Kennesaw State physics professor receives three-year grant to create simulations for particle colliders

(Press-News.org) Kennesaw State University researcher Andreas Papaefstathiou has received a three-year, $799,651 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to investigate the nature of nuclear matter through collisions of particles at high energies.

The findings from Papaefstathiou’s research will help elevate the study of particle physics in the context of nuclear collisions at Kennesaw State, as well as help improve the understanding and interpretation of data coming out of the proposed Electron Ion Collider at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York.

The grant was one of 40 awarded nationally by the Department of Energy, totaling $31 million. It began August 1.

“Our Department of Physics continues to excel with this latest grant award for Dr. Papaefstathiou,” said Heather Koopman, dean of KSU’s College of Science and Mathematics. “The fact that this project will connect us with a potential nuclear collider at the Brookhaven National Laboratory bolsters Kennesaw State’s goal of national prominence and makes KSU a destination for prospective physics students.”

As a theoretician, Papaefstathiou works on computer modeling of collisions of subatomic particles. His preferred methods are called Monte Carlo event generators, computational frameworks based founded in theoretical physics, that aim to create precise simulations of particle collisions. He has worked for years on the well-known Monte Carlo event generator called HERWIG, which KSU physics students will be able to work on and extend.

KSU’s computing infrastructure, thanks largely to the Center for Research Computing and computing resources in the Department of Physics, also helps foster the research, which will lead to bigger and better projects on a national level, Papaefstathiou added. The Brookhaven National Laboratory is building a particle collider to complement the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland, and KSU’s research will contribute toward its development.

“I was motivated to work on a collider that would be built in the U.S.,” he said. “Brookhaven’s collider will come online early in the next decade, and it will be colliding polarized electrons and protons, as well as polarized light nuclei, for the first time ever, which is another unique thing for KSU to be involved in.”

In addition to the grant from the Department of Energy, Papaefstathiou is three years into a four-year $147,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study the properties of the Higgs boson and search for new phenomena in particle colliders. The Department of Energy project builds on the simulation and computational work he began under the NSF grant.

“The tools I am developing and using, specifically, Monte Carlo event generators, are central to my research in particle physics, and they have been a key focus in both my NSF grant and upcoming DOE-funded work,” he said. “The experience and expertise I gained through the NSF grant directly contributed to my successful proposal for the Department of Energy grant.”

Papaefstathiou collaborates with Yang-Ting Chien, an assistant professor of physics at Georgia State University who also studies theoretical models of particle physics in the nuclear realm and will serve as co-principal investigator on this project. The Department of Energy grant will also strengthen the partnership between the two universities’ physics departments.

Papaefstathiou’s grant adds to a series of major faculty achievements in the Department of Physics. In August 2024, professors Marco Guzzi and Nikolaos Kidonakis secured a $360,000 NSF grant for their work in theoretical particle physics at CERN. Earlier this year, associate professor Chetan Dhital and assistant professor of chemistry Madalynn Marshall received a $799,934 DOE grant to study magnetic materials and emerging technologies. Assistant professor of physics Mahmoud Asmar also received a grant from the DOE.

Physics students also made significant strides. Senior Casey Hampson conducted NSF-funded summer research at CERN and has continued his research this summer as a Birla Carbon Scholar. Senior Emily Manqueros earned top honors at the Birla Carbon Scholars Symposium in August 2024, the first physics student to do so in the event’s 11-year history. Senior Siam Sarower earned two of the highest national honors for undergraduate scientists. In March, he became the first KSU physics student to receive the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, the most prestigious undergraduate award in STEM, for his research on space-time modulation in graphene. In May, he was named a student ambassador of the American Physical Society, reflecting both KSU’s outstanding research and growing leadership in the national physics community.

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