Events Archive

Living matter obeys the laws of physics, and the principles and methods of theoretical physics ought to find useful application in many areas of biology. This truism is becoming ever more relevant with the rapid growth of the ability of biological experiments to produce comprehensive quantitative data.

We are fortunate to live at a time when questions about the origin and future of the universe are becoming accessible to scientific inquiry, primarily through observational advances but also through the development of new theoretical ideas.

I will discuss the discovery of two pentaquark states both decaying into a J/ψ meson and a proton. The decay mode defines the quark content as c cbar, u, u, d, and thus are called charmonium pentaquarks. These exotic structures are found in Λb→J/ψ K- p decays using a full amplitude analysis using 7 and 8 TeV pp collisions from 3/fb of data...

Recent work has shown that manipulating a quantum system using a periodic drive provides a new means for externally controlling it. Such a periodic drive can give rise to topological states in trivial quantum wells, bulk semiconductors, and even in graphene; and it can also turn a quantum wire into a system which could have Majorana states - of...

The bulk of cosmic rays originate in the Milky Way, most likely in supernova explosions. I will discuss the physics aspects of the interaction between charged particles and the environment that are at the very basis of both particle acceleration and propagation throughout the Galaxy and beyond.

There has been considerable interest in creating condensed matter systems that host Majorana fermions. This goal is motivated in part by Majorana fermions’ potential use in topological qubits to perform fault-tolerant computation aided by their non-Abelian characteristics.

Over the past several years, our understanding of topological electronic phases of matter has advanced dramatically. A paradigm that has emerged is that insulating electronic states with an energy gap fall into distinct topological classes.

The long-lived noble-gas isotope 81Kr is the ideal tracer for water and ice with ages of 105 – 106 years, a range beyond the reach of 14C. 81Kr-dating, a concept pursued over the past five decades by numerous laboratories employing a variety of techniques, is finally available to the earth science community at large.

"How to make the Born-Oppenheimer approximation exact: A fresh look at potential energy surfaces and Berry phases in the vicinity of strong non-adiabatic couplings" The Born-Oppenheimer approximation is among the most fundamental ingredients of modern condensed matter physics.