Theme Group 2- Theory

March 2005Theme Group 2

Theme Group 2- TheoryTheme Group 2- Theory

Elementary Particle Physics, Gravitation Theory and Theoretical

Quarks, Hadrons and Nuclei


Theme Group 2 -TheoryTheme Group 2 -Theory

• Elementary Particles (7 faculty, 2 post docs, 10 students, NSF,DOE)– Supersymmetry, Supergravity and Grand Unification– Neutrino Mass, CP and Flavor Physics– Superstring Theory and Applications– Problems in Cosmology

• Gravitation Theory (4 faculty, 6 post docs, 7 students, NSF,..) – Geometry and topology in general relativity – Gravitational wave physics– Quantum, Stochastic and Semiclassical Gravity– Quantum gravity phenomenology

• Theoretical Quarks, Hadrons and Nuclei (4 faculty, 2 post docs, 6 students, DOE)– Effective Field Theories– Large N QCD– Hadron Structure, Spin Physics– Lattice QCD


Theme Group-2: TheoryTheme Group-2: Theory

• Synergy and interaction Between the different groups

(i) EP/GT: cosmological issues such as black hole physics, cosmological constant etc.

(ii) EP/TQHN: Neutrino physics and QCD

(iii) Theme Group 2: Th/Ex. B-physics, LHC, Neutrino physics.

(iv) B. L. Hu of GT has started the QCI group that interacts with the AMO and superconductivity experimental group at UMCP, the atomic physics theory groups at NIST and Keith Schwab’s group on elecromechanics at LPS


Theme Group 2 Theory Common Issues Theme Group 2 Theory Common Issues

• Cosmology Initiative proposal

– Theme Group 2 –Theory members unanimously feel that there is an urgent need for a dedicated Cosmology Theory Group and recommend that the department initiate one.

• Cosmology is exciting and rapidly developing, driven by new observations.

– Start with 2 to 3 junior or mid-career faculty (a past attempt to hire a senior “superstar” was not successful).

– A new cosmology group should resonate with

• Theme Group 2 Theory activities

• UMD astronomy program and NASA/Goddard


• Better Graduate Student Support by the University

– TA support for theory research has declined over the years affecting student quality. Theme Group- theory members urge that there be more sustained graduate student (TA/Fellowship) support by the University.

Theme Group 2 Theory Common IssuesTheme Group 2 Theory Common Issues


Theme Group 2 Theory Common Issues Theme Group 2 Theory Common Issues

– Need for both more space and quality space

– Present locations of various subgroups of Theme Group 2 (theory) is not conducive to effective interactions .

– Quality of both faculty, visitor and student office space needs improvement.


Elementary Particle PhysicsElementary Particle Physics

• Faculty– Melanie Becker– Asst. Professor (String Theory, Flux Compactification)

– S. James Gates– Professor, J. S. Toll Chair (Supergravity,string theory, Extra Dimensions)

– O. W. Greenberg–Professor (QCD, Quark Model, Particle Statistics, Quantum Field Theory, CPT)

– Y. S. Kim– Professor (Lorentz group, Foundations of Quantum Mechanics)

– M. Luty– Associate Professor (Supersymmetric Field Theories and SUSY Breaking, Extra Dimensions, Gravity, Cosmology)

– R. N. Mohapatra– Professor(Neutrino mass, Grand unification, Supersymmetry, CP violation, Extra dimensions, Cosmology)

– J. C. Pati - Professor(Grand unification, Proton decay, Neutrino Oscillations, Flavor physics, CP Violation, Cosmology)

– Emeritus: J. Sucher, C. H. Woo

• Post-Docs– Axel Krause (String theory)– Salah Nasri (Neutrino physics, cosmology)



• Graduate Students– Rastogi (Pati); Hsieh (Luty); Yu, Setzer and Spinner

(Mohapatra), Linch, Merrill (Gates); Shrihars, Constantin, Anke (Becker)

• Other Staff– Amanda Sherwood, student administrative assistant

• Faculty History– Greenberg – 1961, Pati-1963, Mohapatra-1983,

Gates-1984, Luty-1996, Becker-2000 (leaving in Summer, 2005 for Texas A & M).

• Ph.D.s in last 5 years – 3 since 2000– Expect 2 in 2005


• Some outstanding students from the past

– Sterman (SUNY), Cvetic (Penn), Rothstein (CMU), Chacko (Az), Ponton (Columbia), Raychaudhuri (Calcutta), Kumar (IOP, India),Nelson (SUNY).

