NEWS
Big congratulations to Xin-Nian!
Big congratulations to Evan! The citation reads: "For the timely development of a flexible and fully general effective theory of muon-to-electron conversion. The formulation establishes an interface between the nuclear and particle physics components of this process that will encourage coordination between the two communities."
Evan received his PhD in Physics in 2022 under the supervision of Wick. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Network for Neutrinos, Nuclear Astrophysics, and Symmetries (N3AS). Evan’s research is primarily focused on tests of fundamental symmetries in nuclear systems. His thesis work involved the development of an effective theory description of muon-to-electron conversion, one of the most sensitive probes of charged lepton flavor violation. More broadly, Evan is interested in short-baseline neutrino oscillations and in the development of effective theories of nuclear systems.
Congratulations to André Walker-Loud who has been announced as one of this year’s APS Fellows for definitive contributions to fundamental symmetries in nucleons and nuclei, utilizing lattice QCD and Effective Field Theory, including the high-precision computation of the nucleon axial coupling.
Theory Group researchers will be involved in all of the five project teams chosen to receive DOE Topical Theory Collaboration program:
Feng Yuan: Co-spokesperson of the "3D quark-gluon structure of hadrons: mass, spin, and tomography" (QGT) Collaboration;
Xin-Nian Wang: SURGE – Saturated Glue Topical Collaboration;
André Walker-Loud and Wick Haxton: the Nuclear Theory for New Physics (NTNP);
Raúl Briceño: the Coordinated Theoretical Approach for Exotic Hadron Spectroscopy (ExoHad) Collaboration;
Ramona Vogt: Co-spokesperson of the HEFTY project (Heavy-Flavor Theory for QCD Matter).
Volodya Vovchenko won the 2022 IUPAP Commission of Nuclear Physics Young Investigator Prize
Our former member Volodya Vovchenko receive the 2022 IUPAP Commission of Nuclear Physics Young Investigator Prize, awarded every three years, for his work on the theory of hot and dense nuclear matter. He is currently a Lab affiliate. The citation reads: “For his groundbreaking contributions to the field of high energy nuclear physics, and in particular his work on fluctuations of conserved charges and the properties of strongly interacting matter”.
Agnieszka Sorensen won the 2023 Dissertation Award in Nuclear Physics
Our former student Agnieszka Sorensen has won 2023 Dissertation Award in Nuclear Physics from the DNP/APS. Big congratulations to Agnieszka! The citation reads: "For an innovative approach to study the speed of sound in dense nuclear matter using moments of baryon distributions and developing of a framework of simulations and modeling of QCD phases and transitions in nucleus-nucleus collisions."
Agnieszka Sorensen received her Ph.D. in September 2021 from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), having performed a substantial amount of her research at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). Her dissertation work, completed under a joint supervision of Dr. Huan Zhong Huang (UCLA) and Dr. Volker Koch (LBNL), focused on the nuclear matter equation of state and hadronic transport simulations of hot and dense nuclear matter created in heavy-ion collisions.
Dan Kasen won the 2020 Lawrence Award from DOE
Department of Energy (DOE) announced the 2020 Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award. Among the eight recipients is our Dan Kasen. Big congratulations to Dan!
Honored for his “outstanding achievements in nuclear astrophysics and scientific computing, advancing both theory and high performance computations and our understanding of the nuclear physics involved in the birth and death of compact objects (white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes) and the stellar explosions involving them (supernovae and compact object mergers).” Specifically, Kasen is recognized for development of state-of-the-art simulations of astrophysical phenomena, including developing the SEDONA code, prediction and modeling of kilonova, and the electromagnetic counterparts to the gravitational wave signals from neutronstar mergers.
A multi-institutional study led by Wayne State University physicists and computer scientists will continue with a $4 million renewal grant from the National Science Foundation. This includes Xin-Nian Wang and Volker Koch, plus our RNC colleagues: Barbara Jacak, Peter Jacobs.
Jason's paper ranked #14 in Scientific Reports' top list of downloads in 2019
Jason's paper on quantum annealing in Scientific Reports (Nature) was ranked #14 in the top list of the most downloads in Scientific Reports in 2019. Congratulations to Jason.
UC Berkeley-based center will bring together researchers from 13 institutions, including NSD nuclear theory program's Dan Kasen and Wick Haxton. The center will focus on Neutron Star Modeling in ‘Gravitational Wave Era’.
POETIC 2019
We are hosting the POETIC 2019, the Ninth International Conference on the ‘Physics Opportunities at an ElecTron-Ion Collider' at Berkeley, from September 16 to 21. Please check the conference website for details: https://conferences.lbl.gov/event/196/
Double strikes at PRL
Theory investigation of jet quenching in heavy ion collisions has a long history at LBNL. It is still a hot topic! In a recent issue of Physical Review Letters, LBNL theory group published two papers consecutively. Congratulations to Felix, Long-Gang, Ya-Yun, Xin-Nian!
Bayesian Extraction of Jet Energy Loss Distributions in Heavy-Ion Collisions, Yayun He, Long-Gang Pang, and Xin-Nian Wang, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 252302 (2019) – Published 27 June 2019
Factorization of Jet Cross Sections in Heavy-Ion Collisions, Jian-Wei Qiu, Felix Ringer, Nobuo Sato, and Pia Zurita, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 252301 (2019) – Published 24 June 2019
More details can be found at the research highlights.
Dan Kasen won the 2019 Rossi Prize
The High-Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD) of the American Astronomical Society has selected the winners for the 2019 Rossi Prize: Brian Metzger of Columbia University and Daniel Kasen of the University of California at Berkeley for their theoretical predictions of electromagnetic emission from radioactive nuclei produced in neutron star mergers. These predictions were confirmed by observations of the 2017 neutron star merger gravitational wave event, providing the first compelling evidence for the astrophysical site of rapid neutron capture nucleosynthesis.
Dan Kasen's former student Jennifer Barnes, now at Columbia University, has been awarded the 2019 HEAD Dissertation prize for her dissertation entitled "Radiation Transport Modeling of Kilonovae and Broad-Lined Ic Supernovae." This work also involves gravitational waves. It established the radiative signatures of mergers between two neutron stars or a neutron star and black hole, as well as the radiative signatures of jet-driven supernovae produced by collapsing massive stars.
