Nuclear, Astro and Particle Physics Seminars

These lectures feature speakers from around the country and globe. Each seminar lasts about an hour and takes a closer look at more specialized fields in various realms of physics and astronomy.

Many seminars will be held in a hybrid format and a recurring Zoom link is provided to access the virtual format.

The talks will be on Wednesdays at 4PM in the Rogers Room (Jones PSC 409).

Upcoming Seminar (Fall 2024):

Inflation from Purgatory

Speaker: Scott Watson
Affiliation: Syracuse University
Date: November 6^th

Abstract: In this talk, we revisit motivation from String Theory for new phases of cosmology – prior to inflation. Cosmic inflation offers a causal way to predict initial conditions for the growth of structure and density fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background and large scale structure formation. However, asymptotic deSitter space possesses a past cosmological (physical) singularity implying the theory cannot be complete. In this talk, I will discuss how investigations into QCD led to an idea that could prevent the past singularity, or at least give a way to calculate predictions precisely on curved space-time backgrounds. This paradigm would lead to cosmologies that do not begin (Big Bang) or repeat (Ekpyrotic / Cyclic scenario) but instead begin from sitting around – a period of “lingering”, as inspired by Lemaître, Hagedorn, and COVID.

Speaker's Profile

Fall 2024 Calendar:

Date	Speaker	Title of Seminar
9/4/24	Itay Bloch	Snipe Hunt: using the largest cavities on earth to search for DM
9/18/24	Steven Elliott	Isomers and Dark Matter: 180mTa and 178mHf
9/24/24	Frank Avignone	The Quest Discover Dark Matter and A New Search at USC
10/2/24	Maura McLaughlin	The discovery and promise of Fast Radio Bursts
10/30/24	Arnab Pradhan	Waiting for Inflation: A New Initial State for the Universe
11/06/24	Scott Watson	Inflation from Purgatory
11/13/24	Xincheng Lin	What can we learn from few-body systems using EFTs?
11/20/24	Rodolfo Capdevilla	TBA
01/22/25	Garrett King	TBA

Department of Physics and Astronomy