Lecture

iTHEMS-UTokyo Intensive Lectures on Quantum Gravity

August 31 (Mon) - September 2 (Wed) 2026

Hikaru Kawai (Visiting Professor, Nambu Yoichiro Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (NITEP), Osaka Metropolitan University)

iTHEMS-UTokyo Intensive Lectures on Quantum Gravity (10th Quantum Gravity Gatherings Lecture Series) The 10th QGG Lecture Series is a special three-day installment of the intensive lecture series organized by the Quantum Gravity Gatherings (QGG) study group at RIKEN iTHEMS. This celebratory edition will feature Professor Hikaru Kawai from Nambu Yoichiro Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (NITEP), who will deliver a series of lectures on themes related to quantum gravity. This lecture series will follow a style similar to Prof. Kawai's first QGG lectures, held three years ago at RIKEN (Wako) as the inaugural QGG event, which explored fundamental questions in quantum gravity, string theory, and the quantum universe. A distinctive feature of this 10th installment is that it will take place on the Komaba campus of The University of Tokyo, where one of the iTHEMS satellite offices is located. This will be the first QGG lecture series held outside Wako, with the aim of making the event more accessible to a broader group of participants. Format: Lectures will be given mainly in blackboard style and in English, encouraging active participation and in-depth Q&A discussions. Poster sessions will also be held, giving participants an opportunity to present their own work or topics of interest. These sessions are intended to foster communication and stimulate the exchange of ideas among participants. This event will take place in person only. Target audience: Senior scholars, early-career researchers, and students are all warmly welcome. Registration deadline: July 31, 2026

Venue: 21 Komaba Center for Educational Excellence (21 KOMCEE) East Building, Room K214, Komaba Campus, The University of Tokyo

Event Official Language: English

RIKEN–IPMU mini-workshop on QCA and K-theory

August 24 (Mon) - 26 (Wed) 2026

Three-day lecture series by Bowen Yang, based on joint work with Mattie Ji (arXiv:2602.16572 and arXiv:2606.19657), in which quantum cellular automata are classified by an algebraic K-theory spectrum.

Venue: via Zoom / Lecture Hall, Kavli IPMU, The University of Tokyo

Event Official Language: English

Quantum Gravity and Emergent Cosmology: A Group Field Theory Perspective

July 31 (Fri) 14:00 - 16:00, 2026

Luca Marchetti (Project Researcher, Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU))

This seminar is the second part of a two-part mini-seminar series organized by the Quantum Gravity Gatherings study group. It is intended to have a more lecture-style format, with an extended duration of up to two hours. This will allow the speaker sufficient time to introduce the framework in a clear and pedagogical manner, while also leaving ample room for questions and discussion with the audience. Title: Quantum Gravity and Emergent Cosmology: A Group Field Theory Perspective Abstract: I will introduce the Group Field Theory (GFT) approach to quantum gravity, emphasizing its connections with matrix and tensor models, discrete gravity path integrals, and loop quantum gravity. Through these connections, GFTs emerge naturally as quantum field theories of "spacetime atoms". I will then discuss how semiclassical, macroscopic physics can emerge from GFT, touching upon the challenges of defining locality and coarse-graining in quantum gravity, and on how these can be naturally addressed within relational frameworks. I will present a concrete implementation of this relational strategy in GFT and show how a simple relational coarse-graining scheme can be used to extract cosmological physics. Within the resulting cosmological models, the initial singularity is resolved into a quantum bounce, while cosmological perturbations emerge from the quantum entanglement of the underlying quantum-gravity degrees of freedom, with effective dynamics modified on trans-Planckian scales. Finally, I will show that quantum-gravitational interactions alone can generate cosmic acceleration, leading both to dynamical dark energy and to a slow-roll inflationary phase. I will conclude by showing recent observational constraints on such emergent dynamical dark energy models, and by providing an outlook on future research directions.

Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Main Research Building

Event Official Language: English

Quantum Reference Frames for Quantum Gravity

July 30 (Thu) 14:00 - 16:00, 2026

Luca Marchetti (Project Researcher, Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU))

This seminar is the first part of a two-part mini-seminar series organized by the Quantum Gravity Gatherings study group. It is intended to have a more lecture-style format, with an extended duration of up to two hours. This will allow the speaker sufficient time to introduce the framework in a clear and pedagogical manner, while also leaving ample room for questions and discussion with the audience. Title: Quantum Reference Frames for Quantum Gravity Abstract: Internal quantum reference frames provide a general framework for handling symmetries in quantum theory, with applications ranging from quantum gravity and gauge theories to quantum information and foundational physics. I will first introduce the formalism in simple mechanical systems, before turning to classical gravity. There, I will motivate the need for internal, dynamical frames in background-independent theories to define relationally local gauge-invariant observables, and show how this framework leads to a relational update of general covariance: frame covariance. I will then move to non-perturbative quantum gravity, showing how quantum reference frames can be used to define a manifestly gauge-invariant relational path integral, which is also invariant under transformations between quantum reference frames. It therefore provides a perspective-neutral description of quantum gravitational physics. I will also discuss the associated relational effective actions. Although effective actions are, in general, not frame-covariant off shell, the on-shell physics they encode is. Finally, I will present several physical consequences of this framework, including the fuzziness of frame-changed local correlators, the non-trivial interplay between quantum-reference-frame transformations and time evolution, and the frame-dependence properties of ground sectors and Hartle-Hawking prescriptions. I will conclude by outlining future directions, with particular emphasis on a relational notion of the renormalization group flow.

Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Main Research Building

Event Official Language: English

An optimal transport and information geometric framework for infinite-dimensional Gaussian measures and Gaussian processes (II)

July 28 (Tue) 15:00 - 16:15, 2026

Minh Ha Quang (Senior Research Scientist, Imperfect Information Learning Team, RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project (AIP))

Divergences between probability distributions play a crucial role in many areas of probability theory, statistics, machine learning, and their applications. While a large part of the literature is focused on divergences between finite-dimensional distributions, there is a growing body of work on infinite-dimensional distances/divergences, which are motivated by applications in functional data analysis, Bayesian inverse problems, and functional Bayesian neural networks, among others. In this lecture, we present an overview of recent results on some of the most important divergences being studied, including the Kullback-Leibler, Renyi, and Geometric Jensen-Shannon divergences. We discuss the many challenges that arise in the infinite-dimensional setting, e.g. the lack of a natural reference measure such as the Lebesgue measure and the fact that many functions such as determinants and logarithm are only well-defined in specific settings. In particular, in the setting of Gaussian measures on infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces, the closed form expressions for the above divergences are only generalizable to equivalent Gaussian measures. We present the resolution to the above challenges via the geometrical framework of positive definite unitized (or regularized) trace class and Hilbert-Schmidt operators, including the Alpha and Alpha-Beta Log-Determinant divergences. Using this framework and the methodology of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces (RKHS), we furthermore obtain consistent finite-dimensional  approximations of the above divergences in the Gaussian process setting, with dimensional-independent sample complexities. The resulting numerical algorithms can be readily employed in practical applications. We shall also discuss the generalization of the above classical divergences above to the quantum setting, namely the Quantum Jensen-Shannon divergence between quantum states, defined in terms of the von Neumann and Tsallis entropies, from finite to infinite-dimensional settings.

Venue: Seminar Room #359 (Main Venue) / via Zoom

Event Official Language: English

An optimal transport and information geometric framework for infinite-dimensional Gaussian measures and Gaussian processes (I)

July 28 (Tue) 13:30 - 14:45, 2026

Minh Ha Quang (Senior Research Scientist, Imperfect Information Learning Team, RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project (AIP))

Optimal transport (OT) and information geometry (IG) have been attracting much research attention in various fields, in particular machine learning and statistics. In this lecture, we present results on the generalization of IG and OT distances for finite-dimensional Gaussian measures to the setting of infinite-dimensional Gaussian measures and Gaussian processes. Our focus is on the Entropic Regularization of the 2-Wasserstein distance and the generalization of the Fisher-Rao Riemannian metric and related quantities. In both settings, regularization leads to many desirable theoretical properties, including in particular dimension-independent convergence and sample complexity. The mathematical formulation involves the interplay of IG and OT with Gaussian processes and the methodology of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces (RKHS). All of the presented formulations admit closed form expressions that can be efficiently computed and applied practically. The mathematical formulations will be illustrated with numerical experiments on Gaussian processes.

