Classification: Primary Faculty

Education: Ph.D. 1973, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany

Fields of Study: 

• Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
• Astrophysics and Cosmology
• High Energy Physics
• Nuclear Physics

Research Interests: 

The study of strange particle signatures of deconfined quark-gluon plasma formed in relativistic heavy ion collisions; the formation of matter out of quark-gluon plasma in hadronization processes in the laboratory and in the early Universe; The vacuum structure in the presence of strong fields, and the related topics in positron plasma physics; the ascent of ultra short, ultra intense laser light pulses as a new tool in this domain of physics, and the related new research opportunities involving exploration of the inertial force in the presence of critical acceleration; Applications to high energy particle production; Astroparticle physics as related to dark matter, dark energy, neutrino cosmic background and new cosmic objects within the standard model of particle physics and applications of strong field physics in Astrophysics. Current work on novel approaches to aneutronic nuclear fusion at intermediate plasma density; Past contributions to neural net modeling and artificial intelligence.

Honors and Awards: 

Fulbright Scholar- 2019

NIAPO

Selected Publications: 

Rafelski, J., Discovery of Quark-Gluon-Plasma: Strangeness Diaries European Physical Journal ST, 229 (2020)

Rafelski, J., Melting hadrons, boiling quarks European Physical Journal A 51, 114 (2015)

Rafelski, J., Labun, L. & Birrell, J Compact Ultradense Matter Impactors Phys. Rev. Lett.110 (11), 111102 (2013)

Rafelski,J. & J Letessier, J. Sudden hadronization in relativistic nuclear collisions Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 4695 (2000)

Rafelski, J. & Müller, B Strangeness production in the quark-gluon plasma Phys. Rev. Lett.48, 1066 (1982).

Rafelski, J., Fulcher, L.P.,& Klein,A. Fermions and bosons interacting with arbitrarily strong external fields, Physics Reports 38 , 227-361 (1978)

Rafelski, J., Fulcher, L.P., & Greiner, W. Superheavy elements and an upper limit to the electric field strength Phys. Rev. Lett. 27 , 958 (1971)