Professor Knospe’s field of research is ultrarelativistic heavy-ion physics, the intersection of nuclear and particle physics. One of the main goals of research in this field is to learn more about the strong force, which holds nuclei and nucleons (protons and neutrons) together. At Lehigh, Prof. Knospe collaborates closely with Prof. Rosi Reed as part of the Lehigh Relativistic Heavy Ion Group. He works on the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, both the STAR and sPHENIX experiments at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the ePIC experiment at the planned Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) at Brookaven. He is co-PI on a National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation grant to construct an Even Plane Detector for sPHENIX. In 2022 he received a Department of Energy Early Career award to fund work on heavy-quark bound states at RHIC. He served in the Chair Line of the RHIC/AGS Users Association from 2023-2026.
Anders Knospe
Assistant Professor
2002: B.A. in Physics from Pomona College
2011: Ph.D. in Physics from Yale University
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Research Areas
Additional Interests
- Particle physics
- Heavy-ion physics
- Quark-gluon plasma
- Hadronic resonances
- Strangeness
- Heavy flavor
- Quarkonia
- Electron-ion collider
Research Statement
Biography
Anders Knospe was born in Denver and grew up in Bozeman, Montana. He received his bachelor's degree in physics from Pomona College in 2002 and earned his Ph.D. in physics from Yale University. He was stationed at the CERN particle physics as a postdoctoral scholar, first for the University of Texas at Austin and then for the University of Houston. He joined the faculty at Lehigh University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics in fall 2020. Prof. Knospe has been a member of the STAR, ALICE, sPHENIX, and ePIC collaborations. His research has used rare, short-lived, and heavy particles to probe the strongly interacting matter produced in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. Within the ALICE Collaboration, he served as leader of the Resonances Physics Analysis Group from 2014-2019 and leader of the Light-Flavor Physics Working Group from 2019-2021. He served in the Chair Line of the RHIC/AGS Users Association from 2023-2026. Some of his work is funded by the National Science Foundation and he is a recipient of a 2022 Early Career Award from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Prof. Knospe uses rare and short-lived particles to study the unique matter produced in high-energy ion-ion collisions. He is the recipient of a Department of Energy Career Award for a project titled "Heavy Flavor at RHIC", which funds his group's studies of heavy quarkonia (charm-anticharm and bottom-antibottom bound states) at STAR and sPHENIX. He also studies strangeness and hadronic resonances at the ALICE Experiment. His group also contributes to the development of the ePIC Experiment at the Electron-Ion Collider. Prof. Knospe is co-PI of an NSF-funded project to construct an Event-Plane Detector for the sPHENIX experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Construction of this detector was conducted in his and Prof. Rosi Reed’s laboratories at Lehigh.
Prof. Knospe has signed over 300 publications of the ALICE Collaboration (since 2012), over 120 publications of the STAR Collaboration (2007-2012, 2021–present), and 2 by the sPHENIX Collaboration. A list of selected publications is below.
STAR Collaboration, “Measurement of inclusive J/psi polarization in Zr+Zr and Ru+Ru collisions at √sNN = 200 GeV at STAR”, arXiv:2604.07005 (2026), submitted to Phys. Lett. B
“ALICE measures a rare Omega baryon”, CERN Courier: International Journal of High-Energy Physics 65, No. 3, pp. 16–17 (2025)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Observation of the Omega(2012) Baryon at the LHC”, Phys. Rev. D 112 092002 (2025)
M. I. Abdulhamid et al. (STAR Collaboration), “Observation of the Antimatter Hypernucleus anti-Λ4H”, Nature 632 1026–1031 (2024)
M. S. Abdallah et al. (STAR Collaboration), “Pattern of global spin alignment of phi and K*0 mesons in heavy-ion collisions”, Nature 614 244–248 (2023)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Performance of the ALICE Electromagnetic Calorimeter”, J. Inst. 18 P08007 (2023)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Multiplicity and rapidity dependence of K*(892)0 and phi(1020) production in p–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV”, Eur. Phys. J. C 83 540 (2023)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Sigma(1385)± resonance production in Pb–Pb collisions at √s = 5.02 TeV”, Eur. Phys. J. C 83 351 (2023)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Measurement of anti-3He nuclei absorption in matter and impact on their propagation in the Galaxy”, Nature Physics 19 61–71 (2023)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Production of K*(892)0 and phi(1020) in pp and Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV”, Phys. Rev. C 106 034907 (2022)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Production of light (anti)nuclei in pp collisions at √s = 5.02 TeV”, Eur. Phys. J. C 82 289 (2022)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Measurement of K*(892)± production in inelastic pp collisions at the LHC”, Phys. Lett. B 828 137013 (2022)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Production of light (anti)nuclei in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV”, J. High Energy Phys. 01 (2022) 106 (2022)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Production of pions, kaons, (anti-)protons and f mesons in Xe–Xe collisions at √sNN = 5.44 TeV”, Eur. Phys. J. C 81 584 (2021)
S. Basu, V. Gonzalez, J. Pan, A. Knospe, A. Marin, C. Markert, and C. Pruneau, “Differential two-particle number and momentum correlations with the AMPT, UrQMD, and EPOS models in Pb-Pb collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV”, Phys. Rev. C 104 064902 (2021)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Jet-associated deuteron production in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV”, Phys. Lett. B 819 136440 (2021)
A. G. Knospe, C. Markert, K. Werner, J. Steinheimer, and M. Bleicher, “Hadronic resonance production and interaction in p-Pb collisions at LHC energies in EPOS3”, Phys. Rev. C 104 054907 (2021)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Production of light-flavor hadrons in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV and √s = 13 TeV”, Eur. Phys. J. C 81 256 (2021)
