Events at Physics |
Events During the Week of November 7th through November 13th, 2010
Monday, November 8th, 2010
- No events scheduled
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
- Chaos & Complex Systems Seminar
- How People Get the Way We Are--A Table of Elements: Chaos, Complex Systems and Conflict in Human Development
- Time: 12:05 pm
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Bernard Z. Friedlander, UW-Madison Faculty, 1967-70; Research Professor of Human Development, Emeritus, University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT
- Abstract: The presentation consists of four connected Parts--
1. Chaos, Complex Systems and Conflict--The Name of the Game
2. Our Habitat: The Absolute Context of Human Behavior
3. New Paradigms for Thinking About Human Behavior, Self, and Consciousness
4. Are New Modes of Adaptation Possible in Our New Human Habitat? - String Theory Seminar
- Freed-Witten anomaly and 7-branes
- Time: 4:00 pm
- Place: 5280 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Raffaele Savelli, SISSA
- Host: Shiu
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010
- No events scheduled
Thursday, November 11th, 2010
- R. G. Herb Condensed Matter Seminar
- Experiments with atoms in optical lattices
- Time: 10:00 am
- Place: 5310 Chamberlin
- Speaker: David Weiss, Penn State University
- Abstract: Atoms trapped in optical lattices are versatile systems that can be used to model many-body systems, as quantum computing resources, and for precision measurements. I will explain in general how such experiments work, and describe in particular our experiments at Penn State. The focus of the talk will be predominantly on 1D Bose gases, which can provide unique insights into the foundations of quantum statistical mechanics. Other experiments will also be mentioned, like trapping arrays of single atoms on the road to making a quantum computer.
- Host: Robert McDermott
- Astronomy Colloquium
- Photoionization of High Altitude Gas in a Supernova-Driven Turbulent Interstellar Medium
- Time: 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
- Place: 4421 Sterling Hall
- Speaker: Kenny Wood, University of St Andrews, School of Physics and Astronomy
- Abstract: One of the major questions in studies of widespread diffuse ionized gas in galaxies is how ionizing photons can penetrate from OB stars in midplane regions to ionize gas at large heights above the plane. A three dimensional ISM provides the solution - low density voids allow photons to travel much farther than in a smoothly distributed ISM. I will show new results of photoionization calculations in a 3D Supernovae driven hydro simulation of the ISM. Ionizing photons can easily reach to large distances from the midplane. However, the resulting emission measure distributions are broader than observed in the Milky Way and other galaxies. A possible reason for this is the absence of magnetic fields in the dynamical simulations. Our simulations also place limits on the survivability of neutral clouds in the Galactic halo exposed to the ionizing radiation percolating through the models. I will also summarize recent Spitzer observations of gas many kiloparsecs from the midplane of the edge-on galaxy NGC891 that indicate an additional population of very hot ionizing sources are required to explain the observed emission line ratios.
- NPAC (Nuclear/Particle/Astro/Cosmo) Forum
- Discovery of gamma-ray Emission from Andromeda Galaxy
- Time: 4:00 pm
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin
- Speaker: Hakki Ogelman, University of Wisconsin at Madison
- Abstract: 2 years worth of archival FERMI-LAT data was used to search forgamma-ray
emission from the Andromeda galaxy; the data show no noticeabla gamma-ray image.On-off source aperture photometry using a CO image template shows a 7 sigma excess in the on-source apertures in comparison to the off-source apertures. yielding a flux of (4.95 +/- 0.71`)x10^(-8) photonscm^-2 s^-1 at energies E>100 MeV. The likely origin of this flux will be discussed in terms of the cosmic-ray content and the interstellar gas at Andromeda. - Host: Daniel Chung
- Graduate Introductory Seminar
- String Theory & Theoretical Cosmology
- Time: 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
- Place: 2223 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Chung, Hashimoto, Shiu
Friday, November 12th, 2010
- Physics Department Colloquium
- Electroweak Superconductivity
- Time: 4:00 pm
- Place: 2241 Chamberlin Hall (coffee at 3:30 pm)
- Speaker: Andy Cohen, Boston University
- Abstract: Over the course of the next decade experiments probing nature at distances as short as a tenth of an atto-meter will take place. The principal goals of these experiments include the exploration of the phenomena of electroweak superconductivity, the property of nature responsible for the short-range character of the weak interactions as well as the masses of the quarks and leptons. I will give a gentle introduction to this phenomena and describe some recent ideas for its origin.
- Host: Han