Evan BerkowitzMaryland Center for Fundamental PhysicsPhysical Sciences ComplexUniversity of MarylandCollege Park, MD 20742

December 2, 2019

Department of Physics1925 N. 12th StreetSERC 4th Floor, RM406Philadelphia, PA 19122

Dear Members of the Search Committee,

This letter is to express interest in the open tenure-track professor of physics at Temple University. Thisposition was recently brought to my attention by a colleague.

I am currently a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, after completingpostdoctoral fellowships at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and in Germany, as part of the Institutfür Kernphysik and Institute for Advanced Simulation at Forschungszentrum Jülich, both reknown for theirstrength in computational and nuclear physics. My current position allows me to continue my computationalphysics research and to teach one undergraduate class per year, which I look forward to greatly.

In the last year, I have developed my research program in a variety of directions, all involving computationalphysics in one way or another. My primary focus is on lattice QCD, a first-principles formulation of the strongnuclear force that underlies hadronic and nuclear physics. I have also pursued other strongly-coupled problems,including the Hubbard model [30,41]—a description of the electrons in carbon nanostructures. The bredth ofcomputational physics allows me to enjoy productive discussion across a variety of fields, including condensedmatter physics, nuclear physics, and string theory [19,32]. Finally, as quantum computing matures, there are aplethora of interesting questions about quantum field theory that mesh naturally with lattice field theory thatI am now exploring.

My work on QCD and nuclear physics was highlighted in 2018 by an invitation to give a plenary talk at the36th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory [40], the Dr. Klaus Erkelenz Prize for outstandingwork by a PhD student or postdoctoral researcher, and the advancement as a finalist for the Gordon BellAward [35] for scientific computing for a 1% determination of the nucleon axial coupling, which was publishedinNature [34]. To build on this accomplishment, we have launched a program exploring many facets of nucleonstructure from first-principles QCD. Recent and ongoing work includes the first-principles characterization oftwo-nucleon scattering and the finite-volume energy levels of the three-neutron system. I am also involved inmethodological workwhichwould unlock direct numerical computation ofmomentumderivatives of scatteringphase shifts which are critical for extracting two-body matrix elements.

There are a variety of open questions about the Hubbard model we are exploring, from properties of largegraphene-like honeycomb lattices to nanotubes to buckyballs, one must master the strong interactions andstrongly correlated electrons with complete systematic control. The cross-fertilization of lattice field the-ory techniques has been invaluable, and the smaller computational problems these systems pose form a goodproving ground for techniques I intend to apply to QCD. In particular, the application of our computationaltechnique to buckyballs suffers from the infamous sign problem but as buckyballs are quite small (just 60 atoms,

in comparison to tubes or sheets, which can be thousands of atoms) they are nevertheless tractable and providea great place to develop and test new tools without the need for enormous computational resources.

As a longer-term project I have started exploring ways to digitize lattice field theories in ways amenable toquantum computers. Lattice field theories are usually constructed in a Lagrangian formulation, while quantumcomputational constructions are naturally phrased in Hamiltonian language. Moreover, the natural degrees offreedom are reversed: a quantum computer, with a finite Hilbert space, more easily encodes fermions—indeed,some qubit implementations are spins!—while traditional computers easily encode bosonic fields with infiniteHilbert spaces and fermions’ anticommuting nature causes computational difficulties, classically. Learning totruncate bosonic degrees of freedom sensibly and testing that such truncation schemes are in the right univer-sality class using classical computers should unlock a variety of applications when scalable quantum computersare ultimately available. However, reframing questions and reformulating models of interest is an worthwhileexercise in itself, in that it provides another route for understanding models of interest, even without working,scalable hardware.

My field is data- and numerics-intensive. I often perform tremendous Monte Carlo calculations and, much likean experimentalist, must handle extremely large data sets to get precision first-principles results where approx-imate methods fail. This requires development of high-performance computing codes [23,27,36], understandingand streamlining workflows, developing and implementing new algorithms, communication with computer sci-entists, and performing detailed and fully-correlated statistical analyses. These are broadly-applicable skills thatwill allow me to easily include undergraduates with different interests into my research.

I love to teach, and don’t consider it a distraction from research, but rather a crucial part of doing physicsthat helps me clarify my understanding and allows me to spread my passion to others. I recently enjoyed aninterview for a faculty position atWilliams College, known for its demands of excellent undergraduate teachingand high-quality research. I love working closely with students and helping them deepen their understanding.

My CV, a publication list, a description of my current research interests and future plans, and a descriptionof my teaching experience and attitudes are described in the attached application material. Three letters ofreference—should arrive through AJO, and additional letters are available upon request.

I am most easily available via email at evanb@umd.edu if you have any questions regarding my application,but can also be reached at (917) 692-5685. I look forward to discussing my application, and thank you for yourconsideration for this position.

Sincerely yours,

Evan Berkowitz

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1Curriculum Vitæ

Evan Berkowitz

Office: Physical Sciences Complex 3112 Email: evan.berkowitz@gmail.comUniversity of Maryland eberkowitz@umd.edu4296 Stadium DriveCollege Park, MD 20742 Mobile: +1 (917) 692-5685 9901

URLs: arXiv, inspireHEP, RGgoogle scholar, ORCIDevanberkowitz.com

Education

University of Maryland, College Park.2008-2013Ph.D. in Physics. Awarded 19 May 2013.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology.2004-2008SB in Physics, GPA of 4.8/5.0.

Hunter College High School, New York City, New York.1998-2004Graduated with honors in mathematics and physics.

Current Position

Research Assistant Professor, Maryland Center for Fundamental PhysicsUniversity of Maryland, College Park

⋄ Lattice QCD, lattice-improved finite-volume formulae, qubit digitizations for quantumfield theories, machine learning for sign problems in the Hubbard model.

Positions Held

Postdoctoral Researcher, Institut für Kernphysik & Institute for Advanced Simulation,2016-2019Forschungszentrum Jülich

⋄ Neutrinoless double beta decay, nucleon structure, gauge-gravity duality, Hubbard modeland carbon nanosystems, client software for supercomputer users.

Postdoctoral Researcher — Lattice Group, Nuclear and Chemical Sciences Division, Physical and2013-2016Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore CA.

⋄ New techniques for studying few-nucleon systems via lattice QCD, including parity-oddscattering channels, latticeQCD input to axion cosmology, precision tests of gague/gravityduality.

Graduate Research Assistant — Theoretical Quarks, Hadrons, and Nuclei, Maryland Center for2008-2013Fundamental Physics.

⋄ Topological solitons in CFL quark matter, unusual phases of condensed nuclei with ap-plications for helium white dwarfs.

Undergraduate Researcher — Waves and Beams, MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center.2007Undergraduate Researcher — Applied Mathematics Fluids Laboratory, MIT.2006

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Grants, Honors & Awards

500k Summit node-hours as co-PI for The Structure and Interactions of Nucleons from the Standard2020Model, INCITE 2020

4.5M core-hours as PI for Hadrons in Extreme Conditions, Jülich Supercomputing Center2019700k Summit node-hours as co-PI for The Proton’s Structure and the Search for New Physics, INCITE2019

2019Dr. Klaus Erkelenz Preis, for “Aspects of Nuclear Physics from Lattice QCD”.2018Gordon Bell Award Finalist for Simulating the weak death of the neutron in a femtoscale universe with2018

near-Exascale computing.2.1M core-hours as PI for Hypernuclei and the Three-Neutron System from Lattice QCD, Jülich2018

Supercomputing Center65Mhours as co-PI for A Variational Determination of Two-Nucleon Elastic Scattering atmπ ∼2018

220 MeV from Lattice QCD, NERSC 2018 ERCAP Allocation11.3M core-hours as PI forHypernuclei and the Three-Neutron System from Lattice QCD, Jülich2017

Supercomputing Center3M core-hours as co-PI for Scaling Lattice QCD Calculations for Leadership Computing Facili-2017

ties, OLCF Director’s Discretionary Time6.5M Hours as co-PI for Implementing Improved Operators for Lattice QCD Calculations of2017

Two-Nucleon Elastic Scattering, NERSC 2017 ERCAP AllocationHonorable Mention in the 2016 Gravity Research Foundation Awards for Essays on Gravitation2016

for AMicroscopic Description of Black Hole Evaporation via Holography64M core-hours as co-PI for First Lattice QCD calculation of the I=2 Two-Nucleon Parity Vio-2016

lating Amplitude, INCITE 201617.46M CPU-Hours as co-PI for First Lattice QCD Calculation of the I=2 Two-Nucleon Parity2015

