• "The birth of the Standard Model of Cosmology :
                                pioneering contributions of Steven Weinberg"  --   Download [ pdf]
  

• A tribute to Prof. Weinberg with a few personal memories
  

• seminar at TIFR Bombay November 2021

• "Unified theory and the tale of two vacuum energies"  --   Download [ pdf]
  

• Higgs particle, Inflation, Dark energy all linked by the enigmatic concept of vacuum energy.
  

• Research scholars' symposium SymPhy, Physics Department IIT Bombay October 2020

• "Matter-anti-matter asymmetry : Is there a unified theory? "  --   Download [ pdf] [ Link to video of the talk ] including Q&A
  

• Elementary particle physics meets cosmology.
  

• webinar hosted by Sir P T Sarvajanik College, Surat, June 2020

• ""Neutrinos and matter-anti- matter asymmetry a unication perspective" "  --   Download [ pdf]
  

• Exposure to basic QFT assumed

• Lecture series All about neutrinos! Link to video of the talk including the Q&A session
  

• webinar for PhD students hosted by INO the Indian based Neutrino Observatory May 2020.

• "Quantum is surreal but is classical real?"  --   Download [ pdf]
  

• A critique of the widespread phobia of the principles of quantum mechanics. It is suggested the problems of acceptance perhaps lie in too ready an acceptance of some key idealisations in the Newtonian framework.
  

• Math & Physics Club, IIT Bombay January 2020

• "Multimessenger view of the Universe : Perspectives and new approaches"  --   Download [ pdf]
  

• Perspectives on cosmology with emerging multimessenger detection strategies; includes a lightning introduction to the General Theory of Relativity
  

• Equinox IIT Guwahati and Sir P T Sarvajanik College, Surat, January 2019

• "Gravity and quantum : Hawking's journey through spacetime"  --   Download [ pdf]
  

• A contribution to the session "Gravity, quantum and blackholes -- in memorium Stephen Hawking"
  

• Physics Department and Math and Physics Club seminar, March 2018

• "Unification, Cosmology ... and all that"  --   Download [ pdf]
  

• General Covariance, gauge invariance and unification dreams of twentieth century; the enigmas of Higgs vacuum energy and Dark Energy presented for a BSc level audience.
  

• in-house Physics Department Colloquium, September 2017

• "Elementary Particles"  --   Download [ pdf]
  

• What are Elementary Particles? What are fundamental interactions? Do the elementary constituents of matter face an identity crisis?
  

• Talk for highschool students given at DST Inspire workshop, Punjab University Chandigarh November 2016

• "Windows into deep space : from telescopes to gravitational wave detection "  --   Download [ pdf ]
  

• Large telescopes just a century ago gave us an access to the galaxies and the vast expanding universe. Within a century we have progressed through radio, IR, microwave, X-ray and also neutrino astronomy and gravitational lensing. The discovery of gravitational waves in 2015, exactly a century after Einstein's General Theory of Relativity adds a new dimension to our view into deep space.
  

• Talk given at SVNIT Surat April 2016

• "From General Relativity to Planck scale cosmology : the journey and its dilemmas"  --   Download [ pdf ]
  

• How the Equivalence Principle led Einstein to the geometric principle “boundary of a boundary is zero”; and what paradoxes it unleashed.
  

• Talk given at Indian Planetary Society’s meeting at CHARUSAT University, Gujarat June 2015

• "A universe, the Universe, or Multiverse"  --   Download [ pdf ]
  

• The expanding Universe from its discovery till date; the Three Laws of Friedmann Cosmology; questions thrown up by Dark Energy
  

• Talk given at Mumbai area Physics meet TIFR, Mumbai March 2015 and Punjab Unviersity Chandigarh April 2015

• "Unified Theories and Comsology : changing paradigm"  --   Download [ pdf ]
  

• In Cosmology Dark Energy drives the need for a new paradigm; in elementary Particles, neutrino mass spurs altered view of Unification

• Talk given at IIT Roorkee August 2014
  

• "Don't let PhD interfere with your research"  --   Download [ pdf ]
  

• Sampling from history of science as a motivational talk -- serious advice given in all frivolity to Research Scholars, paraphrasing Mark Twain's "Don't let school interfere with your education"

• Research Scholars Forum IIT Bombay, March 2014

• ASET Symposium TIFR, April 2014
  

• "Accelerating Universe : Physics of the Nobel Prize 2011"  --   Download [ pdf ]

  • A subset of the longer presentation below, but including some additional specifics.
    

