Events During the Week of February 5th through February 12th, 2017
Monday, February 6th, 2017
- Plasma Physics (Physics/ECE/NE 922) Seminar
- An Overview of the DIII-D Metal Tile Mini-Campaign: Initial Result Highlighting the Characterization of Different Divertor Tungsten Sources, Migration and Impact on the Core in H-mode Conditions
- Time: 12:00 pm - 12:55 pm
- Place: 2317 Engineering Hall
- Speaker: Dr. Ezekial Unterberg, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA
- Cosmology Journal Club
- An Informal discussion about a broad variety of arXiv papers related to Cosmology
- Time: 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm
- Place: 5242 Chamberlin Hall
- Abstract: Please visit the following link for more details:
http://cmb.physics.wisc.edu/journal/index.html
Please feel free to bring your lunch!
If you have questions or comments about this journal club, would like to propose a topic or volunteer to introduce a paper, please email Amol Upadhye (aupadhye@wisc.edu). - Host: Amol Upadhye
- Council Meeting
- council Meeting
- Time: 5:15 pm
- Place: 2314 Chamberlin hall
- Speaker: Albrecht Karle
Tuesday, February 7th, 2017
- Chaos & Complex Systems Seminar
- Child poverty in the United States
- Time: 12:05 pm - 1:00 pm
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin (refreshments will be served)
- Speaker: Julia Isaacs, UW Urban Institute
- Abstract: I will talk about poverty, concentrating on poverty among children. Who is poor? And how has poverty changed over time? I also will compare child poverty and well-being in the United states with child poverty and well-being in other countries. Finally, I will summarize what is known about the effects of poverty on child development.
- Host: Clint Sprott
- NPAC (Nuclear/Particle/Astro/Cosmo) Forum
- Cosmology with the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array
- Time: 4:00 pm
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Daniel Jacobs, Arizona State
- Abstract: Measurements of the distribution of matter on cosmological scales have played a transformational role in our understanding of the standard model revealing that most of the energy of the universe remains unaccounted for by the standard model. Observations of Hydrogen via the highly redshifted 21 cm line trace out the matter distribution on large scales at epochs of cosmic time unreachable by most other methods to give us another cosmological matter tracer. The Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array, which is currently under construction will be the first instrument to bring sufficient sensitivity to characterize the 21cm signal and break degeneracies in cosmological measurements to improve several parameters including the sum of the neutrino masses. Much can also be learned about the formation of structure and the very first stars and black holes. Applying the same techniques to nearby frequency bands, arrays like Tienlai in China and CHIME in Canada are working towards better constraints on the dark energy equation of state. The experimental challenge for all is in discriminating faint background from bright foregrounds. To meet this challenge I am building new methods of precision instrument construction, calibration, and analysis methods. In this talk we’ll learn about a couple of these efforts including the development of drone-based calibration and scalable cloud analysis for PB-scale data sets. Finally we'll look briefly to the future where large instruments are being built by the international community and even larger are considered by the US high energy/cosmology community for the next decade.
- Host: Sridhara Dasu
Wednesday, February 8th, 2017
- Department Meeting
- Time: 12:15 pm
- Place: 5310 Chamberlin hall
- Speaker: Albrecht Karle
Thursday, February 9th, 2017
- R. G. Herb Condensed Matter Seminar
- Two-dimensional epitaxial superconductor-semiconductor heterostructures: A platform for topological superconducting networks
- Time: 10:00 am
- Place: 5310 Chamberlin
- Speaker: Javad Shabani , City College, City University of New York
- Abstract: Progress in the emergent field of topological superconductivity relies on synthesis of new material combining superconductivity, low density, and spin-orbit coupling. For example, theory indicates that the interface between a one-dimensional semiconductor with strong spin orbit coupling and a superconductor hosts Majorana modes with nontrivial topological properties. Recently, epitaxial growth of Al on InAs nanowires was shown to yield a high quality superconductor-semiconductor (S-Sm) system with uniformly transparent interfaces and a hard induced gap, indicted by strongly suppressed subgap tunneling conductance. Here we report the realization of a two-dimensional (2D) InAs/InGaAs heterostructure with epitaxial Al, yielding a planar S-Sm system with structural and transport characteristics as good as the epitaxial wires. The realization of 2D epitaxial S-Sm systems represent a significant advance over wires, allowing extended networks via top-down processing. Among numerous potential applications, this new material system can serve as a platform for complex networks of topological superconductors with gate-controlled Majorana zero modes. We demonstrate gateable Josephson junctions and a highly transparent 2D S-Sm interface based on the product of excess current and normal state resistance.
- Host: Vavilov
- Astronomy Colloquium
- Insights into Galaxies using Dynamical Modeling
- Time: 3:30 pm - 5:00 am
- Place: 4421 Sterling Hall, Coffee and Cookies 3:30 pm. Talk Begins 3:45 PM
- Speaker: Shravan Shetty, UW Madison Astronomy Department
- Abstract: Understanding the underlying mass distribution of galaxies promises to unveil immense information about galaxies, however converting their observed two dimensional kinematics into three dimensional mass distributions is a degenerate problem. Various techniques have been used to create the detailed dynamical models of galaxies but the most general and reliable of these techniques tend to be computationally intensive even today and hence are applicable to only small number of galaxies. In recent years however, based on empirical results, the Jeans Anisotropic Models (JAM) have allowed astronomers to create detailed dynamical models for large number of galaxies. Using this technique, I present the results of my PhD thesis wherein I study the
evolution of galaxies with redshift and with environment. - NPAC (Nuclear/Particle/Astro/Cosmo) Forum
- Neutrinos: From idea to discovery to precision measurements
- Time: 4:00 pm
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Minerba Betancourt, Fermilab
- Abstract: The discovery of neutrino oscillations opened new windows for the study of neutrino physics. In this talk, I will present the history and importance of neutrino physics, concentrating on neutrinos produced by accelerator. Specifically, I will give an overview of the neutrino physics program at Fermilab and the remaining questions for the neutrino physics. In order to answer the open questions in neutrino physics, it is critical that we understand neutrino interactions and nuclear effects on these interactions extremely well. MINERvA is a neutrino scattering experiment which make precision measurements of cross sections and a studies of nuclear effects. I will present measurements of quasi-elastic scattering, which is one of the largest contributions to the signal of many oscillation experiments.
- Host: Sridhara Dasu
Friday, February 10th, 2017
- Physics Department Colloquium
- The Science Driving Particle Physics
- Time: 3:30 pm
- Place: 2241 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: JoAnne Hewett, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
- Abstract: The Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel recently unveiled a 10 year roadmap for Particle Physics experiments in the US. This plan is guided by five science themes which will drive our science forward. I will cover these five science drivers and describe the experiments that will push forward our knowledge of the universe.
- Host: Baha Balantekin