Sommerfeld Lecture Series (ASC)

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**Sommerfeld Lecture Series (ASC)**

Every semester the Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics invites a distinguished theoretical physicist in order to present a short series of lectures with increasing level of specialization. Usually it includes a public talk for a general audience, a theory colloquium and a specialized seminar.

Latest Episodes:

Research Seminar: An Excursion to Non-Gaussianity Oct 22, 2026

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Theory Colloquium: A tale of many Hubble constants Oct 21, 2026

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Public Lecture: Precision Cosmology and the Universe's Expansion Rate Oct 20, 2026

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Life on a Noisy Seascape: Extinction, Growth, and Diversity Jan 23, 2026

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Populations and communities rarely evolve in static environments; their fitness landscapes fluctuate across space and time, forming what may be called a noisy seascape. This talk examines how such variability modifies classical models of population dynamics and community stability. Beginning from the logistic equation, I will show how spatiotemporal fluctuations in fitness lead naturally to power-law population statistics and, under certain conditions, to the empirical (fractional) Richards growth law. Extending these ideas to interacting species reveals that the combined effects of dispersal and environmental noise can stabilize large, diverse communities despite strong competitive interactions. The resulting framework connects extinction, growth, and coexistence within a unified view of life on a noisy seascape.

Boundaries, inclusions and disorder in active matter Jan 23, 2026

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Active systems are driven out of equilibrium by exchanging energy and momentum with their environment. This endows them with anomalous mechanical properties which leads to rich phenomena when active fluids are in contact with boundaries, inclusions, or disordered potentials. Indeed, studies of the mechanical pressure of active fluids and of the dynamics of passive tracers have shown that active systems impact their environment in non-trivial ways, for example, by propelling and rotating anisotropic inclusions. Conversely, the long-ranged density and current modulations induced by localized obstacles show how the environment can have a far-reaching impact on active fluids. This is best exemplified by the propensity of bulk and boundary disorder to destroy bulk phase separation in active matter, showing active systems to be much more sensitive to their surroundings than passive ones.

The Force of Nothing: Attraction and Repulsion in the Quantum Void Jan 23, 2026

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Quantum physics teaches us that even the emptiest vacuum is teeming with fluctuations of electromagnetic fields. When these fluctuations are confined between objects, they produce measurable forces: the Casimir effect describes an attraction between uncharged conductors arising solely from the confinement of the quantum void. In this talk, I will explore how this subtle quantum phenomenon connects to ideas of attraction, repulsion, and mechanical work. After introducing the origin and measurement of the Casimir force, I will discuss whether it can be made repulsive, and why true levitation remains elusive in equilibrium. Extending these ideas beyond equilibrium reveals new possibilities: radiation pressure from heat, nonreciprocal materials that generate motion and work without contact, and rotating bodies that spontaneously emit light. Together, these examples show how the restless quantum vacuum continues to surprise us.

Public Lecture: The Quest for High Temperature Superconductivity Jan 15, 2026

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Superconductivity is a state of matter where electrons can flow without resistance and where magnetic fields are expelled. It was discovered serendipitously more than a hundred years ago. Today, superconductors are essential components of medical imaging devices as well as high energy particles accelerators. Understanding this phenomena was one of the greatest intellectual challenges of the twentieth century. A dramatic advance was provided by the BCS (Bardeen Cooper Schrieffer) theory 45 years after. It posits that superconductivity is the result of macroscopic condensation of electron pairs, which are held together by the vibrations of the lattice. The condensate is a macroscopic quantum objects and its rigidity accounts for its striking macroscopic properties. The BCS theory was so successful that by the early 70’s superconductivity was considered a completely understood subject with the maximum achievable critical temperature having been reached experimentally around 30K. In the late 80’s this field of research took a dramatically turn with the discovery of new ceramic compounds which superconduct at temperatures as high as 160 K. These materials, cannot be described by straightforward extensions of the BCS theory. Scientists are still working on finding new explanations for these materials and we will describe the challenge they pose. The quest for room temperature superconductivity thus continues. A breakthrough in this field would have unimaginable consequences, changing the way we transmit electricity from its generation to its consumption to the way we design computers.

Public Lecture: Crackling Noise Jan 15, 2026

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A piece of paper or candy wrapper crackles when it is crumpled. A magnet crackles when you change its magnetization slowly. The earth crackles as the continents slowly drift apart, forming earthquakes. Crackling noise happens when a material, when put under a slowly increasing strain, slips through a series of short, sharp events with an enormous range of sizes. There are many thousands of tiny earthquakes each year, but only a few huge ones. The sizes and shapes of earthquakes show regular patterns that they share with magnets and many other systems. This suggests that there must be a shared scientific explanation. We shall hear about crackling noise and that it is a symptom of a surprising truth: the system behaves the same on small, medium, and large scales.

Public Lecture: Quantum Beauty Jan 15, 2026

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Does the world embody beautiful ideas? Pythagoras and Plato intuited that it should, Newton and Maxwell showed, in impressive examples, how it could. Modern physics demonstrates, in depth and detail, that it does. I will narrate, through notable examples, how the concept of beauty in physical law has evolved – and how it continues to guide our quest for ultimate understanding.

Biophysics Seminar: Statistical Physics in Biology: Twisting transitions for DNA, and Ising Models for cell Membranes Jan 15, 2026

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The theory of phase transitions splits between abrupt transitions (nucleation and growth, critical droplets) and continuous transitions (scaling and universality). I’ll discuss wonderful biophysics examples for each: Michelle Wang’s twisting single molecules of DNA, and with Sarah Veatch’s discovery of universal Ising critical fluctuations in living cell membranes. (1) Plectonemes are the helically wound loops formed in garden hoses and electrical cords when they are overtwisted. Wang's group studies their equilibrium formation in overtwisted DNA, where they observe reversible transitions over the free energy barrier. This system, with well-known continuum elasticity and a controlled disorder, forms an unusual opportunity to test our ideas about the nucleation of phase transitions, and to generalize them to include randomness. (2) Sarah Veatch in Baird's group has recently made an amazing discovery – cell membranes, when stripped from the cytoskeleton, sit just above an Ising critical point. Cooled by 5%, they phase separate into two components: differing mixtures of lipids and proteins. We've tried to answer three questions: Why don't intact cells undergo this phase separation? Why would a cell want to sit near a critical point? What does statistical mechanics tell us about lipid rafts and the formation of protein aggregates?

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