Stony Brook University Physics & Astronomy Graduate Program

11/01/2021

Many of you will remember Humed Yusuf fondly from his time in our graduate program. I was privileged to have him as one of my PhD students (co-advised with Xu Du) and we very much enjoyed counting him as a friend and colleague. Unfortunately he has been diagnosed with ALS and his health is rapidly deteriorating. If you know Humed I am sure he would love to hear from you. I am also sharing a link for a gofundme organized by his brother-in-law (also a former Stony Brook PhD Student) Rahul Patel, in case you would like to help contribute towards his care.

Hi everyone! As some of you may know our friend Humed Yusuf has been diagnosed with ALS, aka Lou G… Rahul Patel needs your support for Assistance for Humed

07/13/2020

We are pleased to announce that we will not be requiring either the General or Physics GRE exam for applicants to our programs in 2021. Please spread the word to anybody you know who is thinking of applying!

04/13/2020

Physics Faculty & Grads,

Tomorrow, Tuesday, April 14, 2020, Michael Stewart will be holding his Doctoral Defense.

Dynamics of Matter-Wave Quantum Emitters in Engineered Reservoirs
By Michael Stewart

Date: April 14, 2020
Program: Physics
Time: 10:00 am
Dissertation Advisor: Dominik Schneble (AMO)
Place:
Virtual conferencing (contact [email protected] for access)

ABSTRACT:
Bose-Einstein Condensates (BECs) confined in optical lattices provide a rich playground for studying the physics of complicated quantum systems in an exquisitely well controlled manner. In this dissertation, we experimentally study an array of matter-wave emitters realized with ultracold 87Rb atoms confined in an array of one-dimensional tubes, and we report for the first time on emission experiments into a band structure. By varying the bandwidth, we are able to demonstrate a transition from (mostly) Markovian behavior to the limit of a pure Rabi-oscillation, as in cavity quantum-electrodynamics, and we also characterize the structure of two bound states, above and below the band, whose spatial shape is strongly modified by the underlying lattice band structure.

We develop a theoretical model for the quantitative understanding of these and earlier results on emission from an isolated emitter into free space. The modeling treats the emitter as a simple open-quantum-system in which the harmonic oscillator ground state of a deep well of a state-selective optical lattice potential is coupled to a gapped continuum of momentum states. We solve this model by directly integrating the Schrödinger equation using Laplace transforms and the tools of complex analysis, and we make predictions for deviations from Weisskopf-Wigner type Markovian decay for experimentally realistic parameter regimes, most notably, for the case where the emitter energy is small or else negative. We connect these decay behaviors to the existence of bound states, in which the emitted matter-waves are unable to fully escape the originating emitter. The number and character of these bound states, as well as their effect on the observable dynamics is explored for the case of a free-particle dispersion with a single energetic edge, as well as for a sinusoidal dispersion with two energetic edges.

03/10/2020

HOW SUPERGRAVITY WAS DISCOVERED AT STONY BROOK.

In the 1970s particle physicists turned to the problem of describing gravitation the same way as the Standard Model of the non-gravitational interactions, namely as a quantum field theory. However, in explicit calculations of scattering processes, infinities showed up which could not be removed as in the SM. One started looking for a new symmetry principle that was potent enough to cancel these fatal infinities. One such symmetry was supersymmetry, developed in 1972. In order to make gravitation supersymmetric, one had to introduce a new particle, the so-called gravitino, a massless particle with spin 3/2. This led to an extension of Einstein’s theory of gravitation (General Relativity) called supergravity, a quantum field theory as fundamental as Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism and the Yang-Mills theory of the weak and string interactions. Supergravity was constructed at Stony Brook and CERN in 1976. The problem of finiteness is still not settled, but in the meantime, supergravity has become a framework for ambitious new physical ideas. We shall give a historical account without formulas, sketching the physical ideas, and providing some anecdotes and videos.

Today, Tuesday 3/10/20
Harriman Hall 137
$:15 pm

03/02/2020

Physics Grads,

The GSEU and RA Union have been hard at work trying to get a law passed in the NY State congress that would make it illegal for SUNY and CUNY schools to charge fees to graduate student employees. Progress has been remarkable, and the outlook is promising, but we're not quite there yet.

As a supplement to the larger campaign, we have put together a public letter of support which you can find here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/letter-of-support Whether you are faculty, staff, grad student, or undergrad, please take a moment to sign the letter.

A few seconds of your time could make the difference.

In Solidarity,The PGSA

Dear members of the NYS Legislature, As faculty, staff, undergraduate students and other members of the SUNY community, we are writing in strong support of ending mandatory fees for graduate student employees who serve as SUNY teaching, graduate and research assistants. These graduate student worker...

03/02/2020

Speaker: Dr. Laura Kreidberg
Clay Fellow, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian

Big Steps Toward Small Worlds: Exoplanet Atmosphere Characterization in the Next Decade and Beyond

Abstract
We now know that exoplanets abound in the Galaxy, with most stars hosting at least one planet. These recently discovered worlds are much more diverse than the planets in the Solar System, and raise many questions about their formation, evolution, and habitability. To address these questions, we turn to atmosphere characterization, which provides a wealth of additional information about the planets. I will discuss the state of the art in atmosphere studies, focusing on new developments in comparative planetology, the 3D nature of atmospheres, cloud and haze formation, and whether rocky planets have atmospheres at all. I will conclude with a discussion of future prospects for atmosphere characterization in the coming decades.

02/28/2020

https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/geosciences/about/GeologyOpenNight

Geoscience at Stony Brook University

02/28/2020

http://www.physics.sunysb.edu/Physics/WorldsOfPhysics/2019-20/

All lectures begin at 7:30 pm in ESS 001. "Worlds of Physics" is part of a lecture series that includes the Astronomy Open Night, the Living World and the Geology Open Night.

02/28/2020

http://www.astro.sunysb.edu/openight/opennite.html

Open Nights at Stony Brook began with the arrival of Comet Kohoutek. Tobias Owen, Deane Peterson, and Mike Simon put together a series of lectures for the public on the comet shortly before it reached perihelion on December 28, 1973. Comet Kohoutek was a new comet, and astronomers expected it to be....

02/27/2020

https://www.simonsfoundation.org/sf-events/?type=simons-foundation-lectures

SF Events on Simons Foundation

02/25/2020

The YITP has arranged a series of visits and seminars in connection with a search, beginning this afternoon.

Today’s seminar will be given by

Victor Gorbenko (IAS and Stanford):

“Quantum field theory in de Sitter” at 2:30

Simons Center Room 102.

Titles, rooms and times (tentatively 2:30 for all subsequent talks, on the first day listed), will be posted on the YITP web site.

Pending visits (and next two titles) are

Mar 3-4 Mark Mezei (SCGP) “Thermalization through the lens of entanglement entropy"

Mar 9-10 Kristen Jensen (UC San Francisco) “Some recent developments in nonperturbative quantum gravity”

Mar 12-13 Henry Maxfield (UC Santa Barbara)

Mar 23-24 Shu-Hen Shao (IAS)

Mar 26-27 Sarah Harrison (McGill)

Mar 30-32 Josephine Suh (Caltech)

Please let me know if you would like to meet with any of the visitors.

Best regards,

George Sterman