University of Alabama Physics and Astronomy Research

Research Overview:

Condensed-Matter Physics
Much of the research in condensed-matter physics at the University of Alabama is conducted at the Center for Materials for Information Technology (MINT), an interdisciplinary program which includes faculty from several departments. The work in the MINT center ranges from quite applied work (e.g., Prof. Fujiwara works on materials and designs for magnetic random-access memories — MRAM — which may replace present electronic random access memories) to very fundamental studies (e.g., Prof. Mewes' work on the interaction between magnetization and phonons and other damping mechanisms in metals).
There is also a substantial theoretical component of the MINT center — Prof. Butler's fundamental work on tunneling wavefunctions in Fe | MgO | Fe junctions, predicting high magnetoresistance, is now being applied in magnetic devices. Prof. Visscher has developed statistical techniques for predicting thermal effects in the new field of spin torque switching.
Experimental work in the MINT center is facilitated by two clean rooms. Several sputtering systems are available for sample synthesis. Characterization equipment includes alternating-gradient and superconducting vibrating-sample magnetometers, as well as scanning and transmission electron microscopes, scanning atomic force and tunneling microscopes, and Auger and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Prof. Mankey uses specialized measurement techniques available at national facilities, such as magnetic x-ray spectroscopies using synchotron radiation (at ANL, CAMD, SRC, and BNL) and neutron reflectometry and scattering (NIST and ORNL). Microwave-frequency FMR measurements are made with shorted-waveguide and coplanar-waveguide techniques. Prof. Harrell has worked on synthesis and characterization of high-coercivity FePt nanoparticles; several faculty members (Visscher, Harrell, Butler) are now working on anisotropy-graded media. Prof. Schad has measured noise properties of tunnel junctions, while Prof. LeClair specializes in low temperature measurements and superconducting tunnel junctions.
Many students who have received graduate degrees working in MINT are now employed in the information storage industry.
Not all condensed-matter research in the Department is related to magnetic materials — in addition to his work on magnetic transition-metal oxides, Prof. Sarker works on high-temperature cuprate superconductors and fullerenes. Prof. Tipping's condensed-matter work is on optical properties of molecular solids; in addition, he has worked on optical spectra of atmospheric gases in collaboration with government laboratories interested in remote sensing.
Experimental High-Energy Physics
The experimental particle physics faculty (Busenitz, Piepke, Stancu) are members of international collaborations carrying out searches for neutrino oscillations and neutrino-less double beta decay. The aim of these searches is to shed further light on the questions of neutrino mass, neutrino flavor mixing, and the nature (Dirac versus Majorana) of the neutrino. A major part of the group's work in performing detector simulation studies (designing and building detector subsystems and carrying out data analysis for physics) is done on campus making extensive use of local resources. These resources include several thousand-square feet of well-equipped laboratory space, a high-sensitivity radioassay laboratory, professionally staffed machine and electronics shops, and a cluster of computer workstations with high-speed network (Internet2) connections.
Particle Theory
The early universe went through a period of rapid inflation due, apparently, to a large dark energy and has now landed in a phase where the dark energy is small but still non-zero. This suggests that the universe could still make a transition to a final supersymmetric state where the dark energy would vanish. Prof. Clavelli is investigating models of an extended higgs structure which could be explored at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and which could have implications for the properties of the final state of the universe.
Supersymmetry is a unifying principle which helps overcome the divergence problem and the "naturalness" problem of the Standard Model. All consistent string theories are supersymmetric. Therefore the study of supersymmetric spacetimes is worthwhile because of the intrinsic interest of such spacetimes and because of their importance to other theoretical investigations. There are relatively few spacetimes which possess at least some supersymmetries. Prof. Harms has developed a method for generating spacetimes which possess fractions of the maximal supersymmetry for D = 11 supergravity, thus increasing the number of supersymmetric spacetimes available for study. Harms also investigates topics in noncommutative physics, including: a) determining the strength of the limits on non-commutative parameters which can be set by the Josephson effect, b) considering inflation driven by the Casimir energy due to noncommutative extra dimensions.
