HIP NEWS June 13th 2016
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DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS / HIP JOINT COLLOQUIA / SEMINARS
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Tuesday 14 June 2016 at 10.15 in A315
Carl Carlson (College of William and Mary, Virginia)
The proton charge radius puzzle
Abstract: There is a proton charge radius puzzle because the proton charge radius appears different when measured with electrons than when measured with muons. Explanations broadly fit into two categories. “Ordinary” explanations include problems with the extrapolations or theoretical corrections involved in the measurements, and “exotic” explanations include such beyond the standard model ideas as a breakdown of electron-muon universality. We will discuss something of how the measurements are done, and discuss possible explanations in both the “ordinary” and “exotic” categories.
COSMO-seminar
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Wednesday 15 June 2016 at 14:15 in A315
Eemeli Tomberg (Helsinki)
Decoherence in Inflation
Abstract: During inflation, cosmological scalar perturbations can be described by the Sasaki-Mukhanov variable. Quantizing this variable, we get a highly quantum mechanical, `squeezed’ vacuum state. However, it is common in cosmology to use classical perturbation theory to describe the perturbations after their birth. In this talk I will discuss some properties of the squeezed vacuum state, and show how decoherence can be used to understand the transition from the quantum mechanical initial conditions to the classical treatment. In decoherence, the system gets entangled with its environment, so that its reduced density matrix becomes an ensemble of classically observable states.
Visitors
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P. Dendooven 6.6.-9.6. ; 20.6.-8.7.
B.S. DiNunno 1.6. – 3.7. (NJ)
C. Carlson 31.5.-15.6. (MS)
A. Lopez 29.4. – 13.6. (MH, KR)