Alumni Updates - NMU Physics

NMU Physics alumnus Jay Tasson of Ishpeming, who is currently pursuing his PhD in physics at Indiana University, was recently mentioned in the nationally distributed APS (American Physical Society) News.  Jay is working with Dr. Alan Kostelecky at IU searching for possible violations of general relativity (Einsteins' theory of gravity) through the investigation of Lorentz symmetry.  NMU physics faculty, Dr. Neil Russell, has collaborated with Dr. Kostelecky for many years on this investigation and continues to work in this field (see photos on this web site of the posters Dr. Russell created involving this work).  Congratulations to Jay for his outstanding progress.

Here is the article:

New Ways Suggested to Probe Lorentz Violation

Lorentz invariance, a basic building block of relativity, holds that the laws of physics remain the same for observers traveling at constant speeds relative to each other, or rotated with respect to each other.  Some theoretical models, called standard model extensions, have predicted violations of Lorentz symmetry.  At the April Meeting, several theorists reported on ways Lorentz violation might turn up in various experiments.

“All of known physics depends on Lorentz symmetry,” Matt Mewes of Marquette University said in a press conference at the April Meeting.  If that symmetry is not exact, there will be some small defects in everything else.  He likened Lorentz symmetry to a building block on which much of the rest of physics rests.  If the Lorentz symmetry block was slightly chipped, the whole structure on top of it would lean slightly.  So by making very precise measurements of many different physical phenomena, one could expect to see evidence of Lorentz violation.

One way to look for Lorentz violation is in the cosmic microwave background polarization, Mews suggested.  Recent experiments have measured the polarization of the CMB at different positions in the sky.  An unexpected twist in that polarization would indicate a breakdown of relativity.  Mews, in collaboration with Alan Kostelecky of Indiana University, analyzed data from the CMB experiment BOOMERANG, looking at many different parameters.  They found that the results hint slightly at potential unexected twist in the polarization.  Future experiments will be needed to verify this.  The CMB polarization is a good way to look for relativity violations because the longer light travels, the more chance it has to undergo this slight rotation, said Mews.  No other light has traveled further than the CMB.

Jay Tasson of Indiana University described another way to look for violations of general relativity.  Torsion is a warping of space and time in addition to the curvature of spacetime that Einstein’s general relativity predicts.  Such a warping, predicted by  some alternative theories of gravity, would cause particles’ spins to precess.  A University of Washington experiment used large number of electron spins to detect these effects.  A complementary approach by a Harvard group used microwaves emited by a helium-xenon master to measure changes in the spin orientation of neutrons.  Tasson and Kostelecky used these measurements to determine limits on 15 of the 24 quantities that would describe torsion.  So far, no evidence of torsion has been observed in these extremely sensitive measurements, Tasson reported.

Still another place to look for Lorentz violation is by searching for tiny variations in the moon’s orbit about the earth.  Quentin Bailey of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University described how researchers looked at data from a laser ranging experiment that bounced lasers off mirrors placed on the moon by astronauts.  The scientists used that data to measure parameters that would reveal any deviation from general relativity.  In addition, another experiment, performed at Stanford, tracked the gravitational force felt by atoms very accurately, looking for tiny deviations from what general relativity predicts.  These experiments are all very sensitive, to several parts in ten billion.  All measurements were consistent with general relativity, Bailey reported.

Although no solid evidence of Lorentz violation has been found so far in any experiment, there is still room for ever more sensitive experiments to search for the effect, the researchers said.

“New Ways Suggested to Probe Lorentz Violation.” APS NEWS June 2008: Volume 17, No. 6: page 3.  www.aps.org/publications/apsnews.

Michael graduated from NMU’s Physics Program in 1959. His employment career began in 1959 and spanned 32 years. From 1959-62, he was employed with the Transonic 
Division of the Naval Research and Development Lab. in Carderock,Maryland. In which, he conducted aerodynamic testing of scale model aircraft and missiles in the 
Transonic Wind Tunnel.

During the years, 1962-1965, he was employed at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland, where he supervised the development, 
installation,and operation of satellite ground control stations in support of the NASA Relay Communications Satellite Project. The Relay satellite provided telephone, data, and television between terrestrial ground stations around the world. He also supervised the installation, testing, and operations of satellite ground control stations in support of the NASA Syncom Communications Project. Syncom was the world’s first synchronous communications satellite. It was developed to demonstrate telephone communicationsfrom synchronous orbit. Syncom’s synchronous or stationary orbit allowed it to be visible overhead 24 hours a day. 

From 1965-1974, he was employed with the Physics and Astronomy Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., as an assistant to the Astronomical and Solar Observatories Program Manager, where he assisted in overseeing the program’s budgets and observatory schedules including the Orbiting Astronomical Observatories (OAO) 2, and 3, and Orbiting Solar Observatories (OSO) 3, 4, 5, and 6. He also assisted in the procurement and supervision of the technical development of the Kuiper airborne Infra-red Astronomical Observatory (KOA). He was promoted to Program Manager in 1975 and was responsible for several programs including the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 3, the Orbiting Solar Observatories 7, and 8, the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM), and the initial planning and budgeting for the International Solar Polar Mission (ISPM). The ISPM was a joint NASA and European Space Agency (ESA). 

After his retirement in 1981, he became an independent technical consultant for the following: Fairchild Industries, Space and Electronics Division located in Germantown,Maryland, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA), and the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) Program Office in Suitland, Maryland. During the period 1983 through 1991, he was employed by the Perkin-Elmer Corporation, Danbury, Connecticut. While at Perkin-Elmer he assisted the Perkin-Elmer’s Hubble Operations Control Manager in developing procedures for the initial

“I currently live in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Learning physics at NMU has helped me travel many places in the world. After graduating from NMU in 1993, I spent a year in the M.S.C. program in Chemistry and then moved out west to start on my Ph.D. I received my Ph.D. in Physics in 2000 from Washington State University in organic nonlinear optics. I used Labview to control optical experiments on polymer thin films and fibres. Matlab was essential for analyzing data and simulating theories of how the polymers were behaving. Since receiving my Ph.D., I have been a term limited lecturer and post-doctoral fellow in the Physics Department at the University of Auckland in Auckland, New Zealand.

During my time in Auckland, I conducted research on how light propagates in optical fibres. The most interesting are a class of fibre called microstructured or holey fibres. They typically have a pattern of air holes around the fibre core that run the entire length of the fibre, which can be kilometers long. The fraction of air around the core determines the dispersion in the
fibre. This gives the research incredible control over how intense laser light propagates in the fibre and allows us to observe nonlinear phenomena that I thought only existed in textbook theory. The most exciting has to be supercontinuum generation, where single wavelength laser light is converted as it propagates inside the fibre into a white light continuum.

I have two wonderful kids, Aiden, 7 and Justine, 4 that I am teaching about the world while my wife Nicole works full-time. When I have the time, I work as an education technology consultant. Two of my clients have been: the Open Education Resource Foundation, an independent, not for profit organization that provides leadership, international networking and support for educators and educational institutions; and the Commonwealth of Learning, an intergovernmental organization created by Commonwealth Heads of Government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning/distance education knowledge, resources and technologies."