Academic Year Activities Report 2010-2011
 

Report on SCTP Research Activities Academic Year  2010-2011

International Visitors:

During the academic year 2010-2011 we had eight international visitors from different parts of the world. As usual we benefited from international visitors during their stay in the Kingdom even if they were hosted by other Universities such as KSU in our case. The following is the list of visitors we either hosted or interacted with during their stay in the Kingdom.

We tried to focus our research activities on three main research themes for our research group:

1.    Relativistic 2D systems as applied to graphene.

2.     Nonlinear Physics as applied to Bose Einstein condensate and optical systems.

3.     Tridiagonal Physics, which represents the original trend of many senior members of our group.

The above list of visitors falls under the above themes. We also had two local visitors from local Universities, Dr. Jellal Ahmed (graphene) from King Faisal University in Al Ahsa and Dr. Eleuch Hichem (Tridiagonal and relativistic) from King Saud University. These local visitors visited KFUPM regularly during the academic year but unfortunately we faced guest house problems from the local authorities which made such visits more difficult by the end of this academic year.

Prof. Avinash Khare
Affiliation: Institute of Physics, Bhubaneshwar, India
Rank: Distinguished Professor
Area of expertise: Quantum Physics
Special Achievements:
• Got more than 250 ISI journal publications in quantum phenomena.
• Organized few international conferences.
• Go many international awards including being a member of the Indian National Science Academy.
• Wrote three important books.
• Referee and editor for many prestigious physics journals
Period of Visit: Nov. 01 up to Nov. 25, 2010
During his visit he gave a series of specialized lectures on Supersymmetry in Quantum Mechanics which was attended by five faculty and three graduate students from the physics department. He also gave a formal seminar at the physics department on:
Sunday, 07 November 2010, 11:00 am
Location: Room 6-125 (Auditorium)
Title: “Linear Superposition for Nonlinear Equations and New Identities for Jacobi Elliptic Functions”
Abstract: I show that a kind of linear superposition exists for nonlinear equations in case they have solutions in terms of Jacobi elliptic functions. This happens because the Jacobi elliptic functions satisfy nontrivial identities which were not known before. I shall provide an elementary introduction to the Jacobi elliptic functions and then show the linear superposition through an illustrative examples. I shall finally show that some of these identities provide exact solutions of discrete nonlinear equations, some of which are useful in quantum optics and other areas
He also initiated collaboration with the tridiagonal and nonlinear research sub-groups.
 

Prof. Nouredine Zettili
Affiliation: Jacksonville State University, USA.
Rank: Professor
Area of expertise: Nuclear Quantum Theory
Special Achievements:
• Got more than 40 ISI journal publications in quantum phenomena.
• Go an international teaching award
• Wrote an important quantum mechanics book used by many US universities and KFUPM.
• Referee and editor for many prestigious physics journals
Period of Visit: Nov. 01 up to Nov. 25, 2010
During his visit he gave an interesting seminar on guided-inquiry in teaching which was very well attended by faculty and students alike.
Sunday, 29 October 2010, 11:00 am
Location: Room 6-125 (Auditorium)
Title: “Guided-Inquiry in Teaching Physics”
Abstract: In this presentation, we want to discuss and contrast few pedagogical paradigms that are most effective in science education. We focus in particular on the use of guided inquiry in teaching science subjects. Additionally, we deal with some applications of guided inquiry in lectures and labs. To illustrate how guided inquiry works in real life, we invoke a simple, yet edifying and practical, example from physics. We argue that when properly wielded, guided inquiry becomes a powerful tool educators can use to infuse students with skills which will enable them become experienced learners and independent inquirers. The aim here is to empower the students not only to construct and acquire knowledge on their own but also to master a number of essential skills, most notably creativity, critical thinking, problems solving, communication, team-work, and responsibility.

Prof. Hamid Kara
Affiliation: University of Southwal, South Africa
(Visiting Math at KFUPM)
Rank: Professor
Area of expertise: Mathematics
Special Achievements:
• Got more than 60 ISI journal publications in quantum phenomena.
• Wrote an important book on symmetries and conservation laws
• Referee and editor for many prestigious physics journals
Period of Visit: Dec. 11 – 25, 2010
During his visit he gave an interesting seminar on Symmetry Characterization of ODE and PDE, Linear and Nonlinear systems.
There is a strong group working on symmetries and solutions of nonlinear differential equations in this South African University. It will be very nice if some young members of our research group exploit this opportunity and benefit from the expertise of these frequent eminent visitors to our mathematics departments.
 

