Theoretical Research Groups
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Prof. Leonard Kahn
's research
has spanned several areas.
His early work involved the study of the surfaces of solids.
Specifically, he studied the chemisorption of alkalis on metal surfaces.
The technique that was used was the density functional formalism.
He used this formalism to study hydrogen in metals,
as well as defects in metals.
The main thrust of the work was to calculate the electric field
gradient in these imperfect materials.
His attention then changed to the study of the optical
properties of one dimensional conductors, such as TTF-TCNQ.
These calculations led to the investigation of acoustic plasmons
in one dimensional conductors. He then tackled the problem of
superconductivity in the A-15 materials,
looking for an alternative mechanism to explain their high
temperature transition.
In the late 80's, Prof. Kahn became interested in nonlinear phenomena.
This began as an interest in chaos and "strange attractors."
With Ken Hartt, he developed some techniques for determining whether
or not two sets of time series are dependent on common variables.
While at Irvine, he noticed that the equations being used to
describe nonlinear optics were very similar to those he had seen
in studies of chaos. It turns out that very simple models
contain a wealth of phenomena. This model of nonlinear optics
is a useful platform for studying solitonic resonances,
the temporal and spatial development of chaos,
signal processing, and electron self-trapping.
Prof. Kahn's interest in nonlinear optics continues.
Specifically, he is examining layered structures to determine
how electrical devices, such as diodes and transistors
can be modeled by optical systems. He has had two seniors
complete their senior research papers on this topic,
as well as a Ph.D. thesis by Kelan Huang on nonlinear optics.
Most currently, he is examining the effects of defects in
the layered structure on the transmission properties of the system.
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Prof. Chuck Kaufman
works in theoretical
physics, specializing in
weak interactions,
quantum electrodynamics,
chaos, and
turbulent media.
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Prof. Alex Meyerovich
works in theoretical condensed matter physics.
His most recent publications
deal mainly with quantum transport and interference in
systems with random boundaries. The applications include nanosystems,
quantum size effect in conductivity, quasi-2D and multilayer systems,
localization of ultracold neutrons in gravitational traps and electrons
or hydrogen atoms on helium surface, etc. Prof. Meyerovich is also
actively interested in low temperature physics, especially in the theory
of Fermi and Bose liquids, quantum crystals, and superfluidity. He is
the author of some of the pioneering
papers
in the field which is now known as physics of spin-polarized quantum
systems. The focus here is on macroscopic quantum phenomena such as
giant growth of transport coefficients with spin polarization of Fermi
systems or anomalies in spin dynamics of Fermi liquids. Prof. Meyerovich
maintains long-term collaboration with several leading experimental and
theoretical groups in the U.S., France, The Netherlands, and the U.K.
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Prof. Gerhard Müller
works in theoretical condensed matter physics and in quantum chaos.
His condensed matter research focuses on the dynamics of low-dimensional
systems of localized or itinerant electron spins. For these studies he
employs general methods (e.g. the recursion method) with a wide range of
applications as well as special methods that are applicable only for completely
integrable models (e.g. the Bethe ansatz). His quantum chaos research focuses
on the characteristic signatures of integrability and nonintegrability
in quantum mechanics as manifested in invariants (conserved quantities)
derived from symmetries of via time average from arbitrary observables.
Prof. Müller has written, in collaboration with colleagues and
former students, tutorial materials for beginning graduate students on
the following research topics:
Recursion Method,
Bethe Ansatz,
Hamiltonian Chaos.
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Prof. Peter Nightingale
works in condensed matter theory, studying
phase transitions and critical phenomena,
critical dynamics,
surface physics, and
van der Waals clusters.
Prof. Nightingale's work also includes computational physics, with a focus on
classical Monte Carlo methods,
quantum Monte Carlo methods,
large-scale parallel computations,
finite-size scaling,
optimization, and
many-body interactions and invariants.
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Prof. Michael Tammaro
works in theoretical condensed matter physics and Monte Carlo calculations.
His investigations include
modeling of far-from-equilibrium systems using techniques of
contemporary statistical physics,
hierarchic rate equations,
Monte Carlo techniques,
reaction-diffusion equations, and
master equations.
Specific focus is on thin film properties, such as
diffusion,
electromigration,
non-equilibrium phase transitions,
transport in disordered media,
chemical wave propagaion, and
chemical reactions on surfaces.
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