Higgs Hour

Astrophysical black holes are described by two properties: their mass and their spin. While the mass evolution of black holes in the context of their host galaxies has been the subject of many studies, comparatively little is understood about the spin of massive black holes. Much like the mass, the ...

The next generation of galaxy surveys (Euclid, The Vera Rubin Observatory, DESi, DES) will be providing us with highly precise measurements of the cosmological galaxy distribution. In order to extract the most cosmological and gravitational information from these measurements, our theoretical models need to be equally accurate. While the standard ...

Stochastic resetting [1] can either accelerate or delay a dynamical process that takes a random time to complete (i.e., a first-passage process). Tuning the physical governing parameters can invert such effect of resetting on the mean completion time of the process, leading to a resetting transition. In this talk ...

Observations of the universe on very small and large scales have revealed a surprising economy in its basic laws and structure. In this light, we have attempted to find new, more minimal solutions to cosmology’s central puzzles. Instead of postulating a pre-hot big bang period, such as inflation, we ...

The Lambda Cold Dark Matter model continues to provide a good fit to a wide range of cosmological data, and extensions to the model are almost all disfavoured observationally. This is troubling since neither CDM nor Lambda, together constituting 95% of the cosmic energy budget, are understood. These dark components ...

One of the most important questions in astrophysics is what is the invisible “dark” matter that accounts for most of the matter in our Universe? One method of learning about the nature of dark matter is by studying the properties of diffuse intergalactic gas in the early Universe. However, the ...

This will be a hybrid event with Mao presenting from the Higgs Centre. Future gravitational wave detectors require highly precise predictions for the waveforms from inspiraling black holes and neutron stars. We present advances in binary inspiral dynamics by taking classical limits of scattering amplitudes in perturbative quantum gravity. The ...

The BFSS matrix model is a proposed non-perturbative definition of M-theory in which space is emergent. In this talk, I shall present a new paradigm of early-universe cosmology in the context of the BFSS theory. Specifically, I will show that matrix theory leads to an emergent, non-singular cosmology which, at ...

I will give an overview of efforts to probe non-perturbative structures in QED using intense laser fields, beginning with an introduction to the Furry expansion of observables in strong backgrounds, which is the basis of most modern theory calculations in "strong field QED". I will then introduce the Ritus-Narozhny conjecture ...

Interference is one of the most universal phenomena in nature. In classical physics, the linear superposition of sound waves, surface waves, radio waves, light or gravitational waves all exhibit the same characteristic patterns of constructive and destructive interference. Interference is also fundamental to quantum physics, as exemplified by the Feynman ...

I will describe how radio telescope arrays like MeerKAT and the Square Kilometre Array can kick off an exciting new era in cosmology using the innovative neutral hydrogen intensity mapping technique. I will also talk about the forthcoming Euclid satellite mission, concentrating on the theoretical modelling challenges we need to ...

Polymer physics principles are increasingly acknowledged and applied to understand the behaviour of genome organisation and biopolymers in vivo. In spite of this they heavily rely on the assumption that polymers do not change topology (or architecture) in time, i.e. if they start as a linear chain of segments ...

Cosmology has the potential to test fundamental physics through the discovery of new particles (e.g. dark matter) and new fields that governed the Universe's expansion at early times (inflation). One of the most powerful tools available for such studies is the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) signal. Many future ...

The blooming era of ‘precision astrometry’ for Galactic studies opened by Gaia and the revolutionary beginnings of ‘gravitational wave astronomy’ enabled by LIGO truly bring the rich internal dynamics of collisional stellar systems to the centre stage. But the current interpretative picture of the role of ‘small scales’ in the ...

The family of 2D compounds has grown almost exponentially since the discovery of graphene and so too the rapid exploration of their vast range of electronic properties. Some family members include superconductors, Mott insulators with charge-density waves, semimetals with topological properties, and transition metal dichalcogenides with spin-valley coupling. Among several ...

The LHC has not yet found any significant deviation from the Standard Model at large energies and thus, indirect high-precision searches for signatures of physics beyond the Standard Model at low energies become more and more important. For any quantity involving the strong nuclear force, the only known approach for ...

The strong force is governed by the elegant mathematical framework of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). The building blocks of QCD are quarks and gluons, and the interactions of these constituents lead to a rich variety of observed phenomena, from the basic properties of nuclei to the production of heavy elements in ...

Hyper-velocity stars are interesting objects that were first theoretically proposed by Richard Hills as products of interaction of a binary star and a supermassive black hole, that leads to the star being ejected out the galaxy with the speed of hundreds and thousands of km/s. About 15 years ago ...

While traditional fluids only flow when acted upon, a remarkable class of biomaterials spontaneously flow by means of their own internal energy. These “active fluids” comprise a wide range of biological systems that bridge between biological and condensed matter systems. This Brown Bag talk will focus on the example of ...