Venue: Seminar Room #359 (Main Venue) / via Zoom

Event Official Language: English

Lectures on Quantum Measurement Theory: IV

June 30 (Tue) 15:30 - 17:00, 2026

Masanao Ozawa (Professor Emeritus, Nagoya University)

Lecture IV: Instruments in classical mechanics, quantum field theory, and cognitive science In algebraic quantum field theory, measurements describable by interactions between the field and the measuring apparatus are characterized by the class of completely positive instruments that satisfy the condition called the normal extension property (NEP) (Okamura-Ozawa 2016). In classical mechanics, traditionally only non-invasive measurements—those with trivial interaction—were considered admissible, for the observability of the trajectory of motion. Here, however, the full class of measurements realizable by classical-mechanical interactions is characterized in terms of instruments with NEP for the basis of the study of invasive measurements of classical systems. Cognitive processes are also represented by completely positive instruments, along with the long-standing paradigm provided by von Helmholtz, who described a sensation-perception process as a sort of measuring interaction and referred to it as an unconscious inference. This framework is used to show the compatibility of the question order effect and the response replicability effect (Ozawa-Khrennikov 2019), which failed to be explained in an earlier approach using only projective measurement models. It is shown that there exists an instrument model, realizing both the question order effect and the response replicability effect, that is also capable of almost faithfully reproducing public-opinion survey data such as the well-known Clinton-Gore survey by Gallup in 1997 (Ozawa-Khrennikov 2021).

Venue: Seminar Room #359 (Main Venue) / via Zoom

Event Official Language: English

Lectures on Quantum Measurement Theory: III

June 23 (Tue) 15:30 - 17:00, 2026

Masanao Ozawa (Professor Emeritus, Nagoya University)

Lecture III: Measurement error, disturbance, the universally valid reformulation of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, and a quantitative generalization of the Wigner–Araki–Yanase theorem Definitions of measurement error and disturbance are introduced (Ozawa 2002, 2019) and it is shown that there exists a solvable model for a physically realizable measurement that serves as a counterexample both to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle in the conventional formulation and to the SQL (Ozawa 1988, 1989, 2002). Thus, those limits are no more considered as universal limits. In fact, the above counter example to SQL was found in 1988 using the idea of contractive state measurements by Yuen (1983) and the LIGO was started in 1994 to succeed in the gravitational wave detection in 2015 as announced in 2016. New formulations are then proved for the uncertainty principle concerning the errors in the approximate simultaneous measurement of two physical quantities, called the "joint error relation" (Ozawa 2003b, 2004), and for the uncertainty principle concerning the error and disturbance associated with the measurement of a single physical quantity, called the "error-disturbance relation" (Ozawa 2003a). From the error-disturbance relation, a quantitative relation for measurement error under an additive conservation law is proved (Ozawa 2002a, 2003b), generalizing the "Wigner–Araki–Yanase theorem" (Wigner 1952, Araki-Yanase 1960), which states that a physical quantity not commuting with a conserved quantity cannot be measured accurately by a measurement interaction satisfying an additive conservation law. The above relation also derives limits for realizing quantum computing and operations under conservation laws (Ozawa 2002b), the results later developed as the resource theory of asymmetry.

Venue: Seminar Room #359 (Main Venue) / via Zoom

Event Official Language: English

Lectures on Quantum Measurement Theory: II

June 16 (Tue) 15:30 - 17:00, 2026

Masanao Ozawa (Professor Emeritus, Nagoya University)

Lecture II: Modern approach: Quantum instruments, POVMs, measuring processes, intersubjectivity, and value reproducibility The modern approach to quantum measurement theory is based on the "realizability theorem" stating that a measurement is physically realizable if and only if its statistical properties are represented by a completely positive instrument, and this is also equivalent to saying that the measurement can be described by an interaction with a measuring apparatus (Ozawa 1984, 2004). The conventional analysis of a measuring process determines the post-measurement object state by applying the "projection postulate" to the meter measurement in the post-measurement state that "entangles" the object and the apparatus, but the above result has been established without assuming the projection postulate altogether; rather we use only the classical Bayesian probability update rule (Ozawa 1984). We introduce the "intersubjectivity theorem" that states that, when multiple observers simultaneously and statistically correctly measure the same physical quantity, they obtain the same measurement value and the "value reproducibility theorem" that states that a statistically correct measurement correctly reproduces the value of the physical quantity immediately before the measurement (Ozawa 2025). The above three theorems essentially solves the so-called measurement problem, since we eliminate the collapse of the wave function and we establish the reality of the the pre-measurement value of the measured observable to be copied to the meter value and to be recorded by the observer.