Prof. Sabre Kais
Affiliation: Purdue University, USA.
Rank: Professor
Area of expertise: Chemical Physics
Special Achievements:
• Got more than 120 publications in reputed journals.
• Seven invited review articles.
• 100 invited lectures.
• Served as referee to many prestigious physics journals and is editor of Molecular Physics.
Period of Visit: May 25 -26, 2010
During his stay he gave one informal seminar for the tridiagonal research group on “finite size scaling in quantum mechanics” and a formal seminar at the physics department on:
Sunday, 26 December 2010, 11:00 am
Location: Room 6-125 (Auditorium)
Title: “Quantum Information and Quantum Computation”
Abstract:
I will discuss our recent efforts in developing quantum algorithms for examining complex many body problems that can be solved efficiently using an ideal quantum computer of arbitrary size. The calculation time required to determine the energy of atoms and molecules scales exponentially with system size on a classical computer. Consequently, the development of new fast polynomial quantum algorithms for simulating many-body systems will find wide applications in chemistry and physics.

He also initiated collaboration with the tridiagonal research sub-group.
 

Dr. Usama El Khawaja
Affiliation: Emirates University, Al Ain, UAE.
Rank: Associate Professor
Area of expertise: Condensed Matter Physics
Special Achievements:
• Got more than 40 publications in reputed journals.
• Got best research award.
• Served as referee to many prestigious physics journals .
Period of Visit: January 20 – 26, 2011 and March 27 – April 02, 2011
During his stay continued his cooperation with the nonlinear physics research group which culminated in two papers published in physical review A and E. Dr. Usama is a very active member of our research group and works in very close cooperation with its members.
 

Dr. Mourad Ismail
Affiliation: University of Florida, Orlando, USA and
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Rank: Professor
Area of expertise: Mathematics
Special Achievements:
• Presently he is in the editorial board of more than ten distinguished applied mathematics journals.
• Theodore and Venette Askounes-Ashford Distinguished Scholar Award University of South Florida, 1992-1993.
• Leverhulme research fellow, Imperial College, London, 1996.
• University visiting research professorship, City University of Hong Kong, 2000-2001.
• USF Presidential Excellence Award (= 10 % raise), 2003.
• Listed among the highly cited: www.isihighlycited.com
• Elected fellow of the Institute of Physics, December 2004.
• Elected fellow of the European Society of Computational Mathematics in Science and Engineering.

Period of Visit: May 02-03, 2011.
The coordinator of our research group visited Prof. Mourad in Riyadh on May 02-03, 2011 since it was not possible to have him visit us this year due to tight schedule. We discussed the progress made in the work on “Mathematical revisit of the Dirac-Coulomb problem” which is still in progress. Prof. Mourad along with his collaborators still have some interest in problems related to tridiagonal physics. Continuing our interaction with Prof. Mourad and his team will give a boost to the tridiagonal research group and might culminate in interesting cooperation.
 

Prof. Tahir Mohammad
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Sargodha, Sargodha 40100, Pakistan
Rank: Assistant Professor
Area of expertise: Condensed Matter Physics
Special Achievements:
• Graduated from Imperial college, 2009.
• Got more than 14 publications in highly reputed journals.
Period of Visit: Feb. 20 – March 22, 2011
During his stay he interacted with relativistic group on transport in graphene and was interviewed by our chairman regarding his potential recruitment for a faculty position. He also gave a formal seminar at the physics department.
Sunday, 20 March 2011, 11:00 am
Location: Room 6-125 (Auditorium)
Title: “Graphene and its applications”
Abstract:
Graphene, a two-dimensional material, is regarded as one of the most promising candidates for future electronics on nano scale due to its atomic thickness, excellent properties and widespread applications. As the first step to investigate its properties and finally to realize the practical applications, dynamics of Dirac electrons in graphene must be in a controllable manner. Thus, controllable dynamics is of great significance for device fabrication, and receiving more and more attention.
This talk highlights recent advances in controllable dynamics of Dirac electron in graphene, clarifies the problems, and prospects the future development in this field. The applications of the controllable dynamics will also be discussed.
 

