IPS Newsletter 14 May, 2015

• IPS

IPS Newsletter 14 May, 2015

Bar-Ilan University cordially invites you to a lecture by

2015 Honorary Doctorate Candidate 

Sir Prof. Andre Geim, 2010 Nobel Laureate in Physics

Under the auspices of the Bar-Ilan Institute for Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials (BINA)

And the Department of Physics

“Random Walk to Stockholm”

Monday, May 18, 2015, 4:00 p.m.

Leslie & Susan Gonda (Goldschmied) Nanotechnology Triplex (#206), 1st Floor, Auditorium, South Campus

                              http://physics.biu.ac.il/node/3391

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Dear Friends, 

on May 27 we will host a Supernova & Cosmology Mini-Workshop at TAU in honor of R. P. Kirshner, Clowes Professor of Science in the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics at Harvard University, winner of the Wolf prize 2015. 

Please note that registration is free, but we kindly ask you to register here  so we can estimate attendance.  

Additionally, R. P. Kirshner will give a special colloquium at 13:30 in Melamed hall. Title and abstract follow. 

Infrared Observations of Supernovae: the best path to constraining dark energy

Thermonuclear supernovae are powerful tools for measuring cosmic distances.  They lie at the heart of the local determinations of the Hubble constant and were the tools for discovering cosmic acceleration.  But narrowing the uncertainties on the nature of dark energy demands even better control of systematic errors.  Fortunately, SN Ia are even better standard candles in the near infrared than they are at visible wavelengths.  Absorption by dust is also less troublesome in the infrared.  I will report on the “RAISIN” program that uses 22 Type Ia supernovae discovered with PanSTARRS and followed up in the near-IR with the Hubble Space Telescope to demonstrate this new approach to constraining the properties of dark energy.

Cheers, 
Dovi

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