Abstract: | The lecture series will cover a broad range of theoretical physics issues, from Galileo and Torricelli’s discussion of the vacuum to today’s puzzles related to dark matter and dark energy. The seminars will be dedicated to the evolution of ideas in treating infinities since the early days of quantum field theory until the emergence of renormalization group and its benefits for elucidating renormalization and phase transitions. The theoretical high energy physics seminar will confront the question of what have we learned from the discovery of the Higgs particle and the theoretical clues we have now about the possible mass scale of new physics. |