• A Historical Survey of Neutrino Experiments
• Anomalous Electrical Transport in Quantum Materials
• Calculating with Entanglement
• Detecting Gravitational Waves with LIGO
• Dynamics of magnetic nanoparticles with the Langevin Equation
• Introduction to Conventional BCS Superconductivity
• Introduction to Photonic Crystals, Applications, and Modern Developments
• Modern Microscopy: an Overview of Microscopy Techniques in Biophysics
• Properties of Graphene
• Topological phases of matter

A Historical Survey of Neutrino Experiments with Nicholas Ruof

Student(s): Ningyi Chen, Ruoyu Zhang

The neutrino is a light, weakly interacting particle that participates in nuclear reactions and is the most abundant massive fundamental particle in the observable universe. Since the neutrino's postulation in 1930 and discovery in 1956, neutrino physics has been a thriving field to learn about the particles' most elusive properties and its' relation to known processes in the universe. In this project we will go through the history of neutrino experiments and how their groundbreaking discoveries contribute to our overall knowledge of neutrino physics.

Experiments: Reines and Cowan, Davis Experiment, Kamiokande, Super-k, SNO, KamLAND, MiniBOONE, IceCube, T2K, Majorana, COHERENT

Prerequisites: PHYS 226, PHYS 225, PHYS 322

Recommended: PHYS 324, PHYS 422

Anomalous Electrical Transport in Quantum Materials with Josh Mutch

Student(s): Sanae Tominaga

Many materials display anomalous electrical transport behavior with origins stemming from quantum or topological effects. The anomalous hall effect, negative longitudinal magneto-resistance, and rotational symmetry breaking are all behaviors that are closely linked to the topology of the band structure of these materials. We will study the experimental realizations of these systems

Reading: TBD

Requirements: 224, 225

Recommended: 325, solid state experience

Calculating with Entanglement with Natalie Klco

Student(s): Callum Farrell

Studying quantum systems directly from fundamental degrees of freedom is often computationally limited by configuration (Hilbert) spaces that grow exponentially with particle number and by signal-to-noise problems. This leaves many systems of interest in nuclear and particle physics intractable for known algorithms with current and foreseeable classical computational resources. Proposals have been made to use quantum systems themselves to form a computational framework---leveraging their natural capacity to describe our quantum nature. This reading course is intended to delve into such proposals to understand how the features of entanglement, superposition, and interference may be used as guiding principles to explore subatomic systems.

Reading: TBD upon discussion of interests. Expect predominantly research articles and lecture notes over textbooks.

Prerequisites: PHYS 324 (QM1), PHYS 325 (QM 2), MATH 308 (Matrix Algebra) or MATH 340 (Abstract Linear Algebra)

Detecting Gravitational Waves with LIGO with Michael Ross

Student(s): Christopher Sharp

In 2015, the LIGO gravitational wave detectors made the first direct detection of gravitational waves which were emitted from the merger of a pair of black holes. Since then, the LIGO collaboration along with Virgo observatory in Italy has observed ten binary black hole mergers along with one binary neutron star merger, opening up a new way of observing cataclysmic astrophysical events. We will learn what gravitational waves are, what sort of systems emit them, and how we use interferometers to detect them. This field is very diverse with subjects including theory of general relativity, classical and quantum optics, seismic isolation, instrumentation and controls, and of course neutron star and black hole astrophysics. Participants can choose which subjects to focus on depending on interest and background.

Reading: TBA

Prereq: Phys 227, Suggested: Phys 321

Dynamics of magnetic nanoparticles with the Langevin Equation with Carolyn Shasha

Student(s): Mi Do

A Langevin equation is a particular stochastic differential equation which fundamentally describes Brownian motion (the movement of a particle in a fluid due to random, thermal collisions with other particles in the fluid), but which can also be used to describe phenomena ranging from the motion of magnetic moments under an applied field to stock market price fluctuations. Here, we will use the Langevin equation to study the motion of single-domain magnetic nanoparticles.

