Beginning Graduate Students Research Articles

Scattering from a quantum anapole at low energies

In quantum field theory, the photon-fermion vertex can be described in terms of four form-factors that encode the static electromagnetic properties of the particle, namely, its charge, magnetic dipole moment, electric dipole moment, and anapole moment. For Majorana fermions, only the anapole moment can be nonzero, a consequence of the fact that these particles are their own antiparticles. Using the framework of quantum field theory, we perform a scattering calculation that probes the anapole moment with a spinless charged particle. In the limit of low momentum transfer, we confirm that the anapole can be classically likened to a point-like toroidal solenoid whose magnetic field is confined to the origin. Such a toroidal current distribution can be used to demonstrate the Aharonov-Bohm effect. We find that, in the non-relativistic limit, our scattering cross section agrees with a quantum mechanical computation of the cross section for a spinless current scattered by an infinitesimally thin toroidal solenoid. Our presentation is geared toward advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate students. This work serves as an introduction to the anapole moment and also provides an example of how one can develop an understanding of a particle's electromagnetic properties in quantum field theory.

Prospective conceptual model of Tomatis® method effects on students’ self-regulation

This study aimed to develop a preliminary conceptual model that explains the perceived effect of the Tomatis® method on university students’ self-regulation for study course learning. Seven beginning graduate students (6 female; 3 black, 4 white) with a large South African university completed a Tomatis® method programme student learning support intervention. The students participated in focus group discussion and brief survey on their Tomatis® method programme student learning support experiences. Thematic analysis identified five themes that define Tomatis® method programme self-regulation effects on students: i) being self-aware and enhanced environmental sensitivity; ii) improved study concentration per time frame; iii) perspective taking, willingness, and ability to listen to others’ opinions; iv) self-reflection or enhanced inward learning experience; and v) boldness, creativity and open-mindedness. Findings support a conceptual working model of the Tomatis® method for the promotion of learner self-regulation and behavioural change in a university setting.

Fermi–Walker transport and Thomas precession

An exact derivation of the Thomas precession formula is presented based on the Fermi–Walker transport equation. Given that the Thomas precession effect is not a particularly intuitive phenomenon, such that when discovered in 1925 it took by surprise even experts in relativity theory, Einstein included, an alternative perspective can be useful at an intermediate level for physics students. The existing literature linking the Thomas precession to Fermi–Walker transport use geometric algebra as mathematical tool. Here the mathematics is kept within the limits of the usual vector and tensor algebra commonly used in special relativity theory at a level appropriate for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students.

Moo-Young Han

Moo-Young Han

Resource Letter QI-1: Quantum Information

This Resource Letter surveys the history and modern developments in the field of quantum information. It is written to guide advanced undergraduates, beginning graduate students, and other new researchers to the theoretical and experimental aspects of this field. The topics covered include quantum states and processes, quantum coding and cryptography, quantum computation, the experimental implementation of quantum information processing, and the role of quantum information in the fundamental properties and foundations of physical theories.

Modern observational physical oceanography: understanding the global ocean

With the advent of computers, novel instruments, satellite technology, and increasingly powerful modeling tools, we know more about the ocean than ever before. Yet we also have a new generation of oceanographers who have become increasingly distanced from the object of their study. Ever fewer scientists collect the observational data on which they base their research. Instead, many download information without always fully understanding how far removed it is from the original data, with opportunity for great misinterpretation. This textbook introduces modern physical oceanography to beginning graduate students in marine sciences and experienced practitioners in allied fields. Real observations are strongly emphasized, as are their implications for understanding the behavior of the global ocean. Written by a leading physical oceanographer, Modern Observational Physical Oceanography explains what the observational revolution of the past twenty-five years has taught us about the real, changing fluid ocean. Unlike any other book, it provides a broad and accessible treatment of the subject, covering everything from modern methods of observation and data analysis to the fluid dynamics and modeling of ocean processes and variability. Fully illustrated in color throughout, the book describes the fundamental concepts that are needed before delving into more advanced topics, including internal-inertial waves, tides, balanced motions, and large-scale circulation physics. * Provides an accessible introduction to modern physical oceanography * Written by a leading physical oceanographer * Emphasizes real observations of the fluid ocean * Features hundreds of color illustrations * An online illustration package is available to professors

