Seminars

• Biological and soft-matter physics

  Electron Spin as a Functional Parameter in Biological Electron Transfer

  Nir Sukenik, 1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southern California

  02 Jul 2026, 12:10 Sacta-Rashi Building for Physics (54), room 207

Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics

Attosecond Science and Nanophotonics Lab

Eugene Frumker

We are setting up a brand-new research laboratory of Attosecond Science and Nanophotonics in the Physics Department of the Ben-Gurion University. In our group, we focus on both experimental and theoretical studies at the interface of ultrafast nonlinear optics, attosecond science and nanoscience. More specifically, our work involves generation, measurement and control of the interaction of light and matter in atoms, molecules and nanosystems in space and time at extremely short (attosecond=10^(-18)sec) time scales. Our interests range from fundamental physical phenomena to applications.

High-Energy Physics

QCD at High Energies

Michael Lublinsky

Different resolution of the proton structure as probed by virtual photons in ep collisions.

We have entered the fascinating era of the Large Hadron Collider. The microscopic theory describing the structure of protons and nuclei is the theory of strong interactions, known as Quantum ChromoDynamics (QCD). Even though the fundamental theory is known, it is extremely difficult to deduce results of collision processes from first principle QCD calculations. This is due to complexity of the theory involving mutual interactions between gluons, the "photons" of strong interactions.

Seminars

• Biological and soft-matter physics

  Electron Spin as a Functional Parameter in Biological Electron Transfer

  Nir Sukenik, 1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southern California

  02 Jul 2026, 12:10 Sacta-Rashi Building for Physics (54), room 207

Condensed Matter Theory

Disordered Systems

Yevgeny Bar Lev

Characterization of the anomalous ergodic phase, leaves many questions open.

Disorder allows avoiding thermalization and defy conventional statistical mechanics, through the mechanisms of Anderson or many-body localization. We study these ergodicity breaking mechanisms in detail. In particular the nature of transport and correlations spreading in systems on the verge of localization.

Condensed Matter Experimental

Noise in strongly correlated systems

Grzegorz Jung

Normalized spectral density and R(T) for distinct resistivity states

To many physicist the subject of fluctuations appears esoteric and even pointless; spontaneous fluctuations seem nothing but an unwanted evil which only an unwise experimenter would encounter. In reality, noise enables a deep insight into physics of the system. Recently, we have employed noise to discriminate various resistivity states in the ferromagnetic insulating manganite La0.86Ca0.14MnO3. Different states arise due to transitions between local minima of the electronic glass potential landscape. Remarkably, freezing into the glass state is marked by the onset of non-Gaussian noise.

Seminars

• Biological and soft-matter physics

  Electron Spin as a Functional Parameter in Biological Electron Transfer

  Nir Sukenik, 1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southern California

  02 Jul 2026, 12:10 Sacta-Rashi Building for Physics (54), room 207

Biological and Soft Matter Physics

Mechanisms of Species Diversity Change in Stressed Environments

Ehud Meron

The impacts of environmental changes on species diversity, and thus on ecosystem function and stability, is a central topic of current ecological research. At the landscape scale, where symmetry breaking vegetation patterns appear, a transition from one pattern state to another may take place (Animation). Using a mathematical modeling approach, we developed a theory of plant communities in water limited system, and are currently using it to highlight mechanisms of species diversity change in response to climate changes and disturbances.

Astrophysics and Cosmology

The largest objects: galaxy clusters

Uri Keshet

Galaxy clusters, as the largest virialized objects ever to form in the Universe, link cosmology and astrophysics. These 'island-universe' objects are mainly composed of dark matter and a hot, dilute plasma. Their stability is an open question, as the strong X-ray emission should have naively led to catastrophic cooling and collapse. Over the past decade, mysterious spiral structures were found in practically all clusters. They may be driven by the giant black hole lurking in the center of every cluster, for example through the relativistically hot bubbles it injects into the plasma (figure).