Darrel Smith

Title
Professor of Physics
Email
Department
Physics and Astronomy Department
College
College of Arts & Sciences

Areas of Expertise

Particle Physics, antiproton physics, neutrino oscillations, dark matter, exotic propulsion, nuclear thermal propulsion
Darrel Smith

(a)  Professional Preparation


            University of California, Irvine                       B.A. Physics               1972

            University of California, Irvine                       M.A. Physics              1975

            University of California, Irvine                       Ph.D  Physics             1979


(b)  Appointments


            2002-present  Chair, Department of Physics, Embry-Riddle University, AZ

            1996                Tenured Professor in Physics, Embry-Riddle University, AZ

            1990                Associate Professor of Physics, Embry-Riddle University, AZ

            1988                Associate Research Physicist,  University of California, Riverside

            1984                Assistant Research Physicist, University of California, Riverside

            1982                Visiting Scientist, CERN

            1979                Post-Doc at the University of California, Irvine


(c)  Publications


Publications closely related to the proposed project (publications with students pursuing undergraduate research projects)

1.      “Thermal Radiation Studies for an Electron-Positron Annihilation Propulsion System,” Darrel W. Smith, James Wulff,* Chad Pearce,* Jeff Bingaman,* and Jonathan Webb**, (2005), AIAA 2005-4323, 41st AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference, 10-13 Jul 2005, Tucson, AZ.

         *  ERAU undergraduate students

         ** ERAU graduate


2.      “Large Aperture Electrostatic Dust Detector,” C.H. Skinner, R. Hensley*, A.L. Roquemore, (2008) Journal of Nuclear Materials, No. 376, 29-32.

     * Robert N. Hensley (ERAU undergraduate student)


3.      “Photomultiplier Tubes in the MiniBooNE Experiment,” S.J. Brice, L. Bugel, J.M. Conrad, B. Fleming, L. Gladstone, E. Hawker, P. Killewald, J. May**, S. McKenney*, P. Nienaber, B. Roe, V. Sandberg, D. Smith, M. Wysocki**, Nuclear Instruments and Methods A, No. 562, 97-109, (2006)

         *  Sean McKenney (ERAU undergraduate student) 

         ** Justin May and Matt Wysocki were undergraduates from other universities that I (D. Smith) supervised.


4.      “Monte Carlo Analysis for Positron Thermal Rocketry Using GEANT,”Robert Slaughter*, Austin Davis*, Holly Szumila*, and Anthony Tiradani*, 43rd AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference, 8-11 July 2007, Cincinnati, OH, AIAA 2007-5605.

         *  ERAU undergraduate students



5.      “Project Hyperion, Exotic Propulsion Research at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University,” Jonathan Webb**, Timothy Beyer*, Paul Cummings*, Robert Slaughter*, Holly Szumila*, and Darrel Smith, 43rd AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference, 8-11 July 2007, Cincinnati, OH, AIAA 2007-5603.

         *  ERAU undergraduate students

         ** ERAU graduate

6.      Experimental Determination of the Impulse Released by Electron-Positron Annihilations for Applications in Beamed Core Propulsion,” Holy Szumila*, Timothy Beyer*, Billy Nollet* and Darrel Smith, 43rd AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference, 8-11 July 2007, Cincinnati, OH, AIAA 2007-5604.

         *  ERAU undergraduate students


Other Significant Publications

1.      A.A. Aguilar-Arevalo, D. Smith et al., “A Search for Electron Neutrino Appearance at the  ~ 1 eV2 Scale (the MiniBooNE collaboration).  Physical Review Letters 98, 231801 (2007).

2.      A.A. Aguluilar-Arevalo, D. Smith et al., “Measurement of Muon Neutrino Quasi-Elastic Scattering on Carbon.”  (the MiniBooNE collaboration) arXiv:0706.0926v1 [hep-ex] 7 Jun 2007.

3.      S.J. Brice, D. Smith, et al., “Photomultiplier Tubes in the MiniBooNE Experiment.”  Nuclear Instruments & Methods A 562 (2006) 97-109. 

4.      L.B. Auerbach et al., “Measurement of electron-neutrino electron elastic scattering, Phys. Rev. D63:112001 (2001)

5.      D. Smith, "Evidence for Neutrino Oscillations in LSND." Paper presented at the Dark2000 Conference, Max Planck Institute, Heidelberg, Germany. July 9-15, 2000.  Conference Proceedings.