Violating Amplitude, NERSC 2015 ERCAP Allocation10MCPU-Hours as co-PI for Lattice QCD Investigation of Hadronic Parity Violation, NERSCFall 2014

2014 AllocationAnn G.Wylie Dissertation Fellowship, University of MarylandSpring 2013JSA/Jefferson Lab Graduate Fellow2011-2012Research Assistanship, Theoretical Quarks, Hadrons, and Nuclei Research Group2009-2013Departmental Fellowship, Physics Department, University of Maryland2008-2010ΣΠΣ, Massachusetts Institute of Technology2008

Teaching

Instructor — a third-year undergraduate physics course at the University of Maryland.Spring 2020Substitute lecturer — for Physics 270, the third semester physics course for engineers.Fall 2019Substitute lecturer — for Graduate Classical Mechanics at the University of Maryland, CollegeFall 2019

Park.Instructor — for Physics 653 Seminar on Symmetries and Symmetry Breaking in Particle andSummer 2018

Nuclear Physics, University of Bonn.Substitute Lecturer — for Theoretical Hadron Physics at the University of Bonn, covering spon-Winter 2017

taneous symmetry breaking, Goldstone’s theorem and chiral symmetry in QCD.Substitute Lecturer — prepare and deliver lectures to graduate classes in electrodynamics and2009-2013

quantum mechanics.Research Mentor — provided daily guidance, technical and conceptual assistance for two highSummer 2011

school students in the Montgomery Blair Magnet Summer Research Program, ultimatelyleading to publication [4].

Mechanics and Particle Dynamics — Teaching Assistant for one section of introductory physicsSpring 2009for engineers.

Inquiry into Physics— In-class teaching assistant for introductory physics for elementary educa-Spring 2009

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tors, focusing on qualitative physical understanding via lab-based learning.Fundamentals of Physics I — Teaching assistant in for two peer-discussion, tutorial-style sectionsFall 2008

of introductory physics primarily for pre-med students.PADIOpenWaterDiverCourse—Instructor and certifier of record for 31 OpenWater and JuniorSummer 2005

Open Water Divers, teaching academic and practical SCUBA diving knowledge.

Publications

[43] Evan Berkowitz, William Donnelly, and Sylvia Zhu. Superfluous Physics. 2019, hep-th/1903.12201.

[42] Amy Nicholson, Evan Berkowitz, Henry Monge-Camacho, David Brantley, Nicolas Gar-ron, Chia Cheng Chang, Enrico Rinaldi, M.A. Clark, Bálint Joó, Thorsten Kurth, BrianC. Tiburzi, Pavlos Vranas, and André Walker-Loud. Symmetries and Interactions fromLattice QCD. CIPANP2018, 2018, hep-lat/1812.11127.

[41] Jan-Lukas Wynen, Evan Berkowitz, Christopher Körber, Timo A. Lähde, and ThomasLuu. Avoiding Ergodicity Problems in Lattice Discretizations of the Hubbard Model.Phys. Rev. B, B100(7):075141, 2019, cond-mat.str-el/1812.09268.

[40] Evan Berkowitz, David Brantley, Kenneth McElvain, André Walker-Loud, Chia ChengChang, M.A. Clark, Thorsten Kurth, Bálint Joó, Henry Monge-Camacho, Amy Nichol-son, Enrico Rinaldi, and Pavlos Vranas. Progress in Multibaryon Spectroscopy.PoS(LATTICE 2018)003, 2018, hep-lat/1902.09416.

[39] Jan-LukasWynen, Evan Berkowitz, Thomas Luu, Andrea Shindler and John Bulava. Threeneutrons from Lattice QCD. PoS(LATTICE 2018)092, 2018, hep-lat/1810.12747.

[38] Arjun SinghGambhir, David Brantley, Pavlos Vranas, Evan Berkowitz, Chia Cheng Chang,M.A. Clark, Thorsten Kurth, André Walker-Loud, Chris Monahan, Amy Nicholson, andEnrico Rinaldi. The Stochastic Feynman-HellmanMethod. PoS(LATTICE 2018)126, hep-lat/1905.03355.

[37] Henry Monge-Camacho, David Brantley, Amy Nicholson, Brian Tiburzi, Chia ChengChang, Evan Berkowitz, Thorsten Kurth, AndréWalker-Loud,M.A. Clark, Pavlos Vranas,Enrico Rinaldi, and Nicolas Garron. Short Range Operator Contributions to 0νββ decayfrom LQCD. PoS(LATTICE 2018)263, 2018, hep-lat/1904.12055.

[36] Evan Berkowitz, Gustav Jansen, Kenneth McElvain, and André Walker-Loud. Job Man-agement with mpi_jm. In Shalf Yokota, Weiland and Alam, editors, proceedings of theInternational Conference on High Performance Computing, pages 432–439. Springer Inter-national Publishing, 2018.

[35] Evan Berkowitz, M.A. Clark, Arjun Gambhir, Ken McElvain, Amy Nicholson, Enrico Ri-naldi, Pavlos Vranas, AndréWalker-Loud, Chia ChengChang, Báling Joó, ThorstenKurth,Kostas Orginos. Simulating the weak death of the neutron in a femtoscale universe withnear-Exascale computing. hep-lat/1810.01609. 2018 Gordon Bell Finalist.

[34] Chia Cheng Chang, Amy Nicholson, Enrico Rinaldi, Evan Berkowitz, Nicholas Garron,David A. Brantley, H. Monge-Camacho, Chris Monahan, Chris Bouchard, M.A. Clark,Bálint Joó, Thorsten Kurth, Kostas Orginos, Pavlos Vranas, and André Walker-Loud. Aper-cent-level determination of the nucleon axial coupling fromQuantumChromodynam-ics. Nature, 558:91–94, 2018, hep-lat/1805.12130.

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[33] Amy Nicholson, Evan Berkowitz, Henry Monge-Camacho, David Brantley, N. Garron,Chia Cheng Chang, Enrico Rinaldi, M.A. Clark, Bálint Joó, Thorsten Kurth, BrianTiburzi, Pavlos Vranas, and André Walker-Loud. Heavy Physics Contributions to Neu-trinoless Double Beta Decay from QCD. Phys. Rev. Lett., 121:172501, Oct 2018, nucl-th/1805.02634.

[32] Evan Berkowitz, Masanori Hanada, Enrico Rinaldi and Pavlos Vranas. Gauged and un-gauged: a nonperturbative test. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2018(6):124, Jun 2018, hep-th/1802.02985.

[31] Chia Cheng Chang, Amy Nicholson, Enrico Rinaldi, Evan Berkowitz, Nicolas Garron,David Brantley, Henry Monge-Camacho, Chris Monahan, Chris Bouchard, M.A. Clark,Bálint Joó, Thorsten Kurth, Kostas Orginos, Pavlos Vranas, and André Walker-Loud. Nu-cleon axial coupling from Lattice QCD. EPJ(Lattice 2017)21, 2017, hep-lat/1710.06523.

[30] Evan Berkowitz, Christopher Körber, Stefan Krieg, Peter Labus, Timo Lähde, andThomas Luu. Extracting the single-particle gap in Carbon nanotubes with Lattice Quan-tum Monte Carlo. EPJ(Lattice 2017)319, 2017, hep-lat/1710.06213.

[29] Christopher Körber, Evan Berkowitz, and Thomas Luu. Hubbard-Stratonovich-likeTransformations for Few-Body Interactions. EPJ(Lattice 2017)133, 2017, nucl-th/1710.03126.

[28] Evan Berkowitz, Amy Nicholson, Chia Cheng Chang, Enrico Rinaldi, M.A. Clark, BálintJoó, Thorsten Kurth, Pavlos Vranas, and André Walker-Loud. Calm Multi-Baryon Oper-ators. EPJ(Lattice 2017)344, 2017, hep-lat/1710.05642.

[27] Evan Berkowitz, Gustav R. Jansen, KennethMcElvain, and AndréWalker-Loud. JobMan-agement and Task Bundling. EPJ(Lattice 2017)335, 2017, hep-lat/1710.01986.

[26] Enrico Rinaldi, Evan Berkowitz, Masanori Hanada, Jonathan Maltz, and Pavlos Vranas.TowardHolographic Reconstruction of Bulk Geometry from Lattice Simulations. Journalof High Energy Physics, 2:42, 2018, hep-th/1709.01932.

[25] Christopher Körber, Evan Berkowitz, and Thomas Luu. Sampling General N-BodyInteractions with Auxiliary Fields. EPL (Europhysics Letters), 119(6):60006, 2017, nucl-th/1706.06494.

