SMU Department of Physics
NOvA neutrino detector in Minnesota records first 3-D particle tracks in search to understand universe
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The NOvA detector, currently under construction in Ash River, Minn., stands about 50 feet tall and 50 feet wide. The completed detector will weigh 14,000 tons. (Credit: Fermilab)[/caption]What will soon be the most powerful neutrino detector in the United States has recorded its first three-dimensional images of particles.
Using the first completed section of the NOvA neutrino detector under construction in Minnesota, scientists have begun collecting data from cosmic rays—particles produced by a constant rain of atomic nuclei falling on the Earth’s atmosphere from space. Scientists’ goal for the completed detector is to use it to discover properties of mysterious fundamental particles called neutrinos. Continue reading
UPI: Cosmic explosions give dark energy clues
The Asian news wire service Asian News International has covered the SMU Physics Department’s recent supernovae discoveries.
The article, “Exploding stars offer clues to dark energy,” was published Feb. 28. Light from two massive stars that exploded hundreds of millions of years ago recently reached Earth, and each event was identified as a supernova by SMU graduate students in the physics department. Continue reading
ANI News: Exploding stars offer clues to dark energy
The Asian news wire service Asian News International has covered the SMU Physics Department’s recent supernovae discoveries.
The article, “Exploding stars offer clues to dark energy,” was published Feb. 28. Light from two massive stars that exploded hundreds of millions of years ago recently reached Earth, and each event was identified as a supernova by SMU graduate students in the physics department.
Both supernovae were spotted with the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment‘s robotic telescope ROTSE3b, at the McDonald Observatory in West Texas. Continue reading
redOrbit: Astronomers Discover White Dwarf Supernovae
The news web site redOrbit has covered the SMU Physics Department’s recent supernovae discoveries. The article was published Feb. 27. Light from two massive stars that exploded hundreds of millions of years ago recently reached Earth, and each event was identified as a supernova. Both supernovae were spotted with the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment‘s robotic telescope ROTSE3b, which is now operated by SMU graduate students. Continue reading
White dwarf supernovae are discovered in Virgo Cluster galaxy and in sky area “anonymous”
Light from two massive stars that exploded hundreds of millions of years ago recently reached Earth, and each event was identified as a supernova by SMU researchers.
A supernova discovered Feb. 6 exploded about 450 million years ago, and a second supernova discovered Nov. 20 exploded about 230 million years ago. Continue reading
Dallas Observer: How Texas Came Within an Atom’s Breadth of Discovering the God Particle
The Dallas Observer interviewed SMU physicist Ryszard Stroynowski about Texas’ historic role in particle physics before the landmark discovery announced in July of the new fundamental “God particle” necessary for scientists to explain how matter acquires mass. Continue reading
The Telegraph: Cern announcement: after 50 years, the Higgs hunt could be over
SMU postdoctoral researcher Aidan Randle-Conde, SMU Department of Physics, was quoted by the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph. Randle-Conde was quoted for his commentary on the search for the fundamental particle the Higgs boson and the media frenzy sparked in the days leading up to CERN’s much-anticipated July 4 announcement of a new particle discovery.
Telegraph science reporter Anjana Ahuja quoted in the July 3 article “Cern announcement: after 50 years, the Higgs hunt could be over.” Continue reading
NatGeo: “God Particle” Found? “Historic Milestone” From Higgs Boson Hunters
SMU physicist Stroynowski is a principal investigator in the search for the Higgs boson, and the leader of SMU’s team in the Department of Physics that is working on the experiment.
The experimental physics group at SMU has been involved since 1994 and is a major contributor to the research, the heart of which is the Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator on the border with Switzerland and France. Continue reading
DMN: Dallas-area physicists had a hand in discovery of “God particle”
The Dallas Morning News interviewed SMU physicist Ryszard Stroynowski about the historic discovery of the new fundamental particle necessary for scientists to explain how matter acquires mass. Continue reading