Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2018
Volume 63, Number 4
Saturday–Tuesday, April 14–17, 2018; Columbus, Ohio
Session A01: Kavli Foundation Keynote Plenary Session: A Feynman CenturyInvited Undergraduate
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Sponsoring Units: APS Chair: Roger Falcone, University of California, Berkeley Room: Union Ballroom BC |
Saturday, April 14, 2018 8:30AM - 9:06AM |
A01.00001: Being Feynman’s Curious Sister Invited Speaker: Joan Feynman After the atomic bomb was used to end the second-world war, my brother Richard Feynman thought that the civilization would be in danger of being destroyed within 5 years. Obviously he underestimated the timing. But now in addition to this dreadful possibility we are facing not only nuclear threats but also a possibility that the human influence on climate will destroy the civilization. Here, in addition to sharing some of my experiences as Feynman’s curious sister and decades of efforts that have increased and advanced women’s roles in science, I will talk about the occurring of climate changes that led and can lead to climate instability with destructive effects on society. We have excellent information on climate change from ice-core records hundreds of thousands of years long. Thus agriculture only began after the Younger Dryas event (10,600 YBP) when climate became stable. Apparently it was the stabilization of climate that permitted the development and practice of agriculture. The current global warming seems to be associated with climate instabilities (droughts, floods, etc). Is the death of ocean corals, extinction of some animal spices, and increasing number of extreme climate events an indication of the return to climate instability? [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 14, 2018 9:06AM - 9:42AM |
A01.00002: Quantum Computing and Feynman’s Opportunity Invited Speaker: Christopher Monroe In 1959, Richard Feynman speculated what might happen if electrical circuits were made with individual atoms, noting the potential for “completely new opportunities for design.” His prophecy is now coming true in the guise of quantum computing, where entangled quantum superpositions of bits can be harnessed for certain hard computational problems. Feynman’s influence continued into the 1980s, where he imagined using quantum computers for simulating hard problems in quantum mechanics, from chemistry to nuclear structure. I will give a survey of this rapidly advancing field, which is now evolving from the laboratory to real devices. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 14, 2018 9:42AM - 10:18AM |
A01.00003: Feynman's Footprints: Quantum Field Theory in Nuclear and Particle Physics Invited Speaker: Roxanne Springer Feynman is well known for his path integral approach, his diagrams, and his ``deviations from the beaten path." These are just three of his many gifts to us that continue to inspire new generations of scientists. \vskip .5cm Feynman was motivated to discover methods that both illuminate underlying truths as well as pragmatically yield correct predictions. Today such methods are called effective field theories (EFTs). In nuclear and particle physics alone these are now understood to encompass Feynman's work in QED and the V-A theory, for example; the standard model of QED, QCD, and electroweak theories; to physics beyond the standard model. Feynman's legacy is seen in current efforts to unite EFTs and numerical calculations, and in the collection of dedicated EFTs created to understand focused phenemona from low energy parity violation in weak interactions to high energy collisions in QCD, to pushing the boundaries of the standard model (SM) in ``SMEFT." \vskip .5cm Any scientist can contribute to our understanding of the physical world by emulating some of what Feynman brought to his projects: high enthusiasm, hard work, strict integrity, constant curiosity, deep focus, constructive skepticism, scrupulous attention to detail, and joy in the process of discovery. [Preview Abstract] |
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