Special Events

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PHYSICS HAUNTED LAB

From ghosts that appear when you wave a wand to a magic flying bat—there are plenty of reasons for every one of all ages to attend this free event!

When: October 28-30, 5pm-8pm

Where: Creighton University, Rigge Science Building, G16

Fun for all ages!

Dr. Daniel Stern

Highlights from the NuSTAR Satellite

NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, launched in June 2012, and is the first telescope in orbit to focus high energy X-ray light.  High energy X-ray light provides a unique probe of the most energetic phenomena in the universe, from flares on the surface of the Sun, to the explosions of stars, to the extreme environments around neutron stars and black holes.  NuSTAR has discovered new classes of objects, such as neutron stars accreting at prodigious rates, and has provided uniquely robust measurements of how fast black holes are spinning.  Compared to the previous generation of non-focusing observatories working in this energy band, NuSTAR's change in technology provides 10x sharper images and 100x greater sensitivity.  This talk will present some of the highlights from the NuSTAR mission and describe how they are changing our picture of the extreme universe.

A live stream of the event will be available at http://livestream.com/CreightonUniversity/NuSTAR.

Abstract: The research presented in this thesis was carried out with the ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) detector at the CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) LHC (Large Hadron Collider). Two feasibility studies are conducted for Run 2 energies at the LHC. The first case studies the photo-production process of the ηc meson decaying to a four particle final state, π⁺π^-K⁺K^- in Pb-Pb ultra-peripheral collisions (UPCs).

Dr. Steve Rolston
Professor & Co-Director
Joint Quantum Institute
Dept. of Physics, University of Maryland

Where is My Quantum Computer?

Twenty years ago mathematician Peter Shor proved that a computer based on the laws of quantum mechanics could in principle factor large numbers in polynomial time, a problem believed to be exponentially difficult for classical computation.  Given the importance of this problem to modern cryptography, it understandably stimulated a great deal of excitement and effort.  Dozens of candidate systems have been proposed and many worked on, but we are still many years away from a machine that threatens our financial transactions.  In this talk I will highlight the challenges to build large, controllable systems that maintain their quantum character, and look at where we are, where we will be going, and what we have learned along the way.

42nd Annual Physics Field Day

Presented by Creighton University’s Society of Physics Students
Saturday, March 28, 2015 Condensed Matter
Registration starts at 7:30, events start at 8:00 a.m.

You are invited to the Creighton University Physics Department’s Physics Field Day 2015! On Saturday, March 28, you and your team of high school physics students will duke it out with other local high schools for the title of “Field Day Champion.” This year’s theme is “Condensed Matter,” where we will explore physical principles that we encounter on a daily basis—though perhaps we do not think about them explicitly.

If you have any questions, please email SPS President, Katherine Bauer (KatherineBauer@creighton.edu) and she will get back to you as soon possible. Additional details and updates on Physics Field Day can always be found online at:
http://physicsweb.creighton.edu/content/field-day-hall-fame

More details on the events are also available in the 2015 Physics Field Day Rule Book

Our annual department retreat will be February 19-20th at the Carol Joy Holling Retreat Center.

Why Isn't God Ambidextrous?

Dr. Tim Gay, Department of Physics, University of Nebraska – Lincoln

Thursday, January 29nd, 2015: 4:00 p.m., Hixon-Lied Science Building, 244

Until 1957, scientists thought that the fundamental laws of Nature must be the same whether they were applied to our Universe or the Universe that is a mirror reflection of our own.  The implications of the discovery that this is not true - essentially that Nature is "handed" - will be discussed.  Some interesting applications of handedness, or "chirality"  in agriculture, biology, chemistry, and physics will be presented.  I will also talk about some new physics experiments on chirality that may shed light on how life began on this planet.

Dr. Gay’s group is interested in polarized electron physics. Their work involves studies of polarized electrons scattering from atomic and chiral molecular targets, the development of novel sources of polarized electrons and electron polarimeters, and investigations of the fundamental nature of the electron.

Evidence from multiple indirect measurements implies that 80% of the mass in the universe is dark, non-baryonic and hence is composed of a new type of undiscovered particles.  I will describe why Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are the most popular candidate for the dark matter and describe how WIMPs would interact in a detector.  I will then describe a leading experiment attempting to directly detect WIMP interactions, the Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (SuperCDMS) and present results.

Dr. Sander is interested in finding evidence of new physics. Towards that end, he is a primary investigator on the SuperCDMS collaboration looking to directly detect dark matter. He is also working on developing new detection techniques for the next generation of rare event searches.