RSS 1.0Department of Physics and Astronomy (MU)
The Department of Physics and Astronomy offers exceptional academic opportunities for undergraduate and graduate study in physics and astronomy, while providing outstanding research facilities both on and off campus. The faculty have a strong commitment to teaching with a deep concern for preparing students for existing jobs in physics and related disciplines. The research opportunities offered by the Department of Physics and Astronomy are in some cases unique at a university and at a level expected only in much larger departments. The main focus of research is in the area of Condensed Matter Theory and Experiment, but other internationally recognized research programs exist as well. These research efforts are fostered by the existence of the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR), a 10 MW light-water moderated reactor that is the highest-power university research reactor in the country.
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An investigation of the single-molecule biophysics of membrane systems with atomic force microscopy
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)[EMBARGOED UNTIL 12/1/2023] Cell membranes define the boundary of the fundamental unit of all organisms. They maintain the biochemical gradients of the cell and are carefully regulated by various membrane proteins and ... -
Magnetic charge correlation and quantum disorder in honeycomb spin ice systems
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)[EMBARGOED UNTIL 12/1/2023] The artificial spin ice system consists of islands comprised of nanomagnets arranged in desired lattice structures, including squares, triangles, and honeycombs. These nanomagnets can also be ... -
Photoemission spectroscopy and first-principles studies of two-dimensional Dirac and Weyl materials
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)[EMBARGOED UNTIL 12/1/2023] Two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted tremendous research interest since the breakthrough of graphene. As the nature of the low dimension, 2D materials are thin, flexible, and easy for ... -
Quantifying structural disorder in bulk hydrogenated graphene using x-ray and neutron diffraction
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)[EMBARGOED UNTIL 12/1/2023] Functionalization of graphene's two-dimensional sheets can be used to modify graphene's physical properties, such as changing its conductivity or inducing ferromagnetism, which is of broad ... -
Predicting RNA secondary structures using physics-based modeling and evolutionary inferences
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)[EMBARGOED UNTIL 8/1/2023] Ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules are critical to gene expression and regulation at the level of transcription, splicing, translation, and catalysis of biochemical reactions. In order to understand ... -
Computational studies of gases adsorbed on graphene-like materials
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)Nanoporous activated carbons generate interest for their gas storage and separation potential. Generally, adsorbents are assumed rigid, even though they are formed by feeble quasi-2D flakes of graphene. In 2019, Schaeperkoetter ... -
Morphological evolution of the hosts of far-infrared/submillimeter galaxies
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)Luminous and Ultra-luminous InfraRed Galaxies (LIRGs, LIR = 10^11-12L; ULIRGs, LIR [greater than] 10^12L) were discovered as the brightest objects in the infrared sky. While they are rare objects in the local universe, ... -
Spontaneous cluster formation in stoichiometric quantum critical systems
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2022)Metallic systems with magnetic ions embedded which have been prepared to undergo a second-order phase transition at zero Kelvin (called the quantum critical systems) historically appear to fall into two distinct categories: ... -
Theoretical and computational modeling of RNA-ligand interactions
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2021)Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric nucleic acid that plays a variety of critical roles in gene expression and regulation at the level of transcription and translation. Recently, there has been an enormous interest in ... -
Protected percolation: a new universality class pertaining to quantum critical systems
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2021)We describe a new universality class - dubbed protected percolation - that we show to be relevant to quantum critical systems. Percolation theory describes phase transitions where long-range order is lost when parts of a ... -
Spin waves in doped graphene
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2021)Spin-waves have been studied to a great extent in solids and two-dimensional electron gases. These phenomena have garnered much interest in developing new kinds of devices for information processing and transmission. A ... -
Identifying circumstellar dust around oxygen-rich mira variables with maser emission via continuum elimination
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2021)Stars between about 0.8 and 8 times the mass of the Sun will eventually evolve, becoming asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, where they pulsate and eject mass from their atmospheres, forming dust shells in the space around ... -
From the lab bench to the fuel tank : development and analysis of novel adsorbents for hydrogen and natural gas storage
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2020)Hydrogen and natural gas offer a promising avenue towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector; however, storage poses a non-trivial challenge, with current systems requiring prohibitively large ... -
First-principles investigation of transport and magnetism
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2021)Study of the quantum mechanical nature of a material provides invaluable understanding of its underlying mechanisms governing their fascinating novel properties. Density functional based first-principles methods provide ... -
Theoretical and computational modeling of naturally and artificially modified RNA nucleotides
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2021)Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric nucleic acid that is crucial for cellular function, regulating gene expression and encoding/decoding protein/DNA molecules. Recent discoveries of diverse functionality in non-coding ... -
Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging for non-invasive detection of myocardial fibrosis
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2020)[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI--COLUMBIA AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Cardiovascular diseases involve heart and blood vessels and affects both young and aged population. This research focuses on myocardial ... -
Applications of model systems to explore exchange-correlation effects in density-functional theory
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2020)Density-functional theory (DFT), in its various forms, has become a near ubiquitous form of theoretical research used to benchmark and prototype solutions to many finite and extended state system. This is largely because ... -
Exploring defects and induced magnetism in epitaxial graphene films
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2019)Graphene has been demonstrated to have unique properties not only in its virgin state but also by altering its environment through rotations in bilayer graphene, doping, and creating heterostructures with other 2D materials, ... -
Predicting the structure and energetics of protein-ligand interaction
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2019)Molecular docking has been a crucial component and remains a highly active area in computer-aided drug design (CADD). In simple terms, molecular docking uses computer algorithms to identify the "best" match between two ... -
Physics-based modeling for RNA folding stability and kinetics
(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2020)[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI--COLUMBIA AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] RNA (Ribonucleic acid) molecules play a variety of crucial roles in cellular functions at the level of transcription, translation and gene ...