UW Physics Dept: Staffing Candidate Talks
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last update:  12-Jan-07 Schedulers: send info for postings to wilkes@u.washington.edu
Previous year's schedule Empty past dates will be deleted below, but I'll keep past seminar info for reference.
Date Day Event
2-Oct-2006 Mon Tom Murphy, USCD (AstroPhysics Candidate) Shooting the Moon: Getting Serious about Gravity, A102, 4 pm
3-Oct-2006 Tues  
27-Nov-2006 Mon  
28-Nov-2006 Tues Nikolai Tolich, LBL (Neutrino Candidate) : 1:30pm, C520 (A. Nelson=contact)
"Using neutrinos to study the earth"
Abstract: Mantle convection and earthquakes are generally thought to be driven by the heat produced from uranium and thorium decays inside the earth. The KamLAND experiment has recently observed neutrinos originating from these decays, pioneering a new way to probe the earth's interior. While this measurement is consistent with earth models based on the chemical composition of meteorites and heat flow measurements on the earth's surface, it is not precise enough to constrain those models. It is interesting to note that we still know less about the nuclear reactions within the earth, just below out feet, than within the sun, an object 92 million miles away, thanks in part to the tremendous effort in solar neutrino physics over the past 40 years. However, future more precise measurements of neutrinos from the earth will have a significant impact on our understanding of the earth by constraining mantle convection and earth formation models. I will discuss plans for GNuLAND, a future experiment to precisely measure the neutrino flux from the earth.
29-Nov-2006 Weds Mackenzie Stetzer (Physics Education candidate): title, time, room TBA.
N. Tolich: visit continues
18-Dec-2006 Mon  
19-Dec-2006 Tues Natalia Kuznetsova (astro candidate): informal visit. Contact: L. Rosenberg
20-Dec-2006 Weds Natalia Kuznetsova visit continues (AM only)
21-Dec-2006 Thurs  
2-Jan-2007 Tues  
3-Jan-2007 Weds Ed Daw (Sheffield): astrophysics candidate, 4 pm, room TBA,
'The Hunt for Gravitational Waves'
Gravitational waves are oscillations in the geometry of space resulting from cataclysmic astrophysical events, from supernova explosions to the coalescence of pairs of neutron stars to the big bang singularity at the birth of the Universe. I will describe interferometric detectors, both existing and planned for the future, whose aims are the direct detection of gravitational waves and the study of the ultra-dense, energetic sources that generate them.
4-Jan-2007 Thurs Daw: visit continues
5-Jan-2007 Fri  
10-Jan-2007 Weds  
11-Jan-2007 Thurs Ivan Furic (EPE candidate): seminar, time/room/title TBA (informal visit)
12-Jan-2007 Fri  
21-Jan-2007 Sun  
22-Jan-2007 Mon Andrew Haas (Columbia), EPE candidate, Colloquium, 4pm, A-102
"The Search for the Higgs - An Opening to New Physics"
Abstract: The Higgs boson is the final particle of the Standard Model which has
yet to be observed. Experiments at the Fermilab Tevatron are actively
searching for signs of this elusive particle. Details of the data
analyses and prospects for the future will be discussed. But there is
reason to believe that the picture will be different, more complicated
and interesting, than in the Standard Model. Therefore we also search
for other Higgs boson signatures, such as those that could occur in a
world with low-energy supersymmetry. Results from these analyses at the
Tevatron will be shown, and prospects for an alternative search at the
newly-commissioned ATLAS experiment at the Large-Hadron Collider at CERN
will be shown.
23-Jan-2007 Tues Andrew Haas, visit continues
24-Jan-2007 Weds  
25-Jan-2007 Thurs Miguel Morales (MIT), Astrophysics candidate, Colloquium: Observing the Epoch of Reionization, 2:30pm, C520
Abstract: Highly redshifted 21 cm neutral hydrogen emission from the Epoch of
Reionization (EOR) is a unique cosmological probe, and planned low
frequency radio observations could revolutionize our understanding of
structure formation and the emergence of the first luminous objects.
However, EOR observations are complicated by strong foreground
contamination and stringent instrumental requirements.  In this talk,  I
will review the observational signatures of the Epoch of  Reionization and
how the faint 21 cm emission can be extracted from  the foreground signals,
and describe the Mileura Widefield Array -  Low Frequency Demonstrator
(MWA-LFD) my colleagues and I are  constructing in Western Australia.
