Undergraduate Physics major John Hoffman will be able to carry out a summer research project with Professor Frederick K. Lamb's research team, thanks to funding by the Campus Honors Program. John is the first Physics student to be selected for CHP funding.
Lamb's group is currently developing fast, state-of-the-art computer codes to simulate the accretion of gas particles onto the surfaces of neutron stars and to compute the properties of X rays produced during accretion. Hoffman will work on improving the speed and accuracy of the codes used to compute the wave forms produced by X-ray emitting regions on the surfaces of neutron stars that spin with millisecond periods. The improvements that he plans will make it possible to simulate thousands of cases, revealing how the wave forms depend on the mass, radius, and spin rate of the star.
By comparing predicted X-ray emission with data taken from NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) spacecraft, the researchers will gain insight into the fundamental physics of neutron stars, such as the properties of the ultradense matter inside the stars and the characteristics of the strong gravitational fields that surround them.