Dr. Debapriyo Syam, Reader
ds.phys@presidencycollegekolkata.ac.in
Area of Specialisation: Nuclear and High Energy Physics    

Academic Profile
B.Sc., Physics Honours, St. Xavier’s College, University of Calcutta
M.Sc., University of Calcutta
Ph.D., (SINP) University of Calcutta, 1986

Areas of Interest
Nuclear and High Energy Physics (Theoretical and Experimental), Applied Physics, Physics Education.

Areas of research
Search for exotic particles (like strangelets) in primary cosmic rays and unusual cosmic ray interactions in the atmosphere.

Design and fabrication of instruments/devices for laboratory/general use.

Study of every-day natural phenomena (usually with undergraduate students) and elucidation of principles of Physics through journals devoted to Physics education.

Ongoing Research Projects
The Astro-Particle Physics Group (see below), of which I am a member, is engaged in evaluating the response characteristics of plastic track detectors to different types of known radiation as well as standardizing the chemical treatment given to them for particle-track revelation. It has also set up, as a pilot project, a small detector array at Darjeeling for catching cosmic rays. A large-size array of plastic track detectors will later be placed at Sandakphu (altitude > 10,500 feet) on the Eastern Himalayas, near Darjeeling.

Research Group (Referred to as the Astro-Particle Physics Group at the Bose Institute)
Present members
Prof. Sibaji Raha ,Director, Bose Institute (Calcutta)
Dr. Swapan Kumar Saha, Bose Institute
Dr. Sanjay Ghosh, Bose Institute
Dr. Basudhara Basu (Nandi), Bose Institute
Dr. Sandhya Dey, Bose Institute
Mr. Atanu Moulik, JRF, Bose Institute
Prof. Satyajit Saha, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (Calcutta)
Prof. Amal Kumar Mazumdar, Marburg University, Marburg (Germany)
Prof. Sukumar Biswas, Retired from TIFR (Mumbai) as Professor of Physics
Myself (D. Syam), Presidency College, Kolkata (Calcutta)
Also associated with the group: Prof. B. Fischer, GSI, Darmstadt (Germany)

Former member
Dr. Shibaji Banerjee, now Lecturer in Physics at St. Xaviers' College, Kolkata

Publications
(Articles published / presented at symposia since joining Presidency College in November, 1993)

Year 1995
Particle Identification by SSNTD – A New Approach – D. Syam et al, Radiation Measurements, 24 (1995). P. 67

Variation of gamma-ray and particle fluxes during the total solar eclipse of 24th October, 1995 – D. Syam et al, Astrophysics and Space Science, 250 ( 1997 ) p 313

Year 1999
Strangelets in terrestrial atmosphere - D.Syam et al, J. Phys. G : Nucl. Part. Phys., 25 , (1999) L15.

Magnetic Field due to an Electromagnet having Flat-faced Cylindrical Pole-pieces - Supriyo Das and D. Syam , Bull. of IAPT, 16,(1999), p106.

Year 2000
Can Cosmic Strangelets Reach the Earth? – D.Syam et al, Physical Review Letters, 85, p1384 (2000)

Strange Quark Matter in Cosmic Ray Flux and Exotic Events - D. Syam et al, Astrophysics and Space, Science ,274, p655 (2000)

Precise measurement of the hybrid parameter hre of a bipolar junction transistor – D. Syam and A.R. Chatterjee, Physics Education,16, (2000), p 355

Year 2001
The Harmonic Analyzer -Some Problems and How to Overcome some of them - D.Syam and A.R. Chatterjee, Physics Education, Vol. 18, p 91 ( South Asian Pub. Pvt. Ltd., India)

Year 2002
Application of Solid State Nuclear Track Detection Technique on commercially available

Overhead Projector Transparencies - Basudhara Basu, Sonali Banik, Amal Mazumdar, Sibaji Raha, Satyajit Saha, Swapan K. Saha, Debapriyo Syam and Peter Vater - This paper was presented at the International Conference ICNTS - 2002 , held in New Delhi from October 21 to October 25, 2002.

What is 'Steady Cyclic Condition' for a ferromagnetic sample? - D. Syam

This paper appeared in pages 280 - 282 of the August 2002 issue of the Bulletin of IAPT.

Year 2004
Response Characteristics of OHP-films as Nuclear Track Detectors for Low Energy 16O Ions - B. Basu, S. Ghosh, A. Mazumdar, S. Raha, S. Saha, Swapan K. Saha, Asiti Sarma and D. Syam , Annual Report 2003 - 04 of U.G.C. Nuclear Science Centre ( New Delhi) p 156.

Detection of U and Ni-ion Tracks in Commercially Available Overhead Projector Films - B. Basu, A. Mazumdar, S. Raha, S. Saha, S. K. Saha, D. Syam and B. Fischer, ICNTS-22, Barcelona (2004).

The principle of working of a siphon - Arup Roy and Debapriyo Syam, Physics Teacher, 45 , p 23

A novel method of measurement of Stefan's constant - D. Syam, Proceedings of the Eastern Regional Workshop on Undergraduate Physics Teaching (UGPT - 04), p 59

Year 2005
Characterization of some commercial polymers for the detection of massive cosmic ray particles - B. Basu, A. Mazumdar, S. Raha, S. Saha, S. K. Saha and D. Syam, Indian J. Phys 79 (2005) p279.

A Set of New Results and A Formal Equivalence in Thermodynamics - D. Syam, Physics Education (Oct 2004-March 2005) pp 201-205; Errata, Physics Education ( April - June 2005) p16.

Papers presented at the 29th Cosmic Ray Conference, Pune (2005):

Characterization of a polymer as a heavy-ion detector - B. Basu, B. Fischer, A. Mazumdar, S. Raha, S. Saha, S. K. Saha, D. Syam

A highly unusual cosmic-ray event at mountain altitude - B. Basu, S. Biswas, S. Dey, A. Mazumdar, S. Raha, S. Saha, S. K. Saha and D. Syam