Paul Voytas

Associate Professor of Physics, Wittenberg University 

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Teaching : Fall 2009 Physics 107: Astronomy Old Class Pages  Office Hours: MW: 1:50-2:50 WF: 9:10-10:10 R:9:40-11:10,2:10-3:30

Where: Office: Room 307 Barbara Deer Kuss Science Center Phone: (937) 327-7823  FAX: (937) 327-6340  email: pvoytas@wittenberg.edu Mailing Address: Physics Department  Wittenberg University  PO Box 720  Springfield, OH 45501-0720

Research and Scholarly Interests

• I am involved, with Dr. Elizabeth George (Wittenberg) and collaborators at University of Wisconsin-Madison, on a project to study the weak interaction in the beta decay of ¹⁴O. Research here
• I am also involved, with Dr. George on the phenomenon of Light Induced Atom Desorption. More about that can be found here.
• I have primarily been studying the Weak Interaction. This is the fundamental interaction responsible for (among other things) nuclear beta decay and is often just referred to as "the fourth fundamental force of nature" (to go along with gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong nuclear force). Much of my actual experimental work has involved using lasers to manipulate radioactive atoms in order to study their properties or beta decays in more detail, with more precision and control. This has involved work at the Experimental Nuclear Physics Group and the University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as work at the SUNY Stony Brook Nuclear Physics Lab. New! Recent commentary by Luis Orozco on Francium.
• Background on the 14O experiment--coming soon.
• My earlier work has involved the electron capture decay of ⁷Be. This work by me and Chris Ternovan ('00) involved a collaboration with the TWINSOLproject (located at the University of Notre Dame Nuclear Structure Lab) and the X-ray Astrophysics group at the University of Wisconsin Madison. A paper on the results in PDF format is available here.

Physics Links

Nobel Prizes in Physics
The Internet Pilot to Physics (TIPTOP)
Net Advance of Physics
Journal of Undergraduate Research in Physics
SPS (Society of Physics Students) National Page
National News of the Society of Physics Students
Physics Web
Research Journals of the American Physical Society

My favorite physics software

Extrema (Data analysis and graphing)
Gnuplot (Graphing and Data analysis)
Octave (Graphing, Modeling, analysis)
Maxima (Symbolic math, graphing, modeling, and data analysis)

My favorite other software

Arachnophilia (html, etc. coding)
Cartes du Ciel (Star chart software)
Open office (Office suite software--word processing, spreadsheet, presentaion, etc.)
Teraterm (Terminal emulation software, ssh,ssh2, tektronix emulation)

Irfanview (image display/edit/conversion)

Curriculum Vitae, including list of publications

Professional Affiliations:

• American Physical Society
  • Division of Nuclear Physics
  • Division of Astrophysics
  • Division of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
  • Division of Laser Science
  • Forum on Physics and Society
  • Forum on the History of Physics
  • Forum on Education
  • Ohio-Region Section
• American Association of Physics Teachers
  • Southern Ohio Section

Personal Links/Fun Stuff:

• Pictures of our dog Abby.
• A picture from our trip down the Colorado in summer of 2000.
• X-prize: Private competition for access to space
• Scary
• Subversive poltical links: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety".Benjamin Franklin

pvoytas@wittenberg.edu
Last modified: 27 August 2007  pav