2004-2005 Kellogg Seminar Schedule

Date Speaker

October 22 Dr. Michael Smy, UC Irvine
"Evidence for a Distorted Neutrino Spectrum from K2K"
The Super-Kamiokande detector observed charged-current interactions from a nu_mu beam with a mean energy of 1.3 GeV produced at KEK from a 12 GeV proton beam. The reconstructed neutrino spectrum shows the characteristic distortion expected from neutrino oscillations with similar neutrino mixing and mass squared difference as observed in the atmospheric neutrino flux.

October 29 Prof. Gaurang Yodh, UC Irvine
"TeV Astrophysics with Milagro"
High Energy gamma rays probe non-thermal, energetic acceleration processes in the Universe. High energy gamma ray emission occurs in a relatively small set of the most powerful objects. The conditions at these sources represent some of the most extreme places in the Universe, with high matter densities, enormous magnetic fields and acceleration of ultra-relativistic matter. Milagro is a unique new telescope, recently brought into full operation, to advance our knowledge of 100s of GeV to TeV gamma-ray sources, such as gamma-ray bursts, active galactic nuclei, pulsars and supernova remnants,as well as studying more esoteric objects such as evaporating black primordial black holes, topological defects and WIMP annihilations. Milagro is an all sky, water Cherenkov Air Shower Telescope which is sensitive to air showers generated by TeV gamma rays or cosmic rays impinging on the earth's atmosphere. It is the only continuously operating telescope for TeV showers which views the whole overhead sky. Recent results from Milagro will be presented.

November 5 Prof. Omar Benhar, INFN, University of Rome, La Sapienza
"Neutron star matter equation of state and gravitational wave emission"
The equation of state (EOS) of neutron star matter, i.e. the relation linking pressure to energy density, largely determines both the star equilibrium properties and the oscillation frequencies associated with gravitational wave (GW) emission. I will briefly review the present status of theoretical models of the EOS and discuss the results of recent calculations, suggesting that detection of GW emitted from neutron stars may provide valuable insight on the properties of strongly interacting matter at high density.

November 12 Prof. Fred E. Wietfeldt, Tulane University
"The Electron-Antineutrino Correlation in Neutron Beta Decay"
The decay of the free neutron is the simplest nuclear beta decay system and the prototype semileptonic weak decay. Precision measurements of neutron decay parameters such as the lifetime and angular correlations constrain fundamental parameters in weak interactions theory. These measurements may also provide hints of new physics such as right-handed weak currents, scalar and tensor currents, or new CP violation. This talk will focus on the electron-antineutrino angular correlation "a". An upcoming experiment, aCORN, will use a novel method to measure "a" to a precision of about 1% at the NIST Center for Neutron Research. The status and plans for aCORN will be discussed.

Special Seminar
November 19
11:00 a.m. Prof.. Jonathan Engel, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
"Nuclear Time-Reversal Violation and Atomic Electric Dipole Moments"
November 19 Prof. Wick Haxton, University of Washington, Institute for Nuclear Theory
"Underground Laboratory"
December 10 Prof. Zheng-Tian, Lu, Fermi Institute and Dept. of Physics, University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory
"Helium: Probing the Exotic and Searching for the Strange"
Although Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) has been firmly established as the fundamental theory of the strong interaction, it is still technically not possible to calculate the structure of simple nuclei based on QCD. This insufficient understanding offers experimenters the opportunity to participate in the development of nuclear structure models and the possibility of discovering new structure. In this talk, I will discuss two experiments based on laser spectroscopy of helium atoms: 1) We have determined the charge radius of 6He (t1/2 = 0.8 s) nucleus by performing laser spectroscopy on individual 6He atoms confined in an atom trap. The result helps reveal the structure of this neutron-rich nucleus and constrain models of three-nucleon force. 2) We have searched for stable, helium-like strangelets in the Earth's atmosphere. The null results set stringent upper limits on the abundance of such anomalous particles.
Reference:
"Laser spectroscopic determination of the 6He nuclear charge radius", L-B. Wang et al., Physical Review Letters 93, 142501 (2004)
"Search for anomalously heavy isotopes of helium in the Earth's atmosphere", P. Mueller et al., Physical Review Letters 92, 022501 (2004)

