In This Issue

• Greetings from Ames Page 1Notes from the department chair.

• Searching for the Stars Page 2Astronomy has always been Steve Kawaler’s passion.

• High-Energy Physics at the Extreme Page 3The Large Hadron Collider will be the most powerful accelerator on the planet, and Iowa State physicists are helping to buildand use it.

• Stellar Gerontology Page 4Pioneering a long-term study of a very-long-term phenomenon.

• Soukoulis Wins European Union’s Highest Science Prize Page 5Physics and astronomy faculty member leads team that shared 200,000-euro Descartes Prize.

• Faculty Additions Page 6New faculty members bring grants and expanded affiliations in condensed matter and nuclear physics.

• Throwing Baseball a Curve Page 8Physics plays an important role in America’s pastime.

• Of Note... Page 9Zaffarano Physics Addition dedicated; Physics and Astronomy Council meets; and other research news.

GREETINGS FROM AMES

We welcomed incoming classes of 17 new graduate students this falland 22 last fall. They have turned out to be a lively group. Ontheir own they have organized intramural sports teams and

arranged for “movie nights” on Fridays. We have remodeled the officesoccupied by our first- and second-year graduate students in the so-called“Court Area,” and 32 of our graduate students are occupying this space.

Our undergraduate and graduate students are engaged in other activitiesoutside the classroom. All our graduate students participate in a graduate-student-run seminar where they present their research to their peers. Whilethe seminar was established with departmental support, faculty members arenot invited to attend these seminars.

Our undergraduates are equally active. For example, members of ourPhysics and Astronomy Club attended a regional meeting of the Society ofPhysics Students that was held in Decorah, Iowa, last fall.

Our faculty members continue to distinguish themselves. CostasSoukoulis, who last year was named a distinguished professor, won theprestigious Descartes Prize for Excellence in Scientific CollaborativeResearch. This is the European Union’s highest honor in the field of science.Joe Shinar, John Hill, and Jianwie Qiu were named APS fellows. Steve Kawalerwas named a fellow of the AAAS. Paul Canfield was named a distinguishedprofessor. Soeren Prell won a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences award forearly excellence in research, and Paul Canfield and John Lajoie won thecomparable mid-year career excellence awards. Marshall Luban won an LASaward for outstanding teaching.

In the last issue, we announced the naming of the Physics Addition afterDaniel Zaffarano. In his honor, a plaque donated by members of the Physicsand Astronomy Council was placed inside the west entrance of the building.

A concrete marker tablet was placedoutside the entrance, supported bycontributions to the department.

As always, we thank you for yoursupport and welcome your input andcomments. I would love to have theopportunity to visit with you inAmes and share with you theenthusiasm of our faculty, studentsand staff! Q

Eli Rosenberg

QUANTANewsletter of the Department of Physics and Astronomy

www.physics.iastate.edu Vol. 2, No. 1 - Fall 2006

SEARCHING FOR THE STARS

2 QUANTA

Astronomy has always been Steve Kawaler’s passion.

GET INVOLVED!Get the latest news on our research, education programs, faculty

and alumni at www.physics.iastate.edu.

Get in touch. We welcome your suggestions and comments! Let usknow what you think about this newsletter, about current initiatives in thedepartment, and about ways that we could help you. Please contact EliRosenberg, department chair, redmount@iastate.edu, or Mark Fleming,editor, stratondmd@aol.com, with your thoughts or questions.

Keep us posted on your career interests, family and contactinformation by updating your profile at www.physics.iastate.edu.

Dig deeper. Are some of our initiatives of interest to you and yourorganization? Please contact Eli Rosenberg to arrange a briefing with theappropriate people, either by telephone or in a personal visit to campus.

Contribute your time, talent, or resources. We coulduse your experience, perspectives, and hands-on help in some of ourinitiatives. We also welcome financial donations, either unrestricted ordesignated for any of a number of areas of need, including scholarships,awards and facility improvements (see page 7).

