DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER

SPRING 2007

Cross Sections

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—Arie BodekAfter nine years, I am stepping down

as chair and will resume my duties asa regular faculty member on July 1, 2007.

Dean Peter Lennie hasasked Professor NickBigelow to become thenext chair.

Several of our faculty,students, and alumnihave received awardsduring this past aca -

demic year. I will mention only a fewand refer you to news stories on ourdepartment Web page for the others.Professor Joe Eberly has been servingas vice president and president-elect ofthe Optical Society of America and willbecome president this year. AssistantProfessor John Howell re ceived the 2006Adolph Lamb Medal from the OpticalSociety of America. Professor Okuboreceived the 2006 Wigner Medal for theApplication of Group Theory in Physics.Professor Judy Pipher was in ducted intothe National Women’s Hall of Fame in2007, and Professor Nick Bigelow was

elected fellow of the Op tical Society ofAmerica in 2007. Among several teach -ing awards, I would like to mention thatProfessor Dan Wat son received the 2006Goergen Award for Distinguished Achieve-ment and Art istry in UndergraduateTeach ing, and Professor Ashok Dasreceived the 2006 University GraduateTeaching Award.

Young Kee Kim (Ph.D. ’90) wasawarded the most prestigious KoreanScience Prize in 2006 and assumed thepost of deputy director of Fermi NationalAccelerator Laboratory in 2006. She hasalso been serving as co-spokesperson ofthe CDF collaboration at Fermilab, alongwith Robert Roser (Ph.D. ’97).

We wish to take this opportunity tothank all our friends who have con tri -bu ted so generously to the support ofthe department. By completing the formon the last page of our newsletter, youcan continue (or begin) that tradition of giving that will assure the future ex -cellence of the department. Other waysto help our cause are to inform anypromising students about our summer

Message from the Chairundergraduate research program (REU)and to encourage students interested in careers in physics or astronomy toap ply for graduate study at Rochester.Application material for all these pro -grams is available on our Web pages(www.pas.rochester.edu). If you know ofany exceptional undergraduates whomwe should consider either for our REUprogram or for graduate studies, wewould appreciate it if you would pleasesend their names and e-mail addressesto Barbara Warren (barb@pas.rochester.edu), and we will contact them directly.Any help from our alumni along theselines would be greatly welcomed. Severalyears ago, the University initiated atradition of hosting yearly Meliora Week-end reunions (see www.rochester.edu/alumni). I encourage all our alumni andfriends to come and visit us October19–21, 2007. For the latest news aboutthe department, please visit our Webpage, where you can also find the cur -rent and several recent issues of CrossSections online.

Cross SectionsEditor: John Howell

Published by the Department of Physics and

Astronomy of the University of Rochester, and

distributed to alumni and friends free of charge.

Copies may be obtained by writing to CROSS

SECTIONS, Department of Physics and Astronomy,

University of Rochester, Rochester, New York

14627-0171 USA.

To catch up with the happenings at the Univer -

sity, log in to www.pas.rochester.edu and find the

latest news. For previous editions of this newsletter,

go to the Alumni and Friends page from the Home

section. Or point your Web browser to http://www.

pas.rochester.edu/mainFrame/home/alumni.html.

Physics and Astronomy ¥ SPRING 2007

On the CoverArtist’s conception: Planets sweep away a clearing in a dusty disk surrounding a young, newly formed star. (NASA/JPL-Calech)

Important notices: Department phone: (585)

275-4344 and fax: (585) 273-3237.

If you change your mailing address, please

contact Bob Knox with your new whereabouts

(rsk@pas.rochester.edu). Also let him know

your current e-mail address.

3

by Adrian MelissinosThe department has a long involve ment

in the search for Gravitational Waves(GW). In the 1970s Professor D. Doug lassconstructed a “Weber” type antenna(massive aluminum cylinder with veryhigh q-factor) and with Professor W.Johnson and then graduate student M.Bocko carried out a search for GWs atthe then prevailing sensitivity levels.

Presently, laser interferometers are thestate-of-the-art gravity wave detectors.

The LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravita -tional Observatory) laboratory is fundedby the NSF and operates three large in -terferometers at two widely separatedsites. One site is at the Hanford re s -erva tion near Richland, Wash., and theother at Livingston Parish in Louisiana.

