For nearly 70 years, physicists have speculated whether quantum fluctuations in two- or three-dimensional spin or boson systems can destabilize ordered phases. The resulting phase would then be a "quantum liquid". As emphasized in a Viewpoint by the journal Physics, postdoctoral fellow Christopher Varney and Prof. Marcos Rigol were part of a team that presented the first convincing example of a gapless quantum spin liquid in a realistic model in two dimensions.

The Department of Physics is pleased to announce that Rhonda Dzakpasu has been accepted as a Fall 2011 Fellow of the Engelhard Project for Connecting Life and Learning, which is housed in Georgetown’s Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship. Each semester, the Engelhard Project invites faculty fellows to consider ways that they might make meaningful connections between the academic content of a course and a health or wellness topic relevant to students' lives.

Prof. Jim Freericks and Postdoctoral Fellow Joseph Wang are part of a multidisciplinary team that has recently demonstrated the onset of a quantum phase transition in a quantum simulator made from up to nine trapped ions. The experimental team, led by the group of Chris Monroe at the University of Maryland and the Joint Quantum Institute, performed simulations of the transverse field Ising model on 2 to 9 trapped ion systems. The Georgetown team involved in theory and computation to help understand the experimental results.

Recent physics graduate Derick Stace-Naughton has won the 2011 Coakley Medal from Georgetown College. This award, the highest honor given to a graduating senior in the College, was founded in memory of “Hank” Coakley, 1941, Lieutenant, United States Army Air Force, who died in the service of his country in World War II.