Laboratory of Surface Physics and Astrophysics

Welcome to the LABORATORY OF ASTROPHYSICS AND SURFACE SCIENCE, located in the Physics Building of the Physics Department of Syracuse University .

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What's New? (updated July 2005): Research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, "The Lab in the News", publications, announcements, and Web presentations

A quick link to recent publications through NASA's Astrophysics Data Service

Professor Vidali's Home Page

Our main research project is the study of physical and chemical processes occurring in the interstellar medium. We use tools that we have employed in the research of properties of solid surfaces (atom-surface interaction, surface morphology, phase transitions in ultra-thin films, thin film growth). These tools include: atomic/molecular beam techniques, low temperature techniques, ultra-high vacuum techniques, laser spectroscopy (REMPI), LEED/Auger/ and MBE/vapor deposition of solid films.

There are three main directions in our research:

The study of processes leading to the recombination of hydrogen on interstellar dust grain analogues in conditions relevant to astrophysical environments

The study of oxidation/hydrogenation reactions in/on ices

The study of formation of precursors to biogenic material on interstellar ice analogues

For an introduction to our research, here are the slides from recent presentations:

"A Summary of Experimental Results on H₂ Formation on Dust Grain Analogues", an invited presentation at the International Astronomical Union Symposium #231 on Astrochemsitry (pdf format).
A poster (pdf format) presented at the American Astronomical Society Meeting in Minneapolis (May 29 -June 30 2005)
Formation of Molecules on Interstellar Dust: Experiments and Modeling A seminar I gave at the University of Rochester, Department of Physics and Astronomy in March 2005 (pdf format).
Formation of Molecules from Interstellar Dust: a View from the Laboratory A Colloquium gave at Cornell University, Department of Astronomy and Space Sciences in October 2003 (a pdf file).
Interstellar Medium Physics and Chemistry A Colloquium I gave at Syracuse University, Physics Department in November 2002.(pdf file).
A tutorial introduction to astrochemistry. It is a talk I gave at the New York State Section of the American Physical Society Fall 2002 Symposium. More information about the Symposium and slides from other talks can be found here.
Lay-language paper about hydrogen recombination on interstellar dust grains. It was prepared for a press conference held on March 24, 1999 at the American Physical Society Centennial Meeting in Atlanta.

In this invited presentation (in PowerPoint format) at the American Chemical Society National Meeting in Boston, Mass. (August 2002) I describe our research on hydrogen recombination reactions on several interstellar dust grain analogues and on the oxidation of carbon monoxide ice by oxygen atoms.

Questions? Contact Prof. Vidali

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