Brian Hammack (Virginia Tech)

I worked with Dr. Anderson and Dr. Gray on examining the fibration structure of quotiented Calabi-Yau three-folds. We specifically examined Calabi-Yau three-folds defined by complete intersections in products of projective spaces (CICYs) that were quotiented by a freely acting, discrete automorphism. A small percentage of CICY three-folds have such discrete symmetries, but scanning over them and determining which symmetries do not mix the fiber and base together (and thus preserve the fibration structure) is of interest in finding good backgrounds for F-theory which can lead to novel effective physics and new matter spectra.

I have really enjoyed my time conducting research in string theory. It has been incredibly rewarding because it has significantly expanded my skills in mathematics, abstract thinking, programming, giving presentations, and writing professionally. It helped me to further realize the humbling fact that, despite the leaps and bounds we have made in recent decades, there is a lot that physicists still do not know about the universe, which makes the topic all the more exciting to me.

Ian Davenport (Formerly JMU, now at Harvard)

I worked with Dr. Melnikov on the problem of classifying a subset of supersymmetric field theories called Landau-Ginzburg theories. Landau-Ginzburg theories are useful tools in the study of phase transitions, quantum field theory, and string theory. Furthermore, LG theories have been compelling to study because of the mathematical structures which are needed to define them. As a result of our work Dr. Melnikov and I produced a classification that we hope will useful to the string theory community and which highlights some overlooked cases in the mathematical classification of hypersurface singularities.

Having the opportunity to work on a research project as an undergraduate was vital in my decision to go to graduate school. I was able to see how exciting and dynamic the field of physics is, and I was exposed to a number of fascinating ideas that I would not have heard in the classroom. Also, being able to attend conferences and network with physicists outside of my university was invaluable when the time came to apply for graduate school.