Throughout my tenure at Indiana University, I have been interested in teaching
labs on all levels of our curriculum. I have made major contributions to the following
courses:
Intermediate-level Laboratory (P309)
Advanced-level Laboratory (P451)
Physical Optics with lab (P460)
My field is nuclear physics. Over the years (see curriculum vitae ), I have studied pion-nucleus total cross sections, pionic atoms, anomalous alpha scattering from medium-weight nuclei, forward dispersion relations in proton-nucleus elastic scattering, nucleon-nucleus elastic scattering and reactions at intermediate energies, neutral decays of the proton-antiproton system at rest, pion production from nuclei and in pp and pd collisions, and few-nucleon bremsstrahlung and capture reactions. In many cases, the emphasis was on the polarization observables of these reactions. More recently, I have been active in physics with neutrinos, neutrons and anti-protons, and in an attempt to measure the electric dipole moment of the neutron. Most of this research I have carried out while at the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility (IUCF) .
On the technical side, I have manufactured lithium-drifted silicon detectors, developed photon-imaging detector for use in nuclear medicine, desiged and built liquid hydrogen and superfluid helium targets, developed a wide range of new technology for storage-ring experiments with internal targets, designed and built a neutron radiography facility, conceived a novel scheme for a neutrino detector, and studied the behavior of photomultiplier at cryogenic temperatures. For more detail, see my list of publications .
The Indiana Cooler, and Polarization in Few-Nucleon Physics:
From 1983 to 2002, most of my research made use of the "Indiana Cooler", a light-ion storage ring with electron cooling. A recent Review of the Indiana Cooler by me summarizes the life of this facility, and the research carried out with it. I was mainly associated with the Polarized Internal Target Experiment (PINTEX) group. Our interest has been in the spin dependence of light ion reactions.
Neutrino Physics:
As a member of the IUCF Neutrino group I contributed in the early stages of the MiniBoone experiment (characterization of the mineral oil used as Cerenkov radiator). The goal of the experiment is to look for neutrino oscillations. For the more recent FINeSSE experiment, I have developed a novel neutrino detector , capable of tracking charged neutrino reaction products in a large volume of liquid scintillator. We are currently building a prototype version of this detector.
Neutron Radiography:
In the context of the recently completed Low-energy Neutron Source (LENS) at IUCF, Kun Chen (Ph.D. student) and I developed and successfully operated a radiography station. When the management decided to abandon radiography at IUCF, our studies were continued at the Paul-Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. Dr. Chen's thesis (pdf, 18 Mb) provides an account of this work.
The Neutron Electric Dipole Moment:
An experiment at the Neutron Spallation Source (SNS) to lower the upper limit for the electric dipole moment of the neutron is currently in preparation. The "nEDM" collaboration is led by a group at the Los Alamos National Lab. My responsibility is the study of the performance of photomultipliers at cryogenic temperatures.
Polarized Anti-Protons:
A 1994 paper on the polarization of stored beams by C. Horowitz and myself has received renewed interest during the planning of a large, new Facility for Antiproton and Ion ResearchGSI (FAIR) near Darmstatt, Germany. As a member of the PAX collaboration , I am participating in exploratory measurements at the COSY storage ring in Juelich in order to learn how to polarize anti-protons.
Preserving and collecting obsolete physics equipment :
Historical Scientific Equipment (click)
Tracking down the hidden beauty in the woods around Bloomington:
Indiana Wildflowers (click)
Hiking and mountaineering:
Peru 2008 (click)
Nepal 2007 (click)
Bolivia 2006 (click)
Ecuador 2005 (click)
Climbing in the Alps, 1994 - 2004 (click)