Category: Physics
- Project Title Professor
-
Analysis of Terrestrial Gamma- Ray Flashes Joseph Dwyer
Analysis of Terrestrial Gamma- Ray Flashes
We are investigating the x-ray and terrestrial gamma-ray emissions from thunderclouds and lightning. These observations are being carried out with space-based, airborne and ground-based measurements.
-
Astrophysical Plasmas and Detector Development Hakeem Oluseyi
Astrophysical Plasmas and Detector Development
Despite more that 50 years of study, the processes that heat and accelerate solar plasmas to form the corona and solar wind are still not well understood. We study the manifestations of plasma structures rooted in the solar atmosphere and model the transport of energy therein based on models of the discrete structures that may mediate this process. To further facilitate study of these phenomena, we have also contributed to the development of novel CCD technologies that allow observation of solar EUV emissions with excellent sensitivity and spatial fidelity.
-
CAREER: The Plasmochemistry and Photochemistry of the Upper Atmosphere Induced by Transient Luminous Events Ningyu Liu
The project will investigate the physics of brief, luminous electrical discharge phenomena in the upper atmosphere known as transient luminous events and their effects in that atmospheric region.
-
CMS Hadron Calorimeter Project Marc Baarmand
CMS Hadron Calorimeter Project
This grant funds the design, construction, commissioning, maintenance and operation of a laser and LED (light emitting diode) calibration system. It is used to measure energy in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the European Center for Particle Physics in Geneva, Switzerland.
-
Detection of Heavily Shielded Nuclear Contraband through Muon Radiography with Advanced Micro-pattern Detectors Debasis Mitra, Marcus Hohlmann
Muon tomography detects and images dense nuclear materials with high atomic number by measuring the multiple Coulomb scattering of traversing atmospheric cosmic ray muons. The technique is most interesting for detecting nuclear threat materials behind heavy shielding, which blocks emerging radiation and externally probing radiation. Cosmic ray muons will penetrate several feet of lead and so can image substantially shielded targets. This $1.2M project has given experimental proof that muon tomography can be done with compact tracking stations that employ GEM detectors.
-
Development of Large-area GEM Detectors with High Spatial Resolution but Low Channel Count. Marcus Hohlmann
Development of Large-area GEM Detectors with High Spatial Resolution but Low Channel Count.
Nuclear physicists are considering the construction of an electron-ion collider (EIC) at Brookhaven National Lab or Jefferson Lab. One major question that this new accelerator will try to address is the current "proton spin problem" of nuclear physics, i.e. to nail down how the spin of the proton actually arises from the spin of its quark and gluon constituents. Our group is contributing to R&D on particle detectors that can precisely and economically track the subatomic particles produced in the future high-energy electron ion collisions.
-
Doctoral Fellowship ( Norton Orange): Identification and Analysis of Dynamic Transients in Sun's Transition Region Atmosphere Hakeem Oluseyi
Identification and Analysis of Dynamic Transients in Sun's Transition Region Atmosphere
-
Experimental High Energy Physics Research Marcus Hohlmann
Experimental High Energy Physics Research
Our experimental particle physics group is engaged in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN that investigates fundamental subatomic particles. The current physics analysis focuses on a search for new gauge bosons called Z' particles that are predicted by theories that extend the Standard Model. On the hardware side, the group is developing new muon chambers for an upgrade of the forward region of the CMS experiment. We are building up a production site for these new detectors that are based on radiation-hard large-area gas electron multipliers (GEMs).
-
Experimental Investigation of Hadron Collisions at the Highest Center-of Mass Energies Marc Baarmand
Experimental Investigation of Hadron Collisions at the Highest Center-of Mass Energies
This proposal describes our program of original research in physics of elementary particles and fields studied in proton-proton collisions at multi-TeV energy at the Large Hadron Collider accelerator located at the European Center for Particle Physics, CERN, Switzerland. Since 2010, the LHC has delivered record luminosities and large data sets from the collisions at 7 and 8 TeV. These have been recorded using the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment, which comprises a large system of state-of-the-art particle detectors allowing precision measurement of final state leptons, missing energy and jets.
-
GSRP - Source Mechanisms of Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes Joseph Dwyer, Hamid Rassoul
GSRP - Source Mechanisms of Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes
This is a NASA training grant that funds the research of a graduate student for three years.
-
GSRP - X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Observations of Thunderclouds and Lightning Joseph Dwyer, Hamid Rassoul
GSRP - X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Observations of Thunderclouds and Lightning
This is a NASA training grant that funds the research of a graduate student for three years.
-
Introducing High School Teachers and Students to High Energy Particle Physics Laszlo Baksay, Joseph Laub
Introducing High School Teachers and Students to High Energy Particle Physics
“Quarknet” is a nationally recognized high energy particle physics program supported at Florida Institute of Technology and funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Teachers and students use muon detectors to study subatomic particles entering Earth’s atmosphere.
-
Lightning Initiation and Propagation Joseph Dwyer, Ningyu Liu, Hamid Rassoul
Lightning Initiation and Propagation
Despite its familiarity, how lightning works remains poorly understood. In particular it has not been established how lightning is initiated inside thunderclouds, how it propagates many tens of kilometers through air and how it emits bright bursts of x-rays.
-
Lightning Initiation by Streamer Emission from Thundercloud Hydrometeors Joseph Dwyer, Ningyu Liu, Hamid Rassoul
Lightning Initiation by Streamer Emission from Thundercloud Hydrometeors
This project investigates how lightning is initiated inside thunderclouds and how lightning streamers (filamentary plasma discharge channels) from small water droplets or ice particles help the lightning initiation process.
-
Self-Assembly in Biology and the Origin of Life (SABOL) Daniel Kirk, Hector Gutierrez, Samuel Durrance
Self-Assembly in Biology and the Origin of Life (SABOL)
The SABOL International Space Station experiment has several important scientific elements dedicated specifically to (i) developing an improved understanding of the origin of life on our planet, (ii) increasing our understanding of Alzheimer’s disease, and (iii) providing an opportunity to apply this new understanding for the betterment of h