Seminar schedule for 2007-2008
1
Seminar schedule for 2007-2008
Joint Department of Physics and University Group for Astronomical
Sciences Seminar
The University Group for Astronomical Sciences and the Department of Physics
will be organizing a seminar dedicated to the Sun on Thursday, 22nd May, 2008 at
18:00 in Room 216 (1st floor) in the Mathematics and Physics building at the
University of Malta. The details are found below:
Seminar about the Sun
Date: Thursday, 22nd May 2008
Time: 18:00|
Place: Room 216 in Mathematics and Physics building)
18:00 - 18:20 Talk by Mr. Norman Rogers, “The Solar Section of the British
Astronomical Association”
18:20 - 18:40 Talk by Professor Frank Ventura, “SOHO- everybody's solar
observatory in space”
18:40 - 19:00 Talk by Mr. Leonard Ellul Mercer, “Solar Journey”, an audiovisual
animation on the sun
Abstracts for the seminar session
Title: “The Solar Section of the British Astronomical
Association (BAA)”
By Mr Norman Rogers
Abstract: The Solar Section of the BAA provides valuable information related to the
various observation modes available to record solar activity and appearance. Among
these are naked eye observation by special filters, observations in the H alpha line to
view prominences, filaments and flares, Calcium (K) line observations of active solar
features and also radio observations. The BAA also encourages the sharing and
publication of these observations.
Biography: Norman Rogers, who hails from Middlesex, UK, is now in his 70's and
has been a long time active member of the BAA. Most of his solar observations are
carried out using a 4" refractor telescope. He is also a regular visitor to Malta.
Department of Physics
University of Malta
Seminar schedule for 2007-2008
2
Title: “SOHO- everybody's solar observatory in space.”
By Professor Frank Ventura
Abstract: The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is a joint project between
the European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) to study the sun from its deep core to the outer corona and
the solar wind using 12 instrument packages. SOHO was launched in space in
December 1995. Although it was expected to last only two years, the project has been
extended and is still providing valuable data. Some of the data can be accessed freely
on-line. The talk will show how interested members can use the observations to
pursue specific interests in solar activity.
Biography: Frank Ventura has been making observations and recording sunspot
activity since 1978. He has contributed observations to the Solar Section of the British
Astronomical Association (BAA) in London, UK and to the Sunspot Influence Data
Centre (SIDC) in Bruxelles, Belgium. He has published three papers on the quality of
sunspot activity in the Journal of the British Astronomical Association.
Title: “Solar Journey”
By Mr. Leonard Ellul Mercerrs
Abstract: The presentation will involve an animation which has been created from
original, still images. The animation begins at the outer reaches of the solar system
and the Kuiper Belt and takes the viewer on an inbound journey visiting Pluto,
Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Earth, Venus and Mercury until finally
reaching the sun. Here, the viewer will be regaled with the November 8, 2006
Mercury transit, solar prominences and a total solar eclipse. The animation concludes
with a sequence showing the death of a sun- like star and the formation of a planetary
nebula within our galaxy. The screen score "Chariots of fire" by Vangelis has been
synchronized with the animation.
Biography: Leonard Ellul Mercer is an amateur astronomer specializing in
astrophotography using his own dome observatory, computerized telescopes, latest
CCD's and photographic equipment. In the last 3 years, he presented three TV weekly
series on Channel 22 (Education Channel) dealing with astronomy in general and
astrophotography. Currently, he is co-producing and presenting a 6 part astronomy
series entitled Inharsu l-fuq (Looking Up) and being aired during the programme
22PM on Tuesdays (fortnightly) between 5.30- 6.30pm (repetition at 10.30pm) on the
same channel. During these last three years, he has also given a number of talks
accompanied by animated presentations of astro-images he captured.
Department of Physics
University of Malta
Seminar schedule for 2007-2008
3
Influence of Cross-correlation of Rough Boundaries on
Reflectance of Thin Films
By Professor Frantisek Vizda
From the University of Defence
Date: Wednesday, 14th May 2008
Time: 14:30
Place: Room 101 in the Mathematics and Physics building
Abstract: Multilayer systems with rough boundaries are often encountered in
practice. One important reason for existence of this defect is the residual roughness of
substrates on which the multilayer systems are deposited. With the technological
procedures employed in the microelectronics, optics and semiconductor industries, the
rms value of the heights of the irregularities of the boundary roughness is usually in
the range from several nanometres to several tens of nanometres. In this presentation
the reflectance of thin films with correlated randomly rough boundaries is analyzed.
The theoretical approach is based on the scalar theory of diffraction of light. This
analysis demonstrates that the reflectance depends not only on the rms values of the
