Physics Thesis Guidelines

Physics 190Chad Orzel

Physics Thesis Guidelines

Students in Physics 190-2 are expected, at the conclusion of their research project, to write a long paper or honors thesis describing their research. This paper will count as the “Senior Writing Experience” (WS credit) required for graduation.

The thesis should be a substantial writing effort, documenting the senior research project in detail, and should be generally comparable to a published research paper. You should expect to do several drafts of each section of the thesis, discussing each section of the thesis with your advisor, and making revisions as needed.

When all sections are completed, a complete draft of the thesis will be turned in to your research advisor and also to a second faculty reader chosen by the Physics Department. Any comments or suggestions made by the readers should be incorporated into the final draft submitted for grading and possible consideration for departmental honors. The final thesis must be acceptable to both your advisor and the second reader. Deadlines for handing in drafts, and for turning in the final thesis should be worked out with your advisor.

Completed theses will be compiled and made available to the faculty and other students in the department as a guide to the research activites taking place in the department and an aid to future research students.

Style and Format

The exact format of the thesis will depend on the specific sub-field in which the senior research project is conducted and should conform to the standards for the primary journals in that field. For example, a thesis project in atomic physics should follow the basic conventions for formatting, citations, and section divisions used for Physical Review A, while a project in astronomy would use the formatting appropriate for the Astrophysical Journal. Information about these conventions (and LaTeX template files) can be found on-line via the American Physical Society or American Astronomical Society. You should also check with your advisor on the appropriate format to follow.

In general terms, a thesis should contain the following sections (though not necessarily under these names):

Abstract: A short paragraph stating the basic problem addressed in the research project and summarizing the important results. The abstract should enable the reader to tell at a glance what the project is about, and what was accomplished.

Introduction: The introductory section of the thesis should give enough background information about the research project to enable another physics student to understand what was done, and why. The introduction should place the current project in context, explaining what other work has been done in the field, what questions you hope to answer, and what role the current project will play in answering those questions.

Main Body: The bulk of the thesis should explain what you did in enough detail to allow another student to replicate the work. An experimental thesis should give the manufacturer’s name and model number for important equipment that is commercially available, and provide enough detail about home-made equipment to allow the reader to build a duplicate apparatus. Theoretical theses should provide a thorough explanation of any assumptions or approximations that were made, as well as computer code and input data used for simulations. Theses in observational astronomy should include all relevant details for any images used: object name, date of observation, equipment used (telescope, camera, spectrograph, filters, exposure time), etc..

The results of the project should be presented in a clear and easily understood format, illustrated with graphs and tables as needed. Graphs and tables should be accompanied by text explaining the important features, and what the data mean.

Conclusions: The conclusion should summarize all of the important results of the project and discuss the future direction and prospects of the project. If there are obvious extensions of the project that will be carried out by future research students, sketch out the future experiments. If your results have important implications for future work, explain what they are.

References: The thesis should include an extensive list of references, including all the important articles needed to understand the project. References should be carefully documented, and cited at the appropriate points in the body of the thesis (talk to your advisor about the appropriate citing conventions).

The above items are listed as a general guide to the important parts of a thesis. The details of exactly how the thesis is written and divided into sections may vary from one project to another, and should be discussed with your advisor.