Steve Kawaler’s ZaffaranoPhysics Addition office isfilled with memories of his

childhood, when he was inspired tobecome an astronomer. The GoldenBook of Astronomy is still strategicallyplaced where all who enter can’t missit. Toy models from “that campy TVshow” Lost in Space are placedprominently on a table near his desk.

“Stars have been my passion,” theprofessor of physics and astronomysaid. “I like astronomy so muchbecause although we don’t have allthe answers yet, it’s something thatwe can see every day and each night.We see the stars and the sun–objectsthat we understand a great dealabout, but in other ways are waybeyond what we can understand.”

That passion has led the AmericanAssociation for the Advancement ofScience (AAAS) to elect Kawaler afellow of the association.

“I can’t say this was totallyunexpected,” he said. “I wasforewarned to make sure mymembership dues were current, sinceyou can’t be an AAAS fellow unlessyou’re paid up.”

AAAS cited Kawaler’s research,service and teaching. He has workedfor 20 years to understand and modelwhite dwarf stars. Since 1997, he hasdirected the Whole Earth Telescope(WET), a worldwide network ofobservation stations that takesuninterrupted measurements of stars.

Kawaler handles the administrativeduties of the NSF-fundedorganization, including archiving thedata obtained by WET observationsand coordinating at least one WETrun each of the last 10 years.

Kawaler has been active on thescientific side as well. He is an

author on most of the papers gleanedfrom data collected by WET. He iscurrently working on a NASAAstrophysics Theory Program granton the next generation of computermodels of stars, in particular sub-dwarf B stars.

“This is an exciting and potentiallyvery important project,” he said.“WET data has pointed out how badthe current models are.”

The AAAS also honored Kawalerfor his classroom instruction. He hastaught and developed curricula suchas “Astronomy Bizarre,” a course fornon-science students that exploresthe more bizarre objects and eventsin the universe.

“I got into astronomy because itwas fun,” Kawaler said. “I grew upwatching watching the moonlaunches and it was hugely excitingfor me. I guess part of any field canget routine, but that hasn’t happened

Steve Kawaler

to me yet.Every other day I go in front of

100 or so students and try to firethem up about astronomy, although Iknow that they are potentiallyexcited about many other things.That keeps me excited andpassionate about the subject.” Q

QUANTA 3

HIGH-ENERGY PHYSICS AT THE EXTREMEThe Large Hadron Collider will be the most powerful particle accelerator on the

planet, and Iowa State physicists are helping to build and use it.

Crews assembling the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The European Laboratory forParticle Physics in Geneva,Switzerland, is building the

Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a newparticle accelerator that will collidebeams of protons or lead nuclei atrecord energies, with fluxes expectedto produce 800 million collisions persecond. Those densities will recreatethe conditions that existed just afterthe Big Bang.

The LHC is being built in a 17-mile circular tunnel that crosses theFrench-Swiss border near Geneva.The machine is expected to get apilot run next summer.

“Iowa State is at the cutting edgeof research in these facilities at theforefront of physics,” said EliRosenberg, professor and chair of theDepartment of Physics and As-tronomy and the leader of IowaState’s high-energy physics researchteam. “We play an important role inthese experiments.”

Iowa State’s physics and as-tronomy department research team atthe LHC includes Rosenberg; H. BertCrawley, professor; James Cochran,associate professor; Soeren Prell,associate professor; and W. ThomasMeyer, adjunct research professor.Fredrik Tegenfeldt, a postdoctoralresearch associate, is stationed at theEuropean Laboratory for ParticlePhysics, and Nathan Triplett, aphysics and astronomy graduatestudent, has taken up residence atCERN and will work on acquiringhis thesis data in the next two years.This team is working on detectordesign and the study of proton-proton collisions related to the LHC’sATLAS detector, an instrument 150feet long and 72 feet high.

In addition, members of the department’s experimental nuclear physicsgroup–John Hill, professor; Marzia Rosati, associate professor; and AlexandreLebedev, assistant scientist–are planning to use ATLAS to study the collisionsof lead nuclei.

John Hauptman, professor of physics and astronomy, is also working onthe Compact Muon Solenoid, the LHC’s other large, multi-purpose detector.

Iowa State’s work in experimental and theoretical high-energy physics issupported by a six-year grant of nearly $6.9 million from the U.S. Departmentof Energy (DOE). The grant continues a tradition of high-energy physicswork at Iowa State and the DOE Ames Laboratory that dates back to 1963.

One of the research goals at the LHC ATLAS detector is to find evidenceof the Higgs boson, a particle predicted by the Standard Model of particlephysics. The model theorizes that space is filled with a Higgs field, and thatparticles acquire mass by interacting with the field. Although no experimenthas yet detected the Higgs particle, researchers at the LHC hope that theirexperiments will yield this discovery.

“This is basic research that goes back to the question, ‘What is the worldmade of?’” Rosenberg concluded. “We’re trying to figure that out.” Q

4 QUANTA

Lee Anne Willson has beenworking for 35 years tounderstand the stars that

produce space dust. That effort datesback to graduate school for theuniversity professor of physics andastronomy.

Calling her work “stellargerontology,” Willson studies redgiants–the stars that expand andburn red, cooling as they movethrough the final stages of life.

In the years since she first startedher research, the field has changedvastly, Willson says. At thebeginning, there was nothing in thedata showing that stars were losingmass at all. Willson was among thefew astronomers actually studyingthis phenomenon.

“There were only three or fourscientists interested in this area whenI came along,” she said. “That haschanged now, because of technologychanges. A lot of new data came withthe advent of infrared and ultraviolettelescopes in space. People now alsorealize the evolutionary role of thesestars.”

Computer modeling developed inthe late 1970s also has increased theanalytical capabilities for red-giantevolution. Emeritus professor GeorgeBowen produced modelsincorporating some of Willson’sinsights, and these models have ledto better understanding of the massloss of these stars.

Willson recently presented some ofher findings at the Annual Meeting ofthe American Association for theAdvancement of Science (AAAS). Shealso addressed and helped toorganize a press briefing at themeeting on the subject “Stardust:Solar System Birth and Death.”

Some of Willson’s findings indicate

STELLAR GERONTOLOGYPioneering a long-term study of a very long-term phenomenon.

that the origins of space dust are redgiants characterized by (1) supersize, with stellar radii about the sizeof earth’s orbit, (2) dramaticallychanging brightness within a year,and (3) high luminosity, severalthousand times that of the sun.

“The variability of those stars isfundamental to dust formation,” shesaid. “The variations produce shockwaves, which compress the gas. Thecompressed gas radiates some heatand then cools quickly as it expandsagain before the next shock passes.It’s a refrigerator.”

These conditions allow dustformation closer to the star thanwould otherwise be possible. Thesedust particles start their journeys inthe stars and end up in solar systems.

Although she has worked in otherareas, red giants are Willson’s favoritesubject.

“This project has sustained myinterest the most over the years,” she

Lee Anne Willson

From the Editor...

It has been a privilege and quite an experience to launch QUANTA andedit this publication over the past couple of years.

At the time that we decided to start up this newsletter, editorialresources were not readily available within the university for this type ofendeavor. So I took on the job to give the periodical some initial directionand momentum.

More recently, Dave Gieseke, director of communications for the Collegeof Liberal Arts and Sciences, has started to edit newsletters for severalother departments. As a matter of fact, Dave has contributed a number ofarticles to this and previous issues of QUANTA.

Now that QUANTA is off and running, I have asked Dave to take overthe editorial reins of this publication. We can look forward to a continuingflow of interesting news about the department and the university in futureissues.

Please keep in touch, and thanks for reading this issue.

Mark W. Fleming

said. “There’s nothing quite as muchfun as working on a challengingproblem. There comes a momentwhen you suddenly realize that thereis another way of looking at theproblem that makes sense–and all thepieces fall into place.” Q

Costas Soukoulis, a seniorphysicist at the U.S.Department of Energy’s Ames

Laboratory and a distinguishedprofessor of physics and astronomy,coordinates the research team thathas won the Descartes Prize forExcellence in Scientific CollaborativeResearch, the European Union’shighest honor in the field of science.He and his collaborators received theprestigious award for creating a novelclass of artificial metamaterials calledleft-handed materials, or LHMs,which exhibit fascinating propertiesthat cannot be found in naturallyoccurring substances.

LHMs exhibit negative refraction,bending light in the oppositedirection to that seen in naturalmaterials. They can be fabricated tohave zero reflectance for all angles hitby incoming electromagnetic waves.In addition, they can focus lightwithout the need for curved surfaces.These and other amazing propertiespromise a wide range of potentialapplications for LHMs.

Soukoulis, who has also been anassociate with the research centerFORTH in Crete, Greece, since 1984,said he was lucky to work with a top-notch team of internationalresearchers in creating the newsubclass of materials. The teamincludes Professor Sir John Pendry,Imperial College, United Kingdom;Professor Ekmel Ozbay, BilkentUniversity, Turkey; Professor MartinWegener, University of Karlsruhe,Germany; Professor David Smith,Duke University, United States; andProfessor E. N. Economou and Dr.

QUANTA 5

COSTAS SOUKOULIS WINS EUROPEAN

UNION’S HIGHEST SCIENCE PRIZEPhysics and astronomy faculty member leads team that shared 200,000-euro

Descartes Prize.

Costas Soukoulis (at podium) with winning team (left to right) Stephan Linden, MikeWiltshire, Maria Kafesaki, David Smith, Martin Weneger, Ekmel Ozbay, and Sir John Pendry

Maria Kafesaki, both from FORTHand the University of Crete.

The research team was awardedthe Descartes Prize for Research inPhysics at a ceremony held at theRoyal Society in London. Of the1,000,000-euro Descartes Prizemoney, the team members will share200,000 euro for their winningproject, “ExtendingElectromagnetism through NovelArtificial Materials, or EXEL.”

“Our EXEL team was able todemonstrate the experimental realityof LHMs and their consistency withthe laws of physics,” said Soukoulis.“This realization opened up thepossibility of unprecedentedapplications and devices.”

The team has already shown howthe ability to focus radio waves couldlead to smaller, better-performingmagnetic resonance imagingmachines for medical and biomedicaldiagnostics. Numerous applicationsin the cellular communications

industry are also envisioned,including antennas and waveguidesthat are 100 times smaller and muchlighter than those of today. Evenslight improvements to these types ofdevices can have a significanteconomic impact.

Ames Laboratory Director TomBarton praised the work of Soukoulisand the EXEL team, saying, “Itprobably would be difficult tooverstate the potential importance ofthis historic scientific achievement tothe future of optical technology. TheAmes Lab and Iowa State Universityare indeed proud of the pivotal roleplayed by Professor Soukoulis.”

The Descartes Prize for Excellencein Scientific Research, now in itssixth year, recognizes outstandingscientific and technological resultsachieved through internationalcollaborative research in diversedisciplines. Winners are selected by agrand jury of experts in science,industry and the general public. Q

6 QUANTA

Two new faculty membersjoined the department inrecent months, bringing

additional grants, affiliations, andnew capabilities to department’smajor initiatives in condensed matterand nuclear physics.

Ruslan Prozorov obtained hisdoctorate from the Bar-IlanUniversity for his work onirreversible magnetic properties ofhigh-T

c superconductors. Before

joining the Iowa State faculty, he wasan assistant professor at theUniversity of South Carolina andpreviously a postdoctoral researchassociate at the University of Illinoisin Urbana-Champaign. At thosepositions Dr. Prozorov conductedexperiments on microscopicmechanisms of high-T

c

superconductivity, the coexistence ofsuperconductivity and magnetism,

FACULTY ADDITIONS

New faculty members bring grants and expanded affiliations in condensed

matter and nuclear physics.

and pattern formation insuperconductors. He was the first toestablish the d-wave nature of thepairing symmetry of electron-dopedsuperconductors.

Dr. Prozorov joined thedepartment as an assistant professorwith an active research programusing novel methods to study theproperties of strongly correlatedelectronic systems. His techniquesinclude high sensitivity tunnel-diode-oscillator and low-temperaturemagneto-optical measurements. He isworking in close collaboration withgroups led by Professor Paul Canfieldand others in the university andAmes Laboratory on topics rangingfrom magnetic molecules tobiomineralization.

Professor Prozorov brings aNational Science FoundationCAREER Award to Iowa State, inaddition to another NSF grant.

Kirill Tuchin, a theoretical nuclearphysicist, was appointed an assistantprofessor. He also has anappointment as a RIKEN Fellow,representing a partnership betweenthe department and BrookhavenNational Laboratory to help todevelop and promote the careers ofpromising young scientists. For aperiod of up to five years, Dr. Tuchinwill spend six months per year atBrookhaven, and a grant to thedepartment will provide Dr. Tuchin’ssupport during this time.

Professor Tuchin’s main scientific

Kirill Tuchin

Ruslan Prozorov

interest is the theoretical study ofstrong interactions [quantumchromodynamics (QCD)] at highenergies. QCD possesses a very richand complicated structure due tononlinear interactions which–incontrast to QuantumElectrodynamics (QED)–violate theHuygens principle. Although overthe past 30 years QCD has beensolved for lower-energy reactionswhere it resembles QED, in recentyears a number of theoretical toolshave been developed to facilitate thestudy of QCD in the regime of highparton (quark and gluon) densitythat is achieved at high energies andin reactions with heavy nuclei.

Dr. Tuchin is involved both in thetheoretical study of high-energy QCDand in the development ofphenomenological applications forvarious experimental tests. Q

HOW TO CONTRIBUTE

1. Decide where you’d like to help.

We hope that you’ll consider designating your gift directly to the Department of Physics and Astronomy! If you’d like to discusssome possibilities, please feel free to call Eli Rosenberg, department chair, at 515 294-5442.

You may want to contribute to the Physics and Astronomy Achievement Award Fund, the general fund for undergraduate andgraduate scholarships, or the Physics and Astronomy Unrestricted Fund, which provides the department with flexibility tofinance other important projects.

If you’re thinking about making a significant gift, you may wish to establish a new endowed fund or make a one-time award for apurpose that you designate. For details and guidance, please refer to the Iowa State University Foundation Web site(www.foundation.iastate.edu) or contact Alsatia Mellecker, Senior Director of Development, at 515 294-6431.

2. Decide how you’d like to contribute.

Contributions may be structured in a variety of ways, including outright gifts of cash, securities, real or personal property, pledgesto give specific amounts over a stated time period, or deferred gifts such as charitable bequests, gift annuities, or lifeinsurance policies.

3. If you’re ready to give now,

Fill out the form below and send it to the Department of Physics and Astronomy, 12 Physics Hall, Ames, Iowa 50011-3160.

Cut Here

Names(s) ISU Degree(s) Year(s)

Street Address City State ZIP

Phone Email Amount of Gift Designation P&A Achievement Award Fund �

P&A Unrestricted Fund �

Employer Employer will match gift � (Please include designation on check)

Check Enclosed � Credit Card Visa � Card No. Expiration Date

(payable to Iowa State MasterCard �

University Foundation) Discover �

QUANTA 7

HELP THE DEPARTMENT TO GROW

Maintaining a position asone of the top-rankeddepartments in the

university and the nation is no easychallenge these days. State financingfor public universities has declined inmany states, including Iowa. Tuitionincreases have covered part of theshortfall, but private contributionsare taking on a more critical role inhelping the department to fulfill itsmission and maintain its standards of

Your contributions will make a real difference.

One area of need is the departmentendowment. The current endowmentunderwrites only eight studentawards and provides limiteddiscretionary funds for otheractivities. Additional capital isneeded to sustain a department withmore than 150 students and 45faculty members. Endowedscholarships and fellowships areessential if the department is tocontinue to attract the best studentsin the face of escalating tuitions and

operating costs.Aside from endowments, gifts may

also be directed for one-time awardsor other uses that you may wish todiscuss with the department.

