{"id":141,"date":"2013-12-05T00:15:08","date_gmt":"2013-12-05T00:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/?p=141"},"modified":"2013-12-05T00:15:08","modified_gmt":"2013-12-05T00:15:08","slug":"mystery-particle-leads-ufv-student-to-london-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/2013\/12\/05\/mystery-particle-leads-ufv-student-to-london-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystery particle leads UFV student to London (2012)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Archived from UFV Today, August 14 2012.\u00a0 Original post by Dessa Bayrock.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"blog-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Quantum physics might be the last thing on your mind this summer, but it\u2019s been a full-time job for three students and a professor at UFV<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And as a result of their hard work and focus, one student is off to London to participate in a prestigious forum hosted by Imperial College London<\/a>.<\/p>\n

UFV physics student Timothy Richards will be attending the International Youth Science Forum<\/a> (IYSF), which welcomed more than 300 students from 50 different countries last year.<\/p>\n

This research project is headed by UFV professor Derek Harnett, who has three students working for him this summer. \u00a0One is funded through UFV\u2019s work-study program<\/a>, and the other two (including Richards) are funded by a grant through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)<\/a>, as is Harnett.<\/p>\n

The team is using data collected from two particle accelerators \u2014 one in Japan, and one in California \u2014 to either confirm or deny the existence of a particle called a hybrid.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheory strongly suggests these particles exist,\u201d Harnett explains. \u201cPhysicists just haven\u2019t tracked them down.\u201d<\/p>\n

When mystery particles were spotted during another experiment, Harnett decided to figure out the theoretical mass of a hybrid to see if the numbers might match one of the newly observed mystery particles.<\/p>\n

It would be the first time in history that anyone could confirm the existence of this particle, although there is a possibility that it isn\u2019t what they\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously it\u2019s more exciting if we can confirm it,\u201d Harnett says with a laugh, \u201cbut either way, this calculation will be a success. We\u2019ll be discovering important data about it one way or another.\u201d<\/p>\n

And for the students involved, this research is a huge stepping stone. The work is at a level usually pursued by grad students, and the three undergrads of Harnett\u2019s team had to do a semester of reading to get ahead.<\/p>\n

However, there are perks to hitting the books so hard. Richards will be in London for two weeks this summer, representing both the research team and UFV on an international level.<\/p>\n

Richards is entering his fourth year at UFV in the fall pursuing a double major in math<\/a> and physics<\/a>. It\u2019s a course load that doesn\u2019t allow for a lot of free time, but this trip will allow him a bit of a break from his studies. But he\u2019s just as excited about the chance to talk to other students as explore London.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be students from all sorts of countries presenting their research, as well as guest speakers, seminars \u2014 not just in physics but biology, math, and chemistry, \u2014 and then tours of laboratories around London,\u201d Richards explains.<\/p>\n

The students of the team have buckled down and worked hard with this research, Harnett says, and they completely deserve these kinds of opportunities. He hopes the team can attend other physics conferences closer to home in the fall. The American Physicists\u2019 Society<\/a> and the Canadian Association of Physicists<\/a> both hold conference geared towards undergraduates that would be perfect for this team.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of this research, these students will have their names on the paper,\u201d Harnett says. \u201cThat will help them down the road when they\u2019re applying for graduate school, grants, or other research opportunities. And they deserve it; they\u2019ve done a lot of work. If it were easy, I wouldn\u2019t need their help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richards will be keeping a blog during his trip, which you can take a gander at here:\u00a0http:\/\/ufv-londontrip.blogspot.ca\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Archived from UFV Today, August 14 2012.\u00a0 Original post by Dessa Bayrock. Quantum physics might be the last thing on your mind this summer, but it\u2019s been a full-time job for three students and a professor at UFV. And as a result of their hard work and focus, one student is off to London to … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,6],"tags":[27],"class_list":["post-141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deans-office","category-physics","tag-london-international-youth-science-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions\/279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}