The Stoner Colloquium: A Brief History of Time Crystals
- Date: Tuesday 3 May 2022, 17:30 – 18:30
- Location: Rupert Beckett Lecture Theatre
- Cost: Free
Join Professor Shivaji Sondhi as he discusses the events leading up to last year’s creation of a time crystal by a team at Google's Quantum AI group.
The one-hour lecture will take a tour of the history leading to this result. That history will illustrate multiple interesting themes in Physics: the power of thermodynamics and what it takes to defeat it, how modern physicists like to organize phenomena by symmetry, the continuing evolution of Physics from being a natural science to one which increasingly studies artificial systems.
Shivaji Sondhi is a theoretical condensed matter physicist. He was born in India, received his PhD from UCLA, spent a quarter century at Princeton and is now the Wykeham Professor of Physics at Oxford. He is known for his work on the quantum Hall effect including the discovery of skyrmions, on quantum magnetism where he shared the Europhysics Prize for the discovery of magnetic monopoles, for the discovery of time crystals and for work on quantum many body physics and statistical mechanics more broadly.
This one hour lecture starts at 17:30, followed by a small reception.
Please book your place using the links below:
Attend in person: https://stoner2022-sondhi.eventbrite.co.uk
Watch online: https://stoner2022-sondhi-online.eventbrite.co.uk
The Stoner Colloquia are lectures given by prestigious guest speakers invited by the School of Physics and Astronomy. These special events are held in honour of Professor E.C. Stoner, who was a Professor at the University of Leeds from 1939 to 1963 and held the Cavendish Chair of Physics from 1951 to 1963. These events are open to everyone with attendees ranging from 6th form students to retired Professors. Therefore, the topics covered are accessible to a wide audience.
Established speakers are selected by the Research and Innovation Committee and are invited to visit the School and meet with academics in different research areas. The Colloquium should last for 45 minutes, followed by a question-and-answer session. A reception is held within the School afterwards.