Past Events

Host: Ana Maria Rey

There is a long-standing history of instrument makers grilling bratwursts for the whole building every summer. We will be continuing the tradition outside by the tower Thursday July 31st at noon. Remember to pack your appetites and join us in the great American pastime of eating hot dogs until we all feel ill!

Abstract: The evolution of plasma environments is defined and governed by balances between ionizing processes, chemical rearrangements, and neutralisation reactions such as mutual neutralisation (MN). Measuring and explaining these processes in detail is fundamental to understanding and modelling non-local thermal equilibrium environments, such as atmospheric plasmas.

Planetary magnetospheres provide natural laboratories for the study of space plasmas, and Jupiter’s magnetosphere in particular acts as a bridge between those phenomena we can study in detail at Earth, and those beyond the solar system that we can only glimpse through telescopes. Jupiter’s auroras have been studied for many years with increasing sensitivity and resolution, but the James Webb Space Telescope offers a revolutionary perspective of these spectacular emissions.

Take a mid-morning break!

Abstract: For decades, scientists have pursued a bold goal: creating a laser that works not just with visible light but with powerful X-rays. Conventional X-ray sources, essential in medicine, security, and technology, are based on principles dating back to Röntgen’s discovery in 1895, essentially a brighter, more advanced X-ray light bulb. But just as lasers revolutionized the way we harness visible light, an X-ray laser would unlock extraordinary new capabilities in science and technology. The challenge?

Abstract: Breathomics aims to address the current unmet clinical needs by utilizing exhaled breath contents for non-invasive and real-time medical diagnostics. We demonstrate a frequency comb breathalyzer powered by machine learning for detecting COVID-19, finding 85 % accuracy among a 170-subject cohort. To enhance diagnostic power, we introduce Modulated Ringdown Comb Interferometry, a new technique enabling the quantification of “odor” of arbitrarily complex and unknown contents at new record sensing performance and requiring only simple instruments.

Please join us Monday, July 14 for a talk from Cornell group visitor Heleen Mulder. Heleen is a PhD student working on theoretical particle physics with Jordy de Vries at Nikhef in Amsterdam and a member of the NLeEDM collaboration.

Join us as we relaunch the Graduate Association of Students in Physics (GASP) with an ice cream sundae party on the Duane field. All physics students, faculty, and staff are invited.

Optical atomic clocks with eighteen significant digits are the most accurate measurement devices avail

Fermionic quantum simulators provide a powerful platform for exploring high-temperature superconductivity, topological phases, and many-body dynamics—challenges that persist even with the advent of qubit-based quantum computing. In this talk, I will present recent results from our high-repetition-rate fermionic quantum gas microscope, which is optimized for rapid data acquisition. Fast cycle times on the order of a few seconds are achieved through high-power optical traps, rapid evaporative cooling, and efficient spin-resolved fluorescence imaging.

Long-lived optical clock states of alkaline earth and alkaline earth-like atoms have many applicati

Abstract:  Black holes are often portrayed as cosmic vacuum cleaners that swallow everything, even light. In reality, they are far richer and more revealing: each black hole is a natural laboratory where the two great pillars of modern physics — Einstein’s general relativity and quantum mechanics — meet head-on. In this talk, we will venture from the known, the black holes that we can observe in our sky, into the unknown, where we begin to understand how black holes obey the rules of quantum mechanics.

Symposium Highlights

Abstract forthcoming