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An artist's conception of the shock breaking out of a red supergiant star. The shock is caused by the collapse of the core of the star and initiates a type II supernova explosion.
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Notre Dame logo constructed from 47 individual CO molecules arranged on a copper sheet, from the lab of Prof. Kenjiro Gomes. The logo is only 12 nanometers across. Orange regions are electron waves scattered off the dark CO molecules.
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Geneva, Switzerland: Lowering of a completed segment of the CMS detector into its underground cavern. The completed instrument is now recording collisions at the Large Hadron Collider.
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Image credit: J.C. Howk, K. Rueff (Notre Dame), NASA/ESA, LBTO
Notre Dame astronomers are using images of the spiral galaxy NGC 4302 to study the impact that exploding stars have on gas and dust in spiral galaxies.
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High-temperature superconducting YBCO levitating above a magnetic track due to vortex pinning
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The National Science Foundation (NSF) funded 5 MV accelerator represents a major equipment upgrade for the nuclear research group.
News
- 12th annual STEM Forum to feature leaders from across education, industry and government
- February 15, 2019
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- Garg brings the science of stars to Europe
- January 23, 2019
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Events
- Astrophysics Seminar: Prof. Evan O'Connor, Stockholm University
- Tue Feb 19, 2019 • 12:30PM - 1:30PM
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- Physics Colloquium: Dr. Ashley Cook, UC Berkeley
- Tue Feb 19, 2019 • 4:00PM - 5:00PM
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- Our Universe Revealed: Prof. John LoSecco
- Tue Feb 19, 2019 • 7:00PM - 8:00PM
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Faculty Spotlight
Timothy C. Beers
Notre Dame Chair in Astrophysics
Astrophysicist Timothy Beers only needs 100 stars out of the 100 billion in the universe to help prove one of the longest-held theories in the field. However, finding those stars—the brightest, low-metallicity stars in the Milky Way— is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Dervis Can Vural
Assistant Professor of Physics
Most research within the field of physics focuses on predicting the future. But how rapidly does our knowledge of the past deteriorate? Consider a sugar cube dissolving in water. “If you know the initial shape of the sugar cube, it is very easy to predict the concentration of sugar over time,” said Dervis Can Vural, assistant professor in the Department of Physics at Notre Dame. “But given the final state—a sweet cup of water—it is very difficult to ‘retrodict’ the original shape of the sugar cube. The process is irreversible and you’ve lost that information.”
Boldizsar Janko
Professor
Superconductors contain tiny tornadoes of supercurrent, called vortex filaments, that create resistance when they move. This affects the way superconductors carry a current.
But a magnet-controlled “switch” in superconductor configuration provides unprecedented flexibility in managing the location of vortex filaments, altering the properties of the superconductor.
Zoltan Toroczkai
Professor of Physics
Toroczkai and collaborators have been working toward developing a novel mathematical approach that will help advance computation beyond the digital framework. His recent paper, published in Nature Communications, describes a new mathematical, analog “solver” that can potentially find the best solution to NP-hard problems.
