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// Month[i]=["date","Speaker","Institution","Title","Abstract","Host","Special Time Notes","Special Time Notes"];
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August[0]=["18","Alex Kusenko","UCLA","Primordial black holes, neutron star genocide, and the origin of heavy elements","The observed abundances of heavy elements are well explained by r-process in a neutron-rich environment.  However, the site of r-process is not known.  Supernovae as well as neutron star merger have been considered, but they do seem to explain the data.   If primordial black holes make up more than 1% of dark matter, they can invade neutron stars and destroy them from inside.   In the last milliseconds of the neutron star's demise, the amount of ejected  neutron-rich material is sufficient to explain the observed abundances of heavy elements.  The systematic destruction of neutron stars by primordial black holes is consistent with the paucity of neutron stars in the galactic center and in dwarf galaxies, where the density of black holes should be very high.  The ejection of nuclear matter can produce an optical signature (''kilonova''), and a Fast Radio Burst should accompany the rearrangement of the neutron star's magnetic field.  The amount of positrons emitted from the ejecta is consistent with the observed 511-keV line from the galactic center.","Paolo Gondolo","","INSCC_345",""]

August[1]=["25","Subo Dong","Peking","Direct collision of white dwarfs as a major channel for type Ia supernova explosions","The explosion mechanism of type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) is unknown. We argue that the direct white dwarf-white dwarf collisions in the field multiple stellar systems is the most promising mechanism to explain SNe Ia. The collision model explains several robust observational features across the entire SN Ia population. It also predicts the bi-modal Ni56 distributions in the ejecta, and we have discovered that such bi-modality is common from the nebular-phase spectra of SNe Ia, providing direct evidence of the collision model. I will discuss key observational tests on the collision model enabled by the All Sky Automatic Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN) - the most successful bright supernova survey at present.","Zheng Zheng","","",""]

September[0]=["01","All","HEAP","Jamboree","We ask each of the faculty members, postdocs, and students to submit one slide on their recent or ongoing research or on their research interests. The seminar will be composed of 1-2min talks by everyone (a.k.a. machine gun talks or lightning talks). This provides an opportunity for people to know the current activities in the astronomy and high-energy groups, and it also serves as an introduction of the groups to the newly coming students.","Local","","",""]

September[1]=["08","Aaron Meisner","Berkeley","NEOWISE Beyond the Main Belt: Searching for Planet Nine","Launched over seven years ago, NASA's WISE satellite continues to collect millions of infrared images at 3-5 microns as part of its asteroid-hunting NEOWISE mission. I am leading an effort to repurpose NEOWISE exposures for science beyond the main belt by generating deep and time-resolved coadded images. These data products have wide-ranging applications, from nearby brown dwarfs to precision constraints on dark energy. I will describe our use of these coadds to perform the deepest WISE search for Planet Nine, the giant planet hypothesized to orbit the Sun at several hundred AU. If it exists, Planet Nine could be detectable by WISE at 3.4 microns, depending on its atmospheric properties. Our search methodology reaches distances of up to 800 AU and depths 1.4 magnitudes beyond the single-exposure detection limit. I will discuss the results of our deepest/widest search yet, covering over 75% of the sky with a seven-year time baseline.","Ben Bromley","","",""]

September[2]=["15","Jun Yang","Utah","X-ray pulsars in nearby irregular galaxies","The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and Irregular Galaxy IC 10 are valuable laboratories to study the physical, temporal and statistical properties of the X-ray pulsar population with multi-satellite observations, in order to probe fundamental physics. Therefore, a complete archive of 116 XMM-Newton PN, 151 Chandra (Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer) ACIS, and 952 RXTE PCA observations for the pulsars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) were collected and analyzed, along with 42 XMM-Newton and 30 Chandra observations for the Large Magellanic Cloud, spanning 1997-2014. From a sample of 67 SMC pulsars we generate a suite of products for each pulsar detection: spin period, flux, event list, high time-resolution light-curve, pulse-profile, periodogram, and X-ray spectrum. Combining all three satellites, I generated complete histories of the spin periods, pulse amplitudes, pulsed fractions and X-ray luminosities. Many of the pulsars show variations in pulse period due to the combination of orbital motion and accretion torques. Long-term spin-up/down trends are seen in 28/25 pulsars respectively, pointing to sustained transfer of mass and angular momentum to the neutron star on decadal timescales. The distributions of pulse detection and flux as functions of spin period provide interesting findings: mapping boundaries of accretion-driven X-ray luminosity, and showing that fast pulsars (P<10 s) are rarely detected, which yet are more prone to giant outbursts. In parallel we compare the observed pulse profiles to our general relativity (GR) model of X-ray emission in order to constrain the physical parameters of the pulsars. In addition, we conduct a search for optical counterparts to X-ray sources in the local dwarf galaxy IC 10 to form a comparison sample for Magellanic Cloud X-ray pulsars.","Local","","",""]

