Date

Talk

Thursday
January 17

Shedding Light on Dark Matter

Dinesh Loomba
University of New Mexico

We are now in the era of precision cosmology, where we know the age of the Universe, the geometry of space, the total energy density and what types of energy and matter contribute to it. Measurements suggest that ordinary matter, composed of protons and neutrons, is a mere 15% of the gravitational mass in the Universe. The rest is dark, and so far we infer its existence only gravitationally. The goal of detecting and identifying dark matter is arguably one of the most important problems in 21st century cosmology. We will review some of the observational evidence and theoretical motivations for dark matter, and discuss some of the experimental techniques for its detection. Finally, we will briefly describe an experimental effort underway at UNM and its collaborating institutions, which has the unique ability to detect one of the most important signatures necessary for the discovery of dark matter.

Thursday
January 24

Development of Single Electron Devices & Hybrid Nanostructures

Kim M. Lewis
RPI

My research program develops nanotechnology as it relates to the emergence of hybrid nanostructures and single electron devices (SEDs). In particular, we study prophyrin molecules for its energy storage and light harvesting capabilities, which are properties essential for solar cell devices. Topography and electrical characteristics of the molecule are studied using conductive atomic force microscopy. Finally, chemical sensors are being developed to detect volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and chemical warfare agents (CWAs) based on the use of gold nanoparticles as the sensing element.

Thursday
January 31

Protoplanetary Disks: The Accretion/Outflow Connection

Suzan Edwards
Smith College

The early evolution of a protoplanetary disk is characterized by active accretion and the ejection of collimated mass outflows. The outflows are almost certainly accretion-powered since there is a robust correlation between mass accretion and outflow rates over many orders of magnitude, although how they are launched remains a mystery. Establishing their origin is critical for determining the angular momentum evolution of star-disk systems, as they may spin down the star during the accretion phase and/or aid in transporting angular momentum in the disk during the era of planet formation. They likely also play a role in disk clearing, pumping energy into molecular clouds, and terminating the infall of material from the cloud to the disk. Probing the wind launch and acceleration region in the inner AU of the accretion disk via high resolution spectroscopy offers a promising means of identifying the origin of these ubiquitous but mysterious outflows.

Thursday
February 7

Resonant Detection and Nonlinear Dynamics with Microresonators

David Haviland, Union '83 (Physics)
Nanostructure Physics, Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden)

Resonant detection is a common technique in science and technology. Very sensitive and low back-action measurement of a physical system can be made by measuring how the system perturbs the oscillation of a resonator to which it is physically coupled. Examples of this are the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), and qbit circuits detected with superconducting coplanar waveguide (CPW) resonators. In this talk I will describe now nonlinearity of the resonator can be used to enhance measurement and realize new types of resonant detection. The phenomenon of intermodulation, where the nonlinear resonator is driven with two frequencies, will be described and applied to both AFM and superconducting CPW resonators.

Thursday
February 14

No Colloquium

Thursday
February 21

Founders Day

Thursday
February 28

Rational Design of Photocatalytic Oxidation Processes for Water Treatment Applications through Systems Engineering

Lealon Martin
RPI

Increasing domestic and international demands for vital consumables (e.g. potable drinking water) provide an impetus to develop novel, high-throughput material processing (e.g., purification and disinfection) technologies. Photocatalysis is one such technology that has received considerable attention as an innovative means to purify and disinfect drinking water. Several studies have shown that titanium dioxide (TiO2), excited (or activated) via exposure to ultraviolet light, generates oxidizing chemical species that can destroy organic compounds (mineralization) and pathogens in aqueous media. We have developed a novel photocatalytic reactor system that allows for the continuous, high-throughput processing of chemically and biologically contaminated water. The underlying efforts of our research group are directed in the broad area of chemical and biological process systems engineering. Within this specialization, our work deals specifically with the understanding and quantification of chemical and biological systems and toward the development of systematic methodologies for their modeling, synthesis, analysis, and ultimately their optimal design. In this talk we describe an optimization-based systematic methodology to identify scaleable designs, with a flexible range of stable process operating conditions, for water processing applications.

Thursday
March 6

Senior Thesis Talks: