Department of Physics

Physics at Oxford aspire to be one of the best physics departments in the world by conducting cutting-edge research and by teaching and developing the careers of the next generation of physicists. Physics work on major facilities worldwide, develop the most advanced experimental techniques and the most sophisticated theoretical methods to investigate nature at every scale. Oxford University Physics Department pursues fundamental science and in doing so make discoveries that enable them to contribute directly to tackling the challenging problems facing society.

All episodes

Title	Description	People	Date
How the weird and wonderful properties of magnetised laser plasmas could ignite fusion-energy research	Archie Bott explains how a promising scheme for fusion relies on a novel feature of hot laser-plasmas: introducing a magnetic field of the correct strength alters the plasma’s fundamental properties in a highly counterintuitive yet beneficial manner.	Archie Bott	2 June, 2023
Stellarators: twisty tokamaks that could be the future of fusion	Georgia Acton introduces stellarators, discusses the features that distinguish them from tokamaks, highlight the challenges we currently face, and discusses how we might overcome them.	Georgia Acton	2 June, 2023
Magnetic confinement fusion: Science that’s hotter than a Kardashian Instagram post	Michael Barnes introduces the basic concepts behind magnetic confinement fusion, he describes why it is so challenging and discusses possibilities for the future.	Michael Barnes	2 June, 2023
The spaghettification of stars by supermassive black holes: understanding one of nature’s most extreme events	The spaghettification of stars by supermassive black holes: understanding one of nature’s most extreme events - Andrew Mummery	Andrew Mummery	3 March, 2023
Extreme value statistics and the theory of rare events	Extreme value statistics and the theory of rare events - Francesco Mori	Francesco Mori	3 March, 2023
Inflation and the Very Early Universe	Inflation and the Very Early Universe - Georges Obied	Georges Obied	3 March, 2023
Axion Searches from Black Holes to the Basement	Professor John March-Russell talks about the search possibilities for axions including many current and near future ultra-precise quantum `table top' experiments in the Beecroft basement.	John March-Russell	1 December, 2022
Axion Electrodynamics in Solid-State Materials	Professor Siddharth Parameswaran gives the second talk on Axions.	Siddharth Parameswaran	1 December, 2022
The Axion: How Angles Become Particles	Professor Joseph Conlon introduces the general idea of axions: particles associated to fields which are valued on a circle rather than a real line.	Joseph Conlon	1 December, 2022
Fluid-gravity duality and hydrodynamics of black holes	Holography explains why black hole horizons have thermodynamic and hydrodynamic properties and inspires researchers to re-visit foundations and explore limits of relativistic hydrodynamics	Andrei Starinets, Julia Yeomans	29 April, 2021
Hydrodynamics of Quantum Many-Body Systems Out of Equilibrium	Can we apply hydrodynamics to systems with extensively many conservation laws	Bruno Bertini	29 April, 2021
Why Hydrodynamics?	What is hydrodynamics and why does it apply over 20 orders of magnitude in energy and length.	Steve Simon, Julia Yeomans	29 April, 2021
Strings and Fields	Will strings be the theory of everything?, presented by Prof Luis Fernando Alday.	Luis Fernando Alday	16 January, 2021
Classical and Quantum Black Holes	Prof March-Russell explains our latest understanding of black holes, some of the most mysterious objects in the Universe.	John March-Russell	16 January, 2021
Why is Quantum Gravity so hard?	A pressing question in our quest to understand the Universe is how to unify quantum mechanics and gravity, the very small and the very large.	John Wheater	16 January, 2021
Machine learning techniques in modern quantum-mechanics experiments	In this talk, Dr Elliott Bentine shall discuss how recent experiments have exploited machine-learning techniques, both to optimize the operation of these devices and to interperet the data they produce.	Elliott Bentine	22 March, 2020
Machine Learning and String Theory	Professor Andre Lukas will discuss how string theorists have started to use methods from data science - particularly machine learning - to analyse the vast landscape of string data.	Andre Lukas	22 March, 2020
