Please direct comments to
Doug Bonn
and/or
Harvey Richer.
The current basic model of the Universe is the Big Bang in which the Universe had an initial extremely hot phase and has expanded and cooled since then. This paradigm has had remarkable success in predicting the existence of the Cosmic Microwave Background (the ubiquitous radiation field of the Universe), the abundances of the light elements in the Universe and its expansion. Together with the Standard Model of particle physics and the Theory of General Relativity, we now have a very solid framework in which to describe a wide range of physical regimes within the history of the Universe. In the earliest moments of the Big Bang, the Universe is predicted to have been remarkably isotropic and homogeneous, and yet the Universe that we see today is very inhomogeneous on all except very large scales. This inhomogeneity is of course profoundly important, it led directly or indirectly to the emergence of complexity in the Universe on different scales and to the existence of essentially all phenomena that are studied in science, including life. The generally successful theoretical paradigm for the development of inhomogeneity is that small amplitude density variations, perhaps the result of quantum fluctuations in the early Universe, grew through the process of gravitational instability. As the local density grew, eventually other physical forces became important in forming the structure and governing the complex behaviour on the small scales that we see around us today.
This complex behaviour of matter on local scales has, until recently, been studied mainly to understand some of the really extraordinary collective phenomena like superconductivity, magnetism, or coherent light (lasers) that occur in quantum systems. The frontiers now have shifted. Physicists are using the general laws of collective behaviour to make fundamental new advances in other fields such as in biophysics. An understanding of how to force distinctively quantum behaviour into the macroscopic realm is also nearing reality. Quantum Theory still has some rather deep mysterious, and experimental and theoretical work in the last decade has shown how it may be possible to make even macroscopic objects show quantum properties like quantum coherence. This work has fundamental implications for problems like the unification of gravity with quantum theory, and for the relationship between quantum mechanics and classical theory. It has also led to great excitement because of the idea that one might deliberately construct a whole new world of quantum objects at the macroscopic scale. Foremost amongst these possibilities has been the suggestion of a ``quantum computer'', which theoretically would have exponentially greater computing power than its classical counterpart. It is presently thought that such computers would involve a combination of nanomagnetic, nanosuperconducting, and quantum optical components.
The combined hirings in our ``Origins and Complexity'' initiative will reach across all subdisciplines in the Department and encompass 14 of the proposed 15 new departmental positions over the next few years. During the period 2000 - 2004, a major fraction of the current members of the Physics and Astronomy Department will retire, the present hiring plan takes advantage of this situation by building on existing strengths and directing the Department into a few major new and exciting areas for the beginning years of the 21st century such as quantum computing, planetary astronomy and the origin of matter.
This ``Origins and Complexity'' initiative, although research driven, also meets programmatic needs of the Department by focusing on areas of great current interest to students.
A major objective of the Departmental hiring plan involves the establishment of an important group that will be internationally recognized in the area of ``Origins''. It is envisioned that eight new hirings in this area will be made over the next few years and that this group will address fundamental questions about our place in the Universe. The new faculty members will augment existing researchers in areas of the high energy frontier, cosmology, nucleosynthesis and stellar astrophysics and provide bold initiatives into the fields of planetary formation and evolution, and the origin of matter in the early Universe. Some specific issues to be considered will be:
How did the Universe begin and what is its structure?
How did matter arise in the high energy environment of the early Universe and what are its forms? How did the fundamental forces of nature decouple?
When and where did the heavy elements form and how has this provided the chemical environment that nurtured the evolution of life?
How were galaxies, the basic building blocks of the Universe, assembled in the distant past?
How do stars and planetary systems form within galaxies and are there terrestrial-type planets around nearby stars?
