Astrophysics
1. Theoretical astrophysics, with particular emphasis on computer modeling of stellar explosions: supernova explosions, nova outbursts, X-ray bursts, gamma-ray bursts, element production in stellar explosions (r process and rp process). Involves collaboration with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
2. 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.
3. Nuclear structure calculations with emphasis on the role of nuclear structure in stellar explosions and neutrino astrophysics.
4. Experimental astrophysics: accelerator-based measurement of quantitities important for explosive nucleosynthesis of elements in nova, X-ray burst, and supernova events. Involves collaboration with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and may involve some combination of data acquisition, data analysis, and hardware or software development.
5. Implementation of a parallel genetic algorithm (mathematical global minimization based on principles of evolutionary genetics) for applications to astrophysics problems such as galaxy collisions or extrasolar planets.
6. Theoretical issues in atomic astrophysics such as the chemical kinetics of cold molecular clouds, planetary atmospheres, and comets. Involves collaboration with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Advisor: Dr. Mike Guidry
Mathematical Physics: Symmetries and Algebras
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.
Advisor: Dr. Mike Guidry
Interactive Animations in Science
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, 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 SQL.
Advisor: Dr. Mike Guidry
Topics in Computational Science
1. Development of parallel programming for scientific applications. Students will participate in developing code and implementing it on our new 15 gigaflop parallel cluster (Beowulf), 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.
2. 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).
3. 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++.
4. Development of innovative scientific programming for next-generation wireless hand-held devices (personal digital assistants, cell phones, …). These efforts will concentrate on scientific educational applications and on the use of these devices to provide “in-the-field” interactivity and connectivity with back-end databases and support programs. A sample application would be sophisticated personal digital assistant programs for gathering data in the field, uploading automatically through the wireless network to servers running heavy-duty analysis software, and obtaining analyzed feedback in near real time that could guide further data collection. There are obvious applications in almost any field of physical or biological science, and in many applied fields such as forensic science, medicine, forestry, or engineering, …. The particular scientific application depends partially on the interests of the student. Involves programming in Java, C, or C++, database technologies such as SQL, and XML-related languages.
Advisor: Dr. Mike Guidry