9415225 Bordner This award supports a 12-month Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship for Dr. Andrew Bordner, Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, at the University of Kyoto, Japan. Dr. Bordner will work with Dr. Taichiro Kugo in the Department of Physics, on a research project entitled, "Japan JSPS Program: Improved Ladder Approximation to the Bethe-Salpeter Equation." Bordner and Kugo will collaborate on a project using the improved ladder approximation in quantum chromodynamics. In particular, the team will apply the ladder approximation to the prediction of the Isgur-Wise function of heavy quark effective field theory. This function is the only undetermined parameter for semi-leptonic weak decays in the limit where the heavy quark mass is much larger than the binding energy of the quarks in the meson. Professor Kugo developed the ladder approximation and Bordner will work with him on the much needed calculations to further understand the two functions which arise at the next order in the 1/M heavy quark expansion. ***