These instruments are Michelson in ter ferometers with two orthogonalarms, each arm 4 km long. The arms are Fabry- Perot cavities such that theeffective length of the arms reaches

600 km. The sensitivity to GW strainhas reached ~10^(-23)/sqrt(Hz).Namely, end-mirror displacements of Dx ~ 4x10^(-20) m can be detected in 1 second of integration time. Fig. 1shows aerial views of the interfero meterenclosures at the two sites.

Since November 2005, the LIGO in -ter ferometers have been accumulat ingdata continuously operating at designsensitivity. Fig. 2 shows the current sen -sitivity level as a function of fre quency.

The Search for Gravitational Waves

SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS Physics and Astronomy ¥ SPRING 2007

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SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS Physics and Astronomy ¥ SPRING 2007

Professor Boyd, who holds a joint ap -pointment with the Department of Phys -ics and Astronomy, and his group re centlydemonstrated that they could make lightpulses propagate very slowly, superlu min-ally, or even backwards.

There is a well-known result in specialrelativity which says that if person Asends a superluminal signal to person Bin another inertial reference frame andthen person B sends it back to person A,it is possible for person A to receive thesignal before it was originally sent. So,how is it possible to send superluminalor backward propagating signals with -out violating causality? We can recon cileour intuition of a causal universe andProfessor Boyd’s work, by realizing thatGaussian pulses, the kind used in the

experiment, actually extend wellbeyond the peak of the pulse. The pulsesin their experiment were several hund -red kilometers full width at half max -imum in length. The front edge of thepulse propagates far in advance of thecenter of the pulse and contains all ofthe information about the pulse.

In the backward propagating scheme,the fiber assembles a pulse at the farend of the medium; one component ofthe pulse propagates away from the fiber,and the other propagates back ward inthe fiber. A pictorial representa tion isshown in the figure. To dem on stratethat the light was actually pro pa gatingbackwards, they cut the fiber to shorterand shorter lengths and showed thatthe exit pulse left at later and later times.

Light Propagates BackwardsThe fields of slow, fast, and back ward

propagating light are based on man ip u -la t ing a medium’s index of refraction. Afrequency dependent index of refraction(dispersion) occurs in any system whichhas a frequency dependent absorption.The group velocity, the speed at whichthe energy travels, is determined by thefirst derivative of the index of refraction(or the slope of the dispersion for a givenfrequency). In regions of anomalous dis -persion, the slope of the index of re frac -tion is negative. It is possible to havenegative group velocities, which leads to the backward propagating pulses inBoyd’s experiment.

“I know this all sounds weird, but thisis the way the world works,” says Boyd.

How Does Light Go Backward?

Only the final pulse remains.As the initial pulse of lightapproaches the glass, a newpulse forms at the far end.

The new pulse splits in two,one traveling backward inthe glass, the other alreadyexiting.

The backward pulse meetsand cancels out the initialpulse.

The analysis of the data from the twointerferometers is the responsibility ofthe LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC).Rochester has been a part of the LSCsince 2003. The group is headed by Pro-fessor A. Melissinos and includes grad -uate students S. Giampanis and T. Fricke,and earlier, W. Butler (Ph.D. ’04). Thesignals sought by the LSC can be groupedas follows:(a) Coalescence of binary systems, be it

neutron stars or black holes. Whenthe two bodies in-spiral towardscoalescence, the emitted GW has acharacteristic frequency chirp, whichcan be recognized with confidence.

(b) Short bursts of gravitational radia tionfrom supernova collapse and similar

catastrophic events (for instance gam -ma ray burst events). Such eventsare identified by their simultaneous(time coincident) detection in severaldetectors.

(c) GWs emitted at discrete frequen-cies as expected from rotating stars(pos sibly pulsars) with significantquadrupole mass distribution. Theseextremely narrow lines will exhibit a well-defined Doppler shift due tothe motion of the earth through thegalaxy, a unique signature.

(d) Finally, a stochastic signal of GWsleft over from the big-bang or fromthe previous evolution of the universeshould be present.

So far, the LSC has placed significantlimits on all of the above mentionedphenomena. Following the present datarun, which should end this fall, the in -terferometers will be upgraded, and thecollaboration will be expanded to in cludea large interferometer in Pisa, Italy. Aproposal has also been sub mitted to theNSF for the construction of “ad vancedLIGO” aimed at improving the sen siti -vity of the present instruments by afactor of 10. Thus the rate of gravita -tional events will increase by a factorof 1000, since the rate is proportionalto the volume reached by the detectors.This will certainly lead to the detectionof GWs and to the birth of GravitationalWave Astronomy.

By Eric BlackmanUsing NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope,

Uni versity astronomers led by DanWatson and Bill Forrest in collaborationwith an international team have beenstudying dusty disks sur round ing veryyoung stars. These dusty disks aresimilar to what our own solar sys temwould have looked like when it was1,000 times younger than it is now. Thestudy of these “protoplanetary disks”probes the earliest stages of star andplanet forma tion. A major result that has emerged from this ongoing researchpro gram is the indirect detection of theyoung est planets yet discovered in theUniverse.

To explain the result, note that dustin a protoplanetary disk is hotter in thecenter near the star and so radiates mostof its light at shorter wavelengths thanthe cooler outer reaches of the disk. Fromspectra taken with Spitzer’s InfraredSpectrograph (IRS), the IRS team iden -tified abrupt deficits in emission radia -ting within a certain infrared wave -length range, thereby pinpointing thatpart of the disk that is cleared out. Insome cases, such as around the starCoKu Tau 4, it appears that the centralpart of the disk is absent entirely. Inother cases, such as around the starsDM Tauri and GM Aurigae, gaps withinthe disks are inferred. DM Tauri and GMAurigae are 420 light years away in theTaurus constellation. While disks havebeen suspected to have gaps in theseobjects from previous data, the newhigh-resolution spectra leave no doubt.

The emptiness and sharpness of theobserved gaps and holes in these proto -planetary disk systems are most na tur -ally explained by the presence of a mas -sive gas-giant planet therein. A massiveplanet will gravitationally clear out diskmaterial from an annulus within whichit orbits the star. Rochester theoristsAlice Quillen, Peggy Vaniere, Eric Black -man, and Adam Frank constrained themass of the planet or biting CoKu Tau 4from theoretical argu ments, also finding

that the required mass is consistentwith a Jupiter-like mass range.

Because the aforementioned proto -planetary disk systems are known to beonly of an order a million years old (viastellar cluster aging), the IRS team hasindirectly detected the youngest planetsyet identified in the universe. The youthof these planets has shocked the as tro -nomy community because it requiresthat they form on a time scale 10 timesfaster than some leading conventionalplanet formation models can explain.

The new findings not only reinforcethe idea that giant planets like Jupiterform much faster than scientists havetraditionally expected, but one of thesystems—called GM Aurigae—is likelyparticularly similar to our own solarsystem. GM Aurigae has 1.05 times themass of our Sun—a near twin—so itwill develop into a star very similar tothe Sun. If it were overlaid onto ourown Solar System, the discovered gapwould extend roughly from the orbit ofJupiter (460 million miles) to the orbit

of Uranus (1.7 billion miles). This isthe same range in which the gas-giantplanets in our own system appear.Small non-gas-giant planets, rockyworlds like Earth, would not sweep upas much material, and so would not bedetectable from an absence of dust.

The Spitzer Space Telescope waslaunched into orbit on August 25, 2003.The IRS Disks research team is led bymembers that built Spitzer’s InfraredSpectrograph and includes astronomersat the University of Rochester, CornellUniversity, the University of Michigan,the Autonomous National University ofMexico, the University of Virginia, IthacaCollege, the University of Arizona, andUCLA. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratoryin Pasadena, Calif., manages the SpitzerSpace Telescope mission for NASA’sScience Mission Directorate in Wash ing -ton. Science operations are con ducted atthe Spitzer Science Center at the Cal i -fornia Institute of Technology, also inPasadena.

Rochester Astronomers Discover the Youngest Planets

SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS Physics and Astronomy ¥ SPRING 2007

Artist’s conception: Planets sweep away a clearing in mass of dust surrounding afledgling star.

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SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS Physics and Astronomy ¥ SPRING 2007

John Howell, assistant professor ofphysics, and his group recently showedthat it was possible to have over 1000physically measurable states in a pair ofentangled photons. His group showed thata single pair of time-energy entangledphotons could carry the same amount ofinformation as 10 entangled two-statequantum particles (quantum bits orqubits). These high-dimensional entan -gled photons were then used to enlargethe alphabets in a novel quantum keydistribution scheme. Their work wasreported in the February 9 Physical Re -view Letters.

