UNC Physics Colloquium Charles Henderson Departments with high-use of active learning in introductory STEM courses: How did they get there? Abstract Abstract: There is now a convincing body of research showing that a wide variety of active learning instructional strategies … Read more
UNC Physics Special Colloquium This special colloquium, “The Missing Physicists,” will feature a panel discussion of the March 2022 “Missing Physicists” series in Science about the barriers Black physicists face and potential models for change. Panelists include: Mohammad Ahmed , NC Central … Read more
UNC Physics Colloquium Wendy Freedman, University of Chicago Increasing Accuracy in Measurements of the Hubble Constant: Is There Evidence for New Physics? Abstract An important and unresolved question in cosmology today is whether there is new physics that is missing … Read more
UNC Physics Colloquium Ulf Danielson, Uppsala University Sweden The dark side of string theory Abstract Cosmological horizons, as well as black hole horizons, pose great challenges to fundamental physics. This is true also in string theory, where the black hole … Read more
KINETIC DECOUPLING OF DARK MATTER IN THE EARLY UNIVERSE AND GEODESIC DEVIATION IN CURVED SPACETIME
Title: Prototyping the Argus Optical Array: A Novel Design for Next-Gen, All-Sky, Array Telescopes In the past century, time-domain surveys have searched for events with timescales of days to minutes; however, surveys that investigate sub-second optical detections from millisecond- duration … Read more
Windows into Planetary Evolution: the Detection and Atmospheric Characterization of Young Planets A key question in exoplanet research is to understand how planets form and change throughout their lifetime. Young planets (< 1 gigayear old) are pivotal to this … Read more
"Hazy With a Chance of Star Spots: Constraining the Atmosphere of the Young Planet, K2-33b" Speaker: Pa Chia Thao Studying properties of planets across a wide range of ages will unveil the processes that govern planet's formation and evolution. Although … Read more
The Graduate student APS (American Physical Society) Chapter at UNC is excited to announce our first event of the semester! We are hosting a virtual presentation by Dr. Todd Brintlinger, a research physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory, on September … Read more
Thermodynamics provides a successful theoretical framework to describe the equilibrium properties of substances and near-equilibrium processes within the linear response regime. However, our daily-life experiences, industrial processes, and almost all aspects of biology are ubiquitously far away from thermal equilibrium. First, we will briefly review the modern theory of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and stochastic thermodynamics. Then, this framework is applied to resolve a 2000-year-old myth named the Mpemba effect. This counter-intuitive effect claimed that hot water can freeze faster than cold water. Finally, inspired by the Mpemba effect, we will briefly demonstrate the non-equilibrium design principle behind life-like intelligent materials with surprising information and energy controllability.