heights of the irregularities of the boundary roughness but it also depends on values of
cross-correlation coefficients between the rough boundaries. The magnitude of
boundary roughness and cross-correlation between the rough boundaries depends on
the technological procedures of creating thin film systems. By means of interpreting
the reflectance measured the values of the optical and roughness parameters can be
determined. It will also be demonstrated.
Biography: Frantisek Vizda is an associated professor at the Department of
Mathematics and Physics (Faculty of Military Technology), University of Defence in
Brno (Czech Republic). He obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Masaryk University
(Brno, Czech Republic). His object of research lies in optics of thin films and surface
metrology. He is author or co-author of more than 50 publications.
Department of Physics
University of Malta
Seminar schedule for 2007-2008
4
Public Seminar hosted by the Physics Department
In view of the forthcoming discussion with CERN concerning the possible inclusion
of Malta in this organisation, the Department of Physics of the University of Malta
has invited Dr Raphael Galea, a Maltese-Canadian Particle Physicist working at
Columbia University, to discuss the issue and to offer advice. During his stay, Dr
Galea has kindly offered to give a public talk entitled "The Elusive Neutrino" on
Wednesday 7th May 2008. The details are given below:
The Elusive Neutrino
By Dr Raphael Galea
Of the Columbia University
Date: Wednesday, 7th April 2008
Time: 18:30
Place: Room 401 in Mathematics and Physics building
Abstract: The number of neutrinos far exceeds the count of all the atoms in the entire
Universe. Although they hardly interact at all, they are crucial for physics at all scales;
from the nucleus to the cosmos. They may in fact be the reason why we exist at all.
Neutrinos sparked interest when initial measurements of these particles coming from
our Sun were surprising. An anomaly, dubbed the 'Solar Neutrino Deficit Problem',
took over forty years of experimental measurements to resolve. Yet over 99% of the
solar neutrino flux, those coming from proton-proton fusion reactions in the Sun, still
have not been detected in real-time.
The talk will introduce the neutrino and describe the experimental efforts in its study
throughout history. An outline will be given of a novel neutrino detector which is
being developed to measure the lowest energy solar neutrinos. This tracking detector
will use cryogenic fluids, and the properties of 'electron bubbles' to detect these
notoriously weakly interacting particles.
Biography: Dr. Raphael Galea is a Maltese/Canadian Particle Physicist. He received
his Ph.D. in Experimental High Energy Physics from the University of Toronto in
2000, with his thesis "A Search for R parity violating supersymmetric particles at
HERA using the ZEUS Detector" (DESY-THESIS-2001-015). During his graduate
years, he contributed to the operation of the ZEUS Detector at the Deutsches Elektron
Synchrotron in Hamburg, Germany. As a post-doctoral fellow he worked at Columbia
University, in New York and then as a visiting scientist at the Max-Planck-Institute in
Munich, Germany, on accelerator physics. In 2005 he returned to Columbia
University, where he is an Associate Research Scientist and has a lead role in the
Research and Development of Novel Cryogenic Tracking Detectors at Brookhaven
National Laboratory on Long Island, NY. He has published extensively in his field.
His latest publication is "Charge Transmission through liquid neon and helium
surfaces", Journal of Instrumentation, Volume 2, P04007, 2007.
Department of Physics
University of Malta
Seminar schedule for 2007-2008
5
Joint Physics and Mathematics department seminar session
The Departments of Physics and Mathematics will be organising a joint seminar
session on the 30th of April 2008. The first speaker will be Professor Domingos
Moreira Cardoso, from the University of Aveiro (Portugal). Professor Cardoso, who
will be visiting the Department of Mathematics, will speak on "Posets, Matching and
Partial Colouring". The second speaker will be Mr Matthew Agius from the
University of Malta who will be talking about "Digital Seismic Recording in Malta 13 years on." The program is as follows:
Date: Wednesday, 30th April 2008
Place: Room 216 in Mathematics and Physics building
14:00 - 15:00 Talk by Professor Domingos Moreira Cardoso, "Posets, Matching and
Partial Colouring"
15:00 - 15:20 Refreshments
15:20 - 16:20 Talk by Mr Matthew Agius, "Digital Seismic Recording in Malta - 13
years on"
Abstracts for the seminar session
Title of first talk: “Posets, Matching and Partial
Colouring”
By Professor Domingos Moreira Cardoso
University of Aveiro, Portugal
Abstract: A partial vertex proper coloring of a graph is a mathematical model for the
popular Sudoku puzzle. There are nice relations between posets and graphs. For
instance, it is well known that a poset may be represented by a Hasse diagram. The
partition of a poset into chains, modelling several practical problems, can be obtained
by solving the maximum matching problem of a particular bipartite graph. The
number of ways of completing a partial coloring can be obtained by using a special
chromatic polynomial which may be determined from a particular poset. Algorithms
for solving these types of problems are presented and a few challenges are proposed.
