Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The University of South Carolina received $330,000 in federal funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Physics under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) for a three-year project spanning August 1, 2026, through July 31, 2029. The grant funds theoretical research developing new computational and analytical tools to advance understanding of nuclear structure and hadronic dynamics as derived from quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Specifically, the project introduces a novel nonrelativistic effective field theory for scalar particles (SNR-EFT) to enable systematic treatment of pions, kaons, and other spin-0 states relevant to low-energy nuclear processes. The research combines this framework with gradient-flow renormalization techniques to generate improved predictions for pionic and kaonic atoms and to extract low-energy QCD parameters.

The funded work directly supports experimental programs at major U.S. research facilities, including Jefferson Lab, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and the future Electron-Ion Collider, by providing theoretical predictions to guide searches for unusual nuclear states and reduce uncertainties in muon-to-electron conversion studies. The project incorporates educational components, providing graduate and undergraduate students with training in modern nuclear theory, computational modeling, and theory-experiment connections. Additionally, the award funds public outreach activities to communicate fundamental nuclear science and its societal importance. The research addresses the longstanding theoretical challenge of understanding how atomic nuclei emerge from their elementary quark and gluon constituents, with particular emphasis on the role of glueballs and glue-rich states in nuclear structure.