Invited Talk: Searching for Beyond Standard Model Physics with Neutrinos – Prof. Célio Adrega de Moura Junior (UFABC)

New generation of neutrino experiments with high-intensity neutrino beams for precision measurements can explore physics beyond the standard model (BSM). The realm of BSM physics has been mostly sought at high-energy regimes at colliders. This kind of exploration in neutrino experiments will enable complementary measurements at lower energies. Large mass detectors with highly precise tracking and energy measurements, excellent timing resolution, and low energy thresholds will enable searches for BSM phenomena as never before. Therefore, it is conceivable that BSM topics in the next generation neutrino experiments could be the dominant physics topics in the foreseeable future. I will briefly discuss two selected BSM topics – nonstandard interactions and Lorentz invariance violation – summarizing their status and prospects for long baseline neutrino experiments.

Invited Talk: Chaotic orbital dynamics of extended bodies around black holes – Prof. Ronaldo Savioli Sumé Vieira (UFABC)

An extended test body in Newtonian gravity usually deviates from its corresponding point-particle motion: its center-of-mass trajectory is affected by its own internal structure, generating quite diverse phenomena. Therefore the body’s size may interfere in its orbital motion in the presence of a gravitational potential, sometimes becoming chaotic. Here we consider small test bodies with symmetries such that their spin are identically zero along their orbits. We show that small pulsating spheres may acquire chaotic behavior even in spherically symmetric gravitational fields due to a time-dependent term (arising from these finite-size effects) in the Hamiltonian governing their center-of-mass dynamics. In general relativity, by applying Dixon’s formalism to the test body and keeping symmetries such that the body’s spin remains identically zero, we extend these results to pulsating spheroids in Schwarzschild spacetime and also in a general class of black-hole spacetimes describing either Reissner-Nordström metric or spacetimes arising from modified (metric) theories of gravity. We also obtain conditions for chaotic orbital motion of pulsating stars around black holes. The overall picture is the ubiquity of chaos in these systems when the body is approaching the black hole, however small the pulsating body is.

Panel Discussion: International Year of Quantum Science and Technology – Celebrating a century of quantum innovations and exploring future visions for social transformation and global challenges

Recognizing the importance of quantum science and the need to raise broader awareness of its past and future impact, dozens of national scientific societies joined forces to support marking 100 years of quantum mechanics with a UN-declared international year. On June 7, 2024, the United Nations proclaimed 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ). According to the proclamation, this year-long global initiative will be carried out through activities at all levels aimed at increasing public awareness of the importance of quantum science and its applications.

As part of UPW 2025, we will host a panel discussion with the professors Ana Melva Champi Farfan, Carlos Augusto Mera Acosta, and Hans Marin Florez (all from UFABC), in a lively conversation on the topic, moderated by Prof. Breno Marques Gonçalves Teixeira (UFABC).