Professor Simon Hands

Personal Professor, Physics

+44 (0) 1792 295013

s.j.hands@swansea.ac.uk

Research Links

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5720-7852

ResearchGate

Google Scholar

Available For Postgraduate Supervision

About

Simon Hands is a theoretical and computational physicist specialising in lattice field theory simulations of strongly-interacting matter. Two areas of particular interest are the behaviour of quarks under extreme conditions of temperature and density, and the behaviour of electrons in two-dimensional substances such as graphene. My research frequently requires the use of Tier-1 high performance computing such as STFC’s national DiRAC HPC facilty where I am currently co-chair of the Project Board.

I have worked at Swansea University since 1993.

See also the links from my personal webpage http://pyweb.swan.ac.uk/~hands/

Areas Of Expertise

Lattice field theory
Quantum Field theory
High Performance Computing

Career Highlights

Teaching Interests

I lecture Nuclear Physics and Computational Physics, and coordinate a level 3 module in which selected students interested in a career in teaching undertake placements in local schools.

Research

My current project: investigation of possible ground states in various two-dimenional lattice models of interacting fermions. The red and blue surfaces indicate a condensate of fermion – antifermion pairs leading to the formation of an “Aoki phase”.

Award Highlights

Elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales in 2013.

Publications

Research Highlights

Hands, S., Mesiti, M., & Worthy, J. (2020). Critical behavior in the single flavor Thirring model in 2+1D. Physical Review D, 102(9)
https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.102.094502, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa55616
Hands, S., Hollowood, T., & Myers, J. (2010). QCD with chemical potential in a small hyperspherical box. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2010(7)
https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP07(2010)086, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa7247
Hands, S., Hollowood, T., & Myers, J. (2010). Numerical study of the two color attoworld. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2010(12)
https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP12(2010)057, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa7250
Hollowood, T., Hands, S., & Myers, J. (2010). QCD with chemical potential on S^1 x S^3. In PoS Lattice 2010The XXVIII International Symposium on Lattice Filed Theory.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa7964
https://pos.sissa.it/105/204/pdf
Aarts, G., Allton, C., Hands, S., Foley, J., Kim, S., Hands, S., & Allton, C. (2010). Polarised correlators at finite temperature. In PoS LATTICE2010XXVIIIth International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa8154
https://pos.sissa.it/105/166/pdf
Amato, A., Aarts, G., Allton, C., Giudice, P., Hands, S., & Skullerud, J. (2013). Electrical Conductivity of the Quark-Gluon Plasma Across the Deconfinement Transition. Physical Review Letters, 111(17), 172001
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.172001, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa16311
Aarts, G., Allton, C., De Boni, D., Hands, S., Jäger, B., Praki, C., & Skullerud, J. (2017). Light baryons below and above the deconfinement transition: medium effects and parity doubling. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2017(6), 1-30.
https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep06(2017)034, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa34210
Hands, S., Laramee, B., Borgo, R., & Thomas, D. (2019). Topological Visualisation Techniques for Volume Multifield Data. In Branislav Sobota (Ed.), Computer Graphics and ImagingIntech Open
https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82185, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52576
https://www.intechopen.com/books/computer-graphics-and-imaging
Aarts, G., Allton, C., De Boni, D., Glesaaen, J., Hands, S., Jäger, B., & Skullerud, J. (2020). Hyperons in Thermal QCD from the Lattice. Springer Proceedings in Physics (pp. 29-35). Springer International Publishing
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53448-6_4, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa53124
Nikolaev, A., Aarts, G., Allton, C., De Boni, D., Glesaaen, J., Hands, S., Jäger, B., Skullerud, J., & Wu, L. (2020). Mesonic correlators at non-zero baryon chemical potential. In Proceedings of 37th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory — PoS(LATTICE2019)Sissa Medialab.
https://doi.org/10.22323/1.363.0077, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa53250