Dr. Bakhram Umarov
Affiliation: Department of Computational and theoretical sciences,
Islamic University of Malaysia, Kuala lumpur, Malyasia
Rank: Associate Professor
Area of expertise: Condensed Matter Physics
Special Achievements:
• Got more than 100 publications in reputed journals.
• Served as referee to many prestigious physics journals .
Period of Visit: May 02-30, 2011
This visit was partly sponsored by the an internal research project and the SCTP. During his stay he continued his cooperation with the nonlinear physics research group. In particular he finished on coupled nonlinear Schrodinger equation with Dr. Bouketir and initiated a research project with Dr. Al Marzoug. He also gave a couple of lectures on nonlinear physics to the group members.
 

PhD Student Visitors
We were very lucky in having two Moroccan PhD student in graphene, they visited us from Dec. 06, 2010 up to April 28, 2011.
Mr. Choubabi El Bouazzaoui
Mr. EL Mouhafid Abderrahim
Theoretical Physics Group, Physics Department,
Faculty of Science, Chouaïb Doukkali University,
ben Mâachou Street, PO Box 4056, 24000 El Jadida,
Morocco
These visitors were provided visas by KACST since KFUPM does not have the possibility to request such visas for non-PhD holders. This procedure caused a bit of discomfort for the KFUPM administration which was clarified later on.
During their stay they have made tremendous progress in their research which resulted in more than five manuscripts and a PhD dissertation for Mr. Choubabi
Thesis title of PhD thesis : « Effet Tunnel des Fermions de Dirac dans le graphène »
Defense date : 20/07/2011
Place: Physics Department of Chouaïb Doukkali University.
This visit was very fruitful to our graphene research group and gave a strong push to its research activities. We should really exploit this avenue and try to attract few hard working PhD research students from all around the Arab world. Potential candidates might be sought in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan. Due to the fact that such visitors cannot be processed along regular channels at KFUPM we still look forward to assistance from KACST in providing the necessary visas for these PhD students. KFUPM authorities have expressed their willingness in easing our task regarding housing and food services for such visitors.
 

Local Visitors
We also had two visitors from local Universities in the Kingdom.
Dr. Ahmed Jellal
King Faisal University, College of Science
Physics Department, Alahsa, Saudi Arabia
Dr. Hichem Eleuch,
Physics Department, King Saud University, Riyadh
They performed frequent visits to KFUPM to pursue research with our theoretical physics research group. In particular Dr. Jellal, being the thesis advisor of the two Moroccan Phd students visitors, had about ten visits during this academic year to assist in the progress made by the two PhD students.
The guest house problems we faced with the University authorities regarding the above visitors obliged us to host them outside KFUPM. We hope that a suitable solution to this problem can be found so as to ease the task of our visitors who prefer to be hosted inside our campus for the safety of their families and the handy and easy access to internet and university offices.
 

Meeting of Graphene Group
Morocco Visit July 18-28, 2011
The main objective of the visit is the PhD defense of Mr. Choubabi from University of Chouaib Doukali, El-Jedida. During our stay we were hosted in a residence in El-Jedida. The PhD defense of Mr. Choubabi was successfully made at 11:00 am on Wednesday July 20, 2011, in the presence of Jury constituted of six members:
Dr. Boughaleb, Dean of College of Sciences, President.
Dr. Alhaidari, KFUPM, external examiner.
Dr. Bahlouli, KFUPM, external examiner.
Dr. Mounkade, Director Theory Research Center, University of Chouaib Doukali, local examiner.
Dr. El Bouziani, University of Chouaib Doukali, thesis advisor.
Dr. Jellal, University of Chouaib Doukali, thesis Co-advisor.
The thesis defense went on very smoothly and was very well organized. The University authorities were very warm and hospitable. We arranged for regular meetings with the graphene group: Choubabi, Rachi Houcha, El-Mouhafid, Yusef Benabderahman, + guest students in the hope to attract some of them to join the group.
Visit of Dr. Al-Haidari: 19- 23 July
A meeting with the President of Chouaib Doukali University was arranged on July 22 in the office of the President and was attended by Drs. Alhaidari, Jellal and Bahlouli. The president expressed his deep appreciation for the efforts deployed in bringing this scientific cooperation to its present satisfactory level and promised to provide the necessary support to strengthen this scientific cooperation between the two Universities.
 

