High Energy Theory Seminar: Soft de Sitter Effective Theory
Daniel Green (University of California, San Diego)
Understanding the quantum evolution of a de Sitter universe on superhorizon scales is notoriously difficult. To address this challenge, we introduce the Soft de Sitter Effective…
Condensed and Living Matter Seminar: "Robotics as an Interface to the Natural World"
M. Ani Hsieh (Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania)
Robotics and autonomous systems enable us to interact more richly and extensively with the world we live in. Robots provide in-situ monitoring of the environments they are immersed in and can adapt their strategies…
Mathematical Biology seminar: "From Cell polarity to intracellular networks in single and collective cell motility"
Leah Edelstein-Keshet (University of British Columbia)
Cell migration plays a central role in embryonic development, wound healing and immune surveillance. In 2008, Yoichiro Mori, Alexandra Jilkine and I published a model for the initial step of cell migration, the front…
High Energy Theory Seminar: Chiral matter in 4D Standard Model-like F-theory constructions
Andrew Turner (University of Pennsylvania)
In this talk, I discuss a general class of Standard Model-like constructions in F-theory. I begin by introducing a definition of "generic" matter in supergravity and F-theory, and the associated notion of…
Condensed and Living Matter Seminar: "Actin dynamics regulate spatial mixing of mitochondria in dividing cells"
Erika Holzbaur (Department of Physiology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine)
Symmetric cell division requires the even partitioning of genetic information and cytoplasmic contents between daughter cells. While the mechanisms coordinating the replication and segregation of the genome have been…
High Energy Theory Seminar: "Looking for islands"
Edgar Shaghoulian (University of Pennsylvania)
I will review the role of replica wormholes in deriving a unitary Page curve for Hawking radiation and discuss extensions to flat spacetime and cosmology. I will also discuss general consistency…
Rittenhouse Lecture: "Exoplanets and the Search for Biosignature Gases"
Sara Seager (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Cloud recording of talk:
Condensed and Living Matter Seminar: "The thermodynamics and electrokinetics of 'blue' energy"
René van Roij (Institute for Theoretical Physics, Utrecht University)
With every litre of fresh river water that flows into the salty sea, an amount of 2kJ of (free) energy is dissipated, i.e. the equivalent of a waterfall of 200m. With present-day membranes and porous nanomaterials…
Dual Source and Environmental X-ray Scattering (DEXS) Seminar
Irem Altan (Yale): "Probing the structure of reflectin and lipid assemblies with SAXS and SANS"
Lexi Zhang (Penn Chemistry): "GIWAXS Measurement of Stable Glasses: A Study on Molecular Relaxation and Stable…
DISCONAP talk / IRG1 Group meeting: "When does structure correlate with rearrangements in soft-sphere packings?"
Sean Ridout, University of Pennsylvania (Liu Group)
Much recent activity in our group and the MRSEC has focused on the connection between local structure and localized rearrangements in a variety of systems. Focusing on packings of soft spheres, sheared at zero…