also controversial. The topic of information within physics has involved some of the 20th century’s greatest scientists in long-running intellectual battles that continue to the present day. In this special debate, hosted by the CBC’s Bob McDonald of ‘Quirks and Quarks’, you will enjoy a lively discussion between four prominent physicists who have thought long and hard about these questions.

With a high-powered panalist consisting of Anthony Leggett, Leonard Susskind, Seth Lloyd, and Chris Fuchs, this discussion could be very fascinating.

Zz.

Girl Power Dominates at Siemens Competition

For the first time ever, the girls swept the competition at this year's 9th Annual Siemens Math, Science, and Technology Competition.

With their work on a new treatment for tuberculosis, Janelle Schlossberger and Amanda Marinoff, both 17-year-old seniors, became the third straight team from Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy HS to make it to the finals - but the first from the school to win the prestigious competition.
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Isha Jain, 16, of Freedom HS in Bethlehem, took the top individual prize for her ground-breaking research on bone growth in zebrafish, which could lead to better understanding of bone disorders and injuries in humans.

Hum... so I've noticed that it is "easier" to win this competition when one's project is in biology/medicine. Not that easy to carry out a physics project that can wow the judges, is it?

Zz.

A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down

I have mentioned many times on the issue of emergent phenomena, why the so-called Theory of Everything may be nothing more than a TOE for reductionism, and the arguments put forth by Robert Laughlin regarding this. I have also highlighted his book on such emergent phenomena.

An excerpt of this book is one of the essay on PhysicsCentral. So if you haven't read it yet, this might give you a "flavor" on what he is tackling. I wish they had done a longer excerpt, because the issue of collective behavior and emergent phenomena are only covered in the final paragraph. I believe is PNAS paper and his Nobel Prize speech have a lot more "teeth" in his argument.

In any case, you should really read the whole book if you haven't come across such argument before.

Zz.

The Race To Study Dark Energy

This news article describes the competition and race to be the one selected to design and build the necessary observatory to study dark energy. It gives some idea not only of the problem at hand, but also a feel for what usually is involved in science when such a large (and expensive) project is involved. Many things have to occur first (workshops, pre-proposals, etc.. etc..) before something is selected and the green light to build is given.

And even then, you still don't know that you'll get to the finish line, as can be seen with the Superconducting Supercollider, and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.

Zz.

Neutrinos Could Probe Earth’s Structure

This is certainly an ambitious proposal, but not that outrageous in terms of implementation.

A group of physicists have proposed to use the atmospheric neutrinos to study the structure of our Earth.

Now, Concepcion Gonzalez-Garcia from the University of Barcelona in Spain and colleagues say that atmospheric neutrinos may have been dismissed too hastily. Their calculations show that, although the proportion of atmospheric neutrinos above the 10 TeV absorption criterion is low, the sheer number of them could make up for it (arXiv:0711.0745). “It would be better to have a localized beam rather than a disperse one, but the point is that there is no such localized beam in nature that is intense enough,” Gonzalez-Garcia told physicsworld.com.

They hope to detect these few events at IceCube, the neutrino detector project at the South Pole.

It sounds daunting, but who knows.

Zz.

$1.5 Billion Space Experiment Could Be Grounded

I mentioned earlier the cancellation by NASA to bring the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer into orbit at the International Space Station. This is the latest news coverage on this.

It is too bad that the one project that could almost justify the building of the ISS is the one that is being canceled.

Zz.