Regina Demina

Regina F. Demina
Born	Russia
Alma mater	Novosibirsk State University, BA, 1985, MS, 1989 Northeastern University, PhD, 1994
Scientific career
Fields	Particle physics Cosmology
Institutions	FermiLab Kansas State University University of Rochester
Thesis	J/Ψ from chi Production in proton-antiproton Collisions at √s = 1.8 TeV  (1994)
Doctoral advisor	Stephen Reucroft

Regina Demina is a particle physicist, cosmologist, and professor at the University of Rochester. She was a part of the team that discovered the top quark in 1995. In 2024, she observed the first significant quantum entanglement persistence between unstable top quark antiquark pairs.

She was elected as a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2012.

Education and early life

Demina grew up in Russia, where she took ballet lessons and dreamt of becoming a professional ballerina. While in high school, Demina said she had a very good physics teacher, and she realized she was looking forward to the days she had physics class instead of ballet. ^[1]

After she graduated, Demina enrolled at Novosibirsk State University. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Physics in 1985 and a Master of Science in Physics in 1988. She then immigrated to the United States to attend Northeastern University, where she earned a Doctor of Philosophy in physics in 1994. ^[2]

Research

Demina worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Fermilab before joining Kansas State University in 1999 as an assistant professor. In 2003, she joined the University of Rochester as an associate professor. She was promoted to the title of professor in 2007. ^[2]

Demina's research integrates experimental particle physics and observational cosmology. She was on the team that discovered the top quark in 1995. ^[3] She co-led the team that built the tracking device that discovered the Higgs boson and she leads the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) team at the Large Hadron Collider. ^[4] She also co-leads a group working on the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey, where her team develops optical fiber instrumentation, analysis algorithms, and survey software to map the large-scale structure of the universe and probe dark energy’s role in cosmic expansion. ^{[5] [6]}

In 2024, the team Demina leads produced the first significant quantum entanglement persisting between unstable top quark–antiquark pairs over separations beyond light speed information transfer. ^{[7] [3]}

Awards and honors

• Outstanding Junior Investigator, United States Department of Energy, 2001 ^{[2] [8]}
• Fellow, American Physical Society, 2012 ^[9]

Selected Publications

• Demina, Regina; Lykken, Joseph D.; Matchev, Konstantin T.; Nomerotski, Andrei (2000-07-12). "Top and bottom squark searches in run II of the Fermilab Tevatron". Physical Review D. 62 (3) 035011. arXiv: hep-ph/9910275 . Bibcode:2000PhRvD..62c5011D. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.62.035011. ISSN   0556-2821.
• Demina, Regina; Cheong, Sanha; BenZvi, Segev; Hindrichs, Otto (2018-10-11). "A computationally efficient approach for calculating galaxytwo-point correlations". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 480 (1): 49–56. doi: 10.1093/mnras/sty1812 . ISSN   0035-8711.
• Demina, Regina; Landi, Gabriel (2025-01-29). "Locality in collider tests of quantum mechanics with top quark pairs". Physical Review D. 111 (1) 012013. Bibcode:2025PhRvD.111a2013D. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.111.012013. ISSN   2470-0010.
• Demina, Regina; Jepsen, Kathryn (2024-09-24). "Explain it in 60 Seconds: Quantum entanglement". Symmetry Magazine.

References

1. CMS Women- Regina (Video). CMS Experiment (in Russian). YouTube. Feb 10, 2023.
2. "Regina Demina". www.sas.rochester.edu. Retrieved 2025-11-16.
3. "The quantum chase | symmetry magazine". www.symmetrymagazine.org. 2024-11-26. Retrieved 2025-11-16.
4. "Yes, the Most Massive Particle Shows Some 'Spooky Action At a Distance'". Popular Mechanics. 2024-07-02. Retrieved 2025-11-16.
5. Valich, Lindsey (2021-05-28). "DESI's quest to map the expanding universe begins". News Center. Retrieved 2025-11-16.
6. Valich, Lindsey (2019-11-25). "Rochester cosmology group has all eyes on dark energy". News Center. Retrieved 2025-11-16.
7. Andreatta, David; Rochester, University of. "Physicists confirm quantum entanglement persists between top quarks, the heaviest known fundamental particles". phys.org. Retrieved 2025-11-16.
8. "K-State Physics Professor Named Outstanding Junior Investigator by U.S. DOE". phys.org. Retrieved 2025-11-16.
9. "APS Fellows Archive". www.aps.org. Archived from the original on 2025-10-10. Retrieved 2025-11-16.