Dr. Al Shapere
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Kentucky

Normally, the minimum energy solution of a classical system is time-independent, since the kinetic energy is minimized when all velocities are zero. However, by considering kinetic energies that depend in a nonstandard way on the velocities, it is possible to construct dynamical systems that display motion in their lowest energy state, forming a time analogue of crystalline spatial order. In these systems and their generalizations, time translation invariance is spontaneously broken. I will discuss several examples of such systems, and possible real-world applications to cosmology and Bose-Einstein condensation.

 

Refreshments will be served in CP 177 at 3:15 PM