Physics Graduate Brochure - Physics - North Carolina State University

Chueng-Ryong Ji
Prof. Ji focuses on theoretical predictions for the
structure and spectra of ordinary, strange, charm, and
bottom mesons and baryons. This includes exotic
molecular aspects as well as glueball components. To
construct a realistic quark/gluon model of hadrons
consistent with experimental data, relativity is
explicitly realized by taking into account the
symmetries of the lightcone, unitarity, duality, and the
discrete symmetries C, P, and T. One primary interest
is to investigate the nonperturbative vacuum of QCD
using many body techniques and effective field
theory. (chueng_ji@ncsu.edu)
James Kneller
Prof. Kneller’s research focuses upon neutrino
astrophysics and nucleosynthesis at different epochs
in the history of the universe from the Big Bang
through to the present day. In recent years he has paid
particular attention to the evolving flavor composition
of neutrinos as they propagate through supernovae and
how various mechanisms that drive that evolution
manifest themselves in the signal we expect to
observe when we next detect the burst from a galactic
supernova. From this signal he hopes to tease out the
unknown properties of the neutrino such as the
ordering of the neutrino masses, the size of the last
mixing angle and the CP phase. Other interests
include Big Bang nucleosynthesis, cosmic ray
spallation and cosmic and galactic chemical evolution.
(jim_kneller@ncsu.edu)
Dean Lee
Prof. Lee’s research includes topics in quantum fewand
many-body systems and field theory. He is
interested in effective field theory, lattice methods for
few- and many-body systems, quantum Monte Carlo,
nuclear and neutron matter, nuclei, cold atomic gases,
spontaneous symmetry breaking, Bose-Einstein
condensation, and superfluidity.
(dean_lee@ncsu.edu)
Gail McLaughlin
Prof. McLaughlin’s research is in theoretical nuclear
and particle astrophysics. She studies the way in
which nuclear reactions and subatomic particles affect
astrophysical objects and vice-versa. She is
particularly interested in supernovae, which are the
end states of massive stars, and gamma ray bursts,
which still have an unknown origin. For example, she
studies how detecting neutrinos from supernovae
could tell us both about the conditions in supernovae
and also about fundamental properties of neutrinos.
She is also interested in how and where elements are
formed. (gail_mclaughlin@ncsu.edu)
Thomas Schaefer
Prof. Schaefer’s research interests include the QCD
phase diagram, color superconductivity, the behavior
of matter under extreme conditions, kaon
condensation, large-N c QCD, high-density effective
theory, instantons, heavy ion collisisons, cold atomic
gases, viscous hydrodynamics, transport properties,
many body theory, and hadronic physics.
(thomas_schaefer@ncsu.edu)
Further Information
We encourage interested applicants to learn more through the theoretical nuclear and particle physics group webpage,
www.physics.ncsu.edu/ntg. Prospective students can contact any faculty member directly (see email addresses
above) or the Graduate Program office at py-grad-program@ncsu.edu.
.NC STATE Physics.
www.physics.ncsu.edu