Caltech PMA Communique

INSIDE FACULTY HONORS & AWARDS 2 EARTHSHINE 2 ASKING NEW QUESTIONS ABOUT THE UNIVERSE: NASA/IPAC EXTRAGALACTIC DATABASE 3 THE CALIFORNIA EXTREMELY LARGE TELESCOPE (CELT): A PROGRESS REPORT 4 CALTECH ESTABLISHES INSTITUTE FOR QUANTUM INFORMATION 4 PMA RADIO ASTRONOMY PROJECT 5 Autumn 2001 CALTECH PMA COMMUNIQUÉ A Publication for Caltech's Physics, Mathematics & Astronomy Division No. 4 California HIgh school Cosmic ray ObServatory (CHICOS) Robert D. McKeown CHICOS is a collaborative project involving Caltech, Cal State Northridge, UC Irvine, and local high school physics teachers to site a large array of particle detectors at high schools in the Los Angeles area. This array will be capable of detecting and characterizing a sample of the highest energy elementary particles ever observed. The project will offer students and teachers Notes From the Chair Thomas A. Tombrello, Jr. This is the fourth newsletter in this series that was created to keep us in contact with our alumni and friends. The contents represent a few of the highlights of the Division's activities. This spring we received acceptances from two new professors: Wilhelm Schlag, Associate Professor of Mathematics; and Danny Calegari, Assistant Professor of Mathematics. Schlag works in harmonic analysis and Calegari in topology. We have received a substantial contribution toward the construction of a 100,000 square foot building that will unite our efforts in astronomy and astrophysics. A preliminary in local high schools a unique opportunity to collaborate with researchers at Caltech and address fundamental issues at the continued on page 6 design is under consideration; the remainder of the funds required are the goal of an active campaign. At the present time research in these fields is spread among four buildings: Robinson; Downs; West Bridge; and Bridge Annex. Putting these related groups into proximity will improve communication and take advantage of shared laboratory and seminar areas. This building will be constructed on the south side of California Boulevard across from East Bridge. This site creates a unified south campus cluster in astronomy and astrophysics with the SIRTF Science Center and IPAC, which are nearby. • PMA Alumni and Post Docs - Come Back to Campus! The Spring of 2002 will see a special event on the Caltech campus - a full-fledged Division Reunion sponsored by Physics, Math, and Astronomy in collaboration with the Caltech Alumni Association. Talks by faculty, poster sessions, good food and drink, time for socializing, and a few lab tours - as well as a chance to renew ties to old acquaintances and to make new friends - all this will make the program a memorable one. Watch your mailbox for date and reservation information, and this fall stop by the Alumni Association web site at http:// www.its.caltech.edu/~alumni for more details. Meanwhile, make sure we have your e-mail address so we can notify you of plans as the pieces fall into place. It's going to be a great time for all PMA friends - join us! HONORS & AWARDS Tom Apostol Corresponding Member of the Academy of Athens Roger Blandford Tetelman Fellow at Yale for 2001 Siemens Lecturer at Munich Judy Cohen Fullam Award Richard Ellis Lansdowne Lecturer, University of Victoria Senior Visiting Fellowship, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Sunil Golwala APS Particle Physics Dissertation Prize Steven Gubser European Physical Society's Gribov Medal Fiona Harrison Presidential Early Career Award Dirk Hundertmark 2001 ASCIT Teaching Award Shri Kulkarni Fellow of the Royal Society of London Sackler Lecturer, Princeton University Named the John E. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Astronomy & Planetary Science Andrew Lange Named the Marvin L. Goldberger Professor of Physics Rahul Pandharipande Packard Fellow Charlie Peck 2001 ASCIT Teaching Award Earthshine Robert Tindol Scientists have revived and of the Big Bear Solar Observatory, ( modernized a nearly forgotten a Distinguished Professor of Physics at technique for monitoring Earth's NJIT. "We have found surprisingly climate by carefully observing large — up to 20 persent-seasonal "earthshine," the ghostly glow of the variations in Earth's reflectance. dark side of the moon. Further, we have found a hint of a 2.5- Earthshine measurements are a percent decrease in Earth's albedo over useful complement to satellite the past five years." observations for determining Earth's A 2.5-percent change in reflectance reflectance of sunlight (its albedo), an may not seem like much, but if Earth important climate parameter. Long- reflected even 1 percent less light, the term observations of earthshine thus effect would be significant enough to monitor variations in cloud cover and be a concern when studying global atmospheric aerosols that play a role in warming. climate change. Koonin notes that "studies of Earthshine is readily visible to the climate change require well-calibrated, naked eye, most easily during a crescent long-term measurements of large moon. Leonardo da Vinci first regions of the globe. Earthshine explained the phenomenon, in which observations are ideally suited to this, the moon acts like a giant mirror because, in contrast to satellite showing the sunlight reflected from determinations of the albedo, they are Earth. The brightness of the earthshine self-calibrating, easily and inexpensively thus measures the reflectance of Earth. performed from the ground, and In a recent issue of the refereed continued on page 7 journal Geophysical Research Letters, a team of scientists from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology report on earthshine