The Department of Physical Sciences is home to several degree programs: Bachelor of Science in Astronomy & Astrophysics, Bachelor of Science in Engineering Physics; Bachelor of Science in Space Physics; Master of Science in Engineering Physics; and Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering Physics.
The programs offer a unique balance of engineering and physics curriculum, so students can focus on the scientific challenges and planning associated with mission design and space exploration, along with engineering fundamentals.
These programs prepare students to make positive scientific and technological contributions to our increasingly complex society. This highly research-oriented department has one of the oldest and largest Engineering Physics programs in the nation. Students are involved in all the research, which includes grants funded by NASA, the National Security Agency (NSA), and other agencies.
Submissions from 2019
Determination of Global Mean Eddy Diffusive Transport in the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere From Atomic Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide Climatologies, G. R. Swenson, C. C. J. H. Salinas, F. Vargas, Y. Zhu, M. Kaufmann, M. Jones Jr., A. Liu, and et al.
Effects of the Hall Conductivity in Ionospheric Heating Experiments, B. Tulegenov and A. V. Streltsov
Artificial Aurora Produced by HAARP, B. Tulegenov, A. V. Streltsov, E. Kendall, M. McCarrick, and I. Galkin
Latitude and Longitude Dependence of Ionospheric Tec and Magnetic Perturbations From Infrasonic-Acoustic Waves Generated by Strong Seismic Events, M. D. Zettergren and J. B. Snively
Stellar Chromospheric Activity and Age Relation from Open Clusters in the LAMOST Survey, Jiajun Zhang, Terry Oswalt, Jingkun Zhao, Xiangsong Fang, Gang Zhao, Xilong Liang, Xianhao Ye, and Jing Zhong
Submissions from 2018
Error Analysis of Multi-Needle Langmuir Probe Measurement Technique, Aroh Barjatya and William Merritt
Momentum Flux Spectra of a Mountain Wave Event Over New Zealand, Katrina Bossert, David C. Fritts, Christopher J. Heale, Stephen D. Eckermann, John M. C. Plane, Jonathan B. Snively, Bifford P. Williams, Iain M. Reid, Damian J. Murphy, Andrew J. Spargo, and Andrew D. MacKinnon
Modulation of Low-Altitude Ionospheric Upflow by Linear and Nonlinear Atmospheric Gravity Waves, M. R. Burleigh, C. J. Heale, M. D. Zettergren, and J. B. Snively
Three-Dimensional Hybrid Simulation of Viscous-Like Processes at Saturn's Magnetosphere Boundary, P. A. Delamere, B. Burkholder, and X. Ma
Dust Production and Depletion in Evolved Planetary Systems, J. Farihi, Ted von Hippel, Rik van Lieshout, P.W. Cauley, Erik Dennihy, and Et al.
Precise Ages of Field Stars from White Dwarf Companions, M. Fouesneau, H-W. Rix, T. von Hippel, D. W. Hogg, and H. Tian
A Comparison of Small- And Medium-Scale Gravity Wave Interactions in the Linear and Nonlinear Limits, C. J. Heale and J. B. Snively
Localization Effects on the Dissipation of Gravity Wave Packets in the Upper Mesophere and Lower Thermosphere, C. J. Heale, R. L. Walterscheid, and J. B. Snively
Breaking the Habit: The Peculiar 2016 Eruption of the Unique Recurrent Nova M31N 2008-12a, M. Henze, T. D. Oswalt, M. J. Darnley, S. C. Williams, M. Kato, and et al.