[24] Evan Berkowitz, David Brantley, Chris Bouchard, Chia Cheng Chang, M. A. Clark,Nicholas Garron, Bálint Joó, Thorsten Kurth, Chris Monahan, Henry Monge-Camacho,Amy Nicholson, Kostas Orginos, Enrico Rinaldi, Pavlos Vranas, and André Walker-Loud.An Accurate Calculation of the Nucleon Axial Charge with Lattice QCD. 2017, hep-lat/1704.01114.

[23] EvanBerkowitz. METAQ: Bundle SupercomputingTasks. 2017, physics.comp-ph/1702.06122.

[22] Evan Berkowitz, Chris Bouchard, Chia Cheng Chang, M. A. Clark, Bálint Joó, ThorstenKurth, Christopher Monahan, Amy Nicholson, Kostas Orginos, Enrico Rinaldi, PavlosVranas, and André Walker-Loud. Möbius Domain-Wall fermions on gradient-flowed dy-namical HISQ ensembles. Phys. Rev. D, 96:054513, Sep 2017, hep-lat/1701.07559.

[21] Amy Nicholson, Evan Berkowitz, Chia Cheng Chang, M. A. Clark, Balint Joo, ThorstenKurth, Enrico Rinaldi, Brian Tiburzi, Pavlos Vranas, Andre Walker-Loud. Neutrinolessdouble beta decay from lattice QCD. PoS(LATTICE 2016)017, 2016, hep-lat/1608.04793.

[20] Evan Berkowitz. Supergravity from Gauge Theory. PoS(LATTICE 2016)238, 2016, hep-lat/1608.01951.

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[19] Evan Berkowitz, Enrico Rinaldi, Masanori Hanada, Goro Ishiki, Shinji Shimasaki, andPavlos Vranas. Precision lattice test of the gauge/gravity duality at large N . Phys. Rev. D,94:094501, Nov 2016, hep-lat/1606.04951.

[18] Evan Berkowitz, Enrico Rinaldi, Masanori Hanada, Goro Ishiki, Shinji Shimasaki, PavlosVranas. Supergravity from D0-brane Quantum Mechanics. 2016, hep-th/1606.04948.

[17] Evan Berkowitz, Masanori Hanada, and Jonathan Maltz. A Microscopic Description ofBlack Hole Evaporation via Holography. International Journal of Modern Physics D, 2016,hep-th/1603.03055. HonorableMention inGravity Research Foundation 2016 Essay Com-petition.

[16] Evan Berkowitz, Masanori Hanada, and Jonathan Maltz. Chaos in Matrix Models andBlack Hole Evaporation. Phys. Rev. D, 94:126009, Dec 2016, hep-th/1602.10473.

[15] Amy Nicholson, Evan Berkowitz, Enrico Rinaldi, Pavlos Vranas, Thorsten Kurth, BálintJoó. Two-nucleon scattering in multiple partial waves. PoS(LATTICE 2015)083, 2015, hep-lat/1511.02262.

[14] Thorsten Kurth, Evan Berkowitz, Enrico Rinaldi, Pavlos Vranas, Amy Nicholson,Mark Strother, and André Walker-Loud. Nuclear Parity Violation from Lattice QCD.PoS(LATTICE 2015)329, 2015, hep-lat/1511.02260.

[13] Evan Berkowitz. Lattice QCD and Axion Cosmology. PoS(LATTICE 2015)236, 2015, hep-lat/1509.02976.

[12] Evan Berkowitz, Thorsten Kurth, Amy Nicholson, Bálint Joó, Enrico Rinaldi, MarkStrother, Pavlos M. Vranas, and André Walker-Loud. Two-Nucleon Higher Partial-WaveScattering from Lattice QCD. Physics Letters B, 765:285 – 292, 2017, hep-lat/1508.00886.

[11] Evan Berkowitz, Michael I. Buchoff, and Enrico Rinaldi. Lattice QCD Input for AxionCosmology. Phys. Rev., D92:034507, 2015, hep-ph/1505.07455.

[10] Appelquist et al. (The Lattice Strong Dynamics Collaboration). Detecting Stealth DarkMatter Directly through Electromagnetic Polarizability. Phys. Rev. Lett., 115:171803, Oct2015, hep-ph/1503.04205. PRL Editor’s Suggestion.

[9] Appelquist et al. (The Lattice Strong Dynamics Collaboration). Composite BosonicBaryon Dark Matter on the Lattice: SU(4) Baryon Spectrum and the Effective HiggsInteraction. Phys. Rev., D89:094508, 2014, hep-lat/1402.6656.

[8] Evan Berkowitz. Some Novel Phenomena at High Density. PhD thesis, University of Mary-land, College Park, April 2013. http://drum.lib.umd.edu/handle/1903/14096.

[7] Evan Berkowitz, ThomasD.Cohen, and Patrick Jefferson. Multi-channel S-Matrices FromEnergy Levels In Finite Boxes. 2012, hep-lat/1211.2261.

[6] Paulo F. Bedaque, Evan Berkowitz, and Srimoyee Sen. Thermodynamics of Nuclear Con-densates and Phase Transitions in White Dwarfs. Phys. Rev., D89(4):045010, 2012, astro-ph/1206.1059.

[5] Paulo F. Bedaque, Evan Berkowitz, and Aleksey Cherman. Neutrino Emission from He-lium White Dwarfs with Condensed Cores. 2012, nucl-th/1203.0969.

[4] Paulo F. Bedaque, Evan Berkowitz, Geoffrey Ji, andNathanNg. Electron Shielding of Vor-tons in High-Density Quark Matter. Phys. Rev. D, 85:043008, Feb 2012, nucl-th/1112.1386.

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[3] Paulo F. Bedaque, Evan Berkowitz, and Srimoyee Sen. Stable Vortex Loops in Two-SpeciesBECs. Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, 45(22):225301, 2012, cond-mat.quant-gas/1111.4507.

[2] Paulo F. Bedaque, Evan Berkowitz, and Aleksey Cherman. Nuclear Condensate and He-lium White Dwarfs. The Astrophysical Journal, 749(1):5, 2012, nucl-th/1111.1343.

[1] Paulo F. Bedaque, Evan Berkowitz, and Aleksey Cherman. Vortons in Dense Quark Mat-ter. Phys. Rev. D, 84(2):023006, Jul 2011, nucl-th/1102.4795.

Invited Talks

Lattice QCD and Nuclear Probes of BSM Physics, Atomic Nuclei as Laboratories for BSM Physics,April 2019ECT∗, Trento, Italy.

NeutrinolessDouble BetaDecay andLattice QCD,Williams College,Williamstown,Massachusetts.January 2019Hadronic Parity Violation and Lattice QCD, Particle Physics with Neutrons at the ESS, Nordita,December 2018

Stockholm, Sweden.TheNucleonAxialCouplinggAfromQCD, QuantumTheory Seminar, Friedrich-Schiller-UniversitätDecember 2019

Jena, Jena, Germany.TheNucleonAxialCoupling gAfromQCD, Dr. Klaus Erkelenz Preis Seminare, Helmholtz-InstitutNovember 2018

für Strahlen- und Kernphysik, Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany.The Nucleon Axial Coupling gA from QCD, Particle Physics with Cold and Ultracold Neutrons,October 2018

Physikzentrum Bad Honnef, Bad Honnef, Germany.Multi-nucleon Systems, School on Lattice Practices 2018, Jülich Supercomputing Center, Jülich,October 2018

Germany.Progress in Two-Nucleon Spectroscopy, XIIIth Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum,August 2018

Maynooth, Ireland.Progress in Two-Nucleon Spectroscopy, Plenary session of the 36th Annual International Sympo-July 2018

sium on Lattice Field Theory, East Lansing, Michigan.Job Management and Task Bundling, International Workshop on OpenPOWER for HPC 2018,June 2018

Frankfurt, Germany.Probing D0-brane Black Holes, Numerical Approaches to Holography, Quantum Gravity, andMay 2018

Cosmology, Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics, The University of Edinburgh, Edin-burgh, Scotland.

Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay at Lattice QCD, Physics Colloquium, San Diego State University,February 2018San Diego, California.

Black Holes and Supersymmetric D0-Brane Quantum Mechanics, Nonperturbative and NumericalFebruary 2018Approaches to Quantum Gravity, String Theory, and Holography, International Centrefor Theoretical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore, India.

Lattice QCD Input to Axion Cosmology, Axions at the Crossroads: QCD, dark matter, astro-November 2017physics, ECT∗, Trento, Italy.

