Physics

This is the homepage covering the work of Large Hadron Collider scientists who are based in the United States. US scientists and engineers, supported by the US Department of Energy Office of Science and the National Science Foundation, have helped to build the LHC. More than 1,700 people from 94 American universities and laboratories have been collaborating with science colleagues around the world to make the LHC experiment happen. Find news and updates, background information about the LHC, images from the experiment, information and educational resources for teachers and students, and blogs from LHC scientists based in the US.

This is the scientific research page of the Large Hadron Collider particle physics experiment at CERN, the world's largest particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. The LHC is the world's highest energy particle accelerator and is expected to provide new information about the origins and composition of the universe. This site covers the technical details about the project including beam parameters, baseline documentation, hardware layouts, and more. While other LHC sites are designed primarily for the public and the media, this one is for scientists.

Topics include cosmology, black holes, cosmic strings, inflation, quantum gravity, movies, string theory, the holographic principle, M-theory, quantum cosmology, the hot big bang, galaxies and clusters, and relic radiation.

Physics at Berkeley has long been in the forefront of discovery and achievement. In 1931, Ernest O. Lawrence invented the cyclotron at Berkeley, ushering in the era of high-energy physics and a tradition of achievement that continues today. Seven of Berkeleys nineteen Nobel Prizes were awarded to Berkeley physicists. The most recent National Research Council nationwide rankings identify the Department as one of the best in the nation. In their pursuit of original research, physics faculty members collaborate with postdoctoral fellows, PhD graduate students, undergraduate students, and visiting scholars. Research opportunities exist for investigating a wide range of topics in theoretical and experimental physics including astrophysics, atomic physics, molecular physics, biophysics, condensed matter, cosmic rays, elementary particles and fields, energy and resources, fusion and plasma, geochronology, general relativity, low temperature physics, mathematical physics, nuclear physics, optical and laser spectroscopy, space physics, and statistical mechanics.

Perimeter Institute is a community of theoretical physicists dedicated to extending theories of space, time and matter. Perimeter Institute began in the summer of 1999 when Mike Lazaridis, founder and Co-CEO of Research In Motion (RIM) maker of the successful BlackBerryTM found himself in a position to help foster research and innovation in Canada. Howard Burton, a PhD graduate from the University of Waterloo, was hired by Mike as Executive Director in August of that year to best determine how a world-class organization devoted to theoretical physics would take shape. In just five years, Perimeter researchers have contributed over 500 meaningful, peer-reviewed, scientific findings and transferred this knowledge to all manner of partners in the entire research chain. Their current areas of cross-disciplinary research include: Foundations of Quantum Theory, Quantum Information Theory, Quantum Gravity, Superstring Theory, Particle Physics, Cosmology.

The Institute sponsors programs which encourage the growth and development of the emerging field of quantum information science. Quantum information science (QIS) is a new field of science and technology which draws upon the disciplines of physical science, mathematics, computer science, and engineering. Its aim is to understand how fundamental physical laws can be harnessed to dramatically improve the acquisition, transmission, and processing of information.

The MDSP lab conducts research in the general areas of multidimensional and multiresolution signal and image processing and estimation and geometric-based estimation. The applications that motivate this research include, but are not limited to, problems arising in automatic target detection and recognition, geophysical inverse problems (such as finding oil and analyzing the atmosphere), and medical estimation problems (such as tomography and MRI). Our general goal is to develop efficient methods for the extraction of information from diverse data sources in the presence of uncertainty. The approach we take is based on the development of statistical models for both observations and prior knowledge and the subsequent use of these models for optimal or near-optimal processing. The laboratory, directed by Professor W. Clem Karl, is part of the Information Systems and Sciences Group at Boston University, which is affiliated with the Electrical and Computer Engineering and Biomedical Engineering Departments at Boston University.

The Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (CenSSIS) is a multi-university NSF ERC founded in 2000. Its mission is to revolutionize the existing technology for detecting and imaging biomedical, environmental, or geophysical objects or conditions that lie underground or underwater, or are embedded in the human body. The Center's unified, multidisciplinary approach combines expertise in wave physics (photonics, ultrasonic, electromagnetic,..), sensor engineering, image processing, and inverse scattering to create new sensing modalities and prototypes that may be transitioned to industry partners for further development. A key element of the CenSSIS education mission is to immerse students in efforts to solve important real-world problems such as noninvasive breast cancer detection or underground pollution assessment.

The development of nonclassical sources of light that rely on the quantum nature of the electromagnetic field has proceeded apace in the past decade. Generically referred to as quiet light, these quantum sources exhibit reduced fluctuations (noise) in comparison with classical sources such as natural light, and light from LEDs and lasers. A particularly useful quantum source of light is the entangled photon state, which may be generated by spontaneous optical parametric downconversion (SPDC). In this process, a laser beam illuminates an anisotropic nonlinear crystal oriented at the proper angle. A photon from the pump laser (the "mother photon") is split into a pair of twins (the "daughter photons"). The energy and momentum of the mother are shared by the daughters, which share entanglement by virtue of the nonseparability of the quantum state that describes them. It is the mission of the Quantum Imaging Laboratory to exploit nonclassical light for the purposes of optical imaging, communications, cryptography, teleportation, and computing.

