Nuclear Physics seminars

Precision measurements involving atoms and nuclei address dark matter, neutrino masses and leptonic CP violation. This talk explains how effective field theory improves predictions for neutrino–nucleus scattering, coherent muon conversion and beta decays. Superallowed beta decay provides an example in which multi-loop electromagnetic corrections matter for first-row CKM unitarity tests.

Loud gravitational-wave signals could reveal new properties of neutron-star matter, but inaccurate waveform models may dominate the uncertainty. This seminar examines inference of the nuclear equation of state and smaller dynamical effects, develops data-driven phenomenological waveform corrections, and relates unexplained signal features to source energetics and the scientific goals of future detector designs.

Jun Ye discusses how laser science and increasingly large coherent quantum systems are expanding precision measurement into nuclear physics. Experiments now maintain coherence in thousands of atoms for minutes and resolve quantum states of the thorium-229 nuclear transition. A vacuum-ultraviolet frequency comb enables coherent excitation of that transition and connects its frequency directly to a highly precise atomic clock. The lecture examines how this connection between atomic and nuclear measurement could support new tests of fundamental physics and nuclear clocks containing billions of absorbers, with the prospect of surpassing the timekeeping capabilities of existing atomic clocks.

This lecture follows massive stars through successive nuclear-burning stages to core collapse. It explains how supernova explosions expel material and enrich the interstellar environment with heavy elements. The discussion then turns to compact remnants, black-hole formation and observational opportunities provided by surviving binary companions.