HIP NEWS May 5th 2014
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DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS / HIP JOINT COLLOQUIA / SEMINARS
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Tuesday 6 May 2014 in A315
Michal Heller (Amsterdam/Warsaw)
Gauge fields out of equilibrium – a holographic approach
Abstract: Ultra-relativistic heavy ion collision programs at RHIC and LHC probe the properties of matter under extreme conditions in which quarks and gluons are liberated from hadrons and form the quark-gluon plasma. I will discuss the progress on theoretical understanding of the formation of the quark-gluon plasma in heavy ion collisions, and related questions, coming from the first principle calculations in the models of strong interactions solvable using holography. This leads to a fascinating connection with gravitational physics, in particular black hole formation and dynamics, which I will discuss in detail.
Thursday 8 May 2014 at 10.15 in A315
Nick Evans (Southampton)
Dynamic AdS/QCD & the Conformal Window
Abstract: I introduce a simple holographic description of SU(Nc) gauge theory with Nf quark flavours. The dynamics of the gauge theory is input through the running of the anomalous dimension of the quark mass, gamma. The model predicts the on-set of chiral symmetry breaking when gamma=1. It then describes the hyperscaling relations in the conformal Window, a Miransky type phase transition, walking dynamics including a light sigma particle, and QCD-like behaviour at small Nf.
COSMO-Seminar
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May 7 (Wed) at 14:15 in A315
Vincent Vennin (IAP, Paris)
Testing Inflation after Planck and BICEP2
An unprecedented opportunity to constrain the inflationary theory is
provided by the current flow of high accuracy astrophysical data,
among which are the Cosmic Microwave Background measurements.
This is however a challenging project given the size of the inflationary landscape which contains hundreds of different scenarios.
In this talk I will show how the simplest models (the slow-roll single
field models with minimal kinetic terms) can be studied one by one in a systematic way. By means of Bayesian inference and model comparison methods, I will explain how these models can be ranked.
From the Bayesian evidences and complexities of ~ 200 inflationary models, I will discuss which models are excluded and which are the best models of inflation.
In particular, I will comment on the recent B-modes detection by the BICEP2 experiment and on its implication for inflation and inflationary models.
Visitors
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P. Dendooven 12.5. – 14.5. (PE, JÄ)
N. Evans 7.5. – 9.5. (KT)
M. Heller 5.5. – 9.5. (KK)
M. Hindmarsh 22.4. – 15.6. (KR)
N. Hopkins 28.4. – 23.5. (KR)
D. Mulryne 16.4. – 16.5. (SN)
J. Serreau 4.5. – 6.5. (KR)