Conferences and Meetings on Mathematical Physics

Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach (MFO, Oberwolfach Research Institute for Mathematics)

Condensed Matter Physics and Materials,    Thermodynamics, Fluid Dynamics and Statistical Physics

The conference will cover cutting-edge non-perturbative methods in quantum field theory, as well as mathematical aspects of integrability and its more traditional applications in condensed-matter physics and statistical mechanics. Solvable models play a valuable a role in theoretical physics, as they illustrate general concepts in a simpler setting and provide insights into the qualitative features of more complex phenomena.

High Energy Physics, Particles and Fields,    Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Information Theory

A conference series "Mathematical Results in Quantum Theory" (or QMath) was initiated by P. Exner and P. Seba in 1987. The aim is not only to bring together people interested in the "quantum part" of mathematical physics, but also to stimulate a search for new quantum effects and a deeper understanding of quantum physics, as well as the development of methods which can help in situations where the standard quantum mechanical tools are inadequate.

Holomorphic differentials on Riemann surfaces have long held a distinguished place in low dimensional geometry, dynamics, and representation theory. Recently it has become apparent that they constitute a common feature of several other highly active areas of current research in mathematics and also at the interface with physics. (See website for more details.)

Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach (MFO, Oberwolfach Research Institute for Mathematics)

This 2-week long CERN TH Institute will concentrate on topics evolving exact computations in AdS/CFT, including integrability, localization, and simplified limits. The workshop is expected to bring together experts from these different areas and to provide a stimulating environment for discussions and for forming new collaborations. We plan to have a relaxed with ample of time for discussions.

A. Alikhanyan National Laboratory (Yerevan Physics Institute) and Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics (BLTP, Dubna)

Group Theory,    High Energy Physics, Particles and Fields

The Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics

The origin of dark matter (DM) is among the most urgent questions in fundamental physics, as astronomical observations do not inform us directly about its particle nature. The proposed workshop will bring together theorists and experimentalists to explore new theoretical avenues and detection strategies. During the workshop we will focus on well-motivated and long-standing theories of DM, such as WIMPs and axions, and we will assess the status of fast-moving current searches. We will identify new DM theories, with particular emphasis on those giving distinct predictions from WIMPs. There will also be extensive discussions about new ideas for discovering DM through direct detection, indirect detection, collider production, and cosmological observations. Finally, we will explore dark-sector extensions of the standard model, which can yield distinctive cosmological and astrophysical signals, as well as exotic events at colliders.

Week 1: New theories and the dark matter mass landscape, Week 2: Direct searches, Week 3: Indirect and astrophysical probes, Week 4: Searches at accelerators, Week 5: One week conference covering the themes of the workshop, Week 6: Axions and ALPs, Week 7: Primordial black holes dark matter and gravitational waves

Email: olivia@cirm-math.fr

Twistor theory, loop quantum gravity

Geometry and Topology,    High Energy Physics, Particles and Fields

The "Bucharest Conference on Geometry and Physics" (September 2-6, 2019) organized by the "Geometry and Physics" group (https://events.theory.nipne.ro/gap/index.php) will take place at the "Simion Stoilow" Mathematics Institute of the Romanian Academy, in the Miron Nicolescu conference hall. It will be the first conference in a series of such events which we intend to organize every two years.

Email: mbabalic@theory.nipne.ro

mathematical aspects of string theory, supergravity, cosmology, topological field theory, topological string theory, geometric quantization, geometric aspects of non-linear and integrable systems, connected subjects in differential, algebraic and complex geometry, algebraic topology, geometric analysis, analysis on manifolds and operator theory.

Geometry and Topology,    High Energy Physics, Particles and Fields

Institute of Mathematics of National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia

The Institute of Mathematics of National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia has organized ten international conferences in Mathematical Physics with the first conference taking place in 1982 and the latest one in 2016 in Yerevan. Among the participants of previous conferences were many well-known scientists, such as Sergio Albeverio, Roland L. Dobrushin, Gianfausto Dell'Antonio, Vadim A. Malyshev, Robert A. Minlos, Salvador Miracle-Sole, Alexander Polyakov, Yakov G. Sinai, Anatoly Vershik and others.

Analysis,    Probability and Statistics, Game Theory

Mathematical Institute, Oxford University

This conference is funded by the European Research Council (ERC)

Conference on geometric aspects of string theory -- formerly known as the series "Physics and Geometry of F-theory" -- this new instalment will include a wider range of recent developments in geometric aspects of string theory.

