BCCP Lunch Events: BCCP Lunch Events usually take place in Hearst Field Annex (HFA) B-1 at noon. The venue and dates may be subject to change. To keep you notified, please contact Melissa Barclay ([email protected]) to be added to the lunch mailing list.

Week of November 24

Tuesday, November 25

  • Berkeley Cosmology Seminar

    Location: UCB, Hearst Field Annex B-1 – 1:10 pm
    Speaker: Camille Avestruz, Yale
    Title: "Cosmological Simulations of Galaxy Cluster Outskirts"

    Abstract: The observational study of galaxy cluster outskirts is a new territory to probe the thermodynamic and chemical structure of the X-ray emitting intracluster medium (ICM). Cluster outskirts are particularly important for modeling the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, which is sensitive to hot electrons at all radii and has been used to detect hundreds of galaxy clusters with recent microwave cluster surveys. In cluster-based cosmology, measurements of cluster outskirts are an important avenue for estimating the cluster mass, as the outskirts are less sensitive to baryonic processes that dominate the cluster core. However, recent observations of cluster outskirts deviate from theoretical expectations, indicating that cluster outskirts are more complicated than previously thought. Computational modeling of cluster outskirts is necessary to interpret these observations. I will present cosmological simulations of galaxy cluster formation that follow the thermodynamic and chemical structures in the virialization regions of the ICM and transition to the IGM. Specifically, I will discuss how observational signatures of galaxy clusters are affected by gas flows, inhomogeneities in the ICM, and non-equilibrium physics.

Week of November 17

Monday, November 17

  • Theoretical Astrophysics Seminar

    Location: UCB - Hearst Field Annex B5, 12:10 p.m.
    Speaker: Jing Luan (Caltech)
    Title: "Historical Heat Responsible for Enceladus's Plume"

  • 4D Seminars

    Location: UCB - 402 Old Le Conte, 2:30 p.m. Speaker: Seyda Ipek (Washington U., Seattle)
    Title: CP Violation in Pseudo-Dirac Fermion Oscillations"

  • Physics Department Colloquium

    Location: UCB, 1 Le Conte Hall - 4:15 p.m.
    Speaker: David Demille (Yale)
    Title: "A Tabletop-scale Probe for TeV Physics: the Electric Dipole Moment of the Electron"

Tuesday, November 18

  • Berkeley Cosmology Seminar

    Location: UCB, Hearst Field Annex B-1 – 1:10 pm
    Speaker: Emanuele Castorina, SISSA
    Title: "Massive neutrinos and the Large Scale Structures of the Universe"

    Abstract: Massive neutrinos have peculiar effects on several observables in current and future redshift surveys. A precise determination of them is crucial not only to constraint properly neutrino masses but also to avoid potential systematic errors in the determination of other cosmological parameters, e.g. the dark energy equation of state. In this talk, after a brief review of linear theory results, I will discuss, with the help of a large suite of N-body simulations, the effect of massive neutrinos on different cosmological probes, like the abundance of massive clusters, the non linear matter power spectrum and its relation to the galaxy power spectrum, redshift space distorsions, and the bispectrum. http://www-theory.lbl.gov/cgi-bin/talks/plans.cgi

  • String Seminar

    Location: UCB - 402 Old Le Conte, 3:40 p.m.
    Speaker: Christopher Beem (IAS)
    Title: "Chiral Symmetry Algebras in Four and Six Dimensions"

  • Physics RPM - no RPM today

Wednesday, November 19

Thursday, November 20

  • Astronomy Lunch

    Location: UCB, B5 Hearst Field Annex - 12:30 p.m.
    Speakers: tba

  • Special Particle Theory Seminar

    Location: LBNL - 50A-5132, 2:00 p.m.
    Speaker: Clifford Cheung (Caltech)
    Title: "Accidental Holomorphy in 4D EFTs"

  • Astronomy Colloquium

    Location: UCB, 2 LeConte Hall, 4:00 p.m.
    Speaker: Fiona Harrison (Caltech)
    Title: tba
    Abstract: tba

  • Physics Research Progress Meeting

    Location: LBNL - 50A-5132, 4:00 p.m.
    Speaker: Gianpaolo Carosi (LLNL)
    Title: "The ADMX Experiment“

    Abstract: The nature of dark matter is one of the great mysteries of modern physics. Existence of dark matter has been inferred from its gravitational effects over many distance scales, but currently no known particle can account for the observed data. As a result, new particles beyond the standard model have been suggested. The axion is one such particle that was originally devised as a solution to the strong-CP problem in nuclear physics (or the peculiar absence of a measurable electric dipole moment in the neutron). The Axion Dark Matter eXperiment (ADMX), and its sister experiment ADMX-High Frequency (ADMX-HF), are designed to detect axions by using large microwave cavities immersed in a strong magnetic field to resonantly convert the axion’s rest mass into detectable photons. In this talk I will describe the history of axion searches and the ADMX experiment in particular, which ran at LLNL for over a decade before being moved to the University of Washington. I will then discuss the upgrades to the ADMX experiment as it prepares for its upcoming search with orders-of-magnitude greater sensitivity. I will also outline R&D efforts currently being undertaken to expand the search range of ADMX further and ultimately determine if axions are, or are not, the major dark matter component of the Universe.

Friday, November 21

  • INPA Seminar

    Location: LBNL, 50-5026, 12 p.m.
    Speaker: Ryan Cooke (UC Santa Cruz)
    Title: "The primordial deuterium abundance and the search for new physics"

    Abstract: We are currently in an exciting era of precision cosmology. With the release of the cosmic microwave background data recorded by the Planck satellite, we are now in a position to accurately test the standard model of cosmology and particle physics. In this talk, I will present several precise measurements of the primordial abundance of deuterium - the most accurate measurements to date - derived from redshift ~3 metal-poor damped Lyman-alpha systems. These data have offered a new insight into the physical laws of the Universe just minutes after the Big Bang. Such precise measures, when analyzed in conjunction with the Planck data, now place strong bounds on both the total amount of visible matter in the Universe and the effective number of neutrino species. These data further provide new limits on physics beyond the standard model. I will discuss our ongoing survey to obtain new precision measures of the primordial nuclei in the era of the 30m class telescopes.

  • SSL Colloquium

    Location: SSL, Addition conference room, 3 p.m.
    Speaker: Julian Bautista (Univ of Utah)
    Title: "Baryon acoustic oscillations in the Lyman-alpha forest of BOSS quasars"