Frank X. Lee
Associate Professor of Physics
PhD, Ohio University, 1993

Contact Information

Research Interest

I'm primarily interested in understanding the structure of hadrons as governed by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) -- the fundamental theory of the strong interaction. You can find a detailed description of my research on my personal home page.

Although QCD can be written down in just one line, it is very difficult to solve. The tool I'm using is called lattice QCD which numerically evaluates the path integrals of QCD via Monte Carlo methods on a discrete, four-dimensional space-time lattice. The calucaltion involves millions of degrees of freedom which must be manioulated by computers, usually supercomputers. The predictions can be made arbitrarily accurate with increasing computing power.

I am also interested in another, complementary approach to QCD: the QCD Sum Rule Method, which reveals the deep connection between the QCD vacuum structure and hadron phenomenology via only a few parameters called vacuum condensates. It is a useful and relatively quick way of getting valuable insight into a variety of hadronic observables, without doing path integrals. The method is mostly analytical, physically transparent, but with limited, generally-accepted accuracy.

Links

On the subject of lattice QCD, click here for an article entitled "Starting from Square One --- The intricate behaviors of quarks may finally yield to calculation" by science writer Peter Weiss at and further readings suggested in the article.

The 2004 Nobel prize in physics was awarded to the developers of QCD: David Gross, David Politzer and Frank Wilczek.

Selected Publications