Special Seminar
Wednesday, January 5
12:15 p.m. Dan-Olof Riska, Helsinki Institute of Physics, University of Helsinki
"Deformation and seaquarks in the baryon wave functions"
Special Seminar
Thursday, January 6
2:00 p.m. Keh-Fei Liu, University of Kentucky
"Recent Lattice QCD Results on Finite Density and Mesoniums"
January 7
Prof. Bira van Kolck, University of Arizona
"Charge-Symmetry Breaking in QCD and Pion Production"
Charge-symmetry-breaking (CSB) observables are interesting because they can depend linearly on the poorly-known up-down quark mass difference, in addition to the fine-structure constant. The nucleon mass difference, for example, has quark-mass and electromagnetic components, which we would like to disentangle. I will show how CSB can be addressed in nuclear physics through an effective theory of QCD, and argue that the two components of the nucleon mass difference can be separated in pion production. I will then describe recent theoretical and experimental developments for two such reactions, $pn \to d\pi^0$ (measured at TRIUMF) and $dd \to \alpha\pi^0$ (measured at IUCF).

Special Seminar
Monday, January 10
2:00 p.m.
Prof. Gerry Brown, SUNY at Stony Brook
"The Problem of Mass in QCD; Meson Bound States at RHIC above Tc"
January 14 Dr. Dmitri Semikoz, UCLA
"Neutrinos in the Early Universe"
January 21 Dr. Gerry Garvey, LANL
"Current Status of MiniBooNE"
January 28 Martin Savage, University of Washington
"Nuclear Physics and Lattice QCD"
February 4 Prof. Hans Hammer, University of Washington
"Universality in Few-Body Physics: from Nuclei to Cold Atoms"
Effective Field Theory (EFT) provides a powerful framework that exploits a separation of scales in physical systems. Few-body systems with large scattering length show many universal properties such as a logarithmic spectrum of shallow three-body bound states (so-called Efimov states) and discrete scale invariance. I will discuss an EFT for such systems and give an overview of applications ranging from light nuclei to cold atoms. The possibility of an infrared limit cycle in QCD and exotic bound states in two spatial dimensions will also be addressed.

February 11 Stefano Profumo, Florida State University
"Split Supersymmetry and Dark Matter"
February 18 Prof. Kenneth Hicks, Ohio University
"Evidence for the Pentaquark: A New Type of Quark-Matter"
February 25 Dr. Michael Ramsey-Musolf, CIT
"Resonant Relaxation in Electroweak Baryogenesis"
March 4 Prof. Wolfgang Lorenzon, University of Michigan
"SNAP: SuperNova Acceleration Probe"
March 11 Prof. Huan Z. Huang, UCLA
"Is There a Theta++ State?"
The theta+ pentaquark state has been the focus of experimental and theoretical investigations recently. I will report on result of experimental searches for a theta++ state through p+K decays at RHIC using the STAR detector. Implications of our result and future experimental effort will be discussed. The production of a dense partonic matter and its subsequent rapid hadronization at RHIC provide a unique environment for possible exotic particle formation.

March 18 Prof. Richard Furnstahl, Ohio State
"Density Functional Theory with Effective Field Theory"
April 8 Prof. Gerald Miller, University of Washington
"Shapes of the Proton"

Recent Jefferson Laboratory studies of electron-proton scattering revealed a startling feature that the ratio of the proton electric to magnetic form factor falls with increasing momentum transfer. Our relativistic three-quark model of the proton wave function had been used previously to predict this and other crucial aspects of the data. The inclusion of pion cloud effects defines the Light Front Cloudy Bag Model which obtains a simultaneous description of all four nucleon electromagnetic form factors. More recently, this model nucleon wave function was used to study the shape of the proton. Spin-dependent quark densities are defined as matrix elements of density operators in proton states of definite spin-polarization, and shown to have an infinite variety of non-spherical shapes. For high momentum quarks with spin parallel to that of the proton, the shape resembles that of a peanut. For quarks with anti-parallel spin, the shape is that of a bagel. The latest work finds that the results of lattice QCD can be reproduced using the LFCBM by letting its parameters be analytic functions of the quark mass.

April 22 Prof. Hamish Robertson, University of Washington
"The KATRIN Experiment"
April 29 Dr. Jon Link, Columbia University
"Searching for Reactor Neutrino Oscillations at Braidwood"
I will discuss the proposed experiment to search for the neutrino mixing parameter $\sin22\theta_{13}$ in the electron anti-neutrino flux of the Braidwood Nuclear reactors. The talk will focus on the ongoing research and development into the experimental design and analysis methods required to make a precision measurement of the mixing angle at the 0.01 level. The main issues involve the relative calibration of near and far detectors and the amelioration of backgrounds.

May 6 Erich Ormand, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
"Towards a First Principles Descriptions of Atomic Nuclei"
A long-standing goal of nuclear theorists has been to come to a fundamental understanding of the nucleus. By this, I mean starting from the basic inter-nucleon interaction, can we build complex nuclei, and arrive at a description that agrees with our experimental observations. While this may seem like a simple concept, it has alluded the nuclear physics community for the last fifty years. But, now because of new ideas and recent advances in high-performance computing this goal is now beginning to be viable for nuclei up to around oxygen. I will outline the No-core Shell Model, which has become one of two methods to reach our goal of a first-principles description of nuclei. The No-core Shell Model is an ab initio application of the shell model utilizing effective interaction theory. I will show that the nucleon-nucleon interaction by itself not only fails to reproduce the binding energy of nuclei, but also substantially fails to describe the structure of low-lying nuclear states. This is clear and compelling evidence that three-nucleon (and maybe four-nucleon) interactions are a critical ingredient to describe nuclear structure. In addition to structure, it is also possible to extend the No-core Shell Model to dynamic properties of nuclei, namely there reactions. I will show preliminary attempts to use the high-quality structure results of the No-core Shell Model to compute S-factors for reactions important in astrophysics. I will conclude by outlining a research program for the future that will lead to improved descriptions of heavy nuclei, and an accurate description of clustering phenomena, and hopefully the famous triple-alpha and 12C+alpha reactions.

May 13 Prof. Martin Golterman, San Francisco State University
"Lattice QCD swith domain_wall fermions"
Special Seminar
Wednesday, May 18
1:30 p.m.
Chris Crawford, MIT
A Precision Measurement of $G_E^p/G_M^p$ at BLAST
We have measured $G_E^p/G_M^p$ at $Q^2$ = 0.1--0.9 (GeV/c)$^2$ in the South Hall Ring of the MIT-Bates Linear Accelerator Facility. This experiment used a polarized electron beam, a pure hydrogen internal polarized target, and the symmetric Bates Large Acceptance Spectrometer Toroid (BLAST) detector. By measuring the spin-dependent elastic $\vec H(\vec e, e'p)$ asymmetry in both sectors simultaneously, we could extract the form factor ratio independent of beam and target polarization. This was the first experiment to measure $G_E^p/G_M^p$ using a polarized target, which is complementary to recoil polarimetry experiments. Preliminary results are presented.

May 20 Dr. Dru Renner, University of Arizona
"Generalized Parton Distributions from Lattice QCD"
Generalized parton distributions determine the angular momentum decomposition of the nucleon and the transverse distribution of partons within the nucleon. Additionally, in particular limits they reduce to form factors and ordinary parton distributions. I will review generalized parton distributions and present our lattice QCD calculations of moments of generalized parton distributions. In particular I will examine the transverse distribution of quarks within the nucleon and, time permitting, I will show an exploratory calculation of the nucleon axial coupling using lattice chiral fermions.

