Presidential Young Investigator Award: Nuclear Quantum Field Theory (Physics)

相对论量子场理论将原子核描述为通过各种介子场相互作用的核子系统，罗伯特·佩里正在研究这一理论，以努力确定该理论的关键元素，这些元素可以用来检验它们的相关性。这需要分离出可以在强相互作用场理论中准确预测的核现象，以及最自然地被理解为场论所独有的量子修正的核现象。佩里教授把注意力集中在核真空的极化上，这在传统的计算中被忽略了，并开发了新的分析工具来研究这种真空极化效应的实验特征。他还在研究简单的模型，在这些模型中，宏观自由度的行为可以一致地从它们的夸克成分的动力学中推导出来。这项对核量子场理论的研究处于粒子和核物理的交界处，旨在加深对物理学中独一无二的多体系统--原子核的理解。

Relativistic quantum field theories which describe the nucleus as a system of nucleons interacting through various meson fields are being studied by Robert Perry in an effort to identify critical elements of the theory which can be used to test their relevance. This requires isolating nuclear phenomena that can be accurately predicted in a strongly-interacting field theory, and that are most naturally understood as quantum corrections which are unique to field theories. Professor Perry has focussed his attention on the polarization of the nuclear vacuum, which is neglected in traditional calculations, and has developed new analytic tools to study experimental signatures of such vacuum polarization effects. He is also working on simple models in which the behavior of macroscopic degrees of freedom can be consistently derived from the dynamics of their quark constituents. This research on nuclear quantum field theories is at an interface between particle and nuclear physics and seeks to achieve a deeper understanding of a many-body system which is unique in physics, the atomic nucleus.