observations showing that Earth's albedo is currently naldi 0.297, give or take 0.005. In the early 20th century, the French astronomer André-Louis Crisium Danjon undertook the first quantitative observations of earthshine. But the method lay dormant for nearly 50 years, until Caltech team leader and professor of theoretical physics Steven E. Koonin coauthored a paper in 1991 describing its modern potential. The present data are the first that are precise and systematic enough to infer the relative health of Earth's climate. "Earth's climate is driven by the net sunlight that it absorbs," says Philip R. Goode, leader of the New Jersey Institute of Technology team, Director Figure 1 shows a Big Bear Solar Observatory lunar image from Dec. 12, 1999, in the main panel. A neutral density filter attenuates the sunlit crescent in the upper right, making the earthshine visible on the balance of the lunar disk. Precise comparison of the intensities of two lunar regions (labeled Grimaldi and Crisium) allows monitoring of Ear changing reflectance. The inset contains a simulated image of a gibbous Earth as it would be seen by an observer standing on the moon. Asking New Questions about the Universe: NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database 2yrry F. Madore, Joseph Mazzarella, George Helou It is being called "ASTRO-GRID" F. Madore, Joseph Mazzarella and in Europe and the "VIRTUAL George Helou are the research OBSERVATORY" in the United astronomers who provide both the States. And on both sides of the day-to-day administration of and the Atlantic the plan is to provide rapid and long-term vision for NED, while a seamless access to the massive catalogs team of programmers, archivists and and terabyte imaging databases now scientific data-entry personnel keep being populated by ground-based and NED poised at the cutting edge of data space-based telescopes. The hope in content, data access and archive astronomy is that by unleashing the interoperability. power of the Internet on rapid-access At the heart of NED is a and high-powered compute facilities, meticulously maintained and carefully a whole new paradigm for research and linked database of about 4 million discovery will emerge. extragalactic objects (galaxies, quasars, But discovery is a multitextured radio and infrared sources, etc.) drawn tapestry. One can discover rare objects, from a full century of surveys and new classes of objects, new relationships individually published discoveries among objects; and even "discover" the made at wavelengths from the gamma- nature of previously known objects. ray regime to the radio, and collected Indeed, much of discovery is a process from ground-based telescopes and jone that is incremental and relative space-based missions. Cross- to what is already known, already identifications, spanning 10 decades of discovered. So, equally-rapid access to the electromagnetic spectrum, allow the legacy of past discoveries, existing "on-the-fly" construction of spectral observations and published data is also energy distributions built from data a vital part of the vision of an integrated originally found in hundreds of papers electronic view of the sky. and made over decades of time. For the past 13 years, astronomers at the California Institute of Redshifts for 170,000 objects combined with the high-precision Technology have been building, positions in NED allow users to make maintaining, and systematically sample cuts across the sky, both within expanding the capabilities of a the local supercluster and out into the comprehensive on-line database high-redshift Universe. Optical images designed to capture all that is currently are available for all 3.7 million objects, known about the extragalactic sky, and being immediately extracted from on- offer it back to the community in line digital copies of the POSS, which support of research and discovery. was derived from plates taken at The NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Caltech's Palomar Observatory in the Database (NED) is the longest north and at La Silla in the south. continuously funded project at the Unique collections of radio, infrared, Infrared Processing and Analysis Center optical and ultraviolet images for 10's TPAC). The NED Team, its of thousands of additional objects are nputers and their on-line databases also on-line and linked to the are located in the Morrisroe Astro individual objects through the NED Sciences Laboratory on the Caltech face. Campus at 770 S. Wilson. Drs. Barry continued on page 7 3 HONORS & AWARDS John Preskill 2002 Lorentz Chair, University of Leiden Andrejewski Lecturer for the Fall of 2001 Tom Prince Chief Scientist at JPL Anneila Sargent University of Edinburgh Science Festival Lecturer Philips Visitor at Haverford College for Spring of 2001 Associate of the Royal Astronomical Society Wal Sargent 4th Icko Iben, Jr. Distinguished Astronomy Lecturer Henry Norris Russell Lectureship, American Astronomical Society Ed Stone NASA's Distinguished Service Medal Keith Taylor 2001 Maria and Eric Muhlmann Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Mark Wise APS Sakurai Prize Nai-Chang Yeh Achievement Award of the Chinese-American Faculty Association, Southern California Fellow of the Institute of Physics & title of Chartered Physicist Ahmed Zewail Foreign Member of the Royal Society (London) SSC/PAC Their web tutorial "Infrared Astronomy" receives award from AAAS The California Extremely Large Telescope (CELT): A Progress Report Richard Ellis e Chuck Steidel A recent analysis of discoveries Caltech astronomers to a breadth of been a successful hallmark of Caltech from telescopes of all apertures led to discoveries