TheNucleonAxialCouplingfromQCD, Seminare Institut für Theoretische Physik II, Ruhr-UniversitätJune 2017Bochum, Bochum, Germany.

Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay and Lattice QCD, Seminare Helmholtz-Institut für Strahlen- undJune 2017Kernphysik, Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany.

The Nucleon Axial Coupling from QCD, OLCF Users Meeting, Oak Ridge National Laboratory,May 2017Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

The Nucleon Axial Coupling from Lattice QCD, Low Energy Probes of New Physics, Mainz Insti-May 2017tute for Theoretical Physics, Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Mainz, Germany.

Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay and Lattice QCD, Matter over Antimatter: The Sakharov Condi-May 2017tions after 50 Years, Lorentz Center, Universiteit Leiden, Leiden, The Netherlands.

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NeutrinolessDoubleBetaDecay andLatticeQCD, ACFI Seminar, Amherst Center for FundamentalFebruary 2017Interactions, UMass Amherst, Amherst, MA.

Lattice QCD Input to Axion Cosmology, Workshop on Microwave Cavity Design for Axion De-August 2015tection, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA.

Nuclear Condensation of Dense Helium, Triangle Nuclear Theory Colloquium, NC State, Raleigh,April 2013NC.

Nuclear Condensation of Dense Helium, Nuclear physics seminar, Stony Brook University, StonyDecember 2012Brook, NY.

Nuclear Condensation of Dense Helium, Nuclear & High Energy Physics Seminar, Lawrence Liver-December 2012more National Laboratory, Livermore, CA.

Conferences, Programs, Meetings & Workshops

Atomic Nuclei as Laboratories for BSM Physics, ECT∗, Trento, ItalyApril 2019Particle Physics with Neutrons at the ESS, Nordita, Stockholm, SwedenDecember 2018Particle Physics with Cold and Ultracold Neutrons, Physikzentrum Bad Honnef, Bad Honnef, Ger-October 2018

manySchool on Lattice Practices 2018, Jülich Supercomputing Center, Jülich, Germany.October 2018Quantum Gravity meets Lattice QFT, ECT∗, Trento, ItalySeptember 2018XIII Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum, Maynooth University, Maynooth, IrelandAugust 2018LATTICE 2018, East Lansing, MichiganJuly 2018XXII International Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics (FB22), Caen, FranceJuly 2018International Workshop on OpenPOWER for HPC 2018, Frankfurt, GermanyJune 2018NumericalApproaches toHolography,QuantumGravity andCosmology, HiggsCentre for TheoreticalMay 2018

Physics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, ScotlandNonperturbative and Numerical Approaches to Quantum Gravity, String Theory, and Holography, In-January 2018

ternational Center for Theoretical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Ban-galore, India

Technical Advances in Lattice Field Theory, CP3-Origins, Odense, DenmarkDecember 2017Axions at the Crossroads: QCD, dark matter, astrophysics, ECT∗, Trento, ItalyNovember 2017Computational Sciences and Reality, Physikzentrum Bad Honnef, Bad Honnef, GermanyOctober 2017Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay INT-17-2a and INT-17-67W, Institute for Nuclear Theory, Seattle,July 2017

WashingtonLATTICE 2017, Granada, SpainJune 2017OLCF Users Meeting, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TennesseeSpring 2017Matter over Antimatter: The Sakharov Conditions After 50 Years, Lorentz Center, Universiteit Lei-Spring 2017

den, Leiden, The NetherlandsFrontiers in Nuclear Physics, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Santa Barbara, CaliforniaSummer 2016LATTICE 2016, University of Southampton, Southampton, United KingdomJuly 2016Nuclear Physics from Lattice QCD INT-16-1, Institute for Nuclear Theory, Seattle, WashingtonSpring 2016Intersections of BSM Phenomenology and QCD for New Physics Searches INT-15-3, Institute for Nu-October 2015

clear Theory, Seattle, WashingtonNumerical Approaches to the Holographic Principle, Quantum Gravity and Cosmology, Yukawa Insti-July 2015

tute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University, Kyoto, JapanLATTICE 2015, Kobe, JapanJuly 2015Lattice for Beyond the Standard Model Physics, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Liver-April 2015

more, CaliforniaUSQCDQUDAWorkshop, Fermilab, Batavia IL.December 20142014 SciDAC PIMeeting, Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Washington, DCJuly 2014LATTICE 2014, Columbia University, New York NYJune 2014LatticeMeetsExperiment 2013: Beyond the StandardModel, BrookhavenNational Laboratory, Brookhaven,December 2013

New York

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Nuclear Reactions From Lattice QCD INT-13-53W, Institute for Nuclear Theory, Seattle, Wash-March 2013ington.

International Nuclear Physics Conference, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.July 2010National Nuclear Physics Summer School and TRIUMF Summer Institute, TRIUMF, Vancouver,June 2010

Canada.Workshop on Large N Gauge Theories, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland.May 2010

Service

Referee— Journal of Physics B: AMO Physics, Physical Reviews B &D, Journal of High-EnergyOngoingPhysics, Frontiers in Nuclear Physics, Computer Physics Communications.

Organizer, March for Science, Köln — graphic design, social media, outreach.Spring 2019Organizer, March for Science, Köln — graphic design, social media, outreach.Spring 2018Organizer, March for Science, Bonn — helped with logistics, volunteers, speakers, etc.Spring 2017Organizer, Lattice for Beyond the Standard Model Physics Workshop, LLNL — ran a three-day work-April 2015

shop for high-energy theorists, string theorists, and lattice QCD practitioners.Volunteer, BayArea Science Festival —helping attendees navigate and otherwise enjoy the festival.November 2014Judge and Team Leader, Contra Costa County Science and Engineering Fair — judging awards for 7thMarch 2014

and 8th grade student projects regarding the physical sciences.Judge, Northern Virginia Regional Science and Engineering Fair — deciding awards for 11th and 12thSpring 2013

grade students on behalf of the MIT Club of DC.Seminar Organizer — planning and organizing the joint seminar for the nuclear theory and ex-Fall 2010

perimental groups.Judge, Montgomery County Science Fair — deciding awards on behalf of the MIT Alumni Associ-Spring 2010

ation.Volunteer, Physics is Phun — setting up and guiding hands-on demos before the main program of2008-2009

the UMD outreach program targeted at middle- and high-school students.Volunteer, Harvard-MITMathematics Tournament — preparing classrooms, directing participants2006-2007

to rooms, and providing other logistical support for the joint Harvard-MIT Math Tourna-ment for high school students.

Skills & Interests

ComputerLanguages—C,C++,Mathematica, Python, Scheme,MATLAB, LATEX, bash,HTML/PHP.Familiar with Java, Perl, Fortran. Capable in domain specific software: QDP++, Chroma,hypre.

Language — Hablo un poco español, und ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch.PADI OpenWater Scuba Instructor — #192443.Diversions — skiing, cycling, hiking, rock climbing, billiards, puzzles and games, and sailing.

Press

• Dr. Klaus Erkelenz Preis an Herausragenden Physiker Vergeben, an article in the JahresberichtBonner Universitätsstiftung 2018.

• Jens Kube, Wie lange lebt ein Neutron?, Magazin effzett , April 2019 [English version: Howlong does a neutron live?].

• Reinhard Breuer, Rätselhafte Atombausteine, Bild der Wissenschaft, December 2018.

• Improved Nuclear Physics Code for Supercomputing Demonstrated by Award Finalists, technol-ogy.org, 6 November 2018.

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• Ben Cotton, Increasing HPC Utilization with Meta-Queues, The Next Platform, 20 March2017.

• Физики описали испарение черной дырывнульмерные объекты, Lenta.ru, 20March2016.

• New Particle Born Inside HeliumWhite Dwarf Stars, Say Physicists Technology Review arXivBlog, 11 November 2011.

Evan BerkowitzDecember 2, 2019

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1Publication List

Evan Berkowitz

Office: Physical Sciences Complex 3112 Email: evan.berkowitz@gmail.comUniversity of Maryland eberkowitz@umd.edu4296 Stadium DriveCollege Park, MD 20742 Mobile: +1 (917) 692-5685 9901

URLs: arXiv, inspireHEP, RGgoogle scholar, ORCIDevanberkowitz.com

Citation Information

As of 30 November 2019:

According to inspireHEP my hHEP-index is 12, with a total of 561 citations to 41 papers. Mymost-cited paper is Lattice QCD Input for Axion Cosmology [11] which was the first paper to uselattice techniques to compute the high-temperature topological susceptibility that controls theaxion mass (from Yang-Mills, rather than full QCD), followed by Two-Nucleon Higher Partial-Wave ScatteringfromLatticeQCD [12], where we first used latticemethods to compute parity-oddpartial wave scattering data (atmπ ≃ 800 MeV). Our 2018 1% lattice determination [34] of thenucleon axial coupling gA, published inNature, is accelerating and will likely overtake these twopapers this year. I try to keep my author pages on the arχiv, Google Scholar, Research GateandmyORCID 0000-0003-1082-1374 current and also have some code available on github. Anupper bound on my Erdős number is 5 (through Thomas Cohen).