Special Seminar
Wednesday, May 25
1:30 p.m Vitaliy Ziskin, MIT
"Polarized Electron Scattering from the Vector/Tensor Polarized Deuterium Gas Target at BLAST"
"The Bates Large Acceptance Spectrometer Toroid (BLAST) experiment at MIT-Bates Linear Accelerator Laboratory is designed to study in a systematic manner the spin-dependent electromagnetic interaction in a few-nucleon systems at four-momentum transfers below 1 (GeV/c)^{2}. The combination of a polarized electron beam, a highly vector/tensor polarized deuterium target and a large acceptance detector allows for the simultaneous measurements of the polarization observables in several reaction channels. The BLAST experiment is currently in phase II run period. The experimental details are discussed with the emphasis on Atomic Beam Source (ABS) operation in a strong external magnetic field. Some preliminary results from phase I run period are presented."

Special Seminar
Wednesday, June 1
12:15 p.m. Prof. Jiong Qiu, Big Bear Solar Observatory, New Jersey Institute of Technology and CIT
Observing the Magnetic Driver of Energy Release on the Sun
The sun is an active star that produces many energetic events in terms of heating the plasmas, accelerating charged particles as well as neutral mass. These events are fueled by free magnetic energy, which is the excess energy between the current or force free magnetic fields and the more complicated non-potential magnetic fields. The most spectacular solar energetic events take place on time scales of a few minutes to a few hours, releasing 10$^{22-32}$ erg energy. This can happen through the efficient physical mechanism, magnetic reconnection. This talk discusses observational signatures of magnetic reconnection and recent progress in studying the role of magnetic reconnection in large-scale solar eruptions.

June 3 Dr. Gary Prezeau, JPL
"The Planck mission and the CMB"

