Michael L. Wagman

Hello! My name is Mike Wagman, and I'm a physics researcher working on theoretical particle and nuclear physics. I am currently an Associate Scientist at Fermilab in the Theoretical Physics group. I was previously a Pappalardo postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA after completing my PhD at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. I am a member of the NPLQCD collaboration.

Research Interests

The Standard Model of particle physics tells us that most observable phenomena can be described by a theory of quarks, gluons, and other particles that act as the building blocks for ordinary matter. Understanding how these basic building blocks are assembled into more complex systems like the proton and atomic nuclei is a fundamental physics challenge, and is also essential for interpreting experimental searches for new physics beyond the Standard Model. The nonperturbative nature of quark and gluon interactions in QCD makes it challenging to predict the structure of nuclei and their interactions with other particles directly from the Standard Model for energies below high-energy collider scales. I aim to meet these challenge by using tools from lattice QCD and effective field theory to quantitatively understand how the complex phenomena present in nuclei emerge from QCD and predict features of nuclear structure and interactions required to interpret experimental searches for new physics.

Using lattice QCD and effective field theory techniques, I have performed exploratory calculations of properties of nuclear structure and reactions including proton-proton fusion, single- and double-beta decay, and the quark and gluon structure of light nuclei directly from the Standard Model, see a review including these and related works here. I have used lattice QCD to calculate fundamental aspects of the three-dimensional structure of quarks inside the proton and QCD matrix elements of beyond-Standard-Model processes including baryon-number violating neutron-antineutron oscillations that have been used to constrain theories of the creation of the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe. I am currently studying how lattice QCD and related techniques can improve our knowledge of neutrino-nucleus scattering cross-sections that will need to be determined precisely in order to maximize the physics discovery potential of next-generation long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments such as the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) at Fermilab.

Obtaining precise predictions with fully quantified uncertainties for nuclear matrix elements in lattice QCD is made difficult by an exponentially hard signal-to-noise problem as well as the rich spectrum of nuclear excited states that must be disentangled from the ground state in numerical simulations. I have connected the signal-to-noise problem to the notorious sign problem, and I am using to perspective to build novel tools for taming the sign(-al-to-noise) problem: "observifolds" that apply path integral contour deformations and machine learning techniques to noisy Monte Carlo observables and have shown dramatic signal-to-noise improvements in proof-of-principle studies of gluons in two dimensions. I'm also exploring whether path integral contour deformation techniques can be used to study real-time dynamics of gluons and the out-of-equilibrium behavior of strongly-interacting quantum systems.

Biographical Sketch

I grew up near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I received a BSc in mathematical physics from Brown University, where I explored research ranging from biophysical modeling of magnetic forces on microorganisms to numerical simulations of black holes. I went on to complete a PhD at the University of Washington under the supervision of Prof. Martin Savage where my thesis focused on the lattice QCD signal-to-noise problem. When I'm not simulating the universe, I enjoy rock climbing, music, and yoga.