Berry College Physics & Astronomy News

The Physics & Astronomy Faculty at Berry College. From left to right: Dr. Chuck Lane, Mrs. Ingrid McConkey, Dr. Paul Wallace, and Dr. Todd Timberlake.

Dr. Chuck Lane and Dr. Todd Timberlake joined the Department of Physics, Astronomy, and Geology at Berry College this past Fall. Dr. Lane joined the Berry Faculty after spending one year at Colby College in Maine. He has a Ph.D. from Indiana University. He will be teaching the 211-212 sequence, particle physics, advanced lab, and the 101 labs this year. Dr. Timberlake just completed his Ph.D. at the University of Texas. He will be teaching the 111-112 sequence, electronics, classical mechanics, and the 101 lecture this year.

Dr. Timberlake and Dr. Kris Powers (of Computer Science) are working on separate but related projects that will bring supercomputing to Berry. Dr. Powers is supervising a directed study in which several computer science students will be constructing a Beowulf Cluster running the Linux OS. Dr. Timberlake is building a Macintosh Cluster running Mac OS X. Both clusters will be available to students and faculty in the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences for high-performance computing. For more information on Dr. Timberlake's project see the Bifrost Cluster Home Page.

Photo of the debris trail left by a Leonid meteor.

The annual Leonid meteor shower was truly spectacular this year. A large group of Berry faculty and students, led by Dr. Paul Wallace, spent much of the night on the hill next to the Pew Observatory enjoying the light show. The nearly constant barrage of meteors kept the crowd entertained, while the constant supply of hot chocolate kept everyone warm and happy. Some of the Pew Observatory telescopes were set up to allow novice astronomers a chance to view some of the other wonders of the sky while they were there. The turnout was amazing and the party didn't break up until 7 AM (when the rising sun made seeing any more meteors impossible). You can find out more about the Leonid shower by clicking on the image above. You can even watch a movie showing a Leonid meteor in action!

A "paper" game in progress. This scene shows the initial "throw off" to determine the order in which the players will throw their paper during the game.

Berry Senior physics major John Foreman was declared the winner of the Fall 2001 Paper Competition. This new sport, developed by physics major Dave Squires, has swept the nation (well, really just the Physics Lounge). The playing of Paper has become an important part of the daily routine in the Physics Lounge. John was declared the Fall 2001 Champion after winning the most weeks of any player during the semester. The competition for the Spring 2002 crown looks to be fierce. You can see the excitement of a paper game first-hand by watching this movie, which shows the "throw off" at the start of the contest.

This January the Department had its regularly scheduled external review. Every five years we invite faculty from Physics and Astronomy departments at other schools to visit us, evaluate our performance, and provide suggestions on how we can improve. This year Drs. Marty Ligare (of Bucknell University) and Chris DePree (of Agnes Scott College) came to Berry to perform the review. We were very fortunate to have two such outstanding reviewers and we greatly appreciate their insight and suggestions.

John Foreman has accepted an invitation to attend graduate school at Duke University next fall. He was accepted to the graduate physics programs at Duke, Georgia Tech, and the University of North Carolina. All of us wish John the best in Durham next year. Fortunately, John will still be around during the summer, as he will be working on a research project with Dr. Timberlake.

The First Annual Berry College PHYSNIC (Physics Picnic) was held at the home of Dr. Todd Timberlake on April 28, 2002. The turnout was exceptional: all three physics faculty and their families as well as 6 Berry physics majors and 3 other Berry students. The day was filled with frisbee, football, and food. The highlight of the event was the Saturn-shaped piñata filled with candy that finally gave way after a relentless onslaught be students and faculty armed with a broomstick. The physics faculty were very pleased by the success of the physnic and plan to make it a regular event.

The names of Berry faculty who are co-authors of these publications are indicated in bold type. Names of Berry students are shown in red type.

• "Multiwavelength Observations of 3EG J2006-2321 and 3EG J0433+2908", P. M. Wallace, M. Eracleous, J. V. Foreman, J. P. Halpern, and D. J. Thompson, Proceedings of Gamma 2001, Baltimore, MD, April 2001 (AIP 587, Melville, New York, 2001) p. 319.
• "Confirmed Identification of BL Lac Object 3EG J0433+2908", J. V. Foreman, M. Eracleous, J. P. Halpern. D. J. Thompson, and P. M. Wallace, Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 33, 98.06 (2001).
• "An AGN Identification for 3EG J2006-2321" P. M. Wallace, J. P. Halpern, A. M. Magelh‹es, and D. J. Thompson, Astrophysical Journal, 2002 (in press).
• "Phase-space picture of resonance creation and avoided crossings", T. Timberlake and L. E. Reichl, Phys. Rev. A 64, 033404 (2001).
• "Noncommutative Field Theory and Lorentz Violation", S. M. Caroll, J. A. Harvey, V. A. Kotelecky, C. D. Lane, and T. Okamoto, Physical Review Letters 87, 141601 (2001).
• "Clock-Comparison Tests of Lorentz and CPT Symmetry in Space", Robert Bluhm, V. Alan Kostelecky, Charles D. Lane, and Neil Russell, to be published in Physical Review Letters.
• "One-Loop Renormalization of Lorentz-Violating Electrodynamics", V. Alan Kotelecky, Charles D. Lane, and Austin G. M. Pickering, to be published in Physical Review D.
• "Atomic Probes of Noncommutative Field Theory", Charles D. Lane, to be published in the Proceeding of the Second Meeting on CPT and Lorentz Symmetry, V. A. Kostelecky, ed., World Scientific, 2002.