All contributions, regardless ofsize, will help. Each gift will make alasting impression on the quality ofthe department, its students andfaculty.

If you are ready to help, pleasecomplete the adjacent form andreturn it with your gift. Qexcellence.

THANKS for your support!

Baseball is such a simple game.You throw the ball. You hitthe ball. You catch the ball.

Simple–right?Not so fast, warns Eli Rosenberg,

professor and chair of theDepartment of Physics andAstronomy.

“In a classic episode of ‘Seinfeld,’George Costanza teaches hitting toNew York Yankees Bernie Williamsand Derek Jeter,” Rosenberg says,“and he tells them how easy it is tohit a baseball. Once again George iswrong, but there is some basicphysics that is important inunderstanding why baseballs behavethe way they do when thrown andhit.”

Rosenberg opened with the“Seinfeld” clip during a presentationon the physics of baseball last year.He spoke as part of the yearlongseries of activities surrounding the2005 World Year of Physicssponsored by the U.S. Department ofEnergy’s Ames Laboratory andpresented by faculty from theDepartment of Physics andAstronomy to a capacity crowd in theSpedding Hall auditorium.

“Some of the seemingly simpleaspects to the game are not really thatsimple–at least when you applyphysics to the sport,” Rosenberg says.

Rosenberg addressed severalquestions for the audience: Whydoes a curve ball curve? Why doescorking a bat provide greater batspeed and more time to react, but itdoesn’t make the ball go further?Why are aluminum bats morepopular than wood bats outside themajor leagues?

“Physics is also involved in

8 QUANTA

THROWING BASEBALL A CURVEPhysics plays an important role in America’s pastime.

Eli Rosenberg

judging a fly ball and ultimatelycatching it,” Rosenberg said. “It’s avery complicated game.”

OK, but it is still just a game,right?

“Don’t be so sure about that”Rosenberg says. There’s a lot ofliterature about the physics ofbaseball and other sports includingfootball, basketball, golf, tennis, dragracing and even fly-fishing.

“The manufacturers of golfequipment are very concerned abouthow to improve club and ball design.Understanding the physics is animportant factor,” he said. “They areextremely interested in what makes agolf ball go farther.

“There are some very seriouspeople studying this. In fact therewas an article in a recent American

Scientist that gave evidence, contraryto many [ball players’] opinions, thatan overhand four-seam fastballdoesn’t have more lift than anoverhand two-seam fastball.”

But don’t count on this diehardbaseball fan to give up on trying tounderstand the matter-antimatterasymmetry in the universe in orderto concentrate on the physics ofbaseball. Nevertheless, spendingsome time on the physics of sportshas its benefits.

“This was a fun talk to puttogether. I hope that it presents adifferent image of physicists andmakes more students think aboutphysics in terms of course selectionand a career,” Rosenberg concluded. Q

The Physics and Astronomy Council, consisting of 19alumni and faculty from the department, provides adviceand counsel to the department chair. The group meetsannually in May and communicates on key issuesthroughout the year. Current members include

QUANTA 9

OF NOTE...

The Iowa Board of Regents approved the renaming ofthe Physics Addition in memory of Daniel Zaffarano,professor emeritus in physics and astronomy and formervice president for research and dean of the GraduateCollege. Zaffarano died December 3, 2004, at the age of86.

Completed in 1968, the five-story Zaffarano PhysicsAddition houses a number of faculty offices andlaboratories in the department.

Speaking at the dedication ceremony attended by 80colleagues, family, and friends including former Iowagovernor Robert Ray, department chair Eli Rosenbergnoted that Zaffarano’s legacy has endured long after he leftthe department. “While Dan was chair, he helped tosecure more funding for the department and hired manymore faculty than previous chairpersons. In one year, thedepartment grew from 30 faculty members to 50. Dan wasalso instrumental in securing the funding for the PhysicsAddition,” he said. “Moreover, as vice president forresearch, Dan had a hand in the development of the

ZAFFARANO PHYSICS ADDITION DEDICATED

Erica, Elisa, Dario, Suzanne, Gina, Bianca, and Monica Zaffaranooutside the Zaffarano Physics Addition

PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY COUNCIL MEETS

Some of the attendees at the May 2006 Physics and AstronomyCouncil meeting (left to right): Robert Amme, Craig Davis,Charles Duke. Derek Pursey, Will Talbert, Mark Fleming, LeonCrossman, and John Baglin

Dr. Robert Amme(Vice Chair-Elect, 2006-2008)University of DenverDenver, ColoradoDr. John E. E. BaglinIBM Almaden Research CenterSan Jose, CaliforniaDr. Leon D. Crossman(Chair-Elect, 2006-2008)Midland, MichiganDr. Craig DavisPlymouth, MichiganDr. Charles L. DukeGrinnell CollegeGrinnell, IowaDr. Bernice B. DurandUniversity of Wisconsin–MadisonMadison, WisconsinDr. Douglas K. FinnemoreIowa State UniversityAmes, Iowa

Dr. Mark W. Fleming(Immediate Past Chair)Strategies on Demand, L.L.C.Naperville, IllinoisDr. Alan I. GoldmanIowa State UniversityAmes, IowaDr. John Hopkins (Emeritus)Katy, TexasDr. Robert L. Mather (Emeritus)Oakland, CaliforniaMr. Greg PickrellPillsbury Winthrop ShawPittman, L.L.P.Palo Alto, CaliforniaDr. Derek PurseyDubuque, IowaDr. Eli RosenbergIowa State UniversityAmes, IowaDr. Thomas D. RossingNorthern Illinois UniversityDeKalb, Illinois

Dr. James E. SchirberHermosa, South DakotaDr. Joseph ShinarIowa State UniversityAmes, Iowa

Dr. Clayton A. SwensonIowa State UniversityAmes, IowaDr. Willard L. Talbert, Jr.Ames, Iowa

molecular biology research initiative at Iowa State.”Members of the Physics and Astronomy Council

contributed funds for a bronze memorial plaqueincluding a bas-relief sculpture of Zaffarano, which hasbeen installed at the west entrance to the building. Q

10 QUANTA

CHARLES KERTON WORKS WITH GREEN BANK TELESCOPE

Assistant Professor Charles Kerton and graduatestudent Kim Arvidsson travelled to Green Bank, WestVirginia in August 2006 to use the 100-meter diameterGreen Bank Telescope at the National Radio Astronomy

The major summer conference for particle physics, the33rd International Conference on High Energy Physics(ICHEP06), took place in Moscow last July. This was anopportunity for the BaBar collaboration to present a vastarray of results. Faculty members Bert Crawley, JimCochran, Tom Meyer, Soeren Prell and Eli Rosenberg,along with postdoctoral associates Vitaly Eyges, LiaoyuanDong and graduate students Ada Rubin and KyokoYamanaka are members of the BaBar collaboration andcontributed to this work.

The results are providing a more precise understandingof the Standard Model for weak-interaction properties ofquarks. This framework facilitates the search forevidence of new physical interactions at high mass scalesthat are beyond the capabilities of current accelerators.

These themes are reflected in the centerpiece suite ofnew BaBar measurements of charge-conjugation-paritytransformation (CP) violation or matter-antimatterasymmetries in B-meson decays.

A new measurement of CP violation in the mostprolific channels–the same channels used in the originaldiscovery of matter-antimatter differences in 2001–hasset a benchmark of precision for testing the StandardModel. Against this benchmark, new results for CPviolation in B-meson decay modes involving quantumloop diagrams, so-called “penguin decays,” wereproduced last summer, along with other data.Q

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS

Observatory. The telescope was used to detect faint radiorecombination line emission from hot ionized hydrogengas within the star forming region KR 1.

