[SPOOKtacular ScientiFika] Halloween Special!

by Arthur Loureiro (Stockholm University), Florian Niedermann (Stockholm University, Nordita), Stuart McAlpine (Stockholm University)

Friday 31 Oct 2025, 16:00 → 17:30 Europe/Stockholm

Floor 6 - Fika Area (AlbaNova Main Building)

 Lo and behold, the announcement you’ve all been waiting for... SPOOKtacular ScientiFika! 

When dark forces wake and data screams,
The cosmos quakes through coded dreams.
A shadow stirs, the Hubble sighs —
As hidden powers start to rise.

Ghost particles drift through the night,
Their mass concealed from mortal sight.
And deep in code’s illusioned view —
Are we the ghosts… or simulations too?

Please join us for the SPOOKtacular ScientiFika this coming Friday, October 31, at 4 PM! 

Everyone is welcome! 

We have an extraordinarily spooky line-up this week — with not one… not two… but three thrilling talks! The afternoon will also feature surprises, prizes, and the world premiere of the short film “Facing Infinity”!

Talks from Beyond

Florian Niedermann 
The Dark Awakens: A Cosmic Phase Transition Behind the Hubble Tension
I’ll explore how a new phase transition might reconcile conflicting measurements of the Universe’s expansion rate, and why the standard model of cosmology might be haunted by a new dark force.

Arthur Loureiro
Who You Gonna Weigh? Ghost Particles! Using the Universe to put neutrinos on a scale.
A spectre is haunting our Universe – the spectre of neutrinos and their mysterious masses. All the most powerful telescopes and particle physics experiments have entered into a cosmic alliance to exorcise this mystery. Although expected to be massless in the Standard Model of particle physics, recent experiments reveal that these strange particles are massive, haunting us to go beyond our current framework. Despite being extremely abundant, these ghostly particles rarely interact with ordinary matter, making them hard to detect. Yet neutrinos leave measurable fingerprints on the growth of cosmic structure across cosmic history. In this talk, we will see how cosmology and particle physics together can put neutrinos on a scale, demanding these particles reveal their biggest secret: how much does a ghost weigh?

Stuart McAlpine
Do we live in a simulation? 
Dive into digital clones of the cosmos and explore whether we might just live in a simulated universe.

Special Screening: “Facing Infinity” by Jonas Enander & Nikki Arendse! 
but that's not all...

Halloween Prize Draw!
...and of course delicious Seasonal Fika & Spooky Treats!