Theoretical

Condensed Matter

Research in this area includes ongoing studies of soft matter systems, dynamical systems, granular materials, and disordered matter. Faculty study the mechanics of mesoscopic constructed materials and biological tissues. The dynamics of active matter, including reconstituted biological systems and living cells and flocks, is an active area of study. The glassy dynamical behavior and statistical physics of materials with disorder is studied, using connections with advanced algorithms to model complex systems. Flow and plastic deformation in jammed and glassy solids (as in metallic glasses, foams and granular materials) are the object of research work. Bowick, Manning, Marchetti, Middleton, Schwarz. Three postdoctoral fellows.

Particle Physics and Cosmology

Elementary particles and fields. Quantum field theory and quantum gravity. Supersymmetry and its application to quantum gravity and models of Beyond Standard Model Physics. Strongly coupled dynamics via effective field theory and lattice field theory. LHC phenomenology and lattice QCD. Inflation, the generation of density perturbations, the origin of dark matter and dark energy, baryogenesis and the cosmic microwave background radiation. Particle cosmology. Catterall, Hubisz, Laiho, Watson. Two postdoctoral fellows.

Computational Physics

Numerical studies of random surfaces, liquid membranes; study of quantum gravity as a theory of dynamically triangulated meshes; analysis of phase transitions and phase structure in disordered systems; gravitational waveforms from coalescences of astrophysical binary systems; gravitational wave data analysis; numerical simulations on parallel computers; connections between algorithms and physical principles; lattice quantum chromodynamics. Application of distributed processing to large scale quantum theory problems. Bowick, Brown, Catterall, Laiho, Marchetti, Middleton. One postdoctoral fellow.

Experimental

Astrophysics of the Interstellar Medium and Planetary Atmospheres

Laboratory studies of physical and chemical processes occurring in the interstellar medium and in planetary atmospheres, including formation of molecular hydrogen and hydrogenation and oxidation reactions on interstellar and/or planetary dust grain analogues. Vidali. One postdoctoral fellow.

Biological Physics

Experimental studies of single-molecule biophysics. Methods include membrane protein reconstitution into planar lipid membranes and lipid vesicles, rational protein design, targeted chemical modification, as well as a variety of electrical and optical platforms for the analysis of transmembrane transport under a broad range of contexts. These research studies are also aimed at the design, creation, and validation of nanobiosensors for the detection of biomolecules at high temporal and spatial resolution. Movileanu.

Soft Condensed Matter

Tabletop experiments studying nonlinear and emergent behaviors in soft systems. Examples include the wrinkling, crumpling, and folding of thin elastic sheets, and the arrangements of solid particles in a sludge. These scenarios feature soft, easily deformed materials that are common in nature and industry. The overarching goal is to uncover the fundamental principles that govern their behavior when they are pushed far away from the low-energy or spatially-uniform states that they prefer. Paulsen. One postdoctoral fellow.​

High Energy Experimental Particle Physics

Experimental studies of the fundamental Electroweak and Strong interactions as manifested by the decays of beauty and charm quarks and production of other “exotic” phenomena. These studies are mostly preformed as part of the LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider located at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. We are primarily interested in how new physics phenomena manifests itself in CP violating and rare B meson decays. We also perform R&D leading to advanced silicon micro-pattern detectors, such as pixel and microstrip strip sensors, and their related readout electronics. The group is also active in neutrino flavor oscillation research, using neutrino beams created at Fermilab in Chicago, Illinois. Our neutrino program involves R&D on the development of liquid argon neutrino detectors, as proposed for use in the MicroBooNE and LBNE experiments. Members of the group have discovered several new particles, including the B, Ds, Y(1D) and made the first measurements of several very important decay modes of these objects. Artuso, Blusk, Mountain, Rudolph, Skwarnicki, Soderberg, Stone, Wang, and Whittington. Four postdoctoral fellows.

Intermediate Energy Particle Physics

Use of spin degrees of freedom to study quantum chromodynamics and the Standard Model at low energies. Experiments are underway at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLAB). Holmes, Souder. 1 postdoctoral fellow

Gravitational-wave Astronomy and Astrophysics

Detection of gravitational waves with the Laser Interferometric Gravitation Wave Observatory (LIGO). Development of advanced optics and precision metrology for interferometric detectors. Characterization of the LIGO detectors. Member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. Ballmer, Brown, Saulson. Three postdoctoral fellows.

Semiconductors, Thin Films, and Solar Cells

Electronic and optical properties of unconventional semiconductors (amorphous silicon, porous titania, and silicon). Solar cell device physics. Thin-film growth (plasma, hot-wire). Hybrid organic-inorganic semiconductor devices. Surface physics (structure, kinetics, dynamics, and reactions). Schiff.

Quantum mechanics and nanoscale devices

Superconducting devices and vortex dynamics Investigations of quantum coherence in nanoscale superconducting devices and vortex systems. Quantum effects in macroscopic systems. Nanofabrication of Josephson junctions and structured vortex pinning potentials. Low temperature measurements, including dilution refrigeration. Development of qubits for quantum computing. Applications of nanoelectromechanical systems. LaHaye, Plourde. Two postdoctoral fellows.