The
Physics Department is one of the oldest departments in Bose
Institute and also one of the most vibrant. It has a glorious
history going back to the days of illustrious scientists like
J. C. Bose and D. M. Bose. Upto 1987, the major areas of research
were Nuclear Physics, Cosmic Rays, Radiation Physics and Acoustics.
Since 1987, there has been a burgeoning of research interests
in Radiation Physics, Condensed Matter, Foundational Aspects
of Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Information and Communication,
Intermediate and High Energy Physics and Cosmology, due to the
recruitment of new faculty. The Department currently has 10
faculty, 10 students (8 pre-docs and two post-docs) and 15 non-academic
staff.
Main Research Activities
Acoustics and Fluid Mechanics
Radiation
Physics, Applied Radioactivity and Liquid Dynamics
Condensed
Matter and Statistical Physics, Cross-disciplinary Physics
Nuclear
and High Energy Physics, Cosmology and Astrophysics
Fundamental
aspects of Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Information/Communication
The areas cover a wide spectrum reflecting the enthusiasm and
dynamism of the faculty as well as students. There are collaborations
within the Institute as well as with other research groups in
India and abroad. The Department’s research contributions
are significant and have been published in the topmost journals
in Physics. In the following, some of the major research contributions
of the Department in the last five years are highlighted.
J. C. Bose has been a pioneer in the construction of instruments
and experimental devices. Following this tradition, some new
devices have been developed in the Department. The first and
foremost amongst these is a superheated drop detector (SDD)
consisting of minute drops of superheated liquids suspended
homogeneously in a gel and capable of detecting energetic radiations.
The detector has applications as a highly sensitive neutron
dosimeter as well as in neutron spectrometry and gamma ray detection.
The detector is inexpensive, easy to construct and requires
no power source. A description of the detector has been included
in the third edition of the well-known text book "Radiation
Detection and Measurement" by Glenn F. Knoll (John Wiley
and Sons 1999). A hanging wire velocitometer capable of measuring
small flow velocities of liquids accurately has been developed.
A major experimental initiative is polarised proton beam experiment
on polarised proton target to study pion production near threshold.
The experiment has been carried out as part of a collaborative
programme at Indiana University Cyclotron facility at Bloomington,
USA. A new experimental programme involves setting up of a large
array detector system at mountain altitude to detect strange
quark matter (strangelets) in the cosmic ray flux. The possibility
of detecting strangelets has been justified in a significant
theoretical study. D. M. Bose and co-workers made important
contributions in experimental cosmic ray research including
the first recording of pi-meson tracks. The present programme
is expected to revive experimental cosmic ray research in a
modern scenario. Other major experimental programmes include
characterization of new types of instabilities at the interfaces
of acoustically driven liquid layers, viscosity divergence studies
of polymeric suspensions, traffic noise levels of Calcutta and
suburbs, M ssbauer study of Fe2+ ions in insulators,
ultrasonic studies of aqueous solutions of conducting polymers
and diffusion in multicomponent liquids using radioactive tracers.
In theory, exactly-solvable models of interacting many body
systems have been constructed. The results obtained are of considerable
relevance for undoped as well as doped magnetic systems including
the high-temperature cuprate superconductors. First principle
calculation of electronic structure and optical properties of
perovskite materials and comprehensive tabulations of elastic
scattering cross-sections of gamma rays have been carried out.
The problem of cosmological baryonic (cold) dark matter and
formation of quark-gluon plasma in ultrarelativistic heavy ion
collisions have been investigated with proposals to obtain experimental
signatures. Work has been carried out on the quantum measurement
problem and on various aspects of quantum locality and entanglement
with a view to formulating new testable demonstrations of nonlocality
and finding new protocols for information transfer. In the area
of cross-disciplinary physics, a novel proposal has been made
to use DNA molecules as a mesoscopic photon detecting device
to probe the quantum measurement problem. Models have been proposed
to explain recent experimental observations on bacterial evolution,
stochasticity in gene expression and formation of Turing patterns
in reaction-diffusion systems. Bose Institute is ideally suited
for interdisciplinary research and the expectation is that in
the coming years more avenues for cross-disciplinary research
will open up.
The
Physics Department is one of the oldest departments in Bose
Institute and also one of the most vibrant. It has a glorious
history going back to the days of illustrious scientists like
J. C. Bose and D. M. Bose. Upto 1987, the major areas of research
were Nuclear Physics, Cosmic Rays, Radiation Physics and Acoustics.
Since 1987, there has been a burgeoning of research interests
in Radiation Physics, Condensed Matter, Foundational Aspects
of Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Information and Communication,
Intermediate and High Energy Physics and Cosmology, due to the
recruitment of new faculty. The Department currently has 10
faculty, 10 students (8 pre-docs and two post-docs) and 15 non-academic
staff. 