Date	Speaker
October 22	Dr. Michael Smy, UC Irvine "Evidence for a Distorted Neutrino Spectrum from K2K" The Super-Kamiokande detector observed charged-current interactions from a nu_mu beam with a mean energy of 1.3 GeV produced at KEK from a 12 GeV proton beam. The reconstructed neutrino spectrum shows the characteristic distortion expected from neutrino oscillations with similar neutrino mixing and mass squared difference as observed in the atmospheric neutrino flux.
October 29	Prof. Gaurang Yodh, UC Irvine "TeV Astrophysics with Milagro" High Energy gamma rays probe non-thermal, energetic acceleration processes in the Universe. High energy gamma ray emission occurs in a relatively small set of the most powerful objects. The conditions at these sources represent some of the most extreme places in the Universe, with high matter densities, enormous magnetic fields and acceleration of ultra-relativistic matter. Milagro is a unique new telescope, recently brought into full operation, to advance our knowledge of 100s of GeV to TeV gamma-ray sources, such as gamma-ray bursts, active galactic nuclei, pulsars and supernova remnants,as well as studying more esoteric objects such as evaporating black primordial black holes, topological defects and WIMP annihilations. Milagro is an all sky, water Cherenkov Air Shower Telescope which is sensitive to air showers generated by TeV gamma rays or cosmic rays impinging on the earth's atmosphere. It is the only continuously operating telescope for TeV showers which views the whole overhead sky. Recent results from Milagro will be presented.
November 5	Prof. Omar Benhar, INFN, University of Rome, La Sapienza "Neutron star matter equation of state and gravitational wave emission" The equation of state (EOS) of neutron star matter, i.e. the relation linking pressure to energy density, largely determines both the star equilibrium properties and the oscillation frequencies associated with gravitational wave (GW) emission. I will briefly review the present status of theoretical models of the EOS and discuss the results of recent calculations, suggesting that detection of GW emitted from neutron stars may provide valuable insight on the properties of strongly interacting matter at high density.
November 12	Prof. Fred E. Wietfeldt, Tulane University "The Electron-Antineutrino Correlation in Neutron Beta Decay" The decay of the free neutron is the simplest nuclear beta decay system and the prototype semileptonic weak decay. Precision measurements of neutron decay parameters such as the lifetime and angular correlations constrain fundamental parameters in weak interactions theory. These measurements may also provide hints of new physics such as right-handed weak currents, scalar and tensor currents, or new CP violation. This talk will focus on the electron-antineutrino angular correlation "a". An upcoming experiment, aCORN, will use a novel method to measure "a" to a precision of about 1% at the NIST Center for Neutron Research. The status and plans for aCORN will be discussed.
Special Seminar November 19 11:00 a.m.	Prof.. Jonathan Engel, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill "Nuclear Time-Reversal Violation and Atomic Electric Dipole Moments"
November 19	Prof. Wick Haxton, University of Washington, Institute for Nuclear Theory "Underground Laboratory"
December 10	Prof. Zheng-Tian, Lu, Fermi Institute and Dept. of Physics, University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory "Helium: Probing the Exotic and Searching for the Strange" Although Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) has been firmly established as the fundamental theory of the strong interaction, it is still technically not possible to calculate the structure of simple nuclei based on QCD. This insufficient understanding offers experimenters the opportunity to participate in the development of nuclear structure models and the possibility of discovering new structure. In this talk, I will discuss two experiments based on laser spectroscopy of helium atoms: 1) We have determined the charge radius of 6He (t1/2 = 0.8 s) nucleus by performing laser spectroscopy on individual 6He atoms confined in an atom trap. The result helps reveal the structure of this neutron-rich nucleus and constrain models of three-nucleon force. 2) We have searched for stable, helium-like strangelets in the Earth's atmosphere. The null results set stringent upper limits on the abundance of such anomalous particles. Reference: "Laser spectroscopic determination of the 6He nuclear charge radius", L-B. Wang et al., Physical Review Letters 93, 142501 (2004) "Search for anomalously heavy isotopes of helium in the Earth's atmosphere", P. Mueller et al., Physical Review Letters 92, 022501 (2004)
Special Seminar Wednesday, January 5 12:15 p.m.	Dan-Olof Riska, Helsinki Institute of Physics, University of Helsinki "Deformation and seaquarks in the baryon wave functions"
Special Seminar Thursday, January 6 2:00 p.m.	Keh-Fei Liu, University of Kentucky "Recent Lattice QCD Results on Finite Density and Mesoniums"
