MITP Senior Postdoctoral Fellowships

 

2022 - 2025
Weiguang Jiang
MITP Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship                                                                      PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence
Institute of Physics
Weiguang's general research interests are within theoretical nuclear physics and include nuclear structure, infinite nuclear matter, and statistical models for uncertainty quantification. Recently he has been working on a project that provides the first ab initio predictions of the neutron skin thickness of 208Pb with quantitative theoretical errors. The prediction that rules out very thick skin is in small tension with the recent PREX II experiment while agreeing with other experiments, including MAMI. His contribution to this is applying iterative history matching and eigenvector continuation emulators to give robust predictions with quantitative theoretical error estimation which enable us to link the few-body sector, 208Pb, and infinite nuclear matter under a unified framework for the first time. At the moment, he is interested in the study of infinite nuclear matter away from the saturation density to test the breakdown scale of chiral effective field theory and to better understand the equation of state of neutron stars.
2022 - 2025
Ida Zadeh
MITP Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship                                                                      PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence
Institute of Physics
Ida’s research is focused on conformal field theory (CFT), string theory and quantum gravity. Our Universe has remarkable properties and there are many intriguing questions remaining to be answered in order to understand these properties. For instance, why is the Universe a hologram? Where does the enormous black hole entropy come from? The goal of her research is to address these questions and to gain novel insights into quantum gravity with the help of using, and developing new, CFT methods.
In her work she studies CFTs as microscopic theories which describe macroscopic physical phenomena. This includes CFTs which emerge in theories of quantum gravity which describe our Universe. A concrete quantum-gravitational context in which such microscopic theories arise is string theory. CFTs play a prominent role here as they describe the low-energy dynamics of the theory. She uses tools of conformal perturbation theory, holographic dualities, and lattices to shed new light on the microscopic origin of instabilities in gravitational systems, on the holographic nature of theories of quantum gravity, and on the origin of the microscopic entropy of black holes as a function of the parameters of the system.
Former Fellows
Javier Fuentes-Martín, Universidad de Granada
2020 - 2021
Javier’s research is mainly devoted to the search of physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, particularly in the form of new interactions distinguishing among particle flavors. The term flavor is used in particle physics to describe the different types of fermions, the elementary building blocks of matter. The Standard Model fermions consist of six flavors of quarks and six flavors of leptons. These twelve particles are grouped into three families that differ only in the masses of their constituents and in their inter-family interactions. Why precisely three families and why they differ in mass while otherwise having the same properties are questions that remain since long unanswered – this is the so-called Standard Model flavor puzzle. Javier approaches these questions from a theoretical and phenomenological perspective, designing models that aim to provide an explanation.
Interestingly, the LHCb collaboration at CERN has recently found experimental evidence of new flavorful interactions [Link: https://cerncourier.com/a/new-data-strengthens-rk-flavour-anomaly ], which now need to be interpreted theoretically. While more data is required to confirm these observations, this may be the first glimpse into uncharted new physics territory, perhaps even hinting at a solution to the Standard Model flavor puzzle.
Javier appreciates the flexibility the MITP fellowship offers him in his research and the opportunity to network with the worldwide particle physics community under the umbrella of the MITP.
Gilly Elor
2021 - 2023
Gilly is interested in beyond the Standard Model phenomenology and model building, astroparticle physics and early Universe cosmology, as well as some formal aspects of Quantum Field Theory. Most recently she has been working on new mechanisms for generating the matter-antimatter asymmetry by using Standard Model Meson systems. Such mechanisms of "Mesogenesis" are testable with some experimental searches already underway to discover or exclude them. She is also interested in uncovering the nature of dark matter and her research encompasses many different approaches to this quest. Recently, she has been studying new signals at dark matter direct detection experiments, as well as new mechanisms of dark matter production that could be probed at upcoming experiments. On the more formal side, she is interested in questions regarding the Gauge-Gravity Double Copy. Her publications can be found here: https://inspirehep.net/authors/1078350
When not doing physics, she explores caves. She is currently involved in the exploration of some of the deepest caves on the planet.