many of which were research. Astronomers now seek the perhaps surprising result that as unforeseen when those facilities were chemical and physical properties not much exciting work is still being done first proposed. only for bright, local sources but also with telescopes whose mirror diameters For many reasons the time is ripe for large numbers of fainter, more are less than 2 meters as with the largest, for considering the construction of a distant or representative examples. most powerful facilities. This telescope larger than the two Kecks. Moreover, the Kecks are now demonstrates a continuing need for a Foremost, astronomy is undergoing a established facilities with the first phase versatile approach in exploiting the rich major transition from an era of of instrumentation largely in place. variety of physical phenomena exploration, where few of the basic Whilst their unique role is being observed in the cosmos, not all of parameters were even loosely challenged by a number of comparable which are beyond reach of modest constrained and researchers were facilities reaching maturity, by aperture telescopes. However, it would concerned primarily with undertaking demonstrating the success of the be foolish to use this conclusion to inventories, to one of physical segmented mirror approach, they argue against building giant telescopes, understanding where a detailed account provide the basis upon which yet larger plans for which continue to drive the of the origin and transformations that primaries can be contemplated. Given direction of world astronomy and occur during the lifetimes of stars, the long lead time in developing hence remain central to Caltech's planets and galaxies represents the new forefront facilities, now is the time to leadership in the subject. The Palomar challenge. Detailed studies demand consider the logical next step 200-inch and later both Keck focused efforts with powerful At a meeting of the CARA Board telescopes have inspired generations of instruments; such campaigns have long in Hawaii in July 1999, Caltech continued on pag Caltech Establishes Institute for Quantum Information by John Preskill Caltech's PMA and EAS Divisions computer that operates on quantum party over the Internet, but the security have jointly established the Institute for states instead of classical bits can of that communication is founded on Quantum Information (IQI), perform tasks that are beyond the assumptions about the computational supported by a five-year grant from the capability of any conceivable classical resources that are available to a National Science Foundation. The goal computer. For example, finding the potential adversary. In contrast, if you of the IQI is to advance the foundations 200-digit prime factors of a 400-digit were able to communicate by of quantum information science (QIS), composite number would take billions transmitting quantum states (like an emerging field that draws on of years on today's supercomputers. But photon wave packets traveling in an physics, mathematics, computer for a quantum computer it would be optical fiber) instead of classical bits, science, and engineering. Broadly an easy problem, not much harder than you could achieve a higher level of speaking, QIS addresses how the multiplying two numbers together to privacy founded on fundamental laws principles of quantum physics can be find their product. The boundary of physics. Quantum cryptography is harnessed to improve the acquisition, between "hard" and "easy" — between based on the principle that it is transmission, and processing of problems that someday will be solved impossible to collect information about information. and problems that never can be solved the state of a quantum system without QIS derives much of its intellectual — is essentially different in a quantum disturbing the state in a detectable way. vitality from three central ideas, all of world than in a classical world. The third important idea relatively recent vintage. The first The second important idea is quantum error correction, which has important idea is quantum quantum cryptography. You can greatly boosted our confidence that computation. We have learned that a communicate privately with another large-scale quantum computers really continued on page 10 PMA Radio Astronomy Project Ravinder S. Bhatia & Brian G. Keating The value of an early introduction to science is immeasurable, but it can be intimidating to a young person with scientific curiosity to approach a scientific institution. To encourage the participation of young people, it is important for the scientific community to extend itself to the public, and to foster the bonds of collaborative participation. These interactions are vital to the continuing support of science by the public. Working with a cutting-edge academic institution can be an invaluable resource for a public school. My postdoctoral colleague, Dr. Brian Keating, and I have therefore developed a coordinated program of The Radio Astronomy Project team. mentoring and outreach with local schools. The aim of this collaboration the different space missions being embarked on a longer project for the is modest - to encourage young people flown together with the latest advances Astronomy students to design a satellite pursue the sciences as a hobby or in astronomy and also how Caltech was mission which would measure the ortimate career goal - but the potential playing such an important role in many depletion of the Earth's stratospheric dividends are unlimited. We recognize of these missions. I invited the class to ozone layer. Our goal was to give the the substantial leverage that we as tour the Caltech