• Physics Table

    Hi, all–

    Stop by the Ground State for some pizza and social time on Tuesday, Feb 21st (tomorrow) at noon.  There will be some faculty on hand to talk to the students interested in attending this year’s APS April Meeting in Minneapolis.  (Make sure you’ve filled out the sign-up form for the conference so we get you registered!)

  • Visiting Professor Candidate talk

    This coming Thursday, Feb 23rd we will have a candidate for next year’s visiting position on campus to meet with faculty, staff, and students.  At noon in Anderson 036, they will give a talk about their research and then have time to chat with students.  Please come, have lunch on the department, hear their talk, and get to know them a bit!

  • Upcoming Comps presentations

    Josh Hanson-Kaplan
    Wednesday, February 22 2023
    3:10 pm in Olin 141

    Using the Higgs Portal to Detect Dark Matter

    The newfound ability to produce and detect the Higgs Boson in the Large Hadron Collider(LHC) has produced an incredible opportunity in the search for exotic particles, specifically, dark matter. Throughout this paper I will look to show why physicists have such a high degree of confidence in the existence of dark matter, what we expect from Higgs boson decays in the LHC, and how these decays may directly detect dark matter once and for all. In this process I will delve into the astrophysical impossibilities that imply that the standard model only accounts for 17% of the mass of the universe as well as briefly delving into a few other detection methods.

    Thomas Monson

    Friday, February 27 2023

    3:30 pm in Olin 141

    Energy Efficiency of Superconducting Maglev Transportation

    Public transportation in the United States has always been a step behind. The only options for long distance travel across the country are cars, Greyhound buses, or airplanes. All of these modes use up lots of energy and emit a lot of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Magnetic levitation technology may be one possible answer to the faults of interstate long distance travel. The Japanese maglev rail series L0 uses technology that makes trains cleaner, safer, and faster through the use of superconducting electromagnets and clever stabilization mechanisms. The MDoT plans to build a maglev line between Baltimore and Washington DC to kickstart the use of this technology in the United States. However, the project to build this line has faced a lot of resistance over the past six years of its development, due to its route cutting through important communities and a cost of 15 billion dollars. Many are understandably skeptical that the project will bring about enough economic benefits to offset the cost of its construction. So how can we start to quantify its benefits and drawbacks? I will take the route of calculating its energy efficiency to draw a direct comparison to car, bus, and airplane travel. I will discuss the technology of L0 superconducting maglev transportation, including the linear motor that propels it, the electric and magnetic forces behind its motion, and the role of superconducting magnets to produce the strong magnetic field that brings the technology together. 

    No talk

    Monday, February 27 2023

    8:30 am in Olin 141

     

    Elise’s talk has been rescheduled to Monday, March 6th

     

  • Annual Verbrugge Lecture

    This year’s Frank Verbrugge Memorial Lecture will take place on Tuesday, March 28th which is during week one of spring term.  Please add this event to your calendar NOW since you’ll only have one day of class in Spring before this talk happens.

    Dr. David Goldhaber-Gordon, Professor of Physics at Stanford University, will visit campus for a couple of days to visit courses, meet faculty, staff, and students, and give a public talk.  The lecture itself will be Tuesday evening at 7 pm in Olin 149.

    Talk title and abstract to come!

  • Interested in Summer research?

    Hi, all!  This is a last call to have you indicate interest in doing summer research with a Carleton faculty member.  If you’ve already filled out the form, you’re set.  If you’ve spoken with a faculty member only, please make sure you fill out the form.  Responses need to be in by Wednesday, Feb 22nd.

  • Spring Break OCS

    Stop by Leighton 236 on Thursday, 23 Feb, to hear about the Grand Canyon OCS trip for Spring Break 2024. This info session will be from 5p-6p.
    “…We will experience wilderness – see it, touch it, smell it, listen to it, and taste it – in one of the most remarkable corners of the earth, the Grand Canyon.” – George Vrtis
    We hope to see you there!

     

     

  • REU at Louisiana State

    The Center for Computation & Technology (CCT) will host a ten-week Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program where students work collaboratively on a wide variety of computational science projects. Each…

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