The basis of physics is the quest for an understanding of the origin of matter, its motion and change from one form to another. This quest has led us from the earliest concepts on the nature of matter to the present ``Standard Model'' which provides a consistent picture of all currently observed phenomena in particle physics. But this theory is neither complete, nor plausibly the final model. From a theoretical perspective gravity and quantum mechanics have not as yet been combined into a unified scenario. Experimentally, we continue to search for a missing constituent of the Standard Model: the Higgs boson that generates fundamental particle masses. In addition, there are patterns within the Standard Model that hint strongly at some underlying order, reminiscent of those in the periodic table of the elements that are now explained by atomic substructure. We expect new physical phenomena to become apparent at an energy scale which will be directly accessible at the next generation of accelerators. By contrast, the early Universe produced energies of a magnitude that will never be duplicated on Earth, so a combination of accelerator, cosmologically produced particles and theoretical astroparticle research can provide a more unified picture. At lower energies, the question of the origin of the elements remains incomplete and UBC physicists are in a unique position here with the ISAC facility at TRIUMF which can provide neutron-rich nuclei critical in characterizing nucleosynthesis in stars and supernovae.
The hiring thrust here will be 5 positions for researchers working in the area of the ``Origins of Matter''. New faculty, both theoretical and experimental, will be recruited into such overlapping areas as string theory, astroparticle physics, experimental subatomic physics and nuclear astrophysics.
The new positions in this thrust of the ``Origins'' initiative will be drawn from the following areas.
Particle astrophysics, a remarkable and unexpected area of research that explores the subtle connections between the very small (elementary particles) and structure on the largest scales (cosmology). Particle physics at the high energy frontier. Among other areas, this research will involve the search for the origin of fundamental particle masses. Nuclear astrophysics which helps determine which nuclei and particles are produced in the Big Bang, supernovae explosions and in stellar interiors. Data of this sort are critical to our understanding of the chemical evolution of the Universe.
Our Department is largely lacking in a central and extremely promising new area of research, string theory. String theory aims to incorporate gravity in a quantum field theory and such a theory has been sought from the times of Einstein to the present day.
String theory is a promising candidate for the ultimate Grand Unified Theory, and could eventually lead to a fundamental theory of the physical world. It is arguably one of the most active and challenging areas of basic research and is attracting the best minds in theoretical physics. String theory has recently solved the problem of divergences in quantum gravity, gives interesting explanations of hypothetical properties of black holes and actually comes tantalizingly close to providing a derivation of the Standard Model based on a mirror array of new fundamental particles. String theory, with its potential ability to impact an enormous variety of physical problems in the high energy arena, will draw strength from UBC's strong theoretical groups active in particle physics and General Relativity, and its internationally recognized experimental particle physics effort. One of the surprises of the past 20 years is how fruitful the interaction between particle physics and cosmology has been. While superficially so disparate (particle physics being that of the very small, while cosmology the study of the largest observable structures), the two fields have found vast areas of common ground. Limits on the number of neutrino species came first in cosmology and then were demonstrated in particle physics experiments. Inflation, the most promising scenario for describing the large scale structure of the Universe, took its theoretical insights from condensed matter and from particle physics (together with Einstein's ``failed'' theory of the large scale behaviour of the Universe). With the Cosmic Microwave Background results giving us actual observations of the earliest stages of the Universe, one also has the possibility of testing these theories, but this will require deep insight into the possible ways in which particle physics influenced the early development of the Universe. At the same time, developments in the early Universe constrain possible theories of elementary particle physics.
The energy frontier of particle physics has enormous potential for discovery due to the upcoming entry into uncharted energy domains. At present, the ground-based high energy frontier is the Tevatron collider at Fermilab, where the top quark was discovered. Upgrades to the intensity in its beam and its detectors will increase its energy reach. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) with a much higher energy and beam current is presently under construction at CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics). Its quarry is the discovery of the Higgs boson (which has been predicted to generate fundamental particle masses) and the measurement of its properties. Much higher energies are potentially available from particles produced in the early Universe and both theory and observations in this area hold the promise of new discoveries. Indirectly, the energy frontier can also be accessed by precision experiments at existing accelerators. All these experiments at the energy frontier probe the most basic aspects of particle physics and may have profound implications for such questions as the origin and fate of the Universe. They also potentially allow access to entirely new mass scales, and to a new level of sensitivity to novel physics effects. A recent exciting example is the possible evidence for a non-zero neutrino mass from atmospheric, solar and accelerator-based experiments. Although these results remain in flux, awaiting further exploration, the outcome will have far-reaching consequences for both particle physics and cosmology.
