Talks

Advanced LIGO has recently started operating, with the promise that discoveries of gravitational wave transients will begin within in the next few years. As astrophysical observatories, LIGO and similar experiments may inform our knowledge of a variety of topics, including heavy element formation, dynamical capture of black holes, and the neutron star equation of state. In this talk, I will highlight recent efforts to quickly identify and distribute transients found with LIGO, and explore some of the astrophysics questions we hope to address.

Topological quantum computation is based on the possibility of the realization of some TQFTs in Nature as topological phases of quantum matter.  Theoretically, we would like to classify topological phases of matter, and experimentally, find non-abelian objects in Nature.  We will discussion some progress for a general audience.