Prof. Stern's current research interests include solitons, topological field theories, duality, quantum groups, and applications of noncommutative geometry.
Astronomy
The astronomy group consists of six faculty whose research focuses on extragalactic astronomy, with approximately equal emphasis on theory and observation. Active research areas include:
Galaxy morphology, disks, and resonance phenomena (Buta, Byrd), from both observational and dynamical points of view. This involves observations of various tracers of star-formation history and Doppler mapping to recover the locations of resonant points in spiral galaxies, to allow a detailed comparison with theory to refine our understanding of the internal working of galaxies.
Physics of active galactic nuclei (Sulentic, Keel): efforts to form a spectroscopic classification to distinguish various kinds of active nuclei or various stages in their development, and to connect the cosmic evolution of active nuclei to that of galaxies themselves.
Galaxy interactions and other environmental influences on galaxy properties (Sulentic, Keel).
Galaxy evolution (Keel): comparison of galaxies in various redshift ranges to build a consistent picture of how galaxy populations have changed with cosmic time.
Physics of relativistic jets (Hardee): theoretical and numerical studies of the structures seen in energetic outflows, used to constrain the physical properties of objects observed with high-resolution radio techniques.
Theoretical and observational study of hot gas in galaxies and clusters of galaxies (White), using the observed chemistry and energetics to constrain how galaxies evolve and how stars explode.
Adjunct Prof. Biermann is active in high-energy astrophysics, particularly in studies of active galactic nuclei.
The astronomy group uses a network of Linux, Macintosh, Sun, and Silicon Graphics workstations, along with astronomical software packages such as IRAF, IDL & Ciao. The high-speed computing facilities of the Alabama Research and Education Network in Huntsville are available. The University is part of the Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy (SARA), which operates optical telescopes in Arizona and Chile, of which UA observers have a 10% share. Group members are regular users of NASA satellite observatories (Hubble, Chandra, GALEX, Swift) and ground-based telescopes worldwide. Research is supported by the NSF and NASA.

UA | A&S | Physics | Astro

Research Overview:
Condensed-Matter Physics Much of the research in condensed-matter physics at the University of Alabama is conducted at the Center for Materials for Information Technology (MINT), an interdisciplinary program which includes faculty from several departments. The work in the MINT center ranges from quite applied work (e.g., Prof. Fujiwara works on materials and designs for magnetic random-access memories — MRAM — which may replace present electronic random access memories) to very fundamental studies (e.g., Prof. Mewes' work on the interaction between magnetization and phonons and other damping mechanisms in metals). There is also a substantial theoretical component of the MINT center — Prof. Butler's fundamental work on tunneling wavefunctions in Fe \| MgO \| Fe junctions, predicting high magnetoresistance, is now being applied in magnetic devices. Prof. Visscher has developed statistical techniques for predicting thermal effects in the new field of spin torque switching. Experimental work in the MINT center is facilitated by two clean rooms. Several sputtering systems are available for sample synthesis. Characterization equipment includes alternating-gradient and superconducting vibrating-sample magnetometers, as well as scanning and transmission electron microscopes, scanning atomic force and tunneling microscopes, and Auger and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Prof. Mankey uses specialized measurement techniques available at national facilities, such as magnetic x-ray spectroscopies using synchotron radiation (at ANL, CAMD, SRC, and BNL) and neutron reflectometry and scattering (NIST and ORNL). Microwave-frequency FMR measurements are made with shorted-waveguide and coplanar-waveguide techniques. Prof. Harrell has worked on synthesis and characterization of high-coercivity FePt nanoparticles; several faculty members (Visscher, Harrell, Butler) are now working on anisotropy-graded media. Prof. Schad has measured noise properties of tunnel junctions, while Prof. LeClair specializes in low temperature measurements and superconducting tunnel junctions. Many students who have received graduate degrees working in MINT are now employed in the information storage industry. Not all condensed-matter research in the Department is related to magnetic materials — in addition to his work on magnetic transition-metal oxides, Prof. Sarker works on high-temperature cuprate superconductors and fullerenes. Prof. Tipping's condensed-matter work is on optical properties of molecular solids; in addition, he has worked on optical spectra of atmospheric gases in collaboration with government laboratories interested in remote sensing.	