Purcell Cards (Order of Magnitude Physics)
Ed Purcell developed a set of constants/numbers that one could use to estimate physical quantities quickly. These notes could fit on a postcard and could be used for “back of the envelope” calculations. I obtained a copy of these notes from my Caltech PHY 103b Order of Magnitude class from the 1999. The gallery shows ...
The Prototype Single Atom Microscope
Efficient, selective, and sensitive Detection of atomic nuclear reaction products via optical imaging B. Loseth, R. Fang, D. Frisbie, K. Parzuchowski, C. Ugalde, J. Wenzl, and J. T. Singh Phys. Rev. C 99, 065805 – Published 13 June 2019
The MSU Cyclotron Lab’s Own Hidden Figure: Prof. Thelma Irene Arnette and “The Bomb”
Professor Thelma Irene Arnette (1920-2017) was the third person hired (the first two were Prof. Henry Blosser and Prof. Morton Gordon) to design the first cyclotron (the “K50”) at Michigan State University around 1960. She would go on to become an Assistant Professor of Physics in 1962 and earned tenure at MSU in 1967 in ...
Physics Grad School Application “Bootcamp”
It is that time of year when people start applying to graduate school. Some advice, guidance, and insight is given here in a talk I’ll be presenting tonight to MSU students: https://www.dropbox.com/s/r5iqy8w6e2ft05d/2021-09-13-Grad-School-App-Bootcamp-JTS-notes.pdf?dl=0 An important part of the process is requesting letters of recommendation. Some guidance along these lines is given here: https://spinlab.me/2018/06/06/the-time-consuming-privilege-of-writing-a-thoughtful-letter-of-recommendation-for-a-student-2018-edition/ Good luck and ...
Towards a More Sensitive Measurement of the Atomic Electric Dipole Moment of Radium-225 – APS March Meeting 2020
Although the APS March Meeting was cancelled this year, you can view Roy Ready’s presentation. The abstract is here: http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/MAR20/Session/P01.2 The slides are here: https://absuploads.aps.org/presentation.cfm?pid=17142 The presentation is here on YouTube:
DOE Awards Spinlab Early Career Research Funding
Towards a Next Generation Search for Time-Reversal Violation Using Optically Addressable Nuclei in Cryogenic Solids Certain rare pear-shaped nuclei have unmatched sensitivity to new kinds of forces between subatomic particles that are not the same when the arrow of time is reversed. Such forces are believed to be responsible for the near absence of antimatter ...
A Behind the Scenes Look at PHY 451: Advanced Lab, Part 1
[This is the first in a series of posts about our efforts to improve the instruction in PHY 451: Advanced Lab. They are written by my collaborator Matthew Rossi who is an assistant professor of writing in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Culture. His research focuses on citizen science, writing consultation, multimodal writing, and ...
The Time-Consuming Privilege of Writing a Thoughtful Letter of Recommendation for a Student (2018 Edition)
[Updated from 2017 – JTS] Inspiration It will soon be application season (at least for students considering going to grad school in physics) for graduating seniors. As a consequence, I’ve decided to borrow some useful guidelines from my colleagues regarding letters of recommendation/reference: Ed Brown’s Letters of Recommendation Pawel Danielewicz’s Recommendation Letters Brian O’Shea’s Recommendation ...
First Neon Film in prototype Single Atom Microscope
The prototype Single Atom Microscope has been assembled and has passed two critical test. The substrate upon which we grow the solid neon thin films can be cooled to around 7 K which is cold enough to grow neon films. We have grown neon films at a rate of roughly 1 micron per ...
Adam, Brian, Fry, and Steve Graduate!
Congratulations to Adam, Brian, Fry, and Steve! They are all graduating this semester and participated in the graduation ceremony on December 16, 2017 in Breslin Center. Adam Powers joined the group in April 2016 and has contributed to all aspects of the high voltage electrode development for the Ra EDM experiment including residual magnetization measurements ...
SPINLAB @ MSU 
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