Summary


1	Date	9/21/2018
2	Name	Stanislas Baturin
3	Affiliation	Enrico Fermi Institute, Physical Sciences Division, The University of Chicago
4	Home Page
5	Colloquium Title	Pen and Paper Mathematical Models for State-of-the-Art Wakefield Accelerators
6	Abstract	The two beam wakefield acceleration is one of the most advanced ways to design compact GeV machines. First, a high current low energy beam decelerates in a structure (corrugated metal pipe, dielectric-loaded waveguide/resonator or plasma medium) leaving an electromagnetic wake (Cherenkov shock wave). Second, a low charge high energy beam follows the first beam and gets accelerated by the generated EM field. This accelerator scheme still lacks understanding of many aspects, such as beam stability, energy transfer efficiency. My talk will be focused on analytical methods and simple mathematical models to address these remaining challenges and gain detailed insight into important effects in dielectric and plasma wakefield acceleration.
7	Host	Philippe Piot
8
9	Date	9/28/2018
10	Name	IVAN BOZOVIC
11	Affiliation	Brookhaven National Laboratory and Applied Physics Departments, Yale University
12	Home Page
13	Colloquium Title	What makes cuprate superconductors so amazing?
14	Abstract	Superconductivity in cuprates has many mysterious facets, but the central question is why the critical temperature is so high. Our experiments target this question. I will present the results of a comprehensive study that took twelve years and thousands of cuprate samples, perhaps without precedence in Condensed Matter Physics. We have measured the key physical parameters of the superconducting and normal states and established their precise dependence on doping, temperature, and external fields. The findings bring in some great surprises, challenge the commonly held beliefs, rule out many models, and answer our initial question. References: Nature 537, 432 (2017); 536, 309 (2016); 472, 458 (2011); 455, 782 (2008); 422, 873 (2003); Science 326, 699 (2009); 316, 425 (2007); 297, 581 (2002); Nature Mater. 12, 877 (2013); 12, 387 (2013); 12, 1019 (2013); 12, 47 (2013); 11, 850 (2012); Nature Physics 10, 256 (2014); 7, 298 (2011); Nature Nanotech. 9, 443 (2014); 5, 516 (2010).
15	Host	Graduate Student Association
16
17	Date	10/12/2018
18	Name	Andrei Patapenka
19	Affiliation	NIU, Physics Department / NICADD
20	Home Page
21	Colloquium Title	The Fermilab Integrable Optics Test Accelerator and Its Nonlinear Dynamics
22	Abstract	The Fermilab Integrable Optics Test Accelerator facility enables the study of new methods for overcoming intensity-limiting phenomena in accelerators. The IOTA ring employs novel magnet technology for nonlinear beam accelerators and innovative techniques to compensate for detrimental beam dynamics effects. During the lecture, we will discuss the non-linear dynamics in the IOTA ring and present results of computer simulations of an electron beam by particle tracking, the Frequency Map Analysis, and the Normal Form. A brief introduction into particle accelerators and beams dynamics will be given in the beginning. We will also discuss the simulation methods and approaches for beam dynamics studies and analysis.
23	Host	Bela Erdelyi
24
25	Date	10/19/2018
26	Name	Roland Winkler
27	Affiliation	Northern Illinois University
28	Home Page
29	Colloquium Title	Asymmetric g Tensor in Low-Symmetry Two-Dimensional Hole Systems
30	Abstract	The Zeeman effect characterized by the g factor describes the coupling of the electron spin magnetic moment to a magnetic field. In low-symmetry systems, the g-factor becomes a tensor (i.e., a 3x3 matrix). For the longest time, it was widely believed that this g tensor only gives the energy splitting of the levels in a magnetic field. But there is more to it: recent experiments on GaAs/AlAs quantum wells showed that the g-tensor can also give rise to a peculiar spin precession of non-eigenstates with distinct dependencies of the spin dynamics on the direction of the magnetic field. A careful theoretical analysis of such experiments provides complete information about the tensor g. For a nontrivial g tensor it may happen, e.g., that spin non-eigenstates precess about an axis that is perpendicular to the applied magnetic field.
31	Host	Larry Lurio
32
33	Date	10/26/2018
34	Name	valia allori
35	Affiliation	Northern Illinois University, Department of Philosophy
36	Home Page	https://valiaallori.com/
37	Colloquium Title	Quantum Mechanics between History, Physics and Philosophy
38	Abstract	Quantum mechanics and scientific realism, the view that scientific theories are approximately true, are taken to be incompatible, given that quantum mechanics is riddled with paradoxes. At some point, mystery-free quantum theories were proposed to rescue scientific realism. However, if the wave function represents matter, and the wave function lives in configuration space, then it is mysterious how we seem to live in a three-dimensional world. In this talk I want to argue that a series of historical contingencies, rather than rational arguments, led people to focus on the wave function as material, and this is the root of all interpretational problems of quantum mechanics.
39	Host	Carol Thompson
40
41	Date	11/2/2018
42	Name	Herman Schaumburg
43	Affiliation	Northern Illinois University
44	Home Page
45	Colloquium Title	An Efficient N-body Simulation Algorithm
46	Abstract	The N-body problem is to track the motion of N bodies (or particles) each exerting pairwise forces upon one another. The number of these interactions scales with the square of N . Rather than computing the interactions between all the other particles and a single particle directly, the space containing the particles may be partitioned into boxes and the task of computing interactions for each particle is reduced to computing interactions between the particle and boxes external to it and interactions due to particles within the same box as the particle. By splitting the computation between the near and far particles, an approximate solution to the equations of motion may be computed efficiently while capturing the dynamics of particles in close encounters. The developed code within the beam physics group at NIU, Particles with High order Adaptive Dynamics (PHAD), is specialized for applications in electromagnetism.
47	Host	Bela Erdelyi
48
49	Date	11/9/2018
50	Name	Wes Gohn
51	Affiliation	University of Kentucky
52	Home Page	http://www.pa.uky.edu/~gohn/
53	Colloquium Title	Accelerating Physics with GPUs
54	Abstract	The graphics processing unit (GPU) has recently become a powerful tool for physics. It gives us the ability to increase computing speeds by massive parallelization of simple computing tasks. Various applications of using GPUs to improve computational speeds for physics will be discussed with an emphasis on particle physics and the Muon g-2 experiment in particular. The Muon g-2 experiment is using GPUs for fast online data processing in the data acquisition system, analysis of field moments, and Monte Carlo simulations on the Open Science Grid. Other experiments use GPUs for machine learning applications such as identification of jets or particle tracks. GPU implementations ranging from single desktop GPUs to the worlds' most powerful supercomputer are being used to accelerate the rate at which we can do physics.
55	Host	Michael Eads
56
57	Date	12/7/2018
58	Name	Senior Seminar Poster Session
59	Affiliation	NIU Physics
60	Home Page
61	Colloquium Title	Reserved for the Phys 498 and Phys 499H students presentations
62	Abstract	TBD
63	Host	Carol Thompson


1	Date	4/5/2019
2	Name	Andre Schleife
3	Affiliation	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
4	Home Page
5	Colloquium Title	Excited electrons and real-time dynamics
6	Abstract	tba
7	Host	Roland Winkler
8
9	Date	4/26/2019
10	Name	Senior Seminar and Projects Symposium
11	Affiliation	Physics Department Northern Illinois University
12	Home Page
13	Colloquium Title	Reserved for the Phys 498 and Phys 499H students presentations
14	Abstract	TBD
15	Host	Carol Thompson