Instagram story viewer> @lsuphysastro> Posts

LSU Physics & Astronomy

@lsuphysastro

1.1K

followers

211

following

Official Instagram page for LSU Dept. Of Physics and Astronomy
@lao.lsu 🔭

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Ever wanted to visit the Landolt Astronomical Observatory but weren’t sure how to get there? 🚶‍♂️✨ Follow this quick walkthrough from both Tower Dr. and the Quad (skip to 0:41s)!

Once you’re there, join us for our epic Star Parties where telescopes reveal the wonders of the night sky—planets, stars, and beyond! 🌌✨

#StarParty #LandoltAstronomicalObstervatory #LAO #lsu #lsuscience #lsuphysics #FamilyFriendly #FreeEvent #batonrougeevents #timelapse #BatonRougeEvents #BatonRougeThingsToDo #BatonRougeLife #BatonRougeWeekend #ExploreBatonRouge #BatonRougeFun #LouisianaEvents #BatonRougeLocal #BRWeekend #BRNights #LSUEvents #LSUStudents #GeauxTigers #OnlyAtLSU #LSULife #LSUCampus #LSUScience #LSUAstronomy taken in LSU Landolt Astronomical Observatory by @lsuphysastro

116

9

2 years ago

Join the LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy for our upcoming Colloquium Lecture Series featuring “A decade of the U.S. short-baseline neutrino program: from MicroBooNE to SBND”

📅 Thursday, October 22 | 🕒 3:30 PM

📍 Nicholson Hall, Room 109

🎤 Speaker: Dr. Hanyu Wei

☕ Reception with refreshments at 3:00 PM in the Physics Library

All are welcome! by @lsuphysastro

12

0

3 days ago

LSU Physics & Astronomy is bringing the Quantum Seminar Series back for its second installment. A seminar series with high-level introductions to a wide range of topics across quantum physics while bringing together students, postdocs, and faculty with shared interests. The talks will be at the level of an intermediate grad student who has taken a course in quantum mechanics.

For this seminar, Dr. Ilia Komissarov will present his lecture “Integrating Out the Details Using the Functional Renormalization Group.”

📅 Wednesday, October 21 🕑 1:30
PM 

📍 Nicholson Hall, Room 435

Join us for the talk and if you are interested in joining the mailing list or suggesting a future speaker?
Use the form here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSekislqPO_J94Poqgufz560F0x97UBTsPEJbYAMpsNMovujEA/viewform by @lsuphysastro

3

0

3 days ago

Wednesday's Fall Department Gathering brought the LSU Physics & Astronomy community together for an evening of food, games, friendly competition, and plenty of laughs.
Thank you to all of the students, faculty, and staff who came out, participated, helped organize activities, and made the event possible. We’re grateful for everyone who helped make it such a fun night for the department! See less by @lsuphysastro

88

0

3 days ago

🎗️ What if radiation therapy devices were built to fit each patient's anatomy?

That is the question LSU PhD candidate Shanice Manning, MS at LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy is exploring in her dissertation research, conducted at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center through the LSU-Mary Bird Perkins Medical Physics graduate program.
Her project, Small Pieces, Big Impact: Improving Radiation Care with Custom Designs, focuses on 3D-printed brachytherapy applicators. A better fitting device means the radiation source sits exactly where it is intended, targeting cancer while sparing healthy tissue. Shanice is developing the fabrication methods, radiation measurements and quality-control processes needed to bring personalized devices closer to the clinic.

And the recognition is already here. LSU Medical Physics swept the regional MedPhys Slam, with Shanice in first place, Murtuza Taqi in second and Emma Sargent in third. Shanice then went on to win first place and the People's Choice Award at the national competition, the first national MedPhys Slam win by an LSU student!

"I am not reading about how these treatments are being delivered. Im watching it happen, in the same facility where Im running my research," said Shanice. "That proximity to patient care has changed how I think about what Im building and why."

👏 Congratulations, Shanice!
Read the full story: https://lnkd.in/e453AMYz by @lsuphysastro

19

1

5 days ago

⚛️ Quantum chaos, meet quantum control.

Congratulations to our own Justin Wilson at LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy, coauthor of a new study in Nature Physics with Rutgers, IBM and collaborating institutions!

Using IBM's 156-qubit Heron processor, the team showed that a quantum computer can check what is happening inside it and respond while it runs. Nearly 5,000 checks and resets across a chain of up to 100 qubits brought chaotic behavior under control. It is among the largest demonstrations to date of real-time quantum feedback control, a capability seen as essential for future fault-tolerant quantum computers.

The study also caught order emerging from disorder. When the balance tipped past 50-50 between scrambling and resetting, the qubits flipped from chaos to a controlled state, a quantum phase transition like water freezing into ice.

