- Room 3, 2 Kirkby Place, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA
- +44 1752 586868
- M.Lavelle@plymouth.ac.uk
Profiles
Dr Martin Lavelle
Associate Head of School for Mathematics
School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics (Faculty of Science and Engineering)
Dr Martin Lavelle can be contacted through arrangement with our Press Office, to speak to the media on these areas of expertise.
- Mathematics
- Quantum field theory
- Particle physics
Email publicrelations@plymouth.ac.uk to enquire.
Biography
Biography
I am the Associate Head of Mathematical Sciences in the School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics. If you would like to find out more about us, please get in touch with me.
I have a strong interest in outreach and regularly talk in schools and at public events, including recently at a local science fiction convention. Please contact me if you would like to arrange a talk.
My research is in theoretical physics and I currently teach calculus, vector calculus and supervise mathematics project students. I also teach mechanics to engineering students.
Teaching
Teaching
Teaching interests
I am a University Teaching Fellow and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. In Plymouth I have taught at all levels including on our mathematics degrees, service teaching and year zero. I have also taught abroad, including undergraduate lectures in Germany and Ireland, postgraduate lectures in Spain and an invited course of postgraduate lectures in Canada.
I have a long held interest in using technology to help students improve their understanding of mathematics and science.
I have an interest in creating screen capture videos to help support student learning. Many of these are available through our YouTube collection. Most of my work here is focused on calculus.
The results of some older work on creating interactive pdf files are freely available here plymouth.ac.uk/mathaid. as 50 pdf files with exercises and quizzes on topics ranging from elementary algebra to proof by induction. This work was funded by various LTSN and FDTL grants.
Students have more than once nominated me for a Student Union award for inspirational teaching. I have also twice been nominated for outstanding support.
Research
Research
Research interests
My research is in quantum field theory and I am a member of the Plymouth Particle Theory Group. I have worked at universities in several countries and visited/spoken at many institutions including CERN, Japan's KEK, and the Thomas Jefferson National Acceleration Facility.
I am especially interested in constructing locally gauge invariant descriptions of charged states and in the infra-red structure of gauge theories. This is intimately related to why quarks and gluons are confined. A key physical idea here is that charges are intimately connected to the background field that they generate.
The Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded in 2018 for ideas that have led to modern ultra-high power lasers. Such devices provide extremely intense background fields and my most recent papers are focused on how strong field Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) describes electrons in high intensity laser backgrounds. For example, the electron acquires a mass shift which we have recently shown is independent of the polarisation inside the full elliptic class of polarisations.
Publications
Publications
Key publications
Key publications are highlighted
Journals
Articles
(2021) 'Simplest description of charge propagation in a strong background' Physical Review D 103, (3) , DOI Open access
(2019) 'One loop Volkov propagator in the Lorentz class of gauges' Physics Letters B 798, 0-0 , DOI Open access
(2012) 'Factorization of glue and mass terms in SU(N) gauge theories' Physical Review D 85, (4) Publisher Site , DOI
(2012) 'Soft Collinear Degeneracies in an Asymptotically Free Theory' ADVANCES IN HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS 2012, , DOI
(2010) 'Symmetry breaking, conformal geometry and gauge invariance' JOURNAL OF PHYSICS A: MATHEMATICAL AND THEORETICAL 43, (31) , DOI Open access
