When a Symmetry Breaks

by Hitoshi Murayama (UC Berkley and IPMU Tokyo)

Thursday 15 May 2025, 16:15 → 18:00 Europe/Brussels

CYCL01 (Marc de Hemptinne (chemin du Cyclotron, 2, Louvain-la-Neuve))

What is common among a magnet, a halibut, a rack of laundry, cubes of ice, superconductor, and the Higgs boson? The concept of spontaneous symmetry breaking is a common theme for many natural phenomena. I'll describe the basic concept and its applications. In particular, the original concepts from Anderson, Nambu, Goldstone, and Higgs do not quite work in many systems that include a magnet on your fridge. I generalize the concept so that it is applicable to all known natural phenomena around us.

Further information will soon be provided on the page https://agenda.irmp.ucl.ac.be/event/5491/