Key distribution is the process of shar-ing random, but correlated, strings ofnumbers (the keys) between two in tendedusers (usually known as Alice and Bob).Alice and Bob use the strings of numbersto encrypt plaintext messages. Since onlyAlice and Bob know the strings of num -bers, they are the only users that canproperly decrypt the message. An ex ampleis that Alice and Bob both have randombit strings of 11001. Alice wants to sendplaintext message 10,010 to Bob. Shemust first add (addition modulo two) eachterm in the plaintext message to her ran -dom string. Alice then has a cipher text01011, which she sends to Bob over apub lic communication channel, such asa public announcement system at a foot -ball game. Bob then performs additionmodulo two to the ciphertext with hiskey and decrypts the ciphertext to reveal

plaintext message 10010. The techniqueis called the Vernam cipher or one-timepad. It can be seen that as long as thekeys are secure, then the cipher text issecure. Quantum key distribution is ameans of sending secure keys be tweentwo intended users using the laws ofquantum mechanics.

Since the Bennett Brassard 1984 pro -tocol, most of the quantum key distribu -tion schemes have used two-level sys tems,such as transverse polarization states.There has been significant interest in try -ing to obtain higher dimensional alpha -bets (strings with numbers 0,1,2,…d),instead of just bit strings. The interest istwofold. First, the information through -put can be increased without increasingthe transmission rates. Second, the secu -rity of the key transmission, in manycases, is improved.

There had been incremental progressin increasing the dimensionality of thealphabet of cryptosystems. The largestalphabet had been 36 characters but useda multimode free space transmis sion. Theinteresting thing about Howell’s group’swork is that the system em ployed fibertransmission and had in excess of 1024characters (equivalent of 10 bits of in -for mation).

The scheme is based on time-energycorrelations which naturally exist in theprocess of spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC). In spontaneous para -metric downconversion one photon is

destroyed, and two photons are createdwith large single photon energy uncer -tainty but very small two-photon energyuncertainty. Owing to energy conserva tionthe sum of the energies of the two down -converted photons has to be equal to the energy uncertainty of the destroyedphoton. If a narrow band pump photonis destroyed, there is very small energyuncertainty. However, the individual en -ergies of the photons can be very large.On the other hand, the photons are createdat nearly the same time. Hence, if onemeasures the times of arrival of the twophotons they arrive at times too cor relatedeven to measure, except through inter -ference techniques. If one measures theenergy correlations they are also ex tremelygood.

The quantum key distribution schemeis then made by measuring the randomarrival of photons in correlated time bins.Since the photons will arrive at the samebut random time then correlated stringsof numbers set by the bins can be gen -erated. The security of the system istested by looking at the spectral correla -tions between the two photons. An in ter -ferometer which measures fourth-orderfringes was used to measure the correla -tions between the photons. If an eaves -dropper tries to determine the time ofarrival of the photons, the spectral cor -relations will be destroyed. It can thenbe determined that an eavesdropper waspresent during the transmission.

Beyond Qubits

Fig 1. The figure shows an image of the Rush Rhees Library that Alice wishes to send to Bob. The image was encrypted usingdata from the cryptoscheme and decrypted with Bob’s key. The discrepan cies are due to errors in the transmission.

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The department is pleased to an nouncethat Esther M. Conwell,professor of chemistryand physics, has re -ceived the Universityof Rochester’s 2006Susan B. AnthonyLife time Achievement

Award. This award honors preeminentwomen scholars having a strong as -sociation with the University of Roch -ester who best exemplify the admir ablecharacteristics of Susan B. Anthony.

Conwell ReceivesSusan B. AnthonyLifetime Achieve -ment Award

Professor Howell received the 2006 Adolph Lomb Medal from theOptical Society of America at the annual OSA meeting in Roch ester.He was selected “For inno va tive contrib u tions in quan tum op tics, part -i cu larly as pects of quan tum cloning, violations of Bell’s in equalitiesand maximal photonic en tan glement.”

John Howell Wins Adolph Lomb Medal

Ashok Das, professor of physics, has received a Fulbright ScholarAward to do research in Brazil in 2006–2007. This is the secondFulbright Scholarship awarded to Das.