Department of Physics
University of Malta
Seminar schedule for 2007-2008
6
Title of second Talk: “Digital Seismic Recording in Malta - 13 years
on”
By Mr Matthew Agius
University of Malta
Abstract: During the last 20 years, advances in computer technology have brought
about a rapid change in the way data is collected, stored, processed, exchanged and
presented in most scientific fields. The challenge to acquire and process near real-time
seismic data has forced seismic institutes to upgrade their stations with state-of-the-art
broadband sensors, digitizers and GPS systems connected through the Internet.
Moreover, after the disastrous December 2004 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami, there
has been a general impetus among the seismological community to improve the
rapidity with which large events are evaluated and the information disseminated, with
the aim of implementing regional and international Tsunami Early Warning Systems.
For the last 13 years the Seismic Monitoring Unit within the Physics Department has
been responsible for keeping up with this progress and has contributed to the
international community by the sharing of data and manual locations of local
earthquakes. In particular, the Unit is now a real-time contributor to the Virtual
European Broadband Seismic Network (VEBSN). In the last two years the unit has
developed an automated way to locate earthquakes using three-component wave
polarization analysis at a single station (Wied Dalam, WDD) and in recent months
this was enhanced further with the launch of a website. Several web services have
been included such as: real-time plots, event view (seismogram and analysis), event
information editing page, On Demand Analysis (including mobile phone access),
Google Maps for mapping of earthquake locations, macro seismic questionnaire and
multi-station location tool.
Department of Physics
University of Malta
Seminar schedule for 2007-2008
7
SCISEM seminar hosted by the Physics Department
The MATCH Project - PAH and ETS urinary
biomarkers
By Mr Noel Aquilina
University of Malta
Date: Wednesday, 23rd April 2008
Time: 15:00
Place: Room 216 in Mathematics and Physics building
Abstract: In the MATCH Project funded by the Health Effects Institute (HEI), USA
and carried out by the University of Birmingham, UK (2004-2007), the overall aim
was to quantify the magnitude and range of individual exposures to a range of air
toxics and develop models for exposure prediction based upon time/activity diaries.
One specific goal of the research was to determine the exposure-response
relationships of urinary biomarkers with the corresponding air toxic in environmental
exposures.
Tobacco smoking is a well known source of various air toxic groups like Volatile
Organic Compounds (VOC) and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH), all of
which are defined as carcinogens or potentially carcinogenic. In recent years many
methods have been developed to determine a "surrogate marker" for PAH exposure,
namely 1-Hydroxypyrene in urine.
In this talk, using data from a non-smoking group, we will try to correlate the urinary
biomarkers of Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) exposure with the gas phase
markers of ETS, 1,3-butadiene and also with the high molecular weight PAH. The
suitability of these biomarkers will be discussed in light of the airborne concentrations
of the parent compounds from various sources.
Department of Physics
University of Malta
Seminar schedule for 2007-2008
8
The Higgs Boson
By Mr Alan Tua
University of Malta
Date: Wednesday, 9th April 2008
Time: 15:00
Place: Room 216 in Mathematics and Physics building
Abstract: The Higgs boson, first theorised by British physicist Peter Higgs in the
1960s, is the main science incentive behind the construction of the Large Hadron
Collider (LHC) soon to go online in Geneva. The LHC is the largest international
science collaboration ever, with a budget of several billion euros and thousands of
physicists, engineers and computing specialists from over 80 countries working on an
unrivalled project in terms of magnitude, cost and promise. What is the Higgs boson
and why is it worth the financial and intellectual effort being spent to find it?
In this talk we will look at what the Higgs boson is and why it is essential to the
Standard Model, the basis of modern particle physics. We examine the current
experimental status and possible production and decay channels for the Higgs. Finally
we look at some examples of the analysis of simulated particle physics data from the
Tevatron, the LHC's predecessor, relevant to the Higgs boson.
This presentation was first given at a PPARC International Undergraduate Summer
School on Astronomy and Particle Physics held at the University of Sheffield in July
2007.
Department of Physics
University of Malta
Seminar schedule for 2007-2008
9
Presentation of the Final Year Projects and Short
Reviews Papers
The fourth year B.Sc. students doing their final year projects in the Physics
Department and those doing a Short Review Paper will be presenting their work on
the 1st and 2nd of April 2008. The schedule is given below:
Presentation of B.Sc.(Hons.) Final Year Projects
Date: Tuesday, 1st April 2008
Time: 8:00 to 11:00
Place: Room 216 in Mathematics and Physics building
List of talks:

