DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS / HIP JOINT COLLOQUIA / SEMINARS 2025

  • Tuesday 12 August 2025 at 10:15 in A315 and using Zoom: Mir Afrasiar (Pohang)
    Probing Confinement via Holographic Timelike Entanglement and constraints in non-relativistic theories
    Abstract: I will discuss a holographic formalism for timelike entanglement entropy (tEE), a complex-valued measure of entanglement constructed from a pair of spacelike and a timelike extremal surfaces that are merged utilizing a unique method. In confining theories, this quantity exhibits distinctive features specifically through the merging of extremal surfaces at the IR tip of the geometry, becoming homologous to the boundary region, and a critical length emerges below which the imaginary part of tEE remains non-zero. We demonstrate that this imaginary contribution, corresponding to the timelike surface, acts as a probe of confinement and phase transitions. Extending this study to non-relativistic theories with hyperscaling violation and Lifshitz anisotropy, we show that tEE is highly sensitive to symmetry-breaking parameters, capturing signatures of the stability and naturalness of the theory.
  • Tuesday 19 August 2025 at 10:15 in A315 and using Zoom :  Viatcheslav Mukhanov  (LMU Munich)
    Gravitationally Dominated Instantons
    Abstract:     We study the decay of the false vacuum in the regime where the quantum field theory analysis is not valid, since gravitational effects become important. This happens when the height of the barrier separating the false and the true vacuum is large, and it has implications for the instability of de Sitter, Minkowski and anti-de Sitter vacua. We carry out the calculations for a scalar field with a potential coupled to gravity, and work within the thin-wall approximation, where the bubble wall is thin compared to the size of the bubble. We show that the false de Sitter vacuum is unstable, independently of the height of the potential and the relative depth of the true vacuum compared to the false vacuum. The false Minkowski and anti-de Sitter vacua can be stable despite the existence of a lower energy true vacuum. However, when the relative depth of the true and false vacua exceeds a critical value, which depends on the potential of the false vacuum and the height of the barrier, then the false Minkowski and anti-de Sitter vacua become unstable. We calculate the probability for the decay of the false de Sitter, Minkowski and anti-de Sitter vacua, as a function of the parameters characterizing the field potential.
  • Tuesday 26 August 2025 at 10:15 in A315 and using Zoom :  Mordehai Milgrom  (Weizmann Institute of Science)
    The Bekenstein Memorial Lecture  on his 10th Anniversary:  Parting with dark matter by departing from Newton and Einstein – modifying the dynamics as an alternative to dark matter
    Abstract: Yaacov (Jacob) Bekenstein made major contributions to the MOND research program. The MOND paradigm proposes that Newton’s laws of dynamics (gravity and inertia), as well as the theory of general relativity, need to be modified when dealing with very small accelerations, such as are found in galactic systems and the Universe at large. MOND proposes different dynamics that account for the behavior of these systems, and the large anomalies they exhibit, without invoking the presence of dark matter, which is required by standard dynamics. I will expound MOND, with its basic axioms, its main predictions and their confrontation with observations, and its underlying formal theories proposed to date, with special emphasis on Yaacov’s contributions.
  • Tuesday 2 September 2025 at 10:15 in A315 and using Zoom : Mikhail Katsnelson (Nijmegen)
    TBA
    Abstract:     TBA
  • Tuesday 9 September 2025 at 10:15 in A315 and using Zoom : José Luis Hernández (Barcelona)
    TBA
    Abstract: TBA

 

Hopefully the up to 50 min + 10 min discussion long seminar/colloquium will be understandable to a wide audience.
Contacts: Keijo Kajantie (keijo kajantie at helsinki fi) [ HIP seminar],
Jaakko Annala (jaakko annala at helsinki fi) [cosmo seminar]

New Nordic series of seminars over the web, link: https://sites.google.com/view/nordictheory/home
For more information, and to subscribe to email announcements, contact Oscar Henriksson (oscar henriksson at helsinki fi)

Other related seminars

Friday 10-12 seminar series in D114:Astrophysics seminar
Mathematical Physics Seminar and Workshop series Wed 14-16 in Exactum C123.
InstituteQ Events and Seminars