Events at Physics |
Events on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2015
- Chaos & Complex Systems Seminar
- The downstream consequences of problem-solving mindsets: How playing with Legos influences creativity
- Time: 12:05 pm - 1:00 pm
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin (refreshments will be served)
- Speaker: Page Moreau, UW School of Business
- Abstract: Business leaders, governments, and scholars are increasingly recognizing the importance of creativity. Recent trends in technology and education, however, suggest that many individuals are facing fewer opportunities to engage in creative thought as they increasingly solve well-defined (versus ill-defined) problems. Using three studies that involve real problem-solving activities (e.g., putting together a Lego kit), we examine the mindset created by addressing such well-defined problems. The studies demonstrate the negative downstream impact of such a mindset on both creative task performance and the choice to engage in creative tasks. The research has theoretical implications for the creativity and mindset literatures as well as substantive insights for managers and public-policy makers.
- Host: Sprott
- NPAC (Nuclear/Particle/Astro/Cosmo) Forum
- Looking for the origin of astrophysical neutrinos
- Time: 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
- Place: 5310 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Dmitri Semikoz, APC Paris
- Abstract: IceCube neutrino telescope recently discovered astrophysical neutrinos in the energy range from 10 TeV to 3 PeV. This discovery challenged existed theoretical models due to unexpected observation of soft 1/E^{2.5} neutrino spectrum. Together with limits from diffuse gamma-ray flux measured with Fermi LAT this excluded most of existed theoretical predictions. In my talk I'll discuss significance of the galactic component observation in the 4 years IceCube data. Also I'll review theoretical models, which can explain observed data both with Galactic and extra-galactic sources of neutrinos. Finally, I'll present model, which at the same time explain Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Ray protons, astrophysical neutrinos and diffuse gamma-ray background.
- Host: Francis Halzen
- Theory Seminar (High Energy/Cosmology)
- Effective field theory for spacetime symmetry breaking
- Time: 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
- Place: 5280 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Toshifumi Noumi, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
- Abstract: Spacetime symmetry breaking often appears in condensed matter physics and cosmology. In contrast to the internal symmetry case, it is known that the number of broken global spacetime symmetries does not coincide with that of physical Nambu-Goldstone (NG) fields in general. Correspondingly, the coset construction of effective action has to be implemented with the so-called inverse Higgs constraints to compensate such a mismatch. In this talk, I revisit the effective action construction for spacetime symmetry breaking from the local symmetry point of view. Since NG fields are generated by local transformations of order parameters, such a local picture provides a correct identification of physical NG fields. I will illustrate the importance of the local picture and revisit the coset construction. I will also discuss applications to condensed matter physics and cosmology.
- Host: Gary Shiu