Grainger College of Engineering Seminars & Speakers

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Physics Colloquium: "When a Symmetry Breaks"

Event Type
Seminar/Symposium
Sponsor
Department of Physics
Location
Loomis Lab 141 and via Zoom
Virtual
wifi event
Date
Nov 13, 2024   4:00 pm  
Speaker
Hitoshi Murayama (Berkeley)
Contact
Kelly Darr
E-Mail
khdarr@illinois.edu
Phone
217-300-7821
Views
262
Originating Calendar
Physics - Colloquium

What is common among a magnet, a flounder, a rack of laundry, your heart on the left of your body, and the Higgs boson? The concept of spontaneous symmetry breaking is ubiquitous among many natural phenomena. I'll describe the basic concept and its applications. In particular, the original concepts from Anderson, Nambu, Goldstone, and Higgs do not quite work in many systems that include a magnet on your fridge. I generalize the concept so that it is applicable to all known natural phenomena around us.

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