Dr Finn Stokes

Grant-Funded Research Fellow

School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences

College of Sciences

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.


Finn Stokes is a Ramsay fellow in the department of physics at the University of Adelaide. As a member of the prestigious Budapest-Marseille-Wuppertal collaboration (BMWc), they work closely with collaborators in Germany, France and Hungary to perform world-leading simulations of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the fundamental theory of the strong nuclear force.Finn is a former student of the UofA, and since completing their PhD in 2018 they have been working in Germany at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre. There they were a core member of the BMWc team that produced a computation that overturned our understanding of the magnetic moment of the muon in 2021. They have recently returned to Adelaide on a Ramsay Fellowship and are excited to engage undergraduate and graduate students in this cutting-edge research program.Finn is passionate about promoting equity and diversity in the sciences and is a sitting member of the international Lattice Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

My current research focus is the muon magnetic moment, a quantity that has puzzled physicists for decades. A longstanding discrepancy between theoretical predictions and experimental measurements of this quantity hints at new physics beyond the standard model. In 2021 we used lattice QCD calculations on supercomputers to rule out most of the prevailing explanations, leaving only a few possibilities. My current research program aims to dramatically increase the precision of that calculation, and provide detailed insight into the origin of the disagreement. Ultimately the I hope to answer once and for all if the discrepancy indicates new physics, and what it must look like. This will guide ongoing national and international searches for new theories that will underpin the next generation of physics research.

More broadly, I am driven to understand the nature of the strong nuclear force and the phenomena that arise from it. I have a particular interest in hadronic states and their interactions, and how these give rise to the resonances observed in experiment. In 2015 I developed the groundbreaking Parity Expanded Variational Analysis (PEVA) technique, allowing the clean isolation of baryon excited states in lattice QCD. This technique will be instrumental for future studies of baryon excited state structure, and has formed the foundation for an ongoing research program investigating these states at the University of Adelaide that I remain heavily involved with.

I also have a keen interest in visualisations of lattice QCD, and the qualitative insight they can provide into the structure of the QCD vacuum.

Date Position Institution name
2024 - ongoing Ramsay Fellow The University of Adelaide
2018 - 2023 Postdoctoral Researcher Forschungszentrum Jülich
2018 - 2018 Postdoctoral Research Associate The University of Adelaide

Date Institution name Country Title
2013 - 2018 The University of Adelaide Australia Doctor of Philosophy
2009 - 2012 The University of Adelaide Australia B.Sc.(High Perf. Comp. Phys.) (Hons)

Year Citation
2025 Aliberti, R., Aoyama, T., Balzani, E., Bashir, A., Benton, G., Bijnens, J., . . . Passera, M. (2025). The anomalous magnetic moment of the muon in the Standard Model: an update. Physics Reports, 1143, 1-158.
DOI Scopus29 WoS27
2025 Stokes, F. M., Kamleh, W., Leinweber, D. B., & Owen, B. J. (2025). Physical interpretation of the 2s excitation of the nucleon. Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics, 52(4), 045101-1-045101-15.
DOI
2024 Szabo, K. K., Lellouch, L., Fodor, Z., Stokes, F., Toth, B. C., & Wang, G. (2024). New physics in the muon magnetic moment?. Procedia Computer Science, 240, 91-98.
DOI Scopus2
2024 Stokes, F. M., Owen, B. J., Kamleh, W., & Leinweber, D. B. (2024). Odd-parity nucleon electromagnetic transitions in lattice QCD. Physical Review D (particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology), 110(5), 054517-1-054517-15.
DOI
2024 Davier, M., Fodor, Z., Gérardin, A., Lellouch, L., Malaescu, B., Stokes, F. M., . . . Zhang, Z. (2024). Hadronic vacuum polarization: Comparing lattice QCD and data-driven results in systematically improvable ways. Physical Review D, 109(7), 40 pages.
DOI Scopus14 WoS11
2024 Leinweber, D. B., Abell, C. D., Hockley, L. C., Kamleh, W., Liu, Z. -W., Stokes, F., . . . Wu, J. -J. (2024). Understanding the nature of baryon resonances. Il Nuovo Cimento C - Colloquia on Physics, 47(4), 146-1-146-8.
DOI Scopus7 WoS8
2022 Kamleh, W., Biddle, J., Leinweber, D. B., & Stokes, F. M. (2022). Emergent phenomena from centre vortices. Proceedings of Science, 396, 1-9.
DOI
2021 Borsanyi, S., Fodor, Z., Guenther, J. N., Hoelbling, C., Katz, S. D., Lellouch, L., . . . Varnhorst, L. (2021). Leading hadronic contribution to the muon magnetic moment from lattice QCD. Nature, 593(7857), 51-55.
DOI Scopus751 WoS665 Europe PMC42
2020 Stokes, F. M., Kamleh, W., & Leinweber, D. B. (2020). Elastic form factors of nucleon excitations in lattice QCD. Physical Review D, 102(1), 014507-1-014507-25.
DOI Scopus15 WoS18
2019 Stokes, F. M., Kamleh, W., & Leinweber, D. B. (2019). Opposite-parity contaminations in lattice nucleon form factors. Physical Review D, 99(7), 1-17.
DOI Scopus12 WoS10
2018 Wu, J. -J., Hall, J. M. M., Kamano, H., Kamleh, W., Lee, T. -S. H., Leinweber, D. B., . . . Thomas, A. W. (2018). Nucleon Excited States from Lattice QCD and Hamiltonian Effective Field
Theory.
2017 Liu, Z. -W., Kamleh, W., Leinweber, D., Stokes, F., Thomas, A., & Wu, J. -J. (2017). Hamiltonian effective field theory study of the N* (1440) resonance in lattice QCD. Physical Review D, 95(3), 034034-1-034034-14.
DOI Scopus59 WoS53
2017 Kiratidis, A., Kamleh, W., Leinweber, D., Liu, Z., Stokes, F., & Thomas, A. (2017). Search for low-lying lattice QCD eigenstates in the Roper regime. Physical Review D, 95(7), 074507-1-074507-8.
DOI Scopus47 WoS39
2016 Liu, Z., Kamleh, W., Leinweber, D., Stokes, F., Thomas, A., & Wu, J. (2016). Hamiltonian effective field theory study of the N* (1535) resonance in lattice QCD. Physical Review Letters, 116(8), 082004-1-082004-5.
DOI Scopus72 WoS121 Europe PMC2
2015 Stokes, F., Kamleh, W., Leinweber, D., Mahbub, M., Menadue, B., & Owen, B. (2015). Parity-expanded variational analysis for nonzero momentum. Physical Review D, 92(11), 114506-1-114506-10.
DOI Scopus19 WoS11
2014 Stokes, F., Kamleh, W., & Leinweber, D. (2014). Visualizations of coherent center domains in local Polyakov loops. Annals of Physics, 348, 341-361.
DOI Scopus11 WoS8
2012 Dietrich, D., Greiner, D., Jochum, J., Lachenmaier, T., Röhling, M., & Stokes, F. (2012). Monte Carlo aided design of the inner muon veto detectors for the Double Chooz experiment. Journal of Instrumentation, 7(8), P08012.
DOI Scopus5

