Wilczek's 8 Lectures:Advanced Topics in Theoretical Physics
- Frank Wilczek
- Jan 9, 2024
- 1 min read
The first lecture or two will be devoted to the confinement problem of QCD, leading including new ideas about flux tubes and their junctions (“treeons”), channeling flux, and a new approach to hadronic matter that these insights suggest.
The next 5-6 lectures will revolve around time reversal symmetry (T). This will lead us through the foundational work that establishes the “strong T problem” as a shortcoming of the standard model of fundamental physics. Topics include Kramers’ theorem, anomalies, instantons, and the deep structure of the standard model itself. Then I will discuss axion physics: how addressing the strong T problem leads us to introduce axions, their properties, their potential to make the “dark matter” of the universe, and the ongoing quest to detect the cosmic axion background experimentally. I will discuss in some detail the ALPHA project, which is one such effort, that brings in new ideas for resonator design, metamaterials, and quantum sensing. Then I will discuss how T violation manifests itself in laboratory experiments, both as a fundamental phenomenon and as an emergent characteristic of several interesting, technologically significant materials. Finally, in this series, I will discuss the established and potential role of T violation in biology, also touching on biological P violation as a interesting role model.
Finally, if time permits, I will discuss metastability in matter and cosmology; specifically, indicators of eventual decay that can be seen well before that happens (or not). This leads in several interesting directions …
Click the links to listen to the lectures. Wilczek's lectures 1, Lecture 2, Lecture 3, Lecture 4, Lecture 5, Lecture 6, Lecture 7,Lecture 8
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