Description:

Title: Exposing the limits of time reversal with nuclei

Speaker: Bira van Kolck, University of Arizona

Abstract:

The fundamental laws of physics are not invariant under a reversal of time. The standard model of particle physics accommodates the observed time-reversal violation (TV), but the apparent matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe suggests that other mechanisms exist. 

Possible mechanisms include a parameter that characterizes the vacuum ("QCD vacuum angle") and the electric dipole moments (EDMs) of the quarks.

Various experimental proposals promise significant advances in sensitivity to TV through measurements of the EDMs of the neutron, proton, and light nuclei. I show that, should positive signals be found, the properties of the theory of strong interactions, quantum chromodynamics (QCD), allow the identification of the dominant TV mechanism(s).

Host: Andre de Gouvea

Speaker Schedule

Keywords: Physics, Astronomy, colloquium