Justin Conroy, associate professor and chair of the Department of Physics, has had a paper accepted for publication in an international peer-reviewed journal, the Journal of Physics Communications.
Conroy, however, is quick to acknowledge that he cannot take all of the credit for the research. Two Fredonia undergraduates, Sarah Chamberlain (Class of 2017), who received the Lanford Presidential Prize at Commencement, and John Tucker (Class of 2016), co-authored the paper, “Waxman's algorithm for non-Hermitian Hamiltonian operators.”
An element in writing the paper was to use Waxman’s algorithm as a technique to solve a challenging equation in quantum mechanics, known as the Schrodinger Equation.
“However, there is a class of quantum mechanical systems, defined by what are called non-Hermitian Hamiltonians, that cannot be solved using Waxman's algorithm as is,” said Dr. Conroy. “The purpose of this paper was to generalize Waxman’s algorithm so that it can be used to study these systems. Sarah and John worked out the mathematics necessary to generalize the algorithm. They wrote Mathematica code in order to solve some examples numerically.”
Since graduating, both alumni have pursued Ph.D. programs.
“This was a well-conceived research project that nicely combined theory with practical modelling,” said Tucker, now studying at SUNY Stony Brook. His current area of study is in astrophysics, and the focus of his thesis is on the light curves of stellar novae.
Chamberlain is pursuing a degree in biophysics at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. “It was actually a really fun and crazy process,” she said in regards to the research paper. “I started the project at the beginning of my sophomore year, and it took me three years to work out the puzzles and mathematics of the algorithm.”
“Waxman's algorithm for non-Hermitian Hamiltonian operators” is available for public viewing on the IOPScience website.
