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| Project Title | Mathematical Physics Research Assistant |
| Summary | The student intern will assist mathematics, computer science and physics faculty in running molecular dynamics simulations for the temperature dependence of longitudinal wave velocities and vibrational spectra in FCC monatomic crystalline lattices. LAMMPS code and packages will be employed using C++ and MPI. |
| Job Description | The intern will extend her 2010 research in computational solid-state physics. The classical issues from mathematical physics are temperature dependence of longitudinal wave velocities and vibrational spectra in monatomic crystalline lattices. Her 2010 proof-of-concept simulations tested standard theory of anharmonic oscillations, using Berkeley Madonna for 1-dimensional lattices with harmonic, piece-wise harmonic and LJ potentials. For this 2011-12 internship, the student will extend that research to 2-dimensional hexagonal and FCC lattices using LAMMPS (C++ and MPI) available on OSC's Glenn Cluster. Pre- and post-processing will use the Pizza.py toolkit written in Python. The intern's long-range goals are to become a researcher in electrical engineering or materials science so as to develop more energy-efficient transportation technologies. While the project employs classical molecular dynamics with the primary goal of advancing research in mathematical physics, the purpose of this internship is broader. Through exposure to parallel algorithms and foundational concepts of solid-state physics the intern would gain the basis for researching a wide range of scientific applications--from theoretical physics (effective metrics) to materials science & engineering (defect dynamics, thermal degradation, phonons and superconductivity). |
| Start Date | 06/13/2011 |
| End Date | 05/03/2012 |
| Location | Departments of Mathematics & Computer Science, and Physics Division of Natural and Applied Sciences Bluffton University 1 University Drive Bluffton, Ohio 45817 |
| Interns | Meron Dibia
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