Meeting of Nonlinear Physics Group

Uzbekistan Visit July 04-15, 2011

 Physical -Technical Institute of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences and Saudi Center for Theoretical Physics

Program of the Joint Seminar

“Nonlinear waves in quantum gases and optical systems”

4 – 14 July 2011, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

4 July, Monday. Arrival. Meeting at the airport. Accommodation in the “Uzbekistan” hotel.

 9 – 10 July, Saturday – Sunday. Tour to Bukhara and Samarkand.

14, 15 July, Thursday, Friday. Departure.
In addition to the above rich scientific program we had many regular discussions during our workshop and in the conference room in our residence at Uzbekistan hotel where we discussed specific research projects. We also suggested to strengthen our research ties and consider a one year visit of Dr. Edward Tsoy to our research group under the post doc umbrella. The pending visit of the leading scientist and center director Prof. Fatkhulla Abdullaev is scheduled during the Fall 2011, all our group members look forward for this landmark visit.
 

Research Publications of the TPRG Members
Papers Published in ISI Journals:
1. H. Bahlouli and A. D. Alhaidari, “Extending the class of solvable
potentials.III.The single hyperbolic wave”, Physica Scripta. 81 , 025008
(2010).

2. H. Bahlouli, M. S. Abdelmonem and I. Nasser, “Analytical treatment of
the Yukawa potential”, Physics Scripta 82, 065005 (2010).

3. S. M. Al-Marzoug, S. M. Al-Amoudi, U. Al Khawaja, H.Bahlouli and
B. B. Baizakov, “Scattering of a matter-wave single soliton and two-
soliton molecule by an attractive potential”, Phys. Rev. A 83, 026603
(2010).

4. H. Bahlouli, A. Al-Zahrani, E. El Aaoud and S. Al-Marzoug, Physica B 405, 4492-4496 (2010).

5. H. Bahlouli and A. D. Alhaidari, “Extending the class of solvable potentials: III. The hyperbolic single wave”, Phys. Scr. 81.02 (2010) 025008/7p.

6. A. D. Alhaidari, “Extending the class of solvable potentials: II. Screened Coulomb potential with a barrier”, Phys. Scr. 81.02 (2010) 025013/11p.

7. A. D. Alhaidari, “Dirac equation with coupling to 1/r singular vector potentials for all angular momenta”, Found. Phys. 40.8 (2010) 1088-1095.

8. A. D. Alhaidari, “Relativistic Coulomb problem for Z larger than 137”, Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 25.18-19 (2010) 3703-3714.

9. A. D. Alhaidari, “A class of singular logarithmic potentials in a box with different skin thicknesses and wall interactions”, Phys. Scr. 82.06 (2010) 065008/5p.

10. Shishan Dong, Shi-Hai Dong, H. Bahlouli and V. B. Bezerra,
“Algebraic approach to the Klein-Gordon equation with hyperbolic Scarf
Potential”, Int. J. Mod. Phys. E 20, 55 (2011).

11. U. Al Khawaja, S. M. Al-Marzoug, and H. Bahlouli,’ Spontaneous formation and resonant scattering of soliton molecules”, J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 44, 115304 (2011).

12. I. Nasser, M. S. Abdelmonem and Afaf Abdel-Hady “ J-matrix approach for the exponential-cosine-screened Coulomb potential” Phys. Scr. 84, 393508, (2011).

13. I. Nasser and M. S. Abdelmonem “Hellmann potential in the J-matrix
approach: I. Eigenvalues “ Phys. Scr. 83, 055004, (2011).

14. A. D. Alhaidari, “Resolution of the Klein paradox”, Phys. Scr. 83.02 (2011) 025001/4p.

15. A. D. Alhaidari, “Generalized Spin and Pseudo-Spin Symmetry: Relativistic Extension of Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics”, Phys. Lett. B 699.4 (2011) 309-313.

