Events at Physics |
Events During the Week of January 21st through January 28th, 2018
Monday, January 22nd, 2018
- No events scheduled
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2018
- Chaos & Complex Systems Seminar
- What Have We Learned From Gravity?
- Time: 12:05 pm - 1:00 pm
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin (Refreshments will be served)
- Speaker: Georgy Hrabovsky, UW Department of Physics
- Abstract: Aristotle started the ball rolling. Our ideas about gravity have evolved ever since. We will take a whirlwind tour of how theories of gravity have changed as our mathematical technique, observations, theoretical sophistication, and society have changed. Far from being settled, this most obvious of natural forces is anything but well understood.
- Host: Clint Sprott
- "Physics Today" Undergrad Colloquium (Physics 301)
- Discovery of the Higgs Boson
- Time: 1:20 pm - 2:10 pm
- Place: 2241 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Matthew F Herndon, UW Madison Department of Physics
- Host: Wesley Smith
- Council Meeting
- Time: 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
- Place: 2314 Chamberlin Hall
Wednesday, January 24th, 2018
- Department Meeting
- Time: 12:15 pm
- Place: 5310 Chamberlin Hall
Thursday, January 25th, 2018
- R. G. Herb Condensed Matter Seminar
- Connecting the dots: the interactions and environment of electrons in zero dimensions
- Time: 10:00 am
- Place: 5310 Chamberlin
- Speaker: Xanthe Croot, University of Sydney
- Abstract: Quantum information can be encoded in the spin and charge states of electrons in semiconductor quantum dots. While qubits in these zero-dimensional systems have exhibited long coherence times and excellent one and two-qubit operability, there remain challenges - namely, unwanted environmental coupling and issues of scalability. In this talk, I will discuss interactions between microwave-driven electrons in GaAs quantum dots and their phonon environment, which can lead to qubit population inversions and decoherence. Techniques for probing the charge environment of the qubit will also be explored, and I will briefly touch on scalable readout protocols. Finally, I will outline progress in an architecture designed to facilitate controllable coupling between separated qubits, an important outstanding challenge for the field.
- Host: Eriksson
- Astronomy Colloquium
- Probing Galaxy Cluster Formation Through Dynamics of the Hot, Intracluster Medium (ICM)
- Time: 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
- Place: 4421 Sterling Hall, Coffee and cookies 3:30 pm, Talk begins 3:45PM
- Speaker: Tom Jones, University of Minnesota, School of Physics and Astronomy
- Abstract: Galaxy clusters, made mostly of dark matter, are the most massive and last structures to form out of cosmic expansion. They grow on timescales of Gyr through accretion and mergers. They are also frequently harassed by adjacent, smaller clumps of dark matter. As a result of this complex evolution cluster dynamical states are also complex.The hot ICM plasma is the dominant baryonic cluster component. Because the ICM is weakly collisional it effectively captures important details of the formation dynamics and its history. While some events and processes are revealed conveniently through thermal X-ray emissions, other vital dynamical behaviors are highlighted primarily via non-thermal emissions, either within the ICM itself or through interactions between the ICM and relativistic plasmas deposited within by active galaxies. This non-thermal window into cluster formation dynamics is especially important in cluster outskirts, where thermal X-ray signals are weak. In this talk I will review these issues and some of our ongoing efforts to model and decipher distinctive non-thermal signals of ICM dynamics.
- Host: Astronomy Dept
Friday, January 26th, 2018
- Physics Department Colloquium
- Nanowire Technology and Toxicity
- Time: 3:30 pm
- Place: 2241 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Benjamin Gilbert, LBNL
- Abstract: Asbestosis is a disease provoked by fibers. The nanowires widely used in nanotechnology, including carbon nanotubes and metallic nanowires, could be just as toxic. Silver nanowires can create conformal and flexible percolation networks in electrically conductive, and optically transparent films increasingly used in displays and touchscreens. The health risks of silver nanowires can only be assessed by fundamental research on their cellular uptake and physiological impacts. I will present experimental results from an international collaboration I established to discover principles of nanowire interactions with living cells. By combining X-ray and optical microscopy, and molecular probes of endocytosis and dysfunction in cells, we demonstrate a new biophysical threshold for fiber pathology.
- Host: Sridhara Dasu