I am a nuclear physicist specialized in particle
transport theory and simulation, particularly
interested in the modeling of critical phenomena and
branching processes. Since 2020, I am working as
Research Director at the Nuclear Physics
Department of IRFU,
an institute belonging to the Fundamental Research
Division of CEA Saclay
(Université Paris-Saclay). I am also a CERN
member (being part of the Geant4
collaboration), and I belong to the french GdR
"Branchement". Concerning academic-related
aspects, in 2019 I have been nominated professor at INSTN, where I am
teaching neutron transport related courses mainly.
Contact information
Département de Physique Nucléaire (CEA/DRF/IRFU/DPhN)
Orme des Merisiers, Bâtiment 703, 91191 Gif/Yvette
(France)
e-MAIL: eric.dumonteil at cea.fr
Research interests
My research is focused on statistical mechanics,
neutron transport theory and the Monte Carlo
simulation of particle transport. On the theoretical
side, I am working on the modeling of branching
Markovian processes, on Branching Brownian Motion, and
on the theory of rare events. I also use the tools of
Statistical Field Theory and of Quantum Field Theory
to model noise phenomena associated to critical
processes. On the numerical side, I have been implied
in the development of MORET5, TRIPOLI-4, and Geant4
which are Monte-Carlo particle transport codes. I am
particularly interested in criticality simulations for
reactor core modeling, and shielding studies that
makes an extensive use of variance reduction
techniques. More recently, I started to get involve in
Diffusion Monte Carlo to calculate fundamental and
excited eigenstates of various quantum systems, as
well as on a theoretical modeling of quantum mechanics
using stochastic processes in the spirit of Nelson
stochastic mechanics.
Keywords
Statistical Mechanics, Stochastic Transport Theory, Critical phenomena, Branching Processes, Monte-Carlo Simulations, Neutron Transport, Criticality, Shielding, Variance Reduction Techniques, Rare events, Particle Physics, Reactor Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Diffusion Monte-Carlo.
Curriculum
A short curriculum vitae (in french) can be
downloaded here.
I hold an engineering diploma from ENSICAEN (2001),
I was an "auditeur libre" at the theoretical physics
Master of Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris) in 2003
and I graduated with a PhD in particle physics in
2004 (University of Caen), after 3 years being
involved in the ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC (I
was part of the Quark-Gluon plasma team of
CEA/DSM/IRFU).
Here is the pdf file of this work, as well as the final report: thesis,final report
In early 2014 I defended my HDR from Paris-Sud University (HDR stands for "Habiliation à Diriger des Recherches" and is a diploma that gives an affiliation to a University, Paris-Sud in my case, in order to be PhD advisor for example). The subject was linked to the generalization of the Boltzmann mean field equation to higher order moments, for branching Brownian motion and branching exponential flights. In particular, I have studied a "clustering" effect proper to neutron transport theory and its consequences on Monte-Carlo criticality simulations. This phenomenon is a particular effect of spatial correlation.
You will find here both the manuscript and the reviewers report: thesis,reviewer1,reviewer2,reviewer3
From 2005 to 2015 I worked for the Reactor Studies and Applied Mathematics Service of CEA, where I was an expert in statistical physics and in Monte-Carlo simulations. I was also in charge of the R&D part of the neutron transport simulation project of the Nuclear Energy Division (SIMU/SINET/MACOE).
In 2014 I won an Excellence Research Chair in "scientific computing"at "La Maison de la Simulation" (CNRS, INRIA, CEA and Versailles-Saint-Quentin University).
From 2015 to 2020 I have been working at IRSN, as
deputy head of the Reactor Physics and Criticality
Department of the Nuclear Safety Division (IRSN
PSN-EXP/SNC), in charge of R&D activities, and
in 2017 I also became the head of the newly created
Neutronics Laboratory.
In 2020 I rejoined the Nuclear Physics Department
(CEA/DRF/IRFU) of CEA Saclay, where I became
Reasearch Director end of 2021.
Concerning academics related aspects, from 2012 to
2017 I was "maître de conférence" at INTSN
where I have been nominated Professor in 2019.
I am also a lecturer at Ecole Normale
Supérieure Paris-Saclay and at Ecole
CentraleSupélec.
Late 2021 I became a Geant4
collaborator, thus becoming a member of the CERN
organization.