When identical twins Charles Puelz ’11 and David Puelz ’11 stopped by Assistant Professor of Physics Tsampikos Kottos’ office to ask about a problem set they were working on for his class, they did not expect anything more to come of the conversation. One week later, however, Kottos called the twins back into his office and invited them to join his research group in Germany for the summer.

“It actually came out of thin air,” Charles said. “It’s funny because I thought I would do something different than David this year, but this is an incredible opportunity.”

As Associate Researcher of the Max Planck Institute of Dynamics and Self-Organization and Primary Investigator in mesoscopic physics, Kottos makes periodic trips to Gottigen, Germany, as well as other universities, such as those in Slovenia and Israel. He often brings his research group of graduate and undergraduate students with him.

“I use this opportunity to invite my students to a research institution of worldwide caliber, so that they get familiar with international research and benefit with other scientists from this experience,” Kottos said. “The problem at hand defines where to go, what to do, and how to proceed.”

Although the twins both have strong backgrounds in math and interests in physics, Charles was more hesitant than his brother to commit.

“David had to convince me, he was immediately set in stone,” he said. “I was so utterly surprised and flattered that [Kottos] wanted us to work with him, but knew this was going to be a lot of time and work to devote my summer to.”

Charles’ brother and parents quickly intervened, and after two weeks of deliberation, both twins agreed that this was a proposal neither of them could refuse.

“It doesn’t matter where we go in the future,” Charles said. “To turn this down would be an idiotic move.”

Joining Kottos’ research group, however, is only the beginning. Kottos, a theoretical physicist, and his research group—called “Complex Quantum Dynamics and Mesoscopic Phenomena”—work to solve complex problems, from atomic physics (ultra-cold atoms in optical lattices) to classical waves propagation (such as electromagnetic waves) and electronic systems.

According to Kottos, the target of this research is to find and, more importantly, understand the laws that dictate motion on this so-called mesoscopic scale.

“These objects and systems are fundamentally non-macroscopic and they are described by quantum mechanical laws, instead of the familiar laws of the macro-world, which apply to ourselves and all the objects larger or the same size as ourselves,” Kottos said. “On the other hand, a mesoscopic system is too big…so I want to combine these two extremes in the frame of mesoscopic physics.”

Kottos has been working on problems of this scale now for more than 10 years.

“By identifying and isolating the important ingredients that give the correct physics and then building simple models which mimic the behavior of these complex systems, we hope these simple-toy models will allow us to derive the fundamental laws that dictate the dynamics of the most complicated systems,” he said.

As newcomers to the research group, Charles and David immediately began meeting with Kottos every Thursday. Graduate student Joshua Bodyfelt has also been teaching them a computer language that will be crucial in solving certain problems this summer.

“It’s like learning a different language, there are so many different commands to remember,” David said. “But it’s a perfect fit for me because I can actually apply it.”

Katrina Smith Mannschott ’08, who is staying at the University an extra year to get her M.A. in Physics, will soon be teaching the twins an additional computer language. Mannschott has been working with Kottos for a year and a half, and also worked with his research group in Germany last summer.

“Working with Tsampikos [Kottos] has allowed me to further explore my interest in theoretic physics, helping me to better understand whether my interests lie in theoretic or experimental physics, or somewhere in between,” Mannschott said.

Carl West ’11 joined the research group as a freshman, and he was one of four undergraduate students—out of six total—to accompany Kottos in Germany this previous summer. Wesleyan, he said, is the best school for undergraduate theoretical physics, and Kottos is living proof.

“It’s rare and appropriate that [Kottos] puts the person who does the most work in a publication listed first as the primary author,” West said. “He manages to make it so that even as an undergraduate you have quite a bit of direction.”

While Charles and David may be going for the research experience, Kottos also instructed them to find an alternate solution to a physics problem that he is serious about solving—or in his words, a problem “he’s hot on.”

“If you’re sitting down and looking at a test, that’s a different pressure than a professor who’s actually looking for results,” Charles said. “It doesn’t make sense unless we give him knowledge in return. When we get to the point where we can explain things to him, he’s done his job.”

Although Kottos is admired for his commitment to his students, he devotes the rest of his time to his research—Kottos can often be found working in his office until 3 a.m.

“He’s one of the most prolific professors in the department,” Charles said. “He’s very caring about students and making sure that they gain something, but he’s ’hot on this problem.’”

Charles and David may look identical on paper—and in person—but there are more differences between them than meets the eye. David has always been more passionate about physics; his brother, not as much.

“Both my brother and I are anxious to start working,” David said. “We do think the same, but we can also prompt each other if one person is stuck on something.”

Their professor jokingly noted, however, that discerning these differences remains complex, regardless of the scale.

“Why Charles and David?” Kottos asked. “Well, one reason for sure: it was too complicated for me to decide on only one of them. They look so alike that I thought that it was easier to invite both, than break my head in order to find out who I had invited.”