6.      A.A. Aguilar-Arevalo, D. Smith et al., “Measurement of the Neutrino Neutral-Current Elastic Differential Cross Section”, (the MiniBooNE collaboration).  Physical Review D. 82 092005.

7.      Dharmapalan, D. Smith et al., “A Proposal to Build a MiniBooNE Near Detector:BooNE.”  Submitted to the Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee, October 2011.


Over 90 publications altogether.


d.  Synergistic Activities


1.   I wrote a proposal to create a B.S. space physics degree program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.  It was approved by our Board of Trustees and we are in the 6th year of our 4-year rollout.  We currently have 68 students in our Space Physics program.  One of the four areas of concentration is particle physics and cosmology and I'm the "lead" professor for this option.

2.   I have written web pages to publicize the Space Physics program and neutrino physics activities  http://physicsx.pr.erau.edu

3.   I have undergraduate students measuring cosmic muon lifetimes to explore muon capture rates on hydrogen and carbon in our physics lab.

4.   I have undergraduate students working on a matter-antimatter thrust stand in our R2 laboratory on campus.

5.   I have undergraduate students working on a nitrogen ion thruster using a thrust stand to study parameters to optimize the performance of the thruster.


e.      Collaborators & Other Affiliations


         A. Bazarko8, S. Brice4, J. Cao11, J. Conrad2, D.C. Cox5, B.T. Fleming4, R. Ford4, F.G. Garcia4, G.T. Garvey6, C. Green6, T. Hart10, E. Hawker9, R. Imlay7, R.A. Johnson9, P. Kasper4, I. Kourbanis4, S. Koutsoliotas1, J. Link2, Y. Liu11, W.C. Louis6, W. Marsh4, G. McGregor6, W. Metcalf7, H. Meyer5, P.D. Meyers8, F. Mills4, G.B. Mills6, J. Monroe2, P. Nienaber4, R.B. Patterson8, E. Prebys4, J.L. Raaf9, B.P. Roe11, V. Sandberg6, R. Schirato6, M.H. Shaevitz2, F.C. Shoemaker8, M. Sorel2, P. Spentzouris4, R. Stefanski4, M. Sun7, H.A. Tanaka8, R. Tayloe5, G.J. Van Dalen3, R. Van de Water6, M. Wascko7, D.H. White6, T. Williams4, G.P. Zeller2, E.D. Zimmerman10.

         Bucknell University(1), Columbia University(2), Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University(3), Fermilab(4), Indiana University(5), Los Alamos National Laboratory(6), Louisiana State University(7), Princeton University(8), University of Cincinnati(9), University of Colorado(10), University of Michigan(11).


Graduate and Postdoctoral Advisors


         Graduate:      Dr. Jonas Schultz  (UC Irvine)                       Ph.D thesis advisor

         Post-Doc.     Dr. Fred Reines  (UC Irvine, deceased)         Post-Graduate advisor

  • Ph.D. - Doctor of Philosophy in Physics, University of California-Irvine
  • M.A. - Master of Arts in Physics, University of California-Irvine
  • PS 315: Modern Physics Lab
  • PS 412: Particle Physics & Cosmology
  • PS 161: Physics I & II for Engineers
  • PS 208: Physics II
  • PS 490: Senior Research Thesis, Part I
  • PS 491: Sr Research Thesis, Part II

D. Smith, "Search for Neutrino
Oscillations with LSND," July 6-12, 1999, Beyond
the Desert, Schloss Ringberg, Tegernsee, Germany. Paper submitted to World Scientific (2000).

R. Frey, C. Hodges, A. Kernan, W. Kozanecki, K. Morgan, J. Ransdell, D. Smith, and 131 authors from UA1 Collaboration - Aachen, Annecy, Birmingham, CERN, Helsinki, Queen-Mary College-London, Paris, Riverside, Rome, Rutherford, Saclay, and Vienna, "Experimental Observation of Lepton Pairs of Invariant Mass around 95 GeV/c2 at the CERN SPS Collider", Phys. Lett. 126B, 398-410 (1983).

M.A. Mandelkern, L.R. Price, J. Schultz, and D.W. Smith, "Antiproton-Deuteron Annihilation into ? + Anything Below 1 GeV/c", Phys. Rev. D, 27, No. 1 (1983).

D.W. Smith and 25 authors from U.C. Irvine, Univ. of Michigan, and Brookhaven Natl. Labs, IMB Proton Decay Collaboration, "Search for Proton Decay into ?oe+", Phys. Rev. Lett. Vol. 51, No. 1 (1983).

