Nobel Laureate, Professor Douglas Osheroff at the BA
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Alexandria, 6 July 2005—Professor Douglas Osheroff, the 1996 Physics Nobel Laureate, and Professor of Physics and Applied Physics, Stanford University, is giving two lectures on superfluidity in the isotope helium-3 at absolute zero, 9 July 2005 at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA). This is within the framework of the International Year of Physics 2005 celebrations organized by the BA.
In his first lecture, So what really happens at absolute zero?, Professor Osheroff will shed light on some of the kinds of motion at this temperature and some of their consequences, including the failure of liquid helium to solidify under its own vapor pressure even at absolute zero.
The second lecture, The discovery of superfluid helium-3 as seen through the eyes of a graduate student, will discuss his discovery evidence for the existence of two unexpected phase transitions in a mixture of liquid and solid helium-3, both within three thousandths of a degree of absolute zero.
Professor Osheroff, an American physicist, was the co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize for Physics for the discovery of superfluidity in the isotope helium-3, along with David Lee and Robert Richardson. The discovery of superfluidity in helium-3 enabled scientists to study directly in macroscopic–or visible-systems the quantum mechanical effects that had previously been studied only indirectly in molecules, atoms, and subatomic particles.
The lecture is in English with simultaneous translation into Arabic. Attendance is open to the public free-of-charge.