PEOPLE
A NOBEL PRIZE FOR THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DISORDER AND RANDOMNESS
Interview with Giorgio Parisi, Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics 2021, Professor Emeritus of the Sapienza University of Rome, INFN researcher, vice president of the Accademia dei Lincei.
On October 5th the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Giorgio Parisi, a theoretical physicist who has made profound contributions to many fields of scientific research and whose work has long been internationally recognised. The prize awarded by the Swedish Academy “for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales” is the highest level of acknowledgement that Parisi’s scientific work stands amongst the most important contributions to the theory of complex systems. Amidst the new methods developed to describe systems featuring randomness and disorder, and to predict their behaviour in the long term and at different scales of magnitude, there is Parisi’s study of spin glasses, which had a great part in the scientist being awarded the Nobel Prize and which finds applications in biology, neuroscience and recent developments in artificial intelligence. In addition to studying complex systems and condensed matter, as an INFN researcher, Parisi has made fundamental contributions to theoretical research in particle physics, in the field of quantum chromodynamics and the study of proton-proton collisions in particle accelerators and of the Higgs boson. Below is the transcript of a video interview, recorded in 2018 by the INFN Communication Office, in which Giorgio Parisi explains in more detail his studies on spin glasses, he talks about his vision of science communication, and tells about his relationship with the younger generation of scientists. [The full version of the video interview is available on the INFN YouTube channel].
What are spin glasses?
Spin glasses are relatively simple materials to make. For example, gold alloys with 5% of iron atoms: the iron atoms are far away from each other and hence, instead of having the usual ferromagnetic ...NEWS
RESEARCH
LUNA: NEW CLUES ON THE PRODUCTION OF HEAVY ELEMENTS IN THE STARS
How are heavy elements produced in stars? The scientific collaboration of the LUNA* experiment (Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Astrophysics), which operates at the INFN Gran Sasso National Laboratories, has recently published new results in the prestigious scientific journal Physical Review Letters that could help us answering this question, which has engaged physicists and astrophysicists for decades. ...
CELEBRATIONS
1951-2021: INFN - 70 YEARS OF RESEARCH DESIGNING THE FUTURE
INFN, the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics, is celebrating its 70th anniversary. Opening the season of celebrations was the conference-show “70 years of knowledge of the universe”, on stage on 29 September, at the Auditorium Parco della Musica of Rome, as part of the Rome Science Festival. ...
WORKSHOP
THE FUTURE OF NEUTRINOS RESEARCH AT THE INFN GRAN SASSO NATIONAL LABORATORIES
Double beta decay, a special process of mutating atomic nuclei that physicists from around the world have been researching for decades, was at the centre of the “North America-Europe Workshop on Future of Double Beta Decay”, which took place between 29 September and 1 October, at INFN Gran Sasso National Laboratories (LNGS). The event summoned representatives of the international scientific ...
APPLIED RESEARCH
INFN AND THE FOUNDATION OF THE POLYTECHNIC OF MILAN JOIN ALLEANZA CONTRO IL CANCRO
The governing council of the Alleanza Contro il Cancro (Alliance Against Cancer), the national oncology network of the Italian Ministry of Health, expressed a unanimously favourable opinion to INFN’s and the Foundation of the Polytechnic of Milan’s application to join the network as ordinary and associate members respectively. ...
AWARDS
SIGRAV AWARDS THREE YOUNG INFN RESEARCHERS AND GIVES THE AMALDI MEDAL TO HEINO FALCKE AND ANDRZEJ MARIUSZ TRAUTMAN
During the XXIV conference of SIGRAV (the Italian Society for General Relativity and Gravitation), which was held in Urbino from 7 to 9 September, the prize ceremony for awarding the Amaldi Medal and the SIGRAV young researchers prize took place. In particular, the Amaldi Medal was given to Heino Falcke, for inventing the concept of the “black hole shadow”, and to Andrzej Mariusz Trautman, for discovering precise solutions to Einstein’s equations, including some ...
OUTREACH
INFN AT THE EUROPEAN RESEARCHERS’ NIGHT
On 24 September, the European Researchers’ Night was held throughout Italy. The big science celebration promoted by the European Union, since 2005, has offered occasions for learning and discovering scientific themes through the stories of researchers. This year, the event, due to the anti-COVID-19 pandemic measures, included both live and online activities, in the attempt to safely ...
OUTREACH
PHYSICS AT HAND: INFN AT BERGAMOSCIENZA
INFN participated this year to the nineteenth edition of the BergamoScienza Festival, with a wide range of online workshops for children. From 4 to 8 October, primary school boys and girls had the opportunity to discover the fascinating world of physics and scientific research, thanks to simple experiments and games conducted by INFN researchers.
FOCUS
ARCHIMEDES AND THE WEIGHT OF THE QUANTUM VACUUM
The study of the unceasing simmer of the quantum vacuum and the measurement of its consequent interactions with macroscopic objects will be the objectives of the Archimedes experiment, inaugurated last 18 September in the Sar-Grav laboratory, a research facility located in the ex-metal mine of Sos Enattos, in the town of Lula (Nuoro). Result of a collaboration* led by INFN, Archimedes will attempt to precisely determine the possible influence of fluctuations in a quantum vacuum on the gravitational field and, thus, on the weight of bodies, information that could shed light on the properties of the mysterious dark energy. Thanks to its extreme sensitivity, which is needed to pursue such an aim, the experiment will also provide useful data for the detailed reconstruction of the seismic and anthropic noise profile of the Sos Enattos complex, which Italy has proposed for housing the next-generation gravitational interferometer: the Einstein Telescope. ...
TAKE PART IN
FROM OCTOBER 12 - UNCERTAINTY. INTERPRETING THE PRESENT, FORESEEING THE FUTURE
Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome
The new exhibition dedicated to the idea ofuncertainty and how science "handles" it in different contexts opens on 12 October: from aspects of fundamental Physics to the description of epidemics, from climate forecasts to big data. A six-stage journey through tools, works and multimedia installations.
and other events...
INFORMATION AND CONTACT
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Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann e Giorgio Parisi © Illustrations of Niklas Elmehed
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