September[3]=["22","Craig Sarazin","Virginia","Computer Simulations of the Violent Lives of Clusters of Galaxies and their Galaxies","Clusters of galaxies are the largest relaxed systems in the Universe.  However, many clusters are still growing as a result of mergers with other clusters or groups.  I will describe high resolution computer simulations of clusters of galaxies.  First, I will present the SLAM library, which consists of a set of 156 cluster mergers, covering a wide range of masses, mass ratios, and impact parameters.  I will describe the effects of mergers on the gas fractions in clusters, and on their observable X-ray and Sunyaev-Zel’dovich radio properties.  Second, simulations of the stripping of gas from galaxies in clusters will be described.  Computer calculations of entire clusters and groups will be presented, showing the how gas is stripped and mixed with the diffuse intracluster medium.  High resolution simulations of the stripping of individual galaxies will also be shown.  These include magnetic fields and thermal conduction.  In simulations without magnetic fields, galactic gas evaporates and flows into the intracluster medium very quickly, in contradiction with observations. In simulations with magnetic fields, thermal conduction is effectively suppressed by intracluster magnetic fields which shield the galaxies.  Stripping of gas from both elliptical and spiral galaxies will be shown.  The stripped spiral galaxies will be compared to the “jellyfish” galaxies recently discovered in clusters.","Daniel Wik","","",""]

September[4]=["29","Jack Laiho","Syracuse","Lattice quantum gravity and asymptotic safety","We present results from a study of lattice quantum gravity in an attempt to make contact with Weinberg's asymptotic safety scenario for quantum gravity. We find that a fine-tuning is necessary in order to recover semiclassical behavior, and that once this tuning is performed, our simulations provide evidence in support of the asymptotic safety scenario for gravity. We discuss our motivation for the tuning and present our numerical results.","Carleton DeTar","","",""]

October[0]=["06","","","No Seminar","","","","",""]

October[1]=["13","","","No Seminar - Fall Break","","","","",""]

October[2]=["20","Gus Sinnis","LANL","Beyond HAWC: A Next Generation All-Sky TeV Gamma-Ray Observatory","The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory has been operating for over two years. In that time HAWC has made significant contributions to our knowledge of the high-energy processes in our Galaxy. However, to date HAWC has detected only two objects outside of our Galaxy - the active galaxies Mrk 421 and Mrk 501. As we prepare for the era of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) it is natural to consider what a future all-sky instrument would look like. Unlike current Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes, CTA will have a large field of view and be capable of surveying the entire Galaxy and a reasonable fraction of the extragalactic sky. Any discussion of a future all-sky instrument must be made in the context of CTA. In this talk I will examine the limitations of HAWC and discuss improvements that can be made to enable a future instrument to gain a deeper view of the universe and complement the strengths of CTA.","Pierre Sokolsky","","",""]

October[3]=["27","Jonelle Walsh","Texas A&M","Supermassive Black Holes in Nearby Galaxies","Over the past 15 years it has become increasingly clear that supermassive black holes are essential components of galaxies, as demonstrated by the empirical correlations connecting black hole masses and large-scale galaxy properties. Although about 100 dynamical black hole mass measurements have been made to date, the local black hole mass census is highly incomplete. Gaining a more complete picture of black hole demographics and a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that drive black hole/galaxy evolution requires the measurement of black holes in a wider range of galaxy types with diverse evolutionary histories. In this talk, I will discuss the measurement of black holes in an exciting population of local galaxies that show remarkable similarities to galaxies observed at earlier epochs in the Universe. I will also describe our Gemini Large and Long Program aimed at addressing a bias in the types of galaxies for which dynamical black hole mass measurements have been made.","Anil Seth","","INSCC_345",""]

