Colloquia & Seminars
General Information
Colloquia and seminars will usually be held in Boyd Orr Building, Room 407 on Wednesdays at 2.00pm (unless otherwise stated). Come One, Come All!
You can view the upcoming (and past) collquia talks on the Events Management System, and you can also subscribe to calendar updates via RSS or iCal. Coordinated with the colloquia at the Department of Physics of the University of Strathclyde.
Schedule of Upcoming Talks
§ Internal seminar ‡ Outside of regular schedule.
22/01/25 § ● Ian MacLaren ● TBC
Dr Ian MacLaren (Glasgow) ● Wednesday, January 22, 2:00 PM ● Boyd Orr Building, Room 407
Title TBC
Abstract TBC
05/02/25 ● Marialuisa Aliotta (Edinburgh) ● Underground studies of nuclear reactions in stars
Prof. Marialuisa Aliotta (Uni. of Edinburgh) ● Wednesday, 05 February, 2:00 PM ● McIntyre Building, Room 201
Underground studies of nuclear reactions in stars
Abstract TBA
19/02/25 ● Reinhold Walser (Darmstadt) ● Matter-wave optics for quantum sensing
Prof. Dr. Reinhold Walser (TU Darmstadt Germany) ● Wednesday, 19 February, 2:00 PM TBC ● McIntyre Building, Room 201
Technical Matter-wave optics for quantum sensing in space and on ground
Abstract TBA
05/03/25 § ● Jonathan Taylor ● TBC
Dr Jonathan Taylor (Glasgow) ● Wednesday, March 5, 2:00 PM ● Boyd Orr Building, Room 407
Title TBC
Abstract TBC
19/03/25 ● Elise Wright Knutsen (Olso) TBC ● Title TBC
Dr Elise Wright Knutsen (Uni. of Olso, Norway) ● Wednesday, March 19, 3:00 PM TBC ● Venue TBC
Title TBC
Abstract TBC
TBC § ● Rachel Montgomery [To be rescheduled]
Dr Rachel Montgomery (Glasgow) ● Date and time TBC ● Venue (TBC)
Probing the virtual meson cloud of the nucleon to shed new light on light meson structure
Rachel Montgomery1 on behalf of the Jefferson Lab Hall A, SBS and TDIS collaborations
1University of Glasgow, UK
This talk will discuss a future experiment to probe the elusive meson content of the nucleon (protons and neutrons). In the experiment, electrons will be scattered from the virtual meson cloud which surrounds the nucleon (proton/neutron). The idea that the nucleon’s mesonic content could be explored through electron-nucleon deep inelastic scattering has a long history. However, even after five decades of this idea, there is a scarcity of experimental data on meson structure. Understanding more about the inner structure of light mesons - namely the pion and the kaon - is expected to shed light on the nucleon mass enigma, whereby only ~1% of the nucleon’s mass arises from the Higgs mechanism. The future experiment, which will be performed at Jefferson Lab (USA), will measure low momentum hadrons in coincidence with scattered electrons from hydrogen (and deuterium) targets. A large acceptance spectrometer will be used to detect the scattered electrons. However, the hadron detection will be challenging and for this a novel gaseous detector, the multiple time projection chamber, is being developed. An overview of the experiment and its status will be given.
TBC § ● David Boldrin [To be rescheduled]
Dr David Boldrin (Glasgow) ● Date and time TBC ● Boyd Orr Building, Room 407
How to harness (magnetic) frustration for good
I joined the Materials and Condensed Matter Physics group during the pandemic, and still feel relatively new to the school in some respects, so I wanted to use this talk to give an overview of my research interests. I will focus mostly on the field of frustrated magnetism. I will cover my introduction into this area, exploring fundamentally exotic states of condensed matter realised in perhaps the most frustrated magnet: the quantum spin lqiuid. I will then give a brief introduction to my more recent interests in 'harnessing magnetic frustration' to deliver more energy efficient technologies, from computing to refrigeration and heat pumps. Throughout the talk I will also be covering my efforts to use neutron scattering, in any which way I can manage, to reveal interesting properties of these materials.
TBC § ● James Howarth ● [To be rescheduled]
Dr James Howarth (Glasgow) ● Wednesday, November 20, 2:00 PM ● Boyd Orr Building, Room 407
Quantum Colliders: Quantum information measurements at high energy hadron colliders
ATLAS recently observed quantum entanglement in pairs of top quarks using 13 TeV data, the first time that entanglement has been observed in fundamental quarks and at the highest ever energy scales. In this seminar I will explain how this ground breaking measurement was achieved, how it highlights limitations in our current state-of-the-art Monte Carlo simulations, and the implications of the result in the wider context of quantum information. I will also explain what direction this exciting new field of study at collider experiments might take and highlight new opportunities for collaborations between quantum information and collider physics.
Contact
Questions? Comments? Speaker suggestions?
Please use the dedicated contacts below:
Colloquia:
Dr Adetunmise Dada (Adetunmise.Dada@glasgow.ac.uk)
Kelvin Building, Room 157C, Ext 6429
Internal seminars:
Dr Giulio Butera (Salvatore.Butera@glasgow.ac.uk)
Kelvin Building, Room 521, Ext xxxx
Past Talks
§ Internal seminar ‡ Outside of regular schedule.