An Introduction to deep learning	Professor Ard Louis gives a basic introduction to deep learning for physicists and addresses a few questions such as: Is the hype around deep learning justified, or are we about to hit some fundamental limitations?	Ard Louis	22 March, 2020
Welcome by Ian Shipsey Head of the Department of Physics	Ian Shipsey give an update on the department and introduces the next three talk on 'AI in Physics'.	Ian Shipsey	22 March, 2020
IceCube: Opening a New Window on the Universe from the South Pole	Particle Physics Christmas Lecture, hosted by Prof. Daniela Bortoletto, Head of Particle Physics and senior members of the department with guest speaker, Professor Francis Halzen.	Daniela Bortoletto, Francis Halzen	20 December, 2019
The First Image of a Black Hole	Professor Heino Falcke of Radboud University, Nijmegen delivers the 19th Hintze Lecture - reviewing the latest results of the Event Horizon Telescope, its scientific implications and future expansions of the array	Heino Falcke	19 November, 2019
Cosmic acceleration revealed by Type la supernovae?	In this talk Subir Sarkar will explain how deflagration supernovae have been used to infer that the Hubble expansion rate is accelerating, and critically assess whether the acceleration is real and due to `dark energy’.	Subir Sarkar	1 November, 2019
Supernova Explosions and their Role in the Universe	In this talk, Philipp Podsiadlowski will explain how this energy (sometimes) creates a visible fireball, before going on to explain the role of supernovae in the production of the heaviest elements in the periodic table.	Philipp Podsiadlowski	1 November, 2019
What makes stars go bang?	In this talk, James Binney will outline the physics that leads to prodigeous release of energy in core-collapse and deflagration supernovae.	James Binney	1 November, 2019
The Many Universes of Quantum Materials	Professor Stephen Blundell explores the many universes of quantum materials for the 2019 Quantum Materials Public Lecture.	Stephen Blundell	7 October, 2019
Gravitational Waves and Prospects for Multi-messenger Astronomy	Professor Barry C Barish gives a talk on the quest for the detection of gravitational waves.	Barry C. Barrish	30 July, 2019
Finding aliens – An update on the search for life in the Universe	Bill Diamond, President & CEO The SETI Institute gives an an update on the search for life in the Universe. Hosted by Ian Shipsey, Head of Physics.	Bill Diamond, Ian Shipsey	30 July, 2019
Cherwell-Simon Memorial Lecture: The XENON Project: at the forefront of Dark Matter Direct Detection	What is the Dark Matter which makes 85% of the matter in the Universe? We have been asking this question for many decades and used a variety of experimental approaches to address it, with detectors on Earth and in space.	Elena Aprile	8 July, 2019
Is Dark Matter Made of Black Holes	The 2019 Halley lecture	Marc Kamionkowski	4 June, 2019
The Role of Gas in Galaxy Evolution	Professor Jacqueline van Gorkom delivers the 18th Hintze Lecture.	Jacqueline van Gorkom	3 June, 2019
... from collisions to the Higgs boson	To study the Higgs boson at the LHC we also need to understand how highly energetic quarks and gluons interact, among themselves and with the Higgs.	Fabrizio Caola	16 May, 2019
From protons to collisions…	We learn about the Higgs Boson and its interactions at the LHC by examining the debris produced by colliding protons head-on at unprecedented high energies.	Lucian Harland-Lang	16 May, 2019
What the Large Hadron Collider is telling us about the Higgs sector and its new interactions	Over the past two years, CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has started to directly probe a qualitatively new class of interactions, associated with the Higgs boson.	Gavin Salam	16 May, 2019
The oldest light in the Universe	In this short stargazing talk, Luke Jew looks at the topic - The oldest light in the Universe.	Luke Jew	5 April, 2019
The brief history of the Universe	Sergio Martin describes the evolution of the Universe.	Sergio Martin	22 March, 2019
Electron Paramagnetic Resonance - Past, Present and Future	Professor Mark Newton describes some of the key events in the discovery and development of Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR).	Mark Newton	18 March, 2019
