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Physics in Zhejiang University
(Published in AAPPS 2002, revised 2003)
I. Zhejiang University
Hangzhou, a beautiful and prosperous city honored as “paradise on
earth”, is located in China’s east coast. As a city with world fame,
Hangzhou enjoys a mild climate throughout the year, trees making a pleasant
shade and green hills embracing the city. West Lake is known as the symbol of
Hangzhou, and the humanistic and historic sites all around add strong cultural
color to the city.
Zhejiang University sits beside West Lake. Founded in 1897 and grew out of
the Qiu-shi School, it is one of the several universities with a history of
more than 100 years in China. It’s the long history and rigorous scholarship
that cultivate 76 academicians of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Academy of
Engineering within its graduates. What’s more, there have been 138
academicians among the alumnae and alumni of Zhejiang University.
Many notable scholars like Ke-zheng Zhu (Ko-chen Chu), Yin-chu Ma, Jia-xi Lu,
Bu-qing Shu, Shan-qiang Qian, Gang-chang Wang, Shi-zhang Bei, Jian-gong Chen,
Ling-xi Qian, Jia-zhen Tan, Hao-chao Gu, Xiao-cang Zheng, Shou-pan Liang,
Chen-tao Xia, Liang-fu Jiang, Zheng-dao Li (T.D. Lee), Jian-xiong Wu, Xian-tu
He and Yong-xiang Lu all have been teaching and studying in Zhejiang
University. Zhejiang University is a cradle of science masters.
Ko-chen Chu, a famous scientist and educationist who had contributed
greatly to meteorology, geography, agricultural development and resource
utility, assumed the office of the president of Zhejiang University from 1936
to 1949. He advocated democracy and the academic style of pursing the truth,
and significantly developed Zhejiang University from a small local university
to a national one with world fame. When the well-known British scholar, Prof.
Joseph Lee, visited China, he was surprised by the rapid progress of Zhejiang
University, praising it as “Cambridge University in the East”.
In 1952, Zhejiang University shrank to a university majoring in technology
due to the reconstruction of universities in China. Yong-xiang Lu, the present
Chairman of Chinese Academy of Science, had been the president of Zhejiang
University from 1988 to 1995. During that period of time, he had been keen on
education reforms, innovated the new system of management, and greatly
promoted the development of all subjects and enhanced the comprehensive
strength of Zhejiang University. In 1998, Zhejiang University took the lead in
universities and colleges re-combination in China and turned itself into a
comprehensive research university with the widest range of subjects. Zhejiang
University is among the first-class in China’s Universities and gains its
reputation in the world.
In Zhejiang University are there now 24 national key subjects, 11 national
key labs, 2 national engineering research centers, 3 national engineering and
technology research centers, 1000 professors and 2400 associate professors, 20
Guangbiao distinguished professors, 25 distinguished professors, more than
40,000 students, among whom are over 11,000 graduate students as well as more
than 480 foreign ones. Besides, the number of the academicians of Chinese
Academy of Sciences and Academy of Engineering has increased to 17 compared
with none in 1990. In the recent years, comprehensive strength, research funds
and the scientific publications of Zhejiang University rank stably in the top
five among China’s universities.
II. Physics Department
History
Physics Department in Zhejiang University was founded in 1929. Having
experienced several years’ frustration, however, by the end of 1930’s,
compared with the other universities in China, the Physics Department in
Zhejiang University had had a strong faculty consisting of scholars like
Gang-fu Hu, Shao-zhong Zhang, Zen-lu He, Xing-bei Shu and Gang-chang Wang.
Meanwhile, its labs were well equipped and it preserved American journals like
“Physical Review”, “Review of Modern Physics” as well as important
German and British physics journals. All these above had created favorable
ambience and provided the basis for physics research.
From 1933 to 1935, Prof. Jian-xiong Wu held teaching post in Zhejiang
University, while T.D. Lee spent 4 years studying in Zhejiang University from
1943 to 1946. By the end of 1950’s, 13 academicians of Chinese Academy of
Science had been teaching or studying in the Physics Department of Zhejiang
University successively like Gang-chang Wang, Gong-xu Gu, Kai-jia Cheng,
Ji-ming Hu, Ning Nu, Ming Lu, Zhi-jian Li and Xian-tu He.
Prof. Gang-chang Wang, a famous physicist, had been working in Zhejiang
University for 14 years from 1936 to 1950. At the beginning of 1940’s, Prof.
