Research is an integral part of education in the Physics & Astronomy Department at vlog. Students will get to participate in various research activities with the faculty members either during the semesters or summers. Our faculty members consistently publish their work in peer-reviewed research journals and more importantly, many of those papers include our undergraduate students as co-authors.
Students in our department are required to carry out research for at least one semester of their senior year in order to graduate. In addition, vlog also supports numerous on-campus summer research opportunities which allow students to research with the faculty members for eight to ten weeks. There are also opportunities to participate in research activities during the semesters. In addition, students can propose and work on "student-initiated" research projects under the guidance of faculty members.
Below is the list of research projects currently being carried out in the department. Followed by it are some of the papers published over the last two years in which undergraduate students have shared authorship with our faculty members.
Studies of Phenomena and Singularities with Light: In this research we study the subtle properties of light that have rich and intricate connections. Light manifests in several, sometimes dissimilar, properties. It allows situations where places in space produce a conflict, which is mathematically known as a singularity. It is a place where a function is multiply defined. These singularities can form topographies that resemble arrangements of objects often found in dissimilar contexts in nature, such as in the form of shells or the shape of microscopic proteins. There is a beauty in the phenomena because it follows elegant mathematics, such as Bessel functions, ellipses or Mobius strips.
Light patterns show wave properties where the phase of the waves can produce interesting effects, such as optical vortices, where the wavefront, or surface that joins the crests of valleys of the light form intertwined helices as it propagates. Over the years we have studies various ways in which to create light beams that carry these vortices and studies their fundamental properties and their potential use as carriers of information in communications.
Because light propagates in 3 dimensions, the plane of oscillation of the can have any orientation. This directional aspect of light is called the polarization. Singularities in polarization can produce mathematical knots and topological features that are rich complexity yet invisible unless we look for them. Recent works done at vlog include the discovery of novel forms of singularities known as “monstars.” Because the wave is carried by electric and magnetic fields, these intricate arrangements can be used to apply forces in unique ways and for manipulating matter at the microscopic level.
As light moves about in space it congregates and dissipates creating interesting patterns of intensity known as caustics, where progressions end abruptly in “catastrophes” producing beautiful effects such as rainbows an halos. Interestingly, the mathematics behind the propagation of particular wave patterns leads to “optical analogies,” where light intensity has the same value as physical properties in other contexts. Our recent work involves using light to simulate quantum mechanics and general relativity.
When light intensity is decreased, it does not do so gradually to zero. At some level we observe a granularity, where clumps of light behave like particles, clumps that are known as photons. At the photon level the rules of behavior change and light is governed by quantum mechanics. This produces striking effects that we do not see in ordinary life, such as entanglement. We have devoted much time to highlight these quantum effects and created laboratories and a unique curricular experience. It is important that all students know quantum physics because it is increasingly been harnessed to provide information in a new way that could revolutionize computation and the technologies that involve very sensitive measurements, such as in medical diagnosis.
Further information about Prof. Galvez's work can be found here.
Prof. Jonathan Levine is a planetary physicist participating in an effort to build a rock-dating instrument that is suitable for spaceflight. The ultimate goal is to measure the absolute ages of key events in Solar System history, in order to understand the timescales of planetary evolution. The development of a new instrument means that there is no user's manual; therefore students working on this project look at the data we collect to help understand how and how well the instrument works under diverse conditions and with diverse samples. Students deepen their understanding of rocks and meteorites as recorders of events in the Solar System's past, and hone their skills in data analysis and numerical simulation.
Further information about Prof. Levine's work can be found here.