Numerical and Relativity Data Analysis 2008 Conference

The past several years have seen tremendous advances in the fields of gravitational-wave physics and numerical relativity. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) has recorded one year of coincident data from three detectors operating at design sensitivity. While this data is being analyzed for the first gravitational waves to be seen, upgrades to improve detector sensitivity by a factor of two and, ultimately, ten are underway. Numerical relativists have simulated black hole binaries through 15 orbits, merger and ringdown. Simulations have been performed with spinning black holes and binaries of unequal mass ratios, providing a wealth of astrophysical information. Simulations of neutron star binaries and black holes tearing apart neutron stars are being performed, opening a window on new physics.

Today, we are poised to study two of the most dramatic predictions of Einstein’s theory of general relativity: gravitational waves and black holes. As we prepare to enter the age of gravitational-wave astronomy, it is crucial to strengthen the collaboration between the scientists analyzing data from gravitational-wave detectors and those studying the strong field phenomena our detectors will observe. The Numerical Relativity and Data Analysis 2008 (NRDA 2008) conference is intended to bring together scientists form these fields, and to continue to strengthen the interactions developed at conferences such as the NRDA 2006 conference (1) and the Interplay between Numerical Relativity and Data Analysis miniprogram
held at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (2).

The focus of the NRDA 2008 conference will be gravitational-wave science of binaries consisting of compact objects (black holes and neutron stars) in ground-based gravitational wave detectors. Topics that will be covered include: black hole simulations, searches for gravitational waves from bursts, compact binaries and ringdowns, simulations of neutron star-black hole and double neutron star binaries, errors, calibration and accuracies in detection and parameter estimation, comparison of post-Newtonian theory with results from results from numerical relativity and a summary of the status of the Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project (3).

The NRDA 2008 program consists of a mixture of longer invited talks and shorter contributed talks. Time is allocated for break-out discussion sessions in the afternoon. The conference is being organized by six member committee: three scientists with expertise in numerical relativity and three with expertise in gravitational-wave data analysis. The National Science Foundation has awarded Syracuse University $5000 to help fund the travel costs of graduate students attending the conference.

Syracuse University has a long history in the search for gravitational-waves. Prof. Peter Saulson, who joined the SU faculty in 1991, has been a member of the team developing the LIGO detectors for over 25 years. The Syracuse University Gravitational Wave Group (4) has recently expanded with the hiring of Assistant Professor Duncan Brown. Brown’s
research is in gravitational-wave astrophysics and analysis of LIGO data for binary black hole signals. Brown and his collegues on the scientific organizing committee developed the idea for the NRDA 2008 conference at the January KITP workshop and Brown offered to host the meeting at Syracuse University.

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(1) http://www.lsc-group.phys.uwm.edu/events/nrda
(2) http://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/activities/auto/?id=944
(3) http://www.gravity.phy.syr.edu/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=ninja:home
(4) http://www.gravity.phy.syr.edu

The American Physical Society Committee on Informing the Public, Gianfranco Vidali being one of its members, oversees APS¹s media relations and reviews and assesses public outreach activities. In the words of APS Associate Officer Alan Chodos "A public well-informed about physics and related science is essential for the well-being both of the physics profession and society at large." The committee is shown here at its latest meeting at
the American Museum of Natural History in New York City (May 2008) (Photo from APS News, Vol. 17, No.7 July 2008).

Single-molecule biophysics studies at Syracuse University are highlighted by VerticalNews (Atlanta, GA)

Recent research performed by Movileanu's group, which is at the interface of nanotechnology, and biological and soft condensed matter physics, was featured by VerticalNews from Atlanta, Georgia . VerticalNews publishes the largest weekly database of current news, research, and reports.

The Astronaut Foundation has awarded Avi Hameroff, a Syracuse University physics major, the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation Scholarship for 2008-2009.  This is a prestigious honor for one of our very best and most deserving students. As part of this award, it is planned that an astronaut will be joining us on campus in the fall to give a public lecture and present the award.  This presentation will be coordinated through the Soling Program.

Single-molecule detection of proteins using nanopores decorated with electrostatic traps

Research in single-molecule detection of proteins recently performed by Dr. Mohammad Mohammad in Prof . Liviu Movileanu's group was highlighted in a feature article of the American Chemical Society, " Threading proteins through a nanopore needle. Electrostatic traps control single-molecule interactions in a model pore system."

