Research Interests
Nuclear & Particles PhysicsDr 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 |
|---|---|
| 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 |