UNC-CH Physics and Astronomy Colloquium Alexandra Gade, Michigan State University “The science of FRIB: From the nuclear many-body challenge to applications of rare isotopes” There are approximately 300 stable and 3,000 known unstable (rare) isotopes. Estimates are that over 7,000 … Read more

UNC-CH Physics and Astronomy Colloquium Dawn Meredith, University of New Hampshire “Mechanistic Reasoning about Liquids” Mechanistic reasoning is one of the hallmarks of scientific thinking, but there are gaps in our students’ abilities (and even our abilities!) to reason mechanistically … Read more

UNC-CH Physics and Astronomy Colloquium Thad Walker, University of Wisconsin–Madison “Turning Photons into Polarized Nuclei” Spin-exchange optical pumping (SEOP) uses collisions between optically active and optically inactive species to convert the angular momentum of light into spin angular momentum. I … Read more

UNC-CH Physics and Astronomy Colloquium Evgenya Shkolnik, Arizona State University “Blast from the Past: Impact of Ultraviolet Emission and Flaring on Exoplanetary Systems and their Habitability” Roughly seventy-five billion low-mass stars (a.k.a. M dwarfs) in our galaxy host at least … Read more

UNC-CH Physics and Astronomy Colloquium Akaa Daniel Ayangeakaa, United States Naval Academy “Shape coexistence and triaxiality in atomic nuclei” The study of shapes and shape-related phenomena in atomic nuclei have been major themes of research in nuclear physics for more … Read more

UNC-Duke Joint Physics Colloquium Steffen Bass, Duke University "Quantifying the Shear Viscosity of Nature’s Most Ideal Liquid" Collisions of heavy nuclei at ultrarelativistic velocities are currently utilized at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to … Read more

UNC-Duke Joint Physics Colloquium Gökçe Basar, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill "The Search for the QCD Critical Point" The strong force binds the building blocks of protons and neutrons, quarks and gluons, together and creates most of the … Read more

UNC-CH Physics and Astronomy Master's Presentation David Alberto Hervas "An Assay-based Background Model for the MAJORANA DEMOSTRATOR" The MAJORANA collaboration is searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ) in 76Ge using modular arrays of enriched, high-purity Ge detectors. The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR … Read more

UNC-Duke Joint Physics Colloquium Sara Haravifard, Duke University "Experiments with Quantum Materials" Just as the discovery of semiconductors revolutionized the electronics industry in the twentieth century, the development of Quantum Materials holds the key to new advances in technology. There … Read more

UNC-Duke Joint Physics Colloquium Robert Jaffe, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "Physics and Energy" Energy is a central concept in physics. Because energy is conserved, it is possible to understand the behavior of complex systems by tracing the flow of energy … Read more