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Journal Club Seminars From 2019 - 2020

Contents


FALL 2019


October 4, 2019

NOTE: CASS All-Hands Meet & Greet


 Abstract: CASS All-Hands Meet & Greet this Friday, October 4, from 12:00 to 1:00 pm in SERF 383. This meeting will be an opportunity for new members of CASS to introduce themselves and present a quick overview of their research. It will also give established members of CASS a chance to summarize their recent work. New graduate students are especially encouraged to attend. Pizza and soda will be provided. Journal Club is an informal environment in which graduate students can give short talks on any subject of interest to them, be it a recent paper, their own research, or any other topic. Talks will resume next week. All are welcome to attend.



October 11, 2019

 "Studying the Largest Objects in the Universe Undergoing the Largest Collisions in the Universe with the Largest (movable) Telescope on Earth"
Mark Devlin (12:00-1:00)

Professor
UPenn

 Abstract: Clusters of Galaxies are the largest gravitationally-bound objects in the Universe. They form via mergers with energetics that are only rivaled by the Big Bang. The study of these objects and collisions can reveal the complex processes that govern the interactions. Observations at 90 GHz with the Mustang instrument on the GBT provide high (9”) resolution of the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect inside the clusters. Observations with the MUSTANG instrument have unlocked a new view of these massive objects. I will also show exciting data from objects much closer to home.



October 18, 2019

 "Quantum nonfluctuations"
Eric L. Michelsen (12:00-1:00)

Physics Lecturer
UCSD-CASS



October 25, 2019

NOTE: CASS Annual Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Training
@ Noon in SERF 383


 Abstract: (in lieu of Journal Club)

Pizza & soda provided!

Helen Kaiser from the Office for the Prevention of Harassment & Discrimination (OPHD) will be the featured speaker. Everyone is encouraged to attend.



November 1, 2019

 "Measuring the Hubble constant from time-delays of strongly lensed quasars"
Anowar Shajib (12:00-1:00)

PhD candidate, Astronomy and Astrophysics
UCLA

 Abstract: The recent tension between early- and late-Universe measurements of the Hubble constant highlights the necessity for independent and precise probes such as the time-delay cosmography. The measured time-delays between the lensed images of a background quasar depend on the absolute physical scales in the lens configuration. Thus, the time-delays allow measurements of these scales to infer the Hubble constant, H_0. Due to a number of great advancements over the past decade in both the data quality and modeling techniques, the measurement of H_0 from the time-delays has fulfilled its promise to be competitive with other traditional methods such as the cosmic distance ladder. This is evident from the recent 2.4% blind measurement of H_0 from only six lenses (Wong et al. 2019). Simulation shows that a sample of nine lenses shrinks the uncertainty on this measurement to 2% (Shajib et al. 2018). I will present the Hubble constant measured from a newly analyzed lens system taking the sample size to seven. In addition, I will present the future roadmap of time-delay cosmography to independently reach 1% precision within a few years.



November 8, 2019

Dr. Patwardhan's Title: "Entanglement and collective flavor oscillations in a dense
neutrino gas"
Dr. Sen's Title: "The Dodelson-Widrow Mechanism in the presence of self-interacting
neutrinos"
Amol Patwardhan (12:00-12:30)

N3AS Postdoctoral Fellow
UC Berkeley and University of Washington (Institute for Nuclear Theory)

Dr. Patwardhan's Abstract: Abstract: We investigate the importance of going beyond the mean-field approximation in the dynamics of collective neutrino oscillations. To expand our understanding of the coherent neutrino oscillation problem, we apply concepts from many-body physics and quantum information theory. Specifically, we use measures of nontrivial correlations (otherwise known as “entanglement”) between the constituent neutrinos of the many-body system, such as the entanglement entropy and the Bloch vector of the reduced density matrix. The relevance of going beyond the mean field is demonstrated by comparisons between the evolution of the neutrino state in the many-body picture vs the mean-field limit, for different initial conditions.

Manibrata Sen (12:30-1:00)

N3AS Postdoctoral Fellow
UC Berkeley and Northwestern University



November 15, 2019

Cameron's Title: "Turbulence and Cosmic Rays Quench FIREs”
Cameron Trapp (12:00-12:30)

Physics Graduate Student
UCSD-CASS



November 22, 2019

Azton's Title: "Neural networks astrophysical simulations"
Azton Wells (12:00-12:30)

Physics Graduate Student
UCSD-CASS



November 29, 2019

NOTE: Thanksgiving holiday - No Journal Club



December 6, 2019

 "A Review of ‘Web SAMP and HTTPS: What to do?'"
Jen Ito (12:00-12:30)

