RUDJER BOSKOVIC INSTITUTE
Theoretical Physics Division
01.1.
Business Plan 2003 - 2007
(contribution to RBI Five-Year Business Plan)
Zeljko Crljen
2002
Theoretical Physics Division
In order to improve the relevance of our work, in accordance to the objectives of RBI of
performance measures and annual planning, that were accepted by the MST and the
representatives of the World Bank in 2002 we make:
Business Plan 2003. - 2007.
(contribution to RBI Five-Year Business Plan)
Theoretical Physics Division is dedicated to fundamental research since the foundation
of RBI. The fundamental theoretical physics research, from the perspective of the wealth
creation, although not immediately commercially applicable, contributes to the economical and
overall development of the society. The quality of fundamental research improves the external
perception of the ability of the society for changes and development. As the tradition and success
of scientific research rest fundamentally on a foundation of learning and teaching it is our interest
to be directly involved in higher education. Besides, the education and learning are an
increasingly important part of our existence and have become a life-long process in a modern
society.
We will continue to expand our research and educational activities improving our
scientific structure and educating young scientists.
1.1. MISSION ACTIVITIES
Fundamental research and education are our basic activities. We shall consolidate and
operate research in theoretical physics, which will have a high level of exellence in an
increasingly competitive environment, and continue to contribute to the educational activity.
1.1.1. Fundamental Research
The Particle Physics and Cosmology Group (PPC) will contribute to the theoretical
knowledge of fundamental particles and their interactions with investigations in heavy-quark
physics, CP violations, perturbative QCD, and thermal field theory, with the forefront areas of
research such as structure formation in the early universe, dark matter, dark energy, and the
cosmological constant.
The Theoretical and Mathematical Physics Group (TMP) will investigate
noncommutative field theory and noncommutative quantum mechanics. The analysis of internal
consistency and symmetries of field-theoretical models and their application to concrete physical
systems is a long-term goal.
The activities in the Solid State Theory Group (SST) aim at the theoretical understanding
of phenomena in the physics of surfaces and microstructures and the physics of strongly
correlated systems. In a broader perspective, the research opens a way to the creation of new
materials and structures with desired properties.
The research of the Linear and Nonlinear Dynamics Group (LND) will center on the
development of new theoretical ideas in mathematical modeling of complex dynamical systems,
in particular on the understanding of chaos in classical and quantum biological systems.
1.1.2. Education
The participation of the Division in university teaching either as a part of the national
laboratory, or as a unit inside the university is understood. Educational activities are expected to
continue at the University of Zagreb, Split and Osijek. Members of the Division will take part in
undergraduate as well as postgraduate teaching. We will continue to be thesis advisers to a
number of B..Sc, M.Sc. and Ph.D theses.
1.2. VISION
To create an environment that will become a benchmark for outstanding and effective
research. There are many activities that will be naturally associated with the activities of the
Division.
The Particle Physics and Cosmology Group would probably be a part of the national
High-Energy Physics Program, which will be based largely on the research in CERN. It is
expected that Croatia becomes a full member of CERN and, accordingly, a cluster of highly
qualified groups, both theoretical and experimental will form a basis for participation in highenergy research increasingly including astroparticle physics and cosmology projects, which have
recently acquired definite interest and support by CERN. The group is presently a part of the
Theoretical Physics Division, but this might be different in the future, depending on the scenarios
considered and the decisions taken.
The Solid State Theory Group would take part in the formation of advanced surface and
nanostructure research project as an interinstitutional collaboration that would include several
groups situated on Horvatovac (RBI, Institute of Physics (IF), Faculty of Natural Sciences
(PMF)). This would be a center of expertise in current theoretical methods (e.g., ab-initio
electronic structure calculations and transport properties), experimental instrumentations and
methods (e.g., ultra-high vacuum experimental setup for surface physics at IF), and specific
forefront areas of research.
The Theoretical and Mathematical Physics Group would maintain its research in
quantum field theory, strengthening its international connections with current and new proposals
for collaborations.
The Linear and Nonlinear Dynamics Group sees a transition of the group into the
Center for Theoretical Life Science and Bioinformatics including applied mathematics
(modeling) and informatics in biology and medicine.
