Contact Information:
University of Idaho
Department of Physics
Engineering Physics Building 327
Moscow, ID 83844-0903

Tel: 208.885.6380
Fax: 208.885.4055
Email: machleid@uidaho.edu

Teaching - Spring 2009: 

• A Very Pedagogic Introduction to Nuclear Forces, University of Idaho Physics Colloquium, December 5, 2005.
• Nuclear Forces from Effective Field Theory: A New Era in Microscopic Nuclear Structure, Nuclear Structure '06, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, July 24-28, 2006. 
• The Theory of Nuclear Forces: Is the Never-Ending Story Coming to an End? FB18, Santos, S. Paulo, Brazil, August 21-26, 2006.
• Nuclear Physics and Cancer: Recent Advances in the Treatment of Localized Tumors by Proton Therapy, APS Northwest Section Meeting, Tacoma, Washington, May 19-20, 2006.  
• The Never-Ending Dream of Mankind: The Theory of Everything, University of Idaho Interdisciplinary Colloquium, October 11, 2005.
• Is Intelligent Design Science or Religion? Scientific, Theological, and Legal Arguments in the Dover School Board Trial, University of Idaho Physics Colloquium, December 4, 2006.

Selected Publications
Almost All Publications
Cite Summary

More about me ...

Family

Education 
Ph.D., Physics, University of Bonn, Germany.
M.S., Physics, University of Bonn, Germany. 

Professional Experience

• Acting Chair, Department of Physics, University of Idaho, 2003-2006.
• Professor of Physics, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, 1991-present.
• Associate Professor of Physics, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, 1988-91.
• Adjunct Associate Professor of Physics, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, California, 1986-88.
• Visiting Research Physicist, Los Alamos Meson-Physics Facility (LAMPF), Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 1986-88.
• Visiting faculty member, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VPI, "Virginia Tech"), Blacksburg, Virginia, Fall 1985.
• Visiting Senior Scientist, TRIUMF, Canada's National Meson-Physics Facility, Vancouver, Canada, 1983-85.
• Wissenschaftlicher Assistent (≈assistant professor/research associate), Institute for Theoretical Nuclear Physics, University of Bonn, Germany, until 1983.
• Postdoctoral Research Associate, Nuclear Theory Group, University of Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York (two-year fellowship by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft).

Some Current Interests
One of my main research interests is the theory of nuclear forces. These are the forces that hold the atomic nucleus together. Obviously, they are crucial to all of nuclear physics. Over the past three-quarter century, our perception of these forces have undergone dramatic changes. In the early stage, initiated by Yukawa in 1935, the nuclear force was perceived as fundamental, mediated by the exchange of mesons. With the development of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) in the early 1970s, the fundamental character of this picture was called in question. According to QCD, the fundamental Strong Force acts between quarks and gluons. The force between nucleons is then just a residual force similarly to the Van-der-Waals force between neutral atoms. In terms of quarks and gluons, the nuclear force is a complicated problem, which is made even more difficult by  the nonperturbative nature of QCD at low (nuclear physics) energies. In seminal papers published in 1979 and 1990, Steven Weinberg has shown the way out of this dilemma: Construct an effective field theory (effective Lagrangian) for the interaction between pions and nucleons that realizes the symmetries of low-energy QCD, particularly, (broken) chiral symmetry. Today, we believe that this approach, also known as chiral perturbation theory (ChPT), provides us with the best way to understand nuclear forces on fundamental grounds. Using this framework, a lot of progress has been made during the past 15 years. Quantitative two- and multi-nucleon potentials have been derived and applied in microscopic nuclear structure calculations with a great deal of success.
I have performed research at both stages of the history of nuclear forces: the meson theory stage and, in recent years, in the framework of chiral effective field theory (see Selected Publications, Six Lectures on Nuclear Forces, and talks titled A Very Pedagogic Introduction to Nuclear Forces and The Theory of Nuclear Forces: Is the Never-Ending Story Coming to an End?).

                     




Nuclear physics has many useful applications. Unfortunately, the more controversial ones, like nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors, are the best and sometimes only known ones. However, there are hundreds of nuclear physics applications that have been a blessing to mankind. In particular, applications of nuclear physics in medicine save and improve thousands of lives every day. The treatment of cancer by proton and heavy-ion beam radiation is one of the great success stories that, regrettably, your family doctor and even your "specialist"(?) probably never heard of. For more details, see talk titled Nuclear Physics and Cancer.


The Bragg Peak: Hope and blessing for every cancer patient with localized tumor.


One of the most fundamental goals of modern physics is grand unification. The great effort in theoretical physics of the past half century may suggest that the idea of a Theory of Everything (TOE) is a typical child of modern days. This is not true. Almost as long as humans have done science, they have tried to find general principals underlying all nature. Ancient Greek philosophers have played an outstanding role. In particular, there are amazing parallels between the ideas of Plato and the theories of modern particle physics. This fact has been pointed out repeatedly by Werner Heisenberg, who had a classical education. For more details, see talk titled The Never-Ending Dream of Mankind: The Theory of Everything.


Plato's "theory of elementary particles" versus the modern one.



The great brains of the antiquity: The School of Athens (Raphael, 1510), fresco, Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican.


Science and religion, if understood right, are not at odds. Unfortunately, there is a growing trend in our society to construct a controversy between science and religion. Intelligent Design has been the latest creation of the religious creationist movement. The concept of ID was put on trial in federal court in Fall 2005 in Pennsylvania. Judge Jones allowed for thorough testimony from all sides. In my talk titled Is Intelligent Design Science or Religion?, I review the legal history of court cases of this kind and summarize the main arguments advanced at the Dover School Board trial.



Evolution of the universe according to the theories of modern physics.



Creation by God according to Genesis: Creation of Adam (Michelangelo, 1511), fresco, Sistine Chapel, Vatican.