November[0]=["03","Bret Lehmer","Arkansas","An X-ray Perspective on the Evolution of Galaxies","Studies of the extragalactic Universe, from ultraviolet to infrared wavelengths, have been extremely effective at piecing together a basic picture of how stars in galaxies evolved throughout cosmic history.  At X-ray wavelengths, galaxy emission is dominated by populations of X-ray binaries, which consist of black holes and neutron stars that are accreting material from normal stellar companions.  X-ray binaries provide unique and important information regarding the star-formation histories and chemical evolution (metallicities) of their host galaxies, and played a role in shaping the  initial formation of structure in the Universe through feedback processes. Using X-ray and multiwavelength observations (e.g., from Chandra, GALEX, Hubble, NuSTAR, Spitzer, Herschel, and other telescopes) of nearby and distant galaxies, as well as large-scale theoretical modeling, we are developing a  complete framework detailing how X-ray binary populations and their host galaxies evolved together over the last 12 billion years (~90%) of cosmic history.  In this talk, I will describe some of the exciting new insights from this work, and I will highlight how new data sets, future observational facilities, and improved theoretical modeling will revolutionize our understanding of X-ray binaries, compact objects, and galaxies.","Daniel Wik","","",""]

November[1]=["10","Helion du Mas des Bourboux","Utah","Baryon acoustic oscillations from the complete SDSS-III Ly&alpha;-quasar cross-correlation function at z=2.4","We present a measurement of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) in the cross-correlation of quasars with the Ly&alpha;-forest flux transmission at a mean redshift of z=2.40. The measurement uses the complete Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III) data sample: 168,889 forests and 234,367 quasars from the SDSS data release DR12. In addition to the statistical improvement on our previous study using DR11, we have implemented numerous improvements at the analysis level enabling a more accurate measurement of this cross-correlation. We have also developed the first simulations of the cross-correlation that allow us to test different aspects of our data analysis and to search for potential systematic errors in the determination of the BAO peak position. We measure the two ratios We present a measurement of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) in the cross-correlation of quasars with the Ly&alpha;-forest flux transmission at a mean redshift of z=2.40. The measurement uses the complete Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III) data sample: 168,889 forests and 234,367 quasars from the SDSS data release DR12. In addition to the statistical improvement on our previous study using DR11, we have implemented numerous improvements at the analysis level enabling a more accurate measurement of this cross-correlation. We have also developed the first simulations of the cross-correlation that allow us to test different aspects of our data analysis and to search for potential systematic errors in the determination of the BAO peak position. We measure the two ratios D<sub>H</sub>(z-2.40)/r<sub>d</sub> = 9.01 &plusmn; 0.36 and D<sub>M</sub>(z=2.40)/r<sub>d</sub> = 35.7 &plusmn; 1.7 where the errors include marginalization over the non-linear velocity of quasars and the cross-correlation of metals and quasars, among other effects. These results are within 1.8&sigma; of the prediction of the flat-&Lambda;CDM model describing the observed cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies. We combine  this study with the Ly&alpha;-forest auto-correlation function, yielding D<sub>H</sub>(z=2.40)/r<sub>d</sub> = 8.84 &plusmn; 0.22 and D<sub>M</sub>(z=2.40)/r<sub>d</sub> = 36.6 &plusmn; 1.2, within 2.3&sigma; of the flat-&Lambda;CDM model.","Local","","",""]

November[2]=["17","Jeremy Perkins","Goddard","All-Sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory (AMEGO) - A discovery mission for the MeV gamma-ray band","The MeV domain is one of the most underexplored windows on the Universe. From astrophysical jets and extreme physics of compact objects to a large population of unidentified objects, fundamental astrophysics questions can be addressed by a mission that opens a window into the MeV range. AMEGO is a wide-field gamma-ray telescope with sensitivity from ~200 keV to >10 GeV. AMEGO provides three new capabilities in MeV astrophysics: sensitive continuum spectral studies, polarization measurements, and nuclear line spectroscopy. AMEGO will consist of four hardware subsystems: a double-sided silicon strip tracker with analog readout, a segmented CZT calorimeter, a segmented CsI calorimeter and a plastic scintillator anticoincidence detector, and will operate primarily in an all-sky survey mode. In this presentation we will describe the AMEGO mission concept and scientific performance.","Dave Kieda","","",""]

November[3]=["24","","","No Seminar - Thanksgiving Holiday","","","","",""]

December[0]=["01","Peter Adshead","Illinois","Asymmetric reheating and chilly dark sectors","In a broad class of theories, the relic abundance of dark matter is determined by interactions internal to a thermalized dark sector, with no direct involvement of the Standard Model. These theories raise an immediate cosmological question: how was the dark sector initially populated in the early universe? I will discuss one possibility, asymmetric reheating, which can populate a thermal dark sector that never reaches thermal equilibrium with the SM.","Pearl Sandick","","",""]

December[1]=["08","Jon Bird","Vanderbilt","Connecting Local Stars and z~2 Galaxy Ensembles in Disk Galaxy Formation","Much of the Galactic and Extragalactic communities still do not agree on the morphological growth and evolution of disk galaxies. Local observations support the position that disks grow thicker with time; stars are born dynamically cold and subsequent scattering processes increase orbital random motions as stars age. In contrast, resolved spectroscopy of z~1-2 galaxies reveals that stars formed in thicker configurations with higher velocity dispersion in the past, suggesting disks &ldquo; settle &rdquo; over time. I will review our &ldquo; Upside-Down &rdquo; formation model, which reconciles these seemingly discrepant viewpoints. Upside-Down disk formation has now been recognized in both high-resolution zoom-in simulations and large cosmological boxes such as Illustris. However, questions still remain, foremost of which is what drives the upside-down process. Using cosmological zoom-in galaxy formation simulations, I will discuss the role of gas turbulence in setting the birth velocity dispersion of stars from z~1.5 to now. Even so, the kinematics of mono-age populations are still affected by various heating mechanisms after they form. We find that the evolution of the gas within the Galaxy largely determines whether gas cooling or stellar heating is predominantly responsible for the observable, present-day motions of stars. I will conclude with connections to the Milky Way stellar age-velocity relationship that already constrain the dominance of dynamical heating or upside-down cooling at different epochs during the formation history of the Galaxy and point towards more definitive tests to be carried out by Gaia and next generation spectroscopic surveys.","Gail Zasowski","","",""]

December[2]=["15","","","No Seminar - Final Exams","","","","",""]

December[3]=["22","","","Happy Holidays","","","","",""]

December[4]=["29","","","Happy Holidays","","","","",""]

January[0]=["9","Riccardo DeSalvo","Cal State","Astrophysics learning from the detection of Gravitational Waves","We often said that the detection of gravitational waves would open a new window on the Universe. Well, it was more surprising than expected. I will illustrate the latest events found in the data to give a glimpse of the strange things that we see through that window, and attempt an early summary of some of the astrophysical implications.","Stephan LeBohec","","JFB_334",""]

January[1]=["19","","","No Seminar","","","","",""]

January[2]=["26","Bettymaya Foott & Jess Dwyer","Utah","Preserving Dark Skies","Jess Dwyer (Center for Science and Mathematics Education) is a member of the Executive Board of the International Dark Sky Association, and is the Chapter Lead of Dark Sky SLC. Jess will give an overview of the causes and effects of light pollution, and the efforts Dark Sky SLC is leading to inform citizens about this preventable problem. <br> <br> Bettymaya Foott, the Coordinator for the Colorado Plateau Dark Sky Cooperative, will present about the organization, its origins, ongoing efforts, and collaboration successes. America's first Dark Sky Cooperative, this effort is a voluntary effort to link communities, tribes, businesses, state and federal agencies, and citizens In a collaborative effort to celebrate the view of the cosmos, minimize the impact of outdoor lighting, and ultimately restore natural darkness to the area. <br> <br> Ms. Foott will also discuss the Consortium for Dark Sky Studies at the University of Utah, the first academic center in the world dedicated to the discovery, development, communication, and application of knowledge across a wide range of disciplines and professional fields pertaining to the quality of night skies, growing light pollution and the varied human, animal, and environmental responses to the &ldquo;disappearing dark&rdquo;.","Local","","",""]

February[0]=["02","","","No Seminar","","","","",""]

February[1]=["09","","","No Seminar","","","","",""]

February[2]=["16","","","No Seminar","","","","",""]

February[3]=["23","","","No Seminar","","","","",""]

March[0]=["02","Nepomuk Otte","Georgia Tech","Trinity: An instrument to detect cosmogenic neutrinos with the Earth skimming technique","The predictions of the cosmogenic-neutrino flux at 1e9 GeV depend on the composition of the primary flux of cosmic-rays above 1e10 GeV, which is a long standing question. It is, therefore, no surprise that the hunt to detect the first cosmogenic neutrino is a hot topic in astroparticle physics. But pushing the experimental sensitivity into the predicted flux region is a challenge. A major obstacle is to obtain a large enough acceptance while keeping costs of experiments at reasonable levels. I have performed a conceptual design study of a dedicated array of Cherenkov telescopes that uses the Earth skimming technique to detect tau neutrinos. The studies show that a fairly small Cherenkov telescope system is sufficient to reach sensitivities that are competitive with other proposed neutrino experiments in the same energy range, like ARA and ARIANNA, and outperforms them in terms of costs. In this talk I present details of the design study and discuss the proposed array of Cherenkov telescopes, which I named Trinity.","Dave Kieda","","",""]

