Physics Research @ USI

Though our department is filled with dedicated teachers, we all remain actively engaged in our respective fields of academic research. Just as we are asking our students to explore and gain a new understanding of the Universe, we ask the same of ourselves. Below is a brief summary of what portion of the Universe's hidden secrets our faculty members seek to uncover daily.

Differential Equations abound throughout physics and all branches of the mathematical sciences. The evolution of nearly all physical systems is described on a basic level in terms of a differential equation. Dr. Pickett's work revolves around the central question of how to solve a differential equation. A large number of differential equations have a crucial trick that is used in order to solve it, however most differential equations have no such option. By applying the techniques from analytical continued fractions, Dr. Pickett seeks solutions to differential equations that would be be intractable using traditional means.

Dr. Kent Scheller

Experimental Nucear Physics

The periodic table is perhaps among the most basic pieces of scientific knowledge we humans posess. How these varied elements came to be and their relative abundances is the subject of nucleosynthesis. It is this subject that is at the heart of Dr. Scheller's experiments. A number of elements appear far more frequently in the Universe than current theories suggest that they should. By performing experiments that simulate events that occur near the death knell of a star, Dr. Scheller seeks to understand how it was that these elements came to be found in such large quantities.

At the core of the atom sits the nucleus, protons and neutrons held together by the strong nuclear force. The behavior of the strong nuclear force is bewildering when only 2 or 3 particles are involved. In a practical nucleus, with tens or even hundreds of particles involved it becomes impossible to understand. So instead, it is within the framework of nuclear models that Dr. Shadow JQ Robinson examines the properties of nuclei. The most successful of all nuclear models is the shell model. To this end, Dr. Robinson studies a wide range of nuclear phenomena within the context of shell model calculations, hoping to understand the subtle yet crucial difference between protons and neutrons and the role they play in building a nucleus.

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