2013–2014 UNIVERSITY CATALOG - Florida Institute of Technology

RESEARCH
Physics
Current research in physics includes experimental high-energy physics,
experimental and theoretical condensed matter physics, instrumentation
development, theoretical and observational studies of
the solar/heliospheric energetic particles and cosmic rays, physics
of energetic radiations from thunderstorms and lightning, auroral
and magnetospheric physics, astrophysics, engineering physics, and
physics education.
Experimental research in physics is carried out in a variety of laboratories
operated by the department, as well as at national and international
research facilities. Facilities that are currently available to
graduate students include the following laboratories.
High-Energy Physics Laboratory (HEP): The HEP experimental
efforts are centered on studying high energy hadron collisions using
large particle physics experiments at major national (BNL) and
international (CERN, Switzerland) accelerator facilities, as well as
conducting basic detector technology research and development, and
high-performance grid computing in laboratories on the Florida Tech
campus. Presently, the group is involved in data-taking efforts with
the CMS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and is
performing physics analyses on these data. The Florida Tech group has
responsibilities for calibration of the hadron calorimeters, Tier0-Tier2
data flow and validation for the B physics analysis group, operation of a
Tier3 site on the Open Science Grid and a study of an upgrade of the
forward muon detector with micro-pattern gas detectors. The physics
analyses are initially focused on measurements of the properties of
the top and bottom quarks and search for new gauge bosons. With
anticipated higher luminosities, the physics program will switch to
searches for the Higgs boson and more exotic phenomena at multi-
TeV energy scale. Another main research area is the development
and construction of a muon tomography system for detecting high-Z
materials hidden in cargo, based on advanced micro-pattern gas
detectors such as Gas Electron Multipliers. The HEP laboratory
houses a Linux-based computing cluster with 180 CPU cores and
100TB of mass storage that is used for muon tomography detector
simulation and data analysis and serves as a Tier3 site on the Open
Science Grid for CMS data analysis. The group conducts research
and development on advanced particle detector technology for the
Super-LHC upgrade programs and participates in the RD51 detector
development collaboration at CERN. In addition, Florida Tech is a
member of the PHENIX experiment at BNL’s Relativistic Heavy Ion
Collider, which is investigating a new state of matter dubbed the
quark-gluon plasma.
Maglev Laboratory: The primary goal of this lab is the development
of a new space launch system for manned and unmanned missions
based on electromagnetic acceleration and levitation, in cooperation
with NASA, the Florida Space Institutes, and the Advanced Magnet
Laboratory, a high-tech industry partner. It houses a 43-foot magnetic
levitation and propulsion demonstration track, one of a handful
of such devices in the country, and the only one at an academic
institution. Physics, space science and engineering students and
faculty, together with researchers from the other institutions, are
performing investigations in topics such as controls, aerodynamics,
mechanical stability, superconducting technology and electromagnetic
acceleration and levitation, to study the feasibility of maglev launch
assist for rockets and future spacecraft.
222 Florida Tech 2013–2014
Condensed Matter Physics Laboratory: The research activities at this
lab include condensed matter physics, materials science, statistical
physics and engineering physics. Some of the projects involve collaboration
with members of Materials Science and Nanotechnology
Institute directed by the dean of the College of Science. One of activities
is to understand nucleation, growth mechanisms, and evolution
of microstructures and nanostructures in materials, to optimize these
structures, and finally to design new structures in materials. Another
activity is to link processing and structures to various properties of
materials, and to predict property of materials by multiscale modeling.
Materials include hard and soft materials such as alloys, nanocomposites,
colloids and polymers. Other activities also include exploration
of the application of statistical physics to anomalous diffusion and
relaxation processes in heterogeneous system, biophysics, materials
science and econophysics.
Scanning Probe Microscopy Laboratory: This facility provides
researchers with the ability to image the surface structure of a solid,
and to probe the electronic surface properties of a material down to
the atomic scale, using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). This
laboratory also investigates novel applications of the STM (e.g., in
the field of electrochemistry) and is interested in the development of
other types of scanning probe microscopes.
Space Sciences
Current research activity in space sciences includes: gravitational redshifts
and evolution of white dwarf stars, observations and modeling
of cataclysmic variables and other close binary systems, astrophysical
jets and accretion phenomena, observational cosmology, cosmicray
modulation/propagation and its interactions with the interstellar
medium, energetic radiation from terrestrial and planetary lightning
discharges, solar wind-magnetosphere interactions and energetic particle
observations and human space exploration research.
Experimental research in space science is carried out in a variety of
laboratories operated by the department, as well as at national and
international research facilities. Facilities that are currently available
to graduate students include the following laboratories:
Astronomy and Astrophysics Laboratory: Astrophysicists and students
work on a wide variety of topics, including the evolution of white dwarf
stars, simulations of cataclysmic variable systems, astrophysical fluid
dynamics, accretion phenomena, the physics and evolution of active
galactic nuclei and their jets, cosmology, solar and stellar atmospheres,
ultraviolet spectroscopy and astronomical instrumentation. The astrophysics
group includes professors working in a variety of different
wavebands from the radio to x-rays, including observations with the
Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Far-
Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer satellite, as well as ground-based
optical and radio observatories. Members of the group are involved
in the development of instrumentation for the CanariCam Science
Team, a guaranteed-time program on the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio
Canarias, the world’s largest optical telescope. Resources include
Linux computers, astronomical data reduction packages including
IRAF, AIPS and CIAO.
Ortega 0.8-m Telescope: This is the largest research telescope in
the state of Florida and forms the heart of the F.W. Olin Observatory.
Installed in 2007, it sits on the rooftop of the F. W. Olin Physical
Sciences Center. Equipped with a large-format CCD imaging system
and spectrograph, it is available for student and faculty astronomy and
astrophysics research projects as well as monthly public guest nights.