High Energy Physics, Particles and Fields,    Geometry and Topology

Institute of Mathematics & its Applications (IMA)

An inverse problem refers to a situation where the quantity of interest cannot be measured directly, but only through an action of a nontrivial operator of which it is a parameter. The corresponding operator, also called forward operator, stems from a physical application modelling. Prominent examples include: Radon and Fourier transforms for X-ray CT and MRI, respectively or partial differential equations e.g. EIT or DOT.

The prevalent characteristics of inverse problems is their ill-posedness i.e. lack of uniqueness and/or stability of the solution. This situation is aggravated by the physical limitations of the measurement acquisition such as noise or incompleteness of the measurements. Inverse problems are ubiquitous in applications from bio-medical, science and engineering to security screening and industrial process monitoring. The challenges span from the analysis to efficient numerical solution. This conference will bring together mathematicians and statisticians, working on theoretical and numerical aspects of inverse problems, as well as engineers, physicists and other scientists, working on challenging inverse problem applications. We welcome industrial representatives, doctoral students, early career and established academics working in this field to attend.

Email: conferences@ima.org.uk

Imaging, Inverse problems in partial differential equations (Memorial Lecture for Slava Kurylev), Model and data driven methods for inverse problems, Optimization and statistical learning, Statistical inverse problems

Meetings of Professional Bodies in Mathematics,    Probability and Statistics, Game Theory

Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach (MFO, Oberwolfach Research Institute for Mathematics)

This conference will highlight the recent achievements and challenges in understanding nonlinear multiscale phenomena in astrophysical plasmas, bringing together theorists, simulators and observers who work on both astrophysical and space plasmas. The subjects will include the microphysics of shock acceleration and long range cosmic ray feedback in galaxies, the properties of reconnection in astrophysical and space plasmas, including its effect on particle acceleration, and the physics of turbulent cascades in magnetized plasmas of galaxy clusters and accretion disks.

Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology,    Plasma and Gas-discharge Physics, Nuclear Fusion

Centre International de Rencontres Mathématiques (CIRM)

During the conference we want to concentrate on BPS/CFT correspondence which related the gauge theory partition functions to the calculations within conformal field theory and vertex algebras. One of the challenges is to understand better BPS/CFT correspondence for the case of compact manifolds.

Algebra,    High Energy Physics, Particles and Fields

Centre International de Rencontres Mathématiques (CIRM)

The focus of this workshop will be on self-interacting random walks and polymer models, with an emphasis on those models which exhibit a folding or unfolding transition. The goal of the workshop is to bring together researchers working on this topic to share ideas and techniques, around three mini-courses and several talks.

WORKSHOP

applied topology; differential geometry, geometric analysis, and mathematical physics; number theory; and the history of mathematics

General Mathematical Research and Multidisciplinary Events,    History and Philosophy of Science and Technology

The Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics

The origin of dark matter (DM) is among the most urgent questions in fundamental physics, as astronomical observations do not inform us directly about its particle nature. This conference will bring together theorists and experimentalists to explore new theoretical avenues and detection strategies. We will focus on well-motivated and long-standing theories of DM, such as WIMPs and axions, and we will assess the status of fast-moving current searches. We will identify new DM theories, with particular emphasis on those giving distinct predictions from WIMPs. There will also be extensive discussions about new ideas for discovering DM through direct detection, indirect detection, collider production, and cosmological observations. Finally, we will explore dark-sector extensions of the standard model, which can yield distinctive cosmological and astrophysical signals, as well as exotic events at colliders.

Centre International de Rencontres Mathématiques (CIRM)

We consider the semidiscrete stochastic heat equation on the lattice Z d , d ≥ 3, with a small noise term that is white in time. The goal of this project is to show that the equation admits a global solution whose distribution attracts solutions with initial conditions in a certain class, both in the forward and in the pullback sense. Determining how broad this class of initial conditions can be is one important aspect.

