Student night

Australian Institute of Physics

South Australian Branch

AIP Student Night
AIP members and all students in Physics are invited to attend the AIP
2005 Student Night
Thursday, September 8^th, 2005, at 7:30pm
in the Kerr Grant lecture theatre,
Physics building, University of Adelaide

Postgraduate Physics students from South Australian Universities will talk about their research work:

Ben Lasscock
School of Chemistry and Physics, University of Adelaide

"Do Exotic Baryons Exist?"

Until recently, baryons like the proton and neutron were all described in terms of just three quarks. But observations of an exotic particle, the Theta⁺ pentaquark, have sent particle physicists around the world back to the drawing board. With minimal quark content of two "up" quarks, two "down" quarks and an "anti-strange" quark, the exotic Theta⁺ baryon has sparked considerable interest in the field. We are unraveling some of the mysteries of the Theta⁺ using "Lattice QCD," a first principles approach to solving QCD with supercomputer simulations. We find evidence of a positive parity pentaquark state, making it an interesting state for further research, both experimentally and theoretically.

Darryl Jones
School of Chemistry, Physics and Earth Sciences, Flinders University

"Electron Momentum Spectroscopy and Momentum Space Chemistry"

Electron momentum spectroscopy provides a means to directly probe the momentum space molecular wave function. It can therefore be used as a tool to test the validity of various methods routinely employed in computational chemistry. The momentum space perspective of molecules is often more transparent than the corresponding charge distribution approach, due to additional symmetry requirements, and provides an alternative method for studying electronic structure. In this presentation, a brief outline of the EMS technique will be presented along with preliminary results obtained from an experimental and theoretical study into the outer valence electronic structure of Bicyclo[2.2.1]heptane-2,5-dione.

The Silver Bragg medals, awarded to the best 3rd-year Physics student in 2004 in each University, will be presented during the meeting

Dr Olivia Samardzic presents a Silver Bragg medal to Andrew Heitmann (University of Adelaide)

Dr Olivia Samardzic presents a Silver Bragg medal to Tony Aitchison (Flinders University)

Ben Lasscock, of the University of Adelaide, answering questions after his talk

Darryl Jones, of Flinders University, answering questions after his talk