campus and the students real-world problems and scientists have for public school Observational Cosmology laboratories encourage them to discover solutions education: a few hours of our time per where we build instruments to observe on their own, as opposed to lecturing month can have enormous benefits on the Cosmic Microwave Background. to them. We structured this as a project the quality of science education in our Although the Polar Lander mission was that would be undertaken at a local public schools. By adding our not a success (subsequent analysis government lab, with Littlerock High time spent at a school with the indicated that the landing had been a as a contractor to Caltech as the resources of Caltech (machine shop, little harder than expected), this customer. The students worked under electronics shop, etc.) we can ensure meeting initiated what was to be real world scenarios, with an emphasis that we are successful in this endeavour. fruitful collaboration between Caltech's on teamwork and communication In December 1999 I volunteered PMA Division and the local skills. The 30 sophomores, juniors and for a weekend with the Planetary community. seniors worked in groups of 5 to 6 Society's Planetfest here in Pasadena to We felt it was particularly people on various parts of the satellite. coincide with the culmination of the important to work with Littlerock They organised their teams into a Mars Polar Lander mission. At that High as a school that is from a low program manager, three systems event, I met a group of students from income area and where so many of the engineers, an accountant, a graphics Littlerock High school together with students are from ethnic minorities. We designer, an editor and team leaders in their Astronomy teacher, Lee Syer. arranged the much anticipated visit to charge of the individual technical lerock High is situated an hour's Caltech for the students, and in return teams. Team responsibilities were drive north of Pasadena in the Antelope visited their school regularly to give Structural Design, Onboard Power, Valley. As we anxiously waited for news classes on science, particularly Payload, Thermal Design, Attitude and from the Mars landing, we discussed chemistry and astronomy. We then Orbital Control System, Launch continued on page 11 CHICOS (from page 1) forefront of present-day astrophysics and particle physics. Due to the ethnic and racial diversity of the Los Angeles high schools it is expected that this program will provide a novel mechanism for broadening the participation of underrepresented groups in society in scientific research. Thus, in addition to establishing an important experimental facility for ultra-high energy cosmic ray studies, this project will provide an exceptional educational opportunity for high school students in the Los Angeles area. The project is coordinated through the Kellogg Radiation Figure 1: Crew of students, high school teachers, and research personnel retrieving detec- Laboratory at Caltech under the tors in the mountains of New Mexico in summer 2000 direction of Professor of Physics produce huge "showers" of many scattering (pion photoproduction) Robert McKeown. Cal State secondary particles when they collide with the cosmic microwave Northridge provides a coordinated with atomic nuclei in the upper background (known as the GZK educational program for high school atmosphere; the most energetic of cutoff). The failure to observe this teachers to enable their participation these showers can simultaneously cutoff in the flux has generated in the research project and its trigger detectors over a several substantial interest and much incorporation in the high school kilometer radius at the earth's surface. speculation. It is possible that the curriculum. Initial funding for the The rate of incidence at the highest observed events are not due to project has been provided by a grant energies (1020 eV) is quite low: in a primary high energy protons (as was to Caltech from the Weingart 100 square kilometer area one generally assumed) but exotic new Foundation. observes only about one event per particles such as a light gluino. During the last decade, the year. Therefore, it is essential to Alternatively, it may be possible that community of high-energy cosmic ray sample a large surface area (hundreds the UHE protons are generated at physicists has constructed a number of square kilometers) to observe a relatively nearby (say < 20 Mpc) of very large (1-100 sq. km) arrays to significant number of these ultra-high astrophysical sites. These results have study cosmic rays at the very highest energy particles. energized this field and there are energies ever detected (1020 eV). In the last several years, the largest several proposals to build even larger These particles are over one hundred previously built array (in Japan) has arrays over the next few years. The million (108) times more energetic produced extremely interesting results primary research goal is to collect than those that can be produced in (see article Science, vol. 281, August more events at these ultra-high modern accelerator laboratories. The 14, 1998, page 893). It appears that energies and characterize their astrophysical origin of these particles these primary particles can be more energies and apparent direction of is still unknown, but it has been energetic than previously thought. origin. generally assumed that they are Before these data became available, it The Los Angeles basin is 9 protons accelerated in extreme was generally expected that there unique in that there is a very large area extragalactic astrophysical would be a dramatic decrease in flux (> 5000 km2) of