Jay Lawrence Symposium Archive

Treasurer/Publisher of the American Physical Society and Professor Emeritus at Georgetown

Title:  APS Journals and the Challenge of Open Access (Video)

Abstract: The landscape of scientific publishing continues to shift rapidly, along dimensions including the move from print to electronic delivery; the number and geographical distribution of authors, readers, and subscribers; the financial models for supporting scientific publication; and the role of large commercial publishers. In particular, the emergence of the Internet as the primary channel for distribution of scientific literature, together with the pricing policies of some commercial publishers, have generated wide support for Open Access publication. I will illustrate these trends and issues in the context of the journals of the American Physical Society, and I will describe in detail the financial challenges to the goal of Open Access to all APS journals.

Vice Provost and Krieger Eisenhower Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins

Title: Particle Physics at the Dawn of the LHC Era (Video)

Abstract: The CERN Large Hadron Collider is up and running, and for particle physicists, the moment of truth is drawing near. In this talk I will describe the present state of particle physics, and discuss what the LHC discoveries might tell us about matter, energy, space, and time.

Senior Research Scientist, McDonald Observatory, U. Texas at Austin

Title: Strongly Magnetized Neutron Stars (Video)

Abstract: Neutron stars with emissions powered by slowing rotation (radio-pulsars) and accretion (X-ray binaries) have been known for more four decades, but only in the 1990's did astronomers realize that many neutron stars have observable emissions powered by magnetic field decay (magnetars). In this talk I will give a historical review of observations and theory of these stars, the most strongly magnetized objects known. In their manifestation as Soft Gamma Repeaters (SGRs), magnetars emit bright bursts and flares of gamma-rays and hard X-rays, including so-called Giant Flares, such as the flare of December 27, 2004, which was very briefly (0.2 sec) the most intense photon flux [erg cm^-2 s^-1] yet observed from any astronomical source other than the Sun, despite the fact that its source lay far across the Galaxy. As Anomalous X-Ray Pulsars (AXPs), magnetars emit rotationally modulated X-rays with typical periods ~ 10 s. Recently these two observational classes have begun to overlap and expand in interesting ways. I will briefly review a scenario for magnetar formation, and discuss some unusual micro-physics which becomes relevant at high densities and high magnetic field strengths, such as photon splitting and merging which occurs rapidly at B >> B_Q = 4.4 x 10^13 Gauss, when the Landau excitation energy exceeds the electron rest energy.

Project Leader, Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, NIST Gaithersburg

Title: Photons, Nanometers, and Nanoseconds: Optical Measurement of Nanoscale Dynamic (Video)

Abstract: The difficulty of observing nanoparticle dynamics with simultaneously high spatial and temporal resolution is a metrological problem of fundamental importance to the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology. In this talk, I will discuss progress and limitations in making in situ optical measurements of individual nanoparticles in liquids, emphasizing the fundamental roles of optical physics and Brownian motion in determining the space and time resolution. I will discuss recent breakthroughs in extending these through "super-resolution" optical imaging and the use of real-time feedback control to track and observe individual particles. The methods discussed here have applications in several fields including nanoparticle assembly and single-molecule biophysics.

Professor, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, Caltech 

Title: Bringing the High Energy Universe into Focus (Video)

Abstract: The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) is a space mission that will carry into orbit the first astronomical telescope capable of focusing high energy X-rays. Enabled by recent advances in technology, NuSTAR will provide a combination of sensitivity, imaging and energy resolving power a factor ten to one hundred times better than any previous mission that has operated in the high-energy X-ray band. I will describe the scientific goals of this new mission, which range from finding black holes, neutron stars and other exotic objects in our Galaxy and beyond, to understanding the mechanisms by which massive stars explode and create the elements. I will also describe the technical challenges that were overcome to realize this new observational capability. After being launched from under the wing of an airplane in the South Pacific, NuSTAR will begin its scientific observing program in 2012.

Physics Laboratory, NIST Gaithersburg and Professor Emeritus at U. Missouri

Title: Neutron Interferometry: Lessons in Experimental Quantum Mechanics (Video)

Abstract: The experimental observation of interference between coherently split, well-separated beams of matter waves, in this case neutron de Broglie waves, is now central to the overall fabric of physics. There have been more than 40 neutron interferometry experiments carried out over the last 35 years that impact fundamental physics. I will describe how the perfect silicon crystal neutron interferometer works, and discuss a few of the historic experiments; namely, gravitationally-induced quantum interference, observations of the phase shift of neutrons due to the Earth’s rotation (Sagnac effect), observation of the Scalar Aharonov-Bohm effect, and observation of the phase echo effect.