All Research

Journal Articles

Hands, S., Mesiti, M., & Worthy, J. (2020). Critical behavior in the single flavor Thirring model in 2+1D. Physical Review D, 102(9)
https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.102.094502, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa55616
Boz, T., Giudice, P., Hands, S., & Skullerud, J. (2020). Dense two-color QCD towards continuum and chiral limits. Physical Review D, 101(7)
https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.101.074506, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa53927
Thomas, D., Borgo, R., Laramee, R., & Hands, S. (2019). Joint Contour Net Analysis for Feature Detection in Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics Data. Big Data Research, 15, 29-42.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bdr.2019.02.003, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa49610
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214579618302600?dgcid=coauthor
Hands, S. (2019). Critical flavor number in the 2+1D Thirring model. Physical Review D, 99(3)
https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.99.034504, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa48869
Bermudez, A., Tirrito, E., Rizzi, M., Lewenstein, M., & Hands, S. (2018). Gross–Neveu–Wilson model and correlated symmetry-protected topological phases. Annals of Physics, 399, 149-180.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aop.2018.10.007, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa45293
Thomas, D., Borgo, R., Laramee, R., Hands, S., & Laramee, B. (2017). QCDVis: a tool for the visualisation of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) data. Computers & Graphics, 67, 115-126.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cag.2017.07.006, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa34649
Aarts, G., Allton, C., De Boni, D., Hands, S., Jäger, B., Praki, C., & Skullerud, J. (2017). Light baryons below and above the deconfinement transition: medium effects and parity doubling. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2017(6), 1-30.
https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep06(2017)034, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa34210
Hands, S. (2016). Towards critical physics in 2+1d with U(2N )-invariant fermions. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2016(11)
https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP11(2016)015, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa30962
Hands, S. (2016). From domain wall to overlap in 2+1d. Physics Letters B, 754, 264-269.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2016.01.037, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa25961
Armour, W., Hands, S., & Strouthos, C. (2015). Strong interaction effects at a Fermi surface in a model for voltage-biased bilayer graphene. Physical Review B, 92(23)
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.92.235143, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa25301
Hands, S. (2015). Domain wall fermions for planar physics. Journal of High Energy Physics, 09(047)
https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP09(2015)047, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa23345
Aarts, G., Allton, C., Hands, S., Jäger, B., Praki, C., & Skullerud, J. (2015). Nucleons and parity doubling across the deconfinement transition. Physical Review D, 92(1)
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.92.014503, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa22162
Amato, A., Giudice, P., & Hands, S. (2015). Hadron wave functions as a probe of a two-color baryonic medium. The European Physical Journal A, 51(4)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2015-15039-6, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa20483
Aarts, G., Allton, C., Amato, A., Giudice, P., Hands, S., & Skullerud, J. (2015). Electrical conductivity and charge diffusion in thermal QCD from the lattice. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2015(2)
https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2015)186, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa20253
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FJHEP02%282015%29186
Amato, A., Aarts, G., Allton, C., Giudice, P., Hands, S., & Skullerud, J. (2013). Electrical Conductivity of the Quark-Gluon Plasma Across the Deconfinement Transition. Physical Review Letters, 111(17), 172001
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.172001, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa16311
Cotter, S., Giudice, P., Hands, S., & Skullerud, J. (2013). Towards the phase diagram of dense two-color matter. Physical Review D, 87(3), 034507
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.87.034507, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa13404
Armour, W., Hands, S., & Strouthos, C. (2013). Monte Carlo study of strongly interacting degenerate fermions: A model for voltage-biased bilayer graphene. Physical Review D, 87(6)
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.87.065010, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa14506
Hands, S., Kim, S., & Skullerud, J. (2012). Non-relativistic spectrum of two-color QCD at non-zero baryon density. Physics Letters B, 711(2), 199-204.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2012.04.002, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa13403
Armour, W., Hands, S., Kogut, J., Lucini, B., Strouthos, C., & Vranas, P. (2011). Magnetic monopole plasma phase in (2+1)d compact quantum electrodynamics with fermionic matter. Physical Review D
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.84.014502, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa7071
Hands, S., Kenny, P., Kim, S., Skullerud, J., & Hands, S. (2011). Lattice study of dense matter with two colors and four flavors. The European Physical Journal A, 47(5)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2011-11060-1, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa7068
Hands, S. & Kenny, P. (2011). Topological fluctuations in dense matter with two colors. Physics Letters B
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2011.05.065, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa7069
Armour, W., Hands, S., & Strouthos, C. (2011). Monte Carlo simulation of monolayer graphene at nonzero temperature. Physical Review B
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.84.075123, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa7070
Hands, S., Hollowood, T., & Myers, J. (2010). Numerical study of the two color attoworld. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2010(12)
https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP12(2010)057, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa7250
Hands, S., Kim, S., & Skullerud, J. (2010). Quarkyonic phase in dense two color matter. Physical Review D, 81(9), 091502
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.81.091502, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa1126
Armour, W., Hands, S., & Strouthos, C. (2010). Monte Carlo simulation of the semimetal-insulator phase transition in monolayer graphene. Physical Review B, 81(12), 125105
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.81.125105, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa1127
Hands, S., Hollowood, T., & Myers, J. (2010). QCD with chemical potential in a small hyperspherical box. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2010(7)
https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP07(2010)086, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa7247
Armour, W., Hands, S., & Strouthos, C. (2009). Lattice Simulations near the Semimetal-Insulator Phase Transition of Graphene.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa7977
Hands, S. & Strouthos, C. (2009). Quantum phase transition in a graphene model. Journal of Physics: Conference Series
https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/150/4/042191, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa7065
Chakrabarti, D., Hands, S., & Rago, A. (2009). Topological aspects of fermions on a honeycomb lattice. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2009(06), 060-060.
https://doi.org/10.1088/1126-6708/2009/06/060, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa1128
HANDS, S., SITCH, P., SKULLERUD, J., & Hands, S. (2008). Hadron spectrum in a two-colour baryon-rich medium. Physics Letters B
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2008.01.078, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa7064
Hands, S. & Strouthos, C. (2008). Quantum critical behavior in a graphenelike model. Physical Review B, 78(16), 165423 (7 pages)
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.78.165423, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa1125
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.78.165423
Hands, S., Kim, S., Skullerud, J., & Hands, S. (2006). Deconfinement in dense 2-color QCD. , 193-206.
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s2006-02621-8, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa1540
Allton, C., Ejiri, S., Hands, S., Kaczmarek, O., Karsch, F., Laermann, E., Schmidt, C., Hands, S., & Allton, C. (2003). Equation of state for two flavor QCD at nonzero chemical potential. Physical Review D, 68(1), 17 pages
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.68.014507, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa1539
Allton, C., Ejiri, S., Hands, S., Kaczmarek, O., Karsch, F., Laermann, E., Schmidt, C., Scorzato, L., Hands, S., & Allton, C. (2002). QCD thermal phase transition in the presence of a small chemical potential. Physical Review D, 66(7), 16 pages
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.66.074507, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa1538
Kogut, J., Sinclair, D., Hands, S., Morrison, S., & Hands, S. (2001). Two-color QCD at nonzero quark-number density. Physical Review D, 64(9), 9 pages
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.64.094505, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa1537

