Events Archive

Jan
23
2014
Opening a window on the gravitational wave transient sky
A new observational era in gravitational wave astronomy is poised to begin in this decade, with the upcoming start of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo.  These instruments will be capable of the direct detection of gravitational wave transients, which will yield new insights into the engines powering some of the most energetic astrophysical events: the coalescence of neutron star and/or black hole binary systems, core-collapse supernovae, and isolated neutron star instabilities. I will present the path towards this detection using the second generation of gravitational wave interferometers, and summarize the open analysis challenges, prospects for astrophysical inference and the...
Jan
16
2014
An Observational Search for Close, Supermassive Binary Black Holes
Jan
06
2014
Modeling living cell movement on soft substrates
Computational modeling of eukaryotic cells moving on substrates is an extraordinarily complex task: many physical processes, such as actin polymerization, action of motors, formation of adhesive contacts concomitant with both substrate deformation and recruitment of actin etc., as well as regulatory pathways are intertwined. Moreover, highly nontrivial cell responses emerge when the substrate becomes deformable and/or heterogeneous. Here we extended a computational model for motile cell fragments, based on an earlier developed phase field approach, to account for...
Jan
06
2014
Behaviour of miscible liquids under vibrations
Dec
10
2013
Topological interface physics in spin-1 atomic Bose-Einstein condensates
Dec
02
2013
Cosmic Rays: Alien Invaders from Outer Space
Cosmic rays are microscopic, charged particles that permanently bombard Earth from outer space. 100 years after their discovery their origin is still a mystery. It is also not clear how cosmic rays can obtain energies that are sometimes billion times larger than what can be produced in the most powerful particle accelerator on Earth, the LHC, where the Higgs particle was discovered last year. Possible particle accelerators that nature provides are very exotic sites in the universe like exploding stars, massive black holes, gamma-ray bursts, and pulsars. To find out more about these...
Dec
02
2013
Structured graphene: from ballistic transport to electronics
Nov
23
2013
The Idea of the Quantum: or, How to Avoid the Feeling that You Don't Understand the Quantum Theory
To accept Special Relativity we give up Absolute Time. What do we give up to accept Quantum Theory?  After all these years Heisenberg's 1925 discovery paper for Quantum Theory is still opaque, in contrast to  Einstein's for Special Relativity. In hindsight, to accept Quantum Theory we must give up the Classical Principle, which is hardly ever even stated, for the Quantum Principle.  Today this is naturally inferred from a well-known polarization study of Malus in 1805.  Problems  like "spooky...
Nov
19
2013
Tuning the mechanics of cell-cell adhesion
Nov
18
2013
Baby Galaxies: The First Steps toward the Milky Way

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