Najita describes our current picture of the origins of stars and planets, the new insights gained, and the challenges we face. She also comments on what the results say about how humans make scientific advances and the kinds of investments that are vital to sustaining discovery.

In her talk, Raquel introduces the new notion of quantum geometry in quantum materials and its crucial role in determining properties and phases of matter. She discusses how quantum geometry is essential to protect emergent phases where interactions between electrons are strong and electrons behave in remarkable ways, such as those where electrons pair up and condense into a macroscopic quantum state or phases where electrons are broken into independent fractions with new quantum statistics.

What is the heaviest particle in the Universe? What is the lightest? The answer to these questions could be dark matter. For decades, we have thought that dark matter would be a particle with a mass similar to the particles we already know about, like the proton or the recently discovered Higgs boson. But in the last decade a revolution has taken place in the field, which has led to a dramatic expansion in the range of masses where we believe dark matter could live. In this talk Rodd reviews this revolution, and explains how the discovery of dark matter could amount to detecting dark waves at the location of the Earth, or massive explosions happening throughout the Universe.

Bigger telescopes are usually better telescopes… but not always. Sometimes crazier telescopes are better telescopes. In this talk Abraham describes the nearly unexplored universe of ghostly, nearly undetectable phenomena in the heavens.

The Aspen Center for Physics invites the listener to imagine with Professor Chang the particle fields that exist in empty space, to share the deep appreciation that particle physicists have for the natural world, and to imagine together the possible future in this quest to understand particle fields.

Our entire knowledge of early galaxy formation is in a state of flux. In this talk, Whitaker introduces you to the capabilities of NASA’s newest flagship mission and highlight a few of the most exciting and revolutionary results to date. Among these is the story of distinguishing the most distant galaxies from those enshrouded in thick veils of dust while teasing out the hidden monsters inside.

Nathalie describes recent efforts to achieve major improvements in two different qubit platforms: nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond and superconducting circuits.

Recently, there have been exciting breakthroughs in the study of quantum materials. This has led scientists to create new methods for examining their basic qualities. In this talk, Yacoby discusses some of the recent projects he's worked on to develop new local quantum sensing techniques. He also talks about how these techniques can help us better understand quantum materials.

Artificial neural networks are everywhere now because they are so useful. They do everything from predicting the weather to writing essays and translating them into Spanish. Their abilities have exploded during the last dozen years because they have grown far bigger. Unfortunately, though, bigger neural networks require more energy to train and run.

Creating New Universes Inside of Quantum Materials with Erica Carlson, Purdue University.