About

Professor Aida X El-Khadra received her PhD in 1989 from the University of California, Los Angeles, after obtaining a Diplom in Physics from the Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany. She held postdoctoral research appointments at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and the Ohio State University before joining the Illinois faculty in 1995. Her research focuses on theoretical particle physics, particularly the development of lattice field theory as a precision tool to quantify the nonperturbative effects of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) needed for the interpretation of measurements in high energy experiments. Her work includes broad program calculations that enable precision tests of the Standard Model and determinations of its fundamental parameters, with recent emphasis on the hadronic corrections to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. She has contributed to the development of lattice actions for heavy quarks, the first quantitative determination of the strong coupling from lattice QCD, and the development of quantum simulations for high energy physics. Professor El-Khadra is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society, and she currently chairs the Steering Committee of the Muon g-2 Theory Initiative. She has served on numerous editorial, organizational, and advisory committees within the particle physics community.

Research topics

• Physics
• Particle physics
• Nuclear physics
• Quantum mechanics
• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Library science
• Law
• Engineering
• Theoretical physics
• Astronomy
• Statistical physics
• Condensed matter physics
• Public relations
• Engineering ethics

Selected publications

• Review of Particle Physics

  Physical review. D/Physical review. D. · 2024 · 2768 citations

  • Particle physics
  • Physics
  • Nuclear physics

  The summarizes much of particle physics and cosmology. Using data from previous editions, plus 2,717 new measurements from 869 papers, we list, evaluate, and average measured properties of gauge bosons and the recently discovered Higgs boson, leptons, quarks, mesons, and baryons. We summarize searches for hypothetical particles such as supersymmetric particles, heavy bosons, axions, dark photons, etc. Particle properties and search limits are listed in Summary Tables. We give numerous tables, figures, formulae, and reviews of topics such as Higgs Boson Physics, Supersymmetry, Grand Unified Theories, Neutrino Mixing, Dark Energy, Dark Matter, Cosmology, Particle Detectors, Colliders, Probability and Statistics. Most of the 120 reviews are updated, including many that are heavily revised. The is divided into two volumes. Volume 1 includes the Summary Tables and 97 review articles. Volume 2 consists of the Particle Listings and contains also 23 reviews that address specific aspects of the data presented in the Listings. The complete (both volumes) is published online on the website of the Particle Data Group () and in a journal. Volume 1 is available in print as the . A with the Summary Tables and essential tables, figures, and equations from selected review articles is available in print, as a web version optimized for use on phones, and as an Android app. The 2024 edition of the Review of Particle Physics should be cited as: S. Navas et al. (Particle Data Group), Phys. Rev. D 110, 030001 (2024) © 2024 2024

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Quantum Simulation for High-Energy Physics

  PRX Quantum · 2023 · 298 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Political Science
  • Computer Science

  It is for the first time that quantum simulation for high-energy physics (HEP) is studied in the U.S. decadal particle-physics community planning, and in fact until recently, this was not considered a mainstream topic in the community. This fact speaks of a remarkable rate of growth of this subfield over the past few years, stimulated by the impressive advancements in quantum information sciences (QIS) and associated technologies over the past decade, and the significant investment in this area by the government and private sectors in the U.S. and other countries. High-energy physicists have quickly identified problems of importance to our understanding of nature at the most fundamental level, from tiniest distances to cosmological extents, that are intractable with classical computers but may benefit from quantum advantage. They have initiated, and continue to carry out, a vigorous program in theory, algorithm, and hardware co-design for simulations of relevance to the HEP mission. This Roadmap is an attempt to bring this exciting and yet challenging area of research to the spotlight, and to elaborate on what the promises, requirements, challenges, and potential solutions are over the next decade and beyond.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Review of Particle Physics

  Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics · 2022 · 6237 citations

  • Physics
  • Particle physics
  • Nuclear physics

  Abstract The Review summarizes much of particle physics and cosmology. Using data from previous editions, plus 2,143 new measurements from 709 papers, we list, evaluate, and average measured properties of gauge bosons and the recently discovered Higgs boson, leptons, quarks, mesons, and baryons. We summarize searches for hypothetical particles such as supersymmetric particles, heavy bosons, axions, dark photons, etc. Particle properties and search limits are listed in Summary Tables. We give numerous tables, figures, formulae, and reviews of topics such as Higgs Boson Physics, Supersymmetry, Grand Unified Theories, Neutrino Mixing, Dark Energy, Dark Matter, Cosmology, Particle Detectors, Colliders, Probability and Statistics. Among the 120 reviews are many that are new or heavily revised, including a new review on Machine Learning, and one on Spectroscopy of Light Meson Resonances. The Review is divided into two volumes. Volume 1 includes the Summary Tables and 97 review articles. Volume 2 consists of the Particle Listings and contains also 23 reviews that address specific aspects of the data presented in the Listings. The complete Review (both volumes) is published online on the website of the Particle Data Group (pdg.lbl.gov) and in a journal. Volume 1 is available in print as the PDG Book. A Particle Physics Booklet with the Summary Tables and essential tables, figures, and equations from selected review articles is available in print, as a web version optimized for use on phones, and as an Android app.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The anomalous magnetic moment of the muon in the Standard Model

  Physics Reports · 2020 · 1209 citations

  • Physics
  • Nuclear physics
  • Particle physics
  DOI

• Framework for simulating gauge theories with dipolar spin systems

  Physical review. A/Physical review, A · 2020 · 49 citations

  • Physics
  • Theoretical physics
  • Quantum mechanics

  Gauge theories appear broadly in physics, ranging from the standard model of particle physics to long-wavelength descriptions of topological systems in condensed matter. However, systems with sign problems are largely inaccessible to classical computations and also beyond the current limitations of digital quantum hardware. In this work, we develop an analog approach to simulating gauge theories with an experimental setup that employs dipolar spins (molecules or Rydberg atoms). We consider molecules fixed in space and interacting through dipole-dipole interactions, avoiding the need for itinerant degrees of freedom. Each molecule represents either a site or gauge degree of freedom, and Gauss's law is preserved by a direct and programmatic tuning of positions and internal state energies. This approach can be regarded as a form of analog systems programming and charts a path forward for near-term quantum simulation. As a first step, we numerically validate this scheme in a small-system study of $\mathrm{U}(1)$ quantum link models in ($1+1$) dimensions with link spin $S=1/2$ and $S=1$ and illustrate how dynamical phenomena such as string inversion and string breaking could be observed in near-term experiments. Our work brings together methods from atomic and molecular physics, condensed matter physics, high-energy physics, and quantum information science for the study of nonperturbative processes in gauge theories.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Andreas S. Kronfeld

  Technical University of Munich

  564 shared

• Carleton DeTar

  405 shared

• E. Gámiz

  329 shared

• James N. Simone

  Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

  268 shared

• Ethan T. Neil

  193 shared

• Steven Gottlieb

  Indiana University Bloomington

  183 shared

• D. Toussaint

  University of Arizona

  178 shared

• C. Bérnard

  174 shared

Awards & honors

• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sc…
• Fellow of the American Physical Society
• Simons Fellowship in Theoretical Physics
• Fermilab Distinguished Scholar appointment
• Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship

Similar researchers at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

• Jiawei Hanh-146
• Maria T. Grosse Perdekamph-141
• Gan Zhangh-134
• Jeffrey S. Mooreh-130
• Shuming Nieh-128