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Artwork for Theoretical Physics - From Outer Space to Plasma
Education

Theoretical Physics - From Outer Space to Plasma

Oxford University

Learn about quantum mechanics, black holes, dark matter, plasma, particle accelerators, the Large Hadron Collider and other key Theoretical Physics topics. The Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics holds morning sessions consisting of three talks, pitched to explain an area of our research to an audience familiar with physics at about second-year undergraduate level.

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  • 97 episodes
  • Updated May 7, 2025

Episodes97

Newest first
  • May 10, 2017 · 42 min

    The birth of gravitational wave astronomy

    Subir Sarkar reviews the detection of the ‘chirrup’ signal from a pair of merging massive black holes by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, as well as subsequent experimental developments.

  • Feb 28, 2017 · 46 min

    Kilometres: Turbulence - Morning of Theroetical Physics

    Fasten Your Seat Belts: Turbulent Flows in Nature. Turbulence is ubiquitous in nature, and it often causes us headaches both literal and metaphorical. From unpredictable weather to the mixing of milk in our coffee, Michael Barnes will talk about how turbulence arises and our ongoing struggle to control it.

  • Feb 28, 2017 · 38 min

    Microns: The bacterial viewpoint - Morning of Theroetical Physics

    Ramin Golestanian will introduce you to Life at Low Reynolds number and ask how microorganisms can swim, navigate, and coordinate their activities. You will discover how the left-right symmetry is first broken in a developing embryo, and investigate the medically important question of how mucus is shifted in our lungs and what happens when things go wrong.

  • Nov 1, 2016 · 36 min

    Topology and the Classification of Matter: New Physics Hidden in Plain Sight

    Third lecture "More is different" - how states of matter emerge from quantum theory Saturday morning of Theoretical Physics. With Professor Steve Simon, introduction by Professor John WheelerThird Steve Simon will focus on the recent realization that Landau’s classification, thought to be complete for most of the twentieth century, in fact misses some of the most exciting, yet subtle, physics. The new missing ingredient is naturally cast in the language of the mathematical field of topology, giving rise to a host of what we now call topological states of matter. In particular, we have now realized that fundamentally new types of electronic materials exist --- some of which, in fact, have been hiding under our noses for decades! More on this mini-series; The properties of all forms of matter, from the most mundane to the most exotic kinds produced in advanced laboratories, are consequences of the laws of quantum mechanics. Understanding how macroscopic behaviour emerges from microscopic laws in a system of many particles is one of the intellectually most demanding, yet most important, challenges of physics, and is the subject of this series of lectures.

  • Nov 1, 2016 · 47 min

    Magnets, superfluids and superconductors

    Second lecture "More is different" - how states of matter emerge from quantum theory Saturday morning of Theoretical Physics. With Professor Fabian Essler, introduction by Professor John Wheeler. Fabian Essler will discuss the hugely successful framework for classifying possible states of quantum matter, pioneered by the great Russian Nobel Laureate, Lev Landau. This framework is conceptually remarkably simple, but is broad enough to describe physics ranging from magnets to superconductors to fundamental physics in the guise of relativistic quantum field theory and the Higgs phenomenon. More on this mini-series; The properties of all forms of matter, from the most mundane to the most exotic kinds produced in advanced laboratories, are consequences of the laws of quantum mechanics. Understanding how macroscopic behaviour emerges from microscopic laws in a system of many particles is one of the intellectually most demanding, yet most important, challenges of physics, and is the subject of this series of lectures.

  • Nov 1, 2016 · 44 min

    Identical particles: from one to many

    First lecture in the "More is different" - how states of matter emerge from quantum theory Saturday morning of Theoretical Physics. With Professor John Chalker, introduction by Professor John Wheeler. John Chalker will review the quantum mechanics of identical particles which forms the foundation for our understanding of why diamond is transparent and why gold conducts electricity. He will also explain how we can control the motion of electrons in certain devices to make resistances quantised with an accuracy of a few parts in a billion. More on this mini-series; The properties of all forms of matter, from the most mundane to the most exotic kinds produced in advanced laboratories, are consequences of the laws of quantum mechanics. Understanding how macroscopic behaviour emerges from microscopic laws in a system of many particles is one of the intellectually most demanding, yet most important, challenges of physics, and is the subject of this series of lectures.

