Berndt Mueller

J. B. Duke Professor of Physics mueller@phy.duke.edu Phone: [+1]  919 660 2570 FAX: [+1]  919 660 2525  Office: 250 Physics Bldg. Office hours: Mondays & Wednesdays 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm (or by appointment)

Research Area: Theoretical Nuclear and Particle Physics

Research Group: Hot and Dense QCD Matter / Duke QCD Theory

International Connections: Duke-Japan Collaboration

Duke Center for Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences

Current Graduate Students:

• R. Bryon Neufeld
• Hung-Ming Tsai

Previous Graduate Students (at Duke University):

• Chengqiang Gong
• Chaoran Hu
• Jochen Rau
• Michael T. Strickland

Mentored Undergraduate Students:

• Lester Chen
• Jacob G. Foster
• Dena McCown

Teaching:

• PHY 053L Introductory Physics I (Fall 2007)

Research:

My research currently focuses on nuclear matter at extreme energy density. Quantum chromodynamics, the fundamental theory of nuclear forces, predicts that nuclear matter dissolves into quarks and gluons, the constituents of nucleons, when a critical energy density is exceeded. My collaborators and I are studying the properties of this quark-gluon plasma from the theoretical point of view. We are also developing the theory of the formation of a quark-gluon plasma and its possible detection in high-energy nuclear collisions.

Recent Highlights:

• Sonic Booms at 10¹² K: Viewpoint article by Scott Pratt about work by our research group published in Physical Review (October 2008)
• Towards a Theory of Entropy Production in the Little and Big Bang
• Transverse Rapidity Dependence of the Proton-Antiproton Ratio as a Signature of the QCD Critical Point: A new observable for the elusive critical point in the QCD phase diagram (Physical Review Letters, September 2008)

Additional Links My departmental web page Curriculum Vitae Complete Publication List List of Publications on SPIRES-HEP Triangle Nuclear Theory

Virtual Journal on QCD Matter

Reports and Proposals:

• NSAC Report on Nuclear Theory: A Vision for Nuclear Theory (2004)
• SciDAC II Proposal: RHIC Transport Initiative (2006)
• PSAAP Proposal: RHIC Modeling and Simulation Center (Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program - 2007)
• Research Proposal and Annual Report of our DOE grant (2007).
• Annual Report (2006) of our research group.

Monographs: I have co-authored several physics textbooks and mongraphs, including:

• The Physics of the Quark-Gluon Plasma
• Quark-Gluon Plasma: Theoretical Foundations (with J. I. Kapusta and J. Rafelski)
• Quantum Mechanics: Symmetries (with W. Greiner)
• Gauge Theory of Weak Interactions (with W. Greiner)
• Neural Networks: An Introduction (with J. Reinhardt and M. T. Strickland)
• Chaos and Gauge Field Theory (with T. S. Biro and S. G. Matinyan)
• The Structured Vacuum: Thinking about Nothing (with J. Rafelski)

Recent Lectures:

• The flavors of the quark-gluon plasma - Opening Lecture, Strangeness in Quark Matter SQM2008 (Beijing, China) October 2008
• Wigner functional method in quantum field theory - YIQPS Molecule on Entropy Production (YITP, Kyoto, Japan) August 2008
• Theoretical challenges posed by the data from RHIC - Symposium on Fundamental Physics in Hot and/or Dense QCD (YITP, Kyoto, Japan) March 2008
• Mach cones in a perturbative quark-gluon plasma - Quark Matter 2008 (Jaipur, India) February 2008
• Anomalous viscosities of Yang-Mills plasmas - Workshop on Early-Time Dynamics in Heavy-Ion Collisions (McGill University, Montreal, Canada) July 2007
• From quark-gluon plasma to the "perfect" liquid: Lecture 1 Lecture 2 - Cracow School of Theoretical Physics, (Zakopane, Poland) June 2007
• The perfect black ink: The quark-gluon plasma as seen at RHIC - 20 Years CERN Heavy Ion Forum (CERN, Geneva, Switzerland) March 2007
• Some like it hot: The quark-gluon plasma from RHIC to LHC - Helmholtz Graduate School Opening Symposium (GSI, Darmstadt, Germany) October 2006
• The turbulent quark-gluon plasma - RIKEN Workshop on Frontiers in the Physics of Quark-Gluon Plasma (Wako-shi, Japan) July 2006
• Theoretical Summary - Quark Matter 2005 (Budapest, Hungary) August 2005
• The re-combinatorics of thermal quarks - The Berkeley School (LBNL, Berkeley, CA) May 2005
• Heavy ions - Prospects at LHC - LHC2004 Conference (Vienna, Austria) June 2004
• Hadronic signals of deconfinement at RHIC - New Discoveries at RHIC Workshop (Broohaven National Laboratory) June 2004
• Lectures on Heavy Ion Physics at the LHC - 57th Scottish Universities Summer School (St. Andrews, Scotland) October 2003