Nuclear Physics at Ohio State

Department of PhysicsThe Ohio State University

191 West Woodruff AvenueColumbus, OH 43210

Presentation to the External Review Committee, March 4, 2010

Updated March, 2011

Nuclear Physics Faculty:Theory

Dick FurnstahlProfessorFellow APS,AAASFunding: NSF/DOEh-index: 31

Uli HeinzProfessorFellow APS,AAASFunding: DOEh-index: 55

Sabine JeschonnekAssoc. Prof., OSU Lima

Funding: NSFh-index: 11

Yuri KovchegovAssoc. Professor

Funding: DOE (OJI)h-index: 28

Robert PerryProfessorFellow APS,AAASFunding: NSFh-index: 21

Experiment

Tom HumanicProfessorFunding: NSFh-index: 58

Mike LisaProfessorFellow APSFunding: NSFh-index: 58

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Nuclear Theory Group

Glossary of acronyms:

JLab: Jefferson LaboratoryFRIB: Facility for Rare Isotope BeamsRHIC: Relativistic Heavy Ion ColliderLHC: Large Hadron ColliderEIC: Electron-Ion ColliderEFT: Effective Field TheoryQFT: Quantum Field TheoryRG: Renormalization GroupNTG: Nuclear Theory GrouppQCD: perturbative Quantum ChromodynamicsQGP: Quark-Gluon PlasmaAdS/CFT correspondence: correspondence between gravitation theory in

Anti-deSitter space and Conformal Field Theory in Minkowski space-timeUNEDF: Universal Nuclear Energy Density FunctionalJET: Jet and Electromagnetic Tomography (of hot QCD matter)

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NTG research covers broad range of topics in Strong Interactions:

The Nuclear Theory Group addresses fundamental problems in

� hadronic structure and few-body problems (Jeschonnek) (JLab program)

� the nature and structure of the nuclear force and how it binds nuclei and nuclear matter (Furnstahl,

Perry) (FRIB program)

� the properties and dynamical evolution of QCD matter at extreme densities and temperatures (Heinz,

Kovchegov) (RHIC/LHC/EIC program)

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Dynamics of Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions:Heinz, Kovchegov (PIs), Majumder (Visit. Ass. Prof.), Horowitz, Song (PDs),

Qiu, Shen, Taliotis, White, Moreland (students)

Big picture: Dynamical modelling ofrelativistic heavy-ion collisions to explore initial

conditions (color glass condensate),

thermalization, equation of state, and

hadronization of Quark-Gluon Plasma

Tools:� relativistic kinetic theory, transport models

� relativistic viscous fluid dynamics

� high-density renormalization group

� finite temperature QFT, pQCD

� AdS/CFT correspondence

Recent progress:

� successful description of bulk hadron production at RHIC

� discovery of a strongly interacting quark-gluon liquid at RHIC

� identification of gluon saturation effects at RHIC

� beginnings of a quantitative characterization of the quark-gluon plasma

� new strong-coupling approaches to early dynamics and thermalization

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Systematic Calculations of Nuclear SystemsFurnstahl, Jeschonnek, Perry (co-PI’s), Drut (postdoc), Anderson, Wendt (students)Big picture: Controlled microscopiccalculations of nuclei from QCDvia tower of effective theoriesand many-body methods

Tools:Effective Field Theory (EFT)Renormalization Group (RG)Ab initio Density FunctionalTheory (DFT)Electron scattering fromlight nuclei

LatticeQCD

QCDLagrangian

Exact methods A!12GFMC, NCSM

Chiral EFT interactions(low-energy theory of QCD)

Coupled Cluster, Shell ModelA100

Examples of recent progress:Soft, low-momentum interactions from RG + three-body forces

=⇒ more convergent nuclei and perturbative (!) nuclear matterNuclear DFT functionals from chiral EFT for SciDAC UNEDF projectGraphene and cold atoms using EFT and lattice QCD methodsRelativistic analysis of spin observables in electron scattering

Visibility:OSU Awards:

Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award / OSU Academy of Teaching (Furnstahl 1997, Perry 2008)

Distinguished University Service Award (Perry 2001)

Distinguished Scholar Award (Heinz 2007)

