M.Sc. Physics Department

M.Sc. in Physics
(specialization: Astroparticle Physics or Solid State Electronics)

The Dept of Physics is one of the oldest and prestigious Departments of our Institution. Founded under the pioneering guidance of renowned Jesuits like Fr. Lafonte in the middle of nineteenth century and contributions over years like Fr. Verstraeten, Fr. Bonhom & others, the department has grown into the present structure with both UG and PG sections and furthermore, a lot of research activities. The present faculty members are highly dedicated for quality physics education with innovative methods of theory teaching & practices and inspiring & guided laboratory classes.

The M.Sc. (PG) course in Physics with specialization in Astrophysics & Space Sciences, offered jointly with Bose Institute, Kolkata, have been afloat for four years and have slowly but steadily grown in stature in the last three years. The first two batches of the M.Sc. programme, already passed out, are either suitably placed in jobs or research or are working for furthering their options.

Departmental Activities: Student’s Achievement (UG)

• Roopayan Ghosh (1st Year) was awarded the Mumraj Aggarwal Rashtriya Purashkar for being in the top ten in the merit list of ISC examination 2010. The award was given away by the honorable Governor of West Bengal on August 28.Soumita Mondal (1st Year) was awarded the Mumraj Agarwal Rashtriya Purashkar for scoring 95.6% in CBSE examination 2010. The award was given away by the honorable Governor of West Bengal on August 28. Sugandha (1st Year) was selected for the College Table Tennis team.
• Dipayan Saha (2nd Year) represented the College in Badminton and won the inter- college badminton championship 2010.
• Aparna Bhattacharya (3rd Year) participated in the Asian Science Camp 2010 organised by the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education.
• Saikat Banerjee has been awarded the undergraduate Associateship of the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, 2010. He has worked under the guidance of Dr. Parthasarathi Mitra in the month of June this year.
• Ranajoy Banerjee (3rd Year) performed at MaxMueller Bhavan in July 2010.
• Shaili Sett (3rd Year) sang songs of contemporaries of Rabindranath Tagore at Akashbani-All India Radio on August 9, 2010.

Student’s Achievement (PG)

• Five of the second year M.Sc Students went on to attend the Winter School on Astroparticle Physics held at Ooty by TIFR. All Space Science students went on to conduct experiments on Atmospheric Physics at the Mayapuri Campus of Bose Institute, Darjeeling.
• The past academic year in 2010 started with the students with specialization on Astro-particle Physics visiting ARIES, Nainital for a short exposure to frontier research in Optical Astronomy in January, 2010. Mr. Bappaditya Manna and Mr. Avik Banerjee accompanied the students on this trip. They spent a week there learning how to align a 1m optical telescope and perform basic observations.
• Among the 15 students who passed out in May-June 2010, Mr. Subhas Bose is currently enrolled as a Ph.D student at ARIES, Nainital.
• Some of the students who passed out in 2009 cleared the UGC-CSIR-NET examination and are absorbed as Ph.D students in SINP (Mr. Souvik Priyam Adhya) and Bose Institute (Kinkar Saha, Sudipa Upadhyay, Sayan Biswas)

Teacher’s Achievement

• Dr. Sankhasubhra Nag was invited as a Participant at Resource Person at the HCBSE, Mumbai for Physics Olympiad Camp in March 2010 and is again invited as a Resource Person for the Resource Generation camp for Physics Olympiad there to be held in September, 2010.
• Dr. Sankha Subhra Nag and Dr. Suparna Roychowdhury went on an academic visit to HRI, Allahabad in March, 2010 for collaborative work with Dr. Tapas Das and Prof. Bosena Czerny, Copernicus Astronomical Center, Poland.
• Dr. Sarbari Guha visited IUCAA, Pune during May in connection to her research work in the field of relativity.
• Dr. Tapati Dutta attended the 3rd International Conference on Science and Complexity at Cankaya University, Ankara from July 28-31, 2010 where she read two research papers.
• Mrs. Koyel Ganguly attended the Summer School on Cosmology at ICTP, Trieste, Italy on July 29 & 30, 2010.
• Dr. Subhankar Ghosh has been selected as a Mentor/ Resource Person for the country-wide INSPIRE Programme, Department of Science & Technology ( DST), Govt. of India.
• Dr. Tapati Dutta visited France on an Indo-French collaborative project for a month in CNRS, Montpellier, France.
• Dr. Shibaji Banerjee and Dr. Suparna Roychowdhury were invited for a two day workshop on Phoenix interfacing kit at Physics Department, Presidency College, Kolkata in August, 2010. Dr. Shibaji Banerjee delivered lectures on programming in Python and Phoenix in addition to conducting hands-on session for the students. Dr. Suparna Roychowdhury acted as a resource person during those hands-on sessions.

