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Anselm G. Vossen

Associate Professor in the Department of Physics
Physics
Physics Building Room 188, PO Box 90305, Durham, NC 27708
Physics Building Room 188, Box 90305, Durham, NC 27708-0305
Office hours by appointment  

Overview


In Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the theory of the strong interactions, the nucleon emerges as a strongly interacting, relativistic bound state of almost massless quarks and gluons.
Fifty years of experimental investigations into the nucleon's internal structure have provided remarkable insight into quark and gluon dynamics. However, many outstanding questions remain.
For example, the origin of the spin of the proton is still eludes us and many other properties of the nucleon cannot yet be derived from first order calculations. Even fundamental aspects like a quantitative understanding of the  origin of the mass of the nuclei (and thus most of the visible mass in the universe) as well as the confinement of quarks into hadrons remain outside our current understanding.

My research approaches these questions from two sides. At the newly upgraded Jefferson Lab facility, we use electron proton scattering data to map out the 3D dynamics of the nucleon. We are in particular interested in polarized probes that are sensitive to spin-orbit coupling in the proton wavefunction.
And at the newly constructed Belle II experiment, we use electron-positron annihilation data, to study how hadrons emergy from initial quarks. We are in particular interested how the quantum numbers of the inital quark, like spin, are expressed in the final state hadrons.

My group also works on precision tests of the flavor sector of the standard model at the intensity frontier. To this end we study the properties of B meson detected with the Belle II experiment.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Associate Professor in the Department of Physics · 2025 - Present Physics, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Recent Publications


Design and commissioning of readout electronics for a KL0 and μ detector at the Belle II experiment

Journal Article Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A Accelerators Spectrometers Detectors and Associated Equipment · February 1, 2026 The K-long and muon detector (KLM) constitutes the outer-most volume of the Belle II spectrometer at the interaction region of the SuperKEKB collider in Tsukuba, Japan. The KLM detector was partially upgraded since the Belle experiment by replacing many of ... Full text Cite

AI-assisted object condensation clustering for calorimeter shower reconstruction at CLAS12

Journal Article Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A Accelerators Spectrometers Detectors and Associated Equipment · February 1, 2026 Several nuclear physics studies using the CLAS12 detector rely on the accurate reconstruction of neutrons and photons from its forward angle calorimeter system. These studies often place restrictive cuts when measuring neutral particles due to an overabund ... Full text Cite

Determination of

Journal Article Physical Review D · December 12, 2025 We present a determination of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element |Vcb| from the decay B → Dℓνℓ using a 365 fb-1 e+e- → ϒ(4S) → BB¯ data sample recorded by the Belle II experiment at the Super ... Full text Cite
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Recent Grants


Research in High Energy Physics at Duke University

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by Department of Energy · 2013 - 2028

REU Site: Undergraduate Research in Nuclear Particle Physics at TUNL and Duke

ResearchSenior Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2022 - 2027

A Scalable and Distributed AI-Assisted Design and Optimization for the EIC

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by College of William and Mary · 2025 - 2026

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Education, Training & Certifications


Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg (Germany) · 2008 D.R.
Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg (Germany) · 2004 M.S.

External Links


Group Website