Events at Physics |
Events During the Week of September 7th through September 14th, 2008
Monday, September 8th, 2008
- Plasma Physics (Physics/ECE/NE 922) Seminar
- Challenges and Scenarios for Achieving Current Sustainment with Good Confinement in the RFP
- Time: 12:05 pm - 1:15 pm
- Place: 1227 Engineering Hall
- Speaker: John Sarff, University of Wisconsin, Dept. of Physics/Plasma
- High Energy Seminar
- CP Violation in Bs Meson Decays at CDF
- Time: 4:00 pm
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin (Coffee and Cookies at 3:45 pm)
- Speaker: Gavril Giurgiu, Johns Hopkins University
- Host: Matt Herndon
- Plasma Theory Seminar
- Analog of Astrophysical Magnetorotational Instability in Couette-Taylor Flows of Polymer Fluids
- Time: 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
- Place: 514 ERB
- Speaker: Stanislav Boldyrev, University of Wisconsin, Dept. of Physics/Plasma
Tuesday, September 9th, 2008
- Chaos & Complex Systems Seminar
- Ecology and the evolution of reproductive isolation
- Time: 12:05 pm
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin (Refreshments will be served)
- Speaker: Jenny Boughman, UW Department of Zoology
- Abstract: My research program addresses two venerable questions in evolutionary biology: How do new species arise? How does selection cause genetic change in nature? Both questions have a rich history in evolutionary biology going back to Darwin and the modern synthesis. Despite decades of research; however, we have only recently begun to reveal the mechanisms that generate new species in nature. Recent years have also seen phenomenal progress on understanding the genetic basis of traits. We are now able to ask questions that were simply impossible to address 20 years ago. Yet, progress on understanding how selection is acting in natural populations to cause evolutionary change at the genetic level has lagged behind. My work melds two rapidly advancing areas - mechanisms of speciation and genetics of adaptation - to investigate questions of fundamental importance to our understanding of biodiversity. I use an ideal system to study these questions - species pairs of stickleback fish (Gasterosteus spp.) found in the postglacial lakes of British Columbia. These are extremely young species and provide a window on the speciation process. Evolutionary replication allows direct experiments to test the evolutionary mechanisms involved.
- Astronomy Colloquium
- Gamma Ray Burst Jet Simulations
- Time: 3:30 pm
- Place: 6515 Sterling Hall
- Speaker: Brian Morsony, UW Astronomy Dept
- Abstract: Gamma Ray Bursts are the most luminous events in the universe and are associated with the death of massive stars. GRBs are powered by relativistic jets from a newly-formed compact object at the center of a star. The jet then punches through the outer layers of the star before eventually emitting gamma-rays. However, the extent to which passage through the star effects the jet is not well understood. I will present new simulations of propagation and long-term evolution of jets with time-varying central engines and discuss the observational implications of the results.
- Host: Professor Sebastian Heinz
Wednesday, September 10th, 2008
- No events scheduled
Thursday, September 11th, 2008
- NPAC (Nuclear/Particle/Astro/Cosmo) Forum
- Cold gases and cartoon nuclei
- Time: 4:00 pm
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin
- Speaker: Calvin Johnson, San Diego State University
- Abstract: Cold atomic gases are all the rage in physics now. We can apply many-body techniques from nuclear physics, such as the interacting shell model, to cold gases; this way we learn a lot about how such calculations for nuclei are done.
- Host: Michael J Ramsey-Musolf
Friday, September 12th, 2008
- Phenomenology Seminar
- Associated Higgs production in CP-violating Supersymmetry: Probing the 'Open Hole' at the LHC
- Time: 2:30 pm
- Place: 5280 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Priyotosh Bandyopadhyay, Chandra Research Institute
- Abstract: A benchmark CP-violating supersymmetric scenario (known in the literature as `CPX-scenario') is studied in the context of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It is shown that the LHC, with low to moderate accumulated luminosity, will be able to probe the existing `hole' in the $m_{h_1}$-$ aneta$ plane, which cannot be ruled out by the Large Electron Positron Collider data. This can be done through associated production of Higgs bosons with top quark and top squark pairs leading to the signal emph{dilepton + $leq{5}$ jets (including 3 b-jets) + missing ${p_T}$}. Efficient discrimination of such a CP-violating supersymmetric scenario from other contending ones is also possible at the LHC with a moderate volume of data.
- Physics Department Colloquium
- Double Beta Decay-The Key to Neutrino Properties
- Time: 4:00 pm
- Place: 2241 Chamberlin Hall (coffee at 3:30 pm)
- Speaker: Petr Vogel, Caltech
- Abstract: Experiments with solar, atmospheric, reactor and accelerator neutrinos convincingly show that neutrinos are massive and mixed. But why are neutrinos so extremely light? Perhaps their mass has a different origin, and they are Majorana fermions, unlike the charged leptons and quarks that are Dirac fermions? Neutrinoless ββ decay is the most sensitive probe available to test these ideas. I will first review the history and status of the search for this mode of ββ decay. Then I will describe my own work dealing with the evaluation of the nuclear matrix elements that govern the decay rate and the difficulties of such calculations. Finally, I will briefly review the worldwide program of experimental search for the neutrinoless ββ decay and its relation to other searches for neutrino mass.
- Host: Ramsey-Musolf