Description:

Title: Fundamental Physics with Tabletop Experiments: A New Venture for Northwestern

Speaker: Gerald Gabrielse, Board of Trustees, Northwestern University
Leverett Professor of Physics (On Leave), Harvard University

Abstract: The so-called Standard Model of Particle Physics (SM) is a set of fundamental particles, interactions and symmetries knitted together by the mathematics of field theory. The SM is the great triumph and the great frustration of modern physics. It is a great triumph in that it is consistent with essentially everything that we are able to measure -- even making predictions that turn out to be true to parts in 10^{12}. It is the great frustration in that the SM is inconsistent with basic features of the universe -- including whether a universe emerging in a big bang could possibly survive as the universe cools. The Department of Physics and Astronomy of Northwestern University has plunged headlong into seeking answers to the most fundamental questions about physical reality. In addition to its on going large scale searches for dark matter, and in addition to its important role in looking for "beyond the SM" new physics in high energy collisions, NU has established a new Center for Fundamental Physics carried out with tabletop scale apparatus. Tabletop contributions to fundamental physics made and contemplated will be presented as illustrations.  

Host: Schmitt

Speaker Schedule

Keywords: Physics, Astronomy, colloquium