Partial differential equations: an introduction to theory and applications

This textbook provides beginning graduate students and advanced undergraduates with an accessible introduction to the rich subject of partial differential equations (PDEs). It presents a rigorous and clear explanation of the more elementary theoretical aspects of PDEs, while also drawing connections to deeper analysis and applications. The book serves as a needed bridge between basic undergraduate texts and more advanced books that require a significant background in functional analysis. Topics include first order equations and the method of characteristics, second order linear equations, wave and heat equations, Laplace and Poisson equations, and separation of variables. The book also covers fundamental solutions, Green's functions and distributions, beginning functional analysis applied to elliptic PDEs, traveling wave solutions of selected parabolic PDEs, and scalar conservation laws and systems of hyperbolic PDEs. * Provides an accessible yet rigorous introduction to partial differential equations * Draws connections to advanced topics in analysis * Covers applications to continuum mechanics * An electronic solutions manual is available only to professors * An online illustration package is available to professors

On the computational modeling of the viscosity of colloidal dispersions and its relation with basic molecular interactions

The connection between fundamental interactions acting in molecules in a fluid and macroscopically measured properties, such as the viscosity between colloidal particles coated with polymers, is studied here. The role that hydrodynamic and Brownian forces play in colloidal dispersions is also discussed. It is argued that many-body systems in which all these interactions take place can be accurately solved using computational simulation tools. One of those modern tools is the technique known as dissipative particle dynamics, which incorporates Brownian and hydrodynamic forces, as well as basic conservative interactions. A case study is reported, as an example of the applications of this technique, which consists of the prediction of the viscosity and friction between two opposing parallel surfaces covered with polymer chains, under the influence of a steady flow. This work is intended to serve as an introduction to the subject of colloidal dispersions and computer simulations, for final-year undergraduate students and beginning graduate students who are interested in beginning research in soft matter systems. To that end, a computational code is included that students can use right away to study complex fluids in equilibrium.

Book Review: Media Literacy and the Emerging Citizen, by Paul Mihailidis

Paul Mihailidis Media Literacy and the Emerging Citizen. New York: Peter Lang, 2014. 224 pp.In twenty-five years of teaching theory to graduate students, it has been challenging to find materials that comfortably fit between the undergraduate and doctoral levels of instruction. Although I have advised thirty-one successful MA theses in those years, every textbook adopted for class seemed too simple or overly complex. My colleagues tend to agree that McQuail's Mass Communication Theory1 has good coverage, but it is very challenging for beginning graduate students. While the readings spark questions and good conversation, they also generate frustration and doubt.I think McQuail's structure and seminal discussion about normative and social science theories are more valuable than the full text for our foundation seminar. Another expensive option is Communication Yearbook 37,2 which offers thirteen refreshing studies that advance theories on communication networks, communication models, engagement, entertainment, selective exposure, video game effects, and children and media.For the foundations of our field, it is difficult to do better than the classic readings in The Process and Effects of Mass Communication.3 Here we find the great names: DeFleur, Lasswell, McLuhan, Boorstin, Kurt and Gladys Lang, Lippmann, Hovland, Schramm, Cooley, Berelson, Lazarsfeld, and others. Another look at ideas from a half-century ago leads me to wonder where the depth and breadth can be found that will motivate the next generation of scholars. This semester in the classroom, I will collaborate with graduate students on curating and examining current significant studies, much as the late Vernon Stone did with my peers more than a quarter-century ago.A group of smaller, focused books may be the best approach for offering students context on how to read the research. One interesting option is Media Literacy and the Emerging Citizen: Youth, Engagement and Participation in Digital Culture. Paul Mihailidis, an assistant professor in the School of Communication at Emerson College, offers a book extending earlier media literacy scholarship.Digital media culture, value, and civil life provide a framework for exploring large questions. His conceptualizes the work of Schudson, Bennett, and Dalton:The emerging citizen has integrated digital media culture fully into her life and understands public involvement not primarily by duties (taxes, voting, military service) but equally by engagement (expression, activism, sharing, dialog). These new voices are facilitated largely through digital media, where interactive platforms and social tools are largely replacing traditional avenues for information and communication needs. (pp. 5-6)The media literacy framework that focuses on authorship, format, audience, content, and purpose (p. 35) is an arc that also brings us back around to fundamental theory. Using Jenkins's core skills, Mihailidis offers the reader more key concepts: play, performance, simulation, appropriation, multitasking, distributed cognition, collective intelligence, judgment, transmedia navigation, networking, and negotiation (p. …