Wang put forward that it is feasible to prove the existence of neutrino in the
process that by capturing a k-th shell electron, Beryllium nucleon decays to
Lithium and a neutrino. The article was published on “Physical Review” in
1942, and the result was confirmed by experiment several months later. This
conclusion provided a solid basis for the Fermi theory and was considered as a
significant progress of physics in the world in 1942. In the 1950’s, Prof.
Wang went to Dubna Nuclear Center in Soviet Union for scientific research. In
1960, his discovery of the particle made him a physics master.
The Physics Department was disbanded in the reconstruction of China’s
universities in the summer of 1952, when Prof. Gang-chang Wang was assigned to
Beijing, and it was reestablished in 1957.
In 1981, Profs. Wen-zhu Li and Rong Wang were approved by the State
Education Commission to be in the first list of thesis advisors of doctoral
students in China. In the following ten years, quite some excellent doctorial
students graduated and made progress in lattice gauge theory and mathematical
physics. In 1982, the second national annual meeting of Chinese high energy
physics was held in Zhejiang University.
In 1988, Prof. Qi-rui Zhang joined the Physics Department in Zhejiang
University. He was accomplished in the research like the substitution effect
and flux pinning in type-II superconductors, and had played a substantial role
in the establishment of the Institute for Condensed Matter Physics.
In 1991, in order to promote the development of physics in Zhejiang
University, Zhejiang Institute of Modern Physics was established under the
support of Profs. T.D. Lee and Yong-xiang Lu, who was the president of the
University then. Prof. T.D. Lee took the chair of the Institute. The Institute
has been attracting many excellent doctors to do their postdoctoral research
there. The young researchers assembled in the Institute are active in the
frontier of theoretical physics, and form a strong research team in Physics
Department.
The past ten years are the decade of expansion and development for Physics
Department.
Present state
Physics Department now has a teaching and administrative staff of more than
140, among whom are 3 academicians of Chinese Academy of Sciences (2 of them
are adjunct professors), 5 Guangbiao distinguished professors, 2 distinguished
professors, about 40 professors, 40 associate professors, 9 senior engineers
and senior laboratory technicians.
The Physics Department consists of four research institutions, Zhejiang
Institute of Modern Physics, Institute for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute
of Optics and Institute of Applied Physics, and two teaching Institutions like
College Physics Teaching Section and Experimental Physics Center. Authorized
by the State Education Commission, 9 second-level subjects for Master degree,
8 for doctors and postdoctoral research are established. Theoretical physics
and condensed matter physics, the 2 second-level subjects, are the key
laboratories of Zhejiang Province.
In the Physics Department, field theory and particle physics, condensed
matter physics theory, computational physics and statistical physics, plasma
physics, surface physics, low temperature physics, superconductors and
superconductivity, optics in solids, nano-structure materials, soft condensed
matter physics, atom and molecular physics, laser physics, quantum optics,
atomic spectra, and the cross disciplines of science like bio- and medical
physics, are the main research directions, and the research is among the lead
in China, some fields are even advanced in the world. More than 250 articles
are published every year, especially 2 and 17 articles have been in Nature and
Physics Review Letter respectively in the past years. The total of
publications in authoritative international journals is among the top in
China. The fund for natural science has been rising steadily, and surpassed
4.5 million yuan last year. Many research projects have received national or
provincial awards.
The Physics Department now has altogether 550 students, including 120
Master degree candidates and 50 doctorial students. The undergraduate study
lasts four years.
The students in Zhejiang University pursue a good academic style and are
very active in thoughts. A complete range of subjects and a detailed
arrangement of courses in Zhejiang University, allow students great freedom to
choose the lectures and to make them comprehensive and specialized talents. In
addition, the regular scientific seminars, colloquia and other academic
activities provide the students with the latest progress of the subject.
Especially, Zhejiang University has a systematic training plan for
undergraduates’ scientific research, such as SRTP and the Challenge Cup,
which plays a decisive role in the combination of teaching and scientific
research, and stimulates the students’ creativity. A variety of scholarships
are founded for various majors and subjects. Those excellent students may
receive special financial aids and awards. As for the graduates, besides the
basic scholarship for every student, an abundance of research assistant
positions, fellowships founded by schools, foundations and all circles in
society are available.
