Structure of T Division: Groups

T-DO/T-DOT Division Office Technical:

These staff are engaged in special projects that do not readily fit into one of the groups. One of the projects is a fundamental study of the processes of hearing and in modeling the mechanisms associated with the workings of the auditory system, and the application of wavelet theory to human hearing. Some general issues in signal processing are also studied. A second area of effort is the application of theoretical science to a broad range of national defense issues including stockpile safety, asteroid interdiction and new concepts. T-DO carries out research in relativistic heavy ions, high-spin states in nuclei, asteroid interdiction, atomic and neutron physics, electronic and structural materials, and nonlinear science.

George Zweig
DOT Program Leader,
zweig@lanl.gov

T-DO Members

T-1 Equation of State and Mechanics of Materials:

T-1 studies the thermal and statistical mechanics properties of materials, equation of state, microscopic, mesoscopic and continuum-level mechanical behavior of materials, electronic structure of actinides, shock physics, hydrodynamic analysis, energetic materials, grain growth phenomena, numerical grid generation, advanced techniques using quantitative image analysis for applications in material science, and surveillance. This work supports the nuclear and conventional defense communities, civilian research communities, and commercial applications. T-1 maintains the SESAME Equation-of-State and Materials Properties Library.

Bradford E. Clements
Group Leader
bclements@lanl.gov

John Wills
Deputy
jxw@lanl.gov

JoAnn Brown
Group Admin.
joa@lanl.gov

Group Members

T-3 Fluid Dynamics:

T-3 staff members are involved in modern hydrodynamic theory, modeling and computational simulations. There is an emphasis on coupling advanced numerical methods for fluid dynamics at all flow velocities with models for other processes, including chemical reactions, phase change, heat and mass transfer, plasma behavior, constitutive properties of structural materials, and combustion. Advanced models and methods are incorporated in fully functional 2- and 3-D computer simulation codes and implemented on the full spectrum of computing hardware from high performance workstations to massively parallel supercomputers. Current applications areas include nuclear and conventional weapons, internal combustion engines, structural materials, process chemistry for the oil and gas, ferrous metals and chemical industries, models for casting, and circulation models for the global ocean.

Mark W. Schraad
Deputy Group Leader
schraad@lanl.gov

Susan Whittington
Acting Office Administrator/Staff Asst.
rolwhit@lanl.gov

Group Members

T-4 Atomic and Optical Theory:

T-4 staff members develop methods for and perform calculations of atomic structure, scattering cross sections, opacities, exotic atoms, and quantum and nonlinear optics, including effects of high energy density environments and interaction with external electromagnetic fields. Current efforts include the evaluation of opacities for a wide range of physical conditions, nonequilibrium kinetics, quantum molecular dynamics simulations of dense plasmas and shocked hydrocarbons, hohlraum spectroscopy, plasma sources of XUV radiation, strong-field ionization and scattering, harmonic frequency conversion of laser light, electromagnetic wave propagation, adaptive optics, coherence and chaos in ion traps, quantum computing, and Bose-Einstein and possible Fermion condensates of cold atoms. The Group maintains an interactive web site for user calculations of opacities of mixtures. T-4 also sponsors the
Los Alamos Summer School, a ten-week intensive series of lectures, tutorials, and individual research projects on current topics in
physics.

James S. Cohen
Group Leader
cohen@lanl.gov

John J. Keady
Deputy
jjk@lanl.gov

Beverly J. James
Group Admin.
bev@lanl.gov

Group Members

T-6 Theoretical Astrophysics:

T-6 Theoretical Astrophysics: T-6 staff members are involved in a broad range of issues in theoretical astrophysics. These include, in particular, (1) studies of stellar phenomena - solar and stellar structure and oscillations, and supernovae and their remnants; (2) general relativity, and relativistic astrophysics involving compact objects; and (3) several problems pertaining to cosmic magnetic fields. In addition, there is some ongoing research concerning comets and asteroids in the solar system, high energy density plasmas, and cosmology.

Jon C. Weisheit, Acting Group Leader, weisheit@lanl.gov

Dayna L. Cordova
Group Office Administrator
dayna@lanl.gov

Group Members

T-7 Mathematical Modeling and Analysis:

T-7 combines the strengths of applied mathematicians, mathematical physicists and numerical analysts to derive, analyze and solve mathematical models of complex problems. Its mission is to conduct forefront basic and applied research in mathematical modeling and analysis, provide theoretical leadership and support for the Laboratory and other programs of national interest, and to furnish an effective interface with academic science. In accordance with this mission, T-7 maintains its multidisciplinary, but highly mathematically oriented character, by supporting a strong applied research effort that is grounded in basic research. The applied mathematicians in T-7 have made substantial contributions in solving large systems of linear and nonlinear equations, in the theory, and numerical solution nonlinear partial differential equations, in modeling the long-time predictability of ocean dynamics, in nonlinear optical transmission lines, in the analysis of hysteresis in memory materials, and in deriving mathematical models for disease transmission.

