During the 2016-2017 year we met every other Thursday at 4:15PM in room P119.
| Date | Speaker | Presentation | Abstract |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feb. 23, 2017 | Tyler Kutz | Probing Nuclear Neutron Distributions with Parity Violation | The lead (Pb) Radius EXperiment (PREX) will measure the parity-violating asymmetry in electron scattering from Pb-208. This asymmetry is sensitive to the neutron r.m.s. radius, Rn, which has important applications to nuclear physics. A measurement of Rn to 1% will constrain the nuclear equation of state. Further, Rn has been shown to be strongly correlated with the radius of neutron stars. PREX will run at Jefferson Lab. |
| March 09, 2017 | Mehdi Namazi |
The Magic of Dark-State-Polaritons
(powerpoint) |
In this short talk we’ll go over a few project we’re currently doing at Qauntum Information Technology lab. The main focus will be on one of the very strong experimental and theoretical tools in optical quantum information; the ability of creating a quantum super position between photons and collective spin excitation of atoms. We will talk about several applications of these states in cold and room temperature quantum technologies from ultra-secure communication networks to physically simulating complicated quantum field theory Hamiltonians. |
| March 23, 2017 | Drew Jamieson | Inflationary Cosmology | The standard model of cosmology holds that the universe went through a period of rapid, nearly exponential expansion early in its history. This proposal is called inflation. It has been shown that the idea of inflation not only explains the origin of our universe, but can also predict the early universe anisotropies that seeded the large scale structures filling the universe today. This talk will review the mechanisms that generate inflationary expansion in General Relativity, some of the problems that are solved by inflation in cosmology, and how inflation, from the point of view of quantum field theory, generates the anisotropies and inhomogeneities of the universe, which eventually formed the CMB fluctuations and seeded the formation of galaxies and large scale structure. |
| April 06, 2017 | Julio Virrueta | Entanglement Entropy, QFT and holography | Since it was first propose, entanglement has been a great example of a purely quantum mechanical phenomenon. One of it's biggest appeals is the fact that it connects several different areas of physics, from quantum information and solid state physics to quantum field theory and string theory. In this talk I'll present the basic concepts of entanglement and entanglement entropy and will study them in the context of QFT and the AdS/CFT correspondence. |
| April 20, 2017 | Kevin Wood |
Measuring Neutrino Oscillations
(powerpoint) |
Neutrino oscillation experiments observe quantum interference over a range of (very) macroscopic distances - up to thousands of kilometers or even more. Due to the weakly interacting nature of the neutrino, this phenomenon is one of the best probes we have to study these fundamental particles. By making precise measurements of oscillations into different weak eigenstates we hope to better understand the nature of the neutrino, its place in the standard model of particle physics, and its impact on the evolution of the universe. This talk will apply some basic quantum mechanical ideas to illustrate the source of neutrino oscillations before discussing some techniques long baseline neutrino experiments utilize to measure the mixing parameters. |
| May 12, 2017 | Samuel Homiller | Searching for Higgs Self-Interactions at Colliders | One of the major goals in particle physics in coming years is to better understand the properties of the recently discovered Higgs boson. Of these properties, the Higgs trilinear coupling – which describes self-interactions of the Higgs field – is particularly important because of its implications for cosmology and baryogenesis, as well as being a window into beyond the standard model sectors. Unfortunately, measuring the trilinear coupling experimentally is extremely challenging and will probably require more energetic colliders than the LHC. In this talk I’ll outline some of the motivations for understanding the trilinear coupling and discuss the prospects for measuring it at the LHC and at a 100 TeV proton collider. |
| July 27, 2017 | Tyler Ellison | And Introduction to Exotic Phases of Matter | Topological phases of matter offer promising applications to quantum computing and device physics, but a scarcity of suitable systems hinders the realization of these phases. A thorough classification and characterization would streamline the search for materials capable of exhibiting exotic phases of matter. We may gain insight into the classification by studying certain ‘patterns of entanglement’ within the phases, and quantum circuits provide a framework for studying these patterns. In this talk, we will discuss the classification of topological phases of matter through the lens of quantum circuits. Time and motivation permitting, we will sketch some more specific research problems using the concepts developed in this talk. |
| TBD | Gabriel Santucci | GUTs and Nucleon Decay |
