Talks

Starting from the well known Laplace-Runge-Lenz vector of the Kepler problem, I will introduce a notion of dynamical (hidden)
symmetries. These are genuine phase space symmetries that stand in contrast to the more familiar symmetries of the configuration space
discussed in truncated versions of Noether's theorem. Proceeding to a relativistic description, I will demonstrate that such symmetries -- encoded
in the so called Killing-Yano tensors -- play a crucial role in the study of rotating black holes described by the Kerr geometry. Even more remarkably, I will show that one such special symmetry is enough to guarantee complete integrability of particle and light motion in general rotating black hole spacetimes in an arbitrary
number of spacetime dimensions. Recent developments on the separability of test fields in these spacetimes will also be discussed.

Diamond anvil cells and shock techniques now permit the study of matter under multimegabar (i.e. several hundred GPa) pressures. The properties of matter in this pressure regime differ drastically from those known at 1 atm. Just how different physics and chemistry are at high pressure and the role that a chemical intuition for bonding and structure can have in understanding matter at high pressures will be explored in this lecture. I will discuss in detail an overlapping hierarchy of responses to increased density, consisting of (a) squeezing out van der Waals space (for molecular crystals); (b) increasing coordination; (c) decreasing the bond length of covalent bonds and the size of anions; and (d) an extreme regime of electrons moving off atoms and new modes of correlation. Examples of the startling chemistry and physics that emerge under such extreme conditions will alternate in this account with qualitative chemical ideas about the bonding involved.