Nuclear astrophysics encompasses a broad field including stellar
energy generation, the solar neutrino problem, nucleosynthesis and
event diagnosis such as x- and 
-ray bursts.
Understanding the energy
generation and heavy element production in stars, and in more explosive
astrophysical events, requires a synthesis of input from such diverse
fields as nuclear experiment, neutrino interaction physics, and plasma
fluid mechanics.
The new ISAC (Isotope Separator and ACcelerator)
facility at TRIUMF
has great potential for advancing the
state of the art in important aspects of nuclear astrophysics
measurements and providing unique data on the origin of the elements.
However, theoretical input and guidance is crucial to
the choice of areas of experimental study. For instance, theoretical
identification of what information is needed about nuclear reactions
and decay properties is vital to guide experiments on nucleosynthesis.
One exciting area is in Big Bang
nucleosynthesis. Theoretical analysis of the ratio of helium to
hydrogen produced in the Big Bang predicted the existence of 3
light neutrino species. More exotic variations on the Big Bang, for example
inhomogeneous Big Bang models, require input from reaction experiments
with light, neutron-rich nuclei available at the unique ISAC facility.
The initiative to hire experimental and theoretical high energy physicists will be enhanced by the engineering and technical facilities and staff at TRIUMF which are unique in Canada and provide world-class capabilities in many crucial areas of advanced technology germane to particle physics and accelerators. Few other Departments in the U.S. or Europe have such close access to essential facilities such as test beams, clean rooms, magnet, accelerator, and detector development laboratories specifically designated to support particle physics experiments.
The study of structures in the Universe from that on the largest cosmological scale down to planet formation is presently generating enormous excitement. The Canadian Government has recognized the strength and vision of the astronomical community's efforts in these areas and will invest almost $250M in new international facilities for Canadian astronomers over the next decade. These international observatories will be designed to study the structure and evolution of extra-solar planetary systems, stars, galaxies and the Universe.
The rate of new astronomical discoveries has been truly exhilarating. Over the past several decades these have included quasars, the cosmic microwave background radiation, neutron stars, black holes, dark matter, young galaxies in the early Universe and, perhaps most exciting of all, planets around nearby stars. It now appears that such planetary systems are ubiquitous in our Galaxy. The proposed new faculty members will have at their disposal the revolutionary and novel observatories that Canada has committed to in their investigations of these questions. The three new positions in this section of the ``Origins'' initiative will be drawn from the following areas.
Computational astrophysics which, among other areas, models and helps interpret current star/planet formation scenarios and, further, using a wealth of novel computational techniques, impacts on all aspects of the ``Origins'' program.
Observational cosmology, one aspect of which investigates the manner in which gas in the early Universe is collected into galaxies and how galaxies then provide the environment for the formation of stars and their associated planets.
While the techniques currently being used world-wide in the successful searches for extrasolar planets were developed at UBC, there is currently no major Departmental presence in the exciting areas of planetary searches and star formation. There exists a very strong observational stellar group within the Department doing work on stellar seismology, structure and evolution which will anchor the thrust into this rapidly developing field. A planetary system astronomer will contribute to a deeper understanding of the Solar System in which we live and, simultaneously, work on searches for and characterization of extra-solar planetary systems. The ultimate goal of such research is the detection of a terrestrial planet around a nearby star and confirmation that life could be present on that planet. Such an observation would galvanize the general public and have a profound effect on political, philosophical and religious thought.
A computational astrophysicist working on a broad range of problems including modeling the formation of stars and planets from the gas in the interstellar medium, will provide theoretical support within the ``Origins'' theme. Five years ago there was no obvious connection between the star and planet forming process, but new observations (gaseous and dusty proto-planetary disks around stars, ubiquity of extrasolar planets) and theoretical developments (modeling the evolution of planets within solar systems) have now shown that they are intimately connected. A modern computationally inclined astrophysicist can, with similar techniques used in the star formation analysis, also study such widely diverse subjects as the creation and evolution of large scale structure in the Universe and the dynamical evolution of self gravitating systems such as star clusters and solar systems. Several astrophysical problems are amongst the most computationally intensive in all the physical sciences and astrophysicists currently use about 20% of the world's supercomputing time. Astrophysical research has been the source of innovative new algorithms such as ``tree codes'' and data mining techniques as well as inventive new approaches to image analysis. There are the beginnings of a computationally intensive group within the Department already and this position will find a natural home.
