Upcoming Colloquia

May 12:
Zheng-Tian Lu, Argonne National Laboratory
Host: Blayne Heckel
Title: "Atom Traps, Krypton-81 and Saharan Water"
Abstract: Since radiocarbon dating was first demonstrated in 1949, the field of trace analyses of long-lived cosmogenic isotopes has seen steady growth in both analytical methods and applicable isotopes. The impact of such analyses has reached a wide range of scientific and technological areas. A new method, named Atom Trap Trace Analysis (ATTA), was developed by our group and used to analyze 81Kr (t1/2 = 2.3x10⁵ years, isotopic abundance ~ 1x10^–12) in environmental samples. In this method, individual 81Kr atoms are selectively captured and detected with a laser-based atom trap. 81Kr is produced by cosmic rays in the upper atmosphere. It is the ideal tracer for dating ice and groundwater in the age range of 10⁴–10⁶ years. As the first real-world application of ATTA, we have determined the mean residence time of the old groundwater in the Nubian Aquifer located underneath the Sahara Desert. Moreover, this method of capturing and probing atoms of rare isotopes is also applied to experiments that study exotic nuclear structure and test fundamental symmetries.

Special Colloquium, Wed. May 14:
Tom Shutt, Case Western University
Title: "LUX, and the race to detect WIMP dark matter"
Abstract: Overwhelming cosmological and astrophysical evidence suggests that the dominant mass in the universe is in the form of as-yet-unidentified dark matter. The most favored candidate for dark matter is weakly interacting particles (WIMPs), which are also a generic prediction in supersymmetry.  WIMPs in our galaxy can be measured by their interactions in detectors operated deep underground with backgrounds from radioactive and cosmic-rays  suppressed by some 10 orders of magnitude from ambient levels.  Recent advances in detectors based on liquified noble elements promise a radical increase in the sensitivity of these experiments, and will allow a nearly complete test of supersymmetric dark matter in the next decade. Such efforts are complementary to the LHC. The LUX experiment is a new, 300 kg liquid Xe-based experiment that will be operated in site of Ray Davis' original solar neutrino experiment in the Homestake mine in South Dakota.  This mine is also the site of the proposed DUSEL national underground laboratory.

Recent Department News

Hank Simons wins 2008 Distinguished Staff Award

KATRIN Neutrino Mass Project Receives DOE Support

AIP Top 10 Physics Stories for 2007

Weekly Seminar Schedule

Available Positions in the Department

Archived News Articles

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The key role played by Hendrik "Hank" Simons, the CENPA shop administrator, in the success of many of CENPA's experiments was recognized with a 2008 UW Distinguished Staff Award. Hank is an extraordinary instrument maker, an efficient and realistic scheduler, and a helpful and patient design consultant for faculty, students and staff.
Distinguished Staff Awards provide the University an opportunity to honor the extraordinary accomplishments of staff.
Nominees must exemplify extraordinary service and demonstrate the University of Washington values of integrity, diversity, excellence, collaboration, innovation and respect. Nearly 100 staff members were nominated across the campus for 2008 Awards.  From this group, five individuals or teams were selected for a $5,000 award, and each awardee will be recognized at the annual University of Washington Recognition Ceremony.

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The KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino mass project is a new, large-scale experiment on the beta decay of tritium with the goal of determining the mass of the neutrino with ten times the sensitivity of the best previous experiment (see http://www-ik.fzk.de/~katrin/index.html).  The ultimate sensitivity of the project is a mass of 0.2 eV, which will provide key information about the cosmological role of neutrinos in shaping the structure of the universe.  KATRIN is being constructed at the Forschungszentrum Karlruhe in Germany, and makes use of the tritium-handling facility built there for the ITER project.  Five nations including the US are collaborating.  The US Department of Energy Division of Nuclear Physics recently agreed to support the US role in KATRIN.  The UW and MIT are to receive a total of $2.6 M over 5 years to provide the focal-plane detector for the instrument, the data-acquisition system, and a number of special-purpose calibration systems.  The Project Manager for the US is Peter Doe, the US Spokesman is Hamish Robertson, and John Wilkerson leads the data-acquisition task.  All three are professors in the UW Physics Department and members of CENPA.

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The University of Washington has made two of the AIP top 10 physics stories for 2007. Single-top production seen first at D0 where the EPE group played a leading role; two of the three separate analyses were introduced and carried out by them. The other is the Gundlach et al. test of Newton’s second law.