Past Events

Nov

5

Seminar

Physics Colloquium: "Interplay of Topology and Geometry in Fractional Quantum Hall Liquids" Presented By Dr. Kun Yang - Florida State

Location:

Lewis Lab 316

November 5, 2026, 4:25 - 5:25pm

Fractional Quantum Hall Liquids (FQHL) are the ultimate strongly correlated electron systems, and the birthplace of topological phase of matter. Early theoretical work has emphasized the universal or topological aspects of quantum Hall physics. More recently it has become increasingly…

Oct

29

Event

Canceled- Physics Colloquium: "Scalars in the sky" Presented By Dr. Daniel Grin - Haverford College

Location:

LL 316

October 29, 2026, 4:25 - 5:25pm

Light scalar fields arise naturally in beyond-the-standard-model scenarios in particle physics. They could contribute to the dark matter, the dark energy, or drive variation in the fundamental constants, such as the electric charge. I will review the imprint of (and resulting limits…

Oct

22

Seminar

Physics Colloquium: "Hydrodynamics: from water to QGP to black holes and cosmology" Presented by Dr. Alex Buchel - University of Western Ontario

Location:

Lewis Lab 316

October 22, 2026, 4:25 - 5:25pm

"What do the recent OpenAI claim to have resolved the Clay Mathematics Institute Millennium Problem on Navier–Stokes, the quark-gluon plasma produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, black holes, and cosmology have in common? In this talk, I will review the remarkable recent…

Oct

15

Seminar

Physics Colloquium: "Modeling Fluidization in Growing Biological Systems and Morphogenesis" Presented by Dr. Min Wu - Worcester Polytech

Location:

Lewis Lab 316

October 15, 2026, 4:25 - 5:25pm

In this talk, I will first survey various biological systems where concepts around fluidity or fluidization play critical roles in their deformation and flow, with an emphasis on Maxwell-type fluidization and its parallel formulations. Then, I will talk about our work on tip-growth…

Oct

8

Seminar

Physics Colloquium: "Tomography of Quark-Gluon Plasma with Heavy Quarks" Presented By Dr. Deepa Thomas - UT Austin

Location:

Lewis Lab 316

October 8, 2026, 4:25 - 5:25pm

Ultra-relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) create the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) -- a hot, dense, deconfined state of QCD matter governed by strong interactions. While decades of measurements have…

Oct

1

Seminar

Physics Colloquium: "Imaging Nuclear Matter at the Femto-scale via Entanglement Enabled Spin Interference" Presented By Dr. Daniel Brandenburg - Ohio State

Location:

Lewis Lab 316

October 1, 2026, 4:25 - 5:25pm

In 1934, shortly after the birth of quantum electrodynamics (QED), Breit and Wheeler predicted that matter could be created directly in the collision of two photons. Nearly a century later, this process - the last fundamental process in QED - was observed in ultra-peripheral heavy-ion…

Sep

24

Seminar

Physics Colloquium: “Atoms on the Move: Coherent Transport, Interferometry, and Computation with Optical Tweezers” Presented by Dr. Yoav Sagi - Technion, Israel Institute of Technology

Location:

Lewis Lab 316

September 24, 2026, 4:25 - 5:25pm

The ability to control individual quantum particles has expanded the role of neutral atoms, from platforms for studying collective quantum matter to building blocks for quantum sensors, simulators, and computers. Tightly focused beams of light, known as optical tweezers, allow us to…

Sep

17

Seminar

Physics Colloquium: "A universal theory of incoherent metals" Presented By Dr. Rufus Boyack - Dartmouth College

Location:

Lewis Lab 316

September 17, 2026, 4:25 - 5:25pm

Numerous unconventional superconductors such as cuprates, heavy-fermions, and twisted-bilayer graphene exhibit incoherent metallic transport (where the particles are short lived) above the superconducting critical temperature. One of the most striking results of these quantum…

Sep

10

Seminar

Physics Colloquium: "Measuring Gravity by Dropping Atoms" Presented By Dr. Xuejian Wu - Rutgers University

Location:

Lewis Lab 316

September 10, 2026, 4:25 - 5:25pm

Exploiting the nature of quantum phenomena, quantum technologies are developing rapidly towards computing, communicating, and sensing. Quantum inertial sensors based on light- pulse atom interferometry are powerful tools for precision measurements, navigation, geoscience, and civil…

Sep

3

Seminar

Physics Colloquium: "What String Theory Can Tell Us About Quantum Field Theory" Presented By Dr. Jacques Distler - UT Austin

Location:

Lewis Lab 316

September 3, 2026, 4:25 - 5:25pm

String Theory has proven to be an enormously powerful tool in tackling difficult questions in quantum field theory. I will attempt to explain why, and explain some of the things that it can tell us. Jacques Distler received his PhD from Harvard in 1987. He went on to a postdoc at…

Aug

27

Seminar

Physics Colloquium: “Quantum-Like States and foundations of quantum mechanics” Presented by Dr. Gregory Scholes - Princeton

Location:

Lewis Lab 316

August 27, 2026, 4:25 - 5:25pm

In this talk I will ask: Can a classical system mimic a quantum system? Or, in terms of a specific example, can we design a classical circuit that emulates a quantum computer? The advance of this work is to demonstrate a way to construct complex classical networks that mimic the…

Apr

30

Event

Physics Graduate Student Association: Movie Night "Tenet"

Location:

Lewis Lab 316

April 30, 2026, 5:30 - 6:30pm

The Physics Graduate Student Association (PGSA) is hosting a physics movie night featuring the film "Tenet." Join us!