In addition, Mr. Arvind Paranjape from IUCAA visited the department for consultation and advice on upgradation of the SXC Observatory. The faculties, along with Mr. Paranjape visited Gurap (Gurao Maria Sneha Sadan) to explore the option of setting up a remote Astronomical Observatory for the course as well as for future research.

Dr. Tapati Dutta and Dr. Shibaji Banerjee have worked towards the formulation of the utilization of the DST-FIST Grant at Level 0 for the College along with the faculties of the Science Departments and have presented a talk in INSA, New Delhi leading to its sanctionment in November 2010.

Course Highlights

The highlights of this course are:

• Courses being taught by specialized faculties from several leading research institutes in Kolkata and around the country.
   
• Interactive tutorial sessions with students for every module.
   
• Extensive computation courses offered, along with hands-on sessions for students.
   
• Interfacing experiments introduced for students to learn to design and fabricate modular experiments.
   
• Student seminars, journal clubs and discussion sessions on different areas of research in physics are planned on Saturdays.
   
• Workshops arranged by St. Xavier's College and Bose Institute enable students to learn and interact with scientists and researchers from all around the country on different specialized topics in physics (with a special emphasis on astro-particle physics and space sciences).
   
• An extended project at different National research institutes and observatories in the final semester for students to gain experience as well as get introduced to the existing facilities in our country.

Course Structure and Syllabus

Two years of course work consists of four semesters. The focus of this course is to equip the student with a foundation in the core areas of theoretical and experimental physics in a manner which would help them to learn the advanced topics in the subject.

A large emphasis is laid on computation and learning to use computation as an important tool to solve different problems in physics ranging from non-linear dynamics to data analysis and simulations in astrophysics and cosmology. A course is also conducted on interfacing experiments where students are taught to perform and design simple physics experiments using the power of the Python powered open source hardware “Phoenix box”. The syllabus has been designed with the aim of creating individuals who are equipped with concepts and tools in physics, experiments and computation which will take them to the next level of sophistication in the final two semesters – Astroparticle Physics or Space Sciences and General Relativity. The 3rd and the 4th semester has courses on advanced topics where the students can choose between Astroparticle Physics and Space Sciences. They do three courses through these two semesters in any one of these specialized areas. In addition, they have to also take core courses on a couple of advanced topics like General Relativity, Nuclear and Elementary Particle Physics and Plasma Physics. Their Computational Physics course continues into the 3rd and the 4th semester as well. In addition, they are also given an idea of the zeal and excitement of research in Physics through a project in the 4th semester. Scientists and faculties from Bose Institute, St. Xavier's College and other institutes guide them through a semester long project on specific topics of their interest where they are given a flavour of working through seminal research papers and adding to it, if possible.

Achievements

M.Sc Physics has been running for the last three years. The first batch of students graduated with M.Sc Physics degree in 2009. Three of these students have qualified in the National Eligibility Test (NET), three students have qualified for Graduate Aptitute Test (GATE) in 2009 and one qualified for JEST in 2009. One of the students qualified for joining the Ph.D program at S.N.Bose Centre for Basic Sciences.

Evaluation system

The evaluation system of this 2 year course is based on an examination at the end of each semester (both theoretical papers and laboratory). In addition, a general viva is conducted at the end of the final year to
evaluate the over-all progress of the students. In addition, the students will also be evaluated through a seminar on the project they would work on in the final semester.

Research Activities

The Department hosted a one day national seminar “Spectrum 2009” in March. Key publications of the department during 2009 include Geometrical dark energy in braneworlds Article XIV 0906.3894.

XIVth International Clay Conference in Italy (June 2009) was attended by Dr. Tapati Dutta.

Dr. Subhankar Ghosh attended the ICTP Workshop “Entrepreneurship development for physicists and engineers”, Trieste in 2008 and the Faraday course in St. Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge in 2008.

The visits and UGC research projects of the department include

1. A visit to HRI, Allahabad with a seminar delivered by Dr Sankha Subhra Nag in October, 2009.
    
2. Dr. Suparna Roychowdhury delivered a talk in IIA Bangalore and visited RRI Bangalore in February, 2009.
    
3. Dr. Sarbari Guha visited IUCAA,Pune as a research associate in May, 2009.
    
4. UGC Major Projects in the department include Wellness ,Spreading and Adhesion of liquid on Solid Substrate (where Dr. Tapati Dutta is guiding the Ph.D. student Supti Sadhukhan) and MRP PSW-055/08-09 undertaken by Dr. Subhankar Ghosh.
    
5. 2009 also saw a P.G student visit to Cosmic Ray Facility, TIFR, Ooty and a visit to the radiotelescope, IIA Gauribidanur.
    
6. P.G. Students attending Winter School in Astroparticle Physics in Darjeeling and Ooty organized by Bose Institute.
    
7. The faculties of the department have designed course materials and devised innovative methods in teaching theoretical and computational modules in Undergraduate and Postgraduate levels.

Syllabus

M.Sc. Syllabus & Paper Structures [PDF]