D.W. Smith and 25 authors from U.C. Irvine, Univ. of Michigan, and Brookhaven Natl. Labs., IMB Proton Decay Collaboration, "Experimental Limits on Magnetic Monopole Catalysis of Nucleon Decay", Phys. Rev. Lett., 51, No. 4, (1983).

R. Frey, P. Gutierrez, C. Hodges, A. Kernan, W. Kozanecki, J. Ransdell, D. Smith, and 128 authors from UA1 Collaboration - Aachen, Annecy, Birmingham, CERN, Helsinki, Queen Mary College-London, Paris, Riverside, Rome, Rutherford, Saclay, and Vienna, "Experimental Observation of Isolated Large Transverse Energy Electrons with Associated Missing Energy at ??s = 540 GeV", Phys. Lett. 122B, 103-116 (1983).

R.R. Burns, P.E. Condon, J. Donahue, M.A. Mandelkern, L.R. Price, J. Schultz, and D. Smith, "Topological Cross Sections and Pion Multiplicity Analysis for Antiproton-Proton Annihilations Near 1 GeV/c", Phys. Rev. D, 12, No. 3 (1976).

J. Schultz, L.R. Price, R.R. Burns, P.E. Condon, J. Donahue, J. Dorfan, M. Mandelkern, and D. Smith, "Proton-Antiproton Annihilations into Four Kaons Just Above Threshold", Phys. Rev. D, 12, No. 3 (1976).

PhD Graduate Research
University of California, Irvine 1975-1980
Antiproton-proton annihilations and antiproton-deuteron annihilations.
Thesis advisor: Dr. Jonas Schultz

Post-Doctoral Research Assistant
University of California, Irvine. 1980-1982
Irvine-Michigan-Brookhaven (IMB) Proton Decay
Experiment Principle Investigators--Fred Reines
and Jonas Schultz

1. Developed the monte carlo simulation
program for the IMB detector. This was used to
optimize the design of the water Cerenkov
    detector located 2,000 feet underground.

2. Worked at the IMB detector (1800
feet underground) to construct the 8000m3
detector. The experiment ultimately set a limit
     of 1033 years for the proton lifetime. (This
experiment also discovered the 1987A Supernova in
the Large Magellenic Cloud)

3.  Visiting Scientist
CERN (Geneva, Switzerland). 1982-1984
     Proton-Antiproton elastic scattering at 630
GeV. Discovery of the W and Z particles (82 GeV
and 90 GeV respectively)

Program manager for building the Microvertex
Detector to search for top and bottom quarks.

Assistant Research Physicist
University of California Riverside 1984-1986

1. UA1 Experiment -- silicon strip detectors

2. Traveled to Switzerland to continue work
on the UA1 experiment.

3. Gave 15 invited talks at conferences and
universities around the world.

Associate Research Physicist
University of California Riverside 1987-1990

Proton-Antiproton physics :

1. UA1 Experiment and D-Zero Experiment
(search for top quark)

2. LSND Experiment at Los Alamos (search for
massive neutrinos)

3. Oversaw graduate students working towards
their PhD theses

4. Continued to give invited talks at
international conferences

5. Taught physics classes

Professor of Physics
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University -- Prescott,
AZ, 1990-Present

1. Math/Physical Sciences Department, Dept.
Chair (1994-1999)

2. Faculty representative to the ERAU Board
of Trustees for 4-1/2 years

3. NSF grant totaling $260K (employed ERAU
students to work at Los Alamos National Lab--LANL)

4. AWS grant totaling $290K (construction of
the Airway Sciences Lab)

5. Received Tenure in 1995

6. Promoted to Full Professor in 1995

7. Served on the Faculty Senate for 4-1/2 years

8. Continue to give invited talks at international conferences

9. Teach physics courses

10. Served on numerous university committees,
including accreditation, univesity computing,
chancellor selection, building committees, and so
on.

11. Continue working on the data analysis of
the MiniBooNE Experiment (search and
evidence for massive neutrinos)

12. Received a new three-year NSF grant
(1999) totaling $165K to continue the "search for
massive neutrinos" at Fermilab. (See the BooNE Experiment).


Awards:

Presidential Award for Innovation (1992) for establishing the first Internet site at
ERAU. This was also the first internet site in Yavapai County.

Faculty Distinguished Service Award (1993-1994).

Faculty Distinguished Service Award (1991-1992).

Presidential Award for Innovation (1994) for establishing the first WWW site at ERAU.

NSF Creativity Award (1995)