uniformly dense environments. These particles above 102°eV due to inelastic population with available high school continued on page 8 Earthshine (from page 2) Questions (from page 3) instantaneously cover a significant NED is multiwavelength in its fraction of the globe." holdings and highly connected on The new albedo measurements are campus and to the outside world. For based on about 200 nights of instance, within IPAC the Infrared observations of the dark side of the Science Archive (IRSA) is the primary moon at regular intervals over a two- archive for the 2-Micron All-Sky year period, and another 70 nights Survey (2MASS) project which just during 1994-95. Using a 6-inch this year completed its imaging survey refractor telescope and precise CCD at in three near-infrared bands, covering the Big Bear Solar Observatory, the the 1-2 micron region of the researchers measure the intensity of the electromagnetic spectrum. With the earthshine. Figure 2 is the Dec. 12, 1999 lunar image last observations now in hand, the final By observing simultaneously the alone, with no labeling or inset. archive will be released in about 2 years bright "moonshine" from the crescent, magnetic field plays an indirect role in and will contain at least 350 million they compensate for the effects of Earth's climate. If supported by further objects. Of these there will be on the atmospheric scattering. The data are observations, it would explain why order of 2 million resolved galaxies. best collected one week before and one there seem to be so many signatures of Many of these are already in NED with week after the new moon, when less the sun's 11-year activity cycle in Earth's direct electronic links to detailed than half climate record, but the associated observations and full-resolution images of the lunar disk is illuminated by the variations in the Sun's brightness are too provide by IRSA. NED also provides sun. When local cloud cover is also weak to have an effect. its users with direct access to relevant taken into account, Earth's reflectance The researchers plan continuing observations and archive holdings at a can be determined on about one- observations from Big Bear. "These, multiplicity of sister databases beyond irter of the nights. supplemented with additional Pasadena, and literally around the The study relies on averages over observations from a planned worldwide world. At the click of a button NED long periods because the albedo network, will allow even more precise, links users from its objects to images, changes substantially from night to round-the-clock monitoring of the catalogs and other relevant holdings at night with changing weather, and even earth's reflectance," Goode says. "That STScI in Baltimore, MD to more dramatically from season to precision will also make it possible to HEASARC in Cambridge, MA to the season with changing snow and ice test connections between solar activity VLA and NRAO archives in Socorro, cover. The locations of the land masses and Earth's climate." NM and Charlottesville, VA also affect the albedo as Earth rotates "It's really amazing, if you think respectively. And, with equal ease, on its axis. For example, the about it," Koonin says, "that you can secondary searches are initiated for the observations from California easily look at this ghostly reflection on the user by NED at the CDS in detect a brightening of the earthshine moon and measure what Earth's climate Strasbourg, France. And finally, all data during the night as the sun rises over is doing." within NED itself is referenced to the Asia, because the huge continental land The study was funded by both published literature and hyperlinked to mass reflects more light than the Pacific NASA, beginning in 1998, and the NASA's Abstract Data System (ADS) Ocean. Western Center for Global located at the Smithonian Institution "Thus, the averaging of lots of data Environmental Change, during 1994- in Cambridge, MA. is necessary for an accurate indication 95. Beyond Goode, other members of At present the NED server of a changing albedo," Goode says. the NJIT team are Jiong Qiu, Vasyl responds to a Web hit every 2 seconds, It is significant that the earthshine Yurchyshyn, and Jeff Hickey. Beyond corresponding to an average of one data suggest that the albedo has Koonin, other members of the Caltech million Web hits per month. Usage has decreased slightly during the past five team are C. Titus Brown, Edwin Kolbe been doubling every 18 months since rs since the sun's magnetic activity (now at the University of Basel), and NED first went on-line in 1988; and has climbed from minimum to Ming Chu (now at the Chinese there is no indication of any slowdown. maximum during that time. This University of Hong Kong). • These requests originate from supports the hypothesis that the sun's astronomers working in all corners of continued on page 8 Questions (from page 7) the world and at all times of day and night. But the archiving of data, and the support of discovery is not all that NED provides. Building on this infrastructure and its strong links to the published electronic literature the NED Team also provides a Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology, called "LEVELS". This component of NED has high-level information, tabular data and a broad collection of atlases, cata-logs, seminal papers and review articles in electronic form and individually hyperlinked by references to the journals and by objects back to basic data frames in NED proper. From the original pixels to the extracted data, from objects to classes, from spectra to redshifts, from galaxies to largescale structure, from information to knowledge, the NED Team at Caltech is providing today a coherent electronic environment for the extragalactic researcher that is designed to grow and to thrive in the age of the Virtual Obser-vatory. As the Virtual Observatory comes on-line, with its unimaginably large datasets and the individual pixels from which they were derived, NED is already set up to be a portal through which the extragalactic community will link past knowledge and present data with the future surveys. Discoveries will be made through NED in the full context of what is already known. Discoveries will be made by seeing new surveys in the context of what is already cataloged at a host of complementary and diverse wave-lengths. Discovery will not be limited by ignorance or by privileged access, but only by the imagination of our users. NED can be reached via the Web by pointing to: http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu. LEVELS can be found on the main interface panel or accessed directly at: http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/. CHICOS (from page 6) in-frastructure. We have obtained 164 receivers, and high-speed computer scintillation detectors (see Figure 1) network connections are all recent from a decommissioned cosmic ray technical developments that are n experiment in New Mexico, and are ripe for exploitation in a project like presently working to instrument these CHICOS. We presently plan to detectors in an array with area of deploy this array in the next 3 years about 400km2 (2001-2003). The proposed network Each site will have a detection of sites is shown in Figure 2. system with a computer to acquire - An educational program for high data, and would operate in an school teachers at California State autonomous mode using GPS time- University at Northridge (CSUN) stamping of events. The data from will provide these teachers with the each site would be transmitted via necessary knowledge to participate in internet to a central computer at CHICOS and also to incorporate Caltech where the data would be relevant aspects into the high school logged, analyzed, and accessible to the curriculum. CHICOS will afford high schools. The availability of these teachers with a unique existing infrastructure in the Los opportunity for professional Angeles school system with internet development and participation in connections, power, shelter, and forefront research. They will be willing collaborators provides an engaged in a program to develop high excellent opportunity to develop such school level curriculum materials a large array. Very capable PC's, GPS relevant to cosmic ray research tha continued on page 10 Figure 2: GIS map showing the proposed siting of CHICOS stations in high schools and middle schools in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys. CELT (from page 4) the University of California agreed to instruments on 8-10m telescopes; two 2 armin field, the hyperbolic primary participate in a jointly-funded large Nasmyth decks (each possibly delivers an impressive seeing-limited 20 iminary design study for a 30 meter arranged in two storeys) will be accessed arcmin field of view. Instrumenting such segmented mirror telescope entitled with an adjustable tertiary mirror. a field for multi-object spectroscopy has CELT (prononced kelt) and the first A demanding area which is been addressed by Keith Taylor (who co- phase of this activity is nearing receiving particular attention at Caltech chairs the instrument working group). completion. Conceptual design at the is adaptive optics (by Rich Dekany Taylor proposes a novel arrangement of technical level is being coordinated by (Caltech class of 1989, BS), who chairs deployable units each of which dissects engineering effort at Caltech and UC the relevant working group). Unlike the images of faint galaxies to secure led by Jerry Nelson (UCSC, former Palomar and Keck, which both had resolved spectroscopy with the Project Scientist for the Keck successful adaptive optics (AO) units unprecedented signal/noise essential for telescopes, Caltech class of 1965, BS). retro-fitted, CELT will include AO dynamical and chemical analyses. A Through a Steering Committee co- from the outset. The benefits of AO major requirement in the currently- chaired by one of us (CS), we expect with a 30m aperture are truly conceived suite of CELT to deliver a report later this year which enormous...but so are the challenges! instrumentation is large format (4K by will include the scientific rationale in The diffraction limit at a wavelength 4K) infrared detectors. An alarming the context of other ground and space- of 2 microns corresponds to an number of such (currently unavailable) based opportunities, a basic concept for impressively fine physical scale (< detectors will be needed to fully realize the telescope and its components, and 100pc) for even the most distant CELT's scientific gains. To remedy this, most importantly, those key technical sources where the combination of a a strategic alliance has been formed with studies that must be addressed in a large aperture ensures CELT will the Rockwell Science Center whose staff second, more detailed, design phase outperform any projected space facility. (e.g., Selmer Wong, Caltech class of which will rigorously justify feasibility The key question is the field of view 1992, MS & PhD, 1996) are actively 'provided a well-argued cost. over which this remarkable involved in formulating and costing a What might CELT look like? performance could be attained. detector plan. The benefits can, of Figure 1 gives an impression based on Dekany has proposed a set of staged course, also be realized on Caltech's a recent design. Despite