Physicist ponders future of universe in Hans Bethe lectures here, April 16-23

Wick Haxton, director of the National Institute for Nuclear Theory in Seattle, will discuss neutrinos, nature's mysterious particles, and the ultimate fate of the universe when he delivers three Hans A. Bethe lectures in Schwartz Auditorium of Rockefeller Hall at Cornell, April 16-23.

A distinguished theorist in physics and astrophysics, Haxton was on the staff of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory before joining the faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he is now professor of physics. He became director of the nuclear theory institute in 1991.

Haxton will give a free public lecture, "Neutrinos: John Updike and the Big Bang," beginning at 7:30 p.m. April 18.

Neutrinos pervade all space as ghostly relics of the Big Bang. These mysterious particles have little or no mass, no charge, hardly ever interact, and yet are the objects of intense study by physicists. Haxton will trace the history of the neutrino, analyze Updike's poem "Cosmic Gall" describing neutrino properties and end with recent evidence that neutrinos could govern the ultimate fate of the universe.

The other scientific talks by Haxton in the Bethe Lecture series will be physics colloquia, which will be open to the public. His talk, "Solar Neutrinos and Neutrino Oscillations," will be at 4:30 p.m. April 16. He will discuss the current status and possible resolutions of the solar neutrino puzzle. Results from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, expected this spring, could confirm the phenomenon of neutrino oscillations.

In his final talk, "Supernovae and Nucleosynthesis," at 4:30 p.m. April 23, Haxton will discuss the poorly understood mechanism by which type II supernovae manage to eject their mantles, while the inner cores collapse to neutron stars or black holes. He will review some of the basic physics issues -- many of which were first described by Cornell professor emeritus of physics Hans Bethe -- that make this problem both fascinating and difficult.

Haxton, who is from Santa Cruz, Calif., obtained his undergraduate degree at the University of California-Santa Cruz, and his Ph.D. in theoretical physics at Stanford University.