Internships

Chris Ferri ’18

My summer internship involved research that supported the Princeton Field Reverse Configuration (PFRC) experiment. Specifically, I was running single particle simulations using code developed by Alan Glasser. Using the particle simulation data, we experimented with different techniques to find patterns in the chaotic data. The first technique, which was the key to all other analysis, was step detection. This algorithm found points of stability in a key variable of the particle, called the adiabatic invariant. Next, we performed statistical analysis to find in which level the adiabatic invariant would spend the most time. We then analyzed the percent jumps and delta jumps to find how large the jumps are on average. Finally, we applied symbolic logic to look for patterns in how jumps occur. Overall, while we did not find a physical explanation for the behavior, we found many interesting patterns in the data.