04/12/24 ● Natalia Korolkova (St Andrews) ● An operational distinction between quantum entanglement and classical non-separability
Prof. Natalia Korolkova (St Andrews) ● Wednesday, 04 December, 2:00 PM ● Boyd Orr Building, Room 407
An operational distinction between quantum entanglement and classical non-separability
Quantum entanglement describes superposition states in multi-dimensional systems, at least two-partite, which cannot be factorized and are thus non-separable. Non-separable states also exist in classical theories involving vector spaces, e. g., in structured light. In both cases, it is possible to violate a Bell-like inequality and reach advantage in metrological applications, to name a few examples. This has led to controversial discussions. A controversy around non-separable states in classical optics has triggered anew discussions about the role of measurement in differentiating between quantum and classical.
In this colloquium talk, I will discuss non-separable states, also beyond traditional singlet-type entanglement, and introduce an operational distinction between the classical and quantum cases, which, as we suggest, resolves the controversy above.
06/11/24 ● Dino Jaroszynski (Strathclyde) ● Plasma photonics and particle acceleration
Prof. Dino Jaroszynski (Strathclyde) ● Wednesday, 06 November, 2:00 PM ● Boyd Orr Building, Room 407
Plasma photonics and particle acceleration using high power lasers
Plasma is the fourth state of matter and forms more than 99.9% of observable matter in the universe. It is a fascinating medium because it is quasi-neutral, and can support currents and electric and magnetic fields. Here we will discuss how high power lasers can exert forces on plasma to manipulate and fashion it into ultra-compact accelerators, radiation sources and unique structured dielectric media for controlling light. We will examine how the “ponderomotive” force of an intense and ultra-short duration laser pulse displaces electrons to set up a space charge electrostatic field while more massive ions are not displaced and remain quasi-static. Displaced electrons oscillate locally to form a wake behind the laser pulse, much in the same way as a boat displaces water to create a wake. The plasma density wake has an ultra-high electrostatic field associated with displaced electrons, which can be several hundreds of gigavolts per meter. This is one thousand to ten thousand times higher than the accelerating fields in a conventional accelerator. The ultra-compact laser wakefield accelerator can also be used as a radiation source. In this talk we will discuss progress that has been in developing laser wakefield accelerators and their unique properties. As with conventional accelerators they have numerous applications. We will discuss our most recent results applying the laser wakefield accelerator, including demonstration of an ultra-compact coherent radiation source, application of the particle beams in radio-therapy and using these devices to create medical radio-isotopes for therapy and imaging. We will also show how they can be used as test facilities for particle physics detectors.
In the last part of the talk we will focus on how intercepting intense laser beams can be used to create robust time dependent plasma dielectric structures in 1D, 2D and 3D. These layered, rod like or crystalline structures can be fashioned into robust optical components for manipulating light with light, using plasma as the intermediate medium. Because of their time dependent they open up a fourth dimension and can act as a time boundary, in contrast to the usual space boundaries that we are used to in optics. We will discuss fascinating new results where we have observed birefringence and amplification of light using these time dependent media.
30/10/24 ● Deepak Kar (Witwatersrand SA) ● A new paradigm in dark matter searches in the colliders
Prof. Deepak Kar (Uni. of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa) ● Wednesday, 30 October, 2:00 PM ● Boyd Orr Building, Room 407
A new paradigm in dark matter searches in the colliders
The existence and nature of dark matter (DM) is one of the biggest challenges in physics. Confirmed by myriad astrophysical observations, no sign DM has been observed in direct or indirect detection experiments. Historically searches for DM in colliders have focused on Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, or so called WIMPs. The usual signature is a Standard Model particle on one side, balanced by the WIMP candidate, which being invisible, results in an imbalance of energy-momentum in the detector, termed as missing transverse momentum. No evidence for WIMPs has been seen despite extensive search programs in previous and current colliders. That necessitates a paradigm shift in ways we search for DM in colliders. Strongly interacting dark sector models have gained popularity, as they have extensive phenomenology and novel, albeit challenging experimental signatures. For the last few years, the author has been involved in such explorations, not only publishing the first semi-visible jets search result from ATLAS, but also involved in studies in model building and designing sensitive observables. In this talk, he will pedagogically introduce the models, show the current experimental results, and discuss the ongoing work in this area.
09/10/24 ● Aurora Maccarone (Heriot-Watt) ● Single-photon detection technologies for underwater applications
Dr Aurora Maccarone (Heriot-Watt) ● Wednesday, 9 October, 2:00 PM ● Boyd Orr Building, Room 407
Single-photon detection technologies for underwater applications
Time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) has emerged as a strong candidate for high resolution depth profiling due to its potential for excellent surface-to-surface resolution and high optical sensitivity. The TCSPC technique is a statistical sampling approach that measures ultra-low light level optical transients with picosecond temporal resolution. In our work, we use this approach to accurately estimate the time of flight of photons, and hence distance to the target in highly scattering environments, under conditions where conventional imaging approaches typically fail due to the excessive optical backscatter and highly attenuated signal return.
This presentation will give an overview of the research done in this field at Heriot-Watt University, and how we are collaborating with industry to integrate quantum detection technologies in underwater vehicles for off-shore engineering applications.
(Related video: https://x.com/QuantIC_QTHub/status/1766033704369934601)