Book Chapters

Aarts, G., Allton, C., De Boni, D., Glesaaen, J., Hands, S., Jäger, B., & Skullerud, J. (2020). Hyperons in Thermal QCD from the Lattice. Springer Proceedings in Physics (pp. 29-35). Springer International Publishing
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53448-6_4, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa53124
Hands, S., Laramee, B., Borgo, R., & Thomas, D. (2019). Topological Visualisation Techniques for Volume Multifield Data. In Branislav Sobota (Ed.), Computer Graphics and ImagingIntech Open
https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82185, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52576
https://www.intechopen.com/books/computer-graphics-and-imaging

Conference Contributions

Nikolaev, A., Aarts, G., Allton, C., De Boni, D., Glesaaen, J., Hands, S., Jäger, B., Skullerud, J., & Wu, L. (2020). Mesonic correlators at non-zero baryon chemical potential. In Proceedings of 37th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory — PoS(LATTICE2019)Sissa Medialab.
https://doi.org/10.22323/1.363.0077, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa53250
Thomas, D., Borgo, R., & Hands, S. (2016). Topological Visualisation Techniques for the Understanding of Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics (LQCD) Simulations. In Computer Graphics & Visual Computing (CGVC) 2016The Eurographics Association.
https://doi.org/10.2312/cgvc.20161298, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa30896
https://diglib.eg.org/handle/10.2312/cgvc20161298
Giudice, P., Hands, S., & Skullerud, J. (2011). Quark number susceptibility at ﬁnite density and low temperature. In PoS(Lattice 2011)
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa7982
http://pos.sissa.it//archive/conferences/139/193/Lattice%202011_193.pdf
Hollowood, T., Hands, S., & Myers, J. (2010). QCD with chemical potential on S^1 x S^3. In PoS Lattice 2010The XXVIII International Symposium on Lattice Filed Theory.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa7964
https://pos.sissa.it/105/204/pdf
Aarts, G., Allton, C., Hands, S., Foley, J., Kim, S., Hands, S., & Allton, C. (2010). Polarised correlators at finite temperature. In PoS LATTICE2010XXVIIIth International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa8154
https://pos.sissa.it/105/166/pdf
Hands, S. (2009). Lattice Study of Dense Two Color Matter. In PoS (QCD-TNT09)
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa7979
http://pos.sissa.it//archive/conferences/087/018/QCD-TNT09_018.pdf

