This award is to support a cooperative research between Dr. Arno Bohm, Physics Department, University of Texas, Austin, Texas and an Egyptian team including Drs. Soliman Komy and Hani Kaldass, Department of Mathematics, Helwan University, Helwan, Egypt. The PIs will study a unified description of resonance and decay phenomena in atomic, nuclear and relativistic particle physics. The subject has developed from a merely mathematical endeavor to the solution of an important problem in quantum physics: a unified theory of resonance scattering and decay phenomena. Such a theory will overcome the ambiguity in the definition of mass and width for relativistic resonances faced by the particle data group, e.g., for the Weinberg Z-boson or the Fermi pion-nucleon resonance. The theory of resonances, and connected with it a new quantum mechanical time asymmetry has become the project of an international group of physicists, The International Quantum Theory Group (www.ph.utexas.edu/bohmwww/index.html). A computer system in Cairo will be upgraded to fulfill the needs for communication of scientific documents and data. The expertise that one of the Egyptian team, H. Kaldass, had acquired while building computers at DESY, will help develop in collaboration with members of IQT Group, a system of PC's running linux. This will allow this team to stay in closer contact with each other and with other experts in the IQT Group. It will also allow the new generation of students and young scientists to grow up in closer contact with each other. Dr. Komy who is a mathematical physicist will be more concerned with the mathematical questions of the Rigged Hilbert Spaces (also called Gelfand Triplets). He will adapt the general mathematical theory to the specific needs for Hardy functions, and will also coordinate the research of the junior scientists and the graduate and under-graduate students. Dr. Kaldass is a specialist in this field from the physicist point of view, and will work on the formulation of the physically relevant questions and compare the theoretical results with the experimental data. In particular he will apply this theory to resonance production. Dr. Bohm will work on the question of the interpretation of the semigroup time zero (beginning of time) with atomic physicists at Texas and in Germany. He will also work on the theory of relativistic resonance. He will also coordinate the work of the Egyptian researcher with the members of the International Theory Group.
Scope and broader impacts The International Quantum Theory Group holds annual workshops and publishes proceedings. Both A. Bohm and S. Komy delivered lectures at the Lisbon meeting, which was a satellite of the international Congress on Mathematical Physics. The PIs aim to join these international efforts and hold one of the future workshops on time asymmetric quantum theory and resonances in Cairo. The contacts via computers, together with the reciprocal visits will enhance the scientific productivity, and will lead to transfer of technology and to a better mutual understanding between the young generations of the different countries. This project is being supported under the US-Egypt Joint Fund Program, which provides grants to scientists and engineers in both countries to carry out these cooperative activities.
