Astrophysics Luncheon

When: 12:00 noon, first Thursday of each month Where: Conference Room A, Argonne Cafeteria (Bldg 213) Organizers: Ken Nollett (PHY, 2-8264, nollett anl.gov) Michael Pellin (MSD, 2-3510, pellin anl.gov) Ernst Rehm (PHY, 2-4073, rehm anl.gov) Jim Truran (PHY and University of Chicago, 773-702-9584, truran nova.uchicago.edu)

To join the e-mail list and/or volunteer to give a talk about your group's research, please contact any of the organizers.

Here is our schedule:

2008
January 3	Joe Bernstein (HEP)	Probing the Depths: Relativistic, Hydrodynamic Simulations and X-ray Observations of Pulsar Wind Nebulae SPECIAL LOCATION - BUILDING 203, ROOM R-150
February 7	Andrew Sonnenschein (Fermilab)	COUPP: Searching for Dark Matter with Bubble Chambers
March 6	Emil Tripa (MSD)	Measurements of Solar Wind Composition in GENESIS Mission Returned Samples
April 3	Casey Meakin (U of C)	Delayed surface detonation models of thermonuclear supernovae: hydrodynamics and nucleosynthesis SPECIAL LOCATION - BUILDING 203, ROOM R-150
May 1	Steve Kuhlmann (HEP)	Dark Energy Survey
June 6	Catherine Deibel (PHY and Michigan State University)	Galactic Nucleosynthesis of 26Al
July 3	No astro lunch	Independence Day
August 7	Ivo Seitenzahl (U of C)	Initiation of Detonations and Energetics of Type Ia Supernovae
September 4	Kim Knight (Chicago Center for Cosmochemistry)	Trace element compositions from pre-solar grains: Understanding the record of stellar conditions preserved in SiC grains using synchrotron X-ray fluorescence
2007
January 4	Dragan Huterer (U of C, KICP)	Cosmological Probes of Dark Energy in the Universe
February 1	Ken Nollett (PHY)	The cosmological context of nuclear astrophysics
March 1	Dean Townsley (U of C)	Flame Evolution During the Deflagration of a White Dwarf in a Type Ia Supernova
April 5	Steve Kuhlmann (HEP)	Calibration of the Air Fluorescence Measurement of Cosmic Rays
May 3	Darek Seweryniak (PHY)	Studies of explosive stellar environments using GAMMASPHERE
June 7	Deirdre Horan (HEP)	VERITAS -- History, Status and First Results
July 5	Hye Young Lee (PHY)	Recent Experiments on Nuclear Astrophysics at University of Notre Dame: Measurements related to the p-process, the r-process, and more
August 2	Amanda Karakas (Australian National University and PHY)	Nucleosynthesis in low- and intermediate-mass stars
September 7		No Seminar
October 4	Khalil Farouqi (U of C)	Modern r-process calculations - from the static waiting point approximation to dynamical network calculations
November 1	No astro lunch - special HEP seminar at 11:00	"Recent Auger Results" - Aaron Chou (NYU) - 362 auditorium
December 6	Carla Fröhlich (U of C)	Nucleosynthesis in the Explosion of Massive Stars SPECIAL LOCATION - BUILDING 203, ROOM R-150
2006
January 5	Alan Calder (U of C)	Type Ia Supernova Explosions: Deflagration to Detonation
February 2	Nicolas Dauphas (U of C)	Galactic chemical evolution and extinct/extant radiochronometers
March 2	Julia Barzyk (U of C and MSD)	Measurement of the isotopic compositions of six elements in individual presolar SiC grains
April 6	No lunch because of...	3rd Argonne/MSU/INT/JINA RIA Theory Workshop
May 4	Bob Wagner (HEP)	The Track Imaging Cerenkov Experiment (TrICE) Telescope at Argonne
June 1	Xiaodong Tang (PHY)	A New Measurement of the E1 Component of the 12C(α,γ)16O Reaction
July 6	Fang Peng (U of C)	Sedimentation and Type I X-ray bursts
August 3	Hal Spinka (HEP)	Detection of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays Using Radar
