Dr. David Paganin

Professor

BSc(Hons), The University of Melbourne, 1995
PhD, The University of Melbourne, 1999
Grad Cert Higher Ed, Monash University, 2006
Phone: +61 (3) 9905 3633
Fax: +61 (3) 9905 3637

Email: David.Paganin@monash.edu

Simulation of onset of quantum turbulence from collision of three clouds of Bose-Einstein condensate.
Source: Gary Ruben et al., Physical Review A 78 (2008) 013631.

Research interests

I'm a theoretical physicist – so I use maths rather than experiments to understand the world around us. My research extends from fundamental topics such as the counterintuitive physics of tiny things, through to applications such as better ways of imaging flowing blood that can be used to help work out how clots form.

For me, theoretical physics is a social activity. While I can hide by myself at a desk and write physics equations all day (I did this when I wrote my book), I work best in small teams, thrashing out problems together at a whiteboard, throwing ideas back and forth like a tennis ball, evolving them, building them up, shooting them down, honing, refining, distilling, chipping steadily and persistently away over several months until an answer is reached – often to a different question to the one we started out with.

I mostly collaborate with other physicists, but also with biologists, physiologists, doctors, computer scientists and engineers.

I am a teacher, and take pride and satisfaction in nurturing the careers of younger physicists, and helping our undergraduate university science students to reach their full potential. One particular pedagogical goal of mine is how to best foster creativity and leadership in science students.

Outside physics, I enjoy literature, psychology, politics, gardening and experimental music and think of myself as a de facto student of these topics although I don't profess a deep knowledge. I have co-written articles at the interface between physics and poetry, physics and fine art, and physics and cognitive strategy.

My goal in life, which informs and drives all that I do as a scientist and beyond, is to make the world a better place for my having lived in it.

Current research interests include:

• Coherent X-ray optics
• Phase retrieval and aberration balancing in imperfect coherent imaging systems
• Topological defects in radiation and matter wave-fields
• Non-integral Maslov indices and their application to wavepacket evolution
• Foundations of coherence theory of stochastic fields
• Phase retrieval in dissipative non-linear quantum systems
• Phase-contrast tomography
• X-ray lithography
• Holographic microscopy
• Hybrid hardware-software optical imaging systems ("omni optics")
• Convergent-beam X-ray diffraction

David will be taking the following subjects in 2013:

• Quantum mechanics (third year PHS3031 and fourth year PHS4200)
• Advanced quantum mechanics (fourth year PHS4200; second half of course)
• Relativistic particles and fields (third year PHS3131)

He recently published a book, details of which can be found here.

Recent selected publications

1. T.C. Petersen, M. Weyland, D.M. Paganin, T.P. Simula, S.A. Eastwood and M.J. Morgan, Electron vortex production and control using aberration induced diffraction catastrophes, Physical Review Letters (in press, accepted November 28, 2012).
2. T.P. Simula and D.M. Paganin, Coherence simplices, New Journal of Physics 14, 113015 (2012).
3. F. Rothschild, M.J. Kitchen, H.M.L. Faulkner and D.M. Paganin, Duality between phase vortices and Argand-plane caustics, Optics Communications 285, 4141–4151 (2012).
4. I. Ng, D.M. Paganin and A. Fouras, Optimization of in-line phase contrast particle image velocimetry using a laboratory x-ray source, Journal of Applied Physics 112, 074701 (2012).
5. D. Pelliccia and D.M. Paganin, Coherence vortices in vortex-free partially coherent x-ray fields, Physical Review A 86, 015802 (2012).
6. S.M. Kennedy, C.X. Zheng, J. Fu, W.X. Tang, D.M. Paganin and D.E. Jesson, Electron caustic lithography, AIP Advances 2, 022152 (2012).
7. S.A. Eastwood, A.I. Bishop, T.C. Petersen, D.M. Paganin and M.J. Morgan, Phase measurement using an optical vortex lattice produced with a three-beam interferometer, Optics Express 20, 13947–13957 (2012).
8. K.S. Morgan. D.M. Paganin and K.K.W. Siu, X-ray phase imaging with a paper analyzer, Applied Physics Letters 100, 124102 (2012).
9. S.M. Kennedy, M. Hjort, B. Mandl, E. Marsell, A.A. Zakharov, A. Mikkelsen, D.M. Paganin and D.E. Jesson, Characterizing the geometry of InAs nanowires using mirror electron microscopy, Nanotechnology 23, 125703 (2012).
10. W.X. Tang, D.M. Paganin and W. Wan, Proposal for electron quantum spin Talbot effect, Physical Review B 85, 064418 (2012).
11. M.L. Marasinghe, M. Premaratne, D.M. Paganin and M.A. Alonso, Coherence vortices in Mie scattered nonparaxial partially coherent beams, Optics Express 20, 2858–2875 (2012).
12. D. Pelliccia, D.M. Paganin, A. Sorrentino, I. Bukreeva, A. Cedola and S. Lagomarsino, Iterative retrieval of one-dimensional x ray wave field using a single intensity measurement, Optics Letters 37, 262–264 (2012).