The transmission to and from a Remote Data Logger by Mr Cassola Alexande

The Suppression of Multiples in Marine Seismic Reflection Data - A review of
processing algorithms by Ms De Gaetano Denise

Comparison of calibration methods for a background trace gas carbon
monoxide monitor by Mr Galea Anthony

An automated Fourier transform spectrometer by Mr Herrera Edward

Electromagnetic fields in the environment by Ms Talbot Amy
Presentation of Short Reviews Papers
Date: Wednesday, 2nd April 2008
Time: 8:00 to 15:00
Place: Room 216 in Mathematics and Physics building
List of talks:

Carbon reservoirs and the global carbon cycle by Ms A Galea

Formation and composition of the Earth's atmosphere by Mr Herrera Edward

The role of nitrogen oxides in the Earth's atmosphere by Mr Sciortino
Matthew

The quantum Hall effect by Mr Bonanno George

Organic semiconductors by Mr Cassola Alexander

Magnetoresistivity by Mr Mifsud Clinton

Superconductivity: Theory and applications by Mr Schembri Nicholas

Amorphous silicon: properties and applications by Mr Sultana John
Department of Physics
University of Malta
Seminar schedule for 2007-2008
10

The significance of gamma ray burst observation by satellite by Ms Azzopardi
Shari-Marja

