Past Events

Abstract: Imagine a world where communication doesn't depend on words, but on flashes of light, scents, and movement. In the extraordinary world of insects, this is a daily reality. This talk will take you on a journey into the secret lives of fireflies and bees, exploring how they convey information through visual and chemical signals. Drawing on concepts from physics, mathematics, and computer science, we will uncover the universal rules that insects obey to make their communication efficient and effective.

The modern perspective on the classification of phases of matter is given in terms of circuit complexity: two many-body quantum states belong to the same phase of matter if and only if they can be related by a finite-d

Abstract: Gauge theories form the foundation of modern physics, with applications ranging from early-universe cosmology and heavy-ion collisions to condensed matter systems. However, simulating the real-time dynamics of such quantum many-body systems on classical computers is fraught with difficulties, motivating the pursuit of alternative venues. I will present recent experiments where we employ a large-scale Bose-Hubbard quantum simulator to emulate a U(1) lattice gauge theory, which couples charged matter fields through dynamical gauge fields.

Abstract: Our current understanding of planet formation is informed by ongoing observations of circumstellar disks around young stars.   The improving spatial resolution of these observations has revealed a variety of structures in these dusty gas disks, including gaps, spiral waves, warps, and lopsided distributions of dust particles.  These observations are restricted to a single viewing geometry from Earth and by limited spatial resolution.  Analogous structures are observed in Saturn’s rings with a mul

Abstract: The solar corona is the hot and ionized outer atmosphere of the Sun.  It traces out the complex solar magnetic field and expands into interplanetary space as the supersonic solar wind.  In 1958, Eugene Parker theorized that the presence of a million-degree corona necessarily requires the outward acceleration of a wind.  However, despite many years of exploration of both phenomena, we still do not have a complete understanding of the processes that heat the coronal plasma to its bizarrely high temperatures.

Abstract:

Among all known isotopes, Thorium-229 has the lowest nuclear excited

state, only 8.4 eV above the ground state. This so-called "isomer" is

accessible to VUV laser excitation and has been proposed as a robust

clock transition for future frequency standards. The talk will present

most recent progress on measuring the exact nuclear excitation energy

and the isomer lifetime in a solid-state environment.

APS Facutly Candidate Colloquium Thursday 2/22/24 @3:30pm

Abstract: Solar hydrogen generation is pivotal to diversifying the global energy supply away from fossil fuels in the transportation sector and across major industries, including ammonia synthesis, process metallurgy, and hydrocarbon production [1,2].

Abstract: Quantum systems subject to both driving and dissipation are ubiquitous in many fields, and often have com

Abstract: The recent launch of JWST is revolutionizing our understanding of exoplanet atmospheres by providing observations at an unprecedented level of detail. In this talk, I will discuss two methods for studying the atmospheres of exoplanets with JWST. First, I will discuss the potential for spectroscopic eclipse mapping with JWST. Spectroscopic eclipse mapping is the only observational technique which allows for simultaneous resolution of the atmosphere in three spatial dimensions: latitude, longitude, and altitude.

Abstract: 1D gases with point contact interactions are special because they are integrable many-body systems, which means that they have many extra conserved quantities, beyond the usual few (energy, momentum, etc.). I will explain how we make bundles of 1D Bose gases in the lab, the various ways we excite them out of equilibrium, and how we use them as model systems for studying quantum dynamics.

Abstract:

Abstract: Many consequential chemical processes take place on ultrafast timescales, including molecular vibrations and bond breaking. Measurements that follow ultrafast molecular dynamics in real time are changing our understanding of these processes. We are designing new tools to study ultrafast molecular dynamics and quantum mechanics with the sensitivity enough to study the molecules in molecular beams and the spectral resolution sufficient for vibrational and rotational resolution.

Abstract