Five women among the new Physics PhDs marching at 2008 Commencement

Seven of our graduate students were awarded their PhD in Physics at the 2008 Commencement. From left to right: Rob Salgado (advisor: Rafael Sorkin), Bety Rodriguez-Milla (advisor: Alan Middleton), Homin Shin (advisor: Mark Bowick), Taviare Hawkins (advisor: Ed Lipson), Aphrodite Ahmadi (advisor: Cristina Marchetti), Weining Wang (advisor: Eric Schiff), Hongwei Ye (advisor: Ed Lipson). At the far right is Ganesh Srivastavan, who obtained a PhD in Electrical Engineering working under the supervision of physics professor Ken Foster. Homin Shin also received a Doctoral Dissertation Award from the Graduate School .

Six other students completed the requirements for their doctorate in Physics but did not participate in Commencement: Hachemi Benaoum (advisor: Paul Souder), Shabana Nisar (advisor: Steve Blusk), Babar Qureshi (advisor: Balachandran), Renata Jora (advisor: Joe Schechter), Alessandra Silvestri (advisor: Mark Trodden), and Nasra Sultana (advisor: Tomasz Skwarnicki).

Gavin Hartnett awarded 2008 Goldwater Scholarship

On March 28, it was announced that Physics major Gavin Hartnett had been awarded one of the 2008 Goldwater Scholarships. This scholarship, awarded in a rigorous national competition, will pay up to $7,500 of Gavin's expenses during his senior year. In addition to his coursework as a Physics major and Honors Program student, Gavin has performed research in cosmology with Prof. Mark Trodden and in the gravitational wave detection lab of Prof. Peter Saulson. He is currently carrying out research for his Honors Capstone project with Profs. Mark Bowick and Cristina Marchetti.

VERTEX 2007 , the meeting recently hosted in Lake Placid by the  Syracuse University high-energy physics experimental group, was featured in the Jan 21, 2008 issue of  CERN Courier .

Profs. Marina Artuso and Tomasz Skwarnicki have been selected to receive the "Chancellor's Citation for Faculty Excellence and Scholarly Distinction" in 2008.

Citing from the letter: This award reflects the thoughtful, determined, and sustained efforts of individual faculty to enrich the experience of students, our institution and community, and to make important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in their academic disciplines .

Marina and Tomasz were cited jointly for their work on the CLEO experiment and RICH project. They will be honored at an awards banquet to be held on March 17, 2008.

Peter Saulson Appointed First Martin A. Pomerantz '37 Professor of Physics

Thanks to the generosity of the family of Martin A. Pomerantz, Dean Cathryn Newton has established the Martin A. Pomerantz, '37 Professorship in Physics and the Molly B. Pomerantz Fellowship in Physics. Physics Professor Peter Saulson will be the first holder of the Chair.

Prof. Saulson is a distinguished scientist, who has been a member of the team developing the LIGO interferometer for the detection of gravitational waves, since he began a postdoc at MIT in 1981. He came to Syracuse in 1991, where his group of graduate students and postdocs have made important contributions to technology for Advanced LIGO and to the analysis of data from LIGO. In 1994, he published the only textbook on interferometric gravitational wave detectors. From 2003 to 2007 he served as the Spokesperson of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. Prof. Saulson is also a popular teacher at all levels and was the Syracuse University Scholar-Teacher of the Year in 2003.

Martin Pomerantz has been a leader in developing Antarctic astronomy. He obtained an AB in physics from Syracuse University in 1937, an MS from the University of Pennsylvania in 1938 and a Ph.D. in Physics from Temple University in 1951. He served as Director of the Bartol Research Institute from 1959 - 1985. Wh en the astronomical observatory at the United States Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station was opened in 1995, it was named the Martin A. Pomerantz Observatory (MAPO) in his honor. Pomerantz published his scientific autobiography, Astronomy on Ice , in 2004. In 1970 Pomerantz received a Centennial Medal from Syracuse University . He has received honorary doctorates from Swarthmore College , University of Uppsala , University of Delaware , and Syracuse University .