Ashok Das Has Received FulbrightAward (Brazil)

HONORS AND AWARDS

EDUCATION Physics and Astronomy ¥ SPRING 2007

The Department of Physics and Astron omyannounces a new professional master’sdegree program in physics with individ -ual ized course plans selected from phys -ics, astrophysics, applied physics, phys -ics education, or engineering to begin inthe fall of 2007.

The individualized professional mas ter’sprogram, designed for students with a B.A.or B.S. in physics, takes one full academicyear. Students who complete the indiv id -ual ized M.S. program may enter the work -force directly for practical training or maychoose to apply to a Ph.D. program inphysics or in an allied field or other re -lated interdis cip linary programs in scienceand eng ineering.

Practical Training: For foreign stu -dents who come with an F1 student visa,the length of time allowed for practicaltrain ing is 12 months following com -pletion of the M.S. degree. Foreign stu -dents must ap ply for practical trainingand obtain ap proval before they com -plete the M.S. de gree. M.S. students whohave com pleted their 12 months of prac -tical train ing may enter a Ph.D. programand later apply for an additional 12

months of practical train ing to followtheir Ph.D. degree.

Examples of M.S. programs in trad i -tional specialty subfields in physics in -clude astrophysics, biological/medicalphys ics, condensed matter physics, nu -clear physics, optical physics, particlephysics, physics education, and plasmaphysics. Examples of M.S. programs withindividualized course plans selected fromapplied phys ics and engineering include(but are not limited to): physics in med -icine, physics and com putation, physicsand eng ineer ing (e.g., electrical and com -puter eng ineering, chemical engineering,mech anical en g ineering), chemical phys -ics, etc. Students may individualize theirprograms more narrowly according totheir own specific interests (e.g., nano -technology, geo phys ics/environmentalscience, energy, ma terials, etc.) in con -sultation with the grad uate student ad -visor. Examples are shown on the depart -ment’s Web page.

Every individualized M.S. degree can -did ate must declare an area of specialtyin physics or an allied field in appliedphys ics or engineering. Specialties (or al -lied fields) are organized as two-, three-,

New Degree Program Announcedor four-course sequences. The goal is toprovide a degree of depth in the M.S. edu -cation, rather than a ran dom samp ling of courses. Stud ents choose their ownspecialty in con sulta tion with the grad uatestudent ad visor.

The standard program of study (Plan B)for the M.S. degree in this program re -quires at least 30 credit hours of course -work and a master’s ex amination. Uni -versity rules for the M.S. degree re quireat least 18 hours of the course work tobe in physics and as tronomy, and at least12 of the 18 hours must be in coursesnum bered 400 or higher. The other coursesmay be at the 200-level or higher. To besuccessful, the student must have a strongbackground in physics and mathematics.

The M.S. exam: All Plan B (non-thesisoption) full-time, part-time, 3-2, or 4-1M.S. students must pass an M.S. exam,which can be a term project, an essay, oran oral exam. The M.S. exam is an exitexam; stud ents should plan to take ittoward the end of their study. Students ad -mitted to the individual ized M.S. programare eligible for finan cial aid in the form ofa partial-tuition scholarship.

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OTHER DEPARTMENT NEWS

Our Newest Faculty Member: Professor Andrew JordanBorn in Garland, Texas, Professor

Andrew N. Jordan was raised in Dallasand graduated from Texas A&M Uni ver -sity, with degrees in mathematics andphysics. He went on to take his Ph.D. atUC Santa Barbara, study ing with Pro -

fessor Mark Srednicki.His thesis was onquantum chaos andcoherence.

Professor Jordan thenmarried Marian, andtogether they moved toGeneva, Switzerland,

where he worked in the group of Pro -fessor Markus Büttiker on mesoscopic

physics at the University of Geneva.During their four years in Geneva, theirson, Thomas (3), and daughter, Juliana(2), were born.

Before coming to Rochester, theJordans briefly returned to Texas A&Mfor six months, where Andrew alsoworked with Professor Marlan Scully on statistical physics of Bose-Einsteincondensation. The Jordans’ third child,Catherine, was born in February. Theyare all very happy to be in Rochester,though being Yankees will take somegetting used to.

Professor Jordan’s research interestsare in theoretical quantum optics,

quantum physics, and condensed matterphysics. His recent work has primarilyfocused on nanoscale elec trical con duc -tors, quantum informa tion, and measure -ment theory.

