HAPP ONE-DAY CONFERENCE
Symmetries in Physics
Location: Mathematical Institute, Woodstock Road
Date: Saturday, 19 November 2022
Time: 10:30 - 17:00 BST
RSVP: Registration to attend this conference is free but booking is required to attend the conference at the details below.
Please contact happ-centre@stx.ox.ac.uk with any queries.
Symmetry is an appealing feature in many areas such as human and animal life forms, art, architecture and so on. However, symmetries in physics take on a far greater significance as they actually govern the dynamics of the physical under consideration. Emmy Noether's remarkable theorem of 1918 shows that each symmetry implies a related conservation law. Symmetries such parity, charge conjugation and time reversal - regarded as exact in classical physics - were found to be broken in the quantum world, possibly explaining the matter/antimatter asymmetry observed in our Universe. The discovery of new quark flavour quantum numbers and the colour quantum numbers of quarks required new symmetries governing their theoretical description now known as the Standard Model - the spontaneous breaking of these symmetries required the existence of the famous Higgs boson discovered at CERN in 2012.
This one-day conference will review the role of symmetries from classical physics to the heart of modern fundamental theory including some still unproven (such as supersymmetry) which could open dramatic new vistas in our understanding of the Universe.
Registration to attend this conference is free but booking is required to attend the conference as below.
IN-PERSON ATTENDANCE INCLUDING THE CONFERENCE DINNER:
ONLINE LIVESTREAMING ON YOUTUBE:
Programme
MORNING CHAIR: Dr Nicoleta Gaciu (Oxford Brookes University)
10.30 am WELCOME
10.40 am Professor Klaus Mainzer (Technical University of Munich) - The Emergence of Symmetries in Classical Physics [Video]
11.30 am Professor Raffaele Pisano (University of Lille) - The Symmetries in the History of Physics: Phenomena and Ideas in Maxwell, Noether and Einstein [Video]
12.20 pm Professor Themis Bowcock (University of Liverpool) - An ABC of CPT - A Look Through the Mirror [Video]
1.15 pm LUNCH BREAK
AFTERNOON CHAIR: Professor Peter Jeavons (University of Oxford)
2.15 pm Professor Maria Clara Nucci (University of Bologna) - In Search of Hidden Symmetries [Video]
3.05 pm Professor Cristina Lazzeroni (University of Birmingham) - Broken Symmetries in Physics [Video]
4 pm TEA/COFFEE BREAK
4.30 pm SUMMARY OF THE DAY'S PROCEEDINGS - Professor Paul Heslop (Durham University) [Video]
There will be a special conference dinner at St Cross College in the evening following the end of the conference with an after-dinner talk by Professor Chris McManus (University College London) on the psychology of the human perception of symmetry.
Booking to attend the conference dinner can be made at:
