IAP Home Page

Dedicated to expanding
and disseminating
scientific knowledge,
especially in the
physical sciences.

The Institute for Advanced Physics is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation engaged in fundamental scientific research based in the beautiful Front Range of Colorado. Founded in 1996 with the premise that basic research is the foundation for revolutionary technologies, the Institute has activley pursued research topics ranging from plasma physics, to atomic and molecular physics, to computational methods. These research programs continue to produce significant new results every year.

The Institute is on the leading edge of scientific computation - the dynamic overlap of physics, mathematics and computer science. We have developed a number of significant technologies that make scientific computing easier, including advanced computing infrastructure, sophisticated data archiving and mining technologies and distributed scientific collaboration tools. We have been at the forefront of exploiting modern software engineering techniques for scientific purposes, utilizing object-oriented methodologies, relational database systems and modern languages such as C++ and Java to achieve unprecedented code performance and accurate results.

As an example of our results, the plot to the left shows a recent 2-D calculation of the propagation of an intense laser pulse in an under-dense plasma. The fast laser oscillations are visible as ripples toward the lower left. The peaks and valleys represent the residual plasma oscillations - the ringing of the plasma - called the wake. The laser wake has some potentially valuable applications for particle and medical accelerators, because of the wake's very large electric fields. To study these applications and to understand the appropriate design parameters, large-scale modeling of this system is needed and is a major focus of the Institute's research in plasma physics.

In addition to our research activities, we are also actively engaged in education at the high-school, community college, trade school and university levels. Our affiliates routinely lecture on computational physics, plasma physics, software engineering, numerical analysis and algorithm development. We host conferences and mentor students interested in learning about high-performance computing.