One main research theme is the sto -chastic path integral formalism, de velopedin Geneva to calculate stat istical propert -ies of noisy circuits and networks. Thisformalism has been applied to in vesti gateelectron counting statistics, bistability in mesoscopic conductors, and supercon -ducting threshold detectors.

Another active area of research is thetheory of continuous quantum measure -ment, particularly in a solid state con text.

HONORS AND AWARDS Physics and Astronomy ¥ SPRING 2007

Nicholas N. Bigelow,Lee A. DuBridge Pro -fessor of Physics andprofessor of op tics, waselected fel low of the Op-tical Society of Americain 2007 for “Pioneeringexperi men tal leadership

in both spin squeezing and two-speciestrap ping of ultra-cold atoms and forservice through meeting or gan iza tionand journal editing.”

Lukas Novotny, associate professor of optics and of phys -ics, was elected fellowof the Optical Society of America in 2007 for“Pioneering contribu tionsto the fields of nano-microscopy and nano-spectro scopy and for

leadership in the community of near-field optics.”

Bigelow andNovotny ElectedFellows of theOptical Society ofAmerica in 2007

Judith Pipher, professor of phys ics and astronomy at the University of Roch ester,will be one of nine women inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in SenecaFalls, N.Y., in October 2007.

Her citation reads: Dr. Judith L. Pipher, a professor of ob serva -tional and experimental astronomy at the Univer sity of Roch esterwho is known for her research and experiments in the field ofinfrared astronomy. “Pipher’s achieve ments in science have reallybeen ground breaking,” Hall of Fame Acting Director Christine Moultonsaid. “Very often sci entists’ work goes unnoticed outside their pro -fessional field. Her achieve ments have impact for all of us. It’s timefor her to be widely recognized.”

Judith Pipher Inducted into NationalWomen’s Hall of Fame

Steve Manly, associate professor of physics at the University of Rochester, has beenselected to re ceive the 2007 Amer ican Association for Physics Teach ers(AAPT) Award for Excellence in Un der graduate Teach ing. His award isgiven in recog nition of con tri butions to undergraduate physics teach -ing.

The recipient, an AAPT member for whom undergraduate teachingis a pri mary responsibility, is invited to make a presentation at anAAPT summer meet ing. The recipient receives a $3,000 mon etaryaward, travel expenses to the meeting, and an Award Certificate.

Steve Manly to Receive 2007 AmericanAssociation of Physics Teachers forExcellence in Undergraduate Teaching

continued on next page

whereby the effect of weak quantummeasurement can be undone by erasinginformation.

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We gratefully acknowledge recent donations of alumni and friends to the Department of Physics and Astronomy at theUniversity of Rochester. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this list. If you find an error or an omission,please let us know by calling Shirley Brignall at (585) 275-4344 or by e-mail to shirl@pas.rochester.edu. If you have apostal or e-mail address change, please contact Bob Knox with your new whereabouts (rsk@pas.rochester.edu).

THANK YOU

OTHER DEPARTMENT NEWS Physics and Astronomy ¥ SPRING 2007

Focusing on quantum dots and super -conducting quantum systems, ProfessorJordan has worked on “kicked” QNDmeasurements, tests of quantum

mechan ics, entangling measurements,feedback control, and quantum logicgates and has recently developed the“quantum undemolition measurement,”

Appelera Corporation Andrew N. BakerSteven BoegeGerardus Dingeman BouwBristol-Myers SquibbThomas H. ChybaEstate of Annie Currie DickeDonaldson TrustThomas & Julietta FosterNorman C. Francis

Hugh Leslie GarvinGeorge GaspariGeneral ElectricCharles W. EngelbrachtThomas & Barbara FerbelIsay & Malvina GolyakRonald Parke GroffRobert HardingEdmond William HolroydE. H. Jacobsen

Calvin Shea KalmanPeter Freidrich Max KoehlerVictor KozlovShu Biu LaiDon Q. LambZhuohan LiangGeorge & Doris LuckeyMark & Mariko MozesonAdrian & Joyce MelissinosJames A. Muir

David T. & Betty NelsonC. Diehl & Marion OttRaphael PanfiliSteven & Gail PieperGeorge SkadronSteven SolomonRobert L. & Mary SproullJoel C. & Katherine

Wojciechowski

Phase-space plot of a noise-driven bistable system; thetwo stable points are on the left and right, and there is anunstable point at the center. The system moves on lines ofconstant color, with the black zero-energy lines the mostprobable. Noise can cause the system to tran sit from onestable point to the other, at a rate given by the negativeexpon en tial of the area between the black lines. [Coverimage of Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 260604 (2004).]

