Department of Physics

elementary particle and nuclear physics (experimental)

Our group has focused on studying the spectrum of light quark mesons using data that are being collected at the BESIII experiment in at the Institute for High Energy Physics in Beijing. and the GlueX experiment at Jefferson Lab.

It is through the study of the spectrum and properties of light quark hadrons we hope to understand the strong interactions that are described by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). QCD in the low-energy, non-perturbative regime is fascinating because it explains the confinement of quarks within hadrons. It also predicts the existence of exotic forms of matter such as hybrids, where the gluons binding the quarks in a meson carry additional degrees of freedom, and glueballs, matter composed entirely of gluons. Experimental confirmation of these predicted forms of matter and subsequent measurement of their properties would provide validation of and valuable input to the quantitative understanding of QCD.

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