researchseminars.org

Nicole Yunger Halpern (NIST, QuICS and University of Maryland)
2022-07-11 17:00 - 18:00 UTC | https://researchseminars.org/talk/IIPSeminar2022/1/
Title: MBL-mobile: Many-body-localized engine (https://researchseminars.org/talk/IIPSeminar2022/1/)
by Nicole Yunger Halpern (NIST, QuICS and University of Maryland) as part of Virtual Seminar of the International Institute of Physics 2022

Abstract
Many-body-localized (MBL) systems do not thermalize under their intrinsic dynamics. The athermality of MBL, we propose, can be harnessed for thermodynamic tasks. We illustrate this ability by formulating an Otto engine cycle for a quantum many-body system. The system is ramped between a strongly localized MBL regime and a thermal (or weakly localized) regime. The difference between the energy-level correlations of MBL systems and of thermal systems enables mesoscale engines to run in parallel in the thermodynamic limit, enhances the engine’s reliability, and suppresses worst-case trials. We estimate analytically and calculate numerically the engine’s efficiency and per- cycle power. The efficiency mirrors the efficiency of the conventional thermodynamic Otto engine. This work introduces a thermodynamic lens onto MBL, which, having been studied much recently, can now be leveraged in thermodynamic tasks

Kathryn Tunyasuvunakool (DeepMind)
2022-10-31 17:00 - 18:00 | https://researchseminars.org/talk/IIPSeminar2022/2/
Title: Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AI (https://researchseminars.org/talk/IIPSeminar2022/2/)
by Kathryn Tunyasuvunakool (DeepMind) as part of Virtual Seminar of the International Institute of Physics 2022

Abstract
There is increasing interest in applying AI methods to problems in the sciences. Particularly in biology, these methods hold the promise of extracting actionable hypotheses from complex data, and developing practically useful predictive models. In this talk, I'll discuss a specific example: the recent progress in predicting a protein's 3D structure from its amino acid sequence, in particular using the model AlphaFold. While the focus will be on how this model works and how it's being applied in the life sciences, I'll also try to touch on the relationship between AlphaFold and protein physics.

Isabel Garcia Garcia (NYU and IAS, Princeton)
2022-11-07 17:00 - 18:00 | https://researchseminars.org/talk/IIPSeminar2022/3/
Title: Gravity and Effective Field Theory (https://researchseminars.org/talk/IIPSeminar2022/3/)
by Isabel Garcia Garcia (NYU and IAS, Princeton) as part of Virtual Seminar of the International Institute of Physics 2022

Abstract
From the cosmological constant to the smallness of the weak scale to the strong-CP problem, the problems of the Standard Model are problems of effective field theory. Yet improvements in our understanding of gravity -- from the absence of global symmetries to the subextensive entropy of black holes -- challenge some of our long-held views on the applicability of this framework.

I will discuss how gravitational considerations provide an opportunity to get a new perspective on some of the long-standing puzzles in particle physics. I will emphasize the role of semiclassical gravity techniques and black hole thought experiments on our improved understanding of gravitational theories, and argue that only a combination of new theoretical developments and original ideas, confronted with the vast array of experiments at our disposal, will provide us with the big picture we need to discover what comes next.
