Physics & Astronomy

College of Engineering and Physical Sciences

David Thayer

Dr. Thayer received a Ph.D. in plasma physics theory from MIT in 1983.  Dr. Thayer has expertise in the theoretical studies of plasmas, fusion energy, fluids, turbulence, nonlinear dynamics, and quantum mechanical foundations.  For more than 20 years, as a faculty member of the Dept. of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Wyoming (UW), he has focused on high quality physics instruction of many of the upper division undergraduate and graduate level physics theory courses (including:  classical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, quantum mechanics, mathematical physics, and plasma physics), in addition to being involved in a wide variety of research projects with students and other faculty members.  Prior to joining UW in 2000, Dr. Thayer had an extensive research career in university (MIT-Plasma Fusion Center and UT-Austin, Institute for Fusion Studies), national laboratory (LBNL), and industry environments (where at SAIC-San Diego, he was involved in many innovative science business development adventures directly under the CEO, Dr. Beyster).  At UW, some of the key areas of Dr. Thayer’s  research have focused on:  a) the computational analysis of chemical plume tracing using CFD simulations associated with robotic swarms (where two representative publications are enclosed here:  1) Foundations of Swarm Robotic Chemical Plume Tracing from a Fluid Dynamics Perspective, and 2) Experimental Studies of Swarm Robotic Chemical Plume Tracing using Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations); and b) on quantum mechanical foundations of spin which have shown a critical connection to nonlinear dissipative/driven systems which exhibit deterministic chaos (where two recent representative publications are enclosed here:  3) Understanding the Spin Correlation of Singlet State Pair Particles, and 4) Einstein was Correct:  A Deeper Level of Quantum Theory is Needed).  Finally, Dr. Thayer is passionate about his pursuit of improved interpretation of quantum mechanical systems in order to achieve pedagogical enhancements so that his quantum students will have a much better understanding of the unusual quantum reality.  As a result of this passion, while on a sabbatical during 2015, Dr. Thayer had the opportunity to write a quantum textbook, “Modern Introductory Quantum Mechanics with Interpretation.”  Furthermore, as a representative topic in the textbook, which provides a major physics pedagogy advancement for an improved understanding of the cornerstone of quantum mechanics (the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle), an optimization theory derivation of this principle is included as an appendix in the textbook (where the publication of this work is enclosed here:  5) Variational Analysis of Quantum Uncertainty Principle).  With respect to demonstrating the deep connection between quantum mechanics and deterministic chaos through numerical simulations, and in collaboration with his PhD graduate student, Josh Heiner, semi-classical spin simulations have demonstrated the proof of concept that quantum spin can be understood better using deterministic chaos (where three publications showing this result are enclosed here:  6) Nonlinear Dynamics Semi-classical Model of Quantum Spin, 7) Nonlinear Semi-classical 3D Quantum Spin, and 8) Nonlinear Dynamic Interpretation of Quantum Spin).  Ultimately, as of July 2019, Dr. Thayer’s quantum mechanics textbook can be obtained from Amazon.com (listed below as 9) Modern Introductory Quantum Mechanics with Interpretation, where my author page is https://www.amazon.com/author/dthayer).

IJICC CPT Publication 2009

IJICC CPT Publication 2010

IJARPS Spin Correlation Publication 2015

IJARPS EPR Resolution Publication 2015

IJARPS Var. Anal. of Quant. Uncer. Prin. Publication 2016

IJARPS  Nonlinear Dynamics Semi-classical Model of Quantum Spin

J Phys Commun Nonlinear Semi-classical 3D Quantum Spin 2019

ArXiv Nonlinear Dynamic Interpretation of Quantum Spin 2018

Modern Introductory Quantum Mechanics with Interpretation 2019