Joint probability distributions. The logarithm of the joint proba -bility dis tribution of detecting quantum point contact (QPC) cur -rent (x-axis) and quan tum dot (QD) current (y-axis) is given as acolor density plot, where red indicates high probability, and blueindicates low probability. (a), (c) Experimental con stru c tion fortwo data sets. (b), (d) Theoretical prediction for the two con fig -urations respectively. [Taken from experiment by the K. Ensslingroup at the ETH, Switzerland, to be published in NaturePhysics.]

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Physics and Astronomy ¥ SPRING 2007

You CanContribute . . . . . . to promoting research andteaching in physics and astronomyat Rochester.

For those of you who receive thispublica tion, there is a desire to pro -mote the study and research in theareas of physics and astron omy.Within the department we are in -terested in establishing a firm fin -ancial base on which the futuregen eration can build. A significantway this can be done is throughoutright gifts to an endowment likethe Mandel Fund. Another way isby including the Department of Phys-ics and Astronomy in your long-termfinancial plans. If you are in ter estedin funding a gift to the Universitythat would give you a lifelong in -come stream and upon your deathwould benefit the De partment ofPhys ics and Astron omy, please con -tact Shirley Brignall. Our assistantchair, Sondra Anderson, has ex -perience in setting up gift annuitiesand charitable trusts and will workwith you to establish one of thesetypes of giving agreements.

David L. Dexter Elliott W. Montroll Leonard Mandel Robert E. Marshak

Physics and Astronomy ¥ SPRING 2007

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The C. E. Kenneth Mees ObservatoryFund. Established in 1977, this fund isfor the discretionary use of the directorof the University’s Mees Observatory insupport of observatory activities, suchas the upgrade to the facility.

The Physics and Astronomy Endow mentFund is for the discretionary use of thechair of the Department of Physics andAstronomy in support of depart mentactivities.

The Leonard Mandel Endowment Fund.This will fund the Leonard MandelFaculty Scholar Award in Optical Scienceat the Univer sity of Rochester and beused to support one graduate student.

The department has establishedseveral funds that greatly benefitdepartmental activities. They are:

The David L. Dexter and Elliott W.Montroll Lecture Fund. Established inthe 1980s in memory of Professors Dex-ter and Montroll, these funds supportan annual lecture by an outstandingscientist as part of either the DexterLecture or the Montroll Lecture Series.

The Robert E. Marshak Memorial Fund.This fund will be used to support thenewly created postdoctoral Robert E.Marshak Research Fellowships, intendedto attract the most talented young nu -clear and particle physicists to continuetheir research in the department.

I wish to contribute to the following fund: � The David L. Dexter and Elliott W. Montroll Endowment Fund� The Robert E. Marshak Memorial Endowment Fund� The C. E. Kenneth Mees Observatory Fund� The Physics and Astronomy Endowment Fund� The Leonard Mandel Endowment Fund � The Physics Education Award Endowment Fund

My contribution: $

� Check enclosed � VISA � MasterCard Card # Exp. Date

Name

Address

Year/Degree

If donating by check, please make sure your check is payable to the “University of Rochester,” and indicate thatit is for the “Department of Physics and Astronomy.” Be sure to check the specific fund to which your donationshould be applied. Gifts of appreciated securities are also gratefully accepted. Please return this form to:

Chair, Department of Physics and AstronomyUniversity of Rochester

P.O. Box 270171Rochester, NY 14627-0171 USA

Departmental FundsThe Physics Education Award Endow -

ment Fund supports undergraduateawards and graduate student fellow ships.

Contributions from alumni and friendsare the dominant source of income tothese funds. If you would like to supportthe department, please mark the appro -priate box on the form below and send itwith your contribution. Donations may betax deductible, and donations of ap preci -ated securities may also carry tax ad van -tages. The department is grateful for anyhelp you give.

UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS A&S632-2.5M-607-EP