Speaker
Description
I will give two lectures centered on time reversal symmetry T and its breaking. The overwhelming emphasis will be on non-dissipative dynamics.
In the first lecture, after briefly reviewing time reversal symmetry in classical physics and elementary quantum mechanics, I will turn to the issue of T in the standard model. I will derive the “main theorem of the standard model”, which puts the interactions allowed by general principles into a simple canonical form. This will pinpoint the origin of observed fundamental T violation and the motivation for Peccei-Quinn symmetry and axion physics.
In the second lecture I will discuss, mainly through a couple of case studies, how T symmetry figures into the analysis of matter. Specifically, I will discuss a canonical model of charge fractionalization (inspired by polyacetylene) and the issue of whether biology might have, in addition to its well-known chirality, also “temporal chirality”. The systematic use of effective Lagrangians will be a unifying pedagogical theme.
