The following is just one physicist’s take on why preferring dark matter over MOND is not unreasonable. (Note that it is not meant to be authoritative in any way!) In the course of writing this post I came across this excellent recent review article (Bertone & Hooper 2018, History of Dark Matter) which has a more … Continue reading “Why Dark Matter and not MOND?”
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The electron is still round
Today is the publication of the latest result from the experiment that I work on at Harvard, the Advanced Cold Molecule Electron Electric Dipole Moment, or ACME EDM (here is a link to read the paper in entirety). In this experiment, we seek to look for an asymmetry in the electron’s shape. What does that exactly mean … Continue reading “The electron is still round”
Introducing the ACME EDM Experiment
This is a new, streamlined introduction to the ACME EDM experiment, which is an experiment I’m working on as part of my PhD in physics at Harvard University. The following are strictly my own personal views and should NOT be taken as representative of the ACME collaboration. I am only writing this as part of my … Continue reading “Introducing the ACME EDM Experiment”
A Brief History of the Electron’s Shape – Part 5: The Age of Molecules
In our last post, we saw how the potential of atoms had been pushed to an incredible limit by the work of Commins and his group at Berkeley. Now, the 21st century had arrived, and technology was ready to start utilizing the power of molecules, which are nature’s built-in mini-laboratories for the electron. Nature’s Small … Continue reading “A Brief History of the Electron’s Shape – Part 5: The Age of Molecules”
A Brief History of the Electron’s Shape – Part 4: The Ultimate Atomic Beam Experiment
Eugene Commins was one of the most influential atomic physicists of the latter half of the 20th century, not just through his experimental results, which were first-rate (including being one of the first to observe atomic parity violation), but most especially through his legacy of mentorship and teaching. His group at UC Berkeley produced a … Continue reading “A Brief History of the Electron’s Shape – Part 4: The Ultimate Atomic Beam Experiment”
A Brief History of the Electron’s Shape – Part 3: How My Small College Measured the Electron’s Shape
When we left off last time, we were in the middle of a drought: over two decades of no improvement in the upper limit of the electron EDM from that found by the last of the cesium beam experiments in 1968: This was not a bad number at all. In fact, using the classical electron … Continue reading “A Brief History of the Electron’s Shape – Part 3: How My Small College Measured the Electron’s Shape”
A Brief History of the Electron’s Shape – Part 2: The First “Golden Age”
Last week, we talked about how the pioneering papers in the 1950s and 60s of Purcell, Ramsey, and Sandars started off the decades-long search for imperfection in the electron’s shape, or the electron electric dipole moment (eEDM). This week, we’re going to cover some of the early beam experiments dedicated to measuring the electron EDM. … Continue reading “A Brief History of the Electron’s Shape – Part 2: The First “Golden Age””
A Brief History of the Electron’s Shape – Part 1: Origins
As I’ve shared in a series of blog posts, I currently work on an experiment measuring the electric dipole moment (or EDM) of the electron. Colloquially, we like to call it the “shape” of the electron. (To be a little bit more accurate, it’s really the shape of the electric field produced by the electron.) … Continue reading “A Brief History of the Electron’s Shape – Part 1: Origins”
Reflections as a World Music Ensemble Director – Part 2
Picking up from where I left off last time, there are many more memorable events and songs from the last two years. One of my favorite moments is when I somehow got members of the Silk Road Ensemble (an ensemble founded by Yo Yo Ma which specializes in playing music from along the Silk Road and … Continue reading “Reflections as a World Music Ensemble Director – Part 2”
Reflections as a World Music Ensemble Director
Some of you might have noticed in my homepage that I list myself as music director of the Dudley World Music Ensemble at Harvard. Well, in about a week, I’ll be leading my final concert in that role before stepping down and handing the reins to the brilliant Eric Puma. (For more details of this … Continue reading “Reflections as a World Music Ensemble Director”