Events

Naman Gupta, Masters student with Prof. David Hawthorn

Introduction to the physics of high-Tc superconductivity

Superconductivity was discovered in 1911 in elemental metals by K. Onnes. Until the 1980s, physicists believed that the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) theory — which describes most of the physics of conventional superconductivity — barred superconductivity at temperatures greater than 30 K. In 1986, physicists G. Bednorz and A.

Astronomy Seminar Series

Jo Dunkley, Princeton University

There is currently a tension between various measurements of the expansion rate of the universe. I will give a recap of this issue, and talk about how we use the Cosmic Microwave Background, our most distant observation, to infer the local expansion rate of space. I will explain what assumptions we make about the cosmological model in doing so, and how we might modify this model to bring different measurements of the expansion rate better in line.

Astronomy Seminar Series

Arnaud De-Mattia, CEA Saclay

In this talk I will present the clustering analysis of the ELG (Emission Line Galaxy) sample from the eBOSS (extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey) program of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and review the other clustering analyses of the eBOSS program, dedicated to Luminous Red Galaxies and Quasars. I will discuss theoretical, observational and analysis systematics, how they were estimated and mitigated, focusing on the improvements over the last release of the BOSS program in 2016.

Astronomy Seminar Series

Sharon Morsink

Neutron stars are tiny stars with ultra-strong magnetic and gravitational fields and densities larger than nuclear. Their small size and large average densities allow them to spin at very rapid rates, with surface velocities that are a large fraction of the speed of light.

CANCELLED

Astronomy Seminar Series

Brenda Frye, University of Arizona

Galaxy clusters as astronomical tools generally offer two advantages:  to boost the brightnesses of objects in the background, and to study the dark matter in the lens.  We can now introduce a third use: to unveil properties of the underlying dark matter by the detection of caustic crossing events which can yield magnification factors of 10,000 or more.  We review the approach to detect a new set of massive objects such as galaxy clusters by their rest-frame far-infrared colors (and not by th

Astronomy Seminar Series

Ramesh Narayan, Harvard University

Accretion disks around black holes are the power source behind many luminous and powerful astrophysical systems, for example, X-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei. The well-known thin disk model does a good job of explaining many accreting black hole systems, but the model is limited to sub-Eddington accretion rates. Can a black hole accrete at a super-Eddington rate? If yes, do we observe such systems, and do they have unique observational signatures?

Astronomy Seminar Series

Gwen Eadie, University of Toronto

Astrostatistics is an interdisciplinary field that lives on the boundary between astronomy and statistics. This interdisciplinary field seeks to answer fundamental science questions about the universe while simultaneously inspiring new and improved statistical methods for data analysis. In this talk, I will introduce two areas of my research in astrostatistics. The first covers hierarchical Bayesian analysis in the context of the Milky Way Galaxy, applied to data from the Gaia satellite and others.

Astronomy Seminar Series

Chang-Goo Kim, Princeton University

Developing a theoretical understanding of star formation and galactic-scale winds from first principles is the major hurdle to build a truly predictive galaxy formation theory. Stars are born in the interstellar medium (ISM) as a consequence of the competition between gravity and turbulent, magnetic, and thermal pressure forces.

CANCELLED

Astronomy Seminar Series

Will Kinney, University of Buffalo, SUNY

Recent developments in String Theory center on the idea of the "Swampland", which is defined as the set of low-energy effective theories which do not have any counterpart in a complete theory of quantum gravity. I will provide a pedagogical introduction to the Swampland concept, with a particular focus on implications for cosmology. There may be some snark.

The Faculty of Science is proud to announce a new, complimentary online lecture series that highlights the incredible new talent in our midst.  Over the coming months, we will be hosting a series of talks from a wide range of topics that introduce you to our latest lecturers, researchers and future stars of the Faculty.

Stay tuned as we release the names of future series speakers in the weeks ahead! These talks are open to alumni, friends, faculty, staff and the greater UW community.