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Lecture by SUPA Distinguished Professor Tony Leggett of the University of Illinois, winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics

Thursday 1 May
2 pm Room 6224 James Clerk Maxwell Building, School of Physics & Astronomy,
University of Edinburgh

Introduction to High Energy Low Temperature Physics

When a high-energy particle such as a gamma-ray, neutron or cosmic-ray muon is incident on an ultra-low temperature system such as superfluid 3-He, it may heat a small region of the liquid to temperatures of the order of a thousand times the ambient one. The recovery from this very unusual situation,and its possible consequences for the nucleation of first-order phase transitions, topological singularities etc., provide a fascinating challenge to theory. I discuss some of these problems in the context of the Stanford experiments on nucleation of the 3-He B phase by radiation and the recent neutron experiments on 3-He which are designed to mimic the behavior of the early Universe.

The lecture will be transmitted to all SUPA VC rooms:
Dundee  Basement, Ewing Building 
Edinburgh  6224, JCMB - please collect the key from 4209
Glasgow  255a, Kelvin Building 
Heriot-Watt  1.27, Earl Mountbatten Building 
St Andrews  222, Physics Building 
Strathclyde  813, John Anderson Building 
UWS  F.318, Henry Building