A Bayesian Analysis of the Ages of Four Open Clusters, Elizabeth Jeffery, Ted von Hippel, David A. van Dyk, David C. Stenning, Elliot Robinson, Nathan Sten, and William H. Jefferys
On the Short-Term Variability of Turbulence and Temperature in the Winter Mesosphere, Gerald A. Lehmacher, Miguel F. Larsen, Richard L. Collins, Aroh Barjatya, and Boris Strelnikov
Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability: Lessons Learned and Ways Forward, A. Masson and K. Nykyri
Book Review: Life on Mars: What to Know Before We Go, T. D. Oswalt
Orbital Characteristics of the Subdwarf-B and F V Star Binary EC 20117-4014 (=V4640 Sgr), T. Otani, T. D. Oswalt, A. E. Lynas-Gray, D. Kilkenny, C. Koen, M. Amaral, and R. Jordan
Unexpected Occurrence of Mesospheric Frontal Gravity Wave Events Over the South Pole (90 degrees S), P.-D. Pautet, M. J. Taylor, J. B. Snively, and C. Solorio
Bayesian Hierarchical Modelling of Initial-Final Mass Relations Across Star Clusters, Shijing Si, David A. van Dyk, Ted von Hippel, Elliot Robinson, Elizabeth Jeffery, and David C. Stenning
Bayesian Analysis of Two Stellar Populations in Galactic Globular Clusters I: Statistical and Computational Methods, David Stenning, Ted von Hippel, Rachel Wagner-Kaiser, Elliot Robinson, David van Dyk, Ata Sarajedini, and Nathan Stein
On the Existence of Ionospheric Feedback Instability in the Earth’s Magnetosphere-Ionosphere System, Anatoly V. Streltsov and Evgeny V. Mishin
Ultralow Frequency Electrodynamics of Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Interactions Near the Plasmapause During Substorms, Anatoly V. Streltsov and Evgeny V. Mishin
On the Asymmetry Between Upward and Downward Field-Aligned Currents Interacting With the Ionosphere, A. V. Streltsov
Observations of Reduced Turbulence and Wave Activity in the Arctic Middle Atmosphere Following the January 2015 Sudden Stratospheric Warming, Colin C. Triplett, Jintai Li, Richard L. Collins, Gerald A. Lehmacher, Aroh Barjatya, David C. Fritts, and et. al.
Thermal Removal of Carbon Dioxide from the Atmosphere: Energy Requirements and Scaling Issues, Ted von Hippel
Bayesian Analysis of Two Stellar Populations in Galactic Globular Clusters II: NGC 5024, NGC 5272, and NGC 6352, Rachel Wagner-Kaiser, Ted von Hippel, David Stenning, Elliot Robinson, Ata Sarajedini, David van Dyk, Nathan Stein, and William H. Jefferys
Asymmetric Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability at Jupiter's Magnetopause Boundary: Implications for Corotation-Dominated Systems, B. Zhang, P. A. Delamere, X. Ma, B. Burkholder, M. Wiltberger, J. G. Lyon, V. G. Merkin, and K. A. Sorathia
Submissions from 2017
Secondary Gravity Wave Generation Over New Zealand During the DEEPWAVE Campaign, Katrina Bossert, Christopher G. Kruse, Christopher J. Heale, David C. Fritts, Bifford P. Williams, Jonathan B. Snively, Pierre-Dominique Pautet, and Michael J. Taylor
Local Time Asymmetry of Saturn's Magnetosheath Flows, B. Burkholder, P. A. Delamere, X. Ma, M. F. Thomsen, R. J. Wilson, and F. Bagenal
Anisotropic Fluid Modeling of Ionospheric Upflow: Effects of Low‐Altitude Anisotropy and Thermospheric Winds, M. R. Burleigh and M. Zettergren
Temperature Variations in the Dayside Magnetosheath and Their Dependence on Ion-Scale Magnetic Structures: THEMIS Statistics and Measurements by MMS, A. P. Dimmock, A. Osmane, T. I. Pulkkinen, K. Nykyri, and E. Kilpua
Magnetospherically-Trapped Dust and a Possible Model for the Unusual Transits at WD1145+017, J. Farihi, Ted von Hippel, and J. E. Pringle
Hubble Parameter Measurement Constraints on the Redshift of the Deceleration-Acceleration Transition, Dynamical Dark Energy, and Space Curvature, Muhammad O. Farooq, Foram R. Madiyar, Sara Crandall, and Bharat Ratra
