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Physics Colloquium - Dr. Alan Watson - University of Leeds, U.K.

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Thursday, April 25, 2019, 4 pm

This is a past event.

Dr. Alan Watson will present "Search for the Highest Energy Particles in Nature" on Thursday, April 25 at 4:00 pm in Fisher Hall Room 139.

Abstract:
The highest-energy particles in Nature are cosmic rays, nuclei of atoms that have been accelerated to energies as great as 1020 eV. First discovered in 1912, the search for their origin, thought to lie in the most violent places in the Universe, continues. After a brief introduction, I will describe how we study the most energetic of these particles through the phenomenon of extensive air-showers using, in particular, the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina which covers 3000 km2 as an example. This is the largest cosmic-ray detector ever built. I will then give an overview of our main results which point to very energetic objects outside our galaxy as the sources. Details of the acceleration mechanisms within these sources remain uncertain.


Bio:
Dr. Alan Watson is currently emeritus research professor at University of Leeds in Leeds, United Kingdom. He received his Ph.D. at University of Edinburgh in 1964 on the condensation of water vapour. Following, he worked in multiple positions at University of Leeds. He was the co-instigator of Auger Observatory with Jim Cronin (Chicago, Nobel Laureate) in 1991 and was the co-spokesperson/spokesperson for the project for 12 years. He was an elected fellow at both Institute of Physics, FInstP and at Royal Society (London, FRS). He is also the recipient of several awards including O’Ceallaigh Medal awarded by Cosmic Ray Commission of IUPAP and the Faraday Gold Medal of UK Institute of Physics.

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