Charles Baltay

Charles Baltay's picture
Eugene Higgins Professor Emeritus of Physics
WL 213
+1 (203) 432-3386
Research Areas: 
Astrophysics & Cosmology; Particle Physics
Research Type: 
Experimentalist
Current Projects: 

Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), Quasar Equatorial Survey Team (QUEST) Camera

Research : 

I am an experimentalist concentrating on fundamental issues, be that in particle physics, astrophysics, or cosmology.

In the nineteen sixties used the exposures of various Bubble Chambers at Brookhaven and SLAC to antiproton, kaon, and pion beams to study the then recently discovered strongly decaying particle states (resonances) and CP violation in eta meson and kaon decays.

In the nineteen seventies studied neutrino interactions in the Fermilab 15 foot bubble chamber measuring purely leptonic neutral currents to measure the Weinberg angle and find strange particle production as evidence of charm particle decays.

In the nineteen eighties and nineties severed as co-spokesman of the SLC experiment at the SLAC Linear Collider (the SLC) to carry out precision electroweak measurements via Zo production and decays.

More recently I have been working in Astrophysics and Cosmology, studying the nature of Dark Energy, the mysterious component that makes up three quarters of our universe, yet we know essentially nothing about it.  We do this both from ground-based telescopes in the Andes in Chile in South America, and from a space mission, formerly WFIRST,  now the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, via the study of distant Supernova explosion events.

For Fun

Skiing and sailing with a large family.

Teaching Interests: 

Taught both Undergraduate and Graduate courses ranging from Introductory Freshman Physics to Graduate General Relativity.

Education: 
PhD Yale University, A Study of Antihyperon Production in Antiproton-Proton Reactions under the guidance of Profs. Jack Sandweiss and Horace Taff, 1963
Advisor: 
Horace Dwight Taft
Dissertation Title: 
A study of antiperon production in antiperon-proton reactions