RESEARCH IN PAIRS

Applied Mathematics (in general),    Thermodynamics, Fluid Dynamics and Statistical Physics

Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics

The Conference is dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the outstanding theoretician in the physical sciences and mathematician M.M. Bogolyubov (1909-1992)

While the role of topology in the modern condensed matter physics is difficult to overstate, and despite numerous experimental corroborations of theoretically predicted symmetry-protected topological phases (such as topological insulators), most of these advances can be formulated in the language of non-interacting particles. Real-world realizations of interacting topological phases are, meanwhile, very sparse, with the fractional quantum Hall effect being a notable counterexample. Similarly, the question of stability of topological phases at finite temperatures – a prerequisite for their experimental realizations – is poorly explored. This conference will address these and related questions

Condensed Matter Physics and Materials,    Geometry and Topology

The Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics

Ever since the Standard Model was established, there have been speculations about physics “beyond the Standard Model” (BSM), giving rise to a steady flow of models of “new physics” and letting the borders between high energy physics, astrophysics, and cosmology become increasingly permeable. So far, though, experiments failed to provide evidence for new physics, generating increasing talk of a “crisis” of these research programs, calling into question their premises, such as the principle of naturalness, or even questioning their scientific methodology. The workshop aims at approaching the present situation from a historical-critical perspective, contextualizing and questioning the developments of earlier decades, both to understand better their past and present scope, and to provide new material for reflections on contemporary physical research.

1. Supersymmetry and supergravity: motivations and developments, 2. Formal analogies in/between particle physics, condensed matter physics, and cosmology, 3. Computer simulation in theoretical high energy physics and in cosmology, 4. The interplay of experimental results and BSM model-building

Centre International de Rencontres Mathématiques (CIRM)

This workshop will focus on mathematical-physics questions in the context of Coulomb systems. This includes identifying the relevant one-particle equations as limits of the underlying microscopic highdimensional dynamics as well as the analysis of the limiting equations with singular potentials.

UC Santa Barbara, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics

The fields of spintronics, quantum magnetism, topological matter, and quantum criticality have seen progress with breakthroughs in concepts, techniques, and materials. The unifying goals of these fields are to understand novel collective effects that arise in quantum condensed matter systems with common underlying physics, often united through topology and common symmetries. Despite these common goals, these areas of research are still largely unconnected. This program will offer an opportunity for synergies and defining of new directions.

spin and heat transport through magnetic insulators, magnon Bose-Einstein condensation and spin superfluidity, topological-charge transport, magnon-based quantum information and computation, Dirac, Weyl and other topologically protected metallic physics in topological matter (including ferromagnetic and anti-ferromagnetic systems), quantum spintronic effects in these systems, strong-correlation effects in spin and heat transport in these and other related materials, and hydrodynamics at quantum critical points with unconventional heat and spin transport

Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Information Theory,    Condensed Matter Physics: Low Temperature Physics

Courses and Events for Math Students and Early Career Researchers,    High Energy Physics, Particles and Fields

This conference is intended to kickstart the program "Spin and Heat Transport in Quantum and Topological Materials" which combines the fields of spintronics, quantum magnetism, topological matter, and quantum criticality. It explores connections between the most recent experimental and theoretical progress in these areas, setting the stage for the program and establishing targets and key grand challenges.

Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Information Theory,    Geometry and Topology

The Fields Institute

With an eye towards the use and need for higher structures, this workshop will bring together experts in algebraic geometry, symplectic geometry, and theoretical physics to focus on common areas interacting with HMS. Potential topics are Bershadsky--Cecotti--Ooguri--Vafa theory, shifted symplectic structures, higher Donaldson-Thomas invariants, and symplectic duality, in relation to HMS.

Applied Mathematics (in general),    Geometry and Topology

Kyoto University/Ritsumeikan University

Analysis,    Applied Mathematics (in general)

Centre International de Rencontres Mathématiques (CIRM)

Representation theory is the study of the basic symmetries of mathematics and physics. Recently, it has known some spectacular developments, thanks to the introduction of new technics such as categorical representations or parity sheaves. The continued development of the subject has motivated a trimester in representation theory at the IHP that will take place in 2020 from January to March. This program will begin with an introductory conference. It will consist of 6 mini-courses on the main topics (categorifications and quantum groups, quiver varieties, character varieties, geometric representation theory). It is devoted to younger researchers, but also to senior ones in order to promote the discussions between young mathematicians and seniors.

Algebra,    Courses and Events for Math Students and Early Career Researchers

A complete understanding of quantum gravity, as it pertains to our universe, remains one of the biggest challenges in theoretical physics. As our observational constraints on the early universe and black hole physics improve, this theoretical challenge has become even more urgent. This conference aims to explore the latest developments in quantum gravity and string theory, ranging from ideas motivated from holographic dualities to new results developing the landscape of string theory vacua.

structure of the landscape of string theory solutions; emergence of spacetime from other degrees of freedom; quantum information aspects of quantum gravity; recent developments in AdS/CFT; QFT methods applied to gravitational problems, such as the analytic conformal bootstrap and UV deformations of QFT; perturbative amplitudes in gravity and string theory

Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Information Theory,    Geometry and Topology

Centre International de Rencontres Mathématiques (CIRM)

This is the 9th in series of international conference focussing on aspects of quantum walks and quantum simulation. Quantum simulation has recently established itself as an area of study in quantum physics that merges fundamental and applied questions. Such an interaction results in a more operational understanding of aspects of quantum mechanics in terms of nature description. The idea to simulate the dynamics of a quantum system by a quantum device was first introduced by Richard Feynman and developed in different frameworks, from mathematics to Computer Science and fundamental physics.

