Physics Colloquium: Galactic Clocks
Prof. Michael Paul, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Abstract:
Stars synthesize all elements found in Nature, other than the very light relics of the Big Bang. The stable isotopes of these elements are forever but stars also produce nuclides, short-lived on a Galactic time scale (half-lives <~ 100 My), that carry a time information on the evolution of astrophysical or geophysical events. Over the last two decades, sophisticated experimental techniques of gamma and mass spectrometry have been developed to trace and study these nuclides. Among them, 44Ti, 60Fe, 146Sm, 244Pu open time windows a few hundred years to a few hundred million years wide into the history of our Galactic neighborhood: the last supernova remnant known in the Milky Way, possible terrestrial imprints of supernovae a few million years old, archaeometry in the Early Solar System and the mystery of heavy-element synthesis.
Event Organizer: Prof. Ben Svetitsky
