• Brookhaven physicists are using detectors at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider to explore how the matter that makes up atomic nuclei behaved just after the Big Bang.

• Brookhaven physicists and engineers are collaborators in the ATLAS experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.

• LBNE and the Daya Bay Neutrino Experiments seek to understand the subtle oscillations of neutrinos, ghost-like particles formed in the heart of stars

• In the LSST and BOSS experiments, Brookhaven physicists seek to measure and constrain the properties of dark matter, dark energy and the standard cosmological model.

Nuclear Physics

PHENIX

Responsibile for the operation and  physics exploitation of the PHENIX experiment at RHIC.

STAR

Responsibile for the operation and  physics exploitation of the STAR experiment at RHIC.

RHIC Spin

Leads, supports, and provides for the common requirements of the RHIC spin program, particularly for polarimetry.

RIKEN BNL Research Center

Conducts quantum chromodynamics and proton spin structure research.

Nuclear Theory

Conducts research to understand many body aspects of QCD, including the properties of hot and dense matter as well high gluon density matter.

Lattice Gauge Theory

Studies properties of hot and dense matter using lattice QCD methods.

RHIC Computing Facility

Provides computing services for experiments at RHIC, and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope project.

High-Energy Physics

Cosmology & Astrophysics

Solving problems in observational cosmology: how to measure and constrain properties of dark matter, dark energy and the standard cosmological model.

Electronic Detector

Studies very rare processes at the Intensity Frontier.

Omega

Group members are collaborators on the LHC ATLAS experiment.

Physics Application

Develops physics applications software for the LHC ATLAS experiment.

High-Energy Theory

Focuses on providing theoretical foundation for the search for physics beyond the standard model, including lattice QCD calculations of key quantities required for this quest.

ATLAS Computing Facility

Provides computing services for U.S. ATLAS.

High-Energy Physics

Baryonic Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey

BOSS studies dark energy—the force thought to be responsible for the universe’s accelerating expansion.

Dark Energy Survey

Seeks to probe the origin of the accelerating universe and uncover the nature of dark energy by measuring the 14-billion-year history of cosmic expansion.

Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

A 3.2 gigapixel camera mounted in a  ground-based telescope designed to produce the widest, densest, and most complete images of our universe ever captured.

Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment

An international collaboration working to precisely measure neutrino oscillations.

ATLAS

An experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider designed to detect particles created by proton-proton collisions.

Daya Bay Neutrino Experiment

An international collaboration studying the subtle transformations of neutrinos.

MicroBooNE

Measures low energy neutrino cross sections and investigates low energy excess events observed by the MiniBooNE experiment.

Muon g-2

A high precision measurement of the muon's g-2 value. A deviation between theory and observed value will suggest the existence of new particles.

Mu2e

Experiment which directly probes the Intensity Frontier and aids research on the Energy and Cosmic frontiers with precision measurements to characterize properties of new particles.

Nuclear Physics

PHENIX

An experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider designed to explore quark gluon plasma.

STAR

An experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider designed to explore quark gluon plasma.

Electron Ion Collider (Future)

Plans for the world's first electron-nucleus collider, also known as eRHIC, call for the addition of a 5 to 10 GeV electron ring inside the RHIC tunnel.

The Physics Department is part of Brookhaven's Nuclear & Particle Physics Directorate.

Seminars & Colloquia

1. NOV

8

Tuesday

Physics Colloquium

"Skyrmions and Nuclei"

Presented by Nick Manton

3:30 pm, Large Seminar Room, Bldg. 510

Tuesday, November 8, 2016, 3:30 pm

Hosted by: 'Robert Pisarski'

Nuclear forces are mediated by pions. As pions are light compared to nucleons and other mesons, they are treated as approximate Goldstone bosons in an effective field theory (EFT) with spontaneously broken SO(4) chiral symmetry. Generically, the nonlinear field equations of EFT have topological soliton solutions called Skyrmions, which we identify as the intrinsic structures of nucleons or larger nuclei. The quantum states of the unit-winding, spherical Skyrmion represent protons and neutrons with spin half. Skyrmions of many higher winding numbers are also known, having beautiful symmetries, and sometimes showing alpha-particle or other clustering. The classical solutions have definite location, orientation, and pion field orientation, so we quantize the collective coordinates to obtain states with definite momentum, spin and isospin. A Skyrmion's symmetry restricts its allowed spin/isospin combinations (Finkelstein—Rubinstein constraints). The recent inclusion of vibrational degrees of freedom has helped to create a reasonable model for Oxygen-16 and its excited states.

