KICP Seminars & Colloquia, Current and Future
Upcoming Seminars

Seminar schedule for Current (Winter 2019) & Future Quarters
January 9, 2019
Wednesday colloquium		Michael Turner
KICP		How many numbers does it take to determine our Universe?   [Abstract | Video]
January 11, 2019
Friday noon seminar		Michael W Coughlin
California Institute Of Technology		Searching for the aftermath of binary neutron star mergers   [Abstract]
January 16, 2019
Astronomy Colloquium		Nick Gnedin
University of Chicago/Fermilab		Cosmic Reionization   [Abstract]
January 18, 2019
Friday noon seminar		Craig Hogan
The University of Chicago		Inflation with Spooky Correlations   [Abstract]
January 23, 2019
Wednesday colloquium		Gordan Krnjaic
Fermilab		A New Frontier in the Search for Dark Matter   [Abstract]
January 25, 2019
Friday noon seminar		Noah Kurinsky
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory		New Directions for Direct Detection of MeV-Scale Dark Matter
January 30, 2019
Astronomy Colloquium		Ian Crossfield
MIT		TBA
February 1, 2019
Friday noon seminar		Hector Okada da Silva
Montana State University		Scalar fields and strong-field gravity: spontaneous scalarization of compact objects
February 8, 2019
Friday noon seminar		Kris Pardo
Princeton University		Testing Self-Interacting Dark Matter with Galaxy Warps
February 13, 2019
Astronomy Colloquium		Roger Blandford
Stanford University		TBA
February 15, 2019
Friday noon seminar		Tanvi Karwal
Johns Hopkins University		Early Dark Energy and the Hubble Tension   [Abstract]
February 20, 2019
Wednesday colloquium		Hirosi Ooguri
Caltech & Kavli IPMU		TBD
February 22, 2019
Friday noon seminar		Mathew S Madhavacheril
Princeton University		kSZ Cosmology without the optical depth degeneracy
February 27, 2019
Astronomy Colloquium		Mansi Kasliwal
Caltech		TBA
March 1, 2019
Friday noon seminar		Chris Pankow
Northwestern University		The Population of Binary Black Holes from Gravitational-wave Observations   [Abstract]
March 13, 2019
Astronomy Colloquium		Mark Vogelsberger
MIT		TBA
March 22, 2019
Friday noon seminar		Zhong-Zhi Xianyu
Harvard University		TBD   [Abstract]
April 5, 2019
Friday noon seminar		Maximiliano Isi
MIT		Fundamental physics with gravitational waves
April 12, 2019
Friday noon seminar		Katerina Chatziioannou
Flatiron Institute		TBA   [Abstract]
April 26, 2019
Friday noon seminar		Junhan Kim
University of Arizona		TBA   [Abstract]
 
COLLOQUIA
KICP Colloquia and Astronomy & Astrophysics Colloquia: Unless otherwise noted, all talks are held in ERC 161 at 3:30 PM on Wednesdays. A reception will be held following the talk in the ERC 401 (KICP Colloquia) and in Hubble Lounge (ERC 501) (Astronomy & Astrophysics Colloquia).
January 9, 2019
January 16, 2019
January 23, 2019
January 30, 2019
February 13, 2019
February 20, 2019
February 27, 2019
March 13, 2019

  • January 9, 2019 | 3:30 PM | ERC 161 | Wednesday colloquium
    How many numbers does it take to determine our Universe?
    Michael Turner, KICP

    Video
    Since 2013, the Planck Surveyor team has made a good case that it takes six numbers to describe the whole Universe (fewer than the ten digits in a phone number), based upon their all-sky map of the CMB. Others have different opinions: zero, one, two, six (a different), and nine to describe our Universe. As I will discuss, the choice of numbers reveals much about what we know and our aspirations, as well as how we think about the Universe. After exploring the landscape, I will advocate for zero numbers and discuss the path and strategy to get there.
  • January 16, 2019 | 3:30 PM | ERC 161 | Astronomy Colloquium
    Cosmic Reionization
    Nick Gnedin, University of Chicago/Fermilab

    Cosmic reionization - ionization of the bulk of cosmic gas by ultraviolet radiation from first galaxies and quasars - is the least explored epoch in cosmic history. While significant progress has been made recently with the HST Frontier Fields program, the major breakthrough is still in the future, but not a distant one. The launch of JWST will start a revolution in studies of cosmic reionization, and other advanced observational probes will follow soon. As observers are preparing for the flood of new data, theorists are currently busy revamping their tools to stay on par with future observations. This fortunate match between theory and observations will lead to a major breakthrough in this last cosmic frontier.
  • January 23, 2019 | 3:30 PM | ERC 161 | Wednesday colloquium
    A New Frontier in the Search for Dark Matter
    Gordan Krnjaic, Fermilab

    Note: Reception at 4:30 PM in the ERC 401.

    The gravitational evidence for the existence of dark matter is overwhelming; observations of galactic rotation curves, the CMB power spectrum, and light element abundances independently suggest that over 80% of all matter is "dark" and beyond the scope of the Standard Model. However, its particle nature is currently unknown, so discovering its potential non-gravitational interactions is a major priority in fundamental physics. In this talk, I will survey the landscape of light dark matter theories and and introduce an emerging field of fixed-target experiments that are poised to cover hitherto unexplored dark matter candidates with MeV-GeV masses. These new techniques involve direct dark matter production with proton, electron, and *muon* beams at various facilities including Fermilab, CERN, SLAC, and JLab. Exploring this mass range is essential for fully testing a broad, predictive class of theories in which dark matter abundance arises from dark-visible interactions in thermal equilibrium in the early universe.
  • January 30, 2019 | 3:30 PM | ERC 161 | Astronomy Colloquium
    TBA
    Ian Crossfield, MIT

    Note: Refreshments served at 4:45 PM, Hubble Lounge
  • February 13, 2019 | 3:30 PM | ERC 161 | Astronomy Colloquium
    TBA
    Roger Blandford, Stanford University

    Note: Refreshments served at 4:45 PM, Hubble Lounge
  • February 20, 2019 | 3:30 PM | ERC 161 | Wednesday colloquium
    TBD
    Hirosi Ooguri, Caltech & Kavli IPMU

    Note: Reception at 4:30 PM in the ERC 401.
  • February 27, 2019 | 3:30 PM | ERC 161 | Astronomy Colloquium
    TBA
    Mansi Kasliwal, Caltech

    Note: Refreshments served at 4:45 PM, Hubble Lounge
  • March 13, 2019 | 3:30 PM | ERC 161 | Astronomy Colloquium
    TBA
    Mark Vogelsberger, MIT

    Note: Refreshments served at 4:45 PM, Hubble Lounge

 
FRIDAY NOON SEMINARS
KICP Friday noon seminar: Unless otherwise noted, all talks are held in ERC 401 at Noon on Fridays.
January 11, 2019
January 18, 2019
January 25, 2019
February 1, 2019
February 8, 2019
February 15, 2019
February 22, 2019
March 1, 2019
March 22, 2019
April 5, 2019
April 12, 2019
April 26, 2019

  • January 11, 2019 | 12:00 PM | ERC 401 | Friday noon seminar
    Searching for the aftermath of binary neutron star mergers
    Michael W Coughlin, California Institute Of Technology

    Binary neutron star mergers provide one of the richest laboratories for studying physics with ground-based interferometric gravitational-wave detectors such as advanced LIGO and Virgo. After such a merger, a compact remnant is left over whose nature depends primarily on the masses of the inspiralling objects and on the equation of state of nuclear matter. We will discuss the search for short and intermediate-duration post-merger signals from GW170817, as well as all-sky, all-time searches for the same. In addition, we will describe ongoing searches for the detection of transients like GW170817 in electromagnetic wavelengths. With the Zwicky Transient Facility recently achieving first light, it is now fruitful to use its unprecedented combination of depth, field of view, and survey cadence to perform Target of Opportunity observations. Using the 50 square degree field of view of the instrument, it is possible to follow-up events from systems like the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor, where it can be necessary to cover thousands of square degrees. We will demonstrate on short gamma-ray bursts how it is possible to use this system to do follow-up on this scale.
  • January 18, 2019 | 12:00 PM | ERC 401 | Friday noon seminar
    Inflation with Spooky Correlations
    Craig Hogan, The University of Chicago