Year Citation
2019 Stokes, F. M. (2019). Structure of Nucleon Excited States from Lattice QCD. Swittzerland: Springer International Publishing.
DOI

Year Citation
2025 Frech, F., Szabo, K., & Stokes, F. (2025). Reconstruction of the vector meson propagator using a generalized eigenvalue problem. In Proceedings of The 41st International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory — PoS(LATTICE2024) (pp. 133). Sissa Medialab.
DOI
2024 Martins, S., Aubin, C., Chakraborty, B., Detmold, W., Mathur, N., Mendes, T., & Stokes, F. (2024). LDIC Survey 2023: Feeling Welcome in the Community. In Proceedings of The 40th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory — PoS(LATTICE2023) Vol. 453 (pp. 156). Batavia, IL, USA: Sissa Medialab.
DOI
2024 Frech, F., Stokes, F. M., Szabó, K. K., & Toth, B. C. (2024). The mixing of two-pion and vector-meson states using staggered fermions. In Proceedings of The 40th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory — PoS(LATTICE2023) Vol. 453 (pp. 251). Batavia, Il, United States: Sissa Medialab.
DOI
2022 Toth, B. C., Borsanyi, S., Fodor, Z., Guenther, J., Hoelbling, C., Katz, S. D., . . . Varnhorst, L. (2022). Muon g-2: BMW calculation of the hadronic vacuum polarization contribution. In Proceedings of The 38th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory — PoS(LATTICE2021) Vol. 396 (pp. 1-18). Zoom/Gather@Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Sissa Medialab.
DOI Scopus5
2022 Parato, L., Borsanyi, S., Fodor, Z., Guenther, J., Hoelbling, C., Katz, S. D., . . . Varnhorst, L. (2022). QED and strong isospin corrections in the hadronic vacuum polarization contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. In Proceedings of The 38th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (LATTICE2021) Vol. 396 (pp. 1-12). ZOOM/GATHER@MIT: Sissa Medialab.
DOI Scopus3
2022 Varnhorst, L., Borsanyi, S., Fodor, Z., Guenther, J. N., Hoelbling, C., Katz, S. D., . . . Torok, C. (2022). High precision scale setting on the lattice. In Proceedings of The 38th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory — PoS(LATTICE2021) Vol. 396 (pp. 371). Zoom/Gather@Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Sissa Medialab.
DOI Scopus2
2020 Stokes, F., Kamleh, W., & Leinweber, D. (2020). Structure and transitions of nucleon excitations via parity-expanded variational analysis. In Proceedings of 37th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory — PoS(LATTICE2019) Vol. 363 (pp. 1-7). Italy: Sissa Medialab.
DOI Scopus2
2018 Kamleh, W., Leinweber, D., Liu, Z. W., Stokes, F., Thomas, A., Thomas, S., & Wu, J. (2018). Structure of the Nucleon and its Excitation. In M. Della Morte, P. Fritzsch, E. Gámiz Sánchez, & C. Pena Ruano (Eds.), European Physical Journal (EPJ) Web of Conferences Vol. 175 (pp. 1-8). online: EDP Sciences.
DOI Scopus3
2018 Biddle, J., Charvetto, J., Kamleh, W., Leinweber, D., Piercy, H., Puckridge, E., . . . Zanotti, J. (2018). Publicising lattice field theory through visualisation. In Proceedings of the 36th Annual International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (LATTICE2018), as published in Proceedings of Science Vol. 334 (pp. 325-1-325-7). Michigan State University, East Lansing, United States: SISSA.
DOI
2017 Kiratidis, A., Kamleh, W., Leinweber, D., Liu, Z., Stokes, F., & Thomas, A. (2017). Spectroscopy with local multi-hadron interpolators in lattice QCD. In Proceedings of Science Vol. 2016-September (pp. 1-8). Online: PoS.
DOI
2017 Stokes, F., Kamleh, W., Leinweber, D., & Owen, B. (2017). Electromagnetic Form Factors through Parity-Expanded Variational Analysis. In Proceedings of 34th annual International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory — PoS(LATTICE2016) (pp. 1-7). Italy: Sissa Medialab.
DOI
2016 Liu, Z., Hall, J., Kamleh, W., Leinweber, D., Stokes, F., Thomas, A., & Wu, J. (2016). Study of low-lying baryons with hamiltonian effective field theory. In Proceedings of Science Vol. 2016-September (pp. 1-8). Online: PoS.
DOI Scopus2
2016 Stokes, F., Kamleh, W., Leinweber, D., & Owen, B. (2016). Electromagnetic form factors of nucleon excitations in lattice QCD. In Proceedings of Science Vol. 2016-September (pp. 1-7). Online: PoS.
DOI
2016 Stokes, F., Kamleh, W., Leinweber, D., & Owen, B. (2016). Electromagnetic form factors of excited nucleons via parity-expanded variational analysis. In Proceedings of Science.34th Annual International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, LATTICE 2016 Vol. Part F128557 (pp. 1-7). Online: SISSA.
Scopus1
2016 Leinweber, D., Kamleh, W., Kiratidis, A., Liu, Z. -W., Mahbub, S., Roberts, D., . . . Wu, J. (2016). N* Spectroscopy from lattice QCD: The Roper explained. In Proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on the Physics of Excited Nucleons (pp. 010011-1-010011-8). Japan: Physical Scoiety of Japan.
DOI WoS6

Year Citation
2025 Aliberti, R., Aoyama, T., Balzani, E., Bashir, A., Benton, G., Bijnens, J., . . . Zhevlakov, A. S. (2025). The anomalous magnetic moment of the muon in the Standard Model: an
update.
2024 Stokes, F. M., Owen, B. J., Kamleh, W., & Leinweber, D. B. (2024). Odd-Parity Nucleon Electromagnetic Transitions in Lattice QCD.
2024 Boccaletti, A., Borsanyi, S., Davier, M., Fodor, Z., Frech, F., Gerardin, A., . . . Zhang, Z. (2024). High precision calculation of the hadronic vacuum polarisation
contribution to the muon anomaly.
2024 Stokes, F. M., Kamleh, W., Leinweber, D. B., & Owen, B. J. (2024). Physical interpretation of the 2s excitation of the nucleon.
2023 Davier, M., Fodor, Z., Gerardin, A., Lellouch, L., Malaescu, B., Stokes, F. M., . . . Zhang, Z. (2023). Hadronic vacuum polarization: comparing lattice QCD and data-driven
results in systematically improvable ways.
2022 Colangelo, G., Davier, M., El-Khadra, A. X., Hoferichter, M., Lehner, C., Lellouch, L., . . . Zhang, Z. (2022). Prospects for precise predictions of $a_μ$ in the Standard Model.
2020 Stokes, F. M., Kamleh, W., & Leinweber, D. B. (2020). Structure and transitions of nucleon excitations via parity-expanded
variational analysis.
2019 Stokes, F. M., Kamleh, W., & Leinweber, D. B. (2019). Elastic Form Factors of Nucleon Excitations in Lattice QCD.
2018 Stokes, F. M., Kamleh, W., & Leinweber, D. B. (2018). Opposite-Parity Contaminations in Lattice Nucleon Form Factors.
2017 Stokes, F. M., Kamleh, W., Leinweber, D. B., & Owen, B. J. (2017). Electromagnetic Form Factors of Nucleon Excitations in Lattice QCD.

Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
2025 Co-Supervisor Investigating the Emergent Phenomena of Quantum Chromodynamics in Lattice QCD Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Jackson Andrew Mickley
2025 Co-Supervisor Investigating the Emergent Phenomena of Quantum Chromodynamics in Lattice QCD Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Jackson Andrew Mickley

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