Department of Physics and Astronomy

News

The Road to the Stars: Five out-of-this-world facts about campus astronomical observatories

AAC&U — Five out-of-this-world facts about campus astronomical observatories. PhysAstro's Danny Milisavljevic was quoted in the article.

AAS Journal Author Series: Miranda Pikus and Paul Duffell

YouTube — Miranda Pikus and Paul Duffell (Purdue University) chat about their article on how thermal cooling creates structural changes in supernova remnants as they evolve, finding that when the cooling timescale is shorter that ~1/400 of the Sedov time, the ejecta are shaped into a filamentary structure similar to Pa 30. The filament structures are created by the formation of Rayleigh–Taylor instability fingers where the cooling has prevented the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability from overturning and mixing out the tips.

Braiding Anyons in a Semiconductor Sandwich

YouTube — Every particle in the standard model is either a fermion or a boson. So how did physicists create a third kind of particle, and how did they know they had succeeded? Be sure to watch Purdue Physics and Astronomy Professor Erica Carlson's new video on The Quantum Age on YouTube.

Antihydrogen Measurement Sharpens Antimatter Symmetry Test

Physics APS — A 100-fold improvement in a key antihydrogen measurement strengthens tests of matter–antimatter symmetry, entering a regime sensitive to the antiproton’s internal structure. PhysAstro's Francis Robicheaux was part of the research team.

Bringing Quantum Concepts into Classrooms | Podcast

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics-related fields employ 25% of the U.S. workforce. U.S. National Science Foundation-supported professors Erica Carlson and Muhsin Menekse discuss how their collaboration is inspiring the next generation of STEM workforce through a quantum education program.

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