Mark Alford

Title:	Assistant Professor of Physics
Degree:	PHD, Harvard University MS, Harvard University BA, Oxford University
Dept:	Physics
Office:	Compton Hall 358
Mailbox:	Campus Box 1105 One Brookings Drive St. Louis, MO 63130-4899 Hide Full Mailing Address
Phone:	(314) 935-5034
E-mail:	alford@wustl.edu

Courses
Introduction to Quantum Physics I and II, Introduction to Particle and Nuclear Physics.

Research Interests
Dr. Alford's research interests center on Quantum ChromoDynamics (QCD), the theory of the strong interaction. Currently he is working on the properties of quark matter. This is the state of matter that occurs at very high density, such as might be attained inside neutron stars or in heavy-ion collisions. Dr. Alford is most active in the area of color superconductivity, a phenomenon that is analogous to superconductivity in metals, but transposed to the more exotic context of quark matter.

One of the main aims of his work is to find signatures of the presence of color superconducting quark matter in neutron stars. His work therefore incorporates aspects of particle physics, nuclear physics, condensed matter physics, and astrophysics. In the past Dr. Alford has worked on numerical lattice QCD calculations, developing improved actions that greatly increase the efficiency of these computations, and also looking for ways to apply numerical methods at high density.

Selected Publications:

Solution of the complex action problem in the Potts model for dense QCD, M. Alford, S. Chandrasekharan, J. Cox, U-J. Wiese, Nucl. Phys. B602:61-86, 2001.

Color superconducting quark matter, M. Alford, Annu. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci. 51, 131, 2001.

The minimal CFL-nuclear interface, M. Alford, K. Rajagopal, S. Reddy, F. Wilczek, Phys. Rev. D64:074017, 2001.

Absence of two-flavor color superconductivity in compact stars, M. Alford, K. Rajagopal, JHEP 0206 (2002) 031

Single color and single flavor color superconductivity, Mark G. Alford, Jeffrey A. Bowers, Jack M. Cheyne, Greig A. Cowan, hep-ph/0210106