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KOÇ UNIVERSITY PHYSICS SEMINAR
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| Speaker: | Tekin Dereli & Fethi M. Ramazanoglu Koc University |
| Title: | 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics |
| Date: | October 25, 2019 |
| Time: | 10:30 (FRIDAY) |
| Cookie & Tea: | SCI 103, 10:15 |
| Place: | SCI 103 |
| web: | https://physics-seminars.ku.edu.tr/ |
Abstract:
The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded for contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth’s place in the cosmos with one-half to James Peebles (Princeton University) for his “theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology”. The Big Bang model assumes the universe has started about 13.8 billion years ago from an extremely hot and dense state. It has become much larger and cooler since then and it is still expanding at an accelerated rate. James Peebles used theoretical tools to investigate the very early moments of this expansion and proposed novel physical processes. The fact that all matter that makes up the galaxies, stars, planets and everything around us accounts just about 5 percent of the total amount of matter in the universe is something that is not understood and poses a great challenge to modern physics.
The other half of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics was jointly awarded to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz “for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star.” An exoplanet is a planet that orbits a star other than our Sun, and the concept has been around for centuries. So, why did we wait this long to actually discover exoplanets? Why was the prize specifically for a “solar-type star”? What are the other types of stars, and is there something wrong with them or exoplanets orbiting them? We will try to answer these questions, and any others you might have.
Short Bio:
Tekin Dereli is a mathematical physicist who joined the Science Faculty at Koc University in 2001. His research interests focus on quantum field theories, gravity and gauge models of fundamental particles and their interactions. His published work includes one of the earliest paper on higher dimensional cosmology. Tekin Dereli received the TUBITAK Science Prize, Prof.Mustafa Parlar Foundation Science Prize and Sedat Simavi Foundation Science Prize. He is an elected member of TUBA and Science Academy.
Fethi Mübin Ramazanoğlu is a gravitational physicist. He obtained his PhD from Princeton University in 2012. After postdoctoral positions at Princeton and University of Cambridge, he joined Koc University as an assistant professor in 2016. His main research interests are numerical general relativity and compact object astrophysics.