Dr. Dan Pitonyak

Dan Pitonyak

Assistant Professor of Physics

B.S., Lebanon Valley College; Ph.D., Temple University

Expertise:
Atomic and Nuclear Physics, Elementary Particle Physics, Analytical Mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism, Quantum Mechanics, Computational Physics

Research & Practice Areas:
Computational Nuclear Physics

Dr. Pitonyak’s student-faculty research focuses on computational nuclear physics. His work attempts to understand the 3-dimensional internal structure of visible matter. Dr. Pitonyak and his students write code in Python to compute high-energy particle collisions and analyze how models fit experimental data. This enables them to extract information on the elementary particles that make up objects like the proton.

  • Department of Energy grant ($1.95 million, January 1, 2023 – December 31, 2027), Office of Nuclear Physics – Saturated Glue Topical Collaboration (Senior Personnel)
  • National Science Foundation grant ($164,862, August 15, 2020–July 31, 2023), Nuclear Theory Program, Research in Undergraduate Institutions – RUI: Hadronic Structure from Spin Observables in pQCD (Principal Investigator, Award No. PHY-2011763)
  • Lead Guest Editor for the Special Issue in Advances in High Energy Physics titled “Transverse Momentum Dependent Observables from Low to High Energy: Factorization, Evolution, and Global Analyses.” May 2019.
  • Dissertation Award from the American Physical Society Group on Hadronic Physics. 2015
  • Referee for Physical Review D, Physical Review Letters, Physics Letters B, Advances in High Energy Physics, International Journal of Modern Physics A, and Nuclear Physics A.

*Indicates undergraduate student

*B. Bauer, D. Pitonyak, and *C. Shay, Numerical study of the twist-3 asymmetry ALT in single-inclusive electron-nucleon and proton-proton collisions. Phys. Rev. D 107, 014013 (2023).

L. Gamberg, *M. Malda, *J. A. Miller, D. Pitonyak, A. Prokudin and N. Sato, Updated QCD global analysis of single transverse-spin asymmetries: Extracting H~, and the role of the Soffer bound and lattice QCD, Phys. Rev. D 106, 034014 (2022).

M. Boglione, M. Diefenthaler, S. Dolan, L. Gamberg, W. Melnitchouk, D. Pitonyak, A. Prokudin, N. Sato and Z. Scalyer, New tool for kinematic regime estimation in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering, JHEP 2204, 084 (2022).

S. Bhattacharya, Z. B. Kang, A. Metz, G. Penn and D. Pitonyak, First global QCD analysis of the TMD g1T from semi-inclusive DIS data, Phys. Rev. D 105, 034007 (2022).

R. Abdul Khalek, A. Accardi, J. Adam, D. Adamiak, W. Akers, M. Albaladejo, A. Al-bataineh, M. G. Alexeev, F. Ameli and P. Antonioli, et al., Science Requirements and Detector Concepts for the Electron-Ion Collider: EIC Yellow Report, Nucl. Phys. A 1026, 122447 (2022).

D. Adamiak, Y. V. Kovchegov, W. Melnitchouk, D. Pitonyak, N. Sato and M. D. Sievert, First analysis of world polarized DIS data with small-x helicity evolution, Phys. Rev. D 104, L031501 (2021).

L. Gamberg, Z. B. Kang, D. Pitonyak, A. Prokudin, N. Sato and R. Seidl, Electron-Ion Collider impact study on the tensor charge of the nucleon, Phys. Lett. B 816, 136255 (2021).

*J. Cammarota, L. Gamberg, Z. B. Kang, *J. A. Miller, D. Pitonyak, A. Prokudin, T. C. Rogers and N. Sato, Origin of single transverse-spin asymmetries in high-energy collisions. Phys. Rev. D 102, 054002 (2020).

L. Gamberg, Z. B. Kang, D. Pitonyak, M. Schlegel and S. Yoshida, Polarized hyperon production in single-inclusive electron-positron annihilation at next-to-leading order, JHEP 1901, 111 (2019).

