Events Archive

Oct
27
2014
In Pursuit of Dark Matter: Recent Results from the SuperCDMS Experiment
The existence of dark matter was first postulated by Jan Oort in1932 to account for the orbital velocities of stars in the Milky Way. Since that time, astrophysicists and astronomers have produced compelling evidence for the existence of dark matter and determined that it constitutes the bulk of the matter in the Universe. Despite this fact, the composition of the dark matter remains unknown. One compelling candidate for particle dark matter is the Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP). Working in a low-background...
Oct
23
2014
Scientific Symposiums - France Atlanta: Documenting Science
Freelance professional photographer Vincent Moncorge will share his experience on documenting science. Following a short historical exploration from the late 19th century and French photographer Etienne Jules Marey’s Chronophotograph, he will detail the new modern story-telling strategies the scientific community is facing today. Then, he will share about his own personal experiences with photographing synchrotron daily life to model organisms such as tiny Drosophila flies.
Oct
21
2014
The Astrophysics of Supermassive Black Holes
Black holes are perhaps the most mysterious and enigmatic objects that one can imagine. Their gravitational fields are so strong that light is unable to escape their grasp, and even fundamental quantities such as space and time are severely disrupted by their presence.  Yet, despite their fantastical nature, astronomers have compiled significant evidence that black holes are actually quite common and are lying at the centers of almost all massive galaxies....
Oct
21
2014
Women’s Careers in Science: Lessons from the Global Survey of Physicists
Previous studies of women in physics mostly focused on the lack of women in the field. The Global Survey of Physics goes beyond the obvious shortage of women and shows that there are much deeper issues. For the first time, a multinational study was conducted with 15000 respondents from 130 countries, showing that problems for women in physics transcend national borders. Across all countries, women have fewer resources and opportunities and are more affected by cultural expectations concerning child care. We show that limited resources and opportunities hurt career progress, and because women...
Oct
07
2014
Quantum Control of Spin Interactions in Spin-1 Bose Condensates
Effects of dipolar and spin-exchange interactions are entangled in spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates, due to their coexistence. We propose to independently manipulate the magnetic dipolar and the spin-exchange interactions by applying generalized WAHUHA sequences of rf pulses and by applying periodic dynamical decoupling sequences of optical Feshbach resonance pulses, respectively. While suppressing one interaction, we can make the other interaction dominate the spin dynamics in the condensates. Furthermore, by suppressing both interactions, this method can be harnessed to realize spinor-...
Oct
06
2014
Optical Metamaterials: from Linear Responses to Nonlinear Interactions and beyond
Metamaterials are commonly viewed as artificially-structured media capable of realizing arbitrary effective parameters, in which metals and dielectrics are delicately combined to facilitate the index contrast and plasmonic response required for a particular purpose. We aim to drive beyond this limited vision and explore the use of optical metamaterials as a generalizable platform for optoelectronic information technology: Metals will provide tailored plasmonic behavior as before, but will serve double duty by providing electrical functions including voltage input,...
Oct
02
2014
Frontiers in Science Lecture Series
   
Sep
29
2014
Puzzles of the glass transition and why it is still interesting
For thousands of years people are using glass transition process and glasses in their everyday life. For hundreds of years researchers are studying the glass transition phenomenon. However, understanding the microscopic mechanism underlying the tremendous slowing down of structural relaxation remains one of the main challenges in the current condensed matter...
Sep
25
2014
2014 Stelson Lecture: How quantum theory and statistical mechanics gave a polynomial of knots
We will see how a result in von Neumann algebras (a theory developed by von Neumann to give the mathematical framework for quantum physics) gave rise, rather serendipitously, to an elementary but very useful invariant in the theory of ordinary knots in three dimensional space. Then we'll look at some subsequent developments of the theory, and talk about a thorny problem which remains open.
Sep
22
2014
Walter Kohn and the Creation of Density Functional Theory
The theoretical physicist Walter Kohn was awarded one-half the 1998 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his mid-1960's creation of an approach to the many-particle problem in quantum mechanics called density functional theory (DFT). DFT establishes that the ground state charge density provides a complete description of ALL the properties of any atom, molecule, or solid. This was a breakthrough (both conceptually and computationally) because it had been presumed previously that the vastly more complicated many-electron wave function was essential for this purpose. In this talk, I present a biographical sketch of Kohn's unusual educational experiences and the events...

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