J. Adolfsson et al. (ALICE TPC Collaboration), “The upgrade of the ALICE TPC with GEMs and continuous readout”, J. Inst. 16 P03022 (2021)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Elliptic and triangular flow of (anti)deuterons in Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV”, Phys. Rev. C 102 055203 (2020)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Measurement of the Low-Energy Antideuteron Inelastic Cross Section”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125 162001 (2020)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “(Anti-)deuteron production in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV”, Eur. Phys. J. C 80 889 (2020)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “K*(892)0 and f(1020) production at midrapidity in pp collisions at √s = 8 TeV”, Phys. Rev. C 102 024912 (2020)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Multiplicity dependence of K*(892)0 and f(1020) production in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV”, Phys. Lett. B 807 135501 (2020)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Multiplicity dependence of pi, K, and p production in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV”, Eur. Phys. J. C 80 693 (2020)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Evidence of spin-orbital angular momentum interactions in relativistic heavy-ion collisions”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125 012301 (2020)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Measurement of the (anti-)3He elliptic flow in Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV”, Phys. Lett. B 805 135414 (2020)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Production of charged pions, kaons and (anti-)protons in Pb–Pb and inelastic pp collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV”, Phys. Rev. C 101 044907 (2020)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Production of (anti-)3He and (anti-)3H in p–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV”, Phys. Rev. C 101 044906 (2020)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Evidence of rescattering effect in Pb–Pb collisions at the LHC through production of K*(892)0 and phi(1020) mesons”, Phys. Lett. B 802 135225 (2020)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Multiplicity dependence of (multi-)strange hadron production in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV”, Eur. Phys. J. C 80 167 (2020)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Measurement of Lambda(1520) production in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV and p–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV”, Eur. Phys. J. C 80 160 (2020)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Multiplicity dependence of light (anti-)nuclei production in p–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV”, Phys. Lett. B 800 135043 (2020)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Λ3H and anti-Λ3H lifetime measurement in Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV via two-body decay”, Phys. Lett. B 797 134905 (2019)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Production of the rho(770)0 meson in pp and Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV”, Phys. Rev. C 99 064901 (2019)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Multiplicity dependence of (anti-)deuteron production in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV”, Phys. Lett. B 794 50-63 (2019)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Multiplicity dependence of light-flavor hadron production in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV”, Phys. Rev. C 99 024906 (2019)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Suppression of Lambda(1520) resonance production in central Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV”, Phys. Rev. C 99 024905 (2019)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “phi meson production at forward rapidity in Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV”, Eur. Phys. J. C 78 559 (2018)
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Production of deuterons, tritons, 3He nuclei, and their anti-nuclei in pp collisions at √s = 0.9, 2.76, and 7 TeV”, Phys. Rev. C 97 024615 (2018)
K. Werner et al., “Multiple Scattering in EPOS”, chapter in Multiple Parton Interactions, edited by P. Bartalini and J. R. Gaunt, World Scientific (2018), ISBN 978-981-322-775-0
M. M. Aggarwal et al. (ALICE TPC Collaboration), “Particle identification studies with a full-size 4-GEM prototype for the ALICE TPC upgrade”, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 903 215-223 (2018)
J. Adam et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “K*(892)0 and phi(1020) meson production at high transverse momentum in pp and Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV”, Phys. Rev. C 95 064606 (2017)
D. Adamová et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Production of Sigma(1385)± and Xi(1530)0 in p–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV”, Eur. Phys. J. C 77 389 (2017)
A. G. Knospe, C. Markert, K. Werner, J. Steinheimer, and M. Bleicher, “Hadronic resonance production and interaction in partonic and hadronic matter in EPOS3 with and without the hadronic afterburner UrQMD”, Phys. Rev. C 93 014911 (2016)
J. Adam et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Production of K*(892)0 and phi(1020) in p–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV”, Eur. Phys. J. C 76 245 (2016)
“ALICE sheds light on particle production in heavy-ion collisions”, CERN Courier: International Journal of High-Energy Physics 55, No. 2, pp. 9 (2015)
B. Abelev et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “K*(892)0 and f(1020) production in Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV”, Phys. Rev. C 91 024609 (2015)
B. Abelev et al. (ALICE Collaboration), “Production of Sigma(1385)± and Xi(1530)0 in proton-proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV”, Eur. Phys. J. C 75 1 (2015)
T. V. Acconcia et al., “A Very High Momentum Particle Identification Detector”, Eur. Phys. J. Plus 129 91 (2014)
U. Abeysekara et al. (ALICE EMCal Collaboration), “ALICE EMCal Physics Performance Report”, submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy, eprint: arXiv:1008.0413 (2010)
J. Allen et al. (ALICE EMCal Collaboration), “Performance of prototypes for the ALICE electromagnetic calorimeter”, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 615 6-13 (2010)
R. J. Smith et al., “Using CrAlN Multilayer Coatings to Improve Oxidation Resistance of Steel Interconnects for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Stacks”, Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance 13 295-302 (2004)
A. G. Knospe and A. S. Kwok, “Spectral broadening in a microdroplet dye laser,” Chemical Physics Letters 390 130-135 (2004)
Teaching
Professor Knospe has taught Modern Physics (PHY 31), Introduction to Nuclear and Elementary Particle Physics (PHY 364), Quantum Mechanics I (PHY 362), and Quantum Mechanics II (PHY 424). He also taught one of Lehigh’s inaugural Big Questions Seminars: "Ghosts of Chernobyl: Do the benefits of nuclear energy outweigh its risks?" (PHY/EVST 90).