January 7	Prof. Bira van Kolck, University of Arizona "Charge-Symmetry Breaking in QCD and Pion Production" Charge-symmetry-breaking (CSB) observables are interesting because they can depend linearly on the poorly-known up-down quark mass difference, in addition to the fine-structure constant. The nucleon mass difference, for example, has quark-mass and electromagnetic components, which we would like to disentangle. I will show how CSB can be addressed in nuclear physics through an effective theory of QCD, and argue that the two components of the nucleon mass difference can be separated in pion production. I will then describe recent theoretical and experimental developments for two such reactions, $pn \to d\pi^0$ (measured at TRIUMF) and $dd \to \alpha\pi^0$ (measured at IUCF).
Special Seminar Monday, January 10 2:00 p.m.	Prof. Gerry Brown, SUNY at Stony Brook "The Problem of Mass in QCD; Meson Bound States at RHIC above Tc"
January 14	Dr. Dmitri Semikoz, UCLA "Neutrinos in the Early Universe"
January 21	Dr. Gerry Garvey, LANL "Current Status of MiniBooNE"
January 28	Martin Savage, University of Washington "Nuclear Physics and Lattice QCD"
February 4	Prof. Hans Hammer, University of Washington "Universality in Few-Body Physics: from Nuclei to Cold Atoms" Effective Field Theory (EFT) provides a powerful framework that exploits a separation of scales in physical systems. Few-body systems with large scattering length show many universal properties such as a logarithmic spectrum of shallow three-body bound states (so-called Efimov states) and discrete scale invariance. I will discuss an EFT for such systems and give an overview of applications ranging from light nuclei to cold atoms. The possibility of an infrared limit cycle in QCD and exotic bound states in two spatial dimensions will also be addressed.
February 11	Stefano Profumo, Florida State University "Split Supersymmetry and Dark Matter"
February 18	Prof. Kenneth Hicks, Ohio University "Evidence for the Pentaquark: A New Type of Quark-Matter"
February 25	Dr. Michael Ramsey-Musolf, CIT "Resonant Relaxation in Electroweak Baryogenesis"
March 4	Prof. Wolfgang Lorenzon, University of Michigan "SNAP: SuperNova Acceleration Probe"
March 11	Prof. Huan Z. Huang, UCLA "Is There a Theta++ State?" The theta+ pentaquark state has been the focus of experimental and theoretical investigations recently. I will report on result of experimental searches for a theta++ state through p+K decays at RHIC using the STAR detector. Implications of our result and future experimental effort will be discussed. The production of a dense partonic matter and its subsequent rapid hadronization at RHIC provide a unique environment for possible exotic particle formation.
March 18	Prof. Richard Furnstahl, Ohio State "Density Functional Theory with Effective Field Theory"
April 8	Prof. Gerald Miller, University of Washington "Shapes of the Proton" Recent Jefferson Laboratory studies of electron-proton scattering revealed a startling feature that the ratio of the proton electric to magnetic form factor falls with increasing momentum transfer. Our relativistic three-quark model of the proton wave function had been used previously to predict this and other crucial aspects of the data. The inclusion of pion cloud effects defines the Light Front Cloudy Bag Model which obtains a simultaneous description of all four nucleon electromagnetic form factors. More recently, this model nucleon wave function was used to study the shape of the proton. Spin-dependent quark densities are defined as matrix elements of density operators in proton states of definite spin-polarization, and shown to have an infinite variety of non-spherical shapes. For high momentum quarks with spin parallel to that of the proton, the shape resembles that of a peanut. For quarks with anti-parallel spin, the shape is that of a bagel. The latest work finds that the results of lattice QCD can be reproduced using the LFCBM by letting its parameters be analytic functions of the quark mass.
April 22	Prof. Hamish Robertson, University of Washington "The KATRIN Experiment"
April 29	Dr. Jon Link, Columbia University "Searching for Reactor Neutrino Oscillations at Braidwood" I will discuss the proposed experiment to search for the neutrino mixing parameter $\sin22\theta_{13}$ in the electron anti-neutrino flux of the Braidwood Nuclear reactors. The talk will focus on the ongoing research and development into the experimental design and analysis methods required to make a precision measurement of the mixing angle at the 0.01 level. The main issues involve the relative calibration of near and far detectors and the amelioration of backgrounds.
