MPS-Ascend: Hadronic Physics at Arizona State University

Sumner, Brandon C, Mesa AZ

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Brandon Sumner is awarded an NSF Mathematical and Physical Sciences Ascending Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to conduct a program of research on exotic hadronic matter and activities related to broadening participation by groups underrepresented in STEM. Most of the visible mass of the universe is made of bound systems of interacting quarks called hadrons. Most of the hadrons contain either three quarks (baryons) or a quark and anti-quark pair (mesons). A bound system of anything other than three bound quarks or a quark and anti-quark pair is called an “exotic” hadron and Sumner’s research is aimed at detecting and understanding those unusual forms of hadronic matter. Sumner is already a member of his home institution’s division of the American Physical Society Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Alliance, and will continue to empower and support physics departments, laboratories, and other organizations to identify and enact strategies for improving equity, diversity, and inclusion. The host institution for the fellowship is Arizona State University and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Michael Dugger. Brandon Sumner will conduct a study on new states of quarks centered on experimental measurements of exotic hadronic states of quarks and on the development of instruments to characterize the beams used to create and detect the hadronic states of interest. Specifically, he will measure properties of excited cascade states while searching for new states using data from the GlueX detector at the Jefferson Lab. Sumner will engage in outreach to increase the representation of physicists from underrepresented groups and will collaborate in in-person outreach to K-12 students with the Chair of the Physics Department at Arizona State University, Prof. Patricia Rankin, who is a cosponsor. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.