Queen's 2015 Nobel Prize in PhysicsTeaching photonic chips to learn
Summary
A multi-institution research team has developed an optical chip that can train machine learning hardware.
Accelerators as windows to the dark sector: the DarkLight experiment and the hunt for a new boson
Date
Friday November 4, 20221:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Location
STI AKatherine Pachal
TRIUMF
Abstract
The nature of dark matter and its relationship to the Standard Model is one of the highest priority open questions in particle physics today. Accelerator-based experiments are a powerful tool in the search for dark matter and the new bosons that may mediate its interactions with the known particles. The DarkLight experiment will search for such a new boson with suppressed couplings to protons in an important uncovered low-mass range. DarkLight will be based at the TRIUMF electron linear accelerator and will pave the way for this unique machine to drive other future experiments.
Connor Stone receives his PhD at Grant Hall
On October 11th at about 3pm Connor Stone was hooded and given his PhD at the convocation ceremony in Grant Hall. This was the first day that convocation returned to Grant Hall since the beginning of the pandemic.
Connor has been with the Physics department for 6 years, first as a Masters student (sup. Tony Noble and Stéphane Courteau) then as a PhD candidate (sup. Stéphane Courteau). His primary area of research was in galaxy observations and structural relations with a PhD thesis title of Deciphering the Complexity of Galaxy Structure.
BScH/MSc Physics Student publishes in Queen’s Business Review
Congratulations to Becca VanDrunen (BScH/MSc Physics, Stephen Hughes) on publishing her first article with the Queen's Business Review in collaboration with the QMIND Technology review. This article covers the connection between physics and artificial intelligence, and how the two complement each other.
2022 Nobel Physics Prize
Today, it was announced that the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics is being awarded "for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science", shared equally by:
Fast Radio Burst Localization with the CHIME/FRB Outrigger system
Date
Friday October 7, 20221:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Location
STI AAdam Lanman
McGill University
Abstract
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are micro to millisecond duration flashes of radio emission whose high dispersion indicates extra-Galactic origins. Their sources are not yet fully understood, though several plausible models have been proposed. As compact transients visible at cosmological distances, FRBs have the potential to serve as powerful probes of the intergalactic medium (IGM), as the frequency dispersion of the pulse depends on the density and ionization state of the plasma it travels through. The FRB program of the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME/FRB) has become the leading instrument for detecting FRBs, releasing a catalog of 536 new FRB sources in 2021 and detecting, on average, a new candidate every day. Although CHIME/FRB has excellent characteristics for detecting FRBs, it lacks the sub-arcsecond resolution required to identify their host galaxies. Three new outrigger antennas — one near CHIME in British Columbia, one in the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, and one in the Hat Creek Observatory in California — will enable CHIME to perform very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) on FRB candidates at detection, effectively combining the discovery rate of CHIME with the resolution of VLBI. In this talk, I will discuss the CHIME/FRB Outrigger program, current accomplishments in performing VLBI on radio transients, and the prospects of using localized FRBs to study the cosmic evolution of the intergalactic medium
The Queen’s Observatory Re-Opens!
We will be resuming our in-person Open House series where you can listen to a professional astronomer share the wonders of the Universe before heading to our outdoor observation deck to view nearby celestial objects. Next, head up to the observatory dome to gaze into deep-space with our 14” reflecting telescope, sure to dazzle inquiring minds young and old!
New Space: Astronomical Opportunities from Suborbital and Beyond
Date
Friday October 21, 20221:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Location
STI AJavier Romualdez
CEO, Starspec Technologies
Abstract
Access to space-based instrumentation has unquestioned value for a wide variety of astronomical applications, not only in the fundamental research that is clearly enabled, but in the technologies developed that complement state-of-the-art advances in engineering and data science. As tech giants around the world continue to pave the way towards increasingly more accessible launches, StarSpec Technologies is pioneering an approach to space that enables fast, plug-and-play, cost-effective, and generally more accessible satellite technologies in support of high-performance and highly-stabilized space-based imaging applications. Leveraging 30+ years of flight heritage, StarSpec strives to provide easy access to well-established balloon-borne technologies as a stepping stone to a new class of LEO SmallSat missions, supporting a wide variety of applications from high fidelity mapping reconstruction used in CMB research and the early universe to diffraction-limited optical-to-UV imaging employed for weak lensing and gravitational wave follow-ups.
Tenure-Track Faculty Position
The Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy at Queen’s University invites applications for a Tenure-track faculty position at the rank of Assistant Professor with specialization in theoretical quantum optics or/and condensed matter physics, in research areas that complement the existing and growing strengths in the department. The preferred starting date is July 1, 2023.
Benjamin Broerman
Benjamin Broerman
Post Doctorate
Graduate Students
Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy
Arts & Science
Area of Research
Supervisor: Prof. K. Clark