Working on the largest scale within the ``Origins'' group will be a hiring initiative to attract an outstanding observational cosmologist. This field has among its unsolved problems that of galaxy formation which requires studying remote galaxies at times when the Universe was only about a tenth of its current age. The connection here to planetary formation is direct; the interstellar medium, that gaseous fraction of a galaxy which has not as yet formed into stars, is a major component of young galaxies and with time is both enriched in heavy elements due to stellar evolution and slowly depleted due to star formation. Thus galactic evolution chooses the correct cosmic time for the formation of planetary systems which might contain life; a time when there are sufficient heavy elements required for the life process, but still enough gas to form sizeable numbers of stars.
The existing cosmology group within the Department of Physics and Astronomy are world leaders in the areas of the Cosmic Microwave Background, galaxies, gravitational lensing, dark matter and instrumentation. The new faculty member will provide an added dimension by exploiting for extragalactic research the international astronomical facilities just being commissioned by Canada and her partners (e.g. CFHT Mosaic Camera, Gemini Telescopes) and be a major force in using the telescopes that will become operational in about a decade's time (NGST - an 8m replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope, ALMA - 64 12m dishes acting as an interferometer, Square Kilometre Array - huge cm-wave array with a collecting area of one square kilometre, VLOT - with an effective diameter of about 35m).
Alongside questions regarding the fundamental origin and building blocks of the physical world, physicists also study the principles that govern the collective behaviour of those constituents when they are assembled together. Even the study of a relatively simple assembly, such as the ordered array of silicon atoms in a semiconductor crystal, has had the far-reaching consequence of generating our modern electronics revolution. More complicated assemblies of several types of atoms give us materials with wholly new properties such as magnetism and superconductivity. At an even higher level of complexity, nature makes use of extraordinary structures, such as proteins and membranes.
The spirit of this area is embodied in the concept of emergent phenomena, the idea that when one joins together the fundamental building blocks of nature, these assemblies exhibit phenomena that must be understood in terms of new principles appropriate to the higher level of complexity. Physicists strive to make progress in this area by trying to discover and exploit the fundamental principles governing behaviour at different levels of ``Complexity''. The work is often highly interdisciplinary, since it makes use of the tools and research style of physics to address problems that are also of interest in biology, chemistry, and a wide range of engineering disciplines.
Conversely, techniques and discoveries in these areas provide physicists with new tools to help make progress in the fundamental understanding of matter. Some key questions are:
New positions envisioned within the ``Complexity'' program are focussed in two initiatives outlined below. One involves an area of biophysics which is concerned with the extraordinary properties achieved by assembling the simple constituents that make up biological materials. The second area is concerned with quantum coherence, the bridge between the quantum world of individual atoms and the classical world of macroscopic matter. The connection between the two areas is that both involve the rapidly moving field of nanostructures, our new ability to manipulate matter on the atomic and molecular scale.
Biological systems are prime examples of what is meant by the term ``Complexity'', where structures built from simple constituents demonstrate properties and behaviour far more complicated than the underlying building blocks. Biopolymers, such as proteins and nucleic acids, are long chains of simple sub-units, but they demonstrate functions ranging from chemical catalysis to antifreeze. Recent advances in physics, chemistry and biology are now enabling the application of techniques and ideas from each of these fields in this exciting interdisciplinary area. In recent years, techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance, atomic force microscopy and optical tweezers have all moved from the physics into the biology laboratory. These new techniques also figure prominently in the condensed matter physics initiatives outlined below.
Conversely, such research also leads to new physics such as the protein folding problem which has the goal of predicting the shape of a large protein from knowledge of its sequence of amino acids. This also has the potential to provide physicists with new tools such as biomolecular self-assembly to engineer nanostructures.