Venue: Seminar Room #359 (Main Venue) / via Zoom

Event Official Language: English

Lectures on Quantum Measurement Theory: I

June 2 (Tue) 15:30 - 17:00, 2026

Masanao Ozawa (Professor Emeritus, Nagoya University)

Lecture I: Conventional approach: Repeatability, Heisenberg’s original uncertainty principle, and the SQL for gravitational-wave detection The conventional approach to quantum measurement theory taken by von Neumann (1932), Dirac (1958), and Schrödinger (1935) assumes the "repeatability hypothesis" stating that if a physical quantity is measured twice in succession, then the same value is obtained each time, which is often quantitatively generalized to the "approximately repeatable hypothesis" stating that after a measurement of a physical quantity with error ε, the post-measurement deviation around the measured value is no larger than ε; this is equivalent to saying that the state after obtaining a measurement result with error ε becomes an ε-approximate eigenstate corresponding to that measurement result. From the approximate repeatability hypothesis, one can derive "Heisenberg’s original formulation of the uncertainty principle," namely, that when position and momentum are approximately measured simultaneously, the product of their respective errors is at least ℏ/2 (Heisenberg 1927, Kennard 1927, Ozawa 2015), as well as the "standard quantum limit (SQL) for monitoring the free-mass position", which states that when the position of a free mass m is measured at a time interval τ, the result of the second measurement cannot be predicted with uncertainty smaller than (ℏτ/ m)^{1/2} (Caves 1985). The last result leads to a sensitivity limit for interferometric gravitational-wave detectors, and in the early 1980s it was therefore argued that gravitational waves of the expected strength could not be observed using interferometric detectors (Braginsky et al. 1980, Caves et al. 1980).

Venue: Seminar Room #359 (Main Venue) / via Zoom

Event Official Language: English

Quantum Simulation of Non-Abelian Gauge Theories: Correcting Common Misconceptions (3/3)

April 7 (Tue) 18:00 - 19:30, 2026

Masanori Hanada (Reader, School of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, UK)

Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Seminar Room #359

Event Official Language: Japanese

Quantum Simulation of Non-Abelian Gauge Theories: Correcting Common Misconceptions (2/3)

March 31 (Tue) 18:00 - 19:00, 2026

Masanori Hanada (Reader, School of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, UK)

Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Seminar Room #359

Event Official Language: Japanese

Quantum Simulation of Non-Abelian Gauge Theories: Correcting Common Misconceptions (1/3)

March 24 (Tue) 18:00 - 19:00, 2026

Masanori Hanada (Reader, School of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, UK)

Venue: Hybrid Format (3F #359 and Zoom), Seminar Room #359

Event Official Language: Japanese

9th QGG Intensive Lectures – Correlation Effects in Quantum Many-Body Systems: Some Prototypical Examples in Condensed Matter Physics

November 19 (Wed) - 20 (Thu) 2025

Norio Kawakami (Deputy Director, Fundamental Quantum Science Program, TRIP Headquarters, RIKEN)

The ninth installment of the Intensive Lecture Series, organized by the Quantum Gravity Gatherings (QGG) study group at RIKEN iTHEMS, will feature Prof. Norio Kawakami from the Fundamental Quantum Science Program (FQSP) under RIKEN's Transformative Research Innovative Platform (TRIP). Over the course of two days, Prof. Kawakami will deliver a lecture series on quantum many-body systems. In recent years, insights from quantum many-body physics have become central to research in quantum gravity, where correlation effects induced by gravity play nontrivial roles. By bridging perspectives from gravitational physics and quantum many-body dynamics, one hopes to understand how macroscopic spacetime and its geometric properties emerge from the collective behavior of quantum constituents at microscopic scales. In this lecture series, Prof. Kawakami will introduce the fundamental properties of correlation effects through representative examples in condensed matter physics. A distinctive aspect of this event is its joint organization with the Fundamental Quantum Science Program (FQSP) at RIKEN. The goal is to further strengthen connections between the quantum gravity, condensed matter, and quantum information communities. The lectures will be delivered in a blackboard-style format (in English), designed to foster interaction, active participation, and in-depth Q&A discussions. In addition, short talk sessions will be held, giving participants the opportunity to present briefly on topics of their choice. Through this informal and dynamic setting, we hope to spark active interactions among participants and create an environment where ideas can be shared openly and enthusiastically. Abstract: Some examples of theoretical methods to treat strongly correlated systems in condensed matter physics are explained. We start with the Kondo effect, which is one of the most fundamental quantum many-body problems and has been intensively studied to date in a wide variety of topics such as dilute magnetic alloys, heavy fermion systems, quantum dot systems, etc. Dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) is then introduced, which enables us to systematically treat strongly correlated materials such as a Mott insulator. It is shown that the essence of DMFT is closely related to the Kondo effect. Furthermore, we explain how to apply conformal field theory (CFT) to treat correlation effects in one-dimensional electron systems.