Outstanding postdocs with faculty position–M. Creutz (BNL); P. Sikivie (Florida),D. Chang (Director, Theor. Physics. Inst. Taiwan); G. Senjanovic (ICTP faculty), A. Das (Rochester), P. B. Pal (SINP, India) , A. Kagan (Cincinnati), X. M. Zhang (Beijing), K. S. Babu (Oklahoma), N. Okada (KEK), M. Yasue (Japan).


Research Topics: Present and FutureResearch Topics: Present and Future

• Physics Beyond the Standard Model– Origin of Supersymmetry Breaking– Understanding Neutrino Masses and Mixings– Grand Unification, Proton Decay, N-N-bar Oscillation– Origin of CP Violation, Strong CP problem and Flavor Mixing-- Cosmological Constraints on New Physics

• Superstring Theory and Supergravity– Flux compactification– Manifestly Supersymmetric Effective Actions: Superstring & SUSY QCD – Higher Spin Supersymmetric Dynamical Systems– Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics– 4D Superfields on 3-Branes


Issues in Cosmology

–Nature of Dark Matter (Neutralino , mirror matter or axion)

–Cosmological Constant

–Origin of Matter from Neutrino Mass Physics


•Hiring Plans (search is on for)

–one junior faculty hire in unified theories and phenomenology; 4 candidates visiting for interview during March; decision by mid-April.

–two in the general area of string theory/quantum gravity (one as a replacement for Becker plus a new one ); Candidate interviews are going on and decision by mid-April.

Future Hiring PlansFuture Hiring Plans



• Funding – Mohapatra, Gates, Luty, Becker ($320K/year, NSF)– Greenberg ($52K/yr, NSF); $14K/3 yrs Int. Exchange– Program.– Pati ($53K/yr, DOE).


•Center For Particle and String Theory (Co-Directors: Gates and Mohapatra)

–Phenomenology Funding $90 K/yr (2005-) (State)

– String Theory Funding ~$120K/yr (State plus Toll Chair); supports students, one post-doc + summer program for undergraduates.

–Goal to revamp EP research activities at UMD and have joint activities with Johns Hopkins.

–JHU has agreed to put in $45K towards this joint effort.

–Plans for student support, joint (with JHU) post-docs, visitors, seminars, workshops currently under way.




• Awards and Recognition– Gates

• APS Fellow, AAAS Fellow, DST-UM, AAPT Klopsteg Award, Inaugural APS Bouchet Award, Fellow, National Society of Black

Physicists, Fellow of the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study– Greenberg

• Sloan, APS Fellow, Guggenheim, Wash. Acad. Science award, Fellow, Washington Acad of Sciences

– Mohapatra• APS Fellow, Member, Indian National Acad, DST-UM, Dist. Scientist

award by the American Chapter Of Indian Phys. Assoc.– Pati

• APS Fellow, Dirac Medal, Member, Indian National Academy, DST-UM, Guggenheim, Wash. Acad. Science award

– Luty• Sloan

– Becker• Sloan


Other High LightsOther High Lights

• Impact /visibility of Research by Group– About 15 Invited talks/yr at International conferences– 3 papers with > 1000 citations, 6 with 500 to 1000

40 papers with 100 to 500. (From Spires);

- Several members quoted in the Science Press over the years.

• Community Activities:– Gates: Undergraduate Research,Talks and Outreach, Summer Student Theoretical Physics, Research Session (SSTPRS, since 1999), Member of the U.S. N.L.C. Steering Comm, Member of the AAPT SPIN-UP Comm.

--Greenberg: Vice Chair, APS Heineman Prize selection selection committee (2005) and Chair (2006); former Assoc. editor of PRL.


– Pati: Theory Advisory committee “UNO” underground detector;

Advisory committee, NNN-05; Int. Adv. Committee, NANP-2005 (Dubna).

–Kim: Organizer of Wigner symposium, Feynman Festival and

Squeezed state conference

--Mohapatra : Leader, APS Neutrino Study (Theory)(2004);

Organizing committee, SUSY conference series; NANP series, Dubna,

ICTP workshops, Editorial Board, Prog in Particles and Fields (1994-98);

and New Journal of Physics (2001) .