1.3. OBJECTIVES
1.3.1. Research:
1. Investigation of heavy-quark physics and CP violation:
decay of heavy hadrons, their lifetime and quark-hadron duality,
radiative B meson decays and CP violation,
nonfactorizable contribution to two-body nonleptonic B meson decays, and
SU(3) Skyrme-soliton model for nonleptonic weak interactions.
2. Exclusive processes in perturbative QCD:
radiative corrections to the process ,
conformal symmetry in exclusive processes and the
proton form factor and the Compton scattering.
renormalization scheme, and
3. Thermal field theory:
Keldysh component of the propagator and equal-time Green functions in out of equilibrium
field theories applied to the production of photons, quarks, etc., in heavy-ion collisions, and
production of photons from short-lived quark-gluon plasmas.
4. Gravitation, particle astrophysics and cosmology:
self-gravitating sel-finteracting fermion and boson gases in connection with structure formation
in the early universe and possible explanation of dark matter and dark energy,
dynamics of the formation of fermion and boson stars,
isothermal and isoentropic structures of a self-interacting scalar field (a model for
the description of dark matter, unification of dark matter and dark energy),
influence of acoustic black holes on the stability of the accretion disc around compact
supermassive astrophysical objects,
aspects of running of the cosmological constant and its implication,
consequences of extradimensional gravitation, and
5. Noncommutative spaces:
phenomena in particle physics and/or cosmology.
6. Quantum field theory:
analysis of internal consistency and symmetries of field-theoretical models in commutative and
non-commutative spaces in the matrix models and gauge theories,
duality symmetries in low-dimensional field theory and applications to matrix models and brane
theories,and
noncovariant gauges, renormalization of Yang-Mills theories in the Coulomb gauges and the
problem of cancellation of energy divergencies, and
cosmology and the Einstein-Cartan gravity.
7. Surfaces, microstructure, strongly correlated systems:
theoretical understanding of structures of surfaces and microstructures,
single-molecule circuits,
adsorption and reactions at surfaces,
optical and transport properties of microstructures and thin films, and
properties of strongly correlated systems.
8. Linear and nonlinear dynamics:
mathematical modeling of nonlinear systems appearing in astrophysics, colloid chemistry,
cardiology, immunology, and marine sciences, and
fractal analysis of suspended aggregates of particles.
1.3.2. New research orientation and initiatives:
During the last few years, the PPC group has made an effort to open new research areas,
notably in astroparticle physics, gravity and, recently, in particle cosmology. The idea is to have
up to 50% researchers in 'astro'-research. This orientation follows the trends in high-energy
particle physics, which gets a fresh impetus with new generations of astrophysics experiments.
The phenomenology of noncommutative spaces is another subject that seems to bring
encouraging results. These directions in research are to be considered to be complementary to the
traditional research areas in the group (heavy-quark physics, finite-temperature field theory,
perturbative QCD).
The aim of the SST group is to contribute to the understanding of real and novel systems
(micro and nano structures) using new methods (ab-initio calculations with the density functional
theory).
The work of the TMP group on concepts like non-commutative geometry have bearing
on Bose-Einstein codensates, a new state of matter which would have many applications.
The main interest of the LND group will be in the application to medical diagnosis and
prognosis by using novel methods developed in the domain of nonlinear statistics. The problems
to be investigated are irregularities in the heart-beat dynamics ranging from benign ectopic
contractions to sustained tachycardias, and ultimately to disorganized, potentially fatal fibrillation
(in this respect, we study nonlinear waves in excitable media and apply nonlinear analysis to
nonstationary physiological time-series data).
1.3.3. Organizing international conferences
The PPC and TMP groups are co-orgenizers of the biannual international conference
Adriatic Meeting, which usually takes place in Dubrovnik.
1.3.4. International collaboration
To strengthen further international collaboration with universities/institutes,
international agencies and boards. In particular, to establish the participation in the 6th
Framework Programme of the EU Commission.
