Plasma Physics and Accelerator Physics
	Prof. James Rosenzweig Advanced Accelerators and Beam Physics
	The Neptune laboratory at UCLA is dedicated to cutting edge research into ultra-fast (<1E-12 seconds) phenomena, with application to acceleration of charged particles in extremely electromagnetic large fields. These new acceleration schemes, which are increasingly based on high intensity lasers, electron beams and plasmas, are needed to allow the frontier of high energy physics discovery to be pushed to the TeV level and beyond. The REU project envisioned is the design of, and initial measurements towards, the next generation inverse-free electron laser acceleration experiment. For more information on our program, please see the web site at http://pbpl.physics.ucla.edu/.
	Prof. Christoph Niemann Large Plasma Device Experiment
	We will couple a high-energy, high-power laser system to the Large Plasma Device (LAPD) to drive shock waves into a large ambient magnetized background plasma. Using scaling laws these experiments can simulate astrophysical phenomena such as supernova explosions and will contribute to the understanding of cosmic particle acceleration. We will develop a variety of laser-based and electrical diagnostics to measure the magnetohydrodynamic response of the shocks and their effect on the particle distribution.
	Prof. Warren Mori Study the Feasibility of Doubling the Energy of an Accelerator
	Within the plasma simulation group we carry out research using particle-in-cell techniques. We write and maintain our own codes. These codes are written to run on massively parallel computers including our own 512 processor DAWSON Cluster. Possible projects include using our codes to study the feasibility of doubling the energy of an accelerator such as the proposed International Linear Collider using the plasma wave wakefields produced by output of the existing accelerator or to study the feasibility of igniting a highly compressed mixture of Deuterium and and Tritium through fast ignition by a GigaAmp of current of relativistic electrons produced by a PetaWatt laser.