2024 Eclipse: 8 April 2024 [click 4 details]

Join us at SMU for the 2024 Total Eclipse

Dear SMU Physics Friends and Alumni,

Please join us in front of Dallas Hall on Monday 8 April 2024 for the total eclipse.

The eclipse will begin at 12:20pm and the total eclipse will last for approximately 4 minutes starting at 1:40pm.

More details to follow.

Thanks again, and we hope you can join us.

Sincerely, the SMU Physics Department

Physics Department Symposium: 28 April 2024

A Stellar Legacy:
A Symposium Commemorating Professor John Cotton’s Journey in Astronomy.

Featuring guest speaker, astronomer Fritz Benedict

Dear SMU Physics Friends and Alumni,

On behalf of the SMU Physics Department, we are pleased to invite you to the 2024 Physics Symposium, “A Stellar Legacy: A Symposium Commemorating Professor John Cotton’s Journey in Astronomy.”

We will look back across John’s 50+ years at SMU, and also look ahead to upcoming astrophysics and cosmology research in the Physics Department.

The symposium will be held on Sunday evening, April 28, 2024, on the SMU campus [Reservations Required]. The reception will be at 6 p.m., dinner will start at 6:30 p.m., the lecture will begin at 7:00 p.m., and we’ll finish by 8:30 p.m.

Please hold the date, and the Department will contact you in early April about details. Should you have any questions in the meantime, please contact Ms. Yentel Payne (214-768-2495 or ypayne@smu.edu)

Join us at the crossroads of SMU Astronomy and history.

Thanks again, and we hope you can join us.

Sincerely, the SMU Physics Department


Department Speaker Series Continues with Dr. Rob Calkins (SMU)

Our own research faculty member, Dr. Rob Calkins, will continue the Spring 2022 Department Speaker Series with a lecture entitled “New results for dark matter through inelastic scattering channels at SuperCDMS.” Please find more information below!

Despite the abundance of evidence for dark matter in the universe, direct detector experiments have not observed evidence of particle dark matter within their sensitivity reach. These experiments typically search for low energy nuclear recoils induced by interactions with dark matter, with low mass sensitivity driven by detector threshold. New ideas are required to advance these searches. One that has recently emerged has been to utilize inelastic scattering channels to search for dark matter. These scattering channels predict the emission of photons or electrons in addition to a recoiling nucleus, which can boost the expected deposited energy signal about detection thresholds at the expense of reduced interaction rate, boosting sensitivity to new, lower mass regimes for dark matter. In this talk, I will present results from a search using data collected with the SuperCDMS-Soudan experiment that is world leading for dark matter masses below 10% of the proton’s mass.

Snacks are served in FOSC 16 (The Hyer Ed Cafe) beginning at 3:45 and the talk begins promptly at 4:00pm in FOSC 123. All are welcome!