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Advanced Desktop Computing in Physics Doctoral Training

The aim of this proposal is to ensure that all graduate students of physics at Cornell are exposed to high-performance computing in their first two years. We propose to provide them with an excellent facility for theoretical research with computationally-intensive tools, such as Mathematica, as well as the means for the analysis and interpretation of measurements. We also expect them to explore physical phenomena through simulations. Finally, this facility would give them ready access to modern information-handling systems such as Microsoft Office, on-line scientific literature search machines, and the World Wide Web.

Our graduate physics program places great emphasis on experimental physics. The demands that this places on our facility are keen: for example, a student may have collected a series of X-ray diffraction photographs using a single crystal specimen placed in several orientations. Our present data reduction techniques for this experiment are tedious and have modest accuracy. In the proposed facility, the hypothetical structure would be visualized in three dimensions, and predictions for the measured X-ray diffraction patterns could be quantitatively compared with the student's measurements. One can anticipate the tremendous "feel" for one's data that would be acquired in such a comparison.

Participants

Last modified on: 10/05/99