NSF Award
1915053
This award funds the research activities of Professor Dimitra Karabali at Lehman College of the City University of New York. <br/><br/>High-energy physics focuses on the fundamental building blocks of matter and their interactions. As part of her research, Professor Karabali aims to advance our understanding of the underlying theories describing these interactions, in particular Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the theory describing the forces between the quarks and gluons making up all atomic nuclei. Although QCD has been very successful in explaining a host of experimental data, there are certain effects to which these forces give rise which are of central importance and yet poorly understood. These include the mechanism by which quarks are bound together, producing massive composite objects. As part of this project, the PI will continue her work developing techniques that can lead to a better understanding of these effects. This project also aims to explore connections with fundamental problems in condensed-matter physics, such as the quantum Hall effect (QHE). The celebrated QHE, which is associated with systems of electrons in the presence of a strong magnetic field, has, over the years, provided a framework in which to study the interplay of many important theoretical ideas which are critical for eventually unifying gravity with the other fundamental forces of nature. As a result, the proposed research will advance the national interest by improving our knowledge of fundamental science. This project is also expected to have significant broader impacts. It will play an important role in fostering an active, scientifically oriented research environment at Lehman College, CUNY, a predominantly undergraduate, minority-serving institution, and in attracting students to physics and to undergraduate research. The project will also provide graduate-student training and foster collaboration between researchers at Lehman and City Colleges, CUNY. <br/><br/>In more technical terms, the key objectives of this proposal can be organized in two topics. The first is the Casimir effect and Yang-Mills theory. Here it will extend the study of Casimir energy within the framework of the Hamiltonian approach for Yang-Mills theories in two spatial dimensions, as another probe to study the nonperturbative features of the theory. The second is the quantum Hall effect on curved spaces and pair production. Here it will use the quantum Hall effect on curved spaces as a tool to study the effect of curvature on pair creation and vacuum instability.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