September 7	Jonathan Levine (Chicago Center for Cosmochemistry)	Lunar, Planetary, and Solar Science from Glass Impact Spherules
October 5	Tom Dombeck (University of Hawaii)	Pan-STARRS: A Time Survey of the Northern Sky
November 2		No Seminar
December 7	Mike Savina (MSD)	STARDUST: NASA's comet dust return mission
2005
January 6	Andy Davis (U of C)	Nuclear astrophysics and the Chicago Center for Cosmochemistry
February 3	Irshad Ahmad (PHY)	Precise measurement of long half-lives for astrophysics and geochemistry
March 3	Dean Townsley (U of C)	Characterizing and Understanding Accreting White Dwarf Stars
April 7	Toru Yada (Academica Sinica and MSD)	Silicate Stardust in Antarctic Micrometeorites
May 5	Paolo Privitera (University of Rome)	Fluorescence detection of ultra high energy cosmic rays
June 2	Jason Tumlinson (U of C)	Near-Field Cosmology, or, What The Galaxy Can Teach Us About the First Stars
July 7	Mike Papka (MCS)	Visualization Experiences from the Flash Center
August 4	Andy Davis (U of C)	A Progress Report on the Genesis Mission to Sample the Sun
September 1	Ernst Rehm (PHY)	The origin of carbon and oxygen in the universe (an experimentalist's point of view)
October 6	Prashanth Jaikumar (PHY)	Quark stars: Astrophysics at the highest densities
November 3	Elizabeth Hays (HEP and U of C)	Recent Results in TeV Gamma-Ray Astronomy
December 1	Kaori Otsuki (U of C)	Astrophysical site for the r-process
2004
April 1	Organizational meeting	organizers (or proxies) describe their research
May 6	Rich Talaga (HEP)	The Auger Observatory and Argonne
June 3	Ken Nollett (PHY)	Big bang nucleosynthesis, with and (mostly) without weird stuff
July 1	Jason Clark (PHY, Manitoba)	"Stellar" measurements along the astrophysical rp-process path
August 5	Michael Paul (Racah Institute)	Deep sea astronomy?
September 2	Michael Savina (MSD)	Hands-on astrophysics: stardust in the lab
October 7	Jim Truran (PHY and UofC)	Nuclear physics of Type Ia supernovae
November 4	Art Champagne (North Carolina and TUNL)	14N(p,gamma)15O and the age of the Galaxy
December 2	Karen Byrum (HEP)	Astro-particle physics: new initiatives at Argonne

There has been tremendous growth in interest in astrophysics at Argonne over last several years, and this effort spans several divisions. Examples of current research include:

• studies of presolar grains recovered from meteorites in MSD
• HEP division participation in the Dark Energy Survey
• measurements of nuclear masses, reaction rates, level widths, decay rates in PHY
• theoretical studies of reaction properties of nuclei in PHY
• theoretical work on properties of neutron star and strange star matter in PHY
• constraints on dark matter in HEP
• HEP efforts relating to Pierre Auger cosmic ray observatory
• work on the VERITAS telescope for gamma-ray astronomy in HEP
• efforts in nova and supernova simulation involving MCS

This list is not complete, but it gives an indication of the large amount and wide range of astrophysics activity at Argonne.

The purpose of these talks is get people together from across Argonne who are working in these and related areas, and encourage communication. We learn about relations between our research efforts, educate each other, and keep each other up to date on the latest news.

The format is informal, conducted over lunch, with a half-hour to one-hour presentation each time. Most speakers are from Argonne or the University of Chicago, but we also have talks from visitors to the lab and university. So as not to add much to the seminar load, meetings are held monthly, on the first Thursday of each month.