On the occasion of the Centennial of Einstein's Miraculous Year
 and of the World Year of Physics, the Department of Physics and
 the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University
 join in presenting a series of public events during 2005.
  Resources for World Year of Physics
  Center for History of Physics, AIP
  Directions to the Princeton Physics Department
  Department of Physics
  Department of Astrophysical Sciences


UPCOMING ACTIVITIES:

  • World Year of Physics/Einstein Year Concerts at Taplin Auditorium:

    November 13, 2005, 2:00pm

    • Prof. B. Foster & J. Liebeck
    "Superstrings"..... a celebration of Einstein and Physics, with music by J.S. Bach and L. Boccherini

    For a description of the "Superstrings" lecture please see: http://www.jackliebeck.com/STWeb/superstrings_info.htm    

    November 13, 2005, 4:00pm

    Jack Liebeck: violin, Charles Owen: piano

    L. van Beethoven: Sonata in G Major, Op. 96
    C. Debussy: Sonata in G Minor
    B. Martinu: 5 Madrigal Stanzas H297
    R. Strauss: Sonata in E flat major, Op. 18

    Concert preceded by
    "Introduction to Einstein & Music"
    Prof. Brian Foster, University of Oxford

    More information about Jack Liebeck can be found at: http://www.jackliebeck.com

PAST ACTIVITIES:

  • Physics Colloquium:
    "Red and Dead Galaxies: "Terminated" by Resident Black Holes?"
    Thursday, November 6, 2005
    4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
    A-10 Jadwin Hall

    Sandra Faber
    UC Santa Cruz, Lick Observatory

    ABSTRACT: Several strands of evidence are converging to give us new insight into the formation of "red and dead" elliptical galaxies at the head of the Hubble sequence. DEEP2 and other surveys of distant galaxies have shown that such galaxies have quenched rather late in the history of the Universe, contrary to standard wisdom, which said that their stars were fully formed at early times. The mystery is how and why these galaxies ceased making stars when they did. Increasingly detailed models suggest that necessary termination of the cold gas supply cannot occur without some added causative agent --- current thinking has focused on feedback from massive central black holes as that agent. If true this would establish the relationship between black holes and host galaxies as more intimate than previously thought. To invoke a biological metaphor, black holes may feed off the leavings of their parent galaxies for billions of years and then, having grown to some critical size, kill them off.

  • Physics Colloquium:
    "The Assassin of Relativity"
    Thursday, October 27, 2005
    4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
    A-10 Jadwin Hall

    Peter L. Galison
    Mallinckrodt Professor of the History of Science and of Physics
    Harvard University

    ABSTRACT: In his younger years--from the time they were students together at the Zurich Polytechnic--Albert Einstein was good friends with Friedrich Adler. Adler, son of the cultured leader of the Socialist Party in Vienna, was, like Einstein, a physicist very much engaged with both epistemology and politics. They shared a fascination with Ernst Mach--Einstein and Adler even lived in the same building where their young children played together, and spoke often about their efforts in physics. Adler wrote his father that he and Einstein had seemingly "parallel lives." Then, in the midst of World War I, on 21 October 1916, Adler assassinated the Prime Minister of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Einstein rallied to his defense and between death row and Berlin, Adler and Einstein began an extraordinary correspondence about the meaning and validity of relativity. This presentation is an exploration of the heady mix of psychoanalysis, politics, physics and philosophy that followed--as the world stumbled deeper into war--and began grappling with the import of relativity.

  • July 21-Aug. 18
    Gran Sasso-Princeton Physics
    Summer School

  • Princeton and Einstein's Legacy
    A Special Reunion Weekend Presentation (University personnel and alumni only)
    Friday, May 27, 2005, 2:30-5:00, McDonnell A02 (reception to follow)
    REUNION 2005 PROGRAM

  • 30th Donald Ross Hamilton Lecture
    Friday, April 29, 2005, 8pm, McDonnell A-02
    Speaker: David J. Gross
    "The Future of Physics"
    Abstract: In this talk I discuss 25 questions that might guide physics, in the broadest sense, over the next 25 years.

  • Brian Greene, Columbia University and author of Elegant Universe and Fabric of the Cosmos
    Louis Clark Vanuxem lecture
    The Fabric of the Cosmos
    Wednesday, April 6, 2005, 8:00pm, McCosh 50

  • Alex Filippenko, University of California at Berkeley
    J. Edward Farnum Lecture
    Einstein's Biggest Blunder? The Case for Cosmic "Antigravity"
    Friday, February 25, 2005, 7:30pm, McCosh 50

  • Diana L. Kormos-Buchwald, California Institute of Technology
    Associate Professor of History and Director and General Editor of the Einstein Papers Project
    ``Einstein's Legacy: The Challenges and Rewards of Editing The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein"
    February 17, at 4:30pm MacDonnell A02