We plan to fill two positions in biophysics in the near future centred around the common goal of understanding the complex folding and binding behaviour of large biological molecules. This far-reaching topic requires a level of understanding that needs to be achieved at an atomic level, drawing heavily on the expertise of physicists.
The involvement of physics in the understanding of biopolymer function will result in major breakthroughs within the next two decades and will have great impact in both biology and physics. For biology, it is a key aspect of the origin and functioning of life. The essentials of life revolve around large assemblies of atoms behaving in ways unique to biological systems. Understanding how proteins and RNA chains fold into functional structures and the way these conformations change in response to the environment are problems of the underlying physics of biological molecules. The role of these structural problems in processes such as the regulation mechanisms within cells will deepen our understanding of life and its origins. For physicists, new understanding in this area will also enable the use of biological molecules for nano-fabrication. Given the current state of protein engineering, it is likely that nano-fabrication and development of materials and devices using self-assembling, engineered, biological molecules will become an enabling technology in physics in the near future. A key component of this emerging technology will be the requirement to predict protein structure and binding properties from amino acid sequences.
The existing biophysics group at UBC is small. It was built from a core of ground-breaking work in membranes, and presently includes two of our newest faculty members. However, UBC is uniquely positioned to build a leading international effort in biophysics, in part due to the extensive infrastructure and existing programs in the Vancouver area, including the Laboratory for Molecular Biophysics, the Biotechnology Laboratory, the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, the BC Cancer Research Centre, and AMPEL. The recruiting advantages of outstanding local facilities and collaborators, along with the momentum they are now generating and the potential support offered by the Biotech Lab and the BCCRC, can all be leveraged in the short term, before competition for quality researchers rises out of reach.
Condensed matter physicists study the structure and properties of matter lying between the small scale of subatomic physics and the large scale of Cosmology, Astronomy and Astrophysics. Since there are almost limitless ways in which matter can be configured, the study of condensed matter is a particularly large and diverse area of physics. At the present time, a number of revolutionary advances are setting the current path in the field. These include the exploitation of several powerful new probes of matter, such as synchrotron radiation and the wide range of new microscopies that are capable of imaging on the atomic scale. Perhaps most exciting is our new-found ability to deliberately assemble and manipulate matter at the atomic level. This ability is surfacing through a diverse set of techniques being developed in chemistry and physics, plus new methods for assembling structures discussed in our initiative in biological complexity. For the condensed matter physicist, the remarkable convergence of these fields on the nanometre length scale provides a unique opportunity to understand how to make the connection between the quantum mechanical world of atoms and the macroscopic world of materials.
We plan to fill four positions that provide the broad base for an initiative into the area of quantum coherence, a frontier concerned with pushing distinctively quantum behaviour into the macroscopic realm.
An experimentalist working in the area of nanostructures will provide key technical capabilities for producing and studying small structures used to study phenomena at nanometre length scales.
Another experimentalist will pursue problems of quantum coherence. This is a broad field related to the fundamental problem of how the world of quantum mechanics at the atomic level merges into the classical world at larger scales.
Two more positions will provide the theoretical foundation for the initiative in quantum coherence. Such individuals will play a key role in tying together our existing activities and the new direction presented by the positions in nanostructures and quantum coherence.
At the present time, the size of structures used in computer technology is dwindling rapidly into the nanometre length scale. Already, the leading-edge research in the field is producing structures involving very small numbers of atoms, where quantum effects play a significant role in the properties of the structure and devices being built. Thus, the research pursued in this field will have direct impact on the semiconductor industry as it miniaturizes down to the scale of only a small number of atoms in a device. Currently, the perspective of the field is inevitably shifting towards trying to make explicit use of the quantum phenomena that can be realized in nanostructures, rather than viewing them as a roadblock that limits what can be achieved. In order to play a role in this new area, the technical ability is required to produce and study small structures, abilities that can be provided with a combination of existing activities in the AMPEL building, a new position in nanostructures, and the synergy that can be developed with biophysics, chemistry and biochemistry. Infrastructure for this research is already developing in AMPEL, including a clean room, film growth apparatus and a wide range of atomic resolution microscopy facilities.
