Events List for the Academic Year
Event Time:
Thursday, March 14, 2019 | 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Event Location:
BRIM 311
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2019-03-14T14:00:00
2019-03-14T15:30:00
CM Seminar: Magic Angle Twisted Bilayer Graphene
Event Information:
Magic Angle Twisted Bilayer Graphene (MATBG) is a remarkably tunable and relatively simple strongly correlated electron system, with its own set of specific peculiarities. My talk will focus on similarities and differences between the interaction physics of flat-band moiré superlattices MATBG and transition metal dichalcogenide bilayers which simulate Hubbard model physics more closely. I will discuss the nature of the insulating ground states and the collective excitation spectra at 1/2, 1/4, and 3/4 filling of the moiré conduction and valence bands, and speculate on the relationship between the insulating states, their collective modes, and the superconducting domes.
Event Location:
BRIM 311
Event Time:
Thursday, March 14, 2019 | 12:40 pm - 1:45 pm
Event Location:
Hennings 202
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2019-03-14T12:40:00
2019-03-14T13:45:00
Beyond First Year - Why should you consider a PHAS degree program?
Event Information:
First year students - you are invited to join us in discovering science degree options within the Department of Physics & Astronomy.
What happens when two black holes collide? How can we generate electricity by mimicking photosynthesis? Would you like to discover earth-like exoplanets, build a quantum computer, or image myelin in the human brain? Find out how - pursue a degree in the Department of Physics & Astronomy! This event is for students who are interested in entering a physics and/or astronomy degree program in their second year of study.
Career possibilities with a Physics and/or Astronomy BSc
Degree programs available
Coop opportunities and career options
Introduction to your student society and clubs
Sandwiches and drinks will be served!
Event Location:
Hennings 202
Event Time:
Thursday, March 14, 2019 | 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Event Location:
Hennings 318
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2019-03-14T10:00:00
2019-03-14T13:00:00
An Equity Workshop with Dr. Priya Natarajan
Event Information:
An Equity Workshop with Dr. Priya Natarajan
Workshop and Discussion Session
(Hosted by Equity and Inclusion in PHAS at UBC)
You are invited to attend a workshop featuring Dr. Priya Natarajan from the Departments of Astronomy and Physics at Yale University. She will present two case studies on the topic of gender equity in academia, and will discuss how to effect change. A free lunch will be provided.
When: March 14, 2019 10 - 1pm (lunch provided)
Where: ESB 5104 - Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
SIGN UP HERE: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/an-equity-workshop-with-dr-priya-natarajan-tickets-56434875231
Seating is limited. If you sign up and are then unable to attend, we ask that you let us know asap so we can allow others to sign up.
Event Location:
Hennings 318
Event Time:
Wednesday, March 13, 2019 | 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Event Location:
Earth Sciences Building room 1013 (2207 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4)
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2019-03-13T19:00:00
2019-03-13T20:30:00
Human Habitation of Space (Outer Space Institute)
Event Information:
The Outer Space Institute (OSI) will host a free moderated public forum at UBC to discuss the medical challenges of human habitation in space. The talk will feature NASA astronaut Dr. Serena Auñón-Chancellor (recently returned to Earth from the ISS) and radiation physicist Dr. Jeffrey Chancellor.
Dr. Auñón was selected in July 2009 as one of 14 members of the 20th NASA astronaut class. She recently graduated from Astronaut Candidate Training that included scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in ISS systems, Extravehicular Activity (EVA), robotics, physiological training, T-38 flight training and water and wilderness survival training. Currently, Dr. Auñón serves as the medical/education branch chief for the Astronaut Office.
The event is jointly sponsored by The OSI, The Salt Spring Forum, and The UBC Department of Physics and Astronomy. With additional support from RASC-Vancouver and the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies.
Event Location:
Earth Sciences Building room 1013 (2207 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4)
Event Time:
Monday, March 11, 2019 | 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Event Location:
Hennings 318
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2019-03-11T15:00:00
2019-03-10T16:00:00
What's Next for Super-Earths? Population Demographics To Probabilistic Planetary Physics
Event Information:
The number of detected small extrasolar planets has increased a hundred-fold in the last decade, thanks in no small part to the Kepler Mission. With TESS, CHEOPS, PLATO, WFIRST, and many next-generation radial velocity instruments to come, our understanding of planets smaller than Neptune will continue to be driven by observations. As theorists construct origin stories for the enormous diversity of exoplanet properties and system architectures, they need population demographers such as myself to provide them with a coherent picture of the Galactic exoplanet census, through quantitative and careful syntheses of many individual measurements made with different detection methods. I will present some of my work towards this goal, detailing in particular the latest developments in the super-Earth mass-radius distribution and the corresponding diversity of bulk planet compositions. Through these efforts, I have started developing a framework which will enable us to make self-consistent, integrated probabilistic statements about population-level planetary physics.
Event Location:
Hennings 318
Event Time:
Monday, March 11, 2019 | 11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Event Location:
Hennings 318
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2019-03-11T11:00:00
2019-03-11T12:30:00
From symmetries and strings to hydrodynamics
Event Information:
Symmetries are a key tool for organizing our understanding of the physical world. Conventional symmetries in quantum systems are associated with the conservation of a density of particles. However many systems of interest — such as ordinary Maxwell electrodynamics — contain conserved densities of higher dimensional objects, such as strings. I will explain the novel symmetry principle behind this conservation and then apply it to a variety of physical problems, including the proof of a Goldstone theorem associated with string condensation, a new symmetry-based formulation of relativistic magnetohydrodynamics, and an effective theory approach to describing strongly magnetized plasma in pulsar magnetospheres.
Event Location:
Hennings 318
Event Time:
Saturday, March 9, 2019 | 8:30 am - 5:30 pm
Event Location:
UBC campus (Henn/LIFE/Woodward)
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2019-03-09T08:30:00
2019-03-09T17:30:00
41st UBC Physics Olympics
Event Information:
More than 600 high school students and teachers from across B.C. from Campbell River to Vancouver to Okanagan and Invermere will compete in the 41st annual UBC Physics Olympics, where they will show off their physics knowledge and unique creations.
Teams of high school students will compete in six events that test hands-on and scientific concepts. The goal is to help students see how physics is exciting and relevant to our daily lives and to provide students with an opportunity to work together. The UBC Physics Olympics is one of the largest and oldest high school physics competitions of its kind in North America.
The event is organized by students and professors in the department of physics and astronomy and department of curriculum and pedagogy. UBC undergraduate students, many of them former competitors, volunteer their time.
Event Location:
UBC campus (Henn/LIFE/Woodward)
Event Time:
Thursday, March 7, 2019 | 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Event Location:
Hennings 201
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2019-03-07T16:00:00
2019-03-07T17:00:00
Deconstructing biology with simple single-molecule imaging: Controlling conformation, confinement, and concentration
Event Information:
The past decade of advances in molecular biology has revealed that the cell comprises a complex system of networks on the scale of atoms, molecules, and organelles. The next breakthroughs in life science research, in academic labs and as applied to drug development and other translational disciplines, will depend on the ability of physicists and engineers to unravel the complex biophysical phenomena that underlie cellular function with greater resolution. Most currently available technologies rely on ensemble population measurements, which frustrate the absolute quantitation that is required to reveal the true complexity of life at the molecular scale. In this talk, I will introduce Convex Lens-induced Confinement (CLiC) microscopy, a general method to image molecular interactions one molecule at a time, while emulating 'cell like' conditions, with precision and control. Because it mechanically confines molecules in the field of view, CLiC eliminates the need to 'tether' molecules, thereby avoiding the complexity and potential biases. By visualizing the individual trajectories of many molecules at once, and for long time periods, CLiC allows us to investigate important biophysical questions about molecular behaviour, such as how higher-order DNA structures can regulate the dynamic unwinding of specific target sites within a crowded environment, and the kinetics of binding to these sites. Beyond discussing new insights from CLiC into the statistical mechanics of DNA, I will discuss key applications of our work in drug development, including visualizing protein aggregation, nanoparticle dynamics, and CRISPR-Cas9 targeting dynamics.
Event Location:
Hennings 201
Event Time:
Thursday, March 7, 2019 | 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Event Location:
Hennings 202 (coffee and donuts will be served in Henn 202 at 12:15pm)
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2019-03-07T12:30:00
2019-03-07T13:30:00
2019 CAP Lecture: First Observation of Dinosaur Skin Layers Using Synchrotron Radiation
Event Information:
First observation of dinosaur skin layers using synchrotron radiation
Abstract: Dinosaurs roamed the Earth for over 160 million years until their abrupt extinction about 65 million years ago. However, not all dinosaurs went extinct: nowadays birds are recognized as a branch of the dinosaur family known as avian dinosaurs. They are the legacy left by those incredible animals that came in all shapes and sizes. In this lecture, I will discuss the discovery and studies of a spectacularly well preserved skin of a hadrosaur from the Grand Prairie region. A series of complementary data collected using tools such as synchrotron radiation and electron microscopy have been combined to yield the first ever observation of preserved epidermal cell layers in the skin of a large dinosaur. I will also show a direct comparison between this skin structure and that of an extant avian specimen, giving the first substantial evidence of the similarities between the organic layout of the skins of extinct non-avian and extant avian dinosaurs.
Bio: I obtained my PhD in 1998 working in the experiment DELPHI of the Large Electron-Positron (LEP) Collider at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland. Following my PhD, I joined the McGill University as a postdoc based at the DESY laboratory in Hamburg, Germany, where I worked in the ZEUS experiment of the HERA (proton-electron) collider assuming roles such as the ZEUs Uranium Calorimeter Coordinator and ZEUS Run Coordinator, and developing several physics analysis spanning from hadronic jets to meson spectroscopy. In 2004, I joined the University of Regina as a tenure-track assistant professor, and I am currently a full professor. I have developed studies in several areas going from exploring possibilities to search for dark matter with the proposed International Linear Collider (ILC) to detector R&D for the ILC and the long-baseline neutrino experiment, T2K, in Japan. My current projects are concentrated in detector R&D for the next generation of neutrino experiments, including Hyper-K and E61. Besides these two activities, I pioneering the use of synchrotron radiation applied to studies in paleontology in Canada. This project was initiated in 2012 as a hobby activity, but it has recently become one of my main lines of research as it has evolved to a collaboration with several palaeontologists.
Event Location:
Hennings 202 (coffee and donuts will be served in Henn 202 at 12:15pm)
Event Time:
Wednesday, March 6, 2019 | 11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Event Location:
Hennings 318
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2019-03-06T11:00:00
2019-03-06T12:30:00
Signal Percolation In a Population of Bacteria
Event Information:
Bacterial biofilms are communities in which bacteria live in a self-produced matrix and engage in remarkable emergent behaviors. A fascinating mechanism for long-distance coordination among biofilm cells is the propagation of electrical signals within the community. These signals have a population-level benefit: they halt growth of exterior cells and provide greater nutrient access to the stressed interior. We find that signaling is heterogeneous at the single-cell level. Some cells propagate the signal (“firing cells”) and others do not. In order to understand how this signal reliably propagates over hundreds-of-cells distance despite this heterogeneity, we developed a model combining percolation theory with excitable dynamics. Our model predicts that signal transmission becomes possible when firing cells are organized near a critical phase transition between a disconnected and a fully connected conduit of signaling cells, called percolation. We confirm that the spatial distribution of firing cells is organized near the predicted phase transition by measuring signaling at the single-cell level within wild-type and mutant biofilms. Our findings suggest that near this critical point, the population-level benefit of signal transmission outweighs the single-cell-level cost. The bacterial community thus appears to be organized according to a theoretically predicted spatial heterogeneity that promotes efficient signal transmission.
Event Location:
Hennings 318
Event Time:
Tuesday, March 5, 2019 | 2:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Event Location:
TRIUMF Auditorium
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2019-03-05T14:00:00
2019-03-05T14:00:00
Superheavy element studies at LBNL
Event Information:
The search for new elements has netted us six additions to the periodic table this decade, bringing the total to 118 known elements. These elements must be formed one-atom-at-a-time in complete-fusion evaporation reaction. Once formed, the atoms typically exist for just seconds or less before they decay into other elements. While we have made great progress in making and studying these elements, there is much that is still unknown - including things as basic as the proton and neutron numbers of the recently discovered elements. Recently, the Berkeley Gas-filled Separator (BGS) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) was coupled to a new mass analyzer, FIONA. The goal of BGS+FIONA is to provide a M/DeltaM separation of ~300 and transport nuclear reaction products to a shielded detector station on the tens of milliseconds timescale. These upgrades will allow for direct A and Z identification of ii) new actinide and transactinide isotopes with ambiguous decay signatures such as electron capture or spontaneous fission decay and i) superheavy nuclei such as those produced in the 48Ca+ actinide reactions. Here we will present recent results from the FIONA commissioning and first scientific experiments.
Event Location:
TRIUMF Auditorium
Event Time:
Monday, March 4, 2019 | 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Event Location:
Hennings 318
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2019-03-04T15:00:00
2019-03-04T16:00:00
A Planetary Perspective of Life
Event Information:
Where did we come from? Are we alone? Incredibly, the answers to these questions could soon be within the reach of scientific pursuits for the first time in human history. Depending on what's out there—and on our will to find it—we might be standing on the precipice of a golden age of astrobiology. But to truly appreciate our place in the Universe, we must integrate fields that have historically stood apart—physics and biology, geology and astronomy—into a planetary perspective of life. In this talk, we'll introduce the alkaline hydrothermal vent hypothesis for the emergence of life, a hypothesis in which life emerges from specific planetary disequilibria. Once we've formed life, we'll briefly examine how it has co-evolved with Earth, transforming our atmosphere over the eons, finally producing the present oxygen-rich beacon screaming, "I'm alive!" But the detection of exobiospheres requires that we understand atmospheric oxygen in a planetary context and the potential for oxygen false positives. Time permitting, we'll then hypothesize about other forms life on exotic worlds and discuss how a planetary perspective invites us to broaden our search for life.
Event Location:
Hennings 318
Event Time:
Monday, March 4, 2019 | 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Event Location:
Hennings 318
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2019-03-04T13:30:00
2019-03-04T14:30:00
Computer Spectroscopy on Classical and Quantum Computers
Event Information:
Ideally, the cataloging of spectroscopic linelists would not demand laborious and expensive experiments. If it were possible to obtain the exact same information by running a calculation on a computer, then when this information is needed for a new molecule, new isotopologue, new charge, new electronic state, or for new vibrational levels, we would not have to set up a new experiment; we could instead change some lines in our computer program's input file.
QED (quantum electrodynamics) offers a description of electromagnetic interactions, QFD (quantum flavordynamics) also succeeds in describing weak-nuclear interactions, and QCD (quantum chromodynamics) succeeds in describing strong-nuclear interactions. Therefore a numerically converged QCD calculation (assuming available computing power) provides the fine, hyperfine, and finer than hyperfine splittings in atomic, molecular, and condensed matter spectra with only two physical approximations: neglect of gravity and neglect of "fifth" forces (a term used to describe any other missing piece which might make our calculation disagree with experiment).
We have millions of high-precision experimental spectral lines to which we can compare our QCD-level calculations. In the cases where the calculations are converged to sub-cm-1 precision, they agree with experiments every time. We are therefore be confident that a spectral database numerically generated by a computer, can fill in gaps in the NIST database, despite our ignorance of how to deal with gravity and "fifth"
forces.
I will present results on the small systems where QCD-level calculations have been compared to experiments. The majority of the energy comes from the non-relativistic Schroedinger equation. A Monte Carlo implementation of FCI called FCIQMC allows for a numerically exact treatment of many electrons, and all other QED, QFD, and QCD interactions are treated with perturbation theory using the FCIQMC wavefunction. I will present FCIQMC results on up to 54 electrons, and perturbation theory corrections up to 7th order in the QED expansion for smaller active spaces.
Going beyond 54 electrons is extremely difficult on a classical computer, where simulation of quantum mechanics is un-natural and scales exponentially with the number of electrons. It would be more natural if our computer treated the quantum effects at the hardware level. A quantum computer can do the calculations with cost scaling only polynomially with respect to the number of electrons, and I will present preliminary results for small calculations that are run on D-Wave's 2048 qubit annealer and IBM's 5-qubit machine (Yorktown), their 14-qubit machine (Melbourne), and their 20-qubit machine (Austin).
Event Location:
Hennings 318
Event Time:
Monday, March 4, 2019 | 11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Event Location:
Hennings 318
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2019-03-04T11:00:00
2019-03-04T12:30:00
Gravitational wave astrophysics: a new era of discovery
Event Location:
Hennings 318
Event Time:
Thursday, February 28, 2019 | 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Event Location:
Hennings 201
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2019-02-28T16:00:00
2019-02-28T17:00:00
Quantum Localization in Laser-Driven Molecular Rotation
Event Information:
The periodically-kicked rotor is a paradigmatic system in nonlinear dynamics studies. The classical kicked rotor exhibits a truly chaotic motion with an unlimited diffusive growth of the angular momentum. In the quantum regime, the chaotic dynamics is either suppressed by a mechanism similar to Anderson localization in disordered solids, or rotational excitation is enhanced due to the so-called quantum resonance.
Although these fundamental quantum phenomena have been theoretically studied for several decades already, until recent times there has not been a single experiment demonstrating Anderson localization in a real rotating quantum system. Quantum chaotic dynamics was primarily studied by using ultra-cold atoms in pulsed optical lattices. Recently we revisited the problem of the periodically-kicked quantum rotor, and predicted that several well-known quantum localization phenomena in solid-state systems – Anderson localization, Bloch oscillations, and Tamm-Shockley surface states – may manifest themselves in the rotational dynamics of the laser-kicked molecules. We showed that current femtosecond technology used for laser alignment of molecules offers tools for exploring these effects, and we defined conditions for their experimental observation.
In this talk, I will give an overview of the physical mechanisms behind these new molecular rotational phenomena, and will present the results of recent femtosecond experiments in which the rotational Bloch oscillations and the dynamical Anderson localization were observed along the lines of our proposal. These results introduce molecular gases at ambient conditions as a new platform for studying localization phenomena in quantum transport. The observed rotational effects are important for many applications, ranging from selective excitation in the mixtures of molecular species (i.e. molecular isotopes or nuclear spin isomers) to controlling propagation of powerful laser pulses in the atmosphere.
Event Location:
Hennings 201
Event Time:
Thursday, February 28, 2019 | 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Event Location:
BRIM 311
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2019-02-28T14:00:00
2019-02-28T15:30:00
CM Seminar: Structure and Dynamics with Ultrafast Electron Microscopes … or how to image fundamental processes in materials
Event Information:
In this talk I will describe how combining ultrafast lasers and electron microscopes in novel ways makes it possible to directly ‘watch’ the time-evolving structure of condensed matter on the fastest timescales open to atomic motion. By combining such measurements with complementary (and more conventional) spectroscopic probes one can develop structure-property relationships for materials under even very far from equilibrium conditions.
I will give several examples of the remarkable new kinds of information that can be gleaned from such studies and describe how these opportunities emerge from the unique capabilities of current generation ultrafast electron scattering and microscopy instruments. For example, in diffraction mode it is possible to identify and separate lattice structural changes from valence charge density redistribution in materials on the ultrafast timescale and to identify novel photoinduced phases of complex and strongly correlated materials that have no equilibrium analogs [1,2]. Making use of diffuse scattering signals, it is also possible to directly probe the strength of the coupling between electrons and phonons in materials across the entire Brillouin zone and to probe nonequilibrium phonon dynamics (or relaxation) in exquisite detail [3]. In imaging mode, real space pictures of nano- to microstructural evolution in materials at unprecedented spatio-temporal resolution can be obtained.
I will assume no familiarity with ultrafast lasers or electron microscopes.
[1] Morrison et al Science 346 (2014) 445 – 448
[2] Otto et al, PNAS, 116 (2019) 450-455
[3] Stern et al, Phys. Rev. B 97 (2018) 165416
Event Location:
BRIM 311
Event Time:
Thursday, February 28, 2019 | 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Event Location:
TRIUMF Auditorium
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2019-02-28T14:00:00
2019-02-28T15:00:00
Ab Initio Approaches to Correlations in Nuclei and their Applications
Event Information:
Correlations - intended as multiple-nucleon mechanisms that cannot be modelled by a pure mean-field potential - are the backbone of our deeper understanding of atomic nuclei. They are manifest in the fragmentation of the spectral strength which is encountered in one-nucleon addition and removal measurements.
In recent years, we have advanced high-performance computational many-body techniques, such as propagator theory, that can be used to compute the spectral function but that also allow meaningful predictions of radii and binding energies up to masses of A~100. This talk will review such progress and aim at giving a broader perspective of ab initio theory, in which large scale computations are not only used to benchmark the theories of nuclear forces but they can also help to constrain our insight about nuclear phenomena. I will further discuss some cases in which the knowledge of the spectral function is important to predict, e.g., the interplay between structure and reactions and the response to neutrinos under the wide range of energies relevant to oscillation experiments.
Event Location:
TRIUMF Auditorium
Event Time:
Thursday, February 28, 2019 | 12:45 pm - 1:45 pm
Event Location:
Hennings 318
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2019-02-28T12:45:00
2019-02-28T13:45:00
Two-Stage Collaborative Group Exams - A Physics and Astronomy Education Group brown-bag teaching event
Event Information:
This talk is part of the Physics and Astronomy Education Group's brown-bag teaching series. Please feel free to bring your lunch. Coffee and cookies will be provided.
Two-Stage Collaborative Group Exams are an easy to implement technique that leverages students’ desire to discuss challenging exam questions with each other immediately after an exam. This instructional technique adds an additional group stage immediately after a traditional solo exam. The format for this event is that we will make a brief informal presentation and then facilitate a discussion around the technique, hoping to leverage the expertise in the room in order to share implementation advice. The presentation will cover how to implement this technique, what the literature says about its effectiveness and also offer some best practices advice developed as part of an ongoing TLEF-funded project.
Event Location:
Hennings 318
Event Time:
Tuesday, February 26, 2019 | 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Event Location:
HENN 318
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2019-02-26T14:00:00
2019-02-26T15:30:00
CM Seminar: Theory of heat transport in the fractional quantum Hall effect
Event Information:
Abstract: The thermal Hall conductance is a universal and topological property which characterizes the fractional quantum Hall (FQH) state. Quantized values of the thermal Hall conductance has only recently been measured experimentally in integer quantum Hall (IQH) and FQH regimes,
These finding include observation of half integer quantized heat conductance at filling 5/2. In this talk I will briefly describe the experimental observations, a phenomenological theory of the heat transport on the edge that take into consideration the effect of heat transfer among the edge modes themselves and between the edge modes and the bulk, and a theory of Disorder-Induced Half-Integer Thermal Hall Conductance.
Relevant papers:
1. Nature 545, 75 (2017) Observed Quantization of Anyonic Heat Flow
Authors: Mitali Banerjee, Moty Heiblum, Amir Rosenblatt, YO, Dima E. Feldman, Ady Stern, Vladimir Umansky
2. Nature 559, 205 (2018) Observation of half-integer thermal Hall conductance
Authors: Mitali Banerjee, Moty Heiblum, Vladimir Umansky, Dima E. Feldman, YO, Ady Stern
3. Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 026801 (2018) Theory of Disorder-Induced Half-Integer Thermal Hall Conductance
Authors: David F. Mross, YO, Ady Stern, Gilad Margalit, Moty Heiblum
4. Phys. Rev. B 99, 041302 (2019) Phenomenological theory of heat transport in the fractional quantum Hall effect
Authors: Amit Aharon, YO, Ady Stern
Event Location:
HENN 318
Event Time:
Monday, February 25, 2019 | 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Event Location:
Hennings 318
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2019-02-25T15:00:00
2019-02-25T16:00:00
Studying Star Formation from the Stratosphere
Event Information:
Understanding how stars form out of diffuse interstellar gas is a problem that underlies much of modern astrophysics, from the formation of planets to the chemical evolution of our universe. A key outstanding question is whether magnetic fields contribute to the observed low efficiency of the star-formation process. In this talk, I will discuss what we have learned about the role played by magnetic fields in star formation, with a particular focus on results from the BLASTPol balloon-borne sub-mm polarimeter. BLASTPol operates 38.5 km above the Earth's surface (above 99.5% of the atmosphere), where it can produce large detailed maps of magnetic fields in nearby star-forming molecular gas clouds. By statistically comparing BLASTPol inferred magnetic-field maps of a massive molecular cloud with simulations, we find that magnetic fields play an important role in the formation of both low- and high-density cloud structures. I will also discuss BLAST-TNG, a next-generation balloon-borne polarimeter that is scheduled for a first flight from Antarctica in December 2019. With BLAST-TNG we will apply these same analysis techniques to a larger sample of clouds with 5 times better resolution, and quantitatively determine the extent to which magnetic fields affect star-formation efficiency.
Event Location:
Hennings 318