By: Dr. Robert C. Forrey, Professor of Physics and Lisa R. Weidman
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” -Albert Einstein
These words of Albert Einstein provide the foundation of Leonard Gamberg’s research efforts, which seek to get to get to the heart of matter–literally.
Gamberg, an Associate Professor of Physics at Penn State Berks, conducts research in elementary particle physics of the atomic nucleus–the very “heart of matter.” Through his research in sub-atomic physics he hopes to develop a roadmap of matter that will help unlock the secrets of how the universe is put together.
In the spring of 2008, Gamberg received the Penn State Berks Outstanding Research Award for his research in the field of sub-atomic nuclear particle physics.
Nuclear physics applications have provided many benefits to society, including radiation therapy for eradicating cancer while shielding healthy tissue; medical imaging technologies such as x-ray and MRI; the potential for abundant nuclear power and safer ways to dispose of nuclear waste; and radiation detectors for screening cargo and protecting our national security.
Gamberg was the college’s first recipient of a U.S. Department of Energy grant in the amount of $120,000 in support of the project titled “Transversity and Transverse Spin Correlations of Quarks and Hadrons in QCD.”
One of the key initiatives of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science is studying the generalized momentum structure of the nucleon (the proton or neutron). Their goal is to discover how the basic quark “building blocks” bind together with gluons to form the proton and neutron, and how to account for the nucleon spin, or angular momentum.
This is also the mission of Gamberg’s research activities.
Gamberg explains that the nucleon provides a fundamental laboratory to study the sub-structure of matter. The nucleon was once thought to be the basic building block of the atomic nucleus. Then in the 1970s, it was revealed through particle accelerator experiments at the Stanford Linear Accelerator (a facility where high energy electrons traveling near the speed of light probe the nucleon). These ground-breaking experiments revealed that nucleons are composed of more basic building blocks–quarks and gluons–called partons.
According to the modern theory of nuclear forces, Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), these partons interact via the exchange of gluons, which hold the partons together. This nuclear interaction is so strong that when particle accelerators try to break apart nucleons in the nucleus of an atom to isolate quarks and gluons, so much energy is necessary to probe this sub-structure, that more nucleons, as well as particles with greater mass than a nucleon, are created.
Thus, the exploration of these basic building blocks entails understanding the properties of numerous particles that have as their basic building blocks quarks and gluons. As a class these particles are called “hadrons.”
To study these systems of particles, Gamberg utilizes the fundamental symmetry properties of nature, in particular time reversal invariance and gauge invariance, as tools to unfold their sub-structure and to understand the generalized momentum structure of the quarks in that variance.
According to Gamberg, the reason he uses this approach is that the symmetry properties of nature govern the interactions of partons and thus determine the outcome of theoretical calculations. It is then possible to test these predictions about hadron structure in the lab; these symmetry properties of nature have observable effects.
“This interplay between theory and experiment is what drives science to progress,” explains Gamberg. “Theory without experiment is just speculation.”
Gamberg often involves undergraduate students in his research activities, providing a richer experience for both the students and the professor.
“Dr. Gamberg is just fantastic to work with on particle physics research,” commented Ken Good, one of Gamberg’s former students who is currently completing his Physics degree at Penn State University Park campus. “He is so full of energy and excitement over his work, any student under his guidance would grow in their understanding of physics.”
In addition to his Department of Energy supported theoretical research, Gamberg also has a strong record of professional service within his discipline. In 2007, he was the lead co-author on a publication that was incorporated into a long-range planning report used by the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy to prioritize research and funding initiatives in nuclear particle physics. He is a member of Relativistic Heavy Ion working group at Brookhaven National Laboratory and serves as a theoretical collaborator on five experiments at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, the premier facility of its kind in the world, which provides an intense polarized electron beam to study nucleon structure.
Gamberg earned his doctorate in physics from Tufts University. Before joining the faculty of Penn State Berks in 2002, he was a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania and has held research positions at The Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Tuebingen in Germany and The University of Oklahoma.
Gamberg plans to continue exploring the heart of matter …