(2010) 'Stability, creation and annihilation of charges in gauge theories' ANNALS OF PHYSICS 325, (4) 835-851 , DOI Open access
(2010) 'Physical charges in QED and QCD' Proceedings of International Workshop on QCD Green’s Functions, Confinement and Phenomenology — PoS(QCD-TNT09) , DOI Open access
(2008) 'Solution of the Gribov problem from gauge invariance' PoS Confinement 8, 047-047 Open access
(2008) 'Ice-limit of Coulomb gauge Yang-Mills theory' Physical Review D 78, (7) Publisher Site , DOI Open access
(2008) 'Is the ground state of Yang-Mills theory Coulombic?' Physical Review D 78, (3) Publisher Site , DOI
(2008) 'Is the ground state of Yang-Mills theory Coulombic?' Phys.Rev.D 78, Publisher Site Open access
(2007) 'Coulomb gauge Gribov copies and the confining potential' Physical Review D 76, (11)
(2007) 'Initial states: IR and collinear divergences' Nuclear Physics B-Proceedings Supplements 174, 51-54
(2007) 'Charges in Gauge Theories' SYMMETRY INTEGRABILITY AND GEOMETRY-METHODS AND APPLICATIONS 3, , DOI
(2006) 'On the Hamiltonian reduction of geodesic motion on SU(3) to SU(3)/SU(2)' Journal of Mathematical Physics 47 (11), , DOI
(2006) 'Collinearity, convergence and cancelling infrared divergences' Journal of High Energy Physics 2006, (03) 026-026 , DOI
(2006) 'Anti-screening by quarks and the structure of the inter-quark potential' Physics Letters B 632, (5-6) 652-656
(2006) 'Collinearity, convergence and cancelling infrared divergences' Journal of High Energy Physics 2006, (3)
(2004) 'On electric and magnetic charges in gauge theories' Nuclear Physics B-Proceedings Supplements 133, 277-280
(2004) 'Infra-red finite, physical electron propagator in 2+1 dimensions' Physics Letters B 596, (1-2) 70-76
(2002) 'On nonexistence of magnetic charge in pure Yang-Mills theories' Journal of High Energy Physics 6, (12) 939-948 , DOI
(2002) 'On Nonexistence of Magnetic Charge in Pure Yang-Mills Theories' Journal of High Energy Physics 2002 (12), , DOI Open access
(2002) 'Structure of screening in QED' Physical Review D 65, (10)
(2000) 'Asymptotic dynamics in quantum field theory' JOURNAL OF MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS 41, (7) 4437-4451 , DOI
(2000) 'Charges from dressed matter: Physics and renormalisation' ANNALS OF PHYSICS 282, (2) 503-540 , DOI
(2000) 'Effective Quarks and Their Interactions'
(2000) 'Charged Matter: Physics and Renormalisation'
(2000) 'The structure of the QCD potential in 2+1 dimensions' PHYSICS LETTERS B 477, (1-3) 355-360 , DOI
(2000) 'Asymptotic Dynamics in Quantum Field Theory - When does the coupling
switch off?'
(1998) 'Colour Charges and Anti-Screening'
(1998) 'Colour charges and the anti-screening contribution to the interquark potential' PHYSICS LETTERS B 436, (3-4) 339-343 , DOI
(1997) 'Construction and Consequences of Coloured Charges in QCD' Published in the proceedings of the workshop on Quantum
Chromodynamics: Collisions, Confinement and Chaos, Editors H.M. Fried and B.
Mueller, World Scientific 1997 Open access
(1997) 'Constituent quarks from QCD' PHYSICS REPORTS-REVIEW SECTION OF PHYSICS LETTERS 279, (1) 1-65 , DOI
(1996) 'Constituent Quarks from QCD: Perturbation Theory and the Infra-red'
(1996) 'The physical propagator of a slowly moving charge' PHYSICS LETTERS B 370, (1-2) 128-134 , DOI
(1995) 'NONLOCAL SYMMETRY FOR QED AND RELATIVISTICALLY COVARIANT SYMMETRY IN QED - REPLY' PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 75, (22) 4151-4151 , DOI
(1995) 'OBSERVABLES AND GAUGE-FIXING IN SPONTANEOUSLY BROKEN GAUGE-THEORIES' PHYSICS LETTERS B 347, (1-2) 89-94 , DOI
(1995) 'The Nielsen identities for the two-point functions of QED and QCD' Zeitschrift für Physik C Particles and Fields 65, (1) 155-164 , DOI
(1993) 'On Quark Confinement'
(1993) 'The radiation class: a set of temporal gauges' Zeitschrift für Physik C Particles and Fields 59, (2) 351-356 , DOI
(1993) 'On the Pauli-Villars regularisation scheme in the NJL model' Physics Letters B 298, (3-4) 397-399 , DOI
(1992) 'THE OPERATOR PRODUCT EXPANSION OF THE QCD PROPAGATORS' Modern Physics Letters A 07, (39) 3617-3630 , DOI