Harlan Hatcher Memorial Award for Excellence (Furnstahl 2005)

John and Ruth Mount Award for Distinguished Service (Furnstahl 2004)

National Service (selected):

DOE/NSF Nuclear Science Advisory Committee (NSAC) (Heinz 2006-2009, Furnstahl 2009-)

INT National Advisory Committee (Furnstahl 2009-)

BNL Program Advisory Committee (Heinz 2006-2009)

SciDAC UNIDEF Council (Furnstahl 2007-)

TECHQM Collaboration Steering Committee (Heinz 2008-)

Numerous NSF and DOE Award Selection Panels (Furnstahl, Heinz, Perry)

National Recognitions:

NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award (Perry 1988, Furnstahl 1992)

DFG Gerhard Hess Award (Heinz 1988)

DOE Outstanding Junior Investigator Award (Kovchegov 2005)

APS Fellow (Perry 1999, Furnstahl 2001, Heinz 2004)

APS Outstanding Referee (Heinz 2008, Furnstahl 2009)

AAAS Fellow (Heinz 2005, Furnstahl 2007, Perry 2007)

APS Dissertation Award (Djordjevic 2006, Song 2011)

International Recognitions:

R.&B. Sackler International Prize in the Physical Sciences (best theorist under age 40) (Kovchegov 2006)

Nature Highlight and Physical Review Editor’s Choice (Drut 2009)

Elected as chairs or co-chairs for numerous international conferences and workshops (Furnstahl, Heinz,

Jeschonnek, Kovchegov)5

Strengths on which we can build:� OSU Nuclear Physics (theory + experiment) ranked 11th nationally (tied with UC Berkeley) by

U.S.News and World Report in 2008.

� Highly visible theoretical research with strong impact on all major experimental programs in nuclear

physics (JLab, RHIC/LHC/EIC, FRIB).

� Strong funding. All new faculty were funded in first year. Present funding at $685,000/yr (NSF

220K, DOE 465K), to increase by >∼

125K (80K NSF, 45K DOE) in 2010. Two external DOE

collaborations (UNEDF, JET).

� Excellent research productivity and high impact: In the last three years group members authored

> 75 refereed research papers and presented > 150 invited conference talks, seminars and colloquia.

NTG faculty have published 111 papers with > 50 citations, including 46 cited over 100 times, 10

with over > 250 citations each and 1 with over 500 cites.

� Productive interaction with the Experimental Nuclear Physics Group; active research overlap with

Condensed Matter and Particle Theory groups.

� Ability to attract exceptionally strong postdocs. Since 2000 eleven moved from OSU to tenure track

or permanent faculty positions (Aarts, Bogner, Djordjevic, Hammer, Horowitz, Lin, Mehen, Molnar,

Platter, Ramanan, Schwenk).

� Success in recruiting excellent women physicists at all levels (Jeschonnek, Djordjevic, Li, Ramanan,

Song).

� Strong mentoring of undergraduates in research. Undergraduates have coauthored multiple papers

and moved to top-ranked graduate schools. Successful post-OSU careers of NTG graduate students

(many in industry).

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Vision for the next decade:

� Consolidate and strengthen, together with the Experimental Nuclear Physics Group,our international leadership roles in RHIC/LHC/EIC physics (high-energy, high-density QCD) and in a systematic EFT/RG approach to nuclear structure (theorysupport for FRIB).

� Use the strength of our research program to continue to broaden our external fundingbase.

� Further broaden and strengthen our interactions with the Condensed Matter andParticle/Superstring Theory groups in the area of strongly coupled many-body sy-stems.

� Exploit opportunities offered by UNEDF and JET Collaborations to enhance graduatestudent training in Nuclear Theory and to recruit top-qualified graduate studentsinto the NTG.

� Build an interdisciplinary research program intersecting nuclear, particle and astro-particle theory

– with new hires in LHC phenomenology and astroparticle theory– that is aligned with new detection facilities in astro- and particle physics and– builds on existing expertise in high-energy nuclear physics, nuclear astrophysics

and cosmology.

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Experimental Nuclear Physics

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Physics Focus Since 2000 – Humanic & Lisa

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