Hubble Parameter Measurement Constraints on the Redshift of the Deceleration-Acceleration Transition, Dynamical Dark Energy, and Space Curvature, Omer Farooq, Foram Ranjeet Madiyar, Sara Crandall, and Bharat Ratra
First Performance Results of a New Field-Widened Spatial Heterodyne Spectrometer for Geocoronal Hα Research, D. D. Gardner, E. J. Mierkiewicz, F. L. Roesler, J. M. Harlander, K. P. Jaehnig, S. M. Nossal, and L. M. Haffner
Constraining Balmer Alpha Fine Structure Excitation Measured in Geocoronal Hydrogen Observations, D. D. Gardner, E. J. Mierkiewicz, F. L. Roesler, S. M. Nossal, and L. M. Haffner
Multi-Site Simultaneous Time-Resolved Photometry with a Low Cost Electro-Optics System, Forrest Gasdia, Aroh Barjatya, and Sergei Bilardi
System and Method for Robust Nonlinear Regulation Control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Synthetic Jet Actuators, Vladimir V. Golubev and William MacKunis
First Na Lidar Measurements of Turbulence Heat Flux, Thermal Diffusivity, and Energy Dissipation Rate in the Mesopause Region, Yafang Guo, Alan Z. Liu, and Chester S. Gardner
Numerical Modeling of a Multiscale Gravity Wave Event and Its Airglow Signatures over Mount Cook, New Zealand, During the DEEPWAVE Campaign, C. J. Heale, K. Bossert, J. B. Snively, D. C. Fritts, P. -D. Pautet, and M. J. Taylor
On the Dawn-Dusk Asymmetry of the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability Between 2007 and 2013, Z. W. Henry, K. Nykyri, T. W. Moore, A. P. Dimmock, and X. Ma
Ionospheric Gravity Waves Driven by Oceanic Gravity Waves in Resonance: A Modeling Study in Search of Their Spectra, Michael P. Hickey and Yonghui Yu
Simultaneous upward and downward propagating inertia-gravity waves in the MLT observed at Andes Lidar Observatory, Kai Ming Hung, Alan Z. Liu, Shao Dong Zhang, Fan Yi, Chun Ming Huang, Yun Gong, Quan Gan, and et al.
Local Time Dependence of Turbulent Magnetic Fields in Saturn's Magnetodisc, V. Kaminker, P. A. Delamere, C. S. Ng, T. Dennis, A. Otto, and X. Ma
The Remote Observatories of the Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy (SARA), William C. Keel, Terry D. Oswalt, Peter Mack, Gary Henson, Todd Hillwig, and et al.
The Ages of the Thin Disk, Thick Disk, and the Halo from Nearby White Dwarfs, Mukremin Kilic, Ted von Hippel, Jeffrey A. Munn, Hugh C. Harris, James W. Liebert, and et al.
Time Optimal State Feedback Control with Application to a Spacecraft with Cold Gas Propulsion, Samuel J. Kitchen-McKinley and Sergey V. Drakunov
Stellar Stream Candidates in the Solar Neighborhood Found in the LAMOST DR3 and TGAS, X. L. Liang, Terry Oswalt, J. K. Zhao, Y. Q. Chen, and G. Zhao
Stellar Stream Candidates in the Solar Neighborhood Found in the LAMOST DR3 and TGAS, X. L. Liang, J. K. Zhao, T. D. Oswalt, Y. Q. Chen, L. Zhang, and G. Zhao
IMF Dependence of Energetic Oxygen and Hydrogen Ion Distributions in the Near-Earth Magnetosphere, H. Luo, E. A. Kronberg, K. Nykyri, K. J. Trattner, P. W. Daly, G. X. Chen, A. M. Du, and Y. S. Ge
Utilizing the O-C Method to Determine Third-Body Existence in Eclipsing Binary Systems, Patrice Majewski, Tomomi Otani, and Terry D. Oswalt
Plasma Transport Driven by the Three-Dimensional Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability, Xuanye Ma, Peter Delamere, Antonius Otto, and Brandon Burkholder
Ion-Scale Wave Properties and Enhanced Ion Heating Across the Low-Latitude Boundary Layer During Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability, T. W. Moore, K. Nykyri, and A. P. Dimmock
Influence of Velocity Fluctuations on the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability and Its Associated Mass Transport, Katariina Nykyri, Xuanye Ma, Andrew Dimmock, Claire Foullon, Antonius Otto, and Adnane Osmane