Venue: #435-437, 4F, Main Research Building

Event Official Language: English

Lectures on Neutron Star Structure IV

October 28 (Tue) 15:30 - 17:00, 2025

Mark Alford (Professor, Washington University in St. Louis, USA)

This is a lecture series by Prof. Mark Alford (Washington University in St. Louis) on the structure of neutron stars. Oct. 7 (Tues), 15:30-17:00 Lecture I : Quark matter: the high-density frontier The densest predicted state of matter is color-superconducting quark matter, which has some affinities to electrical superconductors, but a much richer phase structure because quarks come in many varieties. This form of matter may well exist in the core of compact stars, and the search for signatures of its presence is currently proceeding. I will review the nature of color-superconducting quark matter, and discuss some ideas for finding it in nature. Oct. 14 (Tues), 15:30-17:00 Lecture II: Solid quark matter I will review three ways in which quark matter can occur in a solid phase, where translational invariance is broken by some sort of crystalline structure. These include a color superconductor of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov type, mixed phases that can arise at a nuclear/quark matter interface, and the strangelet crystal crust of a strange star. Oct. 21 (Tues), 15:30-17:00 Lecture III: Dissipation in neutron star mergers In a neutron star merger, nuclear matter experiences dramatic changes in temperature and density that happen in milliseconds. Mergers therefore probe dynamical properties that may help us uncover the phase structure of ultra-dense matter. I will describe some of the relevant material properties, focusing on flavor equilibration and its consequences such as bulk viscosity and damping of oscillations. Oct. 28 (Tues), 15:30-17:00 Lecture IV: Neutrinos in dense matter: beyond modified Urca Neutrino absorption and emission (the "Urca process") is an essential aspect of the formation and cooling of neutron stars and of the dynamics of neutron star mergers. In this talk I will describe the traditional way of calculating Urca rates, explain its shortfalls, and propose an alternative approach, the nucleon width approximation.

Venue: Seminar Room #359, Seminar Room #359 (Main Venue) / via Zoom

Event Official Language: English

Lectures on Neutron Star Structure III

October 21 (Tue) 15:30 - 17:00, 2025

Mark Alford (Professor, Washington University in St. Louis, USA)

This is a lecture series by Prof. Mark Alford (Washington University in St. Louis) on the structure of neutron stars. Oct. 7 (Tues), 15:30-17:00 Lecture I : Quark matter: the high-density frontier The densest predicted state of matter is color-superconducting quark matter, which has some affinities to electrical superconductors, but a much richer phase structure because quarks come in many varieties. This form of matter may well exist in the core of compact stars, and the search for signatures of its presence is currently proceeding. I will review the nature of color-superconducting quark matter, and discuss some ideas for finding it in nature. Oct. 14 (Tues), 15:30-17:00 Lecture II: Solid quark matter I will review three ways in which quark matter can occur in a solid phase, where translational invariance is broken by some sort of crystalline structure. These include a color superconductor of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov type, mixed phases that can arise at a nuclear/quark matter interface, and the strangelet crystal crust of a strange star. Oct. 21 (Tues), 15:30-17:00 Lecture III: Dissipation in neutron star mergers In a neutron star merger, nuclear matter experiences dramatic changes in temperature and density that happen in milliseconds. Mergers therefore probe dynamical properties that may help us uncover the phase structure of ultra-dense matter. I will describe some of the relevant material properties, focusing on flavor equilibration and its consequences such as bulk viscosity and damping of oscillations. Oct. 28 (Tues), 15:30-17:00 Lecture IV: Neutrinos in dense matter: beyond modified Urca Neutrino absorption and emission (the "Urca process") is an essential aspect of the formation and cooling of neutron stars and of the dynamics of neutron star mergers. In this talk I will describe the traditional way of calculating Urca rates, explain its shortfalls, and propose an alternative approach, the nucleon width approximation.

