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center for applied physics

Center for Applied Physics Studies

 

About CAPS

The Center for Applied Physics Studies (CAPS) was founded in 1997 and has been identified by the University of Louisiana System as a Center of Excellence at Louisiana Tech University.  The center is located in the Engineering Annex Building and has 20,000 sq. ft. of office and laboratory space. CAPS provides a world-class research and education environment that integrates both engineering and physics disciplines, creating opportunities for interdisciplinary studies, the sharing of resources, and the transfer of technology from basic science to applications. The center brings together faculty with diverse academic backgrounds and serves the educational need of the Physics, Chemistry and Electrical Engineering Programs at Louisiana Tech University.

CAPS has been an integral member of the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative (LONI), a $50M investment in the State’s IT infrastructure. Our researchers have direct access to the 1.5Pflop Queen Bee 2 supercomputer through LONI’s high-speed and high-bandwidth connections. The Queen Bee 2 was commissioned in the summer of 2014, ranked the 46st most powerful supercomputer in the world by Top500. Locally, our center hosts the CERBERUS community supercomputer and is managing the Louisiana Tech Observatory.

Research Areas of CAPS

 

ATLAS LHG

High Energy Particle Physics

In the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider we are looking for answers to these fundamental questions:

What is the world made out of?

What are the elementary particles?

What forces keep them together?

What is the origin of mass?

What is "dark matter"?

Nuclear physics

Nuclear Physics

The Nuclear Physics group at the Louisianan Tech University is focused on performing precision tests of the Standard Model of Particle Physics and studying the nucleon and nuclear structure by utilizing parity-violating electron scattering experiments. These experiments are conducted at Thomas Jefferson Lab in Virgnia and at MESA facility in Germany and our group is working in the areas of detector development, simulations, data acquisition, data analysis software development, theoretical interpretation of the experimental results, and publications.



Photonics and Sensors

Photonics & Sensors

The Photonics and Sensors group at the Center for Applied Physics Studies investigates fundamental and practical aspects of electromagnetism, acoustics and quantum electrodynamics. Of specific interests are new types of electromagnetic materials, optical circuits, microwave sensors and radiation of biological tissue.

Astrophysics

Astrophysics

The astrophysics group at the Center for Applied Physics Studies administers the Louisiana Tech Observatory and conducts photometry, spectroscopy, and astrophotography. The group uses the CERBERUS computing cluster and MESA stellar structure codes for modeling high mass white dwarfs and AGB stars and PHANTOM hydrodynamic codes for modeling stellar winds and stellar disks. We are currently (2025-2026) upgrading the observatory facility and installing a Planewave CDK 17 telescope and a Moravian C5 large format camera for use in undergraduate research projects.

Computational Physics

Computational Physics, Chemistry & Biology

The Computational physics, chemistry and biology group at the Center of Applied Physics use modern computing resources to predict the dynamics of millions or even billions of particles to  describe physical, chemical, and biological processes across the entire range of time and length scales. Some of the groups current work involves DNA & Chromatin modeling, multi-scale simulations of organic conductors, polymers and heterostructures, Interface and inverse problems, Computational chemistry, structure, energetics, and reactivity of organolithium compounds.