Katherine Brown (Jones-Smith)
Associate Professor of Physics
Kate Brown is a theoretical physicist who studies cosmology, fundamental physics and interdisciplinary science. Her first publication appeared in Nature and debunked claims that fractal analysis could be used to identify authentic drip paintings by Jackson Pollock. Since then Brown has published (under maiden name Jones-Smith) on diverse topics such as gravitational radiation arising from cosmological phase transitions, mathematical analogies between ordinary conducting materials and certain models of dark energy, and non-Hermitian theories of quantum mechanics. She earned her doctorate at Case Western Reserve University in 2010 and went on to a postdoctoral research position at Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to joining Hamilton she held visiting appointments at Oberlin College and Reed College.
Recent Courses Taught
Introductory Physics
Classical Mechanics
Waves and Fields
Physics and Art
Research Interests
cosmology, non-Hermitian quantum mechanics
Selected Publications
- "Relativistic Non-Hermitian Quantum Mechanics," Katherine Jones-Smith and Harsh Mathur. Physical Review D, 89, 125014 (2014).
- "A ‘Dysonization’ Scheme for Identifying Quasi-Particles using Non-Hermitian Quantum Mechanics," Katherine Jones-Smith. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. Theme Issue on PT-quantum mechanics 371, 1989. (2013).
- "Detecting Chameleon Dark Energy via Electrostatic Analogy," Katherine Jones-Smith and Francesc Ferrer, Physical Review Letters 108, 221101 (2012).
- "A Nearly Scale Invariant Spectrum of Gravitational Radiation from Global Phase Transitions," Katherine Jones-Smith, Lawrence Krauss and Harsh Mathur. Physical Review Letters 100, 131302 (2008).
- "Revisiting Pollock’s Drip Paintings," Katherine Jones-Smith and Harsh Mathur, Nature 444, E9 (2006).
- "Hofstadter’s Cocoon," Katherine Jones-Smith and Connor Wallace. International Journal of Theoretical Physics 54.1: 219-226 (2014).
- "Particle in a box in PT -symmetric quantum mechanics and an electromagnetic analog," Dasarthy, A. et al, Physical Review A 87 062111 (2013).
- "Vector Models in PT Quantum Mechanics," Katherine Jones-Smith and Rudolph Kalveks. International Journal of Theoretical Physics, 52.7 : 2187-2195 (2013).
- "Chameleon Effects on Small Scale Structure and the Baryonic Jeans Mass," Katherine Jones-Smith, Physical Review D 85, 043502 (2012).
- "A New Class of non-Hermitian Quantum Hamiltonians with PT symmetry," Katherine Jones-Smith and Harsh Mathur, Physical Review A 82, 042101 (2010).
- "Probing the Gravitational Wave Signature from Cosmic Phase Transitions at Different Scales," Lawrence Krauss, Katherine Jones-Smith, Harsh Mathur and James Dent. Physical Review D 82, 044001, (2010).
- "Aharonov-Bohm Radiation," Katherine Jones-Smith, Harsh Mathur, and Tanmay Vachaspati. Physical Review D, 81, 043503, (2010).
- "Implications of Broken Symmetry for Superhorizon Conservation Theorems in Cosmology," Katherine Jones-Smith, Lawrence Krauss, and Harsh Mathur. arXiv:0907.4857.
- "Drip Paintings and Fractal Analysis," Katherine Jones-Smith, Harsh Mathur and Lawrence M. Krauss, Physical Review E 79, 046111 (2009).
- "CMBPol Mission Concept Study: Probing Inflation with CMB Polarization," Baumann, D. , Jackson, M. et al. Inflation Working Group contribution to CMBPol Mission Concept Study. Available at arXiv:0811.3919. (2008).
- "Dark Energy, The Cosmological Constant, and Type 1a Supernovae," Lawrence M. Krauss, Katherine Jones-Smith, Dragan Huterer. New Journal of Physics 9, 141 (2007).
Appointed to the Faculty
2014Educational Background
M.S. and Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University
B.S., University of New Mexico