Coming to Melbourne, Australia 28-31 January 2020, the 10th International Conference on Spontaneous Coherence in Excitonic Systems (ICSCE10) aims to bring together the community of researchers studying quantum collective phenomena in various kinds of electronic excitations in solids, and related phenomena in other physical systems.

1. Interlayer and indirect excitons, 2. Novel materials (organics, perovskites, 2D monolayers), 3. Exciton-polaritons, 4. Quantum dots, 5. Ultrastrong coupling, 6. Spontaneous coherence in cold atomic, plasmonic, and other systems.

Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Information Theory,    Condensed Matter Physics: Low Temperature Physics

This conference will bring together experts in cosmology, particle physics, and fundamental theory to address how and when the universe thermalizes following inflation, and the associated particle physics and dark matter phenomenology. Important topics that will be covered include hidden sector model building in the LHC era, thermalization of the universe following inflation, possibilities of post-inflation cosmic history prior to nucleosynthesis, and associated experimental signatures. The conference aims to attract researchers in different areas to develop new directions in model building and establish new experimental paths for probing early universe cosmology and dark matter phenomenology.

Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology,    High Energy Physics, Particles and Fields

Centre International de Rencontres Mathématiques (CIRM)

Significant developments in the spectral analysis of non-self-adjoint operators since the turn of the millennium include the explicit construction of well-localised almost-eigenvectors, the systematisation of the notion of pseudospectra and the rigorous setting of unbounded solvers for evolution problems. At the same time, a deep understanding of complicated physical phenomena such as cloaking in metamaterials, turbulence and explosive behaviour, has been achieved by means of close examination of the underlying non-self-adjoint operators. These developments involve combining techniques from diverse disciplines and in recent years groups who had been working on similar problems from different perspectives, often using different terminology, have been unaware of each other.

Active matter is a class of non-equilibrium, many-body systems that consist of individual energy-transducing components. The collective dynamics of such active entities underlies phenomena on scales from the molecular to the macroscopic, and it includes both living and non-living systems. The field of active matter focuses on understanding how the collective behaviors of internally driven components can give rise to patterns of motion and stress on large scales. While active matter systems violate detailed balance at the molecular scale, it remains unclear how such non-equilibrium dynamics manifests itself and can be quantified at meso- and macroscopic scales. In particular, it is interesting to investigate, given a particular set of microscopic elementary units, what range of possible macroscopic patterns, structures, dynamics and functionalities can be realized. The conference will bring together experimental and theoretical researchers from a broad range of disciplines to discuss recent advances that have transformed active matter into a rapidly growing field that spans diverse disciplines, ranging from physics to biology, to materials science and engineering.

Centre International de Rencontres Mathématiques (CIRM)

Geometry and Topology,    Courses and Events for Math Students and Early Career Researchers

This conference will synthesize recent observational discoveries of massive star clusters in nearby galaxies and the high-redshift universe. It will connect the observations to theoretical modeling of galaxy formation on large scales and star formation on small scales. The topics for discussion will include the efficiency of star cluster formation as a function of environment, and the origins of the cluster age and metallicity distributions. The meeting will aim to highlight the similarities and differences in star formation in low-redshift and high-redshift galaxies.

Continuing rapid development in the field of chromatin biology has lately attracted enormous interest among biologists, physicists and mathematicians. Recently, the static structure of the folded genome inside the cell nucleus has been determined with increasingly high resolution. Special features of genome folding, such as loops, A/B compartments and chromosome territories, were identified and have inspired models rooted in polymer physics. Studies of the roles of these features in gene regulation and other biological processes are currently ongoing. In addition, research on chromatin dynamics has shown that the genome moves in space and time, thus these structural features might be dynamic, too. Currently, it is not clear how to reconcile the static picture with the dynamic nature of the genome. Following the recent surge in activity on both the biology and physics fronts, this conference aims to provide a platform that would facilitate an interdisciplinary exchange, cultivate new ideas and identify new frontiers.

