The November Coffee Talk Colloquium will be held this Thursday, November 27, 2008 at 7:00 PM in Herzberg 2445. Dr. Heather Logan will be presenting on the Mystery of Mass. Abstract below

Even after decades of glorious experiments in particle physics, we still don't know why particles have mass. Our best guess is the Higgs mechanism - the single part of the standard model yet to be experimentally tested. I'll try to explain the problem with mass in the Standard Model and the Higgs solution, using ideas from undergraduate electromagnetism and classical mechanics. I'll also describe how we hope to test the Higgs mechanism uning data from the experiments starting now at the Larfe Hadron Collider.

Coffee and snacks will be available, so bring a mug!

Herzberg Lecture - Tuesday!

When: Tuesday, November 4th, 7:30pm
Where: 2000 Bell Theatre, Minto Centre, Carleton
What:

The Large Hadron Collider: Shedding light on the Dark Universe

Rolf-Dieter Heuer has been designated as the next Director General of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

He has contributed to the study of electron positron interactions, the development of experimental techniques, and the construction of large detector systems.

Despite great success, many key questions in particle physics and cosmology are unanswered. In particular, some 95% of the Universe consists of unknown dark matter and dark energy. Particle physics is about to enter the Terascale, providing a deeper understanding of the Universe and possibly dramatically changing our view of the world. With the start-up of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN this year, we expect revolutionary results explaining the origin of matter, unraveling the nature of dark matter and providing glimpses of extra spatial dimensions or grand unification of forces and hints on dark energy.

Professor Heuer is instrumental in shaping the European and international program in energy frontier physics. In this lecture, he will take a look into the future of particle physics.

This lecture is sponsored by the Faculty of Science and is free and open to the public.

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October Coffee Talk

This Wednesday, October 29th, Dr. Oakham will be leading the October edition of the Physics Society Coffee Talk. Abstract below.

On the 10th of September, 2008 the largest particle physics experiment was started at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland. The Large Hadron Collider or LHC will bring protons together at a combined energy of 14 TeV in the centre of experiments such as ATLAS. The talk will describe the LHC machine, the ATLAS experiment and the discovery potential of this huge scientific undertaking.

Coffee and other refreshments will be served so bring a mug! See you there!

LHC in action

Click the following link to see live webcams of the LHC experiement!

http://www.cyriak.co.uk/lhc/lhc-webcams.html

Enjoy!

ATLAS/LHC talk tomorrow

September 10th, from 10:00 am to 11:00 am Prof. Oakham will be giving a talk in room 1154 HP on the topic of ATLAS and the LHC which turns on tomorrow. This talk is open to everyone.

Physics Society September Newsletter

Click the image for an e-copy of the Physics Society September Newsletter.

The (Multi) Universe(s)

Crossposted from Radiolab.org

Have you wondered if there is another you out there? Somewhere? Sitting in the same chair, reading the same blog post, wearing the same clothes and thinking the same thoughts? Well, Brian Greene says there must be one. Or two. Or lots and lots and lots and lots and… Why? You ask, well listen to Greene’s argument in this week’s podcast.

We are still furiously working on Season 5, so while you wait we bring you today’s podcast of a conversation between Robert Krulwich and Brian Greene, physics and mathematics professor and director of the Institute of Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics at Columbia University. The interview is part of a series called “Giants of Science” hosted by venerable New York institution, the 92nd St Y.

Robert and Brian discuss what’s beyond the horizon of our universe, what you might wear in infinite universes with finite pairs of designer shoes, and why the Universe and swiss cheese have more in common than you think.

Take a listen here

You can see a video of Brian talking about string theory here.