Publications

[43] Evan Berkowitz, William Donnelly, and Sylvia Zhu. Superfluous Physics. 2019, hep-th/1903.12201.

[42] Amy Nicholson, Evan Berkowitz, Henry Monge-Camacho, David Brantley, Nicolas Gar-ron, Chia Cheng Chang, Enrico Rinaldi, M.A. Clark, Bálint Joó, Thorsten Kurth, BrianC. Tiburzi, Pavlos Vranas, and André Walker-Loud. Symmetries and Interactions fromLattice QCD. CIPANP2018, 2018, hep-lat/1812.11127.

[41] Jan-Lukas Wynen, Evan Berkowitz, Christopher Körber, Timo A. Lähde, and ThomasLuu. Avoiding Ergodicity Problems in Lattice Discretizations of the Hubbard Model.Phys. Rev. B, B100(7):075141, 2019, cond-mat.str-el/1812.09268.

[40] Evan Berkowitz, David Brantley, Kenneth McElvain, André Walker-Loud, Chia ChengChang, M.A. Clark, Thorsten Kurth, Bálint Joó, Henry Monge-Camacho, Amy Nichol-son, Enrico Rinaldi, and Pavlos Vranas. Progress in Multibaryon Spectroscopy.PoS(LATTICE 2018)003, 2018, hep-lat/1902.09416.

[39] Jan-LukasWynen, Evan Berkowitz, Thomas Luu, Andrea Shindler and John Bulava. Threeneutrons from Lattice QCD. PoS(LATTICE 2018)092, 2018, hep-lat/1810.12747.

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[38] Arjun SinghGambhir, David Brantley, Pavlos Vranas, Evan Berkowitz, Chia Cheng Chang,M.A. Clark, Thorsten Kurth, André Walker-Loud, Chris Monahan, Amy Nicholson, andEnrico Rinaldi. The Stochastic Feynman-HellmanMethod. PoS(LATTICE 2018)126, hep-lat/1905.03355.

[37] Henry Monge-Camacho, David Brantley, Amy Nicholson, Brian Tiburzi, Chia ChengChang, Evan Berkowitz, Thorsten Kurth, AndréWalker-Loud,M.A. Clark, Pavlos Vranas,Enrico Rinaldi, and Nicolas Garron. Short Range Operator Contributions to 0νββ decayfrom LQCD. PoS(LATTICE 2018)263, 2018, hep-lat/1904.12055.

[36] Evan Berkowitz, Gustav Jansen, Kenneth McElvain, and André Walker-Loud. Job Man-agement with mpi_jm. In Shalf Yokota, Weiland and Alam, editors, proceedings of theInternational Conference on High Performance Computing, pages 432–439. Springer Inter-national Publishing, 2018.

[35] Evan Berkowitz, M.A. Clark, Arjun Gambhir, Ken McElvain, Amy Nicholson, Enrico Ri-naldi, Pavlos Vranas, AndréWalker-Loud, Chia ChengChang, Báling Joó, ThorstenKurth,Kostas Orginos. Simulating the weak death of the neutron in a femtoscale universe withnear-Exascale computing. hep-lat/1810.01609. 2018 Gordon Bell Finalist.

[34] Chia Cheng Chang, Amy Nicholson, Enrico Rinaldi, Evan Berkowitz, Nicholas Garron,David A. Brantley, H. Monge-Camacho, Chris Monahan, Chris Bouchard, M.A. Clark,Bálint Joó, Thorsten Kurth, Kostas Orginos, Pavlos Vranas, and André Walker-Loud. Aper-cent-level determination of the nucleon axial coupling fromQuantumChromodynam-ics. Nature, 558:91–94, 2018, hep-lat/1805.12130.

[33] Amy Nicholson, Evan Berkowitz, Henry Monge-Camacho, David Brantley, N. Garron,Chia Cheng Chang, Enrico Rinaldi, M.A. Clark, Bálint Joó, Thorsten Kurth, BrianTiburzi, Pavlos Vranas, and André Walker-Loud. Heavy Physics Contributions to Neu-trinoless Double Beta Decay from QCD. Phys. Rev. Lett., 121:172501, Oct 2018, nucl-th/1805.02634.

[32] Evan Berkowitz, Masanori Hanada, Enrico Rinaldi and Pavlos Vranas. Gauged and un-gauged: a nonperturbative test. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2018(6):124, Jun 2018, hep-th/1802.02985.

[31] Chia Cheng Chang, Amy Nicholson, Enrico Rinaldi, Evan Berkowitz, Nicolas Garron,David Brantley, Henry Monge-Camacho, Chris Monahan, Chris Bouchard, M.A. Clark,Bálint Joó, Thorsten Kurth, Kostas Orginos, Pavlos Vranas, and AndréWalker-Loud. Nu-cleon axial coupling from Lattice QCD. EPJ(Lattice 2017)21, 2017, hep-lat/1710.06523.

[30] Evan Berkowitz, Christopher Körber, Stefan Krieg, Peter Labus, Timo Lähde, andThomas Luu. Extracting the single-particle gap in Carbon nanotubes with Lattice Quan-tum Monte Carlo. EPJ(Lattice 2017)319, 2017, hep-lat/1710.06213.

[29] Christopher Körber, Evan Berkowitz, and Thomas Luu. Hubbard-Stratonovich-likeTransformations for Few-Body Interactions. EPJ(Lattice 2017)133, 2017, nucl-th/1710.03126.

[28] Evan Berkowitz, Amy Nicholson, Chia Cheng Chang, Enrico Rinaldi, M.A. Clark, BálintJoó, Thorsten Kurth, Pavlos Vranas, and André Walker-Loud. Calm Multi-Baryon Oper-ators. EPJ(Lattice 2017)344, 2017, hep-lat/1710.05642.

[27] Evan Berkowitz, Gustav R. Jansen, KennethMcElvain, and AndréWalker-Loud. JobMan-agement and Task Bundling. EPJ(Lattice 2017)335, 2017, hep-lat/1710.01986.

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[26] Enrico Rinaldi, Evan Berkowitz, Masanori Hanada, Jonathan Maltz, and Pavlos Vranas.TowardHolographic Reconstruction of Bulk Geometry from Lattice Simulations. Journalof High Energy Physics, 2:42, 2018, hep-th/1709.01932.

[25] Christopher Körber, Evan Berkowitz, and Thomas Luu. Sampling General N-BodyInteractions with Auxiliary Fields. EPL (Europhysics Letters), 119(6):60006, 2017, nucl-th/1706.06494.

[24] Evan Berkowitz, David Brantley, Chris Bouchard, Chia Cheng Chang, M. A. Clark,Nicholas Garron, Bálint Joó, Thorsten Kurth, Chris Monahan, Henry Monge-Camacho,Amy Nicholson, Kostas Orginos, Enrico Rinaldi, Pavlos Vranas, and AndréWalker-Loud.An Accurate Calculation of the Nucleon Axial Charge with Lattice QCD. 2017, hep-lat/1704.01114.

[23] EvanBerkowitz. METAQ: Bundle SupercomputingTasks. 2017, physics.comp-ph/1702.06122.

[22] Evan Berkowitz, Chris Bouchard, Chia Cheng Chang, M. A. Clark, Bálint Joó, ThorstenKurth, Christopher Monahan, Amy Nicholson, Kostas Orginos, Enrico Rinaldi, PavlosVranas, and André Walker-Loud. Möbius Domain-Wall fermions on gradient-flowed dy-namical HISQ ensembles. Phys. Rev. D, 96:054513, Sep 2017, hep-lat/1701.07559.

[21] Amy Nicholson, Evan Berkowitz, Chia Cheng Chang, M. A. Clark, Balint Joo, ThorstenKurth, Enrico Rinaldi, Brian Tiburzi, Pavlos Vranas, Andre Walker-Loud. Neutrinolessdouble beta decay from lattice QCD. PoS(LATTICE 2016)017, 2016, hep-lat/1608.04793.

[20] Evan Berkowitz. Supergravity from Gauge Theory. PoS(LATTICE 2016)238, 2016, hep-lat/1608.01951.

[19] Evan Berkowitz, Enrico Rinaldi, Masanori Hanada, Goro Ishiki, Shinji Shimasaki, andPavlos Vranas. Precision lattice test of the gauge/gravity duality at large N . Phys. Rev. D,94:094501, Nov 2016, hep-lat/1606.04951.

[18] Evan Berkowitz, Enrico Rinaldi, Masanori Hanada, Goro Ishiki, Shinji Shimasaki, PavlosVranas. Supergravity from D0-brane Quantum Mechanics. 2016, hep-th/1606.04948.

[17] Evan Berkowitz, Masanori Hanada, and Jonathan Maltz. A Microscopic Description ofBlack Hole Evaporation via Holography. International Journal of Modern Physics D, 2016,hep-th/1603.03055. HonorableMention inGravity Research Foundation 2016 Essay Com-petition.

[16] Evan Berkowitz, Masanori Hanada, and Jonathan Maltz. Chaos in Matrix Models andBlack Hole Evaporation. Phys. Rev. D, 94:126009, Dec 2016, hep-th/1602.10473.

[15] Amy Nicholson, Evan Berkowitz, Enrico Rinaldi, Pavlos Vranas, Thorsten Kurth, BálintJoó. Two-nucleon scattering in multiple partial waves. PoS(LATTICE 2015)083, 2015, hep-lat/1511.02262.

[14] Thorsten Kurth, Evan Berkowitz, Enrico Rinaldi, Pavlos Vranas, Amy Nicholson,Mark Strother, and André Walker-Loud. Nuclear Parity Violation from Lattice QCD.PoS(LATTICE 2015)329, 2015, hep-lat/1511.02260.

[13] Evan Berkowitz. Lattice QCD and Axion Cosmology. PoS(LATTICE 2015)236, 2015, hep-lat/1509.02976.

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[12] Evan Berkowitz, Thorsten Kurth, Amy Nicholson, Bálint Joó, Enrico Rinaldi, MarkStrother, Pavlos M. Vranas, and André Walker-Loud. Two-Nucleon Higher Partial-WaveScattering from Lattice QCD. Physics Letters B, 765:285 – 292, 2017, hep-lat/1508.00886.

[11] Evan Berkowitz, Michael I. Buchoff, and Enrico Rinaldi. Lattice QCD Input for AxionCosmology. Phys. Rev., D92:034507, 2015, hep-ph/1505.07455.

[10] Appelquist et al. (The Lattice Strong Dynamics Collaboration). Detecting Stealth DarkMatter Directly through Electromagnetic Polarizability. Phys. Rev. Lett., 115:171803, Oct2015, hep-ph/1503.04205. PRL Editor’s Suggestion.

[9] Appelquist et al. (The Lattice Strong Dynamics Collaboration). Composite BosonicBaryon Dark Matter on the Lattice: SU(4) Baryon Spectrum and the Effective HiggsInteraction. Phys. Rev., D89:094508, 2014, hep-lat/1402.6656.

[8] Evan Berkowitz. Some Novel Phenomena at High Density. PhD thesis, University of Mary-land, College Park, April 2013. http://drum.lib.umd.edu/handle/1903/14096.

[7] Evan Berkowitz, ThomasD.Cohen, and Patrick Jefferson. Multi-channel S-Matrices FromEnergy Levels In Finite Boxes. 2012, hep-lat/1211.2261.

[6] Paulo F. Bedaque, Evan Berkowitz, and Srimoyee Sen. Thermodynamics of Nuclear Con-densates and Phase Transitions in White Dwarfs. Phys. Rev., D89(4):045010, 2012, astro-ph/1206.1059.

[5] Paulo F. Bedaque, Evan Berkowitz, and Aleksey Cherman. Neutrino Emission from He-liumWhite Dwarfs with Condensed Cores. 2012, nucl-th/1203.0969.

[4] Paulo F. Bedaque, Evan Berkowitz, Geoffrey Ji, andNathanNg. Electron Shielding of Vor-tons in High-Density Quark Matter. Phys. Rev. D, 85:043008, Feb 2012, nucl-th/1112.1386.

[3] Paulo F. Bedaque, Evan Berkowitz, and Srimoyee Sen. Stable Vortex Loops in Two-SpeciesBECs. Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, 45(22):225301, 2012, cond-mat.quant-gas/1111.4507.

[2] Paulo F. Bedaque, Evan Berkowitz, and Aleksey Cherman. Nuclear Condensate and He-liumWhite Dwarfs. The Astrophysical Journal, 749(1):5, 2012, nucl-th/1111.1343.

[1] Paulo F. Bedaque, Evan Berkowitz, and Aleksey Cherman. Vortons in Dense Quark Mat-ter. Phys. Rev. D, 84(2):023006, Jul 2011, nucl-th/1102.4795.

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1Computational Physics for Quantum Field Theories Evan BerkowitzNuclear physics, from the equation of state, important for astrophysical and cosmological purposes,to the properties of even one nucleon, is governed by quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the theoryof quarks and gluons. Because QCD is strongly coupled at low energies, QCD is nonperturbative andquantitatively grounding nuclear physics in QCD and, by extension, the Standard Model, has remainedan outstanding challenge since the 1970s, when QCD was first appreciated as the underlying theory ofthe strong nuclear force.

The language of modern physics is quantum field theory (QFT). QFTs find wide application at allscales, from condensedmatter systems to the StandardModel and beyond. SomeQFTs are perturbative,meaning they are amenable to approximate methods and asymptotic expansions such as calculationswith Feynman diagrams. However, many are not—these are strongly interacting, and the only knowngeneral tool is direct numerical computation.

I primarily use computational tools such as lattice field theory to attack problems where traditionalperturbative methods fail. Lattice field theory provides a first-principles, nonperturbative techniquefor directly calculating physical observables of a quantum-mechanical system. After discretizing a fi-nite spacetime volume, one may numerically sample the system’s partition function with Monte Carlotechniques. By performing computations with a variety of volumes and discretization scales we cansystematically control these approximations and ultimately characterize infinite-volume, continuumphysics. This method applies even to strongly coupled systems, where perturbation theory fails, mak-ing it a powerful tool for understanding many interesting physical systems.

For many years lattice QCD, the formulation of quantum chromodynamics as a lattice field the-ory, was computation-limited and was only relevant for the simplest problems. However, the lattice isentering a golden age, as a combination of Moore’s law and algorithmic development unlock problemsthat were previously beyond our reach.

In some circumstances, the lattice is enough. For example, when I pioneered the application oflattice calculations to axion cosmology [11], we computed the topological susceptibility of Yang-Millsat very high temperatures directly from the lattice. The axion is a hypothesized particle closely en-twined with the Strong CP problem and is the aim of a number of ongoing and upcoming large-scaleexperimental searches. A combination of cosmological observations and our lattice results implies, forgeneric cosmological scenarios, a lower bound on the axion mass of 14 µeV, a mass region within reachof, but as-yet unexplored by, the ADMX experiment.

In other situations, a full lattice calculation remains prohibitively expensive. In this case it is of-ten possible to use an effective field theory (EFT) as a bridge between lattice results and problems ofinterest. The nuclear EFT has nucleons and pions, constrained to interact in a way that respects thesymmetries of QCD. As long as one stays within the range of the EFT’s validity, it provides a pow-erful framework for making predictions at the cost of some a priori unknown numerical coefficients.These coefficients can be fit to experimental data, but then the EFT cannot be thought of as restingon the underlying theory alone—in the case of nuclear physics, for example the nucleon axial couplingknown experimentally, but whether its experimental value matches the Standard Model prediction wasan open question.

By calculating the amplitude for the same physical phenomenon using two different descriptions—the EFT, using pen-and-paper, and the underlying theory of quarks and gluons, using lattice methods—we can insteadmatch the two descriptions’ predictions together, fixing the EFT’s unknown coefficients.Then, we can use the EFT to study other processes and predict related quantities. So, EFT allows us toamplify the reach of the lattice, and allows us to leverage our computational resources to solve problemsotherwise currently intractable.

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Recently, my collaborators and I have calculated the nucleon axial coupling at zero momentumtransfer, gA. A notorious outstanding benchmark for lattice QCD, we achieved an unprecedented un-certainty of 1% and demonstrated systematic control over all sources of systematic error. This result,published in Nature [34], is a major success in its own right, but also provides a stepping stone towardsother interesting nuclear properties, such as the nucleon’s axial form factor, the proton’s electromag-netic radius, and properties of few-nucleon systems, and we have an ongoing program to compute theseform-factors to a precision that will help the experimental program, especially experiments that needto know first-principles neutrino-nucleus scattering amplitudes.

Another way we have connected QCD to nuclear physics is by calculating matrix elements forneutrinoless double beta decay. If new physics violates the fundamental symmetry of lepton numberconservation present in the Standard Model of particle physics, we would expect to see exotic nucleardecays. The Department of Energy is dedicating tremendous resources towards finding this ultra-rareprocess. But, if a signal is observed or experiments can put upper limits on the frequency of this process,interpreting those results as constraints on new physical theories will be a challenging theoretical prob-lem, because the complication of nuclear physics and QCD get intertwined with the new effects. Wenarrowed the divide between fundamental particle physics and these nuclear decays by matching thenuclear EFT prediction to our lattice calculations of the effect of short-range lepton-number-violatingoperators in hadronic systems. I identified a computationally affordable way to extract the relevantstrong matrix elements from the lattice, forging a model-independent connection between nuclear ob-servables and the underlying particle physics. Our precision continuum, physical-point results werepublished in PRL [33]. With those results in hand, colleagues who study larger nuclei have input theyneed to calculate rates for these rare decays. This connection is essential for understanding the con-straints experimental observations of (or limits on) these rare decays place on new physics.

In the future, I expect to tackle problems relevant to fundamental symmetries and nuclear astro-physics. In terms of neutrinoless double beta decay effects, there are subleading effects which candominate over the processes we characterized if the underlying new physics has additional symmetriesor constraints—a complete calculation requires studying these subleading effects. For contributingto the neutrino physics program, one might also imagine computing the nucleon axial coupling as afunction of momentum transfer, and how the axial coupling changes in many-nucleon systems. Usingsimilar techniques, one can measure electromagnetic form factors, important for the notorious protonradius puzzle.

Another exciting prospect is measuring the three-neutron force, which is hard to measure exper-imentally and which accounts for the largest uncertainties in the nuclear equation of state importantfor astrophysics. The Pauli exclusion principle prevents us from putting all three neutrons on a singlelattice site, so our method of displacing nucleons from one another is essential. I am leading the ef-fort to do the first, preliminary, three-neutron calculation and directly supervised a graduate student atForschungszentrum Jülich on this project. We have preliminary results [39] but need greater precisionbefore we can hope to directly match the EFT spectrum in a finite volume to the spectrum producedby the lattice, constraining the EFT parameters for many-body effects.

⋆ ⋆ ⋆

Lattice techniques may be appliedmore broadly. For instance, the quasiparticle spectrum of carbonnanotubes and graphene may be extracted with lattice Monte Carlo. We have under way a large-scalecalculation studying the temperature dependence of the single-particle gap and the exciton energy—which cannot be reliably determined with other methods. Whether the infamous Dirac points aredestroyed by interactions at finite temperature, or survive when the hexagonal lattice is compactifiedinto a tube is a nonperturbative question where approximate methods fail tests of self-consistency,making it a problem ripe for lattice field theorists. I was instrumental in studying issues of algorithmic

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ergodicity—essential for avoiding systematic bias [41]. I worked closely with a new graduate studentto develop our understanding and numerically verify our analytic expectations.

For these carbon nanosystems there are plenty of low-hanging fruit, including simple thermody-namic order parameters and correlations on on small objects like buckyballs. While nanotubes andgraphene sheets are entirely hexagons, buckyballs also have pentagons, which introduces numericalsign problems related to frustration, which normally are exponentially bad in the physical spacetimevolume. New formal results on Lefschetz thimbles, higher-dimensional analogs of contours of steepestdescent, have unlocked newmethods for alleviating these problems, including opportunities to leveragemachine learning techniques without the loss of guarantees of algorithmic convergence. We anticipatepublishing results on small examples soon, with a move to large-scale systems to follow.

I hope to port lessons learned from efficiently solving sign problems for these systems to QCD,where sign problems emerge for finite-density and real-time observables.

⋆ ⋆ ⋆

Finally, I have gotten interested in how onemight leverage quantum computers to answer questionsabout strongly-interacting field theories. Traditional formulations of lattice field theories leverage theFeynman path-integral formulation, in which the Lagrangian is crucial. However, quantum computersnaturally evolve according to a Hamiltonian, so many of the considerations are different. So, althoughit may be a long time before reliable, error-corrected quantum computers are scaled to useful size,how even in principle to formulate field theories in a natural way is a legitimate question about latticemethods, without or without a functioning device.

A lot of the thinking about lattice field theory is upended when you move to a quantum computer.For example, on a classical computer it is easy to describe a scalar field with a real number, while a quan-tum computer has a finite Hilbert space, more easily encodes fermions. Learning to truncate bosonicdegrees of freedom sensibly and testing that such truncation schemes are in the right universality classusing classical computers should unlock a variety of applications when scalable quantum computers areultimately available.

The approach my collaborators and I have adopted is to search for Hamiltonians that will have asimple, local implementation on a quantum computer, that we hope to show lies in the same universalityclass as knownmodels. Being in the same universality classmeans that themodels flow, in the continuumlimit, to the same physics. Our first target is the principal chiralmodel, the simplest, leading order EFT ofpions that captures the dynamics of QCD, such as spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking. Attemptingquantum-mechanical simulations on classical computers of the Hamiltonians we have invented hasopened all manner of interesting research directions, from numerical methods such as worm algorithms,to corresponding field-theory descriptions such as world-line formulations.

While a lot of hype has developed around the nascent quantum devices, I believe this approach—formulating problems in a way amenable to quantum computation, but in a way that allows us to askreal questions about familiar lattice models and encourages us to think in a different way—is a mature,responsible way to engage with this growing subfield that is still valuable even if a scalable universalquantum computer never exists in my lifetime.

⋆ ⋆ ⋆

These “other” research directions require substantially smaller computing resources thanQCD andallows for a healthy cross-fertilization of ideas between fields, and form ideal learning environments fornew graduate students or summer projects for undergraduate researchers. They provide fertile groundsripe for cross-disciplinary interaction and provide interesting questions in their own right.

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1Proposed Start-Up Budget Evan BerkowitzI intend to apply for early career funds from the Department of Energy, which would allow me to

take another student, postdoc, and otherwise grow my ability to mentor younger, emerging scientists.So, the following startup budget is assuming that within my first three years I can win outside funding.

For large-scale lattice QCD computations, I already have access to my own computing resources.My colleagues at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, and Forschungs-zentrum Jülich have access to world-class computing facilities, including high-performance GPU clus-ters, IBMBlueGene/Q supercomputers, pre-exascalemachines Sierra and Summit and anticipate accessto early experimental quantum computing platforms. We have also won time from the Department ofEnergy’s INCITE and ERCAP allocations.

For smaller tasks, such as computations for Hubbard systems, I imagine taking advantage of Tem-ple’s on-site resources, such as Owl’s Nest and compute. If it is necessary to ‘buy in’ to the computingresources, I would hope to buy in at the higher end of the usual start up buy-in, as so much of my workis computational in nature. I do not expect any major software costs: most of the heavy-duty numericalwork I do takes advantage of DOE SciDAC-supported open-source software common to my researchcommunity or other domain-specific software, in the case of Hubbard systems. For some tasks I relyon Mathematica, but Temple’s site license would definitely suffice. For an initial high-performancedesktop, I estimate $5k.

Thus, the majority of my proposed start-up budget yearly expenses like travel and student labor.As I am early in my career, I expect to be traveling relatively frequently (estimating two big confer-

ences a year). While it is relatively uncommon for a student to need to travel so early in their studies,it’d be good to allow them to go to a conference or two if it comes up. So, for a three-year timescale Iestimate $25k for travel expenses.

The rest of the budget depends on departmental standards I was unable to find on the website,but I’d hope to draw summer salary and pay for three years of a student’s labor. Using ballpark figures,I estimate a minimum $225k for a successful research program, unless there is a need to buyinto the the university’s computing resources, in which case my request would grow. Or, if such a thingis possible, it would be sufficient instead to get some dedicated time on that platform directly—thisdepends on the budgetary and administrative details of the computing resources, which don’t seem tobe available on any outward-facing web page.

Finally, with additional funds it is easy to imagine building a more robust program, by hiring a short-term postdoc or an additional student. I expect I can launch a very robust researchprogram for$350-400k, resources permitting.