May 6	Erich Ormand, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory "Towards a First Principles Descriptions of Atomic Nuclei" A long-standing goal of nuclear theorists has been to come to a fundamental understanding of the nucleus. By this, I mean starting from the basic inter-nucleon interaction, can we build complex nuclei, and arrive at a description that agrees with our experimental observations. While this may seem like a simple concept, it has alluded the nuclear physics community for the last fifty years. But, now because of new ideas and recent advances in high-performance computing this goal is now beginning to be viable for nuclei up to around oxygen. I will outline the No-core Shell Model, which has become one of two methods to reach our goal of a first-principles description of nuclei. The No-core Shell Model is an ab initio application of the shell model utilizing effective interaction theory. I will show that the nucleon-nucleon interaction by itself not only fails to reproduce the binding energy of nuclei, but also substantially fails to describe the structure of low-lying nuclear states. This is clear and compelling evidence that three-nucleon (and maybe four-nucleon) interactions are a critical ingredient to describe nuclear structure. In addition to structure, it is also possible to extend the No-core Shell Model to dynamic properties of nuclei, namely there reactions. I will show preliminary attempts to use the high-quality structure results of the No-core Shell Model to compute S-factors for reactions important in astrophysics. I will conclude by outlining a research program for the future that will lead to improved descriptions of heavy nuclei, and an accurate description of clustering phenomena, and hopefully the famous triple-alpha and 12C+alpha reactions.
May 13	Prof. Martin Golterman, San Francisco State University "Lattice QCD swith domain_wall fermions"
Special Seminar Wednesday, May 18 1:30 p.m.	Chris Crawford, MIT A Precision Measurement of $G_E^p/G_M^p$ at BLAST We have measured $G_E^p/G_M^p$ at $Q^2$ = 0.1--0.9 (GeV/c)$^2$ in the South Hall Ring of the MIT-Bates Linear Accelerator Facility. This experiment used a polarized electron beam, a pure hydrogen internal polarized target, and the symmetric Bates Large Acceptance Spectrometer Toroid (BLAST) detector. By measuring the spin-dependent elastic $\vec H(\vec e, e'p)$ asymmetry in both sectors simultaneously, we could extract the form factor ratio independent of beam and target polarization. This was the first experiment to measure $G_E^p/G_M^p$ using a polarized target, which is complementary to recoil polarimetry experiments. Preliminary results are presented.
May 20	Dr. Dru Renner, University of Arizona "Generalized Parton Distributions from Lattice QCD" Generalized parton distributions determine the angular momentum decomposition of the nucleon and the transverse distribution of partons within the nucleon. Additionally, in particular limits they reduce to form factors and ordinary parton distributions. I will review generalized parton distributions and present our lattice QCD calculations of moments of generalized parton distributions. In particular I will examine the transverse distribution of quarks within the nucleon and, time permitting, I will show an exploratory calculation of the nucleon axial coupling using lattice chiral fermions.
Special Seminar Wednesday, May 25 1:30 p.m	Vitaliy Ziskin, MIT "Polarized Electron Scattering from the Vector/Tensor Polarized Deuterium Gas Target at BLAST" "The Bates Large Acceptance Spectrometer Toroid (BLAST) experiment at MIT-Bates Linear Accelerator Laboratory is designed to study in a systematic manner the spin-dependent electromagnetic interaction in a few-nucleon systems at four-momentum transfers below 1 (GeV/c)^{2}. The combination of a polarized electron beam, a highly vector/tensor polarized deuterium target and a large acceptance detector allows for the simultaneous measurements of the polarization observables in several reaction channels. The BLAST experiment is currently in phase II run period. The experimental details are discussed with the emphasis on Atomic Beam Source (ABS) operation in a strong external magnetic field. Some preliminary results from phase I run period are presented."
Special Seminar Wednesday, June 1 12:15 p.m.	Prof. Jiong Qiu, Big Bear Solar Observatory, New Jersey Institute of Technology and CIT Observing the Magnetic Driver of Energy Release on the Sun The sun is an active star that produces many energetic events in terms of heating the plasmas, accelerating charged particles as well as neutral mass. These events are fueled by free magnetic energy, which is the excess energy between the current or force free magnetic fields and the more complicated non-potential magnetic fields. The most spectacular solar energetic events take place on time scales of a few minutes to a few hours, releasing 10$^{22-32}$ erg energy. This can happen through the efficient physical mechanism, magnetic reconnection. This talk discusses observational signatures of magnetic reconnection and recent progress in studying the role of magnetic reconnection in large-scale solar eruptions.
June 3	Dr. Gary Prezeau, JPL "The Planck mission and the CMB"

Seminars for 10/2001-5/2002
Seminars for 9/2002-5/2003
Seminars for 10/2003-5/2004

Leona Kershaw, 31 May 2005