Physics at Arizona
 The Physics Department has productive
research areas spanning from quarks to the
cosmos
Physics at Arizona
 AMO (Atomic, molecular, and optical physics)
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Using atom waves and ultrafast lasers to study atomic and molecular
phenomena
 Applied Physics
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Leading solar panel research and development at TEP
 Astrophysics
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Understanding the physics of black holes and neutron stars
 Biophysics
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Building molecular motors to do mechanical work
 Chemical Physics
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Cross-disciplinary research at the interface of physics and chemistry
 Condensed matter
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Investigating molecular electronics, spintronics, nanomaterials and
unconventional superconductors
 Nuclear physics
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Predicting properties of quark-gluon plasma and developing new
theoretical approaches to the nuclear force
 Particle physics
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Searching for Higgs bosons and dark matter candidates at the LHC
UA Physics News
Arizona Daily Star March 14 2009
Hunting the Higgs Boson
UA gives 'God particle' hunt more than a prayer
The hunt for a mysterious subatomic fragment nicknamed the "God
particle" is heating up, due in part to the work of a UA scientist.
Physicists say finding the theoretical particle — called the Higgs boson — is
a critical step toward understanding nothing short of how matter exists in
the universe.
"It's the missing piece of the puzzle," said Erich Varnes, a University of
Arizona associate professor of physics.
New York Times February 24 2009
The Formation of Red Tide
OBSERVATORY
Behind Red Tides, the Swimming and Shape of Plankton
Just how those plankton layers form has
been unclear. Now in a paper in Science,
William M. Durham and Roman Stocker
of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and John O. Kessler of the
University of Arizona have shown that
plankton’s swimming and shape play a
role.
CERN Courier February 23 2009
Compact Particle Accelerators
Rapid advances in high-intensity laser technology are closing in on
the technological breakthrough of a compact particle accelerator,
and with it a new means to study the structure of the vacuum.
Gérard Mourou, Johann Rafelski (University of Arizona) and
Toshiki Tajima explain.
Arizona Daily Star March 1 2009
Carbon Dating at the AMS Lab
Statue's age a surprise
St. Augustine Cathedral crucifix could date to A.D. 1155
Timothy Jull, a professor of
geosciences and physics, tested the
textile by using what's called radiocarbon
dating.
The process entails extracting carbon from
the sample by burning it to get carbon
dioxide. Then the carbon dioxide is
converted into graphite, and its radiocarbon
content is measured.
"The crucifix is made of some plaster
material on textile, so we sampled the
textile," Jull wrote in an e-mail. The results:
The statue is 95 percent likely to have been
crafted between A.D. 1155 and A.D. 1389.
Physics Today February 2009
Preparing High School Physics Teachers
By taking on a significant part of the education of high
school physics teachers, physics departments in the US
can inspire their students and help insure a scientifically
educated population
Program at UA
led by Ingrid
Novodvorsky
World-wide press September 10 2008
ATLAS at the LHC
UA research at the LHC aligns with many Grand Challenges
Applied Physics
Research at the TEP Solar Test Yard
Physics faculty and students study
the performance of grid-tied
photovoltaic (PV) systems
Collaboration with Optical Sciences
UA Scientists Discover Quantum Mechanical
'Hurricanes' Form Spontaneously
University of Arizona scientists experimenting
with some of the coldest gases in the
universe have discovered that when atoms in
the gas get cold enough, they can
spontaneously spin up into what might be
described as quantum mechanical twisters or
hurricanes.
Brian Anderson of UA Optical Sciences
and Physics - Nature 455, 948 (2008)
Collaboration with LPL
Only Solar Systems with Jupiters
May Harbor Life, UA Scientist Says
Jupiter-like planets flinging Marssized objects toward their sun-like
stars would deliver the water
needed for carbon-based
terrestrial life, said Professor
Jonathan I. Lunine of the
Lunar and Planetary
Laboratory, chair of the UA
Theoretical Astrophysics
Program.
Collaboration with Astronomy
Milky Way black Hole May Be A Colossal Particle Accelerator
For the last several years, Melia has been
developing a theory of what may be going
on very close to the Milky Way's black hole.
Melia and his group find that powerful,
chaotic magnetic fields accelerate protons
and other particles near the black hole to
extremely high energies.
Fulvio Melia of UA Astronomy and
Physics
Collaboration with Astronomy
Taking movies of the universe with the Large Synoptic Survey
Telescope (LSST)
The LSST will image an area of the sky 50
times that of the full moon every 15 s for a
ten year period! The result will be a 3D
map of the universe of unprecedented
depth and detail. We will use weak lensing
techniques in order to test models of dark
energy and even gravitation itself.
Elliott Cheu and Ken Johns of UA
Physics and Phil Pinto of Astronomy
Collaboration with Chemistry
Chemical physics – Stepping into the future
The new program in Chemical Physics
explores exciting interdisciplinary research
at the boundary of physics and chemistry.
The encompassing fields are wide ranging:
from Nanoscience to Astrochemistry to
Biological Physics.
Alex Cronin, Brian Leroy, Srin Manne
Sumit Mazumdar, Arvinder Sandhu,
Charles Stafford, and Koen Visscher of
UA Physics
Recent Faculty Honors in Research
 Sean Fleming
Department of Energy OJI Award
 Don Huffman
 Regents Professor, HP Europhysics Prize and other awards
 Brian Leroy
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NSF CAREER Grant
 Fulvio Melia
Galileo Circle Scholar
 Pierre Meystre
 Regents Professor
 Sumit Mazumdar
 Henry and Phyllis Koffler Research and Scholarship Prize
 Arvinder Sandhu
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NSF CAREER Grant
 Bira van Kolck
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Department of Energy OJI Award and Sloan Fellowship
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Recent Faculty Honors in Research
 NSF CAREER for Brian  NSF CAREER for
Leroy
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For investigation of
electron transport in
carbon nanostructures
using scanning probe
microscopy
Arvinder Sandhu
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For investigation of
attosecond dynamics
in atoms and
molecules using
XUV+IR spectroscopy
Recent Faculty Honors in Teaching
 Physics Department
University Teaching Award for Meritorious Departmental
Achievement in Instruction
Bill Bickel
 University Distinguished Professor and COS Distinguished
Advising Award
Elliott Cheu
 COS Innovation in Teaching and COS Advising Awards
 Leon and Pauline Blitzer Award
Alex Cronin
 Henry and Phyllis Koffler Teaching Prize (and other
university teaching awards)
Keith Dienes
 University Distinguished Early Career Teaching Award
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Recent Faculty Honors in Teaching
 Doug Donahue
COS Career in Distinguished Teaching Award
J.D. Garcia
 COS Distinguished Achievement in Science Education
K.C. Hsieh
 El Paso Energy Foundation Faculty Achievement Award
Don Huffman
 COS Career Distinguished Teaching Award and El Paso
Energy Foundation Faculty Achievement Award
Srin Manne
 COS Distinguished Teaching Award
Ingrid Novodvorsky
 DOEd Modeling Instruction Program citation
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