Steffen A. Bass, Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor and Chair  

Steffen A. Bass

Office Location: 261B Physics, Durham, NC 27708
Email Address: bass@duke.edu
Web Page: https://duke.box.com/v/Steffen-A-Bass-CV

Specialties:
Theoretical nuclear physics

Education:
Ph.D., Goethe Universitat Frankfurt Am Main (Germany), 1997
Dr. Phil. Nat., Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universitaet, Frankfurt, Germany, 1997
Diplom-Physiker, Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universitaet Frankfurt, Germany, 1993
M.S., Goethe Universitat Frankfurt Am Main (Germany), 1993

Research Categories: Theoretical Nuclear and Particle Physics

Research Description: Prof. Bass' main area of research is strong interaction theory, in particular the study of highly excited many-body systems governed by the laws of Quantum-Chromo-Dynamics (QCD).

It is believed that shortly after the creation of the universe in the Big Bang the entire universe existed as a hot and dense plasma of fundamental particles that interacted via a single unified force. As the primordial fire ball expanded and consequentially cooled, the four fundamental forces that we observe today became distinct. The relative importance of these four forces, the strong nuclear, weak nuclear, electromagnetic and gravitational force, in shaping the universe varied as the energy-matter density evolved. In this cosmic picture, about a microsecond after the primordial explosion, the universe was in a state called the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP) in which quarks and gluons, the basic constituents of the strong interaction force, QCD, roamed freely. Due to the rapid expansion of the universe, this plasma went through a phase transition to form hadrons - most importantly nucleons - which constitute the building blocks of matter as we know it today.

It has been only in the last ten years that accelerators have been in operation that give us the capabilities to create the conditions of temperature and density in the laboratory that are favorable for the QGP to exist. The Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the accompaniment of detector systems were built specifically to observe and study this phase of matter. Similar studies have recently commenced at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The experiments at RHIC have discovered a new form of ultra-dense matter with unprecedented properties, a plasma composed of unbound quarks and gluons, that appears to behave as a nearly ``perfect liquid.''

The central problem in the study of the QGP is that its lifetime is so short that only the ashes of its decay (in the form of hadrons) can be detected. In addition, the deconfined quanta of a QGP are not directly observable due to the fundamental confining property of the physical quantum chromodynamics vacuum, i.e. the properties of the underlying quantum-field theory governing its interactions. One of the main tasks in relativistic heavy-ion research is to find clear and unambiguous connections between the transient (quark-gluon) plasma state and the experimentally observable hadronic final state.

Prof. Bass is actively involved in developing models for the dynamics of such highly energetic heavy-ion collisions. His research involves the application of transport theory, statistical mechanics, heavy-ion phenomenology, as well as the fundamental laws of QCD. Only through the application of dynamical models of heavy-ion collisions and the comparison of their predictions with data, may a link be formed between the observable hadronic and leptonic final state of the heavy-ion reaction and the transient deconfined state of quarks and gluons.

Areas of Interest:
Theoretical Nuclear Physics
Computational Physics
Relativistic Heavy-Ion Physics
Phenomenology of the Quark-Gluon-Plasma

Teaching (Fall 2024):

  • Physics 766s.01, Physics research seminar Synopsis
    Physics 298, TuTh 08:30 AM-09:45 AM

Recent Publications   (More Publications)   (search)