Precision measurement plays a key role in most of JILA's scientific investigations. New techniques and technologies are allowing researchers to probe tiny structures inside living cells; to study the properties of ultracold matter; to monitor the dynamics of chemical reactions; to more directly measure the frequency of visible light and other short wavelength electromagnetic radiation; to study the behavior of electrons in semiconductors; and to investigate other phenomena heretofore too small or too fast to "see," much less precisely quantify. Precision measurement research at JILA falls into four broad areas: precision optical metrology, measurements of fundamental parameters, atomic clocks, and ultrasensitive devices.

JILA optical physicists manipulate light to produce ultrashort laser pulses. They then study these pulses to gain insight into the fundamental properties of light. Thus the investigation of light itself is intertwined with the development of advanced ultrafast light sources and optical pulse shapers, the precise control of ultrafast pulses and their interactions with passive optical cavities, and the control of the carrier-envelope phase of ultrashort pulses. As a result of JILA's optical physics research, ultrafast lasers are becoming increasingly capable of delivering designer light pulses whose applications include the control of dynamical processes in chemistry, biology, materials science, medicine, telecommunications, and nanotechnology. JILA research also finds important applications in precision metrology, including the development of optical frequency standards and optical atomic clocks. JILA optical physics research also focuses on quantum optics theory and blind signal separation.

JILA is making major contributions to two vibrant research areas in the field of atomic and molecular physics: ultracold matter and the control of atoms and molecules with ultrafast light. Ultracold atoms and molecules comprise novel forms of matter that form at temperatures below a few millionths of a degree above absolute zero (-459.67 F). Many of JILA's atomic physicists are studying the creation of these novel substances and investigating their properties, behavior, and interactions. In the process, they're learning first hand about the strange, hidden world of the nanocosmos where the laws of quantum mechanics predominate.

Welcome to the home page of Professor Jeff Kimble's quantum optics group at Caltech. The primary goal of our research is to study the quantum mechanics of open systems. "Real-world" quantum mechanics takes into account the dissipation and decoherence that arise from interactions of a quantum system with its environment. In studying the role of these processes, we learn about what is and might be possible: how we might make, study, and preserve quantum superpositions and other exotic states.

A consortium of scientists from the national laboratories and many universities designed and built Gammasphere. It consists of 110 large volume, high purity germanium detectors, each in a BGO compton suppression shield. The project was coordinated by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the device first assembled there. The device is especially powerful for collecting gamma ray data following the fusion of heavy-ions, when multiplicities are high and Doppler shifts large. It has high granularity, which allows many gamma rays to be measured simultaneously, and permits precise correction for Doppler shifts. It has a photopeak efficiency for 1.3 MeV gamma-rays of 10%. As such, Gammasphere is the worlds most powerful spectrometer for nuclear structure research, rivalled only by Euroball.

The discovery that quantum physics allows fundamentally new modes of information processing has required the existing theories of computation, information and cryptography to be superseded by their quantum generalisations. The Centre for Quantum Computation conducts theoretical and experimental research into all aspects of quantum information processing, and into the implications of the quantum theory of computation for physics itself.

The sole purpose of CMTC is to maintain sustained excellence in theoretical condensed matter physics (defined in the broadest possible sense) at the University of Maryland.

The mission of the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics (IREAP) is to advance modern science through research and educational programs that are interdisciplinary between physical science and engineering. The flow of knowledge between basic science and engineering at IREAP is bidirectional: we apply our basic science skills to problems of practical importance, and we apply our engineering skills to aid fundamental scientific investigations. We emphasize diversity, quality and excellence in all aspects of our activities. IREAP conducts experimental and theoretical research on high-temperature plasma physics, plasma spectroscopy, relativistic microwave electronics, high-brightness charged particle beams, laser-plasma interactions, nonlinear dynamics (chaos), ion beam microfabrication techniques, and microwave sintering of advanced materials, nanoscience, and nanotechnology. IREAP is recognized internationally as a leading university research center in these areas of research.

The Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) experimental collaboration is committed to studying high energy particle collisions at the worlds highest energy particle accelerator. The goal is to discover the identity and properties of the particles that make up the universe and to understand the forces and interactions between those particles.

EFDA is intended to strengthen the co-ordination of work among the Associates. It will further develop the necessary scientific, technical and organisational basis in the Associations and in the European Industry for the possible construction of an experimental fusion power plant and will reinforce the European capability for international co-operation.

The mission of the Physical Research Lab is medium to long-term high-impact research primarily in areas of science and technology relevant to Lucent Technologies' focus on communications and networks. Specific areas of work include photonics components based on nonlinear optical materials and on semiconductors, etc.; physical optics; soft-condensed matter physics and technology, such as organic injection lasers and devices based on liquid crystals and polymers; physics of wireless propagation smart antennas; wireless components; information and communication theory; quantum information processing; biological computation including biology inspired algorithms and machine learning; nanoscale science and technology including nanoprobes for high resolution imaging of devices and materials; materials and condensed matter physics research including semiconductors such as nitrides, organic molecular crystals, new photonic materials; astrophysics and space science.