Physics Research to Better Understand Our World

利记sbo physics professors Drs. Bhujyo Bhattacharya和George Moschelli在过去三年多的时间里一直在进行重要而令人兴奋的基础研究. 他们和他们的学生一直在深入研究我们宇宙的起源，并在下面的故事中报告他们各自的发现. 虽然他们的研究还在继续，但他们已经发现的东西还是有希望的.

Matter, Antimatter: Does it Matter? 利记sbo Physicist Studies The Origins of The Universe

For the last three years, Dr. Bhubanjyoti Bhattacharya 和他的学生们在美国国家科学基金会(NSF)的资助下研究宇宙的起源 Award No. PHY 2013984 题为“RUI:在风味现象学中发现CP违反的新来源”.”

In the abstract section of this grant, 巴塔查里亚解释说，这项研究的目的是回答“所有反物质都在哪里”这个问题?” He writes, “物质和反物质在一种叫做电荷宇称的基本对称下的行为相似, or "CP". 然而，涉及基本粒子的过程可能不尊重这种对称性. 发现违反CP的新物理理论将使我们更好地理解我们的宇宙, as they will be able to explain why there is more matter than antimatter. 这一领域的研究通过促进科学进步来促进国家利益, creating a deeper understanding of elementary particles, their properties, and how they interact.”

巴塔查里亚和来自世界各地的几位合作者撰写并发表了同行评议的文章, 提出了实验物理学家应该尝试测量电荷宇称违反的新方法. Bhattacharya worked on this research with Andrea Houck, 他是利记sbo 2021年物理和数学专业的校友，现在是威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的博士生. 她是著名的Ed Donley奖获得者，也是令人垂涎的NSF研究生研究奖学金获得者. With other coauthors, Bhattacharya and Houck recently submitted a pre-print paper on arxiv.org 题为“无魅力的B→PPP衰变:完全反对称的最终状态”，描述了他们两年多探索的结果.

之前的文章已经发表在同行评议的出版物上，包括 Journal of High Energy Physics , Physical Review D , and Physical Review D Letters , among others.

In the summer, Bhattacharya received renewed NSF funding Award No. PHY 2310627 to continue this important research into how the universe came to be.

Research Student Gabe Dresen ‘25

Just two weeks into his job as researcher with Bhattacharya, 机械工程专业大三学生Gabe Dresen说，他之所以选择机械工程专业，是因为它让他对事物的运作方式有了最广泛的了解. Not only did Dresen like Physics 2, “I liked Dr. B and his teaching style,” he said. As Dresen explained, because he knows nothing about the subject of charge-parity, “我从回顾文献开始，了解巴塔查里亚和其他人之前研究和报道的内容.巴塔查里亚对德雷森说:“我们一起学习。”这让德雷森放心了. “I know so little about this field and I love to learn,” Dresen said. “这项工作可以帮助我们扩展到我们想象的最远的地方，扩展人类知识的领域.” In other words, yes, it matters.

Quarks, Gluons, Strong Force…Oh, my! 利记sbo Physicist Studies How to Control The Strong Force

Through an NSF grant Award No. PHY-1913005 , Dr. George Moschelli has been researching ways to control the strong force, which is one of the four fundamental forces of nature, along with gravity, electromagnetism, and the weak force. 强力是所有力中最强的，它能将物质的基本粒子结合在一起, known as quarks, to form protons. Why study the strong force? Moschelli says that, while thousands of people have been studying this phenomenon for decades, this research attempts to learn how to control it. “We don’t know what it is exactly or how it will be applied,” he said. 

An artist’s impression of a quark-gluon plasma short after the Big Bang

(© User:S13mashina /  Wikimedia Commons  /  CC-BY-SA-4.0 )

But Moschelli explained the premise of his research and the outcomes. “Two of the world’s largest ever experimental facilities, the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider and the Large Hadron Collider, collide atomic nuclei at nearly the speed of light. 这些实验的主要目的之一是研究“强核力”是如何工作的. 最尖端的强核力理论被称为量子色动力学(QCD)。. QCD预测，当大原子核以非常高的能量被压在一起时(比如碰撞), a new form of matter called quark-gluon plasma (QGP) will be formed. QGP也是宇宙大爆炸诞生后存在的物质阶段. 使用QCD的QGP理论计算通常局限于一种称为平衡的均匀性的很强的假设. However, 实验中真实碰撞产生的物质很可能不处于平衡态. 我研究将理论与非平衡状态联系起来的方法. 这些方法将允许理论提取更现实的QGP属性，并告诉我们强核力的本质.

“To explain the importance of understanding the strong force,” Moschelli said, “I like to make the analogy to our discovery of the electromagnetic force. 我们对电磁力的理解是所有现代技术的支柱. 它是把我们的分子结合在一起的力，也是我们用来使所有电子产品和计算机工作的力. It's even the force that connects light to our world.”

Moschelli continued by putting this in a historical perspective. He said, “我们用来理解电磁力理论的方程式是在1773-1865年间写下来的. The first light bulb was patented in 1879. They were studying electromagnetism by candlelight. That took 100 years. And we were just beginning to understand electromagnetism. We know a lot more now. It took us 150 more years. Compare humanity in the 1800's to now. 我们对强力的理解将和我们对电磁学的理解产生同样的影响. We're still in that first period, trying to discover all the rules. 当我们完成时，我们的社会现在看起来只会像烛光一样先进.” 

His last publication appeared in January 2023. 完成这个项目花了几年时间，三个本科生(玛丽·科迪), Mark Kocherovsky, and Brendan Koch) were co-authors. 这些学生都毕业了，但他们对我们的研究贡献很大.”

On July 26, he presented his research findings , a continuation of his January article, 在科英布拉举行的第19届极端条件下QCD国际会议上, Portugal. 

虽然美国国家科学基金会的资助已于8月到期，但莫谢利对强作用力的研究仍在继续. 他还在研究如何将新的数学和机器学习方法用于数据分析.