J. Mac Hyman
Group Leader
jh@lanl.gov

Joel E. Dendy
Deputy
jed@lanl.gov

Esther P. Vigil
Group Admin.
evigil@lanl.gov

Group Members

T-8 Elementary Particles and Field Theory:

T-8 staff members do research in particle physics, both on the standard model of electromagnetic, weak and strong interactions, and on theories that go beyond that. This encompasses a program in computational quantum chromodynamics using lattice cutoffs to calculate the hadron spectrum, quark masses, and weak matrix elements, especially those that are required to quantitatively understand the experimentally observed CP violation; and a significant effort to elucidate the structure of theories which invoke extra dimensions to explain our observed universe. Fundamental issues of quantum field theory forms another key focus of T-8 research, especially in the arena of systems far away from equilibrium, as does the study of long distance structure of quantized gravity. Further efforts include the study of the interfaces between elementary particle, nuclear, and astrophysics, the emergence of classical behavior from underlying quantum dynamics, and the analysis of the controllability of quantum dynamics. Members of the group have also applied their competency in numerical analyses and scaling theory to stochastic equations for nonequilibrium dynamics, modern dynamical systems theory for accelerator design, and the study of biological systems; and have designed and implemented an automated distributed network for the archival and fast dissemination of research results.

Rajan Gupta
Group Leader
rg@lanl.gov

Stacie Bird
Group Admin.,
sbird@lanl.gov

Group Members

T-10 Theoretical Biology and Biophysics:

The Theoretical Biology and Biophysics Group focuses on the modeling of biological systems and the analysis and informatics of molecular and cellular biological data. Its activities reflect the need both to further our understanding of living systems at the cellular and molecular levels and to improve the nation's health and economic welfare. T-10 is one of the few research groups in the world devoted to mathematical modeling and computational analysis of problems in cellular and molecular biology. Research efforts span a number of topics, including: understanding dynamics and treatment of viral diseases such as HIV, influenza, and hepatitis; immune system modeling; receptor-ligand interactions and cell signaling; computational aspects of the human genome initiative; pattern recognition in DNA sequences; characterization and prediction of macromolecular structure; protein function and dynamics; and protein folding. T-10 has created and is also responsible for the maintenance of the HIV and Influenza Sequence Databases as well as the HIV Immunology Database and the HIV Resistance Database.

Angel E. García
Group Leader
axg@lanl.gov

Carol Y. Gomez
Group Admin.
carolg@lanl.gov

Group Members

T-11 Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics:

T-11 staff are active in many aspects of condensed matter theory including electronic and structural properties of metals, semiconductors, compounds and alloys, polymers, microscopic modeling of materials properties and textures, fundamental studies of nonlinear and nonequilibrium systems, and investigations of the properties of heavy fermions, high temperature superconductors, organic charge-transfer salts, and other strongly correlated electronic systems. Ongoing work involves the development of advanced algorithms for scientific computing, e.g., quantum Monte Carlo, molecular and Langevin dynamics involving multiple time and length scales, and the development of visualization tools for large data sets. Current projects also include modeling low-dimensional electronic materials and polymers, transition metal oxides, elastic textures at solid-solid phase transformations, visualization of solutions to nonlinear equations, and issues in field theory and quantum field theory as applied to condensed matter statistical physics problems.

Robert C. Albers
Group Leader
rca@lanl.gov

Barbara Haarman
Group Admin.
t-11sec@lanl.gov

Group Members

T-12 Theoretical Chemistry and Molecular Physics:

The Theoretical Chemistry & Molecular Physics Group at Los Alamos is staffed by theoretical chemists and physicists who work on projects aimed toward an improved understanding of the behavior of materials. Generally, projects in the group seek to describe how basic forces operating at the atomic and molecular level manifest themselves in the properties of matter at more macroscopic levels. Current activities in T-12 include research both in gas phase and condensed phase phenomena, and projects apply state-of-the-art computational approaches in fundamental and applied studies of the physics and chemistry of molecules and materials. Research projects include the development and application of techniques for calculating the electronic properties of molecules, the dynamics and kinetics of chemical reactions, atomistic simulations of materials, molecular modeling of catalysts, the study of solute-solvent interactions, and chemical and biological process modeling.

Antonio Redondo
Group Leader
redondo@lanl.gov

Joel D.Kress
Deputy
jdk@lanl.gov

Ellie Vigil
Group Admin.

