Physics Colloquium
Michigan Technological University
Thursday, March 6, 2014
at 4:00 pm in Room 139 Fisher
Metallic Nanoparticles Functionalized Boron Nitride Nanotubes for Tunneling Electronic and Plasmonic Applications
Boyi Hao
Advisor: Dr. Yoke Khin Yap
The 2007 research paper entitled “Physisorption of nucleobases on graphene: Density-functional calculations” has been cited 124 times. The work is from Phys. Rev. B 76, 033401 – published 2 July 2007, by S. Gowtham, Ralph H. Scheicher, Rajeev Ahuja, Ravindra Pandey, and Shashi P. Karna.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.76.033401
The research concerns first-principles investigation on the relative interaction strengths of the nucleobases with a graphene sheet. The study relates to how the base sequence of DNA can affect its interaction with carbon nanotubes, as observed experimentally.
2014 Graduate Research Colloquium
Memorial Union Building Ballroom
Wednesday, February 19th
Human Impact (A2)
Timing Sunsets with Smartphones: Proof of Concept for a Citizen Science Project that Quantifies the Atmosphere and Supports Astronomical Observations – Teresa Wilson, Physics
Measurement Techniques and Analysis Methodology (A3)
Minimum Principles in Electromagnetic Scattering by Small Aspherical Particles – Ajaree Mongkolsittisilp, Physics
Thursday, February 20th
12:00 PM – 2:00 PM: Measurement Techniques and Analysis Methodologies (B1)
12:00 PM – 12:20 PM: Electric Field Manipulation of Magnetoresistance in a Single Molecular Spin-Valve Device – Kamal Dhungana, Physics
View the Abstract Book | View the Photo Gallery | View the Results Page
Research Engineer in Physics David Ciochetto is shown in the slideshow gallery of the recent Michigan Tech News article “One-Celled Plants Key to Understanding Changes in the Great Lakes.” The article is about Colleen Mouw’s research as an assistant professor in Michigan Technological University’s Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences and the University’s Great Lakes Research Center.
Ciochetto, who is working with the atmospheric sciences group, has an oceanography background.
Read more at Michigan Tech News, by Jennifer Donovan.
The Michigan Tech Honors Institute would like to invite all undergraduate researchers from every department to submit an abstract for research to be presented at the 2014 Undergraduate Research Expo. This expo will give researchers a chance to present posters describing completed or ongoing research and receive feedback from faculty judges.
Physics Colloquium
Michigan Technological University
Thursday, January 23, 2014
at 4:00 pm
Room 139 Fisher Hall
Searching the Internet for Evidence of Time Travelers
Robert Nemiroff
Professor, Physics Department
Michigan Tech University
Houghton, MI
A paper by Professor Robert Nemiroff (Physics) and graduate student Teresa Wilson on their study designed to find time travelers on the Internet has garnered plenty of media attention. Hits include the following and many more:
From Tech Today.
See also:
In the News
Professor Robert Nemiroff’s (Physics) paper describing his team’s unsuccessful search for time travelers attracted the attention of columnist Scott McLemee. The article, “In Search of Chrononauts,” appears in Inside Higher Ed.
From Tech Today.
In the News
An article by Tom Siegfried, “Google Search Fails to Find Any Sign of Time Travelers,” features Professor Robert Nemiroff and Teresa Wilson’s (Physics) recent paper on the topic and throws Stephen Hawking, Edgar Allen Poe and a few other luminaries into the mix.
From Tech Today.
Google search fails to find any sign of time travelers
On the other hand, perhaps time travelers just want to keep their existence a secret. But even highly trained supersecret time travel agents might slip up occasionally and accidentally reveal their future origins. Like for instance, by typing Comet ISON into Google before that comet had even been discovered. But even if they did, who would ever know?
Well, Robert Nemiroff and Teresa Wilson of the Michigan Technological University physics department might. Comet ISON was discovered in 2012, so it is very unlikely that anyone from the present would have searched online for it, or tweeted about it, before then. Nemiroff and Wilson reasoned that searching the Internet for pre-2012 mentions of Comet ISON might turn up evidence of a time traveler.
Read more at Science News, by Tom Siegfried.
Professor Miguel Levy and Assistant Professor Ramy El-Ganainy (Physics/IMP), “Collaborative Proposal: Quantum Inspired Nonreciprocal Photonic Arrays,” NSF.
Read more at Tech Today.
Jennifer Donovan teaches the workshop “Writing for a Non-Technical Audience” at Kasetsart University in Thailand. She uses examples from Michigan Tech, such as the news site, Michigan Tech Magazine, and Michigan Tech Research Magazine. Donovan writes:
I pass around copies of both magazines. Professor Bob Nemiroff on the cover of the Michigan Tech Research magazineThe 2013 research magazine cover–showing Physics Professor Bob Nemiroff in a bar, holding up a cognac bottle labeled “space time” and a brandy snifter–particularly intrigues them. “It’s about astrophysics,” I say. ”Professor Nemiroff is an astrophysicist who has done research showing that space time is smooth like cognac rather than frothy and bubbly like beer (the popularly held belief). You see, that’s how to make hard science interesting. Who could resist reading that story?”
Read more at Tech Goes to Thailand: The Write Way by Jennifer Donovan.
Research with the HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory
The High Altitude Water Cherenkov detector, or HAWC detector, is a high-energy gamma-ray observatory. It is currently under construction in Mexico at 4,100 m (13,450 feet) altitude. Gamma rays are part of the electromagnetic spectrum, like radio waves or x-rays. The main difference is that gamma rays are the most energetic photons that we know so far.
The HAWC detector is already measuring the secondary particles produced by the electromagnetic interactions of gamma rays with the particles that make up the atmosphere. The detection of the secondary particles with 300 water Cherenkov detectors, or WCDs, provides information about the direction of the primary gamma-ray photon and its energy.
I am doing my research with Dr. Petra Hüntemeyer. Part of my research is focused on the calibration system of the detector. I maintain the software to control a laser that is used to calibrate the timing and the charge of the WCDs. A view of the HAWC detector is shown in Figure 1.
The second part and main goal of my research is the study of the Galactic Diffuse Emission (GDE) at TeV energies. This emission is formed mostly of photons that were produced by the interaction of cosmic ray particles with gas and radiation fields in the Milky Way Galaxy. Since the gamma-ray photons are a product of the high-energy cosmic rays, studying the GDE will help us understand how cosmic rays propagate and distribute in the galaxy. Currently, I am analyzing data from the Fermi Space Telescope to study GDE in different regions of the sky, like the Cygnus arm of our galaxy. I am also doing simulations to understand how well HAWC will detect the GDE. Figure 2 shows the result of one of these simulations with statistical excesses of gamma rays along regions of the Galactic Plane.
by Hugo Ayala
