On the afternoon of Nov 27th, Professor Frank Wilczek, the 2004 Nobel Laureate in Physics, the Founding Director and Chief Scientist of Tsung-Dao Lee Institute (TDLI) gave the 9th T. D. Lee colloquium. The colloquium, titled Quasiparticles and Quasiworlds was hosted by Prof. Hong Ding, the Deputy President of TDLI and CAS Academician.
Prof. Jie Zhang, Director of TDLI, CAS Academician, Prof. Antti Niemi from Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics and Prof. Jianwei Pan from USTC, CAS Academician and more than several tens of faculties and students from TDLI attended this event on-site, and in parallel, the colloquium also attracted more than XX audiences online.
In the colloquium, Professor Wilczek introduced in detail how to examine the relationship between elementary particles and quasiparticles, and the world and quasiworlds from a unified scientific view. In our universe, there are many kinds of elementary particles such as photons and electrons; at the same time, there are also various quasiparticles in condensed matter materials. If we think of vacuum as a special material, we can understand that many elementary particles in nature are actually quasiparticles in the vacuum material. Instead, there are many different types of interesting materials, each of which can be thought of as a special world whose quasiparticles are equivalent to the elementary particles in that material world. In this unified perspective, the status of quasiparticles and particles becomes equally important. Wilczek further discussed in depth a variety of interesting quasiparticles that may appear in the vacuum and solid universe, focusing particularly on the concepts of axions and anyons. In addition, he extended the concept of quasiparticles to the field of biology and proposed very interesting concepts such as quasi-cells. At the end of the report, Professor Wilczek quoted William Blake's poem to emphasize the unity of our world: To see a World in a Grain of Sand/And a Heaven in a Wild Flower/Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand/And Eternity in an hour. Students and faculties raised many interesting questions and had in-depth discussions with Professor Wilczek.
At the end of this colloquium, Professor Ding presented a certificate to Professor Wilczek as the speaker for the T. D. Lee Colloquium and he also presented a special gift, a comic portrait of Professor Wilczek himself.
Before this colloquium, Professor Wilczek had an informal discussion and interaction with faculties and students at TDLI.
Video Link：https://www.koushare.com/lives/room/040181