Group Members

T-13 Complex Systems:

T-13 creates new methods for solving complex problems and applies them to problems at the forefront of technology. Computational fluid modeling, simulations of large quantum computers, design of solid state quantum computers, granular flows, and nanotechnology are of great interest to researchers in this group. Current research includes modeling of the spread of influenza, determining the shapes of functionally equivalent biological molecules, rapid and accurate modeling of enhanced oil recovery processes, fundamental turbulence modeling, designing laser-matter interaction systems for the National Ignition Facility, determining the predictability of large complex systems, and creating new information scanning and gathering systems.

David H. Sharp
Group Leader
gdd@lanl.gov

Helen F. Smith
Group Office Administrator
helen@lanl.gov

Group Members

T-14 Detonation Theory and Applications:

T-14 staff members are involved in theoretical modeling of explosives including mechanical behavior, ignition and detonation characteristics, and predicting how these are affected by composition and other factors. This includes expertise in hydrodynamics and shock interactions, reactive flow, equations of state, molecular modeling, and micromechanics and material behavior. Current projects include studies of initiation and burn processes in damaged and intact explosive materials, damaged material behavior, advanced energetic equations of state, ab initio molecular modeling, parallel processor computer algorithms, and proliferation issues. These efforts support advanced defense applications and interact strongly with the Laboratory experimental explosives program.

Edward M. Kober
Group Leader
emk@lanl.gov

Beverly Gonzales
Group Admin.
bev@tdo-serv.lanl.gov

Group Members

T-15 Plasma Theory:

Group T-15 studies the theory of the fourth state of matter, plasma, or ionized gas, after solid, liquid, and gas. Most of the matter in the universe is in the plasma state: flames, fluorescent lights, the earth's magnetosphere, the sun the stars, nebulae, thermonuclear explosions, plasmas confined in magnetic fields for magnetic fusion energy, and plasmas used for industrial processing. Because plasmas are ionized and carry electric currents, they interact strongly with electromagnetic fields. T-15 studies the basic properties and collective motions of plasmas and electromagnetic fields. A major activity is computer modeling and simulation of plasmas, developing and applying such widely-used codes as the NIMROD 3D, nonlinear time-dependent simulation code for magnetically confined plasmas; and the DCON code for rapid determination of the stability of axisymmetric toroidal plasmas. Numerical simulation of magnetized plasmas is particularly challenging because of the high degree of anisotropy and range of length and time scales. T-15 specializes in development of novel numerical methods to deal with this challenge.

Alan H. Glasser
Group Leader
ahg@lanl.gov

Carol Y. Gomez
Group Admin.
carolg@lanl.gov

Group Members

T-16 Nuclear Physics:

T-16 staff members study nuclear reaction mechanisms, nuclear structure, and provide nuclear data to the Laboratory and Nation. Current efforts include the modeling of neutron and charged-particle cross sections and spectra for energies up to a few GeV, improvement of fission theories and models of high-energy heavy ion reactions, developing sophisticated codes and libraries for transmutation and radioactivity calculations, relativistic heavy ion reactions, performing exact calculations of few-body systems, the study of chiral symmetric perturbation theory, the production and decay of hypernuclei, structure of exotic nuclei and hadrons, and experimental implications of proposed new fundamental physical interactions and fundamental symmetries and violations thereof, with an emphasis on neutrino physics, CP-violation and rare decays of mesons. Applications include nuclear weapons design, counter proliferation, fission and fusion reactor analysis, radiation shielding, reactor safety, radiotherapy, accelerator operation and space travel.

Mark B. Chadwick
Group Leader,
mbchadwick@lanl.gov

Kay L. Grady
grady_kay@lanl.gov
Group Admins.

Group Members

CNLS Center for Nonlinear Studies

The Center for Nonlinear Studies identifies and studies fundamental nonlinear problems and promotes the use of the results in applied research. It stimulates interdisciplinary research and information exchanges inside and outside the Laboratory, and provides a Laboratory focal point for collaboration with academic and other centers of excellence in nonlinear science. CNLS disseminates recent developments in nonlinear science and introduces young student and postdoctoral researchers to this subject. CNLS achieves these goals by hosting conferences and workshops, through an extensive visitor, postdoctoral and student program, and through interactions with Laboratory staff. The major research areas include biological physics, statistical physics and nonequlibrium statistical mechanics, turbulence, geophysics, and condensed matter physics.

Hans Frauenfelder
Center Leader
frauenfelder@lanl.gov

Len G. Margolin
Deputy Center Leader
len@lanl.gov

Christella Salazar
Executive Assistant
csalazar@cnls.lanl.gov