Other Research Outputs

Aarts, G., Allton, C., Foley, J., Hands, S., & Kim, S. (2010). Longitudinal and transverse meson correlators in the deconfined phase from the lattice
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa7980
http://arXiv.org/abs/arXiv:1010.0845

Supervision

Novel approaches to the study of the heavy meson spectrum at finite temperature (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Prof Chris Allton
Aspects of Strongly Interacting Quantum Field Theories in 2+1D (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Prof Gert Aarts
Hadron spectroscopy at non zero temperature using Lattice QCD techniques. (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Prof Gert Aarts
QCD under extreme conditions: heating up quarks and gluons (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Prof Gert Aarts
Topics in anisotropic lattice QCD at high temperature (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Prof Chris Allton
Extracting small signals from highly oscillating data: the sign problem in particle Physics (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Prof Biagio Lucini
'Topological visualisation techniques to enhance understanding of Lattice QCD simulations«br /» ' (awarded 2018)

PhD

Other supervisor: Dr Bob Laramee
Improved Numerical Methods for Domain Wall Fermions in 2+1d. (awarded 2019)

MSc

Other supervisor: Prof Gert Aarts

Taught Modules

PH-311 Project

Project carried out individually under the supervision of a member of staff on a suitable theoretical or experimental topic.
PH-318 Theoretical Physics Project

An individual project on a theoretical project.
PH-325 Teaching Physics via a School Placement

This module is for students with an interest in entering teaching, and involves a weekly placement in a local school under the mentorship of a physics teacher. The student will engage both in observation and in various teaching activities. The module will be assessed on the basis of the mentor's report and on written project work.
PH-338 Frontiers of Nuclear Physics

This module covers nuclear physics, including applications of fission and fusion, together with modern developments in the theory of strong interactions.
PH-353 Computational Physics

Computer simulations play a fundamental role in Physics. This course will introduce the the main techniques used in the field; in particular, Monte Carlo calculations. The student will also be equipped with the needed computing skills.
PH-M40 Computational Science Project

Students will perform individual projects based on advanced Science topics using computational techniques.

Public Engagements

In 1993 I was one of five winners of a bottle of vintage champagne offered by the then UK Science Minister, William Waldegrave, for the best description on one side of an A4 page of the Higgs Boson and why we should try so hard to find it. Peter Higgs visited

Swansea University in 2012 a few days after the boson discovery was announced at CERN, and you can see an interview I made with him at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYOsRPlW6Ng

The world of hot quarks and gluons has been described from an unusual direction in an allegorical graphic novel starring superheroes Thor, Sif and Loki. I helped with the English translation.

During the Covid-19 lockdown I gave a webinar schools talk on Special Relativity and the Twin Paradox, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VDeax6aNV8

Professor Simon Hands

Telephone number

Email address

LinkedIn Account

Research Links

About

Areas Of Expertise

Career Highlights

Research Highlights

All Research

Novel approaches to the study of the heavy meson spectrum at finite temperature (current)

Aspects of Strongly Interacting Quantum Field Theories in 2+1D (current)

Hadron spectroscopy at non zero temperature using Lattice QCD techniques. (current)

QCD under extreme conditions: heating up quarks and gluons (current)

Topics in anisotropic lattice QCD at high temperature (current)

Extracting small signals from highly oscillating data: the sign problem in particle Physics (current)

'Topological visualisation techniques to enhance understanding of Lattice QCD simulations«br /» ' (awarded 2018)

Improved Numerical Methods for Domain Wall Fermions in 2+1d. (awarded 2019)

PH-311 Project

PH-318 Theoretical Physics Project

PH-325 Teaching Physics via a School Placement

PH-338 Frontiers of Nuclear Physics

PH-353 Computational Physics

PH-M40 Computational Science Project