2. NOV

29

Tuesday

Physics Colloquium

"Isolated quantum systems in extreme conditions: From heavy-ion collisions to ultracold quantum gases"

Presented by Juergen Berges, University of Heidelberg

3:30 pm, Large Seminar Room, Bldg. 510

Tuesday, November 29, 2016, 3:30 pm

Hosted by: ''Rob Pisarski''

Isolated quantum systems in extreme conditions can exhibit characteristic common properties despite dramatic differences in key parameters such as temperature, density, field strength and others. The existence of universal regimes, where even quantitative agreements between seemingly disparate physical systems can be observed, drives a remarkable convergence of research activities across traditional lines of specialization. I will describe the concerted research efforts by the recently established Heidelberg Collaborative Research Center ISOQUANT in collaboration with BNL and discuss recent developments concerning the thermalization dynamics of non-Abelian plasmas and ultracold atoms.

1. OCT

28

Today

Nuclear Theory/RIKEN Seminar

"Perturbative QCD and beyond: Bose-Eitstein correlation and $v_n$ at any n"

Presented by Genya Levin, Tel Aviv University

2 pm, Small Seminar Room, Bldg. 510

Friday, October 28, 2016, 2:00 pm

Hosted by: ''Heikki Mantysaari''

2. NOV

1

Tuesday

Nuclear Physics Seminar

"Photon-tagged jet production in 5.02 TeV Pb+Pb and pp"

Presented by Peter Steinberg

11 am, Small Seminar Room, Bldg. 510

Tuesday, November 1, 2016, 11:00 am

Hosted by: 'Jia Jiangyong'

3. NOV

4

Friday

Nuclear Physics & RIKEN Theory Seminar

"Glue spin from lattice QCD"

Presented by Yi-Bo Yang, University of Kentucky

2 pm, Small Seminar Room, Bldg. 510

Friday, November 4, 2016, 2:00 pm

Hosted by: ''Heikki Mantysaari''

: I will present the result of the glue spin in proton from the lattice QCD simulation, and also the renormalization and matching issues. The lattice calculation is carried out with valence overlap fermions on 2+1 flavor DWF gauge configurations on four lattice spacings and four volumes including an ensemble with physical values for the quark masses. The glue spin $S_G$ in the $\overline{\text{MS}}$ scheme is obtained with the 1-loop perturbative matching. I will also discuss the generic strategy and possible difficulties of calculating the glue helicity on the lattice, from the large momentum effective theory to the lattice simulations.

4. NOV

17

Thursday

Nuclear Theory/RIKEN Seminar

"TBA"

Presented by Alina Czajka, McGill

12:30 pm, Building 510, Room 2-160

Thursday, November 17, 2016, 12:30 pm

Hosted by: 'Heikki Mantysaari'

5. NOV

18

Friday

Nuclear Theory/RIKEN Seminar

"TBA"

Presented by Armen Sedrakian, Frankfurt

2 pm, Small Seminar Room, Bldg. 510

Friday, November 18, 2016, 2:00 pm

Hosted by: 'Heikki Mantysaari'

6. JAN

13

Friday

Nuclear Theory/RIKEN Seminar

"TBA"

Presented by Paulo Bedaque, University of Maryland

2 pm, Small Seminar Room, Bldg. 510

Friday, January 13, 2017, 2:00 pm

Hosted by: 'Heikki Mantysaari'

7. APR

7

Friday

Nuclear Theory/RIKEN Seminar

"TBA"

Presented by Dirk Rischke, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitat

2 pm, Small Seminar Room, Bldg. 510

Friday, April 7, 2017, 2:00 pm

Hosted by: 'Heikki Mantysaari'

1. NOV

9

Wednesday

Particle Physics Seminar

"TBA"

Presented by Jo Bovy

1:30 pm, Stony Brook University

Wednesday, November 9, 2016, 1:30 pm

Hosted by: 'Neelima Sehgal'

2. NOV

10

Thursday

Particle Physics Seminar

"An improved ultracold neutron bottle for measuring the neutron lifetime"

Presented by Dr. E. Adamek

10 am, Small Seminar Room, Bldg. 510

Thursday, November 10, 2016, 10:00 am

Hosted by: 'Xin Qian'