The new radio observations will help to determine thetrue extent of this region which may span up to 200parsecs (pc) in diameter making it one of the largestknown star forming regions in our Galaxy. Althoughbright at radio wavelengths this region, located about 5kpc from the Sun, is not visible from the Earth at visualwavelengths, because of obscuration due to interstellardust. Q

Installation of the central part of the BaBar Detector

QUANTA 11

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

E. Walter Anderson, Professor, High-Energy PhysicsDavid Atwood. Senior Lecturer, High-Energy PhysicsRana Biswas, Adjunct Associate Research ProfessorSergei Bud’ko, Adjunct Associate Research ProfessorPaul Canfield, Distinguished Professor,

Condensed Matter PhysicsDavid A. Carter-Lewis, Professor, Particle AstrophysicsJames Cochran, Associate Professor,

High-Energy PhysicsH. Bert Crawley, Professor, High-Energy PhysicsHelen Fretwell, LecturerAlan I. Goldman, Professor, Condensed Matter PhysicsGuillermo Gonzalez, Assistant Professor,

Astronomy/AstrophysicsXiaofeng Guo, Affiliate Assistant Professor, Nuclear

PhysicsBruce N. Harmon, Distinguished Professor,

Condensed Matter PhysicsJohn Hauptman, Professor, High-Energy PhysicsPaula Herrera, Lecturer, Physics Education ResearchJohn C. Hill, Professor, Nuclear PhysicsKai-Ming Ho, Distinguished Professor,

Condensed Matter PhysicsLaurent Hodges, Professor, Physics Education ResearchDavid C. Johnston, Distinguished Professor,

Condensed Matter PhysicsAdam Kaminski, Assistant Professor,

Condensed Matter PhysicsSteven Kawaler, Professor, Astronomy/AstrophysicsCharles Kerton, Assistant Professor,

Astronomy/AstrophysicsVladimir Kogan, Adjunct Associate Research ProfessorFrank Krennrich, Professor, Particle AstrophysicsJohn Lajoie, Associate Professor, Nuclear PhysicsMarshall Luban, Professor, Condensed Matter PhysicsRobert McQueeney, Assistant Professor,

Condensed Matter Physics

W. Thomas Meyer, Adjunct Research ProfessorHigh-Energy Physics

Craig Ogilvie, Associate Professor,Nuclear Physics, Physics Education Research

Martin Pohl, Assistant Professor,Astronomy/Astrophysics, Particle Astrophysics

Soeren Prell, Associate Professor, High-Energy PhysicsRuslan Prozorov, Assistant Professor,

Condensed Matter PhysicsJianwei Qiu, Professor,

High-Energy Physics, Nuclear PhysicsMarzia Rosati, Associate Professor, Nuclear PhysicsJim Rose, Affiliate Professor,Eli Rosenberg, Professor, High-Energy PhysicsJoerg Schmalian, Associate Professor,

Condensed Matter PhysicsJoseph Shinar, Professor, Condensed Matter PhysicsCostas M. Soukoulis, Distinguished Professor,

Condensed Matter PhysicsCurtis Struck, Professor, Astronomy/AstrophysicsAlex Travesset, Assistant Professor,

Condensed Matter PhysicsPhysics of Biological Systems

Michael Tringides, Professor, Condensed Matter PhysicsKirill Tuchin, Assistant Professor, Nuclear PhysicsDavid Vaknin, Adjunct Research Professor

Condensed Matter PhysicsGerman Valencia, Professor, High-Energy PhysicsJames P. Vary, Professor, Nuclear PhysicsKerry Whisnant, Professor, High-Energy PhysicsLee Anne Willson, University Professor,

Astronomy/AstrophysicsDon Wolford, Professor, Condensed Matter PhysicsEdward Yu, Assistant Professor,

Condensed Matter PhysicsPhysics of Biological Systems

QUANTA is published by the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, for alumni and friends.

Editor Contributors Department ChairMark W. Fleming Mark W. Fleming Eli I. RosenbergPhone 630 983-7746 David Gieseke Phone 515 294-5441FAX 630 983-0719 Eli Rosenberg FAX 515 294-6027stratondmd@aol.com Saren Johnston redmount@iastate.edu

Some articles in this newsletter are adapted with permission from Around LAS, a publication of the College of Liberal Arts &Sciences.

© 2006 Iowa State University. All rights reserved.

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY12 Physics HallIowa State UniversityAmes, Iowa 50011-3160