Douglas Byron Allen Stewart

Graduate Student

Physics

Research

My research with Thomas Blum and Luchang Jin focuses on lattice quantum chromodynamics. Physicists discretize spacetime onto a lattice to simulate strong interactions in non-perturbative regimes using numerical techniques, a first-principles approach that has seen significant success in predicting a whole host of physical observables. Despite these successes, a number of challenges arise. Foremost to my research is the Wick rotation from Minkowski to Euclidean space-time necessary to numerically compute the path integral. This technique locks us into computing Euclidean time observables as the Wick rotation back to Minkowski spacetime is an inverse analytic continuation on discrete, noisy data. My primary work has been exploring numerical inverse methods regulated via smearing. I have made progress in taking Euclidean correlation functions computed using staggered dynamical fermions and reconstruction inclusive Minkowski observables such as the R ratio, with the goal of my thesis to compute the hadronic tensor of the pion.

Education

• M.S., Physics, University of Connecticut, 2023
• B.Sc., Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019