March[1]=["09","Nick Boardman","Utah","A wide-field view of early-type galaxies with the Mitchell integral-field spectrograph","I will present a sample of twelve nearby early-type galaxies of intermediate mass, observed with the Mitchell integral-field Spectrograph out to ~3 half-light radii. I will present measurements of the galaxies' stellar and ionized gas kinematics, results from stellar dynamical modelling, and constraints on the galaxies' stellar population parameters. I will show that no abrupt transitions occur in the stellar kinematics beyond 1 half-light radius: fast-rotating galaxies remain fast-rotating and slow-rotating galaxies remain slow rotating. In addition, I will show that the ionized gas is misaligned with the stars in a significant fraction of the objects. I will present dynamical mass models of the sample, from which I find the dark matter contribution to be low within the central half-light radius for most of the galaxies.  Lastly, I will show that stellar population gradients persist in these galaxies out to multiple half-light radii, leading to gradients also in their stellar mass-to-light ratios. My results are consistent with a view in which intermediate-mass early-type galaxies experience mostly quiet evolutionary histories, but in which many have experienced some kind of gaseous interaction in their past.","Local","","",""]

March[2]=["16","","","No Seminar","","","","",""]

March[3]=["23","","","No Seminar - Spring Break","","","","",""]

March[4]=["30","","","No Seminar - Hidden Figures Lecture","https://tickets.utah.edu/events/hidden-figures-and-nasa-margot-lee-shetterly-and-dr-ellen-stofan/","","","",""]

April[0]=["06","Mike Albrow","Fermilab","Very Forward Particle Production at the LHC","Inclusive particle production in hadron-hadron (or hadron-nucleus) collisions over the full range of Feynman-x, x<sub>F</sub>, has not been measured in accelerator experiments at center-of-mass energies above &radic;s = 63 GeV, at the CERN ISR. The LHC has &radic;s about 200 times higher, above the knee in the cosmic ray spectrum for the first time. Only very high x<sub>F</sub> protons, and zero-degree neutral particles, have been measured, but not with precision. <br> <br> I will discuss a possible LHC experiment (or new sub-detector of an existing experiment) to measure identified charged particles (&pi;, K, p, e, &mu;, &Lambda;, etc.) at small transverse momenta over the Feynman-x range 0.2 - 0.8. Innovative transition radiation detectors are crucial for particle identification in this TeV region. This is &ldquo;Terra Incognita&rdquo;; existing cosmic ray shower simulation programs differ by large factors in their predictions. The data may be relevant to some puzzles in cosmic ray data, and may reveal new and unexpected phenomena.","John Matthews","","",""]

April[1]=["13","Sean Grullon","GlaxoSmithKline","Transitioning from Academia to the Private Sector: Myths and Truths of a Career in Data Science","The rise of big data tools and machine learning in industry has meant that companies increasingly have to make data-driven decisions in order to stay competitive in the modern business world. It is estimated that business organizations in the United States would have to employ a total of 1 million data scientists nationwide by the end of 2018. The increasing demand for data scientists in the private sector has led to increased media coverage and hype, such as the Harvard Business Review calling Data Science &ldquo;The sexiest job of the 21st century&rdquo;. The increased demand for data scientists in industry has led to more scientists leaving academia in order to lend their quantitative skills to solve business problems. In this talk, Sean Grullon will share his experience in leaving academia to a career in Data Science in the private sector, including how data science is defined, how data science is typically used in business, how the skills learned by particle physicists in academia translate to data science, and an overview of trends in the field.","Rasha Abbasi","","",""]

April[2]=["20","Zhen Cao","IHEP","Particle Astrophysics with the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO)","In the 21st century, one of the fundamental scientific problems is the origin of the cosmic rays which were discovered 104 years ago. One of the important and traditional approaches is to measure the spectra of individual species of cosmic rays. ARGO-YBJ and AS&\gamma; in last 25 years and the proposed LHAASO project have been doing such measurements and improving them by using ground array techniques at very high altitudes above 4300m a.s.l. <br> <br> In this presentation, the scientific achievements of the hybrid experiment with ARGO-YBJ and prototype of Cherenkov telescopes in the LHAASO project will be cited as indications of what will be possibly achieved by LHAASO with performance of cosmic ray measurements in the energy region of &ldquo;knees&rdquo; up to a few EeV. The scientific prospects, detector performance and project status will be summarized.","Wayne Springer","","",""]

April[3]=["27","","","No Seminar - Final Exams","","","","",""]