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1Teaching Statement Evan BerkowitzI have always been a teacher. From high school to graduate school my fellow students would approach me

with questions or confusions, knowing that I am a capable, uncondescending explainer who can typically figureout what facets of the topic they do not grasp and explain the same idea in a variety of different ways. I also havea knack for making connections or comparisons to other disciplines and for pointing out how some new idearelates to something familiar. I believe that all sorts of subjects and knowledge can be connected to great gain.

I am approachable. Throughout graduate school students who I only peripherally knew from substitutelecturing or departmental events would come to my office to ask me conceptual questions, for technical clar-ifications, or alternate intuitive explanations. I always enthusiastically made time to talk with them and workthrough their misunderstandings and sticking points.

I love to learn. Having had exciting, engaging, passionate, and illuminating teachers, I know that the qualityof a professor’s teaching skills can make or break a class. I always aim to make a learning environment one thatI myself would enjoy as a student: whether discussing physics one-on-one, in a small group, or with a room fullof people, I try to put myself in the shoes of others so as to ensure I cover the important or difficult points.Achieving enjoyable and productive learning has great consequences.

Interesting subjects can be ruined by disorganized or muddled trains of thought. It is important to start atthe beginning, on familiar, common ground, and to expand from there in a sensible order. However, watchinga professor copy notes onto the blackboard is extremely boring. Moreover, following algebra does not translateinto good physical intuition. As an undergraduate I valued demonstrations and found that discussion of thedemos with sketches of how the math works out (as opposed to step-by-step derivations) allowed me to learnvery easily. For example, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience in Waves and Vibrations, and truly learned a greatdeal about physical phenomena even though (or perhaps because) the class was designed to maximize “physicsper unit math”. I aspire to be an adept teacher, and strongly believe that well-designed and well-placed demosare extremely valuable in this regard.

Nonetheless, there are times where derivations or working out an example in detail can be important. Writ-ing out notes helps me lay out the ideas and arguments so that they’re presented in as clear a manner as possible,allows me to find pitfalls, insert jokes, mnemonics, or anecdotes, and draw connections with familiar ideas. I tryto write notes that will keep me from making any algebra mistakes and that will remind me to hit certain points,but that are not a script that must be followed precisely.

If possible (for example, in the context of a regularly-scheduled classroom session), I try to prepare exten-sively. During my graduate school career I enthusiastically volunteered to substitute-teach my advisor’s lectureswhenever he was traveling. Over the course of four years, I delivered quantum mechanics lectures five timesand electromagnetism lectures twice. Each time, I prepared detailed notes. For example, for a two hour lectureon Bloch’s theorem, crystals, and phonons, I wrote twelve pages of notes that included questions to pose to theclassroom. Writing and polishing these notes took around twelve hours, but going through such effort ensuredthat I was deeply familiar with that day’s topic and could field questions. Then, after delivering the lecture I wentand edited those notes for what worked, what needed clarification, and what generated student questions. I rec-ognize that six hours of prep per hour of class time will be unrealistic and unsustainable. However, I expect thatprep will be easier for simpler material and (even for difficult material) as I accumulate a set of well-considerednotes.

Of course, many students have great difficulty learning from lecture, and research demonstrates the valueof other approaches to physics education. I have also taught classes which required interactive, on-the-fly, orhands-off teaching styles. During my first year of graduate school, I was a teaching assistant for three classes:introductory classes for biologists and pre-med students, for engineers, and for elementary educators. Eachexposed me to a different classroom style and equipped me to handle different kinds of settings.

The class for engineers was taught in a traditional lecture-based fashion, and section was focused on problemsolving and techniques. I wrote up and distributed solutions that worked through the problems in some detailbut omitted most of the intermediate algebra. I always offered the students the option of spending half anhour discussing that week’s quiz. For the remainder of the section, however, I encouraged students to bringquestions about that week’s lectures or questions from the textbook that were similar to the questions assignedfor homework that we could work through in depth together on the board. Before diving into algebra, we would

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discuss the problem, their intuition, and a number of ways to check if their answers made sense. We wouldconsider extreme cases, simpler problems, dimensional analysis, and any symmetry we might expect the answerto have. This felt very much akin to how I make sense of and solve problems.

After we worked out an answer, we would go through and examine it using the criteria we developed. Toenable these kinds of checks, I would also insist upon not plugging in numbers until the last step—continuallytyping numbers into a calculator is a good way for a student to distract themselves and lose track of what it isthey were trying to do; it is harder to reason about how answers depend on the various parameters of the problemwithout an algebraic form.

The introductory class for biologists and pre-med students was led by the University of Maryland PhysicsEducation ResearchGroup. The class was lectures, hands-on labs, and tutorials in which each section was dividedinto groups of a few students each. The tutorials were organized around work sheets (sometimes accompanied bya small experiment) that guided discussion amongst the groups. In this setting, another teaching assistant and Iwould float from table to table, checking in on progress and asking the group to explain their shared understandingand disagreements. By asking probing questions, I could often help them resolve their differences, help themrealize their differently-phrased ideas were ultimately the same, or encourage them to refine their thinking. Bothmy students and I got a lot out of this style of interaction—they would formulate and criticize ideas themselves(the surest way to learn something) and I could see where they were struggling and what the tricky points were.I certainly witnessed the greatest number of “Aha!” moments where concepts clicked in this setting. However,it required a great deal of manpower (two teaching assistants for 24 students) to create such effective learningconditions.

The lab portion of that class was a weekly two-hour period, but it differed from many undergraduate labs(especially at the introductory level), in that the lab guidewas not akin to a cookbookwith clear directions onwhatto do and how. Instead, the labs were structured to mimic actual research. For example, the lab guide, which wasto be read before coming to class, contained a discussion of the concepts and questions the students were expectedto investigate. In class, the groups were expected to design their own experiments, decide how to collect, refine,explain, interpret, and present their data to their peers, and to turn in a report as they left. Implementing the labsin this way encouraged creative and critical thinking, enabled the discussion of experimental technique, statisticaland systematic error, how the real world differs from the simplified world without, for example, friction. Thestudents impressed me by not only adapting quickly to this unique approach to labs, but also by the variedand creative experimental designs they used. While these labs did not often demonstrate idealized theory, theyprovide an engaging way of discussing those idealizations and when their underlying assumptions break down.This, too, felt like a valuable and authentic approach to science.

The class for future elementary school teachers was entirely lab-based, and very interactive. As the studentswere, by and large, not naturally inclined to study science, this course provided a very different teaching experi-ence. The semester was broken into three stand-alone units—circuits, heat, and motion—in which each groupof students followed more direct and prescriptive lab manuals. The professor and I visited each group, ensuringnobody was getting stuck or having technical difficulties, discussing the ideas behind the experiment, and askingprobing questions. Each experiment was relatively simple but was built upon understanding developed in previ-ous experiments, so that the students gained a coherent picture of the subject. Homework consisted of essay andshort answer questions. Grading these assignments was very different from the kinds of grading I was used to,and I quickly adjusted my rubric to award points to a consistently-argued (though possibly wrong) explanation orconclusion and to deduct points for answers which were self-contradictory. Helping the students learn to arguelucidly and rationally became paramount, and the relatively simple in-class subject matter facilitated this well.Though they may never again study physics, this class also aimed to sharpen their long-term writing and criticalthinking skills. While I was initially skeptical, the design of this course created a welcoming invitation to sciencefor reluctant and hesitant students.

My other formative teaching experience is as a professional SCUBA instructor, teaching teenagers the class-room and in-the-water skills required for hobbyist certification. The difference in subject matter and coursestructure makes me reluctant to directly equate this kind of teaching to the teaching of physics. However, somesubjects are common between the two—the ideal gas law, for example, explains why it is dangerous to hold yourbreath while diving: if you ascend, the air in your lungs can expand, popping them and causing a dangerous pneu-mothorax. I would often embellish one training dive with a demonstration of this dramatic volume change atdepth with balloons (one inflated at the surface, the other inflated at depth). This and other demonstrationsallowed me to follow a fixed curriculum while adding my personal touch and fun, informative illustrations of

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serious technical material. Teaching diving helped me learn how to integrate demonstrations, classroom instruc-tion, and practical instruction to great effect. Moreover, it was extremely rewarding to share my passion withmy students, and the tremendous pleasure of teaching in this capacity is partially responsible for my decision topursue a career in academia.

I am extremely committed to teaching as part of my professional career. I believe these varied teachingexperiences have forged me into a well-qualified candidate for a position with important and substantial teachingduties and I am excited to pursue such an opportunity.

Evan BerkowitzDecember 2, 2019

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