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Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Undergraduate students in the physics department have the opportunity to get hands-on experience working with our faculty members. Below are some current projects open to interested students.

Undergrad Research at LHCResearch Projects for Undergraduate Students


Accelerator Based Particle Physics (Contact Dr. Stefan Spanier)

The High Energy Particle Physics group of the University of Tennessee (UTK) searches for new fundamental particles and the forces that act between them. Four forces are known to us-- the Electromagnetic, Weak, Strong, and Gravitational force--but their understanding is quite incomplete. We expect that there are other forces and particles that can be observed with high energetic particle collisions or as rare signals at lower energies. We hope to see strong signals with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European particle laboratory CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. The accelerator will start in 2008. LHC will collide protons with unprecedented energies and rates. We prepare software for the commissioning of particle detectors and perform data analysis and simulations of particle reactions here at UTK and at CERN. There are opportunities to visit the laboratory and help get the experiment started during the summer break and to participate in student activities and lectures. Several introductory projects that get you started are available. For more information, please contact Dr. Stefan Spanier by e-mail: spanier@utk.edu, by phone: 865-974-0597, or come to my office: Ayres 226A.

Accelerator based Particle Physics – GRID Computing (Contact Dr. Stefan Spanier)

Are you interested to get involved with the newest development in global computing – the Open Science GRID (OSG)? The GRID links together computer resources around the world to become one huge computing device. We participate in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, which will produce more than 15 PetaBytes of data per year for analysis by physicists all over the world – a first hand application and development environment for the GRID (CERN was also the birthplace of the World Wide Web). The Open Science Grid is still evolving and expected to be one of the next big advancements in large scale computing. The Open Science Grid brings together computing and storage resources from university campuses and research communities into common, shared GRID infrastructure over research networks via a unified set of middleware. Here at UTK the High Performance Computing (HPC) group of OIT in collaboration with the particle physics group installs such middleware, tests it, and makes it available to researchers at UTK to share computing resources more efficiently. Are you interested to get involved? You should have some experience in Linux software development and be able to approach new challenges in a systematic way. If this is you, please contact Dr. Stefan Spanier by e-mail: spanier@utk.edu, by phone: 865-974-0597, or come to my office: Ayres 226A.

Astrophysics (Contact Dr. Mike Guidry)

  • Theoretical astrophysics, with particular emphasis on computer modeling of stellar explosions: supernova explosions, nova outbursts, X-ray bursts, gamma-ray bursts, calculation of gravitational wave signatures in such events, element production in stellar explosions (r process and rp process) ... Involves collaboration with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
  • Theoretical neutrino astrophysics: role of neutrinos in various areas of astrophysics and cosmology, with particular emphasis on their role in supernova explosions. Involves collaboration with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
  • Implementation of genetic algorithms (mathematical global minimization based on principles of evolutionary genetics) and neural networks for applications to astrophysics problems such as galaxy collisions or extrasolar planets.

Crystal Growth Capability (Contact Dr. Pengcheng Dai)

In my lab, I am looking for an undergraduate who is willing to learn crystal growth capability using the infrared floating zone furnace. In addition, the student will learn how to detwinn single crystal samples of high-temperature superconductors. If all works well, we hope such a student will stay for a Ph.D. degree at UT using neutrons to study strongly correlated electron materials. For our group's activities and publications, please see http://pdai.phys.utk.edu for more information.

Experimental Particle Physics (contact Dr. Yuri Kamyshkov)

  • GEANT Monte-Carlo simulation of interactions of cosmic muons with detector for the purpose of calibration of neutrino detector NOvA (http://www-nova.fnal.gov/)
  • Experimental study of re-emission of Cherenkov UV light in Liquid Scintillator used in the neutrino detectors (KamLAND, Double Chooz, NOvA)
  • Earth magnetic field is ~0.5 Gauss or 50,000 nanoTesla. For NNbar experiments with cold neutrons the magnetic field should be reduced down to few nanoTesla level. In this projects methods of active and passive magnetic shielding and measurement of Earth 3D magnetic field will be explored.
  • Simulations by Monte-Carlo method the sensitivity of new-proposed experiment for observation of neutron to antineutron transformation in vertical and horizontal geometry.
  • Re-analysis of existing experimental data for the purpose of the search of possible contributions of new forces or limiting the existance of thereof.

Interactive Animations in Science (Contact Dr. Mike Guidry)

Development of state-of-the-art programming for interactive animation in the sciences. Present efforts center on object-oriented programming in languages like Java and Flash + Actionscript in the fields of astronomy, physics, biology, and genetics. These efforts underlie the development of a next generation of interactive and web-deliverable interactive textbooks in these fields for several major publishers. They also provide the basis for a variety of practical applications such as demonstration for non-specialist audiences of how drugs work in the body, the principles of DNA fingerprinting, science issues in bioterrorism, or how various high-tech medical devices function. Students will participate in the development of those interactive projects and gain extensive practical scientific and programming experience in the process. These projects can have strong overlap with areas 2, 3, and 4 listed under Topics in Computational Science, and the scientific problem depends partially on the interests of the student. Involves programming in some combination of Java, Flash Actionscript, JavaScript, XML technologies such as XML, SVG, or MathML, and database technologies such as PostGresSQL.