Compiler Construction

Compiler construction is a widely used software engineering exercise, but because most students will not be compiler writers, care must be taken to make it relevant in a core curriculum. The course is suitable for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students. Auxiliary tools, such as generators and interpreters, often hinder the learning: students have to fight tool idiosyncrasies, mysterious errors, and other poorly educative issues. It is intended both to provide a general knowledge about compiler design and implementation and to serve as a springboard to more advanced courses. Although this paper concentrates on the implementation of a compiler, an outline for an advanced topics course that builds upon the compiler is also presented. We introduce a set of tools especially designed or improved for compiler construction educative projects in C

A Dedicated Theory Class for Graduate Students

A required literary-theory class for classics graduate students was introduced at the University of California, Berkeley in the late 1980s. So how do we get beginning graduate students “from zero to 60” in a one-semester theory proseminar? This paper considers the content, structure, pacing, and pedagogical strategies of one version of such a course, including sample syllabuses and different writing and in-class projects. In particular, I address how such a course can be effectively integrated with the students’ other classics coursework, and how students can be motivated to regard the theory proseminar as just the first step in their ongoing education in theory.

How Do You Measure Primality?

In commutative monoids, the ω-value measures how far an element is from being prime. This invariant, which is important in understanding the factorization theory of monoids, has been the focus of much recent study. This paper provides detailed examples and an overview of known results on ω-primality, including several recent and surprising contributions in the setting of numerical monoids. As many questions related to ω-primality remain, we provide a list of open problems accessible to advanced undergraduate students and beginning graduate students.

Pushing for particulate level models of adiabatic and isothermal processes in upper-level chemistry courses: a qualitative study

In the past three decades, researchers have noted the limitations of a problem-solving approach that overemphasizes algorithms and quantitation and neglects student misconceptions and an otherwise qualitative, conceptual understanding of chemical phenomena. Since then, studies and lessons designed to improve student understanding of chemistry has overwhelmingly targeted introductory level, high school and first-year college students. In this article, we present a model-based learning cycle approach with upper-level undergraduate and beginning graduate students that investigated their ability to model the adiabatic and isothermal compression/expansion of a gas in a syringe. We were interested to observe, given the extent of their previous chemistry coursework, how students struggled to connect macroscopic observations with particulate representations. Analysis of laboratory reports, reflective journal entries, and classroom discourse transcripts indicate the learning experience was efficacious in uncovering and addressing student conceptual challenges with using models appropriately to describe gas behaviour under the experimental conditions for this investigation.

Molecular Biology, 2nd EditionDavid P.Clark and Nanette J.Pazdernik, Academic Press‐Cell, 2012, 928 pp., ISBN 978‐0‐1237–8594‐7, $135.00 (hardback).

Molecular Biology, 2nd EditionDavid P.Clark and Nanette J.Pazdernik, Academic Press‐Cell, 2012, 928 pp., ISBN 978‐0‐1237–8594‐7, $135.00 (hardback).

Representations of Lie algebras: an introduction through gln

This bold and refreshing approach to Lie algebras assumes only modest prerequisites (linear algebra up to the Jordan canonical form and a basic familiarity with groups and rings), yet it reaches a major result in representation theory: the highest-weight classification of irreducible modules of the general linear Lie algebra. The author's exposition is focused on this goal rather than aiming at the widest generality and emphasis is placed on explicit calculations with bases and matrices. The book begins with a motivating chapter explaining the context and relevance of Lie algebras and their representations and concludes with a guide to further reading. Numerous examples and exercises with full solutions are included. Based on the author's own introductory course on Lie algebras, this book has been thoroughly road-tested by advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students and it is also suited to individual readers wanting an introduction to this important area of mathematics.

