February 27, 2015: Shri Kulkarni, Russell Frank Lecture Series

Professor Shri Kulkarni Director of the Caltech Optical Observatories will present a lecture entitled "The Restless Universe and the Palomar Transient Factory”

7:30pm Friday February 27 Bigelow Physics Building

Cosmic explosions were first noted nearly two thousand years ago Together, supernovae and variable stars have contributed richly to key problems in modern astrophysics: distances to galaxies, cosmography and the build up of elements in the Universe.

The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF), an innovative 2-telescope system, was designed to explicitly to chart the transient sky with a particular focus on events which lie in the nova-supernova gap. The PTF is now finding an extragalactic transient every 20 minutes and a Galactic (strong) variable every 10 minutes. The results so far: ultra-luminous supernovae as the end of the most massive stars in the Universe, progress in understanding the origin of Ia supernovae (which were used by astronomers to discover dark energy), and the identification of curious events of value to future gravitational wave observatories in space.

Admission is free. This talk is intended for a general audience including enthusiasts of all backgrounds and ages.

best regards
George Rhee

Jan 30, 2015 Forum: Fulvio Melia, The Zero Active Mass Condition in FRW Cosmologies

Abstract: The standard model of cosmology is based on the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) metric. Often written in terms of co-moving coordinates, this elegant and highly practical solution to Einstein's equations is based on the Cosmological principal and Weyl's postulate. But not all of the physics behind such symmetries has yet been recognized. We invoke the fact that the co-moving frame also happens to be in free fall to demonstrate that the FRW metric is valid only for a medium with zero active mass. In other words, the application of FRW appears to require an equation-of-state rho+3p = 0, in terms of the total energy density rho and total pressure p. Though the standard model is not framed in these terms, the optimization of its parameters brings it ever closer to this constraint as the precision of the observations continues to improve.

UNLV Physics & Astronomy Forum is held in the conference room of the Bigelow Physics Building, BPB-217 at 3:45PM.  Refreshments at 3:30.

Prof. Zhang was named an APS Fellow by the American Physical Society

A high honor awarded by the American Physical Society, APS Fellows are elected based on "outstanding physics research, important applications of physics, leadership in or service to physics, or significant contributions to physics education". Specifically, Bing Zhang was recognized 

"for his significant scientific contributions to the understanding of the physical mechanisms of high-energy astrophysical sources, especially the prompt emission and afterglows of cosmological gamma-ray bursts."

All 2014 APS Fellows, along with Bing's entry, can be seen here.

Astronomers & physicists prepare for UNLV's new supercomputer

Several press articles have been written (see e.g., Review Journal, Tech Cocktail) describing UNLV's top-ranked new supercomputer, Cherry Creek, which is housed in Las Vegas' major data center company, Switch SUPERNAP.  Today several professors including Daniel Proga and Bernard Zygelman, as well as graduate students and postdocs who will be using Cherry Creek, attended a full day workshop at the Switch headquarters (hosted in cooperation with Intel with training provided by Colfax) to learn how to make optimal use out of Intel Xeon Phi processors.  Training included details on hardware design and parallel programming methodologies.

Sean Carroll will give the next Russell Frank Lecture on December 1st

Sean Carroll is a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in 1993 from Harvard University. His research focuses on fundamental physics and cosmology, especially issues of dark matter, dark energy, spacetime symmetries, and the origin of the universe. Recently, Carroll has worked on the foundations of quantum mechanics, the arrow of time, and the emergence of complexity. Carroll is the author of The Particle at the End of the Universe, From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time, and Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity. He has been awarded prizes and fellowships by the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Sloan Foundation, the Packard Foundation, the American Physical Society, the American Institute of Physics, and the Royal Society of London. Carroll has appeared on TV shows such as The Colbert Report, PBS's NOVA, and Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman, and frequently serves as a science consultant for film and television. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, writer Jennifer Ouellette.

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Prof. Proga makes headlines on UNLV's College of Sciences website.

Prof. Proga was recognized by the college of sciences for his recent NASA award.  A brief Q&A interview can be found here.

Prof. Rhee's TEDx talk is featured on UNLV's College of Sciences website.

Having published an astronomy book accessible to the general public, Prof. Rhee is continuing to communicate his science to a wider audience.  A short opinion piece and a TEDx talk given by Prof. Rhee can be found here.