  • May 24, 2016 · 43 min

    String Theory and Particle Physics

    Members of the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics hosted the ninth Saturday Morning of Theoretical Physics on 21st May 2016. Talk 2 by Professor Andre Lukas.

  • May 24, 2016 · 43 min

    String Theory: Then and Now

    Members of the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics hosted the ninth Saturday Morning of Theoretical Physics on 21st May 2016. Talk 1 by Professor Joseph Conlon.

  • Feb 11, 2016 · 39 min

    How computers have changed the way we do physics - Breaking through the quantum barrier

    The power of available computers has now grown exponentially for many decades. The ability to discover numerically the implications of equations and models has opened our eyes to previously hidden aspects of physics. Many exciting phenomena observed in condensed matter systems, such as superconductivity and the quantum Hall effect, emerge due to the quantum mechanical interplay of many electrons. The laws of quantum physics are governed by the Schrödinger equation, whose complexity grows exponentially with the number of particles it describes. Hence, even an approximate numerical solution of the Schrödinger equation is impossible for only just a few particles, not to mention for the millions of particles that are present in real materials. This talk focuses on a new approximation scheme in terms of so-called Tensor Network States, which allow for an arbitrarily accurate description of realistic quantum solid state systems at merely a polynomial overhead in the particle number, thus enabling efficient simulations of such systems on today's computers.

  • Feb 11, 2016 · 36 min

    How computers have changed the way we do physics - Structure in complex systems

    The power of available computers has now grown exponentially for many decades. The ability to discover numerically the implications of equations and models has opened our eyes to previously hidden aspects of physics. In physics, "complex systems" are systems of many similar interacting parts, such as the interacting atoms that make up a solid or liquid, but also interacting organisms in an ecosystem, or interacting traders in the stock market. This lecture will discuss how recent advances in modeling and computer simulation have allowed us to apply physics-style approaches to these previously challenging real-world systems to learn about such things as the spread of diseases, the flow of traffic or the structure of entire human societies.

  • Feb 11, 2016 · 51 min

    How computers have changed the way we do physics - Chaos and climate change

    The power of available computers has now grown exponentially for many decades. The ability to discover numerically the implications of equations and models has opened our eyes to previously hidden aspects of physics. In this lecture, Myles Allen addressed how computers have transformed our understanding of the role of chaos and exponential error growth in weather forecasting; and our understanding of how climate change is impacting regional weather. He showed how research in Oxford Physics, made possible by high-end computing, is demonstrating the crucial role of eddies in controlling ocean climate; and how the probability of extreme weather events may respond to rising greenhouse gas concentrations. He concluded by throwing out a more controversial suggestion that super-computers haven’t really contributed very much to the problem of predicting century-timescale changes in global average temperature, however much they may have contributed to understanding the regional implications of large-scale warming.

  • Sep 24, 2015 · 41 min

    Cosmology from General Relativity

    Members of the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics hosted the eighth Saturday Morning of Theoretical Physics on 19 September 2015. Talk 3 by Pedro Ferreira.

  • May 21, 2015 · 48 min

    Making the Vacuum Concrete

    Members of the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics hosted the first Saturday Morning of Theoretical Physics on 22 June 2013. The event focussed on how we use field theory to understand material reality.

  • May 14, 2015 · 39 min

    Basics of Anyons and Nonabelian Aharanov-Bohm Effect

    Members of the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics hosted the 7th morning of Theoretical Physics covering the idea of quantum computation and the strange behaviour of certain types of fundamental particle.

  • May 14, 2015 · 33 min

    Knots, World-lines, and Topological Quantum Computation

    Members of the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics hosted the 7th morning of Theoretical Physics covering the idea of quantum computation and the strange behaviour of certain types of fundamental particle.