Experimental Partical Physics Seminar: "First results from the PROSPECT reactor neutrino experiment"
Danielle Norcini, Yale University
Experiments at nuclear reactors have played a key role in determining the properties of the weakly-interacting neutrinos. Results from recent reactor experiments suggest a disagreement between the observed…
Rittenhouse Lecture: "The Planck Legacy: Inflation and the Origin of Structure in the Universe"
George P. Efstathiou, University of Cambridge and Kavli Institute for Cosmology
I will review the latest results on cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies measured by the Planck satellite. These measurements agree extremely well with a spatially flat, cosmological constant dominated…
High Energy Theory Seminar: "Newman-Penrose and BMS Charges Near Null Infinity"
Chris Pope, Texas A&M University
In 1965 Newman and Penrose (NP) showed that any asymptotically-flat spacetime admits 10 quantities, obtained as certain spherical-harmonic projections of a particular component of the Weyl tensor, which are exactly…
High Energy Theory Seminar: "Black Hole Microstate Cosmology"
Brian Swingle, University of Maryland, College Park
I will discuss the possibility that certain high-energy holographic CFT states correspond to black hole microstates with a geometrical behind-the-horizon region, modelled by a portion of a second asymptotic region…
Special Seminar: "This Is Not A Diversity Talk" - POSTPONED MAKE UP DATE TBD
John A. Johnson, The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
The American discourse on the various disparities present in society generally, and academia specifically, focuses primarily on observations of the state of a given situation---e.g. a lack of diversity---…
Condensed Matter Seminar: "Terahertz-frequency light fields driving quantum material electrons, ions, and spins"
Keith Nelson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Terahertz-frequency light pulses can now be generated routinely with field amplitudes sufficient to drive highly nonlinear responses of materials and molecules.
Astronomy seminar: "Measurements of Degree-Scale B-mode Polarization with the BICEP/Keck Experiments at South Pole"
Benjamin Racine, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
The BICEP and Keck experiments, located at the South Pole, are currently observing the polarized microwave sky at the degree scale using refractive telescopes. They are searching for a signature of primordial…
Condensed Matter Seminar: "Adhering, wrapping, and bursting of fluid membranes: understanding effects of membrane-binding particles and polymers"
Anthony (Tony) Dinsmore, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Proteins and membranes form remarkably complex structures that are key to intracellular compartmentalization, cargo transport, and cell morphology. Despite this wealth of examples in living systems, we still lack…