Some of our students and faculty from the Physics Department attended the CUPC 2023 held in Waterloo. It was a 4 day conference for students to present, learn and interact with other delegates from around the country and world renown keynote speakers.
Date
Friday November 24, 2023Location
STI AFusion energy has entered a second era of major investment worldwide. Spurred on by advances in technology, science, and computation, a flood of venture capital investment has accelerated the timescale for fusion system prototype deployment. How did we get here? This presentation will explore some of the motivations and progress that led to this moment in the field. I will also spend time discussing the role of academic groups in supporting a private ecosystem of VC-backed startups. Specifically, I will discuss some activities of my research group in supporting these next generation of fusion devices. We perform calculations to inform the design, assembly, and operation of these devices, employing reduced models of plasma physics and electromagnetism.
Timbits, coffee, tea will be served in STI A before the colloquium.
Date
Friday November 17, 2023Location
STI ADid you know that MRI machines in hospitals work without a power source, as the current in the magnet flows without any resistance – or that superconductors enable magnetic levitation trains going as fast as 600 km/h? These are only two examples of superconductivity, a phenomenon that was discovered more than 100 years ago out of pure curiosity. In this colloquium, I will start with a basic introduction to superconductivity before presenting how it is used in particle accelerators for radiofrequency cavities at TRIUMF and worldwide. The behaviour of superconductors under radiofrequency is distinctively different from the DC case, requiring a tailored research and development material science program, which I will present at the end of my talk.
Timbits, coffee, tea will be served in STI A before the colloquium
Date
Thursday November 9, 2023Location
CHE 117Prof. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is giving two talks at Queen’s University on November 9th. Originally from East L.A., Dr. Prescod-Weinstein is a graduate of Harvard College, University of California — Santa Cruz, and the University of Waterloo. She is an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of New Hampshire where she is a theorist in particle physics, cosmology, and astrophysics with an emphasis on dark matter. Her physics colloquium: “Cosmic Probes of the Dark Sector” will motivate the 2020’s focus on astrophysics and cosmology for determining what exactly dark matter is comprised of. Dr. Prescod-Weinstein’s talk will focus most especially on questions relating to large-scale structure and axion-like particle models, as well as on asymmetric dark matter in neutron stars as valuable exemplars of interesting work that is underway.
Date
Friday November 10, 2023Location
STI AThe ghostly neutrinos remain the only fundamental fermions whose masses are unknown. Neutrino flavor transformation measurements definitively demonstrate neutrinos have mass, breaching the Standard Model of Particle Physics, but cannot determine that mass scale. Searches capable of directly probing the neutrino mass now indicate neutrinos are at least six orders of magnitude lighter than the next fermion.
In this talk, I will review progress in the field of direct neutrino mass experiments. I will focus on advances by Project 8, an experimental concept based on the novel Cyclotron Radiation Emission Spectroscopy (CRES) technique. Project 8 has recently published its first measurement of the tritium beta spectral endpoint, enabling the first RF-based direct neutrino mass limit while demonstrating high precision spectroscopy. An R&D campaign is now underway to demonstrate scalability of the CRES technique and to develop the atomic tritium source required. Building on these successes, a next-generation experiment is envisioned with neutrino mass sensitivity down to 40 meV, covering the inverted mass ordering region.
Timbits, coffee, tea will be served in STI A before the colloquium.
Professor Park has been studying neutrino interactions for decades. She has been interviewed recently by the Gazette to answer questions like:
Today is Dark Matter Day. A global event that is held annually.
The Gazette has compiled some of their articles featuring our researchers from the Physics department and their involvement in pursuit of understanding the complex and enigmatic properties of dark matter that make up 85% of the universe. Check out the articles!
Date
Friday November 3, 2023Location
STI AThis talk will start with a basic introduction to machine learning to show how easy it is for anyone to get started using these tools. I will then discuss a few applications of machine learning. These range from our work to remove electronic noise in particle astrophysics experiments to pricing stock options and determining the deformation of a bouncing ping-pong ball. The talk will conclude with some thoughts, and hopefully some lively discussion, about the ethics of artificial intelligence and, more generally, training STEM students without including formal ethics training.
Timbits, coffee, tea will be served in STI A before the colloquium.
PhD Candidate
he/him
Graduate Students
Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy
Arts & Science
STI 356
A total solar eclipse happens when the Moon aligns precisely between the Sun and Earth, completely covering the face of the Sun and casting its shadow upon our planet. To see it, you have to be somewhere within a narrow path of totality, which Kingston happens to be on for the one occurring in April.
Queen's 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics