A Word from the Head of Department

Here comes this year’s second last edition of IFT-posten. Possible materials and announcements for events that will take place the rest of this year and the first week of the next year must be delivered within Thursday, December 8. In addition, we would like to remind you that the registration deadline for this year’s Christmas party was on December 2.

We would also like to wish all the best to all of our students with the exam and thesis defense preparations!

Geir Anton

News and General Information

Students from IFT on Svalbard

During October and November, seven students from the space physics group at IFT participated in the course entitled AGF35 Polar Magnetospheric Substorms at the University on Svalbard, UNIS. The course is taught intensively over five weeks, with lectures, exercises, field work at Kjell Henriksen observatory and the EISCAT-radar, and is finalized with a project assignment and oral exam. The lecturers come from the universities in Bergen and Uppsala, and from the Finnish Meteorological Institute in Helsinki. This is the second time this course is offered at UNIS. However, it has been taught twice on Andøya at the Rocket Launching Facility and once on Iceland.

The professional environment at UNIS is mostly international, in terms of both researchers and students. UNIS has now moved to a new building, with good lecture halls, canteen and other necessary premises. At this time of the year, the day light on Svalbard is about to disappear and the sun does not come over the horizon. In any case, the nature around Longyearbyen is fascinating and in addition, there is the possibility of observing the northern lights, even in the middle of the day during the darkest season.

The Norwegian Technical Science Academy invites you to Christmas meeting in Bergen:

Ingemar Lundström, Professor, The Nobel Committee/University of Linköping:
Prosessen i valg av Nobel-kandidat i fysikk (The process of selection of a Nobel-candidate in physics)

On Tuesday, December 13 2011 at 19:00 at the Nansen Center at Marineholmen, Thormøhlens gate 47. After the meeting Christmas dinner will be served. There will also be an opportunity to socialize with other participants. The price is 200 NOK per place. One can either pay in cash after the dinner or ask for a bill to be sent. In case of payment upon receipt, one will be charged 50 NOK billing fee in addition to the original price at 200 NOK. Remember to provide complete name and address at registration if you wish to pay upon receipt.

Registration within 15:00 on Thursday, December 8, or by calling 73 59 54 63, but registration is only required for those who would like to join the dinner.

PhD

Trial Lecture

MSc. Nicolausi Ssebiyonga will be giving the following trial lecture for his PhD-degree:

Wednesday, December 7 2011, at 10:15 in room 292, IFT:
"Benjamin Franklin and his experiments in electricity"

All are welcome!

IFT in the media

Jesper Gjerløv: Styrer global magnetovervåkning (Controlling the global magnetic monitoring), På Høyden November 25.
Arne Graue and Bjørn Kvamme: Brennende is er Norges ukjente formue (The burning ice is Norway’s unknown fortune), Dagens Næringsliv November 29.

Publications (ISI)

· Selsto Solve; Birkeland Tore; Kvaal Simen; Nepstad Raymond; Forre Morten: A master equation approach to double ionization of helium JOURNAL OF PHYSICS B-ATOMIC MOLECULAR AND OPTICAL PHYSICS Volume: 44 Issue: 21 Article Number: 215003 DOI: 10.1088/0953-4075/44/21/

· Anekallu C. R.; Palmroth M.; Pulkkinen T. I.; Haaland S.E. et al.: Energy conversion at the Earth's magnetopause using single and multispacecraft methods JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-SPACE PHYSICS Volume: 116 Article Number: A11204 DOI: 10.1029/2011JA016783

· BaBar Collaboration: Lees J. P.; Poireau V.; Tisserand V.; Eigen G.; Stugu B.; Sun L. et al: Searches for rare or forbidden semileptonic charm decays PHYSICAL REVIEW D Volume: 84 Issue: 7 Article Number: 072006 DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.84.072006

· Gjerloev J. W.; Ohtani S.; Iijima T.; et al.: Characteristics of the terrestrial field-aligned current system ANNALES GEOPHYSICAE Volume: 29 Issue: 10 1713-1729 DOI: 10.5194/angeo-29-1713-2011

· Viljanen A.; Tanskanen E.: Climatology of rapid geomagnetic variations at high latitudes over two solar cycles ANNALES GEOPHYSICAE Volume: 29 Issue: 10 1783-1792 DOI: 10.5194/angeo-29-1783-2011

· ATLAS Collaboration: Buanes T, Burgess T, Eigen G, Johansen LG, Kastanas A, Leibig W, Lipniacka A, Mohn B, Oye OK, Rosendahl PL, Sandaker H, Sjursen TB, Stugu B, Tonyan A, Ugland M et al.: Measurement of the top quark-pair production cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL C Volume: 71 Issue: 3 Article Number: 1577 DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-011-1577-6

· Abdallah J.; Abreu P.; Adam W.; Eigen G.; Leder G.; Stugu B. et al.: A study of the b-quark fragmentation function with the DELPHI detector at LEP I and an averaged distribution obtained at the Z Pole EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL C Volume: 71 Issue: 2 Article Number: 1557 DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-011-1557-x

· Abdallah J.; Abreu P.; Adam W.; Eigen G.; Stugu B. et al.: Search for single top quark production via contact interactions at LEP2 EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL C Volume: 71 Issue: 2 Article Number: 1555 DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-011-1555-z

· Lees J. P.; Poireau V.; Tisserand V.; Eigen G.; Stugu B.; Sun L: Observation of the baryonic B decay (B)over-bar(0) -> Lambda(+)(c)(Lambda)over-barK(-) PHYSICAL REVIEW D Volume: 84 Issue: 7 Article Number: 071102 DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.84.071102

· Lees J. P.; Poireau V.; Prencipe E.; Eigen G.; Stugu B.; Sun L et al.: Study of radiative bottomonium transitions using converted photons PHYSICAL REVIEW D Volume: 84 Issue: 7 Article Number: 072002 DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.84.072002