Limits of computation: an introduction to the undecidable and the intractable

Limits of Computation: An Introduction to the Undecidable and the Intractable offers a gentle introduction to the theory of computational complexity. It explains the difficulties of computation, addressing problems that have no algorithm at all and problems that cannot be solved efficiently. The book enables readers to understand: What does it mean for a problem to be unsolvable or to be NP-complete? What is meant by a computation and what is a general model of a computer? What does it mean for an algorithm to exist and what kinds of problems have no algorithm? What problems have algorithms but the algorithm may take centuries to finish? Developed from the authors course on computational complexity theory, the text is suitable for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students without a strong background in theoretical computer science. Each chapter presents the fundamentals, examples, complete proofs of theorems, and a wide range of exercises.

Photon charge experiment

The deflection of a laser beam traveling through a modulated electric field is measured using phase-sensitive detection to place an upper bound on the photon charge. An upper limit of 10−14e is obtained. Our approach provides a simple experimental scheme for angle measurements and is suitable as a laboratory exercise for both advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students in physical science.

The dance of psychotherapy.

Using a dance metaphor, this article presents an approach to teaching therapeutic techniques to beginning graduate students in which interventions are first taught separately for purposes of clarity followed by an emphasis on integration, creativity, and flexibility. To illustrate the format of this approach, I provide theory, research, and prototypic clinical examples for the three therapeutic techniques that I use most frequently in my own practice. These techniques are support/empathy, immediacy, and affect exploration, experiencing, and expression. This is followed by a case presentation in which these three techniques are used together in a unique way to facilitate the work.

20. Is Strategic Development of Leadership Capacity for the Higher Education Workplace Possible?

Beginning graduate students who are working in higher education can benefit from establishing a professional development plan designed to enhance leadership capacity. The challenge is to align personal goals with those of the graduate program, yet ensure that collegial socialization and professional competency development occurs. Professional socialization refers to the acquisition of values, attitudes, skills, and competencies pertaining to a professional subculture. In this paper, I describe an activity I designed and the process I used that address equity, diversity, and inclusion as one professional competency area in my socialization process as a strategy to become a more effective leader.

Community Online Resource for Statistical Seismicity Analysis

Statistical analysis of seismicity is critical for understanding earthquake observations, testing proposed prediction and forecast methods, and assessing seismic hazard. Unfortunately, despite its importance to seismology—especially to those studies that potentially impact public policy—statistical seismology is mostly ignored in the education of seismologists, and there has been no central repository for relevant software. To remedy these deficiencies, and with the broader goal of enhancing the quality of statistical seismology research, we have begun building the Community Online Resource for Statistical Seismicity Analysis (CORSSA). CORSSA is an educational platform that is designed to be authoritative, up-to-date, prominent, and useful. We anticipate an audience that ranges from beginning graduate students to experienced researchers. Every co-author of this article has served as a referee for at least one seismology manuscript in which the author(s) made a questionable or incorrect application or interpretation of statistics. We suspect that most readers have had a similar experience. This is not a matter of stupidity—not even the important kind championed by Schwartz (2008)—but rather a lack of understanding and/or awareness of sometimes sophisticated mathematical concepts and how they should be applied to uncertain data. We seek to fill this gap in knowledge, understanding, and application, and to promote excellence in statistical seismology, by providing the information and resources necessary to understand and implement the best practices, with the hope that readers will apply these methods to their own research. Given that seismology is a field of applied physics, it is reasonable that, starting with only Hooke's law, students are taught to derive the wave equation, Snell's law, reflection/refraction coefficients, and the behavior of surface waves. But seismology is also increasingly becoming a field of applied statistics, and few seismology students are taught even the most basic statistical methods let alone the underlying theory. For instance, while most …