Gravitation Theory---facultyGravitation Theory---faculty

– Dieter Brill – Professor– Alessandra Buonanno – Associate Professor– Bei-Lok Hu – Professor – Ted Jacobson – Professor– Charles Misner– Emeritus Professor

– Hiring timeline:

‘63------’70---------’80-------’88----------------’05


Gravitation Theory---researchGravitation Theory---research

– Geometry and topology in general relativity – Gravitational wave physics

• numerical relativity• sources and data analysis• quantum optics of interferometric detector design• gravitational radiation reaction from relativistic particle-field

dynamics– Quantum, Stochastic and Semiclassical Gravity

• Quantum field theory in curved spacetime• Early Universe • Black hole entropy & Hawking radiation

– Quantum gravity phenomenology• Models of Planck scale cutoff• Lorentz violation in gravitation and particle physics


Started 2001 by Prof. Hu

Grant support from NSF, NIST, ARDA and LPS (Lab. Physical Sciences)

Profs. A. Dragt and O.W. Greenberg joined in 2004

•Atom-Field Interactions, Cavity QED, Optical Lattice

•BEC & Correlated Atom Dynamics: Nonequilibrium Quantum Fields

•Quantum Decoherence and Error Correction in Quantum Computation

•Quantum Control and Feedback

•AMO groups at UMD & NIST

• Superconductivity expt, UMD

• Schwab’s Elecro-mechanics group, LPS

•Quantum Fields in External & Nonequilibrium Conditions

•Gravitation and Cosmology

Research areas Synergy (Theme groups 1 & 2)

Quantum Coherence and Information (QCI) theory groupQuantum Coherence and Information (QCI) theory group


Gravitation theory---postdocsGravitation theory---postdocs

– Dr. Albert Roura, Gravity Theory under Hu-Jacobson NSF grant

– Dr. Kazutomu Shiokawa, Non-Markovian Decoherence, ARDA-LPS Grant

– Dr. S Y Lin, Relativistic Particle-Field Interaction, Unruh Effect, Gravitational Radiation Reaction

– Dr. C H Chou, Quantum Entanglement and Decoherence of Moving Qubits

– Dr. Jeremy Schnittman- Fall ‘05: gravitational wave, Buonanno start-up

– Dr. Jan Harms - Fall ‘05: gravitational wave, Buonanno start-up

Drs. Lin and Chou are Research Fellows at the Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica Taipei, each spending 4-6 months a year here under an UMCP-IPAS cooperative research program.

8 of 8 most recent postdocs now have permanent research faculty positions


Gravitation theory---studentsGravitation theory---students

Current: 7 grad students, supported by RGA, fellowship, TA; 1 undergrad. research student.

9 Ph. D.’s since 1999: all but two currently in scientific research:• Brill:

– Paul Branoff (2000, finance)• Hu:

– Nicholas G. Phillips (1999, NASA/Goddard, WMAP)– Philip Johnson (1999, research scientist, NIST neutral atom quantum computing)

– Gregory Stephens (2000, research scientist, bioinformatics, Princeton University)– Sanjiv Shresta (2003, National Research Council Fellow, NIST, AMO group)– Ana Maria Rey (2004, with T. Kirkpatrick of IPST and C. Clark of NIST,

research scientist, NIST AMO group)• Jacobson:

– David Mattingly (2003, GR postdoc, UC Davis) • Misner:

– David Fiske (2004, Senior Engineer, Decisive Analytics Corporation (applied AI))– Conrad Schiff (2005, CTO, a.i.solutions aerospace)


Gravitation theory---fundingGravitation theory---funding

– NSF (Hu and Jacobson, 3yr, $665K)

“Towards the microscopic structure of spacetime”

– ARDA (Hu, 3yr, $300K) “Decoherence and basic issues in quantum computers”

– LPS (Hu, 3yr, $130K)– NIST (Hu, 3yr, $271K)“Quantum information processing with neutral atoms”

– NSF (Rolston, Hu, WIlliams, Orozco, Hill, 5yr, $1.65M)

ITR: Distributive quantum information


Gravitation theory---collaborationsGravitation theory---collaborations

– LIGO Scientific Collaboration (Buonanno)– VIRGO Collaboration (Buonanno)– NASA/Goddard numerical relativity (Misner)– AEI-Potsdam (Misner)– NIST (Hu)– LPS (Hu)– UMD AMO and superconductivity group (Hu)– Many individual collaborations


