VU _____ Piet Mulders _____ NIKHEF

HR

Address:
NIKHEF Theory Group and Department of Physics and Astronomy
Faculty of Science, VU
De Boelelaan 1081
NL-1081 HV Amsterdam
The Netherlands
or
Science Park 105
NL-1098 XG Amsterdam
The Netherlands

E-mail address:
p.j.g.mulders@vu.nl or pjg.mulders@gmail.com

Telephone:
+31 20 598 7892 (VU secretariat)
+31 20 592 2000 (NIKHEF algemeen)

VU-profile page
Nikhef-profile page


HR

Biography and Research interests

Piet Mulders is (emeritus) professor of Theoretical Physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the Faculty of Sciences at the VU University in Amsterdam

He studied Theoretical physics in Nijmegen, where he obtained his Ph.D. under the supervision of Johan de Swart in 1980. After this he worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory and in the Center for Theoretical Physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, USA). From 1984-1995 he worked as a staff member at the National Institute for Subatomic Physics (NIKHEF) in Amsterdam. Since 1995 he works as Full Professor at the VU University and member of the Nikhef Theory Group.

His research interests focus on Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the theory of the strong interactions which is part of the Standard Model of particle physics. In the field of hadron physics he contributed to studies on multiquark hadrons, chiral quark models and Skyrme models as well as on the effect of the nuclear environment on hadron properties. In the field of high energy scattering processes his group made a systematic study of the role of transverse momentum of the quarks and gluons in hadrons pointing out the way in which correlation between momenta and spins can be accessed in dedicated electroweak and hadronic scattering experiments. The studies show how the flow of color charge at the level of quarks and gluons leads to experimental signatures in analogy to the interference patterns caused by confined magnetic fields in the Aharonov-Bohm experiment. Besides providing info on hadron structure, transverse momentum dependence, often in combination with spin dependence, also provides a tool in probing new physics. This research line is also at the basis of the ERC Research Project "QCD at work", in which the focus was on the transverse momentum dependent polarized gluon distribution functions. In his career he supervised research projects involving about 20 PhD students and about 30 postdocs, since 2012 as part of the Nikhef Theory Group. Other specific research topics that have his attention are neutrino physics and the principles underlying the symmetries of the standard model of particle physics.

Dedicated information about the research that was part of the ERC advanced gran (awarded in 2012) can be found on the webpages ERC-focus (English) or ERC-focus (Dutch). There is also a QWORK webpage with details on the work programme.

HR

Teaching


HR

Outreach

HR

Dutch Research and Summer Schools for Ph.D. students

HR

Some talks, conference contributions or lectures

HR

Ph.D. students

HR

P.J. Mulders / mulders@few.vu.nl