UNM TO HOST INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON QUANTUM FLUIDS AND SOLIDS

July 30, 2003

UNM TO HOST INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON QUANTUM FLUIDS AND SOLIDS

The 2003 International Symposium on Quantum Fluids and Solids (QFS 2003) will be hosted by the University of New Mexico Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aug. 3-8, 2003, at Regener Hall on main campus.

QFS 2003 is an international symposium with the traditional central topics of liquid and solid 4He, 3He, and H2, and 4He and 3He mixtures. The broad scientific emphasis will be on recent, major scientific advances in any system that exhibits long-range quantum order, and on phase coherent matter wave effects.

“Clearly this will be one of the largest scientific symposia within New Mexico’s history, and the first time we have hosted this International Symposium,” said Robert Duncan, associate dean for research and professor of Physics and Astronomy at UNM. “People will come from all over the world to participate, and over 200 scientific papers at the cutting edge of physics will be presented here.”

Nobel Laureates will deliver at least four papers at the symposium, and many others will be delivered by members of the National Academy of Sciences and other members of high-level governmental advisory committees. Some of the physicists planning to attend QFS 2003 have started successful new high technology ventures, and many of them are seriously interested in future business expansion within New Mexico. Star Cryoelectronics of Santa Fe will be a participant in this symposium, and they will exhibit their new superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs), which they market commercially. Star Cryoelectronics was designated one of New Mexico’s most successful small businesses recently, and they are one of only a few SQUID manufacturers worldwide.

Topics include sessions on properties of liquid and solid 4He, 3He, and H2; elementary excitations, transport, and sound modes; Fermi and Bose cold atoms; novel experimental techniques and metrology; critical phenomena in bulk and confined systems; systems displaying novel quantum effects; mixtures of 3He and 4He; and quantized vorticity.

Most of the papers at this symposium will be presented by people from all over the world. Two talks will be given by local faculty from the University of New Mexico (UNM), including Prof. Ivan Deutsch and Dr. Dmitri Sergatskov. Prof. S.T.P. Boyd serves as the publications chair, and he will be the guest editor of the International Journal of Low Temperature Physics, where the proceedings of this symposium will appear. Prof. Alex Babkin serves as the associate program chair, and the program chair is Vice Provost David Goodstein of Caltech. Duncan is the symposium chair from UNM.

The symposium is coordinated by Barbara Daniels, UNM Meeting Services, with administrative support from T.D. McCarson and Sandra Ortiz.

Limited on-site registration for the symposium is available. For more information contact Duncan at (505) 450.7480 or visit the QFS 2003 website at: http://www.qfs2003.org/qfs2003/.

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