All the dark we cannot see - the state of the art in direct searches for particle dark matter	Professor Laura Baudis, University of Zurich, discusses the nature of dark matter.	Laura Baudis	18 March, 2019
Why the world is simple - Prof Ard Louis	The coding theorem from algorithmic information theory (AIT) - which should be much more widely taught in Physics! - suggests that many processes in nature may be highly biased towards simple outputs.	Ard Louis	15 February, 2019
Topology in Biology - Prof Julia Yeomans FRS	Active systems, from cells and bacteria to flocks of birds, harvest chemical energy which they use to move and to control the complex processes needed for life.	Julia Yeomans	15 February, 2019
Welcome from the Head of the Physics Department	Ian Shipsey delivers the welcome speech for the Saturday Mornings of Theoretical Physics.	Ian Shipsey	15 February, 2019
Entropy from Entanglement	Siddharth Parameswaran, Associate Professor, Physics Department.	Siddharth Parameswaran	3 December, 2018
Entropy: two short stories	John Chalker, Head of Theoretical Physics, gives a talk on entropy.	John Chalker	3 December, 2018
Entropy: Gaining Knowledge by Admitting Ignorance	Alexander Schekochihin, Professor of Theoretical Physics, gives a talk on entropy.	Alexander Schekochihin	3 December, 2018
The Quantum and the Cosmos	The 17th Hintze Lecture, given by Professor Rocky Kolb, Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Service Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The University of Chicago.	Rocky Kolb	14 November, 2018
The Search for Life on Earth, In Space and Time	Dr James Green, current Chief Scientist of NASA gives a talk on the how life may be distributed on Earth and in the Solar System with consideration of the age of our sun.	James Green	29 October, 2018
Networked Quantum Information Technologies	This talk reviews the developments in quantum information processing.	Dominic O'Brien	6 July, 2018
Quantum logic with trapped-ion qubits	This talk reviews testing and developing ideas in quantum computing using laser-manipulated trapped ions.	David Lucas	6 July, 2018
The ultimate limits of privacy and randomness...for the paranoid ones	This talk explains how qubits are used to represent numbers in a way that permits 'quantum-mechanical parallel' computing.	Artur Ekert	6 July, 2018
“Open” Quantum Systems	This talk reviews how to deal with quantum systems that are coupled to the outside world, as in reality all systems are.	Fabian Essler	6 July, 2018
Quantum Systems from Group up	This talk reviews the modern formulation of the basic ideas of quantum mechanics.	James Binney	6 July, 2018
How do we find planets around other stars?	The 3rd Wetton lecture, 19th June 2018 delivered by Professor David W. Hogg, Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, New York University	David W Hogg	2 July, 2018
The Quest for Nearby Habitable Worlds	The 16th Hintze lecture, 25th April 2018 delivered by Professor René Doyon, Director, Mont-Mégantic Observatory & Institute for Research on Exoplanets, University of Montreal, Canada	Rene Doyon	22 May, 2018
Fine-Tuning Discussion	Simon Friederich, Natalja Deng, and Erik Curiel participate in a roundtable discussion addressing questions around probability, fine-tuning, and arguments for a multiverse or deity.	Simon Friederich, Natalja Deng, Erik Curiel	24 April, 2018
Erik Curiel: Measure, Topology, and Probability in Cosmology.	Erik Curiel explains the challenges in making assessments of probability by making assumptions about the space of universes--or cosmological models--that our theories allow.	Erik Curiel	24 April, 2018
Natalja Deng: What Kind of Fine-Tuner?	Natalja Deng discusses whether the apparent fine-tuning of the universe for life can be evidence for a divine creator.	Natalja Deng	24 April, 2018
Simon Friederich: Fine-Tuning for Life in the Universe, A Panoramic View	Simon Friederich reviews the challenges that arise in using empirical evidence that the universe is tuned for life to evaluate multiverse hypothesis.	Simon Friederich	24 April, 2018
Evidence in the Multiverse	Erik Curiel and Simon Friederich hash out the problems we encounter when we look for evidence of a multiverse.	Erik Curiel, Simon Friederich	24 April, 2018
The Hard Fact of Life in Big Physics City	How similar is the fine-tuning of our universe to probabilistic reasoning we use and understand? Simon Friederich and Erik Curiel go through a series of examples.	Erik Curiel, Simon Friederich	24 April, 2018
