Universe in Our Laboratory - An Introduction to Contemporary

Overview

Traditionally, condensed matter physics deals with the application of physical laws to explain properties of solids and liquids. However, this view has changed with advance in our understanding of nature. Materials with different properties can now be viewed as small, artificial universes with emerging physical laws and particles that are distinct from the universe surrounding us. Through examples of our modern technological advances, this lecture series introduces how physical laws of our universe, instead of being viewed as fundamental, may emerge from structures familiar in condensed matter physics.    
 

Summary

Prof. Wen Xiao-Gang from MIT gives a general knowledge lecture on the story of light. He explains how photons may evolve from the universe, and light as a fluctuation of strings that come from the collective string-like motions in space.

Dirac Medalist Prof. Patrick Lee from MIT visited HKUST in January 2007 and shares his research insights on quantum spin liquid and and how the phenomenon of superconductivity is related to a mathematical structure inherited in our universe.