Events

Peter W. Milonni, Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Lab and Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, Univ. of Rochester

Zero-Point Energy: Still Interesting (and Mysterious) After All These Years

Following a brief review of how zero-point energy first appeared in quantum theory, and how the concept has come to be accepted over the years, I will describe some of the evidence for the physical reality of zero-point energy and zero-point fluctuations, especially in the context of quantum electrodynamics and quantum optics. I will also address some questions surrounding the existence of zero-point energy.

There is no colloquium scheduled this week.

Shuntaro Sumita, Kyoto University
Topological Gapless Points in Superconductors: from the viewpoint of symmetry
Topology in quantum physics has attracted much attention in recent condensed matter physics. One famous example is the topological insulator, which has a finite gap in its energy spectrum.

Dr. Vincent Smith, Honorary Research Fellow; University of Bristol (UK)
CERN: An In-Depth Look

CERN (near Geneva, Switzerland) was founded in 1954 by 12 European countries and now has 22 “member states.” I have been fortunate to have worked on experiments there since 1976, when the new Super Proton Synchrotron was commissioned. Since the late 1990’s, I have been a member of the Compact Muon Solenoid collaboration, one of the big experiments on CERN's Large Hadron Collider. I worked initially on the development, installation and commissioning of the Electromagnetic Calorimeter, a system of over 75,000 crystals of Lead Tungstate (PbWO_4) to measure the energy and direction of high energy gamma rays, electrons and positrons from collisions in the center of the detector.

As the University is currently on Spring Break, there is no colloquium scheduled for Friday, March 22.