Professor Andreas Quirrenbach:

Our group uses telescopes in California, Hawaii, the Canary Islands, as well as space observatories, and develops techniques for astronomy with very high spatial resolution. We are interested in detecting and characterizing planets around other stars, in the formation of planetary systems, and in the formation of galaxies and quasars in the early universe.

Professor David Tytler:

Our group works in observational cosmology. We use the Keck 10-m telescopes in Hawaii, and the Lick 3-m in Santa Cruz, CA, to obtain spectra of quasars, which are giant black holes in distant galaxies. The spectra contain absorption lines which describe the amount of matter in the universe and its distribution. A few percent of QSOs show absorption from primordial deuterium, which was made in the first few minutes of the universe during big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). We measure the ratio of the number of D to H atoms, which tells us the density of ordinary matter (baryons) in the universe. When standard physics is used in BBN, the measurement of D/H determines the last free paramater, and gives predictions accurate to a few percent for the abundance of the other light nuclei which are made in BBN. Most matter in the space between galaxies is called the intergalactic medium. The H in this gas causes strong H absorption in quasar spectra. The amount of absorption tells us the amount of gas, its ionization, and temperature, while the distribution along the lines of sight to the quasars tells us the amplitude of the primordial perturbations in the distribution of matter. Gravity causes these perturbations to grow in amplitude over time.

Professor David Kleinfeld:

We are interested in integrative aspects of brain function--in particular the algorithm used by animals to extract a stable picture of the world based on input through their actively moving sensors and sense organs. A variety of experimental approaches, involving trained rats, direct electrical probes, optical based probes, and advanced signal analysis, are brought to bear on this issue.

Professor Jose Onuchic:

The research in my group centers on theoretical and computational methods for molecular biophysics and chemical reactions in condensed matter. In protein folding, we introduced the concept of protein folding funnels as a mechanism for the folding of small fast folding proteins. Energy landscape theory and the funnel concept provide the theoretical framework needed to address the questions of protein folding mechanisms. A second effort of my group focuses on the theory of chemical reactions in condensed matter with emphasis on understanding biological electron transfer reactions. These reactions are central to the bioenergetic pathways of both animals and plants on earth, such as the early steps of photosynthesis.

Professor Sally Ride, Research Scientist Karen Flammer:

EarthKAM. Students involved in this program control an Earth-looking digital camera carried on board the space shuttle, process the resulting images, and put them(and other space shuttle information) on the web for use by middle school students. Undergraduate researchers develop software to run a control center at UCSD, display space shuttle groundtracks, process and archive images, and develop interactive web pages to allow middle school students to access the information and communicate with the control center.

Professor George Fuller:

An REU student working with my group would likely be involved with our effort to understand the neutrino physics/astrophysics of the early universe and stellar collapse. For example, we are trying to understand how lepton number could be generated from neutrino oscillations in the early universe. This work is likely to be numerically intensive. C and Fortran programming skills are desirable, but not required, as these can be learned "on the job".

Professor Dimitri Bassov:

Our research involves infrared spectroscopy of novel materials which exhibit exotic electronic properties. One of the possible projects is devoted to the study of high-T_c superconductors using infrared methods. This includes taking measurements of the low-temperature reflectance of (Y-Pr)BaCuO microcrystals using state-of-the-art Fourier-transform interfermoeter, and analysis of the results. Another project involves construction of a set-up for grazing incidence infrared reflectometry. This apparatus will be used for the survey of the anisotropy of the electronic transport in novel superconducting and magnetic materials.

Professor Ami Berkowitz:

Our research is involved with magnetic materials, particularly those which are useful in information storage applications. The samples we prepare and investigate are in the form of thin films, multilayers, particles, and composites. The principal properties of interest are magnetic, microstructural, and electrical. We examine both static and dynamic behavior.

Professor Robert Dynes:

The interaction between superconductivity and magnetism is one that is mutually exclusive. However, we now believe that there is some very interesting physics that occurs at the interface between metals demonstrating these two phenomena. The length scale over which ferromagnetism is destroyed and superconductivity appears (and vice versa) could tell us much about electronic interactions in these two states of matter. Unfortunately we don't understand these length scales as well as we might. Research on thin films with such interfaces would involve film growth, transport measurements, and electron tunneling spectroscopy investigations.

Professor Frances Hellman:

The project is in experimental condensed matter/materials physics. Details will be arrived at depending on interest and expertise of the student, but will likely be in the area of research on novel magnetic materials. A potential project is to look at the properties of a magnetic semiconductor; specifically amorphous Silicon doped with magnetic ions. We are interested in understanding the effects of the local magnetic moments on the conductivity, which can be extremely large, and how the magnetic ions interact with each other. The student will be involved in the preparation, characterization or measurements of these materials, using, for example, an ultra-high vacuum multi-source deposition system, various magnetometers for magnetic measurements, and/or a conductivity and magnetoresistance measurement apparatus.

Professor Brian Maple:

Single crystals of high temperature copper oxide superconductors will be prepared and characterized. Electrical resistivity and magnetic susceptibility measurements will then be performed in both the normal and superconducting states. Efforts will be made to increase the superconducting transition temperature as well as to optimize the superconducting properties of these single crystals. Electrical resistivity and magnetic susceptibility measurements will also be made.

Professor Ivan Schuller:

Our group is involved in a variety of problems in complex materials in reduced dimensionality. We are trying to bridge the gap between the three dimensional infinite solid and the atoms. This is a largely unexplored area in solid state physics, in which much of the current solid state activity concentrates. The type of phenomena explored include high and low temperature superconductivity and magnetism in a variety of configurations. This is done by using a large number of sophisticated materials preparation, state of the art vacuum and lithographic techniques, combined with sophisticated structural determination probes and a variety of physical property measurements such as magnetotransport, photoconductivity, magnetic and thermodynamic measurements in a wide range of temperature and magnetic field. Many of the above mentioned techniques are directly applicable in industrial processes.

Professor Shelly Schultz:

Our laboratory specializes in doing experiments that require our designing advanced instrumentation, such as Single molecule optical spectroscopy, magnetic atomic force scanning microscopy, and nanolithography. Our applications range from biophysics to magnetic storage, always with emphasis on nano-sized entities.

Professor James Branson:

The UCSD Elementary Particle Physics group is developing a Data Acquisition system for the very high energy, high luminosity Large Hadron Collider. We are testing systems that will enable us to build events at a data rate of up to 100 GBytes per second. After the events are built we must reduce the rate of data to be stored to just 100 MByte per second. To make this reduction, trigger algorithms must be developed. This final step of the trigger will take place in a large "farm" of standard computers (about 4 TIPS). We are looking for students interested in either the hardware development or the Higher Level Trigger event selection development. The LHC should finally tell us about the origin of mass and the spontaneous breaking of symmetries in the vacuum. It may also find other interesting phenomena such as supersymmetry or quantum gravity effects.

Professor John Goodkind:

We are searching for a possible Bose-Einstein Condensation (BEC) of defects in solid 4He crystals. Solid Helium is a ‘quantum crystal’ in which the quantum zero point motion of the atoms is a significant fraction of the interatomic spacing. As a consequence, defects are expected to be able to move freely in the same way that electrons do in metals. If they move freely they act like particles and can undergo the BEC. The primary tool that we have been using to study these defects is ultrasonic velocity and attenuation. Sound waves are scattered by lattice defects so that the temperature dependence of the attenuation and velocity provides information about them. Recently we found a new second order phase transition in solid 4He when we added as little as 14ppm of 3He impurities. It is consistent with a BEC but we still have not proved it. Currently we are measuring the influence of propagating heat pulses on the acoustic properties. The results are providing additional evidence that the defects move through the crystal and we hope may soon provide unambiguous evidence of the BEC.

Professor Henry Abarbanel:

We conduct research into communication using chaotic transmitters and receivers. We investigate, design and build systems both wireless and optical. We are also investigating fundamental issues associated with classification and prediction in high dimensional systems, such as the lasers we use in communications.

Professor Herbert Levine:

My interest is in the physics of nonequilibrium processes, especially in the emergence of spatial patterns in extended systems Within this framework, I work on issues arising in condensed matter physics, chemical physics and most recently, biophysics. Possible REU projects in this area of research include simulation studies of collective effects in cell motion, analysis of experimental data related to chemically guided cell motion, analysis of experimental data related to chemically guided cell motion and cell sorting and, in a non-biological setting, the study of dynamic fracture in disordered systems.

Professor C. Fred Driscoll and Professor Dan Dubin:

We are investigating the basic phenomena of vortices, turbulence, and weak viscosity in near-ideal 2-dimensional fluids, using magnetized electron plasmas as the "working fluid". An ion plasma apparatus with laser-cooling extends this work into the cryogenic high viscosity regime. See more information at http://sdphCA.ucsd.edu.

Recent experiments discovered unusual "vortex crystal" states which form when intense vortices anneal into a lattice due to interactions with a weak background of vorticity. Analytical theory and vortex-in-cell computer simulations have clarified the dynamical processes involved. Other experiments have measured the weak viscosity that arises from long-range collisions between individual electrons, for comparison to analytic theory which includes the finite size of the system.

Experimentally-oriented students will take data on an electron plasma apparatus with extensive electronics and computer-based diagnostics. Theoretically-oriented students will run (or develop new) simulations investigating the subtleties of collisional processes in sheared fluids.

Please check http://www-physics.ucsd.edu

for additional faculty mentor research descriptions and updated project descriptions.

Additional program information and an application can also be found at the above address.