Auburn University Physics Department

The Physics Department at Auburn University offers academic programs leading to B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Physics. As of 2008, it has 21 full-time faculty members.
Academics
Undergraduate
The Department offers a range of introductory undergraduate courses with several options: general physics (PHYS1500/1510), also known as "algebra-based", aimed mainly at non-science majors; engineering physics (PHYS1600/1610), which uses calculus; and honors physics (PHYS1607/1617), which is well suited for physics majors. There is also a course "Foundations of Physics" (PHYS1000), dubbed "Physics for Poets", in which rudimentary mathematics is used. Higher undergraduate courses include undergraduate-level classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, classical electrodynamics, and statistical physics.
Graduate
There are two graduate programs at the Auburn Physics Department: M.S. (with the thesis and non-thesis options) and Ph.D. A Master's degree is not a prerequisite for entering the Ph.D. program.
Normally, new graduate students spend the first two years on covering the graduate core courses: classical mechanics (PHYS7100), classical electrodynamics (PHYS7200/7250), quantum mechanics (PHYS7300/7350), and statistical physics (PHYS7400). In approximately two years, Ph.D. students must take the qualifying exams known as the General Doctoral Exams (GDE). They consist of three separate sections (classical and statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics, and classical electrodynamics) conducted with a spacing of approximately three days in the fall semester. Students who fail any of the sections must retake and pass them in the next semester in order to stay in the Ph.D. program.
Students who have passed the GDE normally take part in research activity; additionally, there are higher-level courses available at the Department which may be useful at this stage: relativistic quantum mechanics (PHYS8100), introduction to atomic physics (PHYS8200), plasma physics (PHYS8600), solid state physics (PHYS8700).
Research
Four research groups exist at the Department: atomic physics, condensed matter physics, plasma physics, and space physics.
Many faculty members have numerous publications in well-known peer-reviewed journals. For a longer list of publications, see , [http://electro.physics.auburn.edu/~francisr/publications.htm 2], , [http://electro.physics.auburn.edu/~jjdong/research/research.html 4], .
Facilities
The Physics Department is housed at Allison Lab, named after the American physicist Fred Allison who founded the Department.
At present, the Department has the following research facilities.
* The Semiconductor Lab
* The Surface Science Lab
* Compact Toroidal Hybrid, a magnetic confinement fusion device
* The Accelerator Lab
* The Plasma Science Laboratory
* The Laboratory for Nanophotonics
* The AMO Physics Laboratory
* A local Beowulf cluster PRISM

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