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June 2012

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[Hyperspace-list] Hyperspace Bulletin for June 2012
by hyperspace＠aei.mpg.de 02 Jun '12

02 Jun '12

################################################################# Table of Contents ################################################################# 1. Conferences 1.1 Thirteenth Marcel Grossman Meeting (MG13) in Stockholm (6th circ.) 1.2 Spanish Relativity Meeting in Portugal, ERE2012 (3rd circ.) 1.3 Algebro-geometric methods in fundamental physics, Bad Honnef, Germany 1.4 Experimental Search for Quantum Gravity - the hard facts, Perimeter Institute 1.5 Exploring New Horizons with Gravitational Waves, Hannover 1.6 MG13, Parallel sessions SG1 - SG2: "GR around the Earth and the Sun", Stockholm 1.7 V Black Holes Workshop in Lisbon 1.8 From Quantum to Cosