Topological phase transitions in two dimensions
Monday, 12 February 2018, ore 14:30 — Aula Magna "Tullio Regge"
Network structure and dynamics: When and how multiplex really matters?
After almost ten years of research on characterising the properties of real-world multiplex networks, describing mathematically their structure, and modelling different types of dynamical process occurring over them, it is now time to draw the first conclusions and to try to answer a fundamental question: Does multiplex really matter? Focusing here both on the structure and on dynamics of multiplex networks, we discuss some cases where multiplexity gives rise to the emergence of novel behaviors, otherwise unobserved in single-layer networks.
Friday, 2 February 2018, ore 14:30 — Aula Magna "Tullio Regge"
Measuring the Universe with Galaxy Surveys
Friday, 26 January 2018, ore 14:30 — Sala Wataghin
How to be a hoax buster: methods and tools for sorting facts from misinformation in today's media
The Internet gives us all an amazing, unprecedented opportunity to perform and share fact-checking of news stories. Using real-life examples taken from all media, this talk casts light on the surprising psychological, social and economic reasons that encourage the growth of hoaxes and false news and have caused a severe drop in the reliability and trustworthiness of traditional journalism. The talk also proposes practical remedies, criteria and computer-assisted investigation methods, usable by anyone to spot fake news more easily both online and in traditional media and to rebuild trust.
Friday, 12 January 2018, ore 14:30 — Aula Magna "Tullio Regge"
Subtleties of QCD at Large Transverse Momentum
The theory of the strong interactions, quantum chromodynamics (QCD), is currently accepted to be responsible for the formation and structure of hadronic bound states. However, the precise QCD mechanisms involved remain mysterious and poorly understood. High and medium energy scattering experiments provide one important source of information. I will explain how the details of final states provide clues to the underlying quark and gluon interactions involved in the collision. I will also discuss some of the difficulties involved in connecting scattering observables with fundamental theory, some of which are uniquely (and interestingly) unintuitive. I will end by summarizing how these issues might guide future efforts in hadronic physics.
Monday, 18 December 2017, ore 14:30 — Sala Wataghin
The Living Planet: What makes Earth?s climate special
Earth?s climate is a complex dynamical system composed of many interacting components, including the oceans, atmosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere and the ensemble of living organisms. Biogeochemical cycles link all of them exchanging carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus (to cite but some) and water across the different reservoirs. Processes interact and feed back on each other at multiple space and time scales, leading both to a significant variability of the climatic conditions across different geological epochs, as well as to an overall stability of the global climate (no runaway greenhouse or permanent snowball), that has allowed the presence of life on Earth for more than three billion years. In this talk, I discuss some of the results and views on the interaction between climate and biosphere, focusing on how the living organisms are affected by, and affect, the local, regional and global climatic state. These considerations become especially intriguing when expanded to the search for the possible presence of life on other planetary bodies, between the two extreme views of panspermia (associated with the widespread presence of life in the universe) and the case of a ?Rare Earth?, that is, the fact that our planet has so many specific properties that it is probably a rare cosmic specimen. Finally, some brief considerations on how humans are experimenting with the global climate of our planet are offered.
Friday, 24 November 2017, ore 14:30 — Sala Wataghin
Three-dimensional gravity: a superb theoretical laboratory
Three-dimensional Einstein gravity has no local dynamical degree of freedom. Yet, it is far from being trivial when the cosmological constant is negative. (i) It admits black hole solutions. (ii) It easily allows for consistently interacting and tractable higher-spin extensions. (iii) It possesses remarkable asymptotic properties at infinity where an infinite-dimensional symmetry algebra emerges. These unique features make three-dimensional gravity a perfect "theoretical laboratory" in which to explore the conceptual issues related to (i), (ii) and (iii) in a simpler context. The talk will not only discuss three-dimensional gravity assuming no previous knowledge on the subject, but will also provide access to more recent work where new results on points (i), (ii) and (iii) are developed.
Friday, 10 November 2017, ore 14:30 — Sala Wataghin
General relativity in the era of large scale surveys
Over the coming decade new cosmological surveys will map the Universe over huge volumes. This will allow us to probe general relativity on unprecedented scales. I shall discuss the new relativistic effects that may be significant on these scales.
Monday, 27 October 2017, ore 14:30 — Sala Wataghin
Scienza e Informazione
L?innovazione tecnologica cambia il modo di leggere e di informarsi. Carta o web? Carta e web? Il mezzo influisce sul messaggio, e viceversa. È difficile dire che cosa sarà una notizia tra dieci anni, dato che già oggi certi articoli di sport e di finanza sono scritti da algoritmi e i giornalisti diventano una specie in estinzione. Al tempo di Facebook e di Twitter tutti sono fonti di notizie come una volta lo erano l?Ansa e la Reuters. È successo anche con la scoperta delle onde gravitazionali. Nell?assordante rumore di fondo dell?informazione è sempre più difficile essere informati e informare. Persino - forse soprattutto - nel campo scientifico. Ma noi ci proveremo.
Friday, 29 September 2017, ore 15:30 — Aula Magna "Tullio Regge"