Recorded Seminars

FTPI Professor Keith Olive delivered the MIfA Public Lecture on 11/13/24. The title of his talk is, "The Early Universe: A Journey to the Origin of Time."

FTPI Professor Maxim Pospelov delivered this Cosmology Seminar on 11/28/22. The title of his talk is, "Accelerated Light Dark Matter."

Abstract: Light dark matter particles (MeV range) carry too little energy to be seen with current dark matter detectors. Considerable efforts are being spent on lowering the energy thresholds for detection. I will show that these models can be successfully constrained using a double collision scheme. First collision with e.g. solar electrons/cosmic ray particles/accelerator beam can bring the dark matter to detectable energies, with subsequent scattering of accelerated dark matter leaving detectable energy deposition in large neutrino and/or dark matter detectors. This scheme currently provides leading sensitivity to light dark matter in a wide range of masses and cross sections.

FTPI Professor Mikhail "Misha" Shifman delivered this Seminar on 6/17/21. The talk was hosted by the Harvard University Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications. The title of his talk is, "What can supersymmetry do that other field theories cannot."

An interview with FTPI Professor Mikhail "Misha" Shifman, "50 Years in Theoretical Physics."

Hosted by Suzette Lyn

FTPI Professor Mikhail "Misha" Shifman delivered this Special Seminar on 3/1/21. The title of his talk is, “Quantum Physicists Between Two Evils.”

FTPI Professor Keith Olive was interviewed on the podcast, Scientific Sense on Oct. 6th, 2020. Listen to his interview now.

2/13/25: 2024 Anatoly Larkin Junior Award

Professor Rahul Nandkishore from the University of Colorado, Boulder was awarded the Junior Award for groundbreaking contributions to the physics of quantum non-equilibrium dynamics, disordered systems, and fracton matter.

The title of his talk is, "Ergodicity Breaking in Quantum Dynamics"

Abstract: When can isolated many body quantum systems fail to go to equilibrium under their own dynamics, and how robust can this `ergodicity breaking’ be? This question has been a central theme of research in quantum dynamics and statistical mechanics over the past decade, and I will share with you some highlights, focusing on three key developments: many body localization, dynamics with multipolar symmetries, and dynamics with constraints. I will present the rich and exotic phenomena that arise in these three regimes, and how they may be realized experimentally. I will then discuss some key open directions for the field.

12/12/24: 2023 Anatoly Larkin Senior Award

Professor Michael Dine from the University of California, Santa Cruz was awarded the Senior Award for exceptional contributions to physics beyond the standard model including mechanisms for supersymmetry breaking, the invisible axion, as a solution to the strong CP problem, the Affleck-Dine mechanism for baryogenesis and aspects of perturbative string theory.

The title of his talk is, "Ruminations on Quark Confinement."

Abstract: While complicated numerical simulations have established quark confinement within QCD, establishing the fact of confinement more conceptually remains one of the great challenges of theoretical physics. Remarkably confinement can be established analytically in supersymmetric theories. In this talk, I'll consider the challenges to demonstrating confinement in real QCD by deforming away from the supersymmetric limit. We'll see that if one disturbs the system a little bit confinement persists. The question is then one of ruling out a phase transition as the breaking of supersymmetry becomes large. We will see that there is one major challenge, and ask how one could meet it.

4/18/24: 2023 Anatoly Larkin Junior Award

Professor Simon Caron-Huot from McGill University was awarded the Junior Award for elucidating the spin structure of scattering amplitudes in conformal field theories.

The title of his talk is, "Does Our World Respect Causality."

Abstract: "Please read these lectures last week," the late Sydney Coleman once joked. Causality is so ingrained in our daily experience that this request seems absurd. This talk will focus on relativistic causality: the notion that signals cannot move faster than light. I will review its central role in modern physics and how it leads to surprising properties like analyticity in spin of various physical observables, gives insight on the dynamics of some strongly interacting systems, and restricts potential modifications to Einstein's gravity.

4/30/23: 2022 Anatoly Larkin Senior Award

Professor Patrick A. Lee from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) was awarded the Senior Award for pioneering and wide reaching research in strongly correlated systems, in particular theories of the quantum transport phenomena in the mesoscopic and superconducting systems, and for his standing in the Physics community.

The title of his talk is, "An Overview of Quantum Spin Liquid: Standing on the Shoulder of a Giant Named Anatoly."

Abstract: I shall review the current status of quantum spin liquid, particularly the gapless variety which is described by emergent gauge fields and fermionic particles called spinons. The theory has benefited greatly by the insight of Anatoly Larkin on the role of gauge field fluctuations, leading to the famous Ioffe-Larkin rule. I shall review the status of several promising experimental candidates and describe some proposals to experimentally access the spinons as well as the gauge field.

4/23/23: 2022 Anatoly Larkin Junior Award

Professor Liang Fu from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was awarded the Junior Award for seminal works on 3D topological insulators and odd parity topological superconductors, crystalline topological insulators, Majorana zero modes, and for being an intellectual leader of his generation.

The title of his talk is, “Diodic Quantum Materials.”

Abstract: The p-n junction is the key building block of modern microelectronics that underlies diodes and transistors. In recent years, it has been found that certain quantum materials can have a direction dependent electrical resistance and thus exhibit an intrinsic diode effect without any junction. In this talk, I will first describe diodic superconductors that exhibit zero (nonzero) resistance in the forward (backward) direction. Such superconducting diode effect generally appears when Cooper pairs in the ground state have finite center-of-mass momentum, as in the Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrell superconductor. Next, I will describe noncentrosymmetric conductors that exhibit a nonreciprocal Hall effect at zero magnetic field, with the transverse current quadratic in the applied voltage. This intrinsic nonreciprocity is a fundamental material property that originates from the quantum geometry of itinerant electron states in crystals. Potential applications of diodic quantum materials in high-frequency (THz) and low-power electronics will be discussed.