Mathematical Physics: Symmetries and Algebras (Contact Dr. Mike Guidry)

Symmetry in mathematical physics: application of algebraic symmetry principles to the understanding of problems in various fields of physics (condensed matter, particle physics, nuclear physics). Present efforts center on a new theory of high-temperature superconductivity based on Lie algebras defined in the fermion degrees of freedom, and other possible applications in condensed matter physics.

Nuclear Many-Body Theory (Contact Dr. Thomas Papenbrock)

An approximate model for a neutron gas consists of fermions with a short-range interaction and an infinite scattering length. This model captures some of the essential properties of the nucleon-nucleon interaction and is presently investigated experimentally in ultracold atom gases. We want to investigate such systems theoretically and compute their ground-state energies and densities. Undergraduate students who want to participate in this project should have an interest in theory, and a basic understanding of quantum mechanics.

Shapes of Rotation Neutron-Rich Exotic Nuclei (Contact Dr. Witek Nazarewicz)

Developing a comprehensive description of all nuclei, a long-standing goal of nuclear physics, requires theoretical and experimental investigations of rare atomic nuclei, i.e. systems with neutron-to-proton ratios larger and smaller than those naturally occurring on earth. In this project, we want to investigate shapes of extremely neutron-rich nuclei at low and high angular momenta. The calculations will be carried uout within the nuclear density functional theory. Undergraduate students who want to participate in this project should have an interest in theory, and a basic understanding of quantum mechanics and programming.

Topics in Computational Science (Contact Dr. Mike Guidry)

  • Development of parallel programming for scientific applications. Students will participate in developing code and implementing it on our parallel cluster, using Message Passing Interface (MPI) with Linux running on the nodes. Possible programming languages include F90, C, C++, and Java.The particular scientific application depends partially on the interests of the student. Depending on application, students may also be given access to larger supercomputers at Oak Ridge National Lab and other high-performance computational centers.
  • Development of a next generation of lightweight, interactive tools for scientific visualization. These tools will exploit the power of Java distributed network programming and vector graphics technologies (SWF and SVG formats). They are intended to be accessible through desktop PCs and standard networks, thus making high-quality collaborative visualization tools available even to research projects with limited budgets and computational resources. (Though our interests are serious, there is strong overlap of these issues with games programming technology. ) The particular scientific application depends partially on the interests of the student. Involves programming in Java and possibly C or C++ , and in XML (Extensible Markup Language) technologies such as scalable vector graphics (SVG).
  • Many workhorse programs in physics and astronomy have crude command-line interfaces that are cumbersome to use compared with modern graphical user interface (GUI) tools that we now expect as standard in non-scientific software. This project, which is closely related to the visualization project of the previous paragraph, develops sophisticated graphical user interfaces for such programs. Although the actual computational programs may be written in various languages (e.g., F90, C, or C++), graphical user interfaces to control them are typically written in Java or C++.
  • Application of high-end data visualization techniques for large-scale simulations of neutron-star mergers, gamma-ray bursts, gravitational wave production, and core-collapse supernovae. Involves collaboration with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
  • Development of new methods for solving large systems of coupled differential equations for application in astrophysics, oceanography, geochemistry, and other fields of science. Involves collaboration with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Spectra Analysis and Neural Networks (Contact Dr. Bill Blass)

  • Analysis and interpretation of very high resolution spectra of gas phase molecular spectra is crucial in the study and understanding of atmospheres, both the earth's and the outer planets. Resonances -- both accidental and essential -- complicate the analysis and interpretation of such spectra and are a principal area of research. Presently, target systems are ethane, ethylene and methyl cyanide and the associated spectra in the region of the 10 micrometer atmospheric window
  • Making use of the power of neural networks and the emergence of the image paradigm in physics modeling, studies focused on real-world physics problems are pursued. None of the problems are easy or readily solved but significant progress has been made. Typical problems include the recovery of true images from speckle interferograms and resolution enhancement of phase contrast electron micrographs and planetary hyperspectral images. This field involves recovering instrumental resolution in high resolution spectra through the use of computational techniques. The recoveries are based in some cases on phenomenological models and in others on rigorous physical modeling of the instrumental processes resulting in band-limiting of the recorded data.
  • Using stabilized CO2 gas lasers heterodyned with a molecular absorption signal (black body radiation passed through an absorption cell containing the target gas) extremely high resolution absorption spectra are obtained. Absolute intensities of ethylene, ethane and acetylene are being measured along with other hydrocarbons such as allene and methyl acetylene. Beyond being valuable data in general, this effort is in support of the IRHS group (headed by Theodor Kostiuk, NASA/GSFC, Laboratory for Extra Terrestrial Physics) for Titan observations made from IRTF and SUBARU telescopes on Mauna Kea in Hawaii using the HIPWAC heterodyne spectrometer.