The tutorial system is adopted to foster the students’ ability both
theoretically and experimentally in higher grades, hunting the talents who can
further their study in physics or new branches of science as well as cross
disciplines of sciences, or those who can work for scientific research and
teaching, technology and management. The employment rate of the undergraduates
in Physics Department reaches nearly 100% in their graduating year. Among
them, the proportion of entering the graduate school is on the increase every
year, and reaches 40% this year. Either those who become graduates or those
who work in companies all show their outstanding flexibility and their great
potential for development in cross disciplines. The students from the Physics
Department of Zhejiang University are greatly welcome by the society.
The duration for studying for the Master degree and the Doctorial degree is
2.5 and 3 years respectively, and for the Master and Doctor degrees together 5
years. The cultivation of the postgraduates is closely associated to the
scientific research of the superadvisors. Currently, most of the professors in
Physics Department are aged about 40, and have the research experience of at
least one or two years abroad and are well-informed with the recent
development of modern physics. Compared with other universities in China, the
abundant directions of theoretical physics are another feature of the Physics
Department in Zhejiang University.
In 2001, authorized by the State Education Commission, Prof. You-quan Li
and Prof. Bo Zheng, coming back from Germany, were invited as distinguished
professors. It strengthens the research of theoretical physics and
computational physics, and greatly facilitates national and international
academic cooperation and exchanges. Profs. Li and Zheng set up and organize
the colloquia recently. The colloquia introduce the latest advancement of the
subject and activate the academic atmosphere. The colloquia are appreciated
highly by teachers and students.
Prof. Xiao-wei Tang, an academician of Chinese Academy of Science, moved in
Physics Department in 2000. Based on his experience of scientific research of
many years, he founded a research center for cross disciplines of science. His
research promotes the cross-field research of physics, nonlinear science,
biology and medicine, and gains him much reputation among the students. The
adjunct Prof. Yu-zhu Wang, an academician, has established the lab of quantum
optics, tackling the hot topics like supercooling atomic physics and Bose-Einstein
condensation.
In 1998, the academician Xian-tu He, a well-known theoretical physicist, an
atomic scientist, took the chair of the School of Science and the director of
Zhejiang Institute of Modern Physics. As the head of the physics subject in
Zhejiang University, he apperceives the modern trends of physics, guides the
research directions and explores the research area unceasingly. As the leader
of the School of Science, he is fair and square with everyone. He reforms the
management system steadily and puts efficient mechanism into effect for
talents to grow up. As a senior scientist, he cares the young physicists
without reservation, spares no effort to enroll both domestic and foreign
outstanding young researchers to bring up a new generation of academic
leaders. Prof. Xian-tu He has been exerting his utmost effort for Physics
Department.
A brief summary
East China has been the cultural center over the past more than 1000 years,
abounding with gifted scholars as well as famous poets and writers. It is
undoubtedly the nice environment for study and scientific research. Physics in
Zhejiang University is bound to hold a very promising future.
III. Professors in Physics Department
- You-quan Li was born in 1963, received his Ph.D. degree in
Department of Physics, Lanzhou University in 1989. Li was employed by
Zhejiang University as a faculty member in Zhejiang Institute of Modern
Physics in 1993, and was promoted to the full professor position in 1996. He
was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt fellowship in 1998. In the past
years, Prof. Li has ever worked as a guest professor in University of
Cincinnati, Chinese University of Hong Kong, ETH-Lausanne and Augsburg
University. After productive research on symmetries of quantum field theory
and front topics in mathematical physics, he has been involved in
theoretical condensed matter physics in recent years.
A recent representative work of Prof. Li is on the orbital degrees of
freedom of 3d electrons. Li together with Ma, Shi and Zhang indicated that
the isotropic Hamiltonian expected to describe a variety of transitional
metal oxides which has an enhanced symmetry from SU(2)×SU(2) to SU(4) [Li ,
Ma , Shi and Zhang, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81(1998) 3527; Li , Phys. Rev. Lett.
87(2001) 7208]. At this SU(4)-symmetric point, the quantum fluctuations of
both the spin and orbital are enhanced and the “SU(4) singlet” is more
stable in comparison to the conventional “spin SU(2) singlet.”
Therefore, the orbital degrees of freedom help the realization of the
resonating valence bond spin liquid, which has been looked for with great
interest but has not yet been found in quantum magnets without orbital
degeneracy (e.g., La2CuO4). As the basic unit of the SU(4) singlet is the
plaquette, Li et. al. conjectured it might be realized in LiNiO2, and it was
confirmed in experiment later on.
Li’s work on spin systems with orbital degeneracy was granted the first
prize by China Education Ministry, and a fund for distinguished young
researchers by National Natural Science Foundation.
In 2001, Prof. Li was honored as a distinguished professor by the Cheung
Kong project of China Education Ministry. Now he has been establishing and
leading a research team for theoretical studies on strongly correlated
system and mesoscopic physics. Currently, the research interest includes
non-perturbation approach to spin systems and strongly correlated systems,
quantum phase transition, as well as spin involved transport in mesoscopic
systems.
- Bo Zheng was born in 1961, received his Ph.D. degree in Department
of Physics, Zhongshan University in 1988. After the scientific visits in
ICTP, Graz University and Free University in 1990, Zheng worked as a
research associate and a senior research associate in Siegen University and
Martin-Luther Halle University till 2001.10. Dr. Zheng was honored as a
distinguished professor in Zhejiang Institute of Modern Physics by the
Cheung Kong project of China Education Ministry in 2001.
Since 1994, Dr. Zheng has been engaged in the numerical study of
nonequilibrium dynamic systems. Especially, Zheng together with his
cooperators has systematically investigated the universal dynamic scaling
behavior of critical dynamics far from equilibrium [Zheng,
Int.J.Mod.Phys.B12(1998)1419, review article]. Based on the short-time
dynamic scaling form, a new method for numerical measurements of both static
and dynamic critical exponents has been developed [Li, Schülke and Zheng,
Phys.Rev.Lett.74(1995)3396; Zheng, Schulz and Trimper,
Phys.Rev.Lett.82(1999) 1891]. The method does not suffer from critical
slowing down. Compared with the non-local cluster algorithms, it can be
applied to study local dynamics. The total SCI citation of the publications
on this work reaches about 600 to date.
Zheng’s work on numerical simulations of critical dynamics far from
equilibrium was granted a fund for distinguished young researchers by
National Natural Science Foundation.
Prof. Zheng is now constructing and leading a research group in
computational physics, statistical physics and soft condensed matter
physics. Current research interest includes dynamic systems far from
equilibrium, financial dynamics and other complex systems in bio- and
medical physics.
- Ming-xing Luo was born in 1963, received his Ph.D. degree in
Department of Physics, University of Pennsylvania in 1990. After the
postdoctoral research in Washington University from 1991 to 1993, Luo was
employed by Zhejiang University as a faculty member in Zhejiang Institute of
Modern Physics in 1994, and was promoted to the full professor position in
1997.
Luo has been working in particle physics since his study for the doctoral
degree. In a classical paper [Langacker and Luo, Phys.Rev.D44(1991)817], Luo
and Langacker determined the , and by analyzing all existing experiments,
and observed that the gauge coupling constants unify within the minimal
supersymmetric standard model. It can be interpreted as an indirect support
for both supersymmetry and grand unification theories. The SCI citation of
this paper reaches nearly 600 now. In another seminal paper [Langacker, Luo
and Mann, Rev.Mod. Phys.64(1992)87.], Luo and collaborators provided a
theoretical framework for the high precision electroweak experiments, by
introducing a systematic prescription for the analysis of experiments and
the means of delineating the nature of new physics beyond the Standard
Model. Recently, Luo and Xiao re-calculated the two-loop renormalization
group equations in the standard model [hep-ph/0207271] and modified the long
standing expressions of beta-functions.
Prof. Luo is leading the research direction of particle physics and field
theory in Physics Department. Current interest are applications of quantum
field theories, precision tests of the standard model, supersymmetry and
grand unification theories; phenomenologies of gravitation and string
theories.
- Zhu-an Xu was born in 1966, received his Ph.D. degree in Department
of Physics, Zhejiang University in 1994. From 1997.8 to 2000.2, Xu was
working as a guest scientist in Princeton University. Xu was promoted to the
full professor position in the Institute for Condensed Matter Physics in
2000.
Prof. Xu has been active in experimental study of high-Tc superconductors in
the last years. Unlike the low-Tc superconductors, the fluctuation
superconductivity above Tc may extend to very high temperatures in the
cuprate. In a recent article [Xu et al., Nature 406(2000)486], the Nernst
effect and vortex-like excitations in high-Tc cuprates were investigated in
an experiment with La2-xSrxCuO4. Xu et al. found a surprising enhanced
Nernst signal in pseudogap regime (T>Tc). This indicates that vortices
may exist at temperatures as high as 150 K in a series of crystals in which
Tc ranges from below 4 K to 35 K. A possible scenario is that the condensate
forms above 150 K in these materials. Why is the observed Tc strongly
suppressed to 30 K? Because the condensate wavefunction is complex, the
phase angle fluctuates strongly in space and time. This destroys the
Meissner signal while leaving the condensate magnitude undiminished.
