Research
The research conducted by the faculty, staff, and students in the ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ Physics Department is vibrant and cutting edge across the broad scope of most subfields in physics.
The discovery of the Higgs boson was made at the CERN supercollider, in a collaboration involving our high energy physics faculty. Nobel-prize caliber research is carried out in studies of quantum gases and quantum optics. Condensed-matter theorists and experimentalists unravel the mysteries of many-body systems, including liquid crystals and the quantum mechanical nature of the electrical and magnetic behavior of materials.
Other areas of interest include the physics of nuclei, both low and high-energy plasmas, and an exciting thrust into the behavior of ultrafast laser pulses and the response of atoms, molecules, and solids to such novel light sources. Novel studies of physico-chemical reactivity are also underway at temperatures a mere whisper above absolute zero. The burgeoning subjects of biophysics and nanoscience continue to thrive and grow here, along with energy science, geophysics, physics education research, and other interdisciplinary fields.