Complex Systems, Chaos and Self-Organisation,    Genomics and Bioinformatics

This conference will highlight the diverse applications of emerging spatio-temporal quantum control techniques as well as the novel theoretical and experimental tools being developed to advance these techniques. The implications of many-body quantum control are far-reaching: stabilizing entangled states, realizing new forms of topological order, enhanced precision measurements, guided quantum dynamics for computation, probing quantum chaos, etc. The goal of this conference will be to survey both recent experimental developments in both spatial and temporal control for analysis of many-body quantum optical systems, and recent theoretical progress, with the purpose of identifying fruitful future areas for exploration.

This conference contains contributions that give an overview of the current research in geometric mechanics. This scientific subject is simultaneously close to mathematics, physics, and engineering and its general philosophy consists in taking advantage of fruitful interactions between geometry on the one hand and dynamics and mechanics on the other. This conference will be the occasion to celebrate the 70th birthday of Tudor Ratiu who over the years has made many fundamental contributions in the development of this field.

Geometry and Topology,    Applied Maths: Dynamic Systems, Control and Automation

The Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics

Topological properties of gauge theories find application in the characterization of novel phases of matter and in establishing nonperturbative phenomena such as the duality relations between quantum field theories in three and four spacetime dimensions. This conference is meant to expose the current status of research in several domains dealing with topology and duality

Anomalies of quantum field theories * Generalized symmetries * Topological aspects of quantum states in condensed matter * (Supersymmetric) dualities in (2+1)-dimensions * Time-reversal symmetry and 4d theta-terms

High Energy Physics, Particles and Fields,    Geometry and Topology

The Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics

Anomalies of quantum field theories * Generalized symmetries * Topological aspects of quantum states in condensed matter * (Supersymmetric) dualities in (2+1)-dimensions * Time-reversal symmetry and 4d theta-terms

High Energy Physics, Particles and Fields,    Geometry and Topology

The Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics

Anomalies of quantum field theories * Generalized symmetries * (Supersymmetric) dualities in (2+1)-dimensions * Time-reversal symmetry and 4d theta-terms

Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach (MFO, Oberwolfach Research Institute for Mathematics)

Modeling and Simulation,    Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Information Theory

Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP)

Modularity is at the heart of many deep results in mathematics--from the proof of Fermat’s last theorem to moonshine to the Langlands correspondence. At the same time, modular group representations and automorphic forms underlie many interesting physical phenomena in quantum field theory and string theory, including understanding of dualities, boundary conditions, and supersymmetric black holes, among other things. This conference will bring together physicists and mathematicians to discuss emerging connections between a web of fundamental objects in physics and mathematics, united in the crucial role played by modularity.

new moonshines and mock modular forms; vertex operator algebras arising in supersymmetric gauge theories; topological invariants of 3- and 4-manifolds; topological QFTs and topological phases in condensed matter physics; topological string theory, Donaldson-Thomas theory, and enumerative geometry; scattering amplitudes in string theory; 2d conformal field theories, the modular bootstrap, and connections to 3d quantum gravity

High Energy Physics, Particles and Fields,    Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Information Theory

Centre International de Rencontres Mathématiques (CIRM)

Algebra,    Group Theory

Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP)

A fascinating and surprising phenomenon that can occur in fluid and plasma turbulence is the spontaneous formation of arrays of layers in which material properties such as density adopt a so-called “staircase” structure. The most striking examples are potential vorticity staircases in planetary atmospheres, and thermohaline staircases in the oceans. Theoretical considerations suggest that layering also plays an important role in stellar interiors (particularly through various double-diffusive processes) and in fusion confinement devices (the so-called E x B staircase). Understanding the phenomenon of layering is, therefore, not only of intrinsic scientific interest (e.g., is there a common thread to layering in these very different contexts?), but is also crucial for an accurate description of turbulent transport in, for example, models of large-scale ocean flow, the evolution of stellar interiors and confinement in tokamaks.

Thermodynamics, Fluid Dynamics and Statistical Physics,    Plasma and Gas-discharge Physics, Nuclear Fusion

Institute for Mathematical Sciences/National University of Singapore

This is a two-week program gathering mathematicians and physicists interested in the statistical physics of strongly correlated and long range random particle systems. These particle systems include Gibbs point processes such as Coulomb gases, determinantal point process, eigenvalues of random matrices, etc. They are linked to mathematical long-standing challenges such as the crystallization and best packing conjectures among others. One aspect that we want to put forward in this meeting is that the pioneering tools from classical statistical mechanics à la Ruelle, Lanford, Lebowitz may not have been used enough for the study of these particle systems yet.