Professional Background

Vincent Cheung received his PhD in high-energy nuclear physics from the University of California at Davis in 2020 where he investigated quarkonium polarization in high-energy collisions. He pioneered the improved color evaporation model to produce the first quarkonium polarization predictions using the model.

Vincent first joined as a postdoc at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 2021 to continue investigating nuclear structure in particle collider environments such as the Large Hadron Collider and the future Electron Ion Collider. He was awarded a Lab-Wide Lab Directed Research and Development award to investigate the nature of the X(3872), a tetraquark candidate.

As a staff physicist, his specializes in theoretical and applied nuclear physics across energy scales ranging from eV to TeV.

Research Interests

• High-energy nuclear physics
• Nuclear decay and structure
• Radiation modeling
• Nuclear data infrastructure

Ph.D. Physics, University of California at Davis, 2020

M.S. Physics, University of California at Davis, 2017

B.S. Physics, University of California at Davis, 2014

Selected publications

V. Cheung and R. Vogt, "𝐽/𝜓 photoproduction and polarization in 𝑒+𝑝 collisions in the improved color evaporation model," Phys. Rev. D 110, 094026 (2024).

V. Cheung and R. Vogt, "Quarkonium polarization in Pb+Pb collisions in the improved color evaporation model," Phys. Rev. C 105, 055202 (2022).
V. Cheung and R. Vogt, "Production and polarization of direct 𝐽/𝜓 to 𝒪⁡(𝛼_𝑠³) in the improved color evaporation model in collinear factorization," Phys. Rev. D 104, 094026 (2021).
V. Cheung and R. Vogt, "Quarkonium production and polarization in high-energy collisions," PoS CHARM2020, 054 (2021).

Full list of publications

Code repositories

RadSim, LLNL-CODE-854710 and LLNL-CODE-855199.

FUDGE (For Updating Data and Generating Evaluations), LLNL-CODE-683960.

• 2025 PLS Award of Institutional Impact
• 2025 WPD Award
• 2022 Director’s Excellence in Publication Award