The scientists of the BARREL team sent their last balloon soaring toward the stratosphere over Sweden on Aug. 30, 2016, capping off four years of launches to study how electrons "rain" into Earth’s atmosphere near the North and South poles. Click here to read a NASA article that highlights the project.
News & Events
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Title: Controlling and Quantum World in Ultracold Atomic Spins (Video)
Abstract: The quantum information revolution has taught us that quantum mechanics is not a paler version of its classical counterpart, hindered by intrinsic uncertainty and random measurement outcomes. Au contraire! A machine whose operation takes full advantage of the laws of quantum...
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Title: Quantum Tunneling as a Computational Resource (Video)
Abstract: In this talk we address a question: whether quantum tunneling can be used as a computational resource in open-system quantum annealing (QA) approach to classical optimization. We show that Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations can efficiently predict the performance of the quantum annealing...
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Title: Testing Fundamental Physics by Ranging to the Moon (Video)
Abstract: Lunar Laser Ranging has enabled comprehensive, precision tests of gravity for nearly 50 years. I will discuss my work on the Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation (APOLLO), which achieves millimeter-precision measurements of the lunar...
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Title: Approaching the Glass Transition From Different Directions (Video)
Abstract: In recent years a significant amount of experimental work has appeared on glassy systems, both polymeric and small molecule. However, this rich explosion in data has not been met with a concomitant leap in fundamental understanding. We have...
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Title: Gamma-Ray Polarimetry as a Probe of the Central Engine of Gamma-Ray Bursts (Video)
Abstract: Discovered nearly forty years ago, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are brief, intense flashes of gamma-rays appearing randomly across the sky at a measurable rate of about once per day. Now known to originate at cosmological distances, they are the most luminous objects in the universe. It has been...
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Title: Physical Oceanography - Perspective, Fundamentals & Cool Stuff (Video)
Abstract: This presentation will begin by comparing progress in physical oceanography with that in particle physics, highlighting some of the aspects that make physical oceanography difficult to study. This will be followed with a brief introduction to the fundamental concepts in physical oceanography – done in...
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Title: Exoplanets: Under a Microscope, and Through a Wide-Field Lens (Video)
Abstract: The Solar System furnishes the most familiar planetary architecture: many planets, orbiting nearly coplanar to one another. We can examine the composition and atmospheres of the Solar System planets in detail, even occasionally in situ. Studies of planets orbiting other stars (exoplanets), in contrast, only...
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Title: Tying Knots in a Quantum Fluid (Video)
Abstract: Knots are familiar entities that appear at a captivating nexus of art, technology, mathematics,and science. Following a lengthy period of theoretical investigation and development, they have recently attracted great experimental interest in contexts ranging from knotted DNA and nanostructures to vortex knots in classical fluids. In this...
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Title: The Tonks-Girardeau Gas: Then, Now, and in the Future (Video)
Abstract: In this presentation, I will review the 55+ years of progress passed since Marvin Girardeau found, in 1960, a full nonperturbative solution for the quantum hard-core bosons, further extended to the finite strength interactions in 1963 by Lieb and Liniger. This discovery brought the multi-(all the way to infinite-)...
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