The Heidbrink group studies ions with energies much larger than the thermal ion temperature in tokamaks and other magnetic fusion configurations. In present devices, injected neutral beams are the source of energetic ions; in future devices, charged fusion reaction products will be the energetic or “fast” ions. The group designs and operates instruments that measure fast ions, develops software to interpret measured signals, and conducts experiments on the DIII-D tokamak and other facilities. As the facilities and hardware are off-site, undergraduate projects usually focus on software development or analysis of existing data.
Group webpage: https://www.physics.uci.edu/~wwheidbr/
A project begins in Spring quarter of the Junior year, when a student receives an introduction to plasma physics by enrolling in Physics 135. The student works full-time during the summer, paid either as a UCI Undergraduate Researcher or through a nationally-funded fellowship program. In the senior year, the student continues the summer project for his or her senior thesis. Throughout, the student participates in weekly group meetings.
Four courses total and full-time work in the summer.
Bill Heidbrink, Bill.Heidbrink@uci.edu