Martin Pomerantz was featured in our latest newsletter Physics Matters http://phy.syr.edu/PhysicsMatters/Volume2/Volume%202.pdf

A wonderful article on Martin Pomerantz can also be found on Wikipedia (the article was contributed by Eric Schiff). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_A._Pomerantz

Surface Analysis Facility

The ability to characterize and manipulate surfaces down to the nanoscale is crucial for many scientific disciplines. A new Major Research Instrumentation grant from the National Science Foundation has enabled the acquisition of state-of-the-art equipment for building a surface analysis facility in the Physics Department at Syracuse University for analyzing surfaces with multiple techniques over a wide range of length scales. The proposal was submitted by Profs. Britton Plourde and Gianfranco Vidali (Physics) and Profs. Tewodros Asefa and Karin Ruhlandt-Senge (Chemistry). The development of novel thin-film superconducting devices, the synthesis of various nanomaterials, the study of new precursor molecules for chemical vapor deposition of perovskite materials, and the investigation of molecule formation on simulated interstellar dust grains are only a few of the active areas of research on campus that will benefit from this new facility. An atomic force microscope (AFM), capable of multiple imaging modes in several different environments with the highest possible resolution, has been ordered from Pacific Nanotechnology with installation planned for mid-January 2008. A surface profilometer with three-dimensional scanning capabilities has been purchased from KLA-Tencor for imaging samples with larger surface features and wider areas than is possible with the AFM. These two instruments will join a scanning electron microscope (SEM) from JEOL, recently acquired by the Physics Department. In addition, the facility will have multiple optical microscopy techniques and image analysis software available.

Prof. Sheldon Stone was elected to serve as CLEO experiments' Co-Spokesperson for the 2007-2008 academic year.

Prof. Liviu Movileanu receives NSF award

Prof. Liviu Movileanu has been awarded a NSF award by the Division of Materials Research through the new Biomaterials Initiative . Dr. Movileanu's award will fund interdisciplinary research at the interface of single-molecule biophysics with molecular engineering. The central objective of this work will be targeting new methodologies for the detection and exploration of biomolecules at high temporal and spatial resolutions using nanopores.

5th NY Complex Matter Workshop

The Physics Department hosted the 5th NY Complex Matter Workshop on December 14, 2007. About 70 researchers from the Upstate New York area participated. The Workshop was started in 2005 to promote collaborations and exchanges among researchers working in condensed matter physics  in the upstate New York area. 

16th International Workshop on Vertex Detectors

The Departments' High Energy Physics Experimental group ran the 16th International Workshop on Vertex Detectors at Lake Placid, NY during Sept. 23-28, 2007. Profs. Artuso and Stone were the co-chairs. The purpose of this annual meeting to review progress on Silicon based Vertex detectors with emphasis on existing and future detectors, new materials, software, alignment, electronics, triggering, 3D devices, monolithic structures, new developments, and applications to medical and other fields. Over 70 physicists participated. One response we received said:

"I'd like to thank you again for carrying forward the flame for the VERTEX conference with a superbly arranged edition which was very much enjoyed by me and everyone I spoke to.
It really seemed to go like clock work, the timing and content of the talks and the discussion was perfect, and the location was spectacular. It was really quite a treat to be able to go and eat dinner in a new and awesome location every day, with no
3 hour group coach rides involved. It was an amazing conference and I can imagine a lot of hard work lay behind."

Prof. Jen Schwarz Receives NSF CAREER Award

Prof. Jen Schwarz has been awarded a CAREER award, NSF's most prestigious and competitive award for young faculty members. Schwarz's award will fund research on the jamming transition and correlated percolation.  Jamming occurs in condensed matter systems, such as glasses, granular materials and colloids,  as well as  in traffic models.

For full citation, see http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0645373

THE DEPARTMENT WELCOMES NEW FACULTY MEMBERS

Dr. Duncan Brown earned his Ph.D. in 2004 from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He played a major role in LIGO's search for gravitational wave (GW) signals from the inspiral and merger of compact binaries (neutron stars and/or black holes). A native of England, Duncan received his Master of Mathematics with First Class Honors from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne. His was a Postdoctoral Scholar in Physics at LIGO Laboratory and Theroretical Astrophysics and Relativity Group at Caltech.

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Dr. Richard Schnee received his Ph.D. from University of California, Santa Cruz in 1996. Before joining SU he was a Visiting Assistant Professor in Case Western Reserve Physics Department. He continues his research and his work as coordinator on the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS), which aims to observe and identify the mysterious "dark matter" that makes up ~25% of the universe (the matter we know, in physics, is only about 5%.)