Book Review: Chandra's Cosmos: Dark Matter, Black Holes, and Other Wonders Revealed by NASA's Premier X-Ray Observatory, T. D. Oswalt
Book Review: Shoot the Moon: A Complete Guide to Lunar Imaging, T. D. Oswalt
Book Review: Visually Observing Comets, T. D. Oswalt
Testing the Stellar Rotation vs. Age Paradigm Using Wide Binaries in the Kepler & K2 Fields, T. D. Oswalt, T. Otani, A. Stone-Martinez, P. Majewski, and D. Buzasi
Gyrochronology of Wide Binaries in the Kepler K2 Campaign 5 Field, Terry D. Oswalt, Derek Buzasi, and Tomomi Otani
Search for Binaries in the Kepler K2 Fields Using Pulsation Timing Method, Tomomi Otani and Terry Oswalt
An Additional Pulsating Mode (7.35 mHz) and Pulsations Timing Variations of PG 1613+426, Tomomi Otani, Terry D. Oswalt, Patrice Majewski, Riley Jordan, Marc Amaral, and Adam Moss
O-C Analysis of the Pulsating Subdwarf B Star PG 1219 + 534, Tomomi Otani, Terry Oswalt, Alexander Stone-Martinez, Dana Singh, Kenneth Sampson, Aliyah Khan, Austin Seepersad, Caila DeAbreu, Adam Moss, and Claudia Morello
Synthetic Jet Actuator-Based Aircraft Tracking Using a Continuous Robust Nonlinear Control Strategy, N. Ramos-Pedroza, W. MacKunis, and M. Reyhanoglu
A Hierarchical Model for the Ages of Galactic Halo White Dwarfs, Shijing Si, Ted von Hippel, David A. van Dyk, Elliot Robinson, Aaron Webster, and et al.
Nonlinear Gravity Wave Forcing as a Source of Acoustic Waves in the Mesosphere, Thermosphere, and Ionosphere, J. B. Snively
Gyrochronology of Wide Binaries in the Kepler K2 Fields, Alexander Stone-Martinez, Gustavo Villarroel, Patrice Majewski, Tomomi Otani, Terry Oswalt, and Andrew McNaughton
Spatial and Temporal Variability in MLT Turbulence Inferred from in situ and Ground-Based Observations During the WADIS-1 Sounding Rocket Campaign, Boris Strelnikov, Arthur Szewczyk, Irina Strelnikova, Ralph Latteck, Gerd Baumgarten, Franz-Josef Lübken, and et. al.
Index of Refraction from the Near-Ultraviolet to the Near-Infrared from a Single Crystal Microwave-Assisted CVD Diamond, Giorgio Turri, Scott Webster, Ying Chen, Benjamin Wickham, Andrew Bennett, and Michael Bass
The ACS Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters XIV: Bayesian Single-Population Analysis of 69 Globular Clusters, R. Wagner-Kaiser, Ted von Hippel, A. Sarajedini, D. C. Stenning, D. A. van Dyck, and et al.
Nonlinear Ionospheric Responses to Large-Amplitude Infrasonic-Acoustic Waves Generated by Undersea Earthquakes, M. D. Zettergren, J. B. Snively, A. Komjathy, and O. P. Verkhoglyadova
Submissions from 2016
Plasma Density Analysis of CubeSat Wakes in the Earth’s Ionosphere, Robert M. Albarran II and Aroh Barjatya
Observation and Modeling of Gravity Wave Propagation through Reflection and Critical Layers above Andes Lidar Observatory at Cerro Pachón, Chile, Bing Cao, Christopher J. Heale, Yafang Guo, Alan Z. Liu, and Jonathan B. Snively
Intermittency of Gravity Wave Momentum Flux in the Mesopause Region Observed with an All-Sky Airglow Imager, Bing Cao and Alan Z. Liu
New Halo White Dwarf Candidates in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Kyra Dame, A. Gianninas, Mukremin Kilic, Jeffrey A. Munn, Warren R. Brown, Kurtis A. Williams, Ted von Hippel, and Hugh C. Harris
The Dawn–Dusk Asymmetry of Ion Density in the Dayside Magnetosheath and its Annual Variability Measured by THEMIS, Andrew P. Dimmock, Tuija I. Pulkkinen, Adnane Osmane, and Katariina Nykyri
Measuring the Seeds of Ion Outflow: Auroral Sounding Rocket Observations of Low-Altitude Ion Heating and Circulation, P. A. Fernandes, K. A. Lynch, M. Zettergren, D. L. Hampton, T. A. Bekkeng, and et al.