1.3.5. High competence
The participation in CERN and/or similar collaborations requires a high competence of
the researcher according to the highest scientific criteria. In order to achieve that, the policy is
based on a few principles: enrolling the best (necessarily) young Ph. D. students available, the
promotion criteria based on the published papers and a number of citations, talks, and invited
talks at international conferences. Postdoc research should be done abroad at the respectable
universities/institutes.
1.3.6. New methods
The development of alternative diagnostic and prognostic nonlinear methods in
cardiology (ishemic heart diseases and sepsis) and immunology.
2.1. BACKGROUND
The Division of Theoretical Physics is a cornerstone of the RBI since its foundation in
1950. The members of the Division have participated in many international collaborations,
projects and are members of a number of scientific institutes and academies. A certain number of
former members is employed in engineering, insurance companies, banks, etc., in Croatia and
abroad. Presently, 12 professors at the universities in Croatia are our former members. Some of
the papers produced are recognized as the "famous papers" by SLAC. We are a team of 17
scientists and 15 students and postdocs. The Division is a birth place of many initatives,
international schools, and conferences.
2.2. CURRENT SITUATION
2.2.1. Research
1. Investigation of heavy-quark physics and CP violation. In particular,
decay of heavy hadrons, their lifetime, and quark-hadron duality,
radiative B-meson decays and CP violation,
nonfactorizable contribution to two-body nonleptonic B meson decays,
SU(3) Skyrme-soliton model for nonleptonic weak interactions.
and
2. Exclusive processes in perturbative QCD:
radiative corrections to the process ,
conformal symmetry in exclusive processes and the renormalization scheme,
radiative corrections to the electromagnetic and transition pion form factor, and
proton form factor and the Compton scattering.
3.Thermal field theory:
Keldysh component of the propagator and equal-time Green functions in out of equilibrium
field theories applied to the production of photons, quarks, etc., in heavy-ion collisions,
propagation of pions in a chiral fluid.
4. Gravitation, particle astrophysics and cosmology:
research on galactic halos and clustering of dark energy in the Chaplygin gas model, analog
gravity in hadronic systems,
self-gravitating self-interacting fermion and boson gases in connection with structure formation
in the early universe,
aspects of running of the cosmological constant and its implication,
consequences of extradimensional gravitation.
5.Noncommutative spaces:
phenomena in particle physics and/or cosmology.
6. Quantum field theory:
analysis of internal consistency and symmetries of field-theoretical models on commutative and
noncommutative spaces,
low-dimensional field theory and duality symmetries,
2-D Calogero model, and
renormalization in the Coulomb gauge and
cosmology and the Einstein-Cartan gravity.
7. Surfaces, microstructure, strongly correlated systems:
theoretical understanding of structures of surfaces and microstructures,
adsorption and reactions at surfaces,
optical and transport properties of microstructures and thin films, and
properties of strongly correllated systems.
8. Linear and nonlinear dynamics:
mathematical modeling of nonlinear systems appearing in astrophysics, colloid
chemistry, cardiology, immunology, and marine sciences,
disoriented chiral condensate model of pion production processes, and
fractal analysis of suspended aggregates of particles.
2.2.2. Education
Members of the Division are taking part in undergraduate as well as postgraduate
teaching at the University of Zagreb. We act as thesis advisers to a number of thesis: B..Sc,
M.Sc. and Ph.D theses.
2.2.3. Collaboration
Presently, we have established collaborations with the universities/institutes in
Wuerzburg, Mainz, Bochum, Wuppertal, Cape Town, Bielefeld, Munich, CTH Gothenburg,
Cambridge (UK), Washington DC, Brown (RI)and Eugene (US). Professor Julius Wess from the
Univeritaet Muenchen is one of the foreign consultants of the PPC group. We also have a
collaboration agreement with the TU Munchen, in the framework of cooperation between Croatia
and Bavaria.
The participation in the 6th Framework Programme of the EU Commission., as a
subcontractor of the Wuppertal node (I3 HP Proposal) has been submitted.
2.2.4. Physical infrastructure
The Divison is installing its own computational cluster that shall be a powerful numerical
tool for perturbative QCD calculations, ab-initio electronic structure calculations, and modeling
of nonlinear systems.
