Alex Brown

Professor of Physics

About

Education and training

  • BA, Physics, Ohio State University, 1970
  • MS, Physics, SUNY Stony Brook, 1972
  • PhD, Physics, SUNY Stony Brook, 1974

Research

My research in theoretical nuclear physics is motivated
by broad questions in science: What are the fundamental
particles of matter? What are the fundamental forces and
their symmetries that govern their interactions? How were
the elements formed during the evolution of the Universe?
How do the simplicities observed in many-body systems
emerge from their underlying microscopic properties?
I pursue the development of new analytical and
computational tools for the description of nuclear
structure, especially for nuclei far from stability. The basic
theoretical tools include the configuration-interaction
and energy-density functional methods. I work with
collaborators to developed software for desktop
computing as well for high- performance computing.
Specific topics of interest include: the structure of light
nuclei and nuclei near the driplines, di-proton decay,
proton and neutron densities, double beta decay, isospin
non-conservation, level densities, quantum chaos, nuclear
equations of state for neutron stars, and the rapid-proton
capture process in astrophysics.

Biography

I was born in Ohio and attended Ohio State University as
an undergraduate. I attended the University of New York
at Stony Brook for my PhD. I have collaborated on over
800 papers including over 100 in Physical Review Letters.
My collaborations include over 2,000 researchers. I visited
GSI and the University of Tuebingen for my Humboldt
Research Award. I also spent parts of my sabbaticals at
the University of Stellenbosch, the University of Oxford,
the University of Surrey, the University of Oslo, the
University of Auckland, the Australian National University,
and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. All of these
extended my research activities which in turn have
enriched my local collaborations.

How students can contribute as part of my research team

I am excited about the new physics that will be carried
out at FRIB. The collaboration between theory and
experiment will require continued advances in the
computational techniques I have developed as well the
new ideas about how they can be applied. Students
will learn the subtle connections between theory and
experiment, learn the techniques of nuclear many-body
quantum theory, and predict the possible outcomes of
new experiments.

Scientific publications