Office: 359-A Nicholson
Telephone: 8696-Office
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Space Science/Particle Astrophysics
Fellow of the American Physics Society
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Our High Energy Astrophysics research attempts to understand the nature and origin of energetic charged particles through measurements of galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) and solar energetic particles (SEP), and their access into our Geospace environment. The GCR represent the only sample of matter from outside our solar system available for direct study, and comparing their composition to the sun, meteorites, stars, solar flares, and the interstellar medium provides insight into the origin of this matter. Since particle transport is controlled by electromagnetic effects, and subject to nuclear interactions, we also conduct laboratory experiments at accelerators. Currently, a new balloon experiment -- ATIC (Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter), to measure the GCR composition and energy spectra up to 100 TeV, is being flown from McMurdo, Antarctica, circumnavigating the continent. ATIC had a test flight in 2000, a first science flight in 2002 and is anticipating a re-flight in 2004 or 2005. In addition, the group is working on ACCESS, a combination calorimeter/transition radiation detector for the Space Station or a satellite, to test models of GCR acceleration in supernova shocks. Finally, we undertake theoretical investigations to understand specific aspects of the research, thereby complementing our experimental investigations. Wefel is also the statewide director for Space Grant and the NASA EPSCoR project in Louisiana and co-directs the International School of Cosmic Ray Astrophysics.
CURRENT AND SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
- D. Saltzberg, et al., "Introduction to the SalSA, a saltdome shower array as a GZK neutrino observatory," Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 21S1, 252-253 (2006); Zeuthen 2005, Acoustic and radio EeV neutrino detection activities, p. 252-253.
- N. V. Sokolskaya, et al., "Albedo in the ATIC experiment: Measurements and Simulations," Phys. Atom. Nucl. 68, 1176-1182 (2005); Yad. Fiz. 68, 1225-1232, (2005).
- O. Ganel, et al., "Beam tests of the balloon-borne ATIC experiment," Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 552, 409-419 (2005).
- "Neutrinos and Explosive Events in the Universe," eds. Maurice M. Shapiro, Todor Stanev, and John P. Wefel, NATO Science Series II, Vol. 209, (Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 2005, Springer), p. 424.
- V.I. Zatsepin et al., The ATIC Collaboration, "The Silicon Matrix as a charge detector in the ATIC Experiment," Nucl. Instr. & Methods A 524, 195 (2004).
- J.P. Wefel, "Astrophysics of Galactic Cosmic Rays," Acta Physica Polonica B 35, 1771 (2004).
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