Group Meetings
Published by admin on Monday, March 1, 2010
The Gravity Group at UMississippi has a regular weekly scheduled meeting throughout the year to discuss current research progress, topics of interest and new papers. Typically, each week, two members of the group each make a short presentation, either about their current area of research or a paper that has attracted their interest.
For Spring semester 2025, the Group meets on Mondays at 4-5PM for a research update, both a scheduled ca. half hour presentation and room for free-form updates, and on Wednesdays at 4-5PM for a journal club. The schedule of speakers for this period is:
Group Meeting Schedule(*subject to change)
| Date | Research Presentation | Paper Presentation |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 27 & Jan 29 | arXiv discussion | Round-table update |
| Feb 3 & Feb 5 | Aniket | Amitesh |
| Feb 10 & Feb 12 | arXiv discussion | Nauman (research) |
| Feb 17 & Feb 19 | Purnima | Dipika |
| Feb 24 & Feb 26 | Subhayu | Arindam |
| Mar 3 & Mar 5 | Amitesh | APS practice |
| Mar 10 & Mar 12 | [SPRING | BREAK] |
| Mar 17 & Mar 19 | [APS | MEETING] |
| Mar 24 & Mar 26 | Nauman | Seminar |
| Mar 31 & Apr 2 | Aniket (paper) | Purnima |
| Apr 7 & Apr 9 | Arindam | GCGM prep |
| Apr 14 & Apr 16 | Nathan (paper) | Seminar |
| Apr 21 & Apr 23 | James | Nauman |
| Apr 28 & Apr 30 | Seminar | Seminar |
The group also has a running series where an external speaker is invited to give seminar talk during one of the usual meetings on their area of research or any topic of interest. The seminar then replaces the usual format of the meetings on those days. The list of external speakers will be updated as time goes on.
Tentative List of Seminars(*subject to change)
| Date | Speaker | Affiliation | Title of talk |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 26 | Raj Patil | AEI Potsdam | Precision Gravity: Gravitational waves using Feynman diagrams |
| April 16 | Konstantinos Kritos | Johns Hopkins | Merging black holes in star clusters |
| April 28 | Patrick Dawson | University of Sydney | Prospects for presentism in the context of modern physics |
| April 30 | Macarena Lagos | UNAB | Nonlinear gravitational wave ringdown |
The next scheduled seminar speaker is Patrick Dawson.
Title: Prospects for presentism in the context of modern physics
Abstract: Presentism is the theory that only the present exists. Historically, presentism has been one of the main alternatives to eternalism: the theory that everything across time exists, in a four-dimensional spacetime manifold. Since the advent of the theories of relativity, eternalism has been favoured among most philosophers and physicists, though there have been some attempts to resurrect presentism in the relativistic context. In this talk I introduce a bit of this history, and then consider the prospects for presentism in the 21st century. I argue that while many traditional approaches to presentism do not survive the challenges that relativity poses, there are some new versions to presentism that ought to be taken seriously. Particularly in the context of quantum gravity, other alternatives to eternalism are already being explored, and I argue that presentism could have a place in that discussion.
The archive of previous seminars is here.
Note: Due to the current COVID-19 situation, the meetings have shifted to a hybrid format. This format will be followed until otherwise announced. In case one wishes to participate, please direct your queries to either Dr. Leo Stein <lcstein@olemiss.edu> or Dr. Anuradha Gupta <agupta1@olemiss.edu>.