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Physics & Astronomy Spring Picnic
Mark your calendars. The date of the spring picnic has been set for Friday, May 21 at the Hill of Oaks. Juniors willing to help with the picnic are needed. Please email Mary (mdrew) if you are willing to help. RSVP for the picnic at https://apps.carleton.edu/curricular/physics/events/picnic_rsvp/ by May 14.
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Sophomore Welcome
April 22 (Thursday) 4:00-5:00pm, Olin 2nd Floor Lounge
The department would like to welcome all the new majors with a root beer float party in the second floor lounge. All 23 of the new sophomore majors are invited!
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Physics Table with Rik Gran
April 23 (Friday) noon-1-pm, LDC/’51 Dining Room
Join PHYS 123 speaker Rik Gran, physics students, faculty and staff for lunch at the LDC. You can meet us on third Olin for the short walk over or you can meet us there. -
Student Work in the Physics & Astronomy Department Next Year
The Physics & Astronomy Department relies heavily on our students to serve as laboratory assistants, graders, tutors, and technical assistants in support of our academic program. We strongly believe that such activities provide important benefits to you beyond the obvious monetary compensation. Seniors and recent grads will tell you that a lot of good solid learning occurs, and new insights develop. You can, and should, cite this experience in future employment or grad school applications, just as we will cite it in formulating supporting letters for you.
It is time to arrange these job positions for next year. All students who would like to work in the Department should fill out an application found here. Applications must be received by April 20, 2010.
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PHYS 123 Speaker Rik Gran
April 23 (Friday) 1:10-2:10pm, LDC 104
The neutrino is the second most common particle in the Universe (after photons), by far more numerous that electrons, protons, and neutrons, yet it’s the least understood and most curious of the particles we know about. The MINOS experiment at the Soudan Underground Lab, and the NOvA experiment, under construction at Ash River, MN, are the current and the next generation of long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. In his talk, Rik will demonstrate what neutrino flavor oscillation is, why neutrino “flavor” oscillation is even more curious than the flavor oscillation observed for other particles (!), that the apparent neutrino mass itself is curious on the femtoscopic scale of particle physics, and might also speak to the apparent matter-antimatter asymmetry in the
Universe on the cosmological scale. He will develop these topics in a context that highlights how a neutrino oscillation experiment works and what particle physics experimentalists do to accomplish such experiments.
