The 109th ICREA Colloquium ‘Towards a muon collider’
Speakers: ICREA Research Professor Andrea Wulzer, from the Institut de Física d'Altes Energies (IFAE) and Prof. Chris Rogers, from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
When: 27th of February 2024, 18:00h
Where: Auditorium FCRI, Passeig de Lluís Companys, 23, 08010 Barcelona
Abstract:
During the last several decades, experiments at accelerators and colliders with increasing collision energy unveiled a universal description of physical reality in terms of few fundamental particles and interactions. This description incorporates and expands the basic principles of Quantum Mechanics and of Relativity in a theoretical framework known as Quantum Field Theory. It models fundamental physics through a "Standard Model”, which was firmly established in 2013 by experiments at the Large Hadron Collider through the discovery of the Higgs boson.
Particle colliders with higher energy are needed to deepen the investigation of our successful, but incomplete understanding of physical reality. A novel collider concept is being developed, which promises the required jump ahead in energy reach relative to established concepts. This is based on colliding point-like and heavy particles such as the muons.
In these two talks, we will describe the state-of-the-art, the challenges and the future prospects of an ongoing muon collider design program, coordinated by CERN and financed by Europe. We will outline the opportunities and open questions of an integrated research program towards a muon collider in the very diverse areas of theoretical and experimental physics, beam dynamics, accelerator physics and technology.
The 108th ICREA Colloquium ‘Listening to the dark side of the Universe: the dawn and future of gravitational wave detection’
Speakers: ICREA Research Professors Mario Martínez and Diego Blas, both from the Institut de Física d'Altes Energies (IFAE)
When: 19th of December 2023, 18:00h
Where: Auditorium FCRI, Passeig de Lluís Companys, 23, 08010 Barcelona
Abstract:
The 2015 direct detection of gravitational waves (GW) opened a new era in our ability to explore the Universe. Since then, the scrutiny of the 10 - 1000 Hz band by the LVK collaboration has detected more than a hundred of mergers of black holes with masses in the range between few times and hundred times the mass of the Sun. In 2023 a signal in the nHz was detected by other methods, and its origin is currently being discussed. In this colloquium, we will address the significance of this detection, the possibilities and status of exploration in different bands of the spectrum of GWs, and discuss one of the most promising ways forward: the Einstein Telescope, with strong leadership from Barcelona institutions.
The ICREA colloquia are a great way to learn about remote fields of research from our best experts. We usually have two speakers, who offer their opinions on the same subject from different angles. They are open to all ICREAs and their guests.
The 107th ICREA Colloquium ‘So far, so close: Two illustrations of how languages and their speakers adapt to their communicative niche’
Speakers: ICREA Research Professor Dan Dediu, from Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and Research Professor François Pellegrino, from CNRS Lyon
When: 24th of October 2023, 18:00h
Where: Zoom & Auditorium FCRI, Passeig de Lluís Companys, 23, 08010 Barcelona
In these two talks we will argue that linguistic diversity is not some sort of irrelevant "noise" grafted on a universal abstract structure, but that, instead, diversity is highly patterned and scientifically relevant. "True" universals are rare and, just like in biology, they emerge from diversity through evolution, in this case, cultural evolution. One such possible universal concerns the finding that the rate at which information is transmitted tends to be the same across very different languages, resulting from a fundamental trade-off between speech rate (how fast a language is spoken by its speakers) and information density (determined by the language's structure). This trade-off shows, in our view, that the speakers and the language are two inseparable sides of the same coin, and that constrains resulting from our speech organs, hearing and cognition act on language, forcing it to adapt to fit an optimal region of the communicative niche. Switching to differences between languages, we will marshal a number of examples of languages that do or do not have a certain feature (a specific word for blue, or sounds such as "f" and "v") because of the environment they are spoken in (how much ultraviolet light there is?) or by whom they are spoken (what kind of food do their speakers eat?). We will argue that such patterns of diversity, just like in biology, reflect adaptation to different constraints and affordances, only that in this case we are speaking of cultural entities evolving culturally.
While such ideas are far from being new, the recent explosion in the availability of cross-linguistic data, of extremely powerful statistical methods and affordable computing power, and the increased cross-disciplinary collaborations have all conspired in making possible a "silent paradigm shift" in the language sciences.
The ICREA colloquia are a great way to learn about remote fields of research from our best experts. We usually have two speakers, who offer their opinions on the same subject from different angles. They are open to all ICREAs and their guests.
The 106th ICREA Colloquium ‘Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain: Bias and Opacity in Artificial Intelligence’
Speakers: ICREA Research Professors Marco Baroni and Carlos Castillo, both from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)
When: 27th of June 2023, 18:00h
Where: Zoom & Auditorium FCRI, Passeig de Lluís Companys, 23, 08010 Barcelona
Abstract:
As AI systems start being deployed in a large number of everyday contexts, it is particularly important to study the transparency and trustfulness of these systems from different perspectives.
In the first part of our joint talk, we will consider whether AI systems can have disadvantageous consequences for people based on the social group to which they belong, i.e., whether AI can engage in indirect discrimination, specifically statistical group discrimination. We will consider various examples of this phenomenon, which seems quite pervasive and particularly affects high-risk applications of AI, such as those related to housing, employment, and the administration of justice.
In the second part, we will consider to what extent large AI systems trained to "speak English" by being exposed to large amounts of text are really understanding natural language like humans do, and to what extent they have instead developed an alternative communication code that is only superficially resembling English. We will discuss some surprising results that suggest that the second hypothesis is correct, and the implications that this might have in terms of the usability and safety of these systems.
The ICREA colloquia are a great way to learn about remote fields of research from our best experts. We usually have two speakers, who offer their opinions on the same subject from different angles. They are open to all ICREAs and their guests.