Xu has been granted a fund for distinguished young researchers by National
Natural Science Foundation.
- Xiao-wei Tang, an academician of Chinese Academy of Science, joined
in the Physics Department in 2000.
Prof. Tang is a nuclear physicist and high energy physicist. In the 70’s
and 80’s, his research group joined the Mark-J collaboration at DESY in
Hamburg, which discovered the gluon jet, and the L3 collaboration at CERN in
Geneva, which determines the three generations of neutrino in nature. In
90’s, Tang was also in the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer collaboration,
which searches for anti-matter and dark matter in space. Then his research
interest turned to the fields of life science and brain science. He
pioneered the functional brain imaging studies in China and organized the
neuroinformatics research in China. He was also the chief scientist of the
National Research Project “Basic research in nuclear medicine and
radiation therapy”.
Now Prof. Tang is leading a laboratory of cross disciplines and directing
his energy to the bio-X, med-X and psycho-X studies.
- Institute for Condensed Matter Physics consists of experimental and
theoretical divisions. Besides the experimentalists Tang and Xu above, Profs.
Shi-ning Bao, Gao-xiang Ye and Pi-mo He are leading strong groups on
experimental study of solid, surface and interface. Prof. Ye has been active
and creative on the experimental study of thin film growth on liquid
surfaces since 1996 [Ye, Michely, Weidenhof et al., Phys.Rev.Lett.
81(1998)622]. In recent years, Prof. Bao and He et al. have had success on
the growth and characteristics of C60 single crystal and related topics,
such as K3C60 crystal in gas phase and growth of carbon nanotubes by
chemical vapor deposition. Prof. He’s recent work on formation, electronic
structures and interfaces in organic light-emitting diodes is also
interesting and important [He, Au, Wang et al., Appl.Phys.Lett.76(2000)1422;
He, Wang, Wong et al., Appl.Phys.Lett.79 (2001) 1561].
- Prof. Zheng-kuan Jiao has been fruitful in both experimental and
theoretical study of high-Tc superconductors and superconductivity, and has
published more than 300 scientific research papers. Dr. Qing-hu Chen is one
of the youngest professors in the Physics Department, and productive in
theoretical condensed matter physics. In a recent article [Chen, Tang and
Tong, Phys.Rev.Lett.87(2001)067001], a long-standing dispute in
current-voltage characteristic of KT systems is reconciled with extensive
numerical simulations of superconducting Josephson junction arrays.
- Prof. Pei-lin Cao is a reputated senior professor in the
Department. An important work of Prof. Cao is on the Monte Carlo simulations
of the microscopic processes of surface diffusion [Cao,
Phys.Rev.Lett.73(1994)2595]. Cao proposed a transition type dependent
method, obtained a new formula of calculating the Monte-Carlo time, and a
relation between the surface diffusion coefficients and the surface order.
The method has been applied to typical surfactant-mediated homoepitaxial
systems. A new growth model, named the repulsive center network, is
developed. This model is in good agreement with the experiments.
- Shao-min Wang is an expert in Matrix Optics, which is efficient in
studying propagation and transformation of light. Prof. Wang and his
cooperators specialize especially in the application: dam deformation
measured by laser and by means of Fresnel lenses in vacuum line has been
considered and established. It is a misaligned optical system and it is also
a diffractive optical system. The ABCD matrix is thus augmented as a matrix.
Just at the time, novel phenomena of optical array were observed in the
United States, which could be treated conveniently by means of a matrix, and
as a result, a new branch of optics is thus established [PROGRESS INOPTICS,
1988, Amsterdan]. On the other hand, new laser beams are discovered based on
the concept of the nature of diffraction. The research projects “Array
Optics”, “A CO2 Laser with New Beam” and “Dam Deformation Measured
by Laser” have received the fourth prize of National Natural Science, the
third prize of National Technical Invention and the second prize of National
Scientific & Technical Progress Encouragements of China respectively. In
2000, a book named Matrix Optics by Wang and Zhao was formed and published
by CHEP-Springer.
Acknowledgement: Work supported in part by research funds
of National Education Ministry. The author thanks deeply many helpful
discussions with X.Y. Cai and Y.Q. Li .
B. Zheng
Physics Department
Zhejiang University
Hangzhou 310027
P. R. China
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