Events at Physics |
Events on Friday, October 12th, 2018
- P.U.M.P.: Prospective Undergrads Majoring in Physics
- Time: 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
- Place: 2241 Chamberlin
- Abstract: Interested in the Physics Major? Come to P.U.M.P.: Prospective Undergrads Majoring in Physics! Topics include: why you should major in physics, what you can do with a physics degree, major requirements, undergraduate research opportunities, and tutoring opportunities.
- Host: Mark Rzchowski
- Theory Seminar (High Energy/Cosmology)
- Spontaneous symmetry breaking in open systems
- Time: 2:00 pm - 3:25 pm
- Place: 5280 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Suro Kim, Kobe University
- Abstract: Spontaneous symmetry breaking and the Nambu-Goldstone bosons play an important role in various areas of physics. While the Nambu-Goldstone theorem for relativistic systems was established in 1960’s, it is only recently that its generalization to non-relativistic systems has been systematically studied. For example, it has been clarified that fruitful dispersion relations appear depending on the broken symmetry algebra. In this talk, I will discuss recent progress on spontaneous symmetry breaking in nonrelativistic system and dissipative open systems.
- Physics Department Colloquium
- A tabletop-scale probe for TeV physics: the electric dipole moment of the electron
- Time: 3:30 pm
- Place: 2241 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: David DeMille, Yale
- Abstract: Time-reversal (T) symmetry is observed to be broken in K- and B-meson systems, in a manner consistent with the Standard Model (SM) of electroweak interactions. Violation of T-invariance makes it possible for elementary particles such as the electron to have an electric dipole moment (EDM) along their spin axis. Although the SM prediction for the electron EDM is too small to detect, extensions to the SM frequently predict EDMs within a few orders of magnitude of the current limits. I will describe our ACME experiment, which uses methods of atomic and molecular physics to detect the electron’s EDM. We recently completed the most sensitive search for this quantity, finding a result consistent with zero but setting a limit an order of magnitude smaller than previous work. Remarkably, the result of this tabletop-scale experiment sets strong constraints on the existence of T-violating phenomena well above the TeV scale being probed at the Large Hadron Collider, and has a substantial impact on theories of physics beyond the Standard Model.
- Host: Mark Saffman