About

• Joined the laboratory in August 2014
• Tests of fundamental symmetries using rare isotopes, nuclear astrophysics
• Contact information
  • singhj@frib.msu.edu 
  • twitter.com/spinlabmsu
• Links
  • CV
  • Professional web page
  • Spinlab at MSU

Education and training

• BS, Physics, California Institute of Technology, 2000
• PhD, Physics, University of Virginia, 2010

Research

Why is there something rather than nothing? Physicists believe that there were equal amounts of matter and antimatter in the early history of the universe, but now the observable universe is composed of matter – so how did the antimatter vanish? The answer could be rooted in the nature of forces between subatomic particles that are not the same when the arrow of time is reversed. Physicists theorize that this time-reversal violation is the key ingredient needed to unravel the cosmic mystery of the missing antimatter. Such time-reversal violating forces result in a property in particles called a permanent electric dipole moment (EDM). Pear-shaped nuclei are expected to amplify the effect of time-reversal violation and consequently have large potentially observable EDMs making isotopes with these highly deformed nuclei particularly sensitive to new kinds of previously unobserved Physics. These isotopes are typically radioactive, but FRIB will produce them, like ²²⁵Ra and ²²⁹Pa, in practical quantities, some for the first time. Our group is developing cutting-edge techniques to implant these isotopes inside of cryogenic solids and to probe these isotopes optically using lasers.

Biography

I was born in India but grew up mostly in Canada and Texas. My father is a theoretical physicist and my mother was trained as a historian. Their background instilled me with a love of textbooks and a particular appreciation for the conceptual development of ideas. I went to college at the California Institute of Technology where I was given a chance to engage in undergraduate research with no previous experience. It was there that I developed a passion for creating, manipulating, and detecting spin-polarized nuclei. After being denied admission to several graduate schools, I was finally offered admission to the University of Virginia, the alma mater of the laboratory’s founding director, Professor Henry Blosser. After a decade in graduate school, UVa mercifully kicked me out with a PhD. After postdocs at Argonne National Laboratory and the Technical University of Munich, I started my faculty position here in 2014.

How students can contribute as part of my research team

Since becoming more established in my research area, I don’t worry about my career at all and spend 100% of my time helping Spinlab team members achieve their career goals - how can I help you? Regarding research experience in Spinlab, you will be expected to perform the “Hughes Trilogy:” build something, experimentally measure something, and theoretically calculate/simulate something. We play with, amongst other things, lasers, vacuum chambers, cryogenic equipment, and magnetic & electric fields. We are very excited to be at FRIB which will provide access to ²²⁵Ra and ²²⁹Pa, which would present an unprecedented opportunity to test time-reversal violation. Please feel free to contact me and, as an ice-breaker, tell me about your favorite book.

Scientific publications

• Detection of atomic nuclear reaction products via optical imaging, B. Loseth, R. Fang, D. Frisbie, K. Parzuchowski, C. Ugalde, J. Wenzl, J. T. Singh, Phys. Rev C 99, 065805 (2019)
• Electric dipole moments of atoms, molecules, nuclei, and particles, T.E. Chupp, P. Fierlinger, M.J. Ramsey-Musolf, J.T. Singh, Rev. Mod. Phys. 91, 015001 (2019)
• Improved limit on the ²²⁵Ra electric dipole moment, Michael Bishof, Richard H. Parker, Kevin G. Bailey, John P. Greene, Roy J. Holt, Mukut R. Kalita, Wolfgang Korsch, Nathan D. Lemke, Zheng-Tian Lu, Peter Mueller, Thomas P. O’Connor, Jaideep T. Singh, and Matthew R. Dietrich, Phys. Rev. C 94, 025501 (2016)