Theories on the origin of the Universe by Ms D'Amato Kristian

The early universe: The large Hadron Collider at CERN by Ms Gatt Victoria

Microwave aquametry by Ms Abdilla Lourdes

Electromagnetic fields in the environment by Ms Talbot Amy

The Messinian salinity crisis by Ms Aquilina Elizabeth

Terrestrial impact craters by Ms De Gaetano Denise

The geomagnetic dynamo by Ms Farrugia Stephanie
Department of Physics
University of Malta
Seminar schedule for 2007-2008
11
Understanding the nuclei of galaxies
By Dr Victor P. Debattista
University of Central Lancashire
Date: Wednesday, 26th March 2008
Time: 18:00
Place: Room 216 in Mathematics and Physics building
Organisers: The Department of Physics and the University Group for Astronomical
Sciences
Abstract: Dr. Debattista will discuss the evolution of nuclei at the centres of galaxies
including the presence of supermassive black holes. He will describe his team's
discovery of a candidate dwarf galaxy with a supermassive black hole, namely VCC
128. Dr. Debattista's presentation will also feature a description of very recent results
on VCC 128 and will show how his team is employing state-of-the-art computer
simulations to understand the behaviour of galactic nuclei.
Biography: Dr. Victor Debattista is currently RCUK Fellow at the University of
Central Lancashire (Preston, UK) and before that he was a Brooks Fellow at the
University of Washington (Seattle, WA, USA). He obtained his PhD from Rutgers
University (New Jersey, USA) and underwent his post-doctoral work in Basel and
Zurich (Switzerland). His object of research lies in the formation and evolution of
galaxies which he studies through computer simulations, observations and modelling.
Understanding the formation of galaxies, the fundamental building blocks of the
universe, poses one of the most important problems in cosmology. Dr. Debattista has
currently authored 26 publications dealing with the formation and evolution of
galaxies.
Department of Physics
University of Malta
Seminar schedule for 2007-2008
12
COBE scientists awarded Nobel Prize in physics
Mr Raymond Zammit
Date: Wednesday, 27th February 2008
Time: 14.00
Place: Room 216 in Mathematics and Physics building
Abstract: The 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to George Smoot and John
C. Mather “For their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic
microwave background radiation”. This is the second time in less than 50 years that
the Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded for work related to the Cosmic
Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR). This highlights the importance that this
new ‘tool’ has in our studies of modern Cosmology.
The CMBR radiation had been originally predicted independently by George Gamow
and Robert Dicke about a decade before it was originally discovered in 1964 by
Penzias and Wilson. The discovery further convinced cosmologists that Gamow’s
‘Primeval Fireball’ theory (which was to be re-baptised as the ‘Big Bang’ Theory)
was a far better model that Fred Hoyle’s ‘Steady State’ theory.
The nearly perfect black body form of the CMBR spectrum (together with the redshift
of galaxies) indicates that our Universe has expanded from a very small size. Yet it is
the very small irregularities in this spectrum which have become the target of
cosmologists, as these ‘anisotropies’ may act as ‘seeds’ for galaxy formation. The
data acquired form the COBE satellite as well as by its successor (WMAP), is mainly
related to these anisotropies and it is due to the importance of these that the Nobel
Prize has been awarded to the COBE team.
Key words: Nobel Prize, Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, Black body
form, anisotropies, Big Bang, Steady State.
Department of Physics
University of Malta
Seminar schedule for 2007-2008
13
The Square Kilometre Array: A marriage between Science
and Engineering
By Dr Kristian Zarb Adami
University of Malta
Date: Wednesday, 19th December 2007
Time: 14.00
Place: Room 216 in Mathematics and Physics building
Abstract: The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is the next generation radio telescope
and promises to be the largest astronomical instrument for the next forty years. With
an operating frequency of 0.1-25 GHz and a collecting area of 1,000,000 m2, the SKA
will be 50 times more sensitive than the current telescopes. With its huge field-ofview it will be able to survey the sky more than 10,000 times faster than any existing
instrument. The SKA will be a machine that will transform the way we currently look
at the universe. It is being built by an international group representing more than 15
countries. Europe, the USA, Australia, China and South Africa are all part of this
global effort to build a cutting edge instrument for the 21st Century.
This symposium will highlight the key science drivers and engineering challenges of
this telescope. More importantly we will focus on the current SKA demonstrators
being built in Europe and around the world. The symposium will end with a
discussion of the possible contributions that the University of Malta could offer to
secure a central role within the SKA community.
Department of Physics
University of Malta