Morgan Presents Phase Space Research at Gaseous Electronics Conference

Tom Morgan, Foss Professor of Physics, recently attended the 68th Gaseous Electronics Conference of the American Physical Society in Honolulu, Hawaii and presented a poster dealing with the behavior of giant atoms with an electron far from the nucleus in phase space. Andrew Murphy ’11 and Jace Haestad ’11 contributed to the study.

Phase space is a momentum-velocity space that provides a different perspective on atomic behavior. Looking at atoms from this viewpoint provides a mechanism to uncover new insight into their quantum nature.

Morgan also took the opportunity to reconnect with a Japanese colleague, Professor Tomoyuki Murakami, at Seikei University, Tokyo, whom Morgan spent the month of June visiting in Tokyo. Morgan and Murakami took the occasion to work on a paper on research undertaken collaboratively with Lutz Huwel, Professor of Physics, and Professor Bill Graham of Queen’s University, N. Ireland, on the behavior of the air-water interface after focused laser induced plasma breakdown. The air-water interface is ubiquitous with applications to biology, environmental studies, chemical analysis and medicine, but its detailed behavior is not well understood. The collaboration uses both state of the art computer simulation and experimentation to elucidate its dynamics and structure.