"Small changes can lead to large and nearly impossible-to-predict consequences, like the classic idea that a butterfly flapping its wings in Africa could eventually contribute to a hurricane hitting Louisiana," said Wilson.

"But this out-of-control behavior can be brought under control by randomly intervening, and there is a sharply defined rate at which that happens."

👏 Congratulations, Justin!

Read more: https://lnkd.in/eaNFmKeh by @lsuphysastro

24

0

6 days ago

🎉 LSU Physicist Constantin Schrade to receive DOE Early Career Award!

Dr. Schrade, assistant professor in the LSU Department of Physics and Astronomy, is the only researcher from Louisiana among the 67 scientists nationwide named to the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2026 Early Career Research Program!

His five-year research project will investigate how changes in the microscopic magnetic patterns of altermagnets can steer electrons with opposite spins along different paths.

The goal is to develop a deeper understanding of this behavior and identify ways to test it experimentally, laying the groundwork for future spin-based technologies.

👏 Congratulations, Dr. Schrade!

🔗 Read more: https://lnkd.in/dSpwTV69 by @lsuphysastro

8

1

7 days ago

[Update]
Join the LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy for an upcoming Hearne Institute of Theoretical Physics Seminar featuring “Generation of Quantum Turbulence by Neutrino Cooling in Neutron Stars.”
📅 Friday, October 16 | 🕓 4:00–5:30 PM
📍 Nicholson Hall, Room 109
🎤 Speaker: Dr. James Sauls
The seminar will explore the physics of neutron stars, including quantum phases of nuclear matter, superfluid transitions, and quantum turbulence.
All are welcome! by @lsuphysastro

3

0

10 days ago

Congratulations to Dr. Mehdi Zarea and Professor James Sauls of LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy on an Editors' Suggestion in Physical Review B!

Their paper, published on October 8, 2026 as Phys. Rev. B 114, 214505, develops the microscopic theory for the microwave response of superconductors with low-energy subgap quasiparticles.

Why does this matter? Even dilute concentrations of paramagnetic impurities embedded in a superconductor break Cooper pairs and create these low-energy quasiparticles, which can impact the performance of superconducting microwave resonators and devices.

The authors predict the low temperature Joule dissipation, anomalies in the London penetration depth, and frequency shifts of high-Q resonators. They also show that microwave excitation of the subgap quasiparticles gives rise to the residual resistance of high-Q superconducting RF cavities.

This work connects fundamental condensed matter theory with technologies from particle accelerators to quantum circuits.

Read the paper: https://lnkd.in/eyUT99CD
#LSU #PhysicsAndAstronomy #CondensedMatter #Superconductivity #PhysicalReviewB #EditorsSuggestion by @lsuphysastro

20

0

10 days ago

🎉 The LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy congratulates Professor Thomas Corbitt on his election as a 2026 Fellow of the American Physical Society!

APS elects no more than 0.5 percent of its members as Fellows each year, and Professor Corbitt is the first LSU faculty member elected since 2015. The APS recognized him for developing quantum-optical and optomechanical techniques for gravitational-wave astrophysics. His lab at LSU works on quieting quantum noise in detectors like LIGO, and this year his team showed that optical springs can nearly double detector sensitivity beyond the quantum limit.

Congratulations, Thomas!

Read the full announcement: https://lnkd.in/eWJu7_pH

hashtag#LSU hashtag#PhysicsAndAstronomy hashtag#APS hashtag#GravitationalWaves hashtag#LIGO hashtag#QuantumOptics by @lsuphysastro

48

1

10 days ago

Join the LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy for our upcoming Colloquium Lecture Series featuring “Understanding Nuclear Reactions from Individual Nucleons: A Microscopic Glauber Theory Approach”

📅 Thursday, October 15 | 🕒 3:30 PM

📍 Nicholson Hall, Room 109

🎤 Speaker: Dr. Wataru Horiuchi

☕ Reception with refreshments at 3:00 PM in the Physics Library

All are welcome! by @lsuphysastro

3

0

10 days ago

Congratulations to Professor Joseph A. Giaime, who has been selected by the American Association of Physics Teachers as the 2027 recipient of the Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award.

The award recognizes outstanding contributions to physics and the ability to communicate those contributions effectively to physics educators.

Professor Giaime is being honored for his work communicating physics to broad audiences, his outreach through the LIGO Science Education Center Partnership, and his leadership as Observatory Head of LIGO Livingston.

This honor adds to a distinguished career in gravitational-wave physics, research, education, and scientific leadership.

As the 2027 award recipient, Professor Giaime will deliver the Richtmyer Memorial Lecture at the AAPT Winter Meeting.

Please join us in congratulating Professor Giaime on this well-deserved achievement! by @lsuphysastro

7

0

12 days ago