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Research Options

Students may choose from a wide range of research subjects and contribute significantly to the knowledge base in their chosen subject while learning how to conduct independent research. Students are encouraged to begin participation in research during their first year of graduate study. Those appointed as Graduate Research Assistants are normally assigned to an on-going research effort upon entering UTSI. After admission to Ph.D. candidacy, the student engages in essentially full-time research culminating in the public defense of the doctoral dissertation.

The UTSI Center for Laser Applications (CLA) is a Center of Excellence created by the State of Tennessee to provide quality education and research opportunities for promising students. The faculty, professional staff, and research students use the outstanding laboratory facilities of the Center to perform basic and applied research in several major areas:

• laser applications in nonlinear and quantum optics involve studies of ultrafast optical phenomena, laser-induced breakdown in gases, and measurements of basic optical properties of atoms and molecules
• laser applications in nonequilibrium fluid physics include studies of hypersonic and two-phase flowfields, laser-induced plasmas and ignition, and plasma space-propulsion
• laser applications to materials processing focus on surface physics studies and the development of spectroscopic techniques for the study of materials
• biomedical applications in ophthalmology with an emphasis on telemedicine

Faculty and students have opportunities to work with research groups at the nearby Air Force Arnold Engineering Development Center where physics continues to assume an expanding role in probing the internal energy states and the dynamics of atoms and molecules in physical processes. Currently research is focused on laser related studies of combustion phenomena associated with propulsion systems. Emission and absorption spectroscopy of ultraviolet, visible and infrared radiation in gases and the application of quantum and statistical theory allow the extraction of molecular properties from experimental data. The development of band models for the analysis of non-intrusive spectroscopic measurements are facilitating our understanding of combustion, plasma, and atmospheric phenomena.

Challenging theoretical research in the relativistic quantum mechanics of two interacting particles with spin has led to the derivation of the two-body versions of Dirac's relativistic wave equation for spin one-half particles by supersymmetries present in its classical counterpart. These equations are being applied to quark anti-quark bound states, meson-meson scattering, the deuteron, proton-neutron phase shifts, positronium and muonium, and other current problems in field theoretical bound states.

Research at UTSI also includes studies in numerous areas of Computational Physics. Experimental simulation and analytical predictions are an integral part of a successful physics research program. Monte Carlo simulations of gas dynamic expansions, laser ignition computations, cataract deconvolutions, cardiac modeling, single-molecule experiment simulations, computation of atomic and molecular spectra, numerical prediction of two-body nucleon-nucleon scattering, and visualization of complex plasma processes, are but a few examples of Computational Physics activities at UT Space Institute and The Center for Laser Applications (CLA). Near super-computer speeds are accomplished by use of various clustered computer arrangements. Computational physics outreach activities include interaction and collaboration in other areas of interest at the Space Institute, for example activities in Computational Mechanics at UTSI. For further information see:

• http://tell11.utsi.edu
• ../../research/compmech.htm

Specific examples for computations in fundamental and applied spectroscopy at CLA include prediction of high-temperature atomic and molecular spectra. A few of the diatomic spectroscopic signatures of highly excited molecules are computed and illustrated, and these spectra are of interest in laser-induced optical breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) applications, such as in nanoscale science and engineering, in biophysics, or in chemistry. Selected examples of computed spectra are summarized (see http://view.utsi.edu/besp). An overview of LIBS comparisons of measured and computed spectra are presented. (see http://view.utsi.edu/cparigge/libs)