Research

I have recently completed a PhD in theoretical particle physics. I work on spin and polarization phenomena in particle physics and Quantum Field Theory under the supervision of Dr. Nigel Buttimore. Currently we are working on polarized antiprotons, and are deriving differential cross section formulae, helicity amplitudes and spin observables for the Polarized Antiproton eXperiments (PAX) collaboration in GSI Darmstadt, Germany. I work a lot with computer aided mathematics. I have written many Mathematica programs for the computation of Feynman diagrams with polarization. Our goal is a better understanding of the spin structure of nucleons (protons and neutrons), and we also work on Form Factors and nuclear structure in general. My PhD was funded by a scholarship from the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (IRCSET). You can view a statement of my research interests.

Click the link to the left for a list of the International summer schools and conferences I have attended, talks presented and publications.

Here is a paper Dr. Buttimore and I published in the Czech Journal of Physics, Volume 56 (2006) pages C265 - C270, and a second paper we submitted to be published in the proceedings of SPIN-PRAHA-2006.

This link will bring you to a talk that I presented in the Advanced Studies Institute on "Symmetries and Spin" in Prague in July 2005, and later at the IOP Young Physicists Conference. Here is a talk I presented in July 2006 at a workshop (CALC 2006) in Dubna, Moscow region, Russia; and another talk I presented at the 17th International Symposium on Spin Physics in Kyoto, Japan in October 2006.

Also you can see a poster I presented for an IRCSET annual symposium, and the notes A short introduction to Quantum Electro-Dynamics (QED) which I prepared for a seminar.

These are some short accounts of relations needed for Feynman Diagram calculations:
Proof of Gordon Decomposition Identity
Kinematics with Mandelstam Variables
Relations for Dirac Spinors
Having printouts of these on my desk has been invaluable when doing calculations.

Previous Research

During the summer of 2004 I was a summer student in DESY Zeuthen (German particle physics laboratory near Berlin). I worked in the TESLA group on the luminosity measurements in the forward detector region. Here is a report I submitted based on my research. Here is a photo of a presentation I made on this research in DESY Zeuthen. We also got tours of the facilities in DESY Hamburg, including the HERA particle accelerator tunnel. I really enjoyed the summer in Berlin and would recommend this program to any enthusiastic young physics students. You can browse the website of the 2004 DESY Summer Student Program.

Trinity College Dublin

Research

Previous Research