DATE:

Friday, June 5, 2020

TIME:

3:00 PM

LOCATION:

Virtual Zoom Conference

SPEAKER:

Dr. Martin Kandes, Computational Science Research Center, San Diego State University

ABSTRACT:

In 1913, while he was still was an undergraduate, American physicist Arthur Compton invented a simple way to measure the rotation rate of the Earth with a tabletop-sized experiment, independent of any astronomical observation. The experiment consisted of a large diameter circular ring of thin glass tubing filled with water and oil droplets. After placing the ring in a plane perpendicular to the surface of the Earth and allowing the fluid mixture of oil and water to come to rest, Compton then abruptly rotated the ring, flipping it 180 degrees about an axis passing through its own plane. The result of the experiment was that the water acquired a measurable drift velocity due to the Coriolis effect arising from the daily rotation of the Earth about its own axis. Compton measured this induced drift velocity by observing the motion of the oil droplets in the water with a microscope. This device, now named after him, is known as a Compton generator. The fundamental research objective of this project is to explore the dynamics of a quantum-mechanical analogue to the classical Compton generator experiment through the use of numerical simulations. In this presentation, I describe how the physics of the problem itself drives many of the computational challenges in the simulations; what numerical methods and computational techniques were implemented in the custom simulation code written to explore the problem (and other quantum systems in rotating frames of reference); the performance characteristics and limitations of this code; some challenges in creating a post-simulation visualization pipeline; as well as the latest results and future directions of the project.

HOST:

Ricardo Carretero

VIDEO: