Physics Department

Dr. Eric Wells’ research work is centered around understanding and controlling molecular dynamics in strong laser fields.

Ultrashort laser pulses have properties that suggest they might be used to directly influence chemical reactions: The force exerted by the laser field can be comparable to the electric force that holds a molecule together, and the pulse can be turned on and off before the molecule will move significantly. Thus, the precise application of a customized laser pulse to an individual molecule might enable the modification of the molecule in a targeted, desired manner. The Augustana atomic, molecular & optical (AMO) physics group developed a method for coupling three-dimensional ion-imaging of molecular fragments to a feedback loop that uses an adaptive learning algorithm to design laser pulses that can control specific molecular processes, such as hydrogen migration and bond rearrangement.

Augustana students carry out this work using the laser facilities of the J.R. Macdonald Laboratory at Kansas State University as part of a long-standing collaboration between the two institutions.

Thirty-two undergraduate students have co-authored 22 different articles as part of the work of the Augustana AMO. The research is supported by the National Science Foundation. Wells’ sabbatical leaves at Kansas State have been supported by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Representative Publications (AU indicates an Augustana undergraduate co-author)

1. Travis Severt, Eleanor Weckwerth^AU, Balram Kaderiya, Peyman Feizollah, Bethany Jochim, Kurtis Borne, Farzaneh Ziaee, Kanaka Raju P., Kevin D. Carnes, Marcos Dantus, Daniel Rolles, Artem Rudenko, Eric Wells, and Itzik Ben-Itzhak, “Initial site characterization of hydrogen migration following strong-field double-ionization of ethanol," Nature Communications 15, 74 (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-44311-x
2. T. Severt, Darwin R. Daugaard, Tiana Townsend^AU, F. Ziaee, K. Borne, S. Bhattacharyya, K.D. Carnes, D. Rolles, A. Rudenko, E. Wells, and I. Ben-Itzhak. “Two-body dissociation of formic acid following double ionization by ultrafast laser pulses”. Phys. Rev. A 105, 053112 (2022).
   DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.105.053112
3. Tiana Townsend^AU, Charles J. Schwartz^AU, Bethany Jochim, Kanaka Raju P., T. Severt, Naoki Iwamoto^AU, J.L. Napierala^AU, Peyman Feizollah, S.N. Tegegn^AU, A. Solomon, S. Zhao^AU, K.D. Carnes, I. Ben-Itzhak, and E. Wells, “Controlling H3+ formation from ethane using shaped ultrafast laser pulses.” Frontiers in Physics 9, 691727 (2021).  DOI: 10.3389/fphy.2021.691727.
4. Naoki Iwamoto^AU, Charles J. Schwartz^AU, Bethany Jochim, Kanaka Raju P., Peyman Feizollah, J.L. Napeirala^AU, T. Severt, S.N. Tegegn^AU, A. Solomon^AU, S. Zhao^AU, Huynh Lam, Tomthin Nganba Wangjam, V. Kumarappan, K.D. Carnes, I. Ben-Itzak, and E. Wells, “Strong-field control of H3+ production from methanol dications: Selecting between local and extended formation mechanisms”, J. Chem. Phys. 152, 054302 (2020). DOI: 10.1063/1.5129946
5. E. Wells, C.E. Rallis^AU, M. Zohrabi, R. Siemering, B. Jochim^AU, P.R. Andrews^AU, U. Ablikim, B. Gaire, S. De, K.D. Carnes, B. Bergues, R. de Vivie-Riedle, M.F. Kling, and I. Ben-Itzhak, “Adaptive Strong-field Control of Chemical Dynamics Guided by Three-dimensional Momentum Imaging”, Nature Communications 4:2895 (2013). DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3895

Dr. Nathan Grau's research is focused on understanding the strong nuclear force responsible for binding protons and neutrons in nuclei and energy generation in the sun.

He and his students do this with collisions of nuclei at high speeds. Augustana is a member institution of several experiments located at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, New York: the PHENIX Collaboration, the sPHENIX Collaboration and the ePIC Collaboration. These collaborations built large high-energy physics detectors to collect data at a collider accelerator. The PHENIX experiment collected data until 2016 at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The sPHENIX detector is the successor detector and is taking first data during 2023. The ePIC detector is the project detector for the future Electron-Ion Collider.

Grau has mentored dozens of students over the past decade. His research has continuously been funded by a Research at Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) grant from the National Science Foundation since 2013.

Representative Publications (AU indicates an Augustana undergraduate co-author)

1. C.A. Aidala et al. "Design and test beam results for a 2D projective sPHENIX Electromagnetic Calorimeter Prototype" IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 68(2), 173–181 (2021)
2. U. Acharya et al. (PHENIX Collaboration) "Measurement of jet-medium interactions via direct photon-hadron correlations in Au+Au and d+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV" Phys. Rev. C102 054910 (2020)
3. A. Adare et al. (PHENIX Collaboration) "Measurement of two-particle correlations with respect to second and third order event planes" Phys. Rev. C99, 054903 (2019)
4.  A. Adare et al. (PHENIX Collaboration) "Transverse momentum broadening in dihadron angular correlations in $\sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV p+Au collisions" Phys. Rev. C99, 044912 (2019)
5.  A. Adare et al. (PHENIX Collaboration) "Heavy flavor electron-muon correlations in p+p and d+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV" Phys. Rev. C89, 034915 (2014)
6. M. Wussow^AU and N. Grau, “Determination of the quark content of scalar mesons using hydrodynamical flow in heavy ion collisions” Phys. Rev. C 84, 054902 (2011).

Dr. Drew Alton's research is focused on weakly interacting particles, lately in the form of Dark Matter, but before that in terms of understanding the W/Z boson and neutrino interactions.

He helps preparations for the new DarkSide-20k experiment, which is under construction in Italy and expected to begin operating in 2026. DarkSide-50, its predecessor, operated for about five years in Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy. Alton and various AU students worked on developing a precise energy measurement, which could be used to understand backgrounds and test the stability and data quality of the experiment.

Alton has also recently joined the Deep Underground Neutrino (DUNE) experiment, which is expected to begin operating in approximately 2030.

Representative Publications (AU indicates an Augustana undergraduate co-author)

1. P. Agnes, Trey Waldrop^AU et al., “Low-Mass Dark Matter Search with the DarkSide-50 Experiment”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121(2018), 081307.
2. P. Agnes, Trey Waldrop^AU et al., “DarkSide-50 532-day Dark Matter Search with Low-Radioactivity Argon”, Phys. Rev. D98(2018), 102006.
3. P. Agnes, et al., “Results from the First Use of Low Radioactivity Argon in a Dark Matter Search”, Phys. Rev. D93(2016), 081101.
4. T. Alexander^AU, et al., “Light Yield in DarkSide-10: a Prototype Two-phase Argon TPC for Dark Matter Searches”, Astropart.Phys.49(2013) 44-51.
5. A. Alton and T. Alexander^AU, “Possible explanation for NuTeV’s anomalous dimuon events”, Phys. Rev. D83:115018 (2011).

All of the physics faculty members — Dr. Drew Alton, Dr. Amy Engebretson, Dr. Nathan Grau and Dr. Eric Wells — are interested in a research-based understanding of the craft of physics instruction.

Through memberships in groups such as the American Association of Physics Teachers, the Partnership for Integration of Computation into Undergraduate Physics, the Advanced Laboratory Physics Association and the APS Forum on Education, we stay informed on the best practices in physics education. The department’s implementation and assessment of research-based educational practices has led to national recognition from the American Physics Society.

Engebretson has a special interest in how the effectiveness of group problem solving is affected by the distribution of genders within the group.

Representative Publications (AU indicates an Augustana undergraduate co-author)

1. K. Miller^AU and N. Grau "Design and implementation of observational astronomy laboratory components for introductory astronomy at Augustana University" Proceedings of the South Dakota Academy of Science 97, 209-220 (2018).
2. A. Alton, N. Grau, and E. Wells, “Off-site collaborations as a model for sustainable undergraduate physics research at small colleges”, vignette contributed to online resource promoting undergraduate physics research. Sponsored by the American Physical Society, the Council on Undergraduate Research, the American Association of Physics Teachers, and the Society of Physics Students (2015).