The White Dwarf Luminosity Function, Enrique Garcia-Berro and Terry D. Oswalt
Chemical Transport of Neutral Atmospheric Constituents by Waves and Turbulence: Theory and Observations, Chester S. Gardner and Alan Liu
On Safety Assessment of Novel Approach to Robust UAV Flight Control in Gusty Environments, Vladimir Golubev, Petr Kazarin, William MacKunis, Sherry Borener, and Derek Hufty
Ionospheric Signatures of Gravity Waves Produced by the 2004 Sumatra and 2011 Tohoku Tsunamis: A Modeling Study, Michael P. Hickey, Yonghui Yu, and Wenqing Wang
Southern Hemisphere Summer Mesopause Responses to El Niño–Southern Oscillation, Tao LI, Natalia Calvo, Jia Yue, James Russell III, and Alan Liu
First Measurement of Horizontal Wind and Temperature in the Lower Thermosphere (105–140 km) with a Na Lidar at Andes Lidar Observatory, Alan Liu; Yafang Guo; Fabia A. Vargas; and Gary Swenson,
Turbulence and Overturning Gravity Wave Effects Deduced From Mesospheric NA Density Between 100-105 KM at Andes Lidar Observatory, Chile, Alan Z. Liu, Channing P. Philbrick, Gary R. Swenson, and Fabio A. Vargas
Plasma Transport Driven by the Rayleigh-Taylor Instability, X. Ma, P. A. Delamere, and A. Otto
Magnetic Reconnection With a Fast Perpendicular Sheared Flow, Xuanye Ma, Antonius Otto, and Peter A. Delamere
Book Review: How Do You Find an Exoplanet?, T. D. Oswalt
Book Review: Moons of the Solar System: From Giant Ganymede to Dainty Dactyl, T. D. Oswalt
Book Review: The International Atlas of Mars Exploration: From Spirit to Curiosity: V.2: 2004 to 2014, T. D. Oswalt
Completeness of the Nearby White Dwarf Sample: Let Us Count the Ways, Terry D. Oswalt, Jay Holberg, and Edward M. Sion
Evidence of the Excitation of a Ring-Like Gravity Wave in the Mesosphere over the Andes Lidar Observatory, Fabio Vargas; Gary Swenson,; Alan Liu; and Dominique Pautet
Bayesian Analysis of Two Stellar Populations in Galactic Globular Clusters – III. Analysis of 30 Clusters, R. Wagner-Kaiser, D. C. Stenning, A Sarajedini, Ted von Hippel, D. A. van Dyk, E. Robinson, and W. H. Jefferys
Current Sheet Flapping Motions in the Tailwind Flow of Magnetic Reconnection, Mingyu Wu, Quanming Lu, Martin Volwerk, Zoltán Vörös, Xuanye Ma, and Shui Wang
Evidence of Dispersion and Refraction of a Spectrally Broad Gravity Wave Packet in the Mesopause Region Observed by the Na Lidar and Mesospheric Temperature Mapper Above Logan, Utah, T. Yuan, C. J. Heale, J. B. Snively, X. Cai, P.- D. Pautet, C. Fish, Y. Zhao, M. J. Taylor, W. R. Pendleton Jr., V. Wickwar, and N. J. Mitchell
Submissions from 2015
Lift Generating Device, Juan A. Alvarado
Magnetic Flux Circulation in the Rotationally Driven Giant Magnetospheres, P. A. Delamere, A. Otto, X. Ma, F. Bagenal, and R. J. Wilson
A Statistical Study Into the Spatial Distribution and Dawn-Dusk Asymmetry of Dayside Magnetosheath Ion Temperatures as a Function of Upstream Solar Wind Conditions, A. P. Dimmock, K. Nykyri, H. Karimabadi, A. Osmane, and T. I. Pulkkinen