the legacy of experiments with the Palomar 200- existing telescopes. Keck there are numerous differences. inch to demonstrate the key image Finally, where should CELT be Structurally, the telescope is closer to a sharpening technologies and these have located and for how long would it be radio telescope than a traditional been incorporated into a forward- unique? George Djorgovski chairs a site optical reflector. The primary focal looking plan for the observatory. working group that is examining, without ratio (f/1.5) is faster than that of Keck In addition to the exciting option prejudice, mainland US and Chilean sites and the skeletal design incorporates the of adaptive optics correction over a 1- alongside that on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. need to support a small secondary Despite anecdotal evidence and obvious mirror whilst minimizing the effects of logistic, economic (and political!) wind-buffeting in an optimized considerations, Djorgovski and the enclosure. The primary segments are Steering Committee are approaching this also slightly smaller (0.5m sided hexagons c.f. 0.9m) . Although 30 as methodically as time permits, gathering site-specific data and times as many segments will be needed coordinating efforts with meteorological as for each Keck primary, expected experts. Concerning the question of economies in fabrication through uniqueness, it should come as no surprise multi-segment polishing and advances that plans for 30m telescopes (and larger!) in active control make this a feasible are being hatched elsewhere. The key to proposition. The number of focal success may well turn out to demand sons upon which instruments are mounted has also been reduced. The Cassegrain focus has been dropped following flexure difficulties noted with Figure 1: A recent conceptual design for CELT - a 30 meter mirror telescope. The f/ 1.5 primary consists of 1080 segments, each 0.5 meters on a side. Instruments are located on each of two Nasmyth platforms. prior experience with segmented mirror technologies and finding the resources required to maintain our lead in design engineering. • Quantum (from page 4) CHICOS (from page 8) can be built and operated someday. The both long-term and short-term visits. closely coupled to the California state power of a quantum computer derives The IQI also supports postdoctoral science education standards. from its ability to process coherent scholars drawn from backgrounds educational component of CHIC quantum states, but such states are very spanning the disciplines relating to has been developed over the last year easily damaged by uncontrolled QIS. The visitors and postdocs by Professor R. Seki of CSUN, who interactions with the environment — affiliated with the IQI occupy space in will administrate this program as the a process called decoherence. Thus Steele and Jorgensen laboratories, CHICOS Associate Director for quantum computers are much more generously provided by the EAS Education. susceptible to error than conventional Division. In the future we would like to digital computers. But we have learned PMA faculty connected with the expand the scope of this project to that quantum states can be cleverly IQI include Valentine Professor of cover a larger fraction of the Los encoded so that the debilitating effects Physics Jeff Kimble, Associate Professor Angeles area and include a much of decoherence, if not too severe, can of Physics Hideo Mabuchi, Professor larger percentage of the high schools. be resisted. In principle, then, even very of Theoretical Physics John Preskill, Increasing the area to over 1000 km? intricate quantum systems can be Professor of Physics Michael Roukes, would establish a major world-class stabilized and accurately controlled. Professor of Electrical Engineering, facility in ultra-high energy cosmic The scientific mission of the IQI Applied Physics, and Physics Axel ray physics that would compare with is to elaborate and develop these ideas, Scherer, and Feynman Professor of the largest presently envisioned arrays and to otherwise illuminate the Theoretical Physics Kip Thorne. EAS (such as the Pierre Auger project that essential differences between quantum faculty include Professor of Control is beginning in Argentina). Not only information and classical information. and Dynamical Systems and Electrical would CHICOS then be a premier We aim to better understand the Engineering John Doyle, Associate facility for ultra-high energy cosmic capabilities of quantum computers, and Professor of Electrical Engineering ray research in the Northea to bridge the vast gap between the Michelle Effros, and Associate Professor Hemisphere, but the educational theory and practice of quantum of Computer Science Leonard program would then reach more than information processing by conceiving Schulman. 