26-Jan-2007 Fri Miguel Morales: visit continues
27-Jan-2007 Sat  
4-Feb-2007 Sun  
5-Feb-2007 Mon Chao-Lin Kuo (Caltech), astrophysics candidate, joint Physics and Astronomy Colloquium, 4 pm, A102.
"CMB beyond the acoustic peaks", Abstract:
Together with other cosmological probes, observations of
the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation have been used
to determine standard cosmological parameters with high precision.
Much more information is needed, however, to understand the link between
the outlandish Lambda dominated-CDM Universe and fundamental physics.
In the first part of the talk, I will describe several ongoing
CMB experiments targeting the high-l power spectrum and the B-mode
polarization anisotropies. These ground- and balloon-based experiments
highly compliment the WMAP satellite in survey parameters and science
goals. In the second part of the talk, I will describe the CMB detector
development efforts at JPL/Caltech, with emphasis on the antenna-coupled
transition edge sensors (TES), a technology now reaching maturity.
The next generation CMB experiments enabled by this new technology
will look even deeper in the B-mode polarization to pursue the imprints
of the primordial gravitational background radiation left by Inflation.
6-Feb-2007 Tues C.L.Kuo, visit continues
7-Feb-2007 Weds  
8-Feb-2007 Thurs Vadim Rusu (Chicago), EPE candidate, Special Colloquium, "Beyond the Horizons: A quest for New Physics", C520 (NOT A102), 4 pm; Abstract: For the last 40 years, the Standard Model of Particle Physics had great success in describing the experimental data obtained. None the less,
questions remain. There are hints that physics beyond the Standard Model exists in the TeV regime. Discovering it, will change our view of the Universe. At 2 TeV center-of-mass energy, the Tevatron is currently the best place to attempt to find this new physics. I will present our search for physics beyond the Standard Model in the large CDF datasets acquired at the Tevatron. I will describe the motivation and choice of an experimental signature, the challenges posed by a hadron collider environment and the interesting results obtained.
9-Feb-2007 Fri V.Rusu, visit continues
10-Feb-2007 Sat  
11-Feb-2007 Sun  
12-Feb-2007 Mon Oliver Buchmueller (CERN), EPE candidate, Colloquium: 4 pm, A-102
"Search for New Physics at the Large Hardron Collider at CERN",
Abstract: After a machine-commissioning phase in the 2007, the 27 km long Large Hardon Collider (LHC) at CERN (Geneva/Switzerland) will begin colliding protons at a center-of-mass energy of 14 TeV, becoming the world~Rs highest energy particle collider. The main goals of the LHC are the search for the Higgs boson, the last remaining undiscovered particle of the Standard Model of particle physics, and the search for physics "beyond the Standard Model". I will talk about what we expect to see, what we might see, and how we do it.
13-Feb-2007 Tues O. Buchmueller, visit continues
14-Feb-2007 Weds  
15-Feb-2007 Thurs Buchmueller Seminar: C421, 2:30 pm
16-Feb-2007 Fri  
17-Feb-2007 Sat  
18-Feb-2007 Sun  
19-Feb-2007 Mon  
20-Feb-2007 Tues Colloquium,  2:30pm PAT Room C520
*Speaker: Anna Goussiou*
*Title: /" /*/Unraveling the Mysteries of Nature in the Smallest Dimensions"
/*Abstract: *What the universe is made of and how it works have always been
the basic questions in the heart of particle physics. In the last several
years, impressive developments in astrophysics and cosmology have made these
questions more broad and more pressing than ever. How does the quantum world
connect to the cosmic scale? What is the structure of space-time? Do all the
forces become one? High-energy particle accelerators constitute a powerful
tool in the quest to understand the nature of the universe, by recreating
the particles and forces of its early state. As an example, I will present
the case of the electroweak symmetry and how we are striving to understand
it at the highest energy, current and soon-to-come-online, accelerators.
21-Feb-2007 Weds  
22-Feb-2007 Thurs  
23-Feb-2007 Fri  
24-Feb-2007 Sat  
25-Feb-2007 Sun  
26-Feb-2007 Mon  
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28-Feb-2007 Weds  
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