Physics Graduate Student
UCSD-CASS


WINTER 2020


January 10, 2020

 "Testing the universality of free fall by tracking a pulsar in a stellar triple system"
Dan Gonzales (12:00-12:30)

Physics Graduate Student
UCSD-CASS



January 17, 2020

 "Active Learning in the Modern Classroom"
Sanchit Sabhlok (12:00-1:00)

Physics Graduate Student
UCSD-CASS

 Abstract: Over the past decade, an increasing number of studies have shown the benefits of Active Learning vs. Traditional Lecturing. In this Journal Club talk I review the results of a meta-study which compiled results of 225 individual studies in Science, Engineering and Mathematics to compare the impact of active learning vs. traditional lecturing. The results indicate an improvement of exam scores and a reduction of failure rates or withdrawals in classes that used active learning techniques.
Article Reference: https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/05/08/1319030111



January 24, 2020

 "BICEP3: Measuring the Polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background and
probing the CMB Cold Spot"
Jae Hwan Kang (12:00-1:00)

Graduate Student
Stanford University

 Abstract: BICEP3 is a small aperture refracting telescope at the South Pole to measure the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The main goal is to measure the primordial B-mode polarization at the degree angular scales, which holds a key to probe inflation theory. During the austral summer of 2018-19, we tested the feasibility of using BICEP3 to observe the CMB at low elevation. A particularly interesting feature in the extended field is the anomalous CMB Cold Spot. This talk will discuss the possibility of testing polarization anomaly deviating from the standard Gaussian fluctuation around the Cold Spot and present the progress of BICEP3 observation.



January 31, 2020

NOTE: No Journal Club Today



February 7, 2020

 "Potential Vorticity Mixing in a Tangled Magnetic Field"
Chang-Chun "Samantha" Chen (12:00-12:30)

Physics Graduate Student
UCSD-CASS

 Abstract: The theory of potential vorticity (PV) mixing in a disordered (tangled) magnetic field is presented. The analysis is in the context of β-plane MHD, with a special focus on the physics of momentum transport in the stably stratified, quasi-2D solar tachocline. A physical picture of mean PV evolution by vorticity advection and tilting of magnetic fields is proposed. In the case of weak field perturbations, quasilinear theory predicts that the Reynolds and magnetic stresses balance as turbulence Alfvénizes for the larger mean magnetic field. The jet formation is explored quantitatively in the mean field-resistivity parameter space. However, since even modest mean magnetic field leads to large magnetic perturbations for large magnetic Reynolds number, the physically relevant case is that of a strong but disordered field. We show that numerical calculations indicate that the Reynolds stress is modified well before Alfvénization — i.e. the balance of fluid and magnetic energies. To understand these trends, a double average model of PV mixing in a stochastic magnetic field is developed. Calculations indicate that mean square fields strongly modify Reynolds stress phase coherence and also induce a magnetic drag on zonal flows. The physics of transport reduction by tangled fields is elucidated and linked to the related quench of turbulent resistivity. A physical picture of the system as a resisto-elastic medium threaded by a tangled magnetic network is proposed. Applications of the theory to momentum transport in the tachocline and other systems are discussed in detail.



February 14, 2020

 "Axion dark matter detection with CMB polarization"
Jake Spisak (12:00-12:30)

Physics Graduate Student
UCSD-CASS



February 21, 2020

 "How Not to Read Graphs: Common Errors of Physics Students"
Nathan Butcher (12:00-1:00)

Physics Graduate Student
UCSD-CASS



February 28, 2020

 "Turbulence model reduction by deep learning"
Robin Heinonen (12:00-12:30)

Physics Graduate Student
UCSD-CASS



March 6, 2020

 "Extent of volatile loss and impact composition on the Moon"
Eleanor (Carrie) McIntosh (12:00-1:00)

Graduate Student
UCSD Scripps



March 13, 2020

 "Enhancement of shock-capturing methods via machine learning"
Azton Wells (12:00-12:30)

Physics Graduate Student
UCSD-CASS


SPRING 2020


April 3, 2020

NOTE: No seminar today due to COVID-19 outbreak



April 10, 2020

NOTE: No seminar today due to COVID-19 outbreak



April 17, 2020

NOTE: No seminar today due to COVID-19 outbreak



April 24, 2020

NOTE: No seminar today due to COVID-19 outbreak



May 1, 2020

NOTE: No seminar today due to COVID-19 outbreak



May 8, 2020

NOTE: No seminar today due to COVID-19 outbreak



May 15, 2020

NOTE: No seminar today due to COVID-19 outbreak



May 22, 2020

NOTE: No seminar today due to COVID-19 outbreak



May 29, 2020

NOTE: No seminar today due to COVID-19 outbreak



June 5, 2020

NOTE: No seminar today due to COVID-19 outbreak