L. Gamberg, A. Metz, D. Pitonyak and A. Prokudin, Connections between collinear and transverse-momentum-dependent polarized observables within the Collins-Soper-Sterman formalism. Phys. Lett. B 781, 443 (2018).

Y. Kovchegov, D. Pitonyak and M. Sievert, Small-x asymptotics of the gluon helicity distribution. JHEP 1710, 198 (2017).

Y. Kovchegov, D. Pitonyak and M. Sievert, Small-x asymptotics of the quark helicity distribution: analytic results. Phys. Lett. B 772, 136 (2017).

Y. Koike, A. Metz, D. Pitonyak, K. Yabe and S. Yoshida, Twist-3 fragmentation contribution to polarized hyperon production in unpolarized hadronic collisions. Phys. Rev. D 95, 114013 (2017).

L. Gamberg, Z.-B. Kang, D. Pitonyak and A. Prokudin, Phenomenological constraints on AN in p π X from Lorentz invariance relations. Phys. Lett. B 770, 242 (2017).

Y. Kovchegov, D. Pitonyak and M. Sievert, Helicity evolution at small x: flavor singlet and non-singlet observables. Phys. Rev. D 95, 014033 (2017).

Y. Kovchegov, D. Pitonyak and M. Sievert, Small-x asymptotics of the quark helicity distribution. Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 052001 (2017).

D. Pitonyak, Transverse spin observables in hard-scattering hadronic processes within collinear factorization. Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 31, 1630049 (2016).

Y. Koike, D. Pitonyak and S. Yoshida, Twist-3 effect from the longitudinally polarized proton for A_LT in hadron production from pp collisions. Phys. Lett. B 759, 75 (2016).

K. Kanazawa, Y. Koike, A. Metz, D. Pitonyak and M. Schlegel, Operator constraints for twist-3 functions and Lorentz invariance properties of twist-3 observables. Phys. Rev. D 93, 054024 (2016).

Y. Kovchegov, D. Pitonyak and M. Sievert, Helicity evolution at small x. JHEP 1601, 072 (2016).

K. Kanazawa, Y. Koike, A. Metz and D. Pitonyak, Transverse single-spin asymmetries in proton- proton collisions at the AFTER@LHC experiment. Advances in High Energy Physics 2015, 257934 (2015).

K. Kanazawa, Y. Koike, A. Metz and D. Pitonyak, Transverse single-spin asymmetries in p γX from quark-gluon-quark correlations in the proton. Phys. Rev. D 91, 014013 (2015).

L. Gamberg, Z.-B. Kang, A. Metz, D. Pitonyak and A. Prokudin, Left-right spin asymmetry in lN  hX. Phys. Rev. D 90, 074012 (2014).

K. Kanazawa, Y. Koike, A. Metz and D. Pitonyak, Towards an explanation of transverse single-spin asymmetries in proton-proton collisions: the role of fragmentation in collinear factorization. Phys. Rev. D 89, 111501(R) (2014).

A. Metz and D. Pitonyak, Fragmentation contribution to the transverse single-spin asymmetry in proton-proton collisions. Phys. Lett. B 723, 365 (2013) Erratum: [Phys. Lett. B 762, 549 (2016)].

A. Metz, D. Pitonyak, A. Schaefer and J. Zhou, Analysis of the double-spin asymmetry A_LT in inelastic nucleon-nucleon collisions. Phys. Rev. D 86, 114020 (2012).

A. Metz, D. Pitonyak, A. Schaefer, M. Schlegel, W. Vogelsang and J. Zhou, Single-spin asymmetries in inclusive deep inelastic scattering and multiparton correlations in the nucleon. Phys. Rev. D 86, 094039 (2012).

S. Meissner, A. Metz and D. Pitonyak, Momentum sum rules for fragmentation functions. Phys. Lett. B 690, 296 (2010).

  • PHY 103: General College Physics I
  • PHY 104: General College Physics II
  • COE 220NS: The Physics of Time and Space
  • PHY 211: Atomic and Nuclear Physics
  • PHY 212: Electronics
  • PHY 311: Analytical Mechanics I
  • PHY 312: Analytical Mechanics II
  • Independent Studies on Computational Nuclear Physics Research