Venue: Seminar Room #359 (Main Venue) / via Zoom

Event Official Language: English

Lectures on Neutron Star Structure II

October 14 (Tue) 15:30 - 17:00, 2025

Mark Alford (Professor, Washington University in St. Louis, USA)

This is a lecture series by Prof. Mark Alford (Washington University in St. Louis) on the structure of neutron stars. Oct. 7 (Tues), 15:30-17:00 Lecture I: Quark matter: the high-density frontier The densest predicted state of matter is color-superconducting quark matter, which has some affinities to electrical superconductors, but a much richer phase structure because quarks come in many varieties. This form of matter may well exist in the core of compact stars, and the search for signatures of its presence is currently proceeding. I will review the nature of color-superconducting quark matter, and discuss some ideas for finding it in nature. Oct. 14 (Tues), 15:30-17:00 Lecture II: Solid quark matter I will review three ways in which quark matter can occur in a solid phase, where translational invariance is broken by some sort of crystalline structure. These include a color superconductor of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov type, mixed phases that can arise at a nuclear/quark matter interface, and the strangelet crystal crust of a strange star. Oct. 21 (Tues), 15:30-17:00 Lecture III: Dissipation in neutron star mergers In a neutron star merger, nuclear matter experiences dramatic changes in temperature and density that happen in milliseconds. Mergers therefore probe dynamical properties that may help us uncover the phase structure of ultra-dense matter. I will describe some of the relevant material properties, focusing on flavor equilibration and its consequences such as bulk viscosity and damping of oscillations. Oct. 28 (Tues), 15:30-17:00 Lecture IV: Neutrinos in dense matter: beyond modified Urca Neutrino absorption and emission (the "Urca process") is an essential aspect of the formation and cooling of neutron stars and of the dynamics of neutron star mergers. In this talk I will describe the traditional way of calculating Urca rates, explain its shortfalls, and propose an alternative approach, the nucleon width approximation.

Venue: Seminar Room #359 (Main Venue) / via Zoom

Event Official Language: English

Lectures on Neutron Star Structure I

October 7 (Tue) 15:30 - 17:00, 2025

Mark Alford (Professor, Washington University in St. Louis, USA)

This is a lecture series by Prof. Mark Alford (Washington University in St. Louis) on the structure of neutron stars. Oct. 7 (Tues), 15:30-17:00 Lecture I: Quark matter: the high-density frontier The densest predicted state of matter is color-superconducting quark matter, which has some affinities to electrical superconductors, but a much richer phase structure because quarks come in many varieties. This form of matter may well exist in the core of compact stars, and the search for signatures of its presence is currently proceeding. I will review the nature of color-superconducting quark matter, and discuss some ideas for finding it in nature. Oct. 14 (Tues), 15:30-17:00 Lecture II: Solid quark matter I will review three ways in which quark matter can occur in a solid phase, where translational invariance is broken by some sort of crystalline structure. These include a color superconductor of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov type, mixed phases that can arise at a nuclear/quark matter interface, and the strangelet crystal crust of a strange star. Oct. 21 (Tues), 15:30-17:00 Lecture III: Dissipation in neutron star mergers In a neutron star merger, nuclear matter experiences dramatic changes in temperature and density that happen in milliseconds. Mergers therefore probe dynamical properties that may help us uncover the phase structure of ultra-dense matter. I will describe some of the relevant material properties, focusing on flavor equilibration and its consequences such as bulk viscosity and damping of oscillations. Oct. 28 (Tues), 15:30-17:00 Lecture IV: Neutrinos in dense matter: beyond modified Urca Neutrino absorption and emission (the "Urca process") is an essential aspect of the formation and cooling of neutron stars and of the dynamics of neutron star mergers. In this talk I will describe the traditional way of calculating Urca rates, explain its shortfalls, and propose an alternative approach, the nucleon width approximation.

Venue: Seminar Room #359 (Main Venue) / via Zoom

Event Official Language: English