Professor Carl Carlson is a major contributor to problems of interest to low-energy particle physics and nuclear physics, particularly regarding work on gluonic hadrons. He proposes to continue his work on perturbative QCD as well as to develop a dedicated computer for performing lattice gauge calculations. He also plans to calculate the low-energy nucleon-nucleon interaction from a quark cluster model. In recent years nuclear physicists have become interested in problems in the low-energy region of particle physics. This move has increased the interactions between particle and nuclear physicists concerning problems of common interest. Professor Carlson has played an important role in the development of physics in this interface regime. He proposes to do research regarding the role that the quark degrees of freedom play in determining the nucleon-nucleon interaction and the properties of atomic nuclei. He also proposes to build a computer at the College of William and Mary especially for performing calculations related to these problems. This important research should help to advance this forefront area of physics.
