Title       : US-Cameroon Cooperative Research: Pade Approximants and the Physics of Waves
Type        : Award
NSF Org     : OISE
Latest
Amendment
Date        : August 12,  2002    
File        : a0218015

Award Number: 0218015
Award Instr.: Standard Grant                               
Prgm Manager: Elizabeth Lyons                         
	      OISE Office of Internatl Science &Engineering
	      SBE  DIRECT FOR SOCIAL, BEHAV & ECONOMIC SCIE
Start Date  : December 1,  2002   
Expires     : October 31,  2002    (Estimated)
Expected
Total Amt.  : $27000              (Estimated)
Investigator: Prabasaj Paul   (Principal Investigator current)
Sponsor     : Colgate University
	      13 Oak Drive
	      Hamilton, NY  133461398    315/228-7451

NSF Program : 5976      AFRICA, NEAR EAST, & SO ASIA
Fld Applictn: 0000099   Other Applications NEC                  
Program Ref : 0000,5928,OTHR,
Abstract    :

     0218015 Paul


     This award supports a two-year collaborative research
     project between Professor Prabasaj Paul, with the Department of Physics and
     Astronomy at Colgate University, and Professor Daniel Nkemzi, with the
     Department of Physics at the University of Buea, in Cameroon.  They will
     investigate the application of Pade approximants to the problems of scattering
     of electromagnetic waves, and of photonic materials with maximal bandgaps.


  
       The problem of electromagnetic wave scattering from rough surfaces is
     important to many branches of physics and mathematics.  Using some powerful
     mathematical techniques, the multipoint Pade approximants, the two researchers
     will investigate the scattering of waves off uneven surfaces with very large
     roughness parameters, as well as the transmission of light through regions with
     a spatially varying refractive index.  The Pade approximants of the scattering
     matrix will preserve two important properties, reciprocity and unitarity.  The
     investigators expect their model to yield better results than existing
     mathematical models that are based on a classical perturbation series.  The
     study combines Professor Paul's expertise in condensed matter and quantum
     physics with Professor Nkemzi's knowledge of applied mathematics, principally
     in wave propagation.

     The results are expected to add new knowledge about
     wave scattering from rough surfaces, and will have application to many areas of
     mathematics and physics.