2.3. SWOT ANALYSIS (strengths, weakness, opportunities, threats)
The strengths of the Division are:
highly competitive staff with excellent academic skills,
world class research activities,
connections with numerous universities, institutes and centers for
educated and highly motivated graduate students and postdocs.
fundamental research,
The weakness is:
relatively unfavorable age
structure (somewhat better if Ph.D. students would be taken into
accounted).
The opportunity to expand activity is:
good connection with CERN, especially as Croatia is expected to become its member-state,
The threats are:
relatively low salaries,
low fellowships for students, which lowers the possibilities of attracting highly qualified
young people.
2.4. PEST ANALYSIS (political, economic, social and technological factors)
The direct involvement in the development of the society, like application of our
scientific research in the industrial sector is rather improbable yet. We are therefore insisting on
improving the scientific level of the society and the education of students. The factors that do
have influence on our activities are:
Political:
absence of a long-term vision in scientific research and development in Croatia,
absence of publicly proclaimed clearly formulated science policy in Croatia,
absence of Croatia from some major scientific integrattive projects in Europe, like CERN
and Framework Programme 6 of Europian Union,
more independent involvement of RBI in higher education.
Economical:
changes in financial policy of MST.
development of Governmental programs for scolarships.
Social:
ideas and activities that tend to icrease the living standard of employees.
Technological:
technological progress in internet connections (project GRID), constant improvement of
computer cluster systems.
2.5. MARKETING PLAN
2.5.1. Our products are:
results of our research (measured by a number of papers, citations), contributions to
conferences, invited talks, and organized conferences.
number of students educated and promoted to scientific degrees, courses given at the
university undergraduate and postgraduate level.
2.5.2. Market segmentation:
MZT (for basic knowledge in particle physics, cosmology, mathematical physics, solid state
physics, complex dynamics in biological systems).
universities, institutes, international agencies (for teaching, collaboration, organization of
conferences).
2.5.3. Promotion plan
 personal contacts and presentation in journals, at conferences, web pages,
presentation of research results through media (radio, TV, newspapers).
2.6. RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS
2.6.1. Human resource and development plan
There are 17 scientists and 15 Ph.D. students and postdocs, and the sectretary. The
average age of the staff is 54. There is a clear middage gap, which will improve by natural
retirements and younger replacements. We plan to enrol 4 to 5 students in the next 2 years.
2.6.2. Equipment plan
In the RBI Equipment plan for the year 2002 the Division has requested the computer
cluster system. The request has been accepted by the MST and will be installed and start
functioning during the first quarter of the year 2003. To increase the capacity of that computer
cluster, we plan to add five more two-processor machines in the year 2004. The request for the
grant should be sent to the MST through the RBI 2004 equipment plan.
2.6.3. Organizational plan
The Division consists of four groups, formed on a historical basis. However, it suits our
research plan, as the groups are individully oriented to different research fields. The groups are:
Particle Physics and Cosmology Group,
Theoretical and Mathematical Physics Group,
Solid State Theory Group,
Linear and Nonlinear Dynamics Group.
2.7. FINANCIAL PLAN
(Salaries are not presented.)
The income from the MZT projects:
a) Fundamental Interactions in Elementary Particle Physics and Cosmology (PPC group)
b) Quantum Field Theory, Noncommutative Spaces and Symmetries (TMP group),
c) Physics of Surfaces, Microstructures and Strongly Correlated Systems (SST group), and
d) Structure of Dynamical Fluctuations in Nonlinear Systems (LND group),
projected for five years period from the year 2003. are (in k kn):
year
2003
PPC
190
TMP
138
SST
92
LND
81
2004
190
138
92
81
2005
190
138
92
81
2006
190
138
92
81
2007
190
138
92
81
The expenditure will follow the income.
The Adriatic Meetings are self-supporting conferences.
We will need 100.000 kn for new equipment (upgrading computer
cluster system), expected
to get grant from the MZT.
2.8. ACTION PLAN
We
We
will perform research according to the MZT projects.
will proceed to organize the 9th Adriatic Meeting in September 2003., and additional
ones in 2005. and 2007.
We expect to upgrade our computer cluster system in 2004.