.Colloquium Events
Fall 2021
September 2, 2021
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm (CDT)
The Dynamic Local Universe
Speaker: Louis Strigari (Texas A&M University)Host: Casey Papovich
New three-dimensional measurements of the positions and velocities of stars, in particular from the Gaia observatory, have provided unprecedented information on the dynamics of the Milky Way and nearby dwarf galaxies. I will discuss how these observations have impacted our understanding of hierarchical structure formation in the Universe, the Milky Way, and [...]
September 9, 2021
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm (CDT)
Mining Neutron Stars
Speaker: Jeremy Holt (Texas A&M University)Host: Dan Melconian
Neutron stars are one of Nature's most intriguing stellar objects, containing matter under extraordinary conditions of density, temperature, and composition that are difficult to produce in the laboratory. In recent years, neutron star observations have begun to place novel constraints on the properties of strongly interacting matter in the high-density [...]
September 16, 2021
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm (CDT)
Matter under extreme conditions – Multi-disciplinary aspects of relativistic particle collisions
Speaker: Rene Bellwied (University of Houston)Host: Rainer Fries
Relativistic particle collisions have come a long way during the past two decades with the discovery of the Higgs Boson and the earliest state of matter in the evolution of the universe, the so-called Quark Gluon Plasma. I will try to show how these discoveries lead to significant multi-disciplinary efforts [...]
September 23, 2021
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm (CDT)
Reasons to Remain Excited About WIMPs
Speaker: Dan Hooper (Fermilab and University of Chicago)Host: Louis Strigari
Although weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) have long been the leading class of candidates for the dark matter of our universe, the lack of a confirmed detection of these particles has left many in the scientific community increasingly skeptical of their existence. In this talk, I will ask the following [...]
September 30, 2021
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm (CDT)
Opportunities for Physicists at Los Alamos National Laboratory
Speaker: John Sarrao (Los Alamos National Laboratory)Host: Rupak Mahapatra
Los Alamos has long had collaborations with Texas A&M, and these interactions have accelerated significantly since 2018 when the Texas A&M University System joined the Triad team, the entity that oversees the Laboratory. Nevertheless, the National Labs in general, and Los Alamos in particular, are relatively unknown to many students [...]
October 21, 2021
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm (CDT)
Electronic Phase Changes in Topological Semimetals
Speaker: Joe Ross (Texas A&M University)Host: Wayne Saslow
Recently discover topological semimetals exhibit a wealth of interesting behavior due to the presence of massless Dirac and Weyl fermions, and the associated topologically-enforced interface and boundary states. Such states include the surface Fermi arcs identified in Weyl and Dirac systems, and “drumhead” surface states of more extended nodal-line topological [...]
Coherent Raman-spectroscopic tools for Biophotonics
Speaker: Alexei Sokolov (Texas A&M University)Host: Alexey Belyanin
Biophotonics is a vibrant interdisciplinary field exploring the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and biological materials such as sub-cellular structures and molecules in living organisms. Biophotonics research leads to applications in agriculture & life sciences and produces tools for medical diagnostics and therapies. Working in this general field, we have recently [...]
Semiconductor Moiré Superlattices: a New Material Platform for Quantum Information Science
Speaker: Elaine Li (University of Texas Austin)Host: Alexey Belyanin
When two atomically thin van der Waals (vdW) layers are vertically stacked together, the atomic alignment between the layers exhibits periodical variations, leading to a new type of in-plane superlattices known as the moiré superlattices. The twist angle controls the size of the moiré supercells and acts as a unique [...]
Emergence of a new non-relativistic magnetic class: the discovery of altermagnets (Special Date!)
Speaker: Jairo Sinova (University of Mainz)Host: Artem Abanov
Antiferromagnetic spintronics has been one of the most active research areas of condensed matter in recent years. As we have learned how to manipulate and understand antiferromagnets actively and their emergent topology, further surprises awaited. Turning off spin-orbit coupling, a new fresh view at the family of antiferromagnetic ordered systems [...]
November 18, 2021
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm (CDT)
Half Quantum Flux in Spin Triplet Superconductors
Speaker: Chia-Ling Chien (Johns Hopkins University)Host: Wayne Saslow
The overwhelming majority of the known superconductors (SCs) possess superconducting pairs that are spin antisymmetric (spin singlets) and space symmetric — usually s-wave but the high Tc materials tend to be d-wave. Spin symmetric SCs (spin triplets), crucial for Majorana physics and fault tolerant quantum computing, are very rare and [...]