  • Delivered at IIT Bombay, BARC, IPA Surat and Nehru Planetarium.
    

• "Dark Matter, Dark Energy and Supersymmetry"  --   Download [ pdf ]

  • Open issue of Cosmology. Dark Matter, Dark Energy, Inflation ... and how Supersymmetry may help.
    
    

  • Delivered as IPA lecture Surat, Astro Olympiad training HBCSE, and at IIT Bombay, before the Nobel 2011 was declared!
    

• "Mathematical secrets of the Universe"  --   Download [ pdf ]

  • Persepctives on the deep mathematical frameworks that shaped fundamental physics of the twentieth century
    

• "Waking up to the Quantum"  --   Download  [ pdf ]

  
  
  • Is the Quantum weird or are we just too brainwashed? S. P. Pandya lecture at VNS Gujarat University, January 2011
    

• "Some exceptional Physics experiments of twentieth century"  --   Download [ pdf ]

  • Adventures and surprises  in experimental Physics, INSA Public Lecture, PRL, Ahmedabad, 2009

• "From Einstein to Hawking : a journey through space-time"  --   Download  [ ppt] [ pdf without animation]

  • A simple discussion of origins of Special and General Relativity, IIT Bombay, April 2007

• "Cosmology and General Relativity : a perspective"  --   Download  [ pdf ]

  • Prof R V Kamath Memorial Lecture, St. Xavier's College, January 2007

• "Primordial radiation of the Universe"  -- read  [ html  ]  Download  [ pdf ]

  • Nobel Prize 2006 : COBE results and a bit of history

• "From Micro to macro : the story of our unfolding Universe"  --  Download  [ pdf ]

  • World Year of Physics lecture IISc Bangalore

• "Einstein on light : from waves to quanta and back"   --  Download  [ pdf ]

  • World Year of Physics lecture : Pune University Centre for History and Philosophy of science

Before 2005

• "Unity of fundamental forces : a paradigm in Physics"  -- read  [html  ]  Download  [ ps ]

• Philosophy of Science lecture 1993 at IIT Bombay

• "Supersymmetry : a new organising principle in Physics   --  Download [ ps ]

• Philosophy of Science lecture 1998 at IIT Bombay

• "Creation of the General Theory of Relativity"  --  [  read ]  Download [  pdf ]  size: 3.4 Mb

• Seminar delivered at Nehru Planetarium Sept 2000.

• Gives flavour of GR and its deep connection to geometry.

• "What drives the Universe?"   -- [  pdf ] of seminar  [ html ] of associated pictures

• file of a self-explanatory seminar, IIT and TIFR,  Oct-Dec 2001

• "Learning to question - a question of learning methodology" 
                                                                               --  [ read ]  Download [ pdf ] [ ps ]

• on innovative teaching methods in school science

• "Misread mysteries of the Quantum" --  [ read ] Download [ pdf ] [ ps ]

• a harangue on misplaced pedagogical emphasis

• "The What and Why of Superstrings" --  Download [ pdf ]

• a self-explanatory mini-seminar  for IITans ( 14 transparancies ).

•  "Stringing a theory of the Universe"  --  Download  [  pdf  ]   Read  [  Update  ]

• A short article contributed to in-house publication Update (December 2002)

•  "High Energy Physics : a (historical) perspective"   --  Download  [  pdf  ]

• Evening talk at SERC  HEP 2002 -- strives for accuracy and miserably fails in being  exhaustive  -:(

•   "Cosmology and Black Holes : An invitation"   -- Download  [  pdf  ]

• TechFest03 orientation lecture, with pictures and data from the internet

•   "Peering into the Big Bang : the new microwave map of the Universe"   -- Download (6.1 Mb!) [  pdf  ]

Back to the homepage of U. A. Yajnik, Physics Department, IIT Bombay 

Miscelleneous

Some handiwork using J. Velthuis's Devanagari package  for TeX/LaTex
( Package devnag available from  comprehensive TeX archive  http://www.ctan.org )

•  "Invokation from the S'akuntalam"   --  [  ps  ]

• Kalidasa and modern physics!!    :-)

•   "Preface to the Raghuvamsa"   --   [  ps  ]

• Self-effacement or feigned modesty?