Interest

This case study used individual interviews to investigate graduate student sense-making in upper-level electrostatics in the context of problems that can be efficiently solved for the electric potential using \v{Laplace}s equation. Although there are many technical mathematical issues involved in solving \v{Laplace}s equation, the focus of this research is not on those issues. Instead, the focus is on structural issues such as whether students recognize when solving \v{Laplace}s equation would be an effective approach to finding the potential and set up the problems correctly, and whether they can draw the electric field lines and equipotential surfaces in a given situation. Although many prior investigations have shed light on student sensemaking in the introductory physics contexts, very few investigations have focused on graduate student sensemaking while solving advanced physics problems. We present the findings of our research which was conducted through the lens of the epistemic game framework proposed by Tuminaro and Redish. We observe different nested epistemic games played by students.

Remarkable advances in quantum information science and technology (QIST) have taken place in recent years. However, they have also been accompanied by widespread misinformation. This paper provides suggestions for how educators can help students at all levels and especially early learners including those at the pre-college and college levels learn key QIST concepts so that they are less likely to be misinformed, e.g., by online unvetted resources. We discuss findings from interviews with five college educators, who are quantum researchers, about their views on countering misinformation in QIST and provide suggestions for how educators can help their students learn QIST concepts so that they do not become misinformed.

While the numerical value of the speed of light is known with extraordinary precision, its theoretical definition remains a subject of fundamental interest. We show that the definition of mass and velocity of light follow from the conserved quantities of the electromagnetic field. The proposed definition of the speed of light is always bounded from above by the phase velocity and equals it for plane waves. As a consequence, we obtain a generalization of Einstein's mass-energy relation for electromagnetic fields in media: $m = \varepsilon\mu E / c^2$. Hence, irrespective of the light's intensity, the electromagentic field in near-zero-index material is always massless. This approach offers new pedagogical insights into the fundamental nature of light propagation.