Reading: "The Langevin Equation" by Coffey, Kalmykov, & Waldron, 1.1-1.11, 1.16-1.17

Prerequisites: PHYS 328 (Stat Mech), PHYS 322 (EM 2)

Introduction to Conventional BCS Superconductivity with Michael Smith

Student(s): Jessica Khaskheli, Anna Roche

Superconductivity is characterized by a vanishing DC resistivity below a certain critical temperature. However, there are many other important properties of superconductors. Together we will explore the various electromagnetic and thermodynamic properties that are characteristic of conventional BCS superconductors, as well as exploring the origin of the pairing mechanism that gives rise to this interesting phase of matter.

Reading: “Introduction to Superconductivity” by Michael Tinkham Ch. 1-3

Prerequisites: PHYS 225, PHYS 322 (EM 2), PHYS 328 (Stat Mech)

Suggested: PHYS 325 (QM 2), Solid State experience

Introduction to Photonic Crystals, Applications, and Modern Developments with Shervin Sahba

Students: Yifei Bai , Derek Smith

Photonic crystals exploit dielectric media geometries to create band gaps in the photonic spectrum, a light based analogue to the band gaps found in semiconductor physics. We will explore the basic theory behind photonic crystals and devices (i.e. waveguides, resonant cavities) with an emphasis on either numerical simulations, modern applications like in fiber optics, or modern developments like disordered photonic media and topological photonic crystals.

Reading: Photonic Crystals: Molding the Flow of Light by Joannapoulus et. al. (Ch2-5, available free thanks to http://ab-initio.mit.edu/book/) and review papers on desired topic or chapters from above text (1-3)

Prereqs: PHYS 322 (EM2), PHYS 324 (QM1)

Recommended: PHYS 423 (Condensed Matter), PHYS 325 (QM2)

Optional: Programming & Linux experience if you want to play with simulations

Modern Microscopy: an Overview of Microscopy Techniques in Biophysics with Isaac Shelby

Student(s): Angela Zhou

Form an understanding of microscopy from the ground up. From bright-field microscopy to structured illumination super-resolution, learn the techniques that allow biophysicists to probe the mechanics of cells. Due to the wide nature of the field, and the depth with which any one of these topics can be explored, the exact structure and material covered can be shifted for the interests of the individual student's interests. Potential topics include: fluorescence microscopy, optical aberrations, the mechanics of modern scientific cameras, super-resolution techniques, how to design and build a microscope.

Outline texts (to be supplemented with papers): Principles of Optics - Born and Wolf, Optics - Hecht.

Requirements: Basic trigonometry and physics 123 or some sort of waves/optics equivalent. Beyond that the more the better, but course structure is adaptable. Knowledge of calculus and some statistics may be useful, but again, not required.

Properties of Graphene with Paul Malinowski

Student(s): Danila Sokratov

Graphene is a single atomic layer of graphite. The electronic behavior of such a two-dimensional material is qualitatively and often drastically different than that of its three-dimensional cousins because electronic physics looks much different in 2D than in 3D. In this course we will study the physics that arises in graphene. Depending on student interest, this can include topics such as quantum hall physics and Dirac fermions.

Reading: TBD

Prerequisites: PHYS 325, PHYS 322, PHYS 328

Topological phases of matter with Tyler Ellison

Student(s): Jonah Librande

With the experimental discovery of the fractional quantum Hall effect in 1982, physicists stumbled upon a new class of exotic states of matter – dubbed topological phases of matter. Since their discovery, a major goal has been to identify and characterize the distinct topological phases of matter. We will discuss the classification of topological phases of matter and study in detail a particularly simple example – the toric code.

Reading: “String-net condensation: a physical mechanism for topological phases”, M. Levin and X.-G. Wen, Phys. Rev. B 71, 045110 (2005).

Prerequisites: PHYS 325 (Quantum 2), MATH 308 (Matrix Algebra) or MATH 340 (Abstract Linear Algebra)

Useful: PHYS 423 (Condensed Matter)