10,000 high school students and 300 new approaches to the physical In the 21" century, information high school teachers. This proposed manipulation of coherent quantum technology will play an increasingly project would have a major impact on states. important role in our daily lives. We both cosmic ray research and high A variety of Caltech groups in both can also anticipate that thinking about school science education in the Los the PMA and EAS Divisions have how information can be encoded and Angeles area. Clearly, CHICOS already been engaged in QIS research processed will facilitate progress in basic represents a unique and timely for several years. The IQI consolidates, science. Though quantum theory is opportunity to combine state-of-the- expands, and enhances these activities now over 100 years old, we are just art research and high school by providing a focal point for QIS beginning to learn some of the education. . research on the Caltech campus. profound ways in which quantum Faculty, research staff, and students information differs from classical from both Divisions interact, information. The IQI aims to lead the promoting the communication and quest for a deeper understanding of the collaboration across disciplinary role of information in fundamental boundaries that will be essential to the physics. further development of the field Central to the IQI's scientific More about IQI activities can be found program is a vigorous visitor's program at http://www.iqi.caltech.edu/. that brings to Caltech the world leaders of the QIS research community for 10 PMA cont. (from page 5) Vehicle, Orbital Requirements and level of professionalism and formality galactic synchrotron radiation, and 'emetry. They in turn subcontracted which we feel was important for the thermal emission from the Moon, the ..detailed CAD design drawings of students to be exposed to: it made it Sun and even the Cosmic Microwave the spacecraft to be done by Littlerock's clear that we felt that they had Background! We are currently fielding Design class. To facilitate something worth saying. KTLA the prototype on the roof of the communications between Littlerock interviewed the students and staff and Robinson building. Once that is High and Caltech, the school filmed parts of the presentation, which functioning, we will help the Littlerock purchased a fax machine and the was featured as an item on their news students assemble their telescope on the speaker phone for the Astronomy show that night. Articles were roof of their own school building. classroom, and the students set up their published in the Daily News, the Ultimately, our aim is to build up own email account. The students had Caltech 336 and the Antelope Valley a self-contained telescope 'kit' for the added task of making a scale size Press. At this visit, the Caltech Career schools and colleges which lets them hardware mock-up of their design and Development Center provided very get a radio telescope up and running this was important to help translate valuable advice not only on careers but with the minimum time and difficulty. their concepts into something a little also on scholarships to fund college Radio astronomy is a uniquely more tangible. Ricardo Paniagua from attendance, which is of particular powerful tool since it allows students the Caltech PMA/GPS machine shop importance to these students at a Title and teachers to conduct observations provided valuable assistance on 1 (low income) school. Student during school hours. The telescope is hardware build. feedback was extremely encouraging. robust and easily deployable, but Over the course of the project, the Several of the them commented on powerful enough for students to students investigated the chemistry how much the program has broadened conduct scientific observations. In this behind the depletion of stratospheric their horizons. The visits to Caltech way we hope to introduce many young ne. They elected to fly the Total were very enjoyable and enlightening. students to the fascination and joy of Ozone Mapping Spectrometer Especially useful were the astronomy. (TOMS) instrument, which has organizational skills learned during the It has been gratifying for us to already flown on several NASA program. None of the students had receive so much financial support and missions. The use of a previously worked on a project of this magnitude encouragement from the Caltech designed instrument allowed them to before, and all agreed they had grown community. It is difficult to imagine complete the design of the spacecraft dramatically through the process. this project being possible at another bus and mission aspects within the Our follow-on project this year is institution. The greater Caltech allocated project time. They were also the design and construction of two community (PMA Division, Caltech Y, then able to use clearly defined power, radio telescopes for which we have Minority Student Affairs, Career volume and mass figures for the secured funding from the PMA Development Center, and our instrument. The total mass of their Division and the Irvine Foundation. postdoctoral advisor Professor Andrew spacecraft design was 1127 kg and the The design is a simplified version of Lange) have provided us with the required power was 2.4 kW. Insertion the polarimeter Dr. Keating necessary financial and logistical into a low Earth Polar orbit was to be constructed for his PhD thesis and uses support to make this project a success. accomplished using a Pegasus launch commercially available satellite We particularly value the freedom to vehicle. television components operating in C commit time away from our own In order to formalise the final (3-5 GHz) and Ku (10-14 GHz). The research as postdoctoral scholars. For project presentation, this was given at commercial hardware (e.g., dish and ourselves, this outreach project has Coltech to an external review panel of low-noise amplifiers) is readily available proved to be a valuable component of neers and scientists from JPL and and the remaining electronics and our own education and serves as a TRW who provided extremely useful software will be purchased from surplus satisfying complement to our feedback to the students on their retailers. The assembled system will astronomical research. • design. This took the project to a new have sufficient sensitivity to detect 11 California Institute of Technology Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy Mail Code 103-33 Pasadena, CA 91125 Address Service Requested