16. A. D. Alhaidari, “Quantum mechanics without an equation of motion”, J. Math. Phys. 52.06 (2011) 062107/13p.

17. H. Bahlouli, E.B. Choubabiand A. Jellal,” Solution of One-dimensional Dirac Equation via Poincare Map”, Europhys Lett. 95 (2011) 17009, arXiv:1105.4741.

18. H. Bahlouli,E.B. Choubabi, A. Mouhafid and A. Jellal, “Transmission through Biased Graphene Strip”, Solid State Communications. 151 (2011) 1309, arXiv:1105.5279.

19. B. B. BAIZAKOV, A. BOUKETIR, A. MESSIKH, A. BENSEGHIR and B. A. UMAROV, “VARIATIONAL ANALYSIS OF FLAT-TOP SOLITONS
IN BOSE–EINSTEIN CONDENSATES” International Journal of Modern Physics B Vol. 25, No. 18 (2011) 2427–2440.

20. H. Eleuch, A. D. Alhaidari and H. Bahlouli, “Analytical Solutions to the Dirac equation in 1+1 Space-Time Dimension”, accepted (2011).




Papers Submitted to ISI Journals:
21. A.D. Alhaidari, A. Jellal, E.B. Choubabi and H. Bahlouli, “Mass Generation via Space Compactification in Graphene”, arXiv:1010.3437, submitted (2011).

22. A. Jellal, E.B. Choubabi, H. Bahlouli and A. Aljaafari, “Transport Properties through Double Barrier Structure in Graphene”,arXiv:1105.2185, submitted to JSTAT (2011).

23. M.E.H. Ismail, A. D. Alhaidari and H. Bahlouli, “ Mathematical Revisit of
The Dirac Coulomb Problem”, preprint (2011).

24. A.D. Alhaidari, H. Bahlouli and A. Jellal,”Relativistic Double Barrier
Problem with Three Sub-Barrier Transmission Resonance Regions”,
Physics Letters A, to be published (2011).

25. H. Eleuch and H. Bahlouli, “A Fast Converging Method for Generating Solutions to the Ricatti Equation”, submitted (2011).


Conference Papers:

26. S. Al-Marzoug, H. Bahlouli and S. Al-Amoudi, “Noise Effect on Wave Propgation in Nonlinear Media”, Fourth Saudi Science, March 21-24, Taibah University Medina (2010).

27. M. S. Abdelmonem, H. Bahlouli and I. Nasser, “Studies on the Local Density of States”, Fourth Saudi Science, March 21-24, Taibah University Medina (2010).

28. A. D. Alhaidari and E. El Aaoud, “Solution of the Dirac equation in a one-dimensional box” in Proceedings of the Fifth Saudi Physical Society Conference (SPS5), edited by A. Al-Hajry et al., AIP Conf. Proc. 1370 (AIP, Melville, New York, 2011) pp. xxx-xxx..

29. A. D. Alhaidari, “Energy spectrum formula for the relativistic Morse problem” in Proceedings of the Fifth Saudi Physical Society Conference (SPS5), edited by A. Al-Hajry et al., AIP Conf. Proc. 1370 (AIP, Melville, New York, 2011) pp. xxx-xxx..

30. A. D. Alhaidari, “Resolution of the Klein Paradox within Relativistic Quantum Mechanics” in Proceedings of the Fifth Saudi Physical Society Conference (SPS5), edited by A. Al-Hajry et al., AIP Conf. Proc. 1370 (AIP, Melville, New York, 2011) pp. xxx-xxx.

31. H. Eleuch and H. Bahlouli, “Analytical Solution to the Dirac equation in 3+1 Space-Time
Dimensions”, Second conference on mathematics and information science in Sohag (Egypt) 10-13 September (2011).

32. A. Jellal, “ Dirac Fermions in Electromagnetic Field and Jaynes-Cummings Models”, KACST 2nd Meeting on Quantum Optics and Informatics, KACST, Riyadh, May 22-23, (2011).


Remarks:
Some of our papers have been selected by physical review board to be part of homepage announcements and one of our articles "Quantum mechanics without an equation of motion" was one of the top 20 most downloaded articles of Journal of Mathematical Physics in July 2011.
http://jmp.aip.org/features/most_downloaded .