Astro Physics Research for Undergrads

[kptsilva]

Hey guys,

I'm studying in my final year, physics as an undergraduate student, and we have to complete a research project for the finals. Our course length is 2 months. I'm deeply interested in astro physics and cosmology. Any new topics that i can consider as an research topic?

 

[Bobbywhy]

If I could influence any research project I would suggest looking into Langmuir waves in the Earth's magnetosphere, especially how they may interfere with satellite communications networks. Here is an example of some system for measuring these disturbances:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~spacephy/labelle_group/rocket/hibar.html

 

[kptsilva]

i'd like it to be astro related

 

[Nabeshin]

To clarify, by research do you mean original research, or something more along the lines of a literature review (à la research paper from English class)?

 

[kptsilva]

more like a review :)

 

[turbo]

more like a review :)

That's good. You might have to work your tail off even to get a review paper put together in that time. You'd probably need two years or more to actually put together a paper with original research. Good luck.

 

[kptsilva]

do you have any ideas?

 

[turbo]

do you have any ideas?

Not really. It took me two years of data-mining to put together a database of apparently-interacting galaxies with LOTS of help from a collaborator in Finland and another in NY state before we could pull a paper together. It was peer-reviewed and published in a Springer journal, but it still took a long time, pulling down info from NASA, Cal-Tech, HyperLeda, etc. Two months is not a lot of time to pull something coherent and publishable. You'll probably have to put together a 1-2 page review, with a heavy emphasis on links to published papers. Good luck.

How about a short paper on the distribution of GRBs? That might be a fun one.

 

[kptsilva]

Hmm, I'm not sure regarding GRBs, are there any interesting papers?
I found some papers regarding the unification of dark energy and matter, via chaplygin gas model, but i like something that has more General relativity

 

[Drakkith]

While "out there" topics like dark energy, dark matter, and others are very popular, it may help to choose a topic that is more understood. I would guess that the amount of quality papers on something would improve with better understanding.

 

[Nabeshin]

I don't have time to write a long response right now, but in a word: Inflation.

It's a cute little project and you can go pretty deep into it if you want (I wrote a ~6 page review article on it about a year ago for a cosmology course).

 

[kptsilva]

Nabeshin do you have any research papers that i can refer to

 

[Nabeshin]

Are you already familiar with the general idea of inflation?

A good place to start is Guth's original paper: http://prd.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v23/i2/p347_1

 

[Chronos]

The origins of high energy cosmic rays might also be interesting. There are tons of related papers on arxiv.

 

[ImaLooser]

Hey guys,

I'm studying in my final year, physics as an undergraduate student, and we have to complete a research project for the finals. Our course length is 2 months. I'm deeply interested in astro physics and cosmology. Any new topics that i can consider as an research topic?

My pet is neutron stars. Most extreme environment in the visible universe. The popular accounts are not all that great so you will need to glean the results from research papers. You won't be able to understand the math, but that is OK.

That might be too specialized so how about getting insight into analysis of the data from the CMB. That's very basic and solid and very interesting too. I wish I knew more about it so once your paper is done ship it over here, hear?

Inflation is nice but a bit too complex and speculative for me. Not enough data. But if it interests you, go for it.

Another possibility is planetary magnetospheres, which I also will be studying. There's a lot of data coming in and it is a whole new world.

All and all I would stick with the solid and happening areas, which are just as interesting as the glamorous stuff.

 

[Bobbywhy]

i'd like it to be astro related

It seems to me that folks tend ignore this fact: the interaction between the sun's particle emissions (the "solar wind") and the Earth's magnetic field are certainly "astro related". The sun is a star. It is far easier to measure and gather actual data locally than in the next-nearest star.