Seminars

• Physics Colloquium

  Hydra Morphogenesis – where Biology meets Physics

  Oded Agam, Hebrew University

  13 May 2025, 12:00 Ilse Katz Institute for Nanoscale Science & Technology (51), room 015

• Astrophysics and Cosmology Seminar

  FRBs and Long-period radio transients

  Sergei B. Popov, Moscow State University

  14 May 2025, 11:10 Sacta-Rashi Building for Physics (54), room 207

• Quantum optics seminar

  Levitated diamond particles for spin-levitodynamics experiments

  Simon Baier, Innsbruck University

  14 May 2025, 16:00 Zoom Only

Astrophysics and Cosmology

Gravitational Lensing and High Redshift Galaxies

Adi Zitrin

Galaxy Cluster Abell 370 and its famous gravitational arcs, imaged with the Hubble Space Telescope.

Massive galaxy clusters bend light rays from background sources to form magnified, distorted, and multiple arcs. Using this Gravitational Lensing phenomenon, we can map the Dark Matter distribution of the lens, invisible otherwise. Thanks to the magnification power from lensing we can also access increasingly fainter and high-redshift (earlier) galaxies, and study the evolution of the first generation galaxies and the Reionization of the Universe.

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.

Seminars

• Physics Colloquium

  Hydra Morphogenesis – where Biology meets Physics

  Oded Agam, Hebrew University

  13 May 2025, 12:00 Ilse Katz Institute for Nanoscale Science & Technology (51), room 015

• Astrophysics and Cosmology Seminar

  FRBs and Long-period radio transients

  Sergei B. Popov, Moscow State University

  14 May 2025, 11:10 Sacta-Rashi Building for Physics (54), room 207

• Quantum optics seminar

  Levitated diamond particles for spin-levitodynamics experiments

  Simon Baier, Innsbruck University

  14 May 2025, 16:00 Zoom Only

Condensed Matter Theory

Topological Supercoductors and Majorana Fermions

Eytan Grosfeld

Majorana fermion based superconducting qubit

We are interested in properties of topological superconductors, a fascinating state of matter that could be harnessed to create a new type of quantum computer [E. Ginossar and E. Grosfeld, Nature Communications 5, 4772 (2014), Tunability of microwave transitions as a signature of coherent parity mixing effects in the Majorana-transmon qubit.]

Condensed Matter Experimental

Mechanical properties on the nm scale

Yishay Manassen

Strain map from Gd islands and Local young modulus of nanoparticles.

The scanning tunneling microscope is a device capable of observing an image with atomic resolution and is capable of observing physical phenomena on the atomic scale. In this study we are interested in the nm scale mechanical properties, normally studied macroscopically, which can vary in different locations on the surface. These properties are the stress and strain tensors, the elastic constants, the surface energy and stress. These values can be measured either using a external perturbation (the STM tip) or internal perturbation (a heteroepitaxial island, chemical reaction).

Seminars

• Physics Colloquium

  Hydra Morphogenesis – where Biology meets Physics

  Oded Agam, Hebrew University

  13 May 2025, 12:00 Ilse Katz Institute for Nanoscale Science & Technology (51), room 015

• Astrophysics and Cosmology Seminar

  FRBs and Long-period radio transients

  Sergei B. Popov, Moscow State University

  14 May 2025, 11:10 Sacta-Rashi Building for Physics (54), room 207

• Quantum optics seminar

  Levitated diamond particles for spin-levitodynamics experiments

  Simon Baier, Innsbruck University

  14 May 2025, 16:00 Zoom Only

High-Energy Physics

Effective Theories and Quantum Gravity

Eran Palti

Effective theories are simplified physics models which neglect high-energy processes. If those theories include gravitational physics, then the omitted high-energy physics must include that of Quantum Gravity. Not all effective theories can be consistently completed at high energies into Quantum Gravity. Those which can are said to belong to the Landscape of effective theories. While those which cannot are said to belong to the Swampland of inconsistent theories. We study what are the criteria which differentiate an effective theory in the Landscape from one in the Swampland.

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.