Hi. Welcome to my website.

My name is Matt Kafker. I am a graduate student studying theoretical nuclear physics at the University of Washington. Before grad school, I got my B.S. in physics and math from the University of Oregon.

Please see below for a summary of my work, most of which has been done during my time in graduate school. You might also watch this lecture, which offers a fairly approachable overview of my research in theoretical nuclear physics.

Feel free to click on other tabs for more informal stuff.

I’m always interested to hear from new people, so if anything here is interesting to you, feel free to reach out to me.

• email: mmkafker@gmail.com

• Youtube

Scientific Publications

Google Scholar

• “Impact of the Center of Mass Fluctuations on the Ground State Properties of Nuclei,” M. Kafker, A. Bulgac, https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.09470, (2025)

• “Non-Equilibrium Aspects of Fission Dynamics within the Time Dependent Density Functional Theory,” A. Bulgac, M. Kafker, I. Abdurrahman, I. Stetcu, EPJ Web of Conferences 322, 07002 (2025) https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.03546, (2024)

• “Quantum turbulence, superfluidity, non-Markovian dynamics, and wave function thermalization,” A. Bulgac, M. Kafker, I. Abdurrahman, G. Wlazlowski, Phys. Rev. Research 6, L042003 (2024), https://arxiv.org/pdf/2406.00926 (2024)

• “Neck rupture and scission neutrons in nuclear fission”, I. Abdurrahman, M. Kafker, A.. Bulgac, I. Stetcu, Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 242501 (2024), https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.13132

• “Non-Markovian character and irreversibility of real-time quantum many-body dynamics,” A. Bulgac, M. Kafker, I. Abdurrahman, I. Stetcu, Phys. Rev. C 109, 064617 (2024), https://arxiv.org/pdf/2312.14962

• “Microscopic evidence for scission neutrons,” I. Abdurrahman, M. Kafker, A. Bulgac, I. Stetcu, EPJ Web of Conferences 292, 08008 (2024)

• “Spatial orientation of the fission fragment intrinsic spins and their correlations,” G. Scamps, I. Abdurrahman, M. Kafker, A. Bulgac, I. Stetcu, Phys. Rev. C 108, L061602 (2023), https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.14455

• “Measures of complexity and entanglement in many-fermion systems,” A. Bulgac, M. Kafker, I. Abdurrahman, Phys. Rev. C 107, 044318 (2023), https://arxiv.org/pdf/2203.04843

Research Talks

• “Impact of the Center of Mass Fluctuations on the Ground State Properties of Nuclei,” Brownbag Seminar, Institute for Nuclear Theory, University of Washington (March 5, 2025)

• “Neck Rupture and Scission Neutrons in Nuclear Fission,” Rising Researchers Seminar, Institute for Nuclear Theory, University of Washington (March 4, 2025) –– Slides, Lecture Recording

• Guest Lecture, Wolfram Winter School (January 9, 2025)

• “New Developments in Fission Studies Within Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory,” NNSA CENTAUR Site Review, Texas A&M University (September 17, 2024) –– Slides

• “New Developments in Fission Studies Within Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory,” NNSA CENTAUR SAC Meeting, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (July 30, 2024) –– Slides

• Guest Lecture, Wolfram Summer School (June 20, 2024)

• “Developments in the Theory of Nuclear Fission and Many-Fermion Systems,” General Exam (for PhD Candidacy), University of Washington (May 29, 2024) –– Slides

• Guest Lecture, Wolfram Winter School (January 4, 2024)

• Guest Lecture, Wolfram Summer School (June 21, 2023)

• Guest Lecture, Wolfram Winter School (January 7, 2023) –– Lecture Recording

• Guest Lecture, Wolfram Summer School (June 30, 2022)

• Guest Lecture, Wolfram Winter School (January 7, 2022) –– Lecture Recording

• Guest Lecture, Wolfram Summer School (June 25, 2021)

Research Posters

• “New Aspects of Real-Time Quantum Many-Body Dynamics” (2024) –– PDF

• “Induced Fission of Odd-Mass and Odd-Odd Nuclei Within Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory” (2024) –– PDF

• “Neck Rupture and Scission Neutrons in Nuclear Fission” (2023) –– PDF

• “Measures of Complexity and Entanglement in Fermionic Many-Body Systems” (2022) –– PDF

Undergrad posters:

• “Simulation of Bacterial Motion in Sterically Complex Environments” (2020) –– PDF

• “Laying the Groundwork: Inversion for Conductivity Models Using Anomalous Large Magnetotelluric Phases” (2018) –– PDF

Other Projects

• University of Oregon Physics Commencement Speech (2020)

Codes

• “HardSphereSimulation” in Mathematica/Wolfram Language

Press

• Oak Ridge National Lab News: Surprising Details in a More Precise Description of Fission , also posted here: https://phys.org/news/2024-10-tracking-nuclear-fission-elusive-scission.html