Craig McNeile's Physics Research

Introduction

This document contains information about my research interests and teaching experience. I have recorded a welcome message in mp3 format.

I am working on solving QCD (Quantum Chromodynamics) via numerical simulations of lattice QCD. QCD is a well defined theory, but it is extremely difficult to solve. One set of the fundamental building blocks of matter are called quarks. We would like to study the masses and decay properties of quarks to find evidence for some more profound theory of particle physics than we have now. Unfortunately the quarks interact with each other and other particles via QCD. To study quarks, we need to tame QCD

Numerical simulations of lattice QCD offer the prospect of "solving" QCD from first principles.

For a general introduction to lattice QCD, I recommend reading the review article written by Rajan Gupta. I have written a review article on hadron spectrscopy that had a target audience of nuclear theorists. (This article is available as part of a book on lattice QCD that is available for a modest price. The HPQCD collaboration maintain a list of reviews of their work in the popular press.

Specifically, I am interested in:

My research interests in nuclear/hadronic physics

QCD contains both quarks and gluons. Quarks and gluons combine to form

bound states called meson and baryons. In principle the gluons can produce

novel bound states, such as glueballs or hybrid mesons. However, currently,

there is no conclusive evidence for QCD bound states where the gluons

play a dynamical role. Perhaps, this is because QCD is difficult to solve.

The goals of my research in this area are:

The determination of the masses of light J^PC = 0++ and 2++ flavour singlet mesons, because glueball degrees of freedom may be hidden in these states (Recent papers, 2010 , 2006 , 2000 and a review) .
One of my medium term goals is to determine the mass spectrum of exotic mesons in the charmonium system.
Validation of lattice QCD techniques against basic light meson spectroscopy, such as the masses of the a0 and b1 mesons. To understand novel bound states, we must also understand standard hadrons.
Application of techniques to deal with resonances using lattice QCD.

There are new experimental facilities such as the 12 GeV upgrade of the Jefferson lab, and the PANDA experiment at GSI, whose main goal is to search for the effects of non-perturbative gluons. These experiments will start taking data after 2015. The BES experiment in China is already taking data and plans to look for glueball degrees of freedom.

My research interests in particle physics

Leptonic decays of the Ds meson (Papers: 2002, 2010).
Precision determination of the basic parameters of the standard model of particle phyics, such as the strong coupling (alpha_s) and the quark masses. (Papers on quark masses: bottom-2004, charm-2005, charm-2008, bottom-charm-2010 , strange-2010) (Papers on alpha_s: 2008 2010).

Computational physics

Computer tools to take the pain out of numerical simulations. (See my talk on Data storage issues in lattice qcd calculations).
I was part of the QCDgrid project run by the UKQCD collaboration.
I have written some information about using ganga to submit jobs to compute grids . I made a presentation on using compute grids at the hacklatt09 workshop.

Recent Talks

I am slowly adding my conference talks to a google maps.

View Conferences in a larger map

Research News

Talk at Quarkonium Working Group meeting I have been invited to give a talk at the next meeting Quarkonium Working Group at GSI in early October.
Posted May 13, 2011 2:35 AM by Craig McNeile
New paper on F_Ds submitted to hep-lat I have a new paper out (with the HPQCD collaboration) on a lattice QCDcalculation of the F_Ds decay constant.Update: Precision D_s decay constant from full lattice ...
Posted Aug 25, 2010 12:45 AM by Craig McNeile
Planning to attend HadronPhysics Workshop I am planning on attending the Hadrons, Lattice QCD and Chiral Perturbation Theoryin Graz, Austria, September 13 - 16, 2010September 13 - 16, 2010 Graz, AustriaHadrons, Lattice QCD and ...
Posted Aug 2, 2010 1:06 AM by Craig McNeile
Paper on quark masses from moments My paper with the HPQCD collaboration, on the masses of the bottom and charm quarks has been accepted for publication in Physical Review D.
Posted Jul 27, 2010 1:58 PM by Craig McNeile

Showing posts 1 - 4 of 4. View more »

Education and work history

I am currently a member of the HPQCD collaboration. I have joined the Budapest-Marseille- Wuppertal collaboration.

I am a member of the SFB Hadron Physics from lattice QCD.
I was a member of the UKQCD (new web page), ETM, and MILC collaboraions.

The view from my office window in Wuppertal

University of Wuppertal.

2006 - 2009, an advanced SUPA research fellowship based in the department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow.
2004 - 2006 fixed term lecturer at the University of Liverpool in the department of mathematical sciences.
2002 - 2004 software manager for the UKQCD collaboration, based at the University of Liverpool.
2001 - 2002 physicist programmer at the University of Liverpool working for Prof. Chris Michael and Prof. Alan Irving
1998 - 2001 postdoc at the University of Liverpool working for Prof. Chris Michael and Prof. Alan Irving
1995 - 1998, postdoc at the University of Utah, working for Professor Carleton DeTar
1992 - 1995, postdoc at the University of Kentucky, working for Professor Terry Draper.
1989 - 1992, Graduate studies for PhD at The University of Edinburgh. My supervisors were Dr. Ken Bowler and Dr. Brian Pendleton

Teaching

In 2010 I was helping in the lab for undergraduate (masters projects) Computer simulation 2 as part of the CSIS masters degree.

For a full list of my experience of teaching please see my CV.

Additional information

My CV is online. Mein Lebenslauf.

You can look at my publications from google scholar. Also see my inspire record of publications.

Contact information


Dr. Craig McNeile
Theoretische Physik
Fachbereich C
Bergische Universität Wuppertal
D-42097 Wuppertal

Email: mcneile@uni-wuppertal.de
Phone:  (+49) (0) 202 439 3479
FAX:    (+49) (0) 202 439 3680

You can also read my personal pages.

Subpages (2): mydocs Teaching Experience

mcneile-Physics	Search this site

mcneile-Physics