The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission was launched on December 9, 2021 and has been used for measuring the linear polarization of X-rays from cosmic sources. I report here on IXPE observations of the High Mass X-Ray Binary Cygnus X-1.
Master storyteller Susan Marie Frontczak, playing the part of Mary Shelley, tells how the famous and familiar story of Dr. Frankenstein's creature is related to ethical issues that arise when scientific pursuits introduce unexpected results.
Abstract: Look out your window and you might see a conifer tree covered with snow. Ever wonder how the needles stay alive all winter long as the temperature dips below freezing? Like pine trees, some organisms possess molecules that naturally enable them to withstand cold. Scientists have copied nature to develop methodology to cryopreserve biological materials, storing them at low temperatures for future use. The first step in any cryopreservation protocol involves dosing the sample with a cocktail of cryopreservation agents, molecules that help them stay viable.
Abstract: Cavity QED systems are emerging as leading platforms for quantum simulation of tunable long-range interacting spin models and spin-boson models featuring rich steady-state and non-equilibrium many-body behaviors. We propose a new direction that uses multilevel atoms in an optical cavity as a toolbox to engineer new types of bosonic models, which features correlated hopping processes in a synthetic two-leg ladder spanned by atomic ground states.
Radar properties of icy satellites of Jupiter and Saturn are extraordinary, many differ by more than an order of magnitude from those of rocky planets. We demonstrate that two icy-satellite radar properties are correlated and together they vary along a spectrum. Thus, those properties are better described as ranging within a distribution that includes very high extremes, than as an anomalous group. All six previously published models to explain the extraordinary icy-satellite radar properties fail to satisfactorily fit this new constraint.
Abstract:
Quantum control of mechanical motion has been achieved in a surprising range of platforms in the past decades. These mechanical quantum systems have both piqued the curiosity of physicists, and enabled new approaches to difficult tasks in manipulating quantum information.
Abstract: One of the most intriguing outcomes of casting our thinking about the world around us in mathematical terms is that phenomena that were thought to be quite distinct are instead revealed as being the “same.” Thinkers as long ago as Pliny the Elder made observations on active matter noting: "It is a peculiarity of the starling to fly in troops, as it were, and then to wheel round in a globular mass like a ball, the central troop acting as a pivot for the rest.’’ In this talk I will introduce field theory and the emergence of the modern theory of active matter as for
Abstract: 2019 marked the 75th anniversary of the publication of Erwin Schrodinger's "What is Life?'', a short book hailed by Roger Penrose as "among the most influential scientific writings of the 20th century'’.
Lab Website: http://www.kimseedlab.com/
Synopsis: The Seed lab works with V. cholerae and ICP1 (phages found with V. cholerae in cholera patients in Bangladesh) to understand bacterial immunity and phage invasion strategies. The focus of the lab is to understand the mechanisms of phage interference by V. cholerae PLE (phage inducible chromosomal island-like element) to mediate the CRISPR-Cas system found in some ICP1 cells.
Seminar Abstract:
Abstract: We present an extensive study on the dynamo origin of solar-type star's magnetism, based on a large series of 3D MHD numerical simulations with the ASH code performed within the pan-European ERC project Whole Sun.
"The planned speaker for 17 October was to be Néstor Espinoza (STScI), but unfortunately it has been necessary to defer his colloquium to later in the semester, 28 November. We are grateful to Larry Esposito for volunteering to fill the 17 Oct slot at short notice."
Abstract:
Abstract: Defects have been playing an increasingly important role in our understanding of quantum phases of matter and quantum field theories in general. Closed defects can be created by applying the associated symmetry transformation, known as a disorder operator, to a finite region. Expectation value of the disorder operator in a symmetry-preserving ground state contains universal information about the underlying state.
Abstract: Topological superconductivity, charge order and electronic nematic phases are all fascinating phases of matter that have been observed in several quantum materials of recent interest. The nematic phase, wherein electronic degrees of freedom drive a reduction in crystal rotational symmetry, is a common motif across a number of high temperature superconductors, while charge order has become a ubiquitous component of several newly studied superconductors.
Due to unforeseen events, the Physics Colloquium for October 12, 2022 has been cancelled.
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Coffee, tea and cookies will be available in G1B31 (across from G1B20) from 3:30 - 3:50 p.m.
Physics Colloquia are held Wednesdays at 4:00 p.m. in the JILA Auditorium.