Stability and Probability	Erik Curiel and Simon Friederich discuss how reasoning in cosmology sometimes conflates topological stability with probability, and why that might be wrong.	Simon Friederich, Erik Curiel	24 April, 2018
Problems with Probability	Simon Friederich and Erik Curiel discuss the problems fine-tuning arguments raise for our understanding of probability.	Simon Friederich, Erik Curiel	24 April, 2018
ALMA and the Birth of Stars Across Galaxies	The 2018 Astor Visiting Lecture 14th March 2018 delivered by Professor Adam Leroy, Ohio State University.	Adam Leroy	28 March, 2018
Rushing Robots and Tons of Glass: Building the WEAVE Spectrograph	Ellen Schallig gives a short talk on building the WEAVE spectograph.	Ellen Schallig	21 February, 2018
Quasars: Are They As Cool As They Sound?	In this flash talk, Josie Peters presents on the topic of quasars.	Josie Peters	21 February, 2018
The Big Bang and a Multiverse	Darsh Kodwani gives a short talk on The Big bang and a multiverse.	Darsh Kodwani	21 February, 2018
I'm Spinning Around: Watching Galaxies Rotate (Or Not)	Mark Graham gives a short talk on the rotation of galaxies.	Mark Graham	21 February, 2018
It's a Star's Life	In this short talk, Rebecca Esselstein gives an overview of a typical star's lifespan.	Rebecca Esselstein	21 February, 2018
Galactic Archaeology: Mining Stellar Fossils in the Milky Way Halo	Payel Das gives a short talk on mining stellar fossils in the Milky Way halo.	Payel Das	21 February, 2018
Weighing Black Holes	Oxford astrophysicist Martin Bureau gives a talk on black holes.	Martin Bureau	21 February, 2018
Taking Real Photos of Planets Outside the Solar System	Jean-Loup Baudino gives a short talk on planets outside the solar system.	Jean-Loup Baudino	21 February, 2018
Merging Galaxies: Making the Biggest Mess!	Nathan Adams presents a short talk on merging galaxies.	Natham Adams	21 February, 2018
Galaxy Dynamics: The chemical evolution side	Dr Ralph Schoenrich will talk about the chemical evolution side	Ralph Schoenrich	25 January, 2018
Galaxy Dynamics: The dynamics of galaxy discs	Dr John Magorrian will talk about the dynamics of galaxy discs	John Magorrian	25 January, 2018
Galaxy Dynamics: Stellar systems: a new state of matter	Prof James Binney FRS will talk about stellar systems: a new state of matter	James Binney	25 January, 2018
The State of the Universe	Our Universe was created in 'The Big Bang' and has been expanding ever since. Professor Schmidt describes the vital statistics of the Universe, and tries to make sense of the Universe's past, present, and future.	Brian Schmidt	20 November, 2017
Superfluids in Flatland: Topology, Defects, and the 2016 Nobel Prize	In this talk, Siddharth Parameswaran discusses how a topological approach to 2D systems reveal that they can indeed become superfluid, and lead to surprising and beautiful universal results whose implications continue to resonate today.	Siddharth Parameswaran	3 November, 2017
Quantum mechanics on the human scale	Stephen Blundell reviews a theory of superconductivity that was developed in Oxford in the 1930’s by Fritz London.	Stephen Blundell	3 November, 2017
From Identical Particles to Frictionless Flow	John Chalker discusses how the laws of quantum mechanics lead us from the microscopic world to macroscopic phenomena.	John Chalker	3 November, 2017
Superconductors: Miracle Materials	An introduction to the fascinating world of superconductors and the many surprising phenomena they exhibit, from zero resistance to quantum levitation.	Andrew Boothroyd	25 October, 2017
Quantum physics and the nature of computing	How can we test a quantum computer? An exploration of some of the theoretical puzzles of this field and how we can investigate them with experimental physics.	Jelmer Renema	25 October, 2017
Superconductors: why it’s cool to be repulsive	A family-friendly demonstration of superconductors in action. Fran explores the low temperatures we need to make them work, and how we can use superconductors for levitating trains.	Fran Kirschner	25 October, 2017
Cassini-Huygens: Space Odyssey to Saturn and Titan	Public Lecture organised by the Aeronautical Society of Oxford in conjunction with the Department of Physics.	David Southwood	18 October, 2017