Gravitation theory---impactGravitation theory---impact

• Impact/visibility of gravitation group members

– Numerous invitations as speaker or principal lecturer in

international conferences and schools

– APS Topical group in gravitation, Executive committee members

– NSF Proposal Review Panels

– NASA Panel for gravity and relativistic physics

– Editorial board members PRD, PRL

– Scientific advisory committee, KITP, Santa Barbara

– mentioned or quoted in popular press (Nature, Science, The

Economist, Scientific American, New Scientist)


Gravitation theory---awardsGravitation theory---awards

• Awards and Recognition– Brill

• G. Budé medal, Collège de France• Humboldt Foundation Senior Scientist award• APS Fellow

– Hu• APS Fellow

– Jacobson• APS Fellow

– Misner• Heineman prize• Am. Acad. Arts & Sci. Fellow • APS Fellow• AAAS Fellow


Gravitation theory---future developmentGravitation theory---future development

• Current search (with particle theory) for one or two new faculty in string theory/quantum gravity

• gravitational wave related physics


Theoretical Quarks, Hadrons and NucleiTheoretical Quarks, Hadrons and Nuclei

• Faculty– Thomas Cohen, Professor (Effective Field Theory,

Large Nc QCD)– Xiangdong Ji, Professor (Effective Field Theory, Hadron

Structure, Spin Physics)– Stephen Wallace, Professor (Lattice QCD,

phenomenology– James Griffin, Professor (Heavy Ions)

• Emeritus Faculty– Manoj Banerjee

• Post-Docs– Subhasish Basak, (Lattice QCD)– Joydip Kundu, (Soft Collinear Effective Theory)


Theoretical Quarks Hadrons and NucleiTheoretical Quarks Hadrons and Nuclei

• Graduate Students– Ikuro Sato (Lattice QCD, Wallace), Dan Dakin (Large

Nc QCD, Cohen), Ahmad Idilbi (Perturbative QCD, Ji),

Yinchuan Li, SURA Fellow (Effective field theory,Neutrino physics, Ji), Paul Hohler (Heavy Pentaquarks, Cohen)

• Other Staff– Loretta Robinette (administrative assistant)

• Faculty History– Griffin – 1966, Wallace – 1974, Cohen – 1989,

Ji - 1996


TQHN - Research ProgramTQHN - Research Program

• Hadron Structure, e.g., – Proton’s Spin– Generalized Parton Distributions

• Effective Field Theory and Large Nc QCD, e.g., – Pentaquarks– Baryon Spectrum

• Lattice QCD, e.g.,– Excited Baryon Masses – Hadron-Hadron Interactions


QCD / Lattice QCD Faculty SearchQCD / Lattice QCD Faculty Search

• Interviews completed Feb. 11 • Strong Candidates in: Soft Collinear Effective Theory/Heavy Quark Physics

Effective Field Theory / Lattice QCD for hadron-hadron interaction.

Lattice QCD – hadron matrix elements.

• Faculty discussion March 10



• DOE Funding– $640,000/yr. FY05– Continuous funding since 1966

• Community Activities– NSAC Long-Range Plan Committee (Ji) – NSAC Subcommittee on Nuclear Theory (Ji) – Chair, SURA Board of Trustees (Wallace)

• Ph.D.s in last 5 years – 5 since 2000– Expect 3 in 2005



• Regular Visitors• John Tjon - Utrecht• Jiunn-Wei Chen – Taiwan• Shmuel Nussinov – Tel Aviv

• Regular Collaborators• Rich Lebed – Arizona• Daniel Phillips – Ohio U.• Feng Yuan – Brookhaven

• Jiang Ma - China



– Cohen • APS Fellow• Distinguished Scholar Teacher (Umd)

– Ji• APS Fellow• Chang Jiang Chair Visiting Prof. Peking Univ.• Outstanding Overseas Chinese Scientist Award

– Wallace• APS Fellow• Donders Chair Visiting Prof. Univ. Utrecht

– Griffin• APS Fellow, Guggenheim Fellow, Humboldt Fellow



• Recent Postdocs now in Permanent or Tenure-Track Positions– Andrei Belitsky – U. Arizona – Rich Lebed - U. Arizona – Silas Beane – U. New Hampshire – Daniel Phillips – Ohio Univ. – Jiunn-Wei Chen – National Taiwan Univ. – Wally Melnitchouk – Jlab staff member

Theme Group 2- Theory

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