Experimental High-Energy Physics The experimental particle physics faculty (Busenitz, Piepke, Stancu) are members of international collaborations carrying out searches for neutrino oscillations and neutrino-less double beta decay. The aim of these searches is to shed further light on the questions of neutrino mass, neutrino flavor mixing, and the nature (Dirac versus Majorana) of the neutrino. A major part of the group's work in performing detector simulation studies (designing and building detector subsystems and carrying out data analysis for physics) is done on campus making extensive use of local resources. These resources include several thousand-square feet of well-equipped laboratory space, a high-sensitivity radioassay laboratory, professionally staffed machine and electronics shops, and a cluster of computer workstations with high-speed network (Internet2) connections. Particle Theory The early universe went through a period of rapid inflation due, apparently, to a large dark energy and has now landed in a phase where the dark energy is small but still non-zero. This suggests that the universe could still make a transition to a final supersymmetric state where the dark energy would vanish. Prof. Clavelli is investigating models of an extended higgs structure which could be explored at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and which could have implications for the properties of the final state of the universe. Supersymmetry is a unifying principle which helps overcome the divergence problem and the "naturalness" problem of the Standard Model. All consistent string theories are supersymmetric. Therefore the study of supersymmetric spacetimes is worthwhile because of the intrinsic interest of such spacetimes and because of their importance to other theoretical investigations. There are relatively few spacetimes which possess at least some supersymmetries. Prof. Harms has developed a method for generating spacetimes which possess fractions of the maximal supersymmetry for D = 11 supergravity, thus increasing the number of supersymmetric spacetimes available for study. Harms also investigates topics in noncommutative physics, including: a) determining the strength of the limits on non-commutative parameters which can be set by the Josephson effect, b) considering inflation driven by the Casimir energy due to noncommutative extra dimensions. Prof. Stern's current research interests include solitons, topological field theories, duality, quantum groups, and applications of noncommutative geometry.	Astronomy The astronomy group consists of six faculty whose research focuses on extragalactic astronomy, with approximately equal emphasis on theory and observation. Active research areas include: Galaxy morphology, disks, and resonance phenomena (Buta, Byrd), from both observational and dynamical points of view. This involves observations of various tracers of star-formation history and Doppler mapping to recover the locations of resonant points in spiral galaxies, to allow a detailed comparison with theory to refine our understanding of the internal working of galaxies. Physics of active galactic nuclei (Sulentic, Keel): efforts to form a spectroscopic classification to distinguish various kinds of active nuclei or various stages in their development, and to connect the cosmic evolution of active nuclei to that of galaxies themselves. Galaxy interactions and other environmental influences on galaxy properties (Sulentic, Keel). Galaxy evolution (Keel): comparison of galaxies in various redshift ranges to build a consistent picture of how galaxy populations have changed with cosmic time. Physics of relativistic jets (Hardee): theoretical and numerical studies of the structures seen in energetic outflows, used to constrain the physical properties of objects observed with high-resolution radio techniques. Theoretical and observational study of hot gas in galaxies and clusters of galaxies (White), using the observed chemistry and energetics to constrain how galaxies evolve and how stars explode. Adjunct Prof. Biermann is active in high-energy astrophysics, particularly in studies of active galactic nuclei. The astronomy group uses a network of Linux, Macintosh, Sun, and Silicon Graphics workstations, along with astronomical software packages such as IRAF, IDL & Ciao. The high-speed computing facilities of the Alabama Research and Education Network in Huntsville are available. The University is part of the Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy (SARA), which operates optical telescopes in Arizona and Chile, of which UA observers have a 10% share. Group members are regular users of NASA satellite observatories (Hubble, Chandra, GALEX, Swift) and ground-based telescopes worldwide. Research is supported by the NSF and NASA.