  1. Fan, W; Vujanovic, G; Bass, SA; Angerami, A; Arora, R; Cao, S; Chen, Y; Dai, T; Du, L; Ehlers, R; Elfner, H; Fries, RJ; Gale, C; He, Y; Heffernan, M; Heinz, U; Jacak, BV; Jacobs, PM; Jeon, S; Ji, Y; Kasper, L; Kordell, M; Kumar, A; Latessa, J; Lee, YJ; Lemmon, R; Liyanage, D; Lopez, A; Luzum, M; Majumder, A; Mak, S; Mankolli, A; Martin, C; Mehryar, H; Mengel, T; Mulligan, J; Nattrass, C; Norman, J; Paquet, JF; Parker, C; Putschke, JH; Roland, G; Schenke, B; Schwiebert, L; Sengupta, A; Shen, C; Sirimanna, C; Soeder, D; Soltz, RA; Soudi, I; Strickland, M; Tachibana, Y; Velkovska, J; Wang, XN; Zhao, W, New metric improving Bayesian calibration of a multistage approach studying hadron and inclusive jet suppression, Physical Review C, vol. 109 no. 6 (June, 2024) [doi]  [abs].
  2. Zhao, J; Aichelin, J; Gossiaux, PB; Beraudo, A; Cao, S; Fan, W; He, M; Minissale, V; Song, T; Vitev, I; Rapp, R; Bass, S; Bratkovskaya, E; Greco, V; Plumari, S, Hadronization of heavy quarks, Physical Review C, vol. 109 no. 5 (May, 2024) [doi]  [abs].
  3. Kahangirwe, M; Bass, SA; Bratkovskaya, E; Jahan, J; Moreau, P; Parotto, P; Price, D; Ratti, C; Soloveva, O; Stephanov, M, Finite density QCD equation of state: Critical point and lattice-based T′ expansion, Physical Review D, vol. 109 no. 9 (May, 2024) [doi]  [abs].
  4. Ji, Y; Yuchi, HS; Soeder, D; Paquet, JF; Bass, SA; Joseph, VR; Wu, CFJ; Mak, S, Conglomerate Multi-fidelity Gaussian Process Modeling, with Application to Heavy-Ion Collisions, SIAM-ASA Journal on Uncertainty Quantification, vol. 12 no. 2 (January, 2024), pp. 473-502 [doi]  [abs].
  5. Ji, Y; Mak, S; Soeder, D; Paquet, JF; Bass, SA, A Graphical Multi-Fidelity Gaussian Process Model, with Application to Emulation of Heavy-Ion Collisions, Technometrics, vol. 66 no. 2 (January, 2024), pp. 267-281 [doi]  [abs].

Curriculum Vitae

Highlight:

Prof. Bass does research at the intersection of theoretical nuclear and particle physics, in particular studying highly energetic collisions of heavy nuclei, with which one aims to create a primordial state of matter at extremely high temperatures and densities (the Quark-Gluon-Plasma) that resembles the composition of the early Universe shortly after the Big Bang. 

It has been only in the last two decades that accelerators have been in operation that give us the capabilities to create the conditions of temperature and density in the laboratory that are favorable for the Quark-Gluon-Plasma  (QGP) to exist. The Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the accompaniment of detector systems were built specifically to observe and study this phase of matter. Similar studies have recently commenced at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The experiments at RHIC have discovered a new form of ultra-dense matter with unprecedented properties, a plasma composed of unbound quarks and gluons, that appears to behave as a nearly ``perfect liquid.''

Prof. Bass is a leading expert in the phenomenology of the Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP) and in knowledge extraction from large scale data sets via computational modeling. He is best known for his work developing a variety of computational models for the description of these ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions, as well as for his contributions to the phenomenology of the QGP and the determination of the shear viscosity of the QGP.

 Prof. Bass is a member of the Divisions of Nuclear and Computational Physics of the American Physical Society. He has published more than 160 peer-reviewed articles. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics.  In 2014 he was named Outstanding Referee for APS Journals and was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

Current Ph.D. Students   (Former Students)

Postdocs Mentored

  • Jussi Auvinen (September, 2014 - present)  
  • Marlene Nahrgang (January 1, 2013 - present)  
  • Hannah Petersen (January 1, 2010 - September 30, 2012)  
  • Guangyou Qin (October 1, 2009 - October, 2011)  
  • Abhijit Majumder (October 1, 2005 - August, 2008)  
  • Thorsten Renk (January 1, 2004 - September 30, 2005)  
  • Chiho Nonaka (September 1, 2002 - August 30, 2005)