Events During the Week of February 15th through February 22nd, 2026
Sunday, February 15th, 2026
- Wonders of Physics
- The Wonders of Physics 43rd annual show
- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:15 pm
- Place: 2103 Chamberlin
- Abstract: The Wonders of Physics annual show is a free physics demonstration show for all ages.
- Wonders of Physics
- The Wonders of Physics 43rd annual show
- Time: 4:00 pm - 5:15 pm
- Place: 2103 Chamberlin
- Abstract: The Wonders of Physics annual show is a free physics demonstration show for all ages.
Monday, February 16th, 2026
- No events scheduled
Tuesday, February 17th, 2026
- Preliminary Exam
- Dynamics and implications of black hole decay
- Time: 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm
- Place: 5310 Chamberlin
- Speaker: Puxin (David) Lin, Physics PhD Graduate Student
- Abstract: Black holes exhibit gravitational and quantum effects that lead to potential observables and insights into Effective Field Theories (EFTs) with gravity. In this presentation, I will discuss the charge radiation of black holes and its theoretical implications. The computation of charged particle creation, the Schwinger effect, of black holes, will be presented. For highly charged (extremal) black holes, the emission spectrum truncates below a threshold value of the particle’s charge-to-mass ratio. This result will then be used to formulate the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC), which provides a potential constraint on consistent EFTs. Features of black holes in de Sitter space (\Lambda>0), such as their thermodynamics and (in)stabilities will be discussed.
- Host: Gary Shiu
- Council Meeting
- Time: 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
- Place: 2314 Chamberlin
- Speaker: Kevin Black
- Host: Kevin Black
Wednesday, February 18th, 2026
- Department Meeting
- Time: 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm
- Place: B343 Sterling
- Speaker: Kevin Black, UW - Madison, Department of Physics
- Department Meeting
- Host: Kevin Black
Thursday, February 19th, 2026
- NPAC (Nuclear/Particle/Astro/Cosmo) Forum
- Phase-Aligned TeV Neutrinos from Pulsars and the Physics Behind the Fermi Fundamental Plane
- Time: 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
- Place:
- Speaker: Zorawar Wadiasingh, University of Maryland at College Park
- Abstract: Pulsars are one of nature's most extreme particle accelerators, as reinforced by the recent HESS-II detection of pulsed multi-TeV emission from the Vela pulsar. Fermi-LAT pulsars provide a population-level laboratory for magnetospheric accelerators and, potentially, pulsed neutrino production from the outer magnetosphere and equatorial current sheet (ECS). Building on ECS models constrained by catalog data and global particle-in-cell simulations, we interpret the gamma-ray “Fundamental Plane” as curvature radiation from particles accelerated near and beyond the light cylinder. At the highest spin-down powers, both young pulsars and MSPs depart from the maximal (radiation-reaction-limited) envelope at similar spectral cutoffs, consistent with γγ-induced pair-cascade feedback that screens the accelerating field in the ECS. Based on these arguments and the same compactness picture, we outline a γγ→µ± channel in or near the ECS that could yield phase-aligned (with the GeV/TeV photons) multi-TeV neutrinos, enabling pulse phase-gated searches that might suppress atmospheric and diffuse backgrounds. Representative young pulsars can yield neutrinos up to ~10 to 20 TeV, while optimistic Crab-like regimes can approach neutrino luminosities ~10^34 erg/s. Likewise, a population of MSPs might contribute in aggregate to the quasi-diffuse Galactic neutrino signal. These scalings motivate targeted searches and stacking strategies for pulsars below ~100 TeV in neutrinos.
- Host: Ke Fang
- Astronomy Colloquium
- Cosmic rays in cosmological simulations - bridging scales
- Time: 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
- Place: 4421 Sterling Hall
- Speaker: Dr. Ludwig Boess, University of Chicago
- Abstract: Galaxy clusters and their role in the large-scale structure of the Universe, the cosmic web, have been studied extensively through observations and simulations. However, many of the high-energy process that happen in these structures still elude observations and pose significant challenges for simulations of large-scale structure formation. Most notably, the accretion of matter onto the cosmic web and the collisions of galaxy clusters embedded in it dissipate a large fraction of their gravitational energy in the form of shocks. These shocks heat the intra-cluster medium to keV energies and can accelerate protons and electrons to relativistic velocities. Non-thermal emission from relativistic electrons gives insight into the strength and morphology of intra-cluster magnetic fields, as well as providing powerful tracers of structure formation shocks. Gamma-ray emission caused by CR protons on the other hand still challenges current observations and is therefore testing models of proton acceleration at intra-cluster shocks. Large-scale simulations which include the effects of CRs have been difficult to achieve since the difference between the scale where CRs interact with the thermal gas and the resolution of these simulations spans more than 20 orders of magnitude. Cosmic ray acceleration at astrophysical shocks have been studied extensively with PIC and hybrid simulations. However, most of these simulations are limited to 2D due to computational constraints. In this talk, I will give an overview of how we work to improve the modeling of CRs in large-scale simulations of cosmological structure formation. I will introduce the spectral CR model we use to evolve CR populations on-the-fly in our simulations and its application to simulations of the local Universe and will give an outlook on improvements to the PIC code entity which we plan to use for 3D PIC simulations of ICM shocks.
- Host: Sebastian Heinz
Friday, February 20th, 2026
- Black and Brown in Physics
- BBiP Black History Heritage Month Celebration
- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
- Place: Chamberlin 2241
- Speaker: Taylor Bailey, Center for Campus History
- Abstract: The Black and Brown in Physics (BBiP) student organization would like to invite you to our upcoming Black History Heritage Month Celebration next Friday, February 20th at 1 PM in Chamberlin 2241.
We have the privilege of again inviting Taylor Bailey, Assistant Director for the Center of Campus History, whose research focuses on how marginalized people (specifically Black women), navigate life, liberation, and kinship through Black feminist thought, literary criticisms, 20th century literature, and Black cultural studies. Bailey's presentation will be on "The History of Blackface and Minstrelsy at UW-Madison".
In addition to the talk, we will also be catering lunch from Les Delices de Awa, a local restaurant that serves authentic West African food.
We will be broadcasting the talk over Zoom as well for those of you interested in joining the presentation remotely.
Zoom link:
We hope that you can join us in celebrating Black History Month! - Physics Department Colloquium
- Dense matter and neutron stars: what we have learned from NICER
- Time: 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
- Place: Chamberlin 2241
- Speaker: M. Coleman Miller, University of Maryland
- Abstract: Precise and reliable measurements of neutron star radii and other properties are essential to our understanding of cold, catalyzed matter beyond nuclear saturation density. Over the last fifteen years, measurements of high-mass neutron stars, gravitational waves from the double neutron star merger GW170817, and X-ray observations have dramatically improved our understanding of neutron star structure. In particular, NASA's Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) satellite has provided high-quality data sets that have yielded published measurements of the mass and radius of several neutron stars. I will discuss our group's analyses of these pulsars and will in particular discuss our assumptions and potential systematic errors, to help in the assessment of our work. I will also discuss the implications of our results, combined with other observations, for the properties of the dense matter in the cores of neutron stars.
- Host: Zach Curtis-Ginsberg