.Colloquium Events
Spring 2022
(NEW DATE!) Ultracoherent nanomechanical resonators for quantum experiments and precision measurement
Speaker: Dalziel Wilson (University of Arizona)Host: Alexei Akimov
Nanomechanical resonators are exquisite force sensors and have recently been probed at the quantum limit using optical cavities. I’ll give a basic introduction to optomechanical force sensing and describe a new class of ultra-low-loss nanomechanical resonators that have given access to its Standard Quantum Limit. I'll focus in particular on [...]
Physical nature of information
Speaker: Gregory Falkovich (Weizmann Institute)Host: Alexander Finkelstein
This is a a blackboard-chalk lecture on a quite elementary subject: how the second law of thermodynamics is getting trivial from the viewpoint of information theory. It gives a panoramic overview of the applications of statistical physics / information theory, from bioinformatics to self-driving cars and turbulence theory. And a [...]
Lessons on Galaxy Transformations from Gaia
Speaker: Vasily Belokurov (Cambridge University)Host: Louis Strigari
With its most recent data releases, European Space Agency’s Gaia mission revealed the fossilised record of a dramatic - and long suspected - accretion event in the distant past of our Galaxy. This head-on collision with a massive dwarf galaxy was a turning point in the evolution of the Milky [...]
Cosmic Reionization
Speaker: Sultan Hassan (Flatiron Institute)Host: Lucas Macri
Reionization marks the last major global transition of the Universe, during which the birth of the first luminous cosmic structures gradually reionized the inter-galactic medium. Several observational efforts are devoted to detecting and constraining reionization on small and large scales. In this talk, I will discuss the key questions about [...]
The muon anomalous magnetic moment and the hunt for new physics
Speaker: Thomas Blum (University of Connecticut)Host: Rainer Fries
I will start with a brief history of the muon and its magnetic moment and then give an overview of the on-going experiment at Fermilab (E989). Next I’ll turn to the Standard Model calculation, including the hadronic contributions which contribute the largest uncertainty. I will focus on the difference between data-driven dispersive [...]
March 22, 2022
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm (CDT)
Massive Black Holes in Dwarf Galaxies
Speaker: Mallory Molina (Montana State University)Host: Lucas Macri
While supermassive black holes live in the heart of almost every massive galaxy, their origins remain unknown. Massive black holes residing in much smaller dwarf galaxies can shed light on the formation and evolution of supermassive black holes, but are notoriously difficult to detect. In this talk, I will present [...]
The Roman Space Telescope Galactic Bulge Time Domain Survey: Exoplanet Demographics and So Much More!
Speaker: Scott Gaudi (Ohio State University)Host: Louis Strigari
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is the next NASA Astrophysics flagship mission scheduled to launch no later than May 2007. Roman’s Galactic Bulge Time Domain Survey (GBTDS) will provide an unprecedented census of extrasolar cold and free-floating planets detected via gravitational microlensing of background stars. The notional survey design [...]
Voltaic Cells: The Good (Faraday), the Bad (Volta), and the Ugly (Galvani)
Speaker: Wayne Saslow (Texas A&M University)Host: Rainer Fries
We all use batteries constantly, but the usual discussion in physics textbooks — where one would expect to learn about voltaic cells, which in parallel and/or series combination constitute batteries — leaves many unresolved questions: (1) no real discussion of emf and why small AAA cells have the same emf as much [...]
Type Ia Supernovae and the Accelerating Universe (Note the Unusual Date!)
Speaker: Alexei FilippenkoHost: Nick Suntzeff
In 1998, two essentially independent research teams made a shocking announcement: the expansion of the Universe is accelerating rather than decelerating. The evidence for this Nobel-worthy conclusion was that the measured brightness of Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia, thermonuclear explosions of carbon-oxygen white dwarf stars) at a given redshift were [...]
From Stars to Cosmology
Speaker: Michael Boylan-Kolchin (University of Texas Austin)Host: Louis Strigari
Exquisitely detailed measurements of nearby collections of stars contain unique information about the Universe's expansion rate, the initial spectrum of cosmological density fluctuations, galaxy formation, and dark matter physics. In this talk, I will examine the role of globular star clusters as near-field windows into the physics of the Universe [...]
Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics in the 2020’s
Speaker: Robert Kennicutt (Texas A&M University)
Recently the National Academy of Sciences completed a comprehensive decadal survey of research opportunities, strategic opportunities, and the state of the profession in astronomy and astrophysics. The survey involved more than 130 members of the survey committee and its 13 sub-panels, and was informed by more than 860 white papers [...]
DISTINGUISHED LECTURE: From Nonlinear Optics to High-Intensity Laser Physics
Speaker: Donna Strickland (University of Waterloo and Hagler Institute for Advanced Studies)Host: Marlan Scully, Director, Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering
The is the distinguished lecture for April 21, 4:00 PM in Hawking Auditorium (MIST MB01), with a reception in the MIST Penrose Plaza (first floor) at 3:15 PM.This event is sponsored by the Department of Physics and Astronomy, George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, [...]