November 3 2026 

Stella Schindler (Los Alamos National Laboratory)

Location: Swiatecki Lounge B70 annex - 228

Time: 4:00pm Pacific Time

ZOOM for those who are unable to come in-person: LINK

Host: Feng Yuan

[Slide]  [Youtube]

Title: New phases of QCD at finite density

Abstract: In the coming years, the FAIR accelerator will come online, opening up a new window into the phase structure of QCD. Now is the time to develop a better understanding of what FAIR may find, with particular attention to signals of new physics. At zero density, lattice simulations can provide us first-principles information about QCD, but at nonzero density, the Dirac operator becomes non-Hermitian, inducing a sign problem that obstructs lattice simulations. In this talk, we bring insights from the field of non-Hermitian physics to bear on high energy theory, helping us develop new analytic and numerical tools for QCD phase structure. We show how non-Hermiticity and CK symmetry can give rise to a “moat regime” in the vicinity of a critical point. We discuss experimental signatures for moatonic matter at FAIR, which theoretical calculations suggest may exist for a wide range of temperatures and densities.

November 17 2026 

Zhiquan Sun (UC Berkeley)

Location: Room 324, Physics South, UC Berkeley Campus Room MAP 

Time: 4:00pm Pacific Time

ZOOM for those who are unable to come in-person: LINK

Host: Felipe Ortega Gama

[Slide]  [Youtube]

Title: Strongly Coupled Soft Functions

Abstract:  The renormalization of operators built out of Wilson lines that meet at an angle (cusp) involve what is known as the cusp anomalous dimension, a universal object appearing in many processes in QCD due to the divergences from gluonic interactions. In this talk, I will discuss the vacuum expectation value of a pair of cusped Wilson lines separated in the transverse direction. This configuration can be related to a simple observable in heavy quark transverse momentum-dependent (TMD) fragmentation as well as the TMD soft function. I will compute the expectation values of cusped Wilson lines in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory at strong coupling via the AdS/CFT correspondence, an approach complementary to perturbative calculations of the cusp anomalous dimension. I will also discuss the possible generalizations of our setup and results to soft functions in other gauge theories with a holographic dual.

November 24 2026 

Koichiro Yasuda (UCLA)

Location: Room 324, Physics South, UC Berkeley Campus Room MAP 

Time: 4:00pm Pacific Time

ZOOM for those who are unable to come in-person: LINK

Host: Shoto Aoki

[Slide]  [Youtube]

Title: Extracting the low-energy reactor neutrino spectrum from CEvNS data: an application of dark matter direct detection techniques

Abstract: Nuclear reactors are the most intense human-made neutrino sources, yet about 70% of their antineutrinos, those below the 1.8 MeV inverse beta decay threshold, have never been measured because standard detectors are insensitive to them. Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEvNS), in which a neutrino nudges an entire nucleus, can reach this hidden region. The detector, however, sees only the nuclear recoil, so the neutrino spectrum must be reconstructed by working backward, a task known as unfolding. In this talk, I will introduce these ideas from the basics and present an unfolding method borrowed from dark matter direct searches that needs no hand-tuned regularization parameters. Applying it to mock data for a future cryogenic germanium detector, I will show that it performs comparably to standard techniques.

If time allows, I will mention my outreach activities, including a peer-to-peer multiplayer relativistic shooting game.

January 26 2027 

João Silva (UCLA)

Location: Swiatecki Lounge B70 annex - 228 

Time: 4:00pm Pacific Time

ZOOM for those who are unable to come in-person: LINK

Host: Yuuka Kanakubo

[Slide]  [Youtube]

Title: Energy correlators in QCD matter

Abstract: Energy correlators connect angular distributions of final-state energy to the dynamics of QCD radiation. In heavy-ion collisions, they also carry information about the interaction of high-energy partons with the produced matter and the medium's response to deposited energy. A central question is which properties of QCD matter can be inferred from their angular structure. 

I will introduce a description of high-energy partons propagating and radiating in a QCD background. Motivated by the momentum anisotropies characteristic of the early stages of heavy-ion collisions, I will discuss how anisotropic momentum broadening generates azimuthal structure inside jets. I will show its imprint on energy correlators, focusing on heavy-flavour pairs, which provide cleaner access to the underlying partonic splittings. Turning to higher point correlations, I will examine contributions from medium-induced radiation and medium response, including the challenge of distinguishing their angular imprints. More broadly, I will outline how these observables reflect the mean and fluctuating components of energy flow in QCD matter.

[postponed]

Giovanni Vecil (University of Trieste)

Location: Swiatecki Lounge B70 annex - 228 

Time: 4:00pm Pacific Time

ZOOM for those who are unable to come in-person: LINK

Host: Zhenyu Ye

[Slide]  [Youtube]

Title: The ALICE 3 Inner Tracker Middle Layers: development of aluminium Flexible Printed Circuits for MAPS sensor modules

Abstract:  ALICE 3 is the next-generation detector for the ALICE experiment at CERN, planned for installation during the LHC Long Shutdown 4 (2034-2035). This contribution focuses on the design and development of the Middle Layers of the ALICE 3 Inner Tracker, comprising five 1.3 m-long barrels at radii between 70 mm and 300 mm, for a total area of about 6 m2, which is covered with reticlesize Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS). Their proximity to the interaction point results in high particle hit rates, requiring each sensor to transmit data at a rate of about 1 Gbit/s. At the same time, achieving the desired tracking performance for low-momentum particles constrains the material budget of each layer to below 0.5% X0. These constraints demand extensive R&D across all aspects of detector construction. In particular, a more detailed insight is provided here into the development of low-material-budget solutions for sensor modules based on aluminium Flexible Printed Circuits (FPCs) and their integration with detector services for power distribution and high-speed data transmission over metre-scale distances. The signal integrity studies involve simulations and measurements of the impedance variations along the transmission lines and of scattering parameters. In this way, the FPC design is optimised to be compatible with the requirements posed by the receiver technology employed, as quantified by eye-diagram characteristics and bit-error rate (BER) performance.

[postponed]

Prof. Jen-Chieh Peng  (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Location: Swiatecki Lounge B70 annex - 228

Time: 4:00pm Pacific Time

ZOOM for those who are unable to come in-person: LINK

Host: Keh-Fei Liu

Title: Evolution of Helicity Property of Relic Neutrinos and Implications 

on Their Detection

Abstract: Neutrinos in the early Universe decoupled essentially in helicity eigenstates.

As they propagate through the Universe, their helicities could be modified via

two effects. First, neutrinos with a finite magnetic moment would rotate their

spins with respect to their momenta as they encounter cosmic magnetic fields,

modifying their helicities. Second, the bending of neutrino's spin by a

gravitational field lags the bending of its momentum, again modifying its helicity. 

We study both effects and investigate the implications of the

helicity modification on the detection of relic neutrinos using the Inverse

Tritium Beta Decay (ITBD) reaction. We find that the ITBD rate depends

sensitively on the neutrino mass hierarchy and on the Dirac or Majorana nature

of the neutrinos. This talk is based on several papers in collaboration with 

Gordon Baym.