Astro Seminar: "Stellar Spin-orbit Misalignment"
Joshua Winn (Princeton)
In the Solar system, the planets follow orbits that are aligned with the Sun’s equatorial plane to within a few degrees. But what about planets around other stars? Many techniques are now available to measure the…
High Energy Theory Seminar: "Topological Sectors, Supersymmetric Localization, and Holography"
Silviu Pufu (Princeton University)
*Special* HET Seminar: "Many-body Localization: Breakdown of Thermalization in Quantum Matter"
Arijeet Pal (Oxford)
Until recently interacting many-particle systems governed by the laws of quantum mechanics were assumed to eventually reach thermal equilibrium, being described by equilibrium statistical physics. Rapid developments…
Condensed Matter Seminar: "Magnetism in Amorphous Alloys"
Frances Hellman (University of California at Berkeley)
Most condensed matter textbooks start by introducing crystal symmetries and the periodic lattice as foundational to the field. Yet, it has long been known that the amorphous structure supports ferromagnetism,…
Astro Seminar: "Fundamental Physics from the Non-linear Universe"
Marcel Schmittfull (IAS)
The cosmology community is running a large program of galaxy surveys over the next 10 years. Our goal is to map out the properties of dark energy as a function of time, measure the sum of neutrino masses, and study…
High Energy Theory Seminar: "A Toy Model of Axion Gauge Field Inflation"
Robert Caldwell (Dartmouth College)
We present a toy model of an axion gauge field inflation scenario that yields viable density and gravitational wave spectra. The scenario consists of an axionic inflaton in a steep potential that is effectively…
*Special Condensed Matter Seminar*: "Self-organization and Self-assembly in Bio-molecular Systems"
Prof. Erwin Frey (University of Munich)
Active matter is a fascinating new field in soft matter physics aiming to understand how interacting active particles self-organize into an intriguing set of patterns and collective non-equilibrium states.…
Dissertation Defense: "Singlet Oxygen Dosimetry for Pleural Photodynamic Therapy"
Michele Kim (U of Penn)
Physics Department Colloquium: "Cal-Bridge and CAMPARE/CHAMP: Engaging Underrepresented Students in Physics and Astronomy"
Alex Rudolph (Cal Poly Pomona) hosted by: James Aguirre
The level of participation by underrepresented minority (URM) and female students in physics and astronomy PhD programs is shamefully low (2-4% for URM v. 30% in the general population; 20% for women v. 50% in the…
Dissertation Defense: "Rate and State Friction Laws for Interfacial Chemical Bond-induced Friction at the Nanoscale"
Kaiwen (Kevin) Tian (U of Penn)