JILA Auditorium

Tabletop X-Ray Lasers: From Star Wars to Quantum Sculpting

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Abstract:   Ever since the invention of the laser over 60 years ago, scientists have been striving to create x-ray lasers. In the same way that visible lasers can concentrate light energy far better than a light bulb, a directed beam of x-rays would have many useful applications. The problem was that until recently, ridiculously high powers were needed to make an x-ray laser.

The Dawning of Radio Astronomy from the Moon

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Abstract: The first robotic commercial lunar lander, Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus, touched down on the Moon in the South Pole region on 22 February 2024. This mission was part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Odysseus carried with it the first NASA radio astronomy telescope to the surface of the Moon – Radiowave Observations at the Lunar Surface of the photoElectron Sheath (ROLSES).

A world from a sheet of paper

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Abstract: Starting from just a sheet of paper, by folding, stacking, crumpling, sometimes tearing, we will explore a diversity of phenomena, from magic tricks and geometry to elasticity and the traditional Japanese art of origami. Much of the lecture consists of table-top demonstrations, which you can try later with friends and family.

So, take a sheet of paper . . .

Economic inequality from a statistical physics point of view

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Abstract:  Inequality is an important and seemingly inevitable aspect of the human society. Various manifestations of inequality can be derived from the concept of entropy in statistical physics. In a stylized model of monetary economy, the probability distribution of money among the agents converges to the exponential Boltzmann-Gibbs law due to entropy maximization.