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from Central Connecticut State University
Honored as a "Leadership Institution" by the Association of American Colleges & Universities

Media contact: Peter Kilduff, Director of University Relations
(860) 832-1791; Kilduff@ccsu.edu


National Science Foundation Awards $60,000 to CCSU Professor Thomas Roman for research on the impact of negative energy in general relativity and quantum field theory

 

NEW BRITAIN -- November 13, 2007 – Dr. Thomas A. Roman, a professor of physics in the mathematical sciences department at Central Connecticut State University, has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to extend his investigation of the restrictions imposed by the laws of physics on negative energy.

“Roman’s research affects three important areas of physics: quantum field theory, Einstein’s theory of gravity (general relativity), and thermodynamics,” according to Dawn Pierpoint-Grzan, CCSU’s director of sponsored programs. “NSF grants, even for modest amounts of money, in the field of general relativity are highly competitive and extremely difficult to obtain.”

One goal of Roman’s current research is to establish closer ties with the field of quantum optics, ties which might suggest experimental tests of at least the indirect effects of negative energy. Another part of his proposed research is to study connections between negative energy, energy conservation, and the evaporation and possible destruction of black holes.

Earlier research results on negative energy were popularized in a January 2000 “Scientific American” article that Roman co-authored with Professor Larry Ford of Tufts University.  As Roman noted: “The upshot of the research to date is that nature imposes stringent constraints on the magnitude and duration of negative energy, which -- unfortunately, some would say -- appears to render the construction of wormholes, warp drives, and time machines very unlikely.”

Roman says that “involving undergraduates in this research will become increasingly possible during the next few years, since CCSU’s mathematical sciences department now offers a MATHEMATICA course. This course offers an introduction to symbolic computation using MATHEMATICA, one of the leading and powerful analytical and graphical symbolic manipulation programs used today.”

“This development will provide a potential pool of students, already trained in MATHEMATICA, who could become involved in research with Professor Roman and the other faculty in the mathematical sciences department.” said Dr. Timothy Craine, department chair and professor of mathematical sciences at CCSU.

 

About Central Connecticut State University

Central Connecticut State University is a regional, comprehensive public university dedicated to learning in the liberal arts and sciences and to education for the professions.  Comprising five schools -- Arts and Sciences, Business, Education and Professional Studies, Engineering and Technology, and Graduate Studies -- CSU offers undergraduate and graduate programs through the Master’s and sixth-year levels and the Ed.D. in Educational Leadership. The largest of four comprehensive universities within the Connecticut State University System, CCSU enrolls nearly 7,000 full-time and more than 5,000 part-time students. More than 85 percent of CCSU graduates remain in Connecticut, contributing to the intellectual, cultural, and economic health of the state.

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