The neutron beta decay lifetime is an important parameter in theories of weak interaction and big bang nucleosynthesis. To this end, many experiments over the past several decades have sought to improve the precision of this value. Ultracold neutrons, or UCN, are neutrons with extremely low energies which can be contained by material walls; these have provided us with a useful tool in measuring the neutron lifetime. The most recent set of experiments have demonstrated a 6sigma discrepancy between two lifetime values, each obtained using a different method of measurement. The UCNtau experiment at Los Alamos Neutron Science Center, is a bottling experiment which is designed to hold UCN within a 600 liter magnet-lined bowl to store the neutrons through magnetogravitational trapping. The open topped nature of the storage vessel allows for detectors to be lowered into the UCN volume to take in-situ measurement of the surviving UCN after varying storage times. This talk will cover newly presented results from the most recent UCNtau experiment data.

3. NOV

10

Thursday

Environmental & Climate Sciences Department Seminar

"Observational constraints on mixed-phase clouds imply higher climate sensitivity"

Presented by Ivy Tan, Yale Univ.

11 am, Conference Room Bldg 815E

Thursday, November 10, 2016, 11:00 am

Hosted by: 'Robert McGraw'

Mixed-phase clouds are comprised of both liquid droplets and ice crystals. For a given total water content, mixed-phase clouds with higher liquid water contents are optically thicker and therefore more reflective to sunlight compared to those with higher ice water contents. This is due to the fact that liquid droplets tend to be smaller in size and more abundant than ice crystals in Earth's atmosphere. Given the ubiquity of mixed-phase clouds, the ratio of liquid to ice in these clouds is expected to be important for Earth's radiation budget. We determine the climatic impact of thermodynamic phase partitioning in mixed-phase clouds by using five pairs of simulations run with CAM5/CESM. Of the five pairs of simulations, the thermodynamic phase partitioning of two of the simulations were constrained to better agree with observations from CALIPSO. The other three pairs of simulations include a control simulation, as well as an upper and lower bound simulation with maximally high and low amounts of mixed-phase cloud liquid fractions. An analysis of the simulations shows that a negative "cloud phase feedback" that occurs due to the repartitioning of cloud droplets and ice crystals under global warming is weakened when mixed-phase clouds initially contain a higher amount of liquid. Simulations that exhibited weaker cloud phase feedbacks also had higher climate sensitivities. The results suggest that an unrealistically strong cloud phase feedback leading to lower climate sensitivities may be lurking in the many climate models that underestimate mixed-phase cloud liquid fractions compared to observations.

4. NOV

10

Thursday

Particle Physics Seminar

"SB/BNL Joint Cosmo Seminar: TBA"

1:30 pm, Small Seminar Room, Bldg. 510

Thursday, November 10, 2016, 1:30 pm

Hosted by: 'Anze Slosar'

5. NOV

17

Thursday

Particle Physics Seminars- SB/BNL Joint Cosmo Seminar

"A more precise and accurate route from sky images to cosmological constraints"

Presented by Gary Bernstein, U Penn

3 pm, Small Seminar Room, Bldg. 510

Thursday, November 17, 2016, 3:00 pm

Hosted by: 'Anze Slosar'

Current (e.g. DES) and future (e.g. LSST, Euclid) experiments aim to convert multiband images of the sky into precise constraints on cosmological models, neutrino masses, and modifications of general relativity. This standard path for this inference involves making point estimates of the galaxies' redshifts (from observed colors) and weak gravitational lensing distortions (from observed morphologies), then combining these into various cross-correlations and other summary statistics that are compared to numerical simulations of the Universe. These estimators require a slew of empirical corrections to various biases, and have yet to demonstrate accuracies sufficient to reduce biases below systematic errors. I describe two steps to greatly simplify this process and eliminate the need for simulation-based calibration of estimators: first, a practical means to estimate the joint posterior probability of a galaxies' redshift and line-of-sight lensing; second, a method to sample from the posterior distribution of all mass distributions and cosmologies conditional on the galaxy density and lensing data. The main advantages of the new scheme include improved lensing and photo-z accuracy (to the required part-per-thousand level), recovery of non-Gaussian information that is lost in the usual 2-point summary statistics, and correct propagation of uncertainties (including photo-z uncertainties) into the cosmological inferences.