Observation of the mergers of binary black holes: The opening of gravitational wave astronomy	The 2017 Halley Lecture 7th June 2017 delivered by Professor Rainer Weiss, MIT on behalf of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration	Rainer Weiss	27 June, 2017
Ghost Imaging with Quantum Light	Physics Colloquium 26th May 2017 delivered by Professor Miles Padgett, University of Glasgow	Miles Padgett	27 June, 2017
Pulsars and Extreme Physics - A 50th Anniversary	Physics Colloquium 5th May 2017 delivered by Dame Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell	Jocelyn Bell Burnell	27 June, 2017
Starquakes Expose Stellar Heartbeats	The 14th Hintze Biannual Lecture 4th May 2017 delivered by Professor Conny Aerts - Director, Institute of Astronomy KU Leuven	Connie Aerts	27 June, 2017
Exploring the very early universe with gravitational waves	John March-Russell gives a talk about gravitational wave signals of stringy physics, a ‘soundscape’ connected to the landscape of string vacua.	John March-Russell	10 May, 2017
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.	Subir Sarkar	10 May, 2017
From action at a distance to gravitational waves	James Binney gives a talk about the mathematics that describe Gravitational waves.	James Binney	10 May, 2017
Curiosity’s Search for Ancient Habitable Environments at Gale Crater, Mars	4th Annual Lobanov-Rostovsky Lecture in Planetary Geology delivered by Professor John Grotzinger, Caltech, USA	John Grotzinger	27 April, 2017
Spatio-temporal Optical Vortices	Physics Colloquium 10th March 2017 delivered by Professor Howard Milchberg, University of Maryland, USA	Howard Milchberg	27 April, 2017
Learning new physics from a medieval thinker: Big Bangs and Rainbows	Physics Colloquium 24 February 2017 delivered by Professor Tom McLeish FRS, Department of Physics and Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Durham University, UK	Tom McLeish	27 April, 2017
The applied side of Bell nonlocality	Physics Colloquium 17 February 2016 delivered by Professor Valerio Scarani	Valerio Scarani	27 April, 2017
The Beauty of Flavour - Latest results from the LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider	Physics Colloquium 3 February 2017 delivered by Professor Val Gibson, Cambridge	Val Gibson	5 April, 2017
From Materials to Cosmology: Studying the early universe under the microscope	Physics Colloquium 27 January 2017 delivered by Professor Nicola Spaldin, ETH Zurich	Nicola Spaldin	5 April, 2017
The New Era in Observational Cosmology	In the fourth part of their discussion, Pedro Ferreira and Jerome Martin conjecture about the future of inflation. They talk about the potential for new evidence for and against the theory, and the variety of new probes into our cosmological environment.	Pedro Ferreira, Jerome Martin	4 April, 2017
When is a theory good enough?	In the third part of their discussion, Pedro Ferreira and Jerome Martin talk about whether one should look for a deeper physical theory when one’s current theory is well-supported by observation.	Pedro Ferreira, Jerome Martin	4 April, 2017
Can we measure naturalness?	In the second part of their discussion, Pedro Ferreira and Jerome Martin consider ways to build the naturalness of an inflationary model into our expectations for observing it.	Pedro Ferreira, Jerome Martin	4 April, 2017
An Encyclopedia of Inflation	In the first part of their discussion, Pedro Ferreira and Jerome Martin talk about the variety of inflationary models. They discuss methods for distinguishing between them based on evidence and describe the application of Bayesian statistics to inflation.	Pedro Ferreira, Jerome Martin	4 April, 2017
Inflation in the Future	What should we expect to learn in the future? In the fourth part of their chat, Dave Sloan and Robert Brandenberger talk about how we expect inflationary theory to develop, and how observations may lead to new physics in this area.	David Sloan, Robert Brandenberger	4 April, 2017
Strings, Inflation, and Alternatives	In the third part of their discussion, Dave Sloan and Robert Brandenberger explain the relationship between string theory and inflationary models. Can inflation arise from particle physics, or do we need to look for alternative models?	David Sloan, Robert Brandenberger	4 April, 2017

Department of Physics

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Oxford Physics Public Lectures

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