(1992) 'GAUGE FIXING, UNITARITY AND PHASE SPACE PATH INTEGRALS' International Journal of Modern Physics A 07, (21) 5245-5279 , DOI
(1992) 'PROBLEMS WITH THE PATH-INTEGRAL DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPORAL, LIGHT-CONE AND FOCK-SCHWINGER GAUGES' Modern Physics Letters A 07, (03) 219-224 , DOI
(1992) 'Gauge-dependent condensates and the quark propagator' Physics Letters B 275, (1-2) 133-136 , DOI
(1992) 'Propagators and four dimensional condensates in pure QCD' Physics Letters B 275, (1-2) 124-128 , DOI
(1991) '$$\left\langle {:\bar \psi \psi :} \right\rangle $$ and three-point functions in QCD' Zeitschrift für Physik C Particles and Fields 51, (4) 615-618 , DOI
(1991) 'Gauge-invariant effective gluon mass from the operator-product expansion' Physical Review D 44, (1) R26-R28 , DOI
(1990) 'An effective action for Yang-Mills field strengths' Nuclear Physics B 339, (3) 595-622 , DOI
(1990) 'The gluon condensate and the effective potential in QCD' Physics Letters B 246, (3-4) 487-492 , DOI
(1989) 'Propagators and condensates for QCD in the axial gauge' Physics Letters B 217, (4) 551-559 , DOI
(1988) 'Propagators and relaxation for stochastically quantised U(1) in the temporal gauge' Physics Letters B 203, (4) 441-448 , DOI
(1987) 'Stochastic quantisation and gauge fixing for non-abelian lattice gauge theories' Nuclear Physics B 290, 205-217 , DOI
(1987) 'Stochastic quantisation and gauge fixing in lattice gauge theories' Nuclear Physics B 290, 188-204 , DOI
(1985) 'Sum rules for baryonic vertex functions and the proton wave function in QCD' Nuclear Physics B 260, (2) 323-332 , DOI
(1985) 'QCD sum rules and pion wave functions' Zeitschrift f�r Physik C Particles and Fields 29, (2) 203-208 , DOI
Chapters
(2002) 'Charged particles: A builder's guide' in Fried HM; Gabellini Y; Muller B Proceedings of 6th Workshop on Nonperturbative Quantum Chromodynamics World Scientific 134-139
(2002) 'Screening, anti-screening and confinement' in Fried HM; Gabellini Y; Muller B Proceedings of 6th Workshop on Nonperturbative Quantum Chromodynamics, World Scientific World Scientific 197-202
(2002) 'Charges, Monopoles and Gauge Invariance' Confinement, Topology, and Other Non-Perturbative Aspects of QCD Springer Netherlands 205-211 , DOI
(1994) 'Non-Perturbative Propagators in QCD' Contemporary Topics in Medium Energy Physics Springer US 51-62 , DOI
(1988) 'Hadron Wave Functions with Condensate Induced Running Masses' Springer Proceedings in Physics Springer Berlin Heidelberg 155-159 , DOI
(1987) 'Nucleon Properties with Running Quark Masses' Few-Body Problems in Particle, Nuclear, Atomic, and Molecular Physics Springer Vienna 519-523 , DOI
'Beyond perturbation theory in the axial gauge' Physical and Nonstandard Gauges Springer-Verlag 240-248 , DOI
Conference Papers
(2010) 'Infra-red problems and a response' International Workshop on QCD Green’s Functions, Confinement and Phenomenology 9-/-0/2009Sissa Medialab , DOI
(2008) 'Solution of the Gribov problem from gauge invariance'
(2007) 'Charges in QED and QCD' 37-41
(2002) 'Charges, monopoles and gauge invariance' Confinement, Topology and other Nonpreturbative Aspects of QCD, Kluwer Academic Publishers 205-212
(2001) 'LATEX/PDF support materials for learning mathematics' Variety in Chemistry Teaching, Lancaster University
(1997) 'How do constituent quarks arise in QCD? Perturbation theory and the infra-red' 208-212
Personal
Personal
Additional information
I speak German well, Spanish reasonably and have some French and smatterings of other languages. I have translated two textbooks from German into English for Springer-Verlag.
Links
School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics
Mathematical Sciences at the University of Plymouth
Centre for Mathematical Sciences
Plymouth Mathematics YouTube collection
Plymouth Mathematics iTunes U collection
Mathaid interactive pdf files collection
My personal Twitter feed
Devon Bird News
Theatre Royal Plymouth
Plymouth Arts Centre
The Arts Institute (University arts centre)
Some Plymouth area blues gigs
Plymouth Barbican Theatre
Dartmoor National Park
Plymouth Humanists