NOTRE DAME

225 Nieuwland Science Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556-5670 USA

phone: (574) 631-6386
fax: (574) 631-5952
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Notre Dame REU Program

Areas of Research Include:

• Atomic Physics
• Elementary Particle Physics
• Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Nuclear Physics
• Complex Systems/Biological Physics
• Solid State/Low Temperature Physics

• 10 Week Appointment for the Summer
• Round trip travel to Notre Dame
• $3,700 Stipend plus Housing

Research Area Information

• Atomic Physics -- The experimental atomic physics programs at Notre Dame are directed toward studies of the structure and decay characteristics of atoms and ions. This work is necessary to stimulate advances in our theoretical understanding of atoms at the most fundamental level where relativistic and field-theoretic aspects of the atoms become important.
  The program includes use of the new atomic physics accelerator laboratory at Notre Dame for fast beam-laser studies of atomic lifetimes. In addition, the program includes precision measurements associated with the study of parity non conservation in atoms which arise due to the electro-weak interaction, fundamental spectroscopy of highly stripped heavy ions, and measurements of selected excited state lifetimes at heavy-ion accelerators at the Notre Dame Tandem Laboratory and at the Argonne National Laboratory ATLAS facility. X-ray absorption studies to test our understanding of the relativistic many electron studies are carried out at the Brookhaven National Laboratory National Synchrotron Light Source and at the new Advanced Photon Source at Argonne.
  REU students will be working directly with graduate students and faculty and will gain experience in equipment preparation and testing, as well as the acquisition, handling and analysis of data.

• Elementary Particle Physics -- An understanding of the fundamental constituents of matter and the forces with which they interact is sought in experiments carried out in the USA at: the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab); at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC); and at Brookhaven National Laboratory. In Europe we are involved at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN Laboratory, Geneva, Switzerland. The Fermilab experiment (called DZero) involves: a search for the Higgs boson; measurement of the properties of the W and Z bosons; lifetime and particle-antiparticle mixing studies of the B_s meson system; and searches for new phenomena such as Supersymmetry. Our group is also involved with the installation and operation of a new scintillating fiber charged-particle tracker for DZero. At SLAC, we are interested in studying properties of beauty particles and in searching for CP violation in the b-system in the BaBar experiment. The Brookhaven experiment is searching for mesons composed of gluons and quarks (such as glueballs and other exotics) predicted by the theory of quantum chromodynamics. Finally, at the CERN LHC facility, Notre Dame is responsible for development of optical readout for the hadron calorimeter for the upcoming CMS experiment. REU students will be involved with one or more of these experiments and will work on detector development and data analysis projects.
  

• Astrophysics and Astronomy -- Project GRAND (Gamma Ray Astrophysics at N.D.) is an array designed to study several topics including: ultra-high-energy cosmic gamma rays, pinpointing their possible origins in astrophysical point sources like pulsars or neutron stars; the atomic composition of normal cosmic rays by utilizing the unique tracking and identification capabilities of the array; and topics related to single muon data. Projects would include some debugging of the equipment and primarily doing the first analysis of data from this completed array.
  The observational astrophysics research program uses high-resolution spectral studies to study the gas and dust in the circumstellar preplanetary disk surrounding pre-main sequence stars. By measuring the abundance of gas molecules around these young stars, we can determine the importance of thermal and chemical processing of various molecules in circumstellar disks to clarify the time scales and initial conditions for planet building. The observations may also provide a new technique to find protoplanets. Infrared spectroscopic data is obtained from the Infrared Telescope (IRTF) and the 10 meter Keck Telescope on Mauna Kea.
  Students also have the opportunity to participate in theoretical research in cosmology and astrophysics. Past students have worked on calculations of the evolution of the big bang and the formation of the background radiation. Students have also worked on general relativistic simulations of the coalescence of neutron star binary systems. Other projects include simulations of the origin and evolution of galaxies, studies of stellar supernova explosions, and the use of gravitational microlensing to explore the structure and dark matter component of the galaxy.
  

• Nuclear Physics -- The Notre Dame Nuclear Structure Laboratory (NSL) is built around three Van de Graaff accelerators (an FN, a KN, and a JN). Research in the nuclear physics laboratory include questions at the very frontiers of low energy nuclear science. Research topics covered in the laboratory include Nuclear Astrophysics or the attempt to understand the abundances of the elements in the cosmos through the experimental and theoretical study of nuclear structure effects and their relation to nuclear reactions that occur inside stars and explosive stellar scenarios, the study of nuclear reactions using exotic Radioactive Ion Beams to probe properties of nuclei far from stability, Fundamental Symmetries or weak interactions to search for physics beyond the Standard Model using the nucleus as a laboratory, and Nuclear Dynamics or Structure in order to probe various aspects of the strong force. Students are involved in the construction of equipment, the development of electronics for detectors and experiments, and computational projects that vary from testing nuclear models to simulation of nucleosynthesis processes! Various professors and their students are also running experiments at a number of national and international facilities while playing a significant role in the future laboratories that will be built for nuclear science including the newly proposed Rare Isotope Accelerator, and the National Underground Laboratory.
  

• Complex Systems/Biological Physics -- Using both experiments and computer simulations, we try to understand how simple physical rules generate complex structures in materials and organisms. Examples include chaos in fluid flows, the structure and evolution of foams and froths, the migrations of cells in developing embryos and the organization of computation in the brain. REU projects have ranged from experiments on frog brains and chicken eyes to the development of computer simulations of annealing in metals.

• Solid State/Low Temperature Physics -- Techniques used in low-temperature physics include quantum electronic tunneling and microwave spectroscopy . In solid state physics, scanning tunneling spectroscopy is being carried out in exotic systems such as ultra-small metal particles and Buckey balls. Work in high temperature superconductor systems includes far-infrared detector research involving diode-laser-based experiments and thin-film studies.
  Microwave techniques are used to study field and temperature dependent dissipation effects in high temperature superconductors, and also to detect small volume fractions of superconducting material in novel and exotic materials under development. Lasers are employed to study photo-effects in HTSC. X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) is used in the study of condensed-matter systems. Areas of particular interest include the study of surfaces, interfaces, structural phase changes, nanoparticles and biological systems. High temperature superconductors in high magnetic fields are studied by microwave and laser methods. Molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) systems for the growth of III-V and II-VI semiconductors are used for the growth of epitaxial layers of dilute magnetic semiconductors and other related system. These materials are studied using a variety of electronic, optical, and x-ray techniques. Student projects involve measurements of thin-films of the high-temperature superconductors or related projects.