Dr. Heng-Yu Chen
Associate Professor of Physics
Education
Ph.D. University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, 2016
B.S. National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, 2007
Dr. Heng-Yu Chen’s research field is theoretical particle physics. The goal of particle physics is to find out the most basic particles, the most basic forces, and the most basic laws of nature. “In other words, it is the plan for how God made the universe. I believe studying particle physics could help us to understand the words of God in the Bible better.”
What drew him Trinity:
Chen’s goals are to accompany students as they grow, teach, conduct research, and continue to grow in faith as a Christian. “I believe Trinity is the place where I could fulfill these goals.”
Research interests:
Neutrinos and dark matter are two matter particles which are very difficult to detect. “A deeper understanding of their properties, how they interact with other elementary particles, could help us to study the early history of the universe.”
His research has been focused on physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics and astroparticle physics. In ‘beyond the Standard Model’ physics, he has investigated the flavor problem and the origin of dark matter. What is flavor problem? Particles can change their family: e.g. the neutrinos of different families can “oscillate” into each other, as shown in 1998. There are patterns to this, and patterns to the masses of the particles of the three families. But the patterns are not simple, and no one understands what causes them.
His research has shown that the Grand Unified symmetries may shed new light on how the matter particles are related to each other and thereby explain some of the mysterious patterns of masses and oscillations. In some of his works, he has also shown that GUT symmetries may relate ordinary matter to dark matter and give a unified understanding of how they were ‘co-generated’ in the early universe. Proton decay is one way of testing these theories, but another way is to measure more precisely the masses of the matter particles and the ‘mixing angles’ that describe how they oscillate. That would give us another window into those deep physical structures that cannot be tested more directly. In astroparticle, he has studied the simulation of atmospheric neutrino fluxes which could help to extract the directional in formation of cosmic neutrinos detected on the Earth.
When he’s not teaching:
Chen enjoys softball, basketball, and indoor rock climbing.
Publication highlights:
Heng-Yu Chen, Ilia Gogoladze, Shan Hu, Tianjun Li and Lina Wu, Eur. Phys. J. C78, 26 (2018) “The Minimal GUT with Inflation and Dark Matter Unification”
Stephen M. Barr and Heng-Yu Chen, JHEP 10, 128 (2017) “Families from Supergroups and Predictions for Leptonic CP Violation”
Stephen M. Barr and Heng-Yu Chen, Phys. Rev. D 93, 053009 (2016) “A Model of Quark and Lepton Mixing and Mass Hierarchy”
Stephen M. Barr and Heng-Yu Chen, JHEP 08, 144 (2015). “A Single Source for All Flavor Violation”
Stephen M. Barr and Heng-Yu Chen, JHEP 10, 129 (2013). “Cogeneration of Dark Matter and Baryons by Non-Standard-Model Sphalerons”
Stephen M. Barr and Heng-Yu Chen, JHEP 10, 049 (2013). “Proton Decay and the Origin of Quark and Lepton Mixing”
Stephen M. Barr and Heng-Yu Chen, JHEP 11, 092 (2012). “A Simple Grand Unified Relation between Neutrino Mixing and Quark Mixing”
Stephen M. Barr and Heng-Yu Chen, AIP Conf. Proc. 1534, 239-243 (2012). “Relating quark mixing neutrino mixing and δ_lep”
Awards received:
Competitive Graduate Fellowship, University of Delaware, 2015
Daicar Bata Prize, University of Delaware, 2013
Finalist for Best Student Research paper in Physics and Astronomy
- + Expertise
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Dr. Heng-Yu Chen’s research field is theoretical particle physics. The goal of particle physics is to find out the most basic particles, the most basic forces, and the most basic laws of nature. “In other words, it is the plan for how God made the universe. I believe studying particle physics could help us to understand the words of God in the Bible better.”
What drew him Trinity:
Chen’s goals are to accompany students as they grow, teach, conduct research, and continue to grow in faith as a Christian. “I believe Trinity is the place where I could fulfill these goals.”Research interests:
Neutrinos and dark matter are two matter particles which are very difficult to detect. “A deeper understanding of their properties, how they interact with other elementary particles, could help us to study the early history of the universe.”His research has been focused on physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics and astroparticle physics. In ‘beyond the Standard Model’ physics, he has investigated the flavor problem and the origin of dark matter. What is flavor problem? Particles can change their family: e.g. the neutrinos of different families can “oscillate” into each other, as shown in 1998. There are patterns to this, and patterns to the masses of the particles of the three families. But the patterns are not simple, and no one understands what causes them.
His research has shown that the Grand Unified symmetries may shed new light on how the matter particles are related to each other and thereby explain some of the mysterious patterns of masses and oscillations. In some of his works, he has also shown that GUT symmetries may relate ordinary matter to dark matter and give a unified understanding of how they were ‘co-generated’ in the early universe. Proton decay is one way of testing these theories, but another way is to measure more precisely the masses of the matter particles and the ‘mixing angles’ that describe how they oscillate. That would give us another window into those deep physical structures that cannot be tested more directly. In astroparticle, he has studied the simulation of atmospheric neutrino fluxes which could help to extract the directional in formation of cosmic neutrinos detected on the Earth.
When he’s not teaching:
Chen enjoys softball, basketball, and indoor rock climbing.
- + Courses, Publications & Research
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Publication highlights:
Heng-Yu Chen, Ilia Gogoladze, Shan Hu, Tianjun Li and Lina Wu, Eur. Phys. J. C78, 26 (2018) “The Minimal GUT with Inflation and Dark Matter Unification”
Stephen M. Barr and Heng-Yu Chen, JHEP 10, 128 (2017) “Families from Supergroups and Predictions for Leptonic CP Violation”
Stephen M. Barr and Heng-Yu Chen, Phys. Rev. D 93, 053009 (2016) “A Model of Quark and Lepton Mixing and Mass Hierarchy”
Stephen M. Barr and Heng-Yu Chen, JHEP 08, 144 (2015). “A Single Source for All Flavor Violation”
Stephen M. Barr and Heng-Yu Chen, JHEP 10, 129 (2013). “Cogeneration of Dark Matter and Baryons by Non-Standard-Model Sphalerons”
Stephen M. Barr and Heng-Yu Chen, JHEP 10, 049 (2013). “Proton Decay and the Origin of Quark and Lepton Mixing”
Stephen M. Barr and Heng-Yu Chen, JHEP 11, 092 (2012). “A Simple Grand Unified Relation between Neutrino Mixing and Quark Mixing”
Stephen M. Barr and Heng-Yu Chen, AIP Conf. Proc. 1534, 239-243 (2012). “Relating quark mixing neutrino mixing and δ_lep”
Awards received:
Competitive Graduate Fellowship, University of Delaware, 2015
Daicar Bata Prize, University of Delaware, 2013
Finalist for Best Student Research paper in Physics and Astronomy