The central idea leading to the use of quantum phenomena on a macroscopic scale lies in the area of quantum coherence. In trying to make macroscopic objects exhibit quantum properties the key problem lies in the tendency for them to get ``entangled'' with their environment, in a way that causes quantum coherence to be lost. Experimentalists and theorists in this field are striving to prevent this decoherence. The theoretical leap required is to understand how this entanglement and loss of coherence occurs, an area that brings us to the edge of our understanding of the fundamental meaning of quantum mechanics. Guided by this theoretical work, the experimental task is a technically demanding one, involving a large number of possible approaches ranging over areas such as quantum optics techniques, superconducting nanostructures, and mesoscopic magnets. Each of these fields brings its own set of specific theoretical and experimental problems, on top of the overall issue of decoherence. For instance, an approach centred on mesoscopic magnets would require expertise in the chemistry of such materials and considerable work on the theory of such exotic magnetic structures. Work on superconducting nanostructures would involve UBC's existing strength in superconductivity, coupled to new initiatives in nanostructures and theoretical work specific to the nature of the superconducting state.
Our position as the foremost research group in condensed matter physics in Canada, the facilities in AMPEL, and the condensed matter program at TRIUMF and ISAC all provide us with the opportunity to play a leading role in this field. Success in this field will have far-reaching implications. It brings us to a confrontation with fundamental issues in quantum mechanics that are of great interest at the foundations of theoretical physics. A proper understanding of quantum coherence and the ability to control it is also the key step required in order to realize the first functioning quantum bit, the basis for realizing a truly quantum computer.
The engineering program draws much of its strength from the diverse activities that constitute applied physics in the Department. Many existing members of the Department spend some fraction of their research time in applied physics and such activities will continue to follow naturally from the hiring plan outlined here.
There are a number of aspects of the ``Origins'' initiative which have a potential engineering component to them, including the development of new astronomical facilities.
The field also makes heavy use of leading-edge computational and image processing tools, areas where there are certainly strong opportunities for students.
Much research in biophysics is highly applied in nature, involving the application of state-of-the-art tools and techniques to diverse problems in biology.
Our new initiatives in condensed matter physics, particularly those related to nanostructures, also lie at the frontier of present application of physics. In this area, physicists are working on the materials that will be at the heart of future technologies.
In order to maintain accreditation of the popular and successful Engineering Physics program, the Department will need to have at least 2 more faculty with professional engineering qualifications over the period of this plan. There are several avenues open towards achieving this goal. It is desirable that possible status as a professional engineer be considered in hiring decisions, particularly in the areas involving the applications of physics. Secondly, an initiative in the Department among existing faculty should be undertaken to certify those that are likely candidates. At least 3 such faculty members have been currently identified.
Medical physics is essentially an area of applied physics aimed at issues of human health. The problems tackled range over issues of fundamental understanding of the human organism, as well as the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Physicists and astronomers play key roles here, the most well known ones involving the development of increasingly sophisticated imaging techniques and the therapeutic use of radiation.
A medical physics program has a number of special needs arising from the direct contact with patients and the enormous need for well-trained physicists to meet BC's clinical needs. The present academic direction of the group is to meet this crucial need by moving towards a formally accredited program in medical physics. In many institutions, such a program operates within a medical school, but there are substantial advantages to keeping it more closely connected to its roots in a physics Department. This is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that programs outside of physics Departments often produce superb students at the M.Sc. level who then must come to a program like that at UBC if they want to go further into the realm of innovative research. TREK 2000's goal of close ties between the university's research and education activities are well met by a strong medical physics program, with its roots in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
The Department's research and academic activities in this area involve only one faculty member with a partial appointment in Physics and Astronomy, plus a large number of adjunct members working in hospitals and the BC Cancer agency. This structure in principle is advantageous because of the need to have close connections with these agencies and access to facilities and patients. As the group moves towards an accredited graduate program there is a clear need for at least one new appointment with a substantial fraction in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Such a person is needed for this expansion in a program that already involves about 20 of our graduate students. The physicist hired into this position will play a strong role in furthering the Department's research excellence at the forefront of the field.