    Famous "information paradoxes" in black hole theory can be solved if quantum information on horizons is delocalized or "spooky", like states of entangled particles. Similar spooky correlations on the inflationary horizon are estimated to produce curvature perturbations with a dimensionless power spectral density given by the inflationary expansion rate H in Planck units, larger than standard inflaton fluctuations. Current measurements of the spectrum are used to derive constraints on parameters of the effective potential in a slow-roll background. A distinctive and robust new prediction, in the sense of being insensitive to the details of specific spooky models, is an exact directional antisymmetry, traceable directly to the nonlocality and directional correlation of initial conditions on the horizon, which is forbidden in standard models. Signatures of this primordial antisymmetry might already be measured in CMB anisotropy, and if they are indeed due to nearly-scale-invariant primordial spookiness, should also be observable in large scale 3D galaxy surveys, possibly even in existing data. DES may be the first dataset capable of detecting this direct signature of Planck scale quantum physics.
  • January 25, 2019 | 12:00 PM | ERC 401 | Friday noon seminar
    New Directions for Direct Detection of MeV-Scale Dark Matter
    Noah Kurinsky, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
  • February 1, 2019 | 12:00 PM | ERC 401 | Friday noon seminar
    Scalar fields and strong-field gravity: spontaneous scalarization of compact objects
    Hector Okada da Silva, Montana State University
  • February 8, 2019 | 12:00 PM | ERC 401 | Friday noon seminar
    Testing Self-Interacting Dark Matter with Galaxy Warps
    Kris Pardo, Princeton University
  • February 15, 2019 | 12:00 PM | ERC 401 | Friday noon seminar
    Early Dark Energy and the Hubble Tension
    Tanvi Karwal, Johns Hopkins University

    Although the standard Lambda-CDM model of cosmology is in excellent agreement with the observed cosmic microwave background (CMB) power spectrum, its prediction for the current rate of expansion H0 of the Universe is in tension with observations of the local universe at > 3 sigma, with local measurements preferring a higher value. Systematic causes have been investigated and not found to be the culprit. Could this then indicate new physics? My talk will present a new-physics solution to the Hubble tension that modifies the early expansion history of the Universe through the addition of an early dark energy (EDE) component. This behaves like a cosmological constant at early times and then dilutes quickly with redshift after some critical time. It therefore only influences the Universe over a small range in redshift. This solution is successful because the Hubble tension can be translated into an equivalent tension in the size of the sound horizon. If such an EDE becomes dynamical before recombination, it increases the pre-recombination expansion rate and decreases the sound horizon, shifting the expected peaks in the CMB power spectrum to smaller angular scales. These can be brought back in agreement with observations by an increase in the predicted value of H0, reducing the Hubble tension. I will present two physical scalar-field models for such an EDE, and their success with resolving the Hubble tension while still finding a good fit to most cosmological datasets.
  • February 22, 2019 | 12:00 PM | ERC 401 | Friday noon seminar
    kSZ Cosmology without the optical depth degeneracy
    Mathew S Madhavacheril, Princeton University
  • March 1, 2019 | 12:00 PM | ERC 401 | Friday noon seminar
    The Population of Binary Black Holes from Gravitational-wave Observations
    Chris Pankow, Northwestern University

    I will present the current inventory of binary black holes (BBH) collected during the first and second observing runs of the LIGO/Virgo gravitational-wave interferometer network. The ten BBH observed to date provide the means to resolve questions about their formation and population properties. As such, I will also present new estimates of the mass, spin, and merger rate distributions of stellar mass BBH. All analyses consistently find merger rate distributions over the primary mass which predict almost no black holes above 45 solar masses. We also find that probes of the rate evolution with redshift prefer inclining or flat models. The inferred spin magnitude distribution strongly disfavors high spin magnitudes when the component spins are aligned to the orbital angular momentum. Finally, I will describe prospects for what the future might hold for BBH in future observing runs.
  • March 22, 2019 | 12:00 PM | ERC 401 | Friday noon seminar
    TBD
    Zhong-Zhi Xianyu, Harvard University

    TBD
  • April 5, 2019 | 12:00 PM | ERC 401 | Friday noon seminar
    Fundamental physics with gravitational waves
    Maximiliano Isi, MIT
  • April 12, 2019 | 12:00 PM | ERC 401 | Friday noon seminar
    TBA
    Katerina Chatziioannou, Flatiron Institute

    TBA
  • April 26, 2019 | 12:00 PM | ERC 401 | Friday noon seminar
    TBA
    Junhan Kim, University of Arizona

    TBA

 
SPECIAL SEMINARS


 
OPEN GROUP SEMINARS


 
THURSDAY LUNCH DISCUSSIONS
KICP's Thunch: KICP Cosmology Lunch (Thunch) Weekly on Thursdays, Noon, ERC 401A.

Please join us for an informal lunch discussion, led by KICP fellows, of recent news and papers in cosmology. Topics range from experiment and observations to theory in all areas of KICP science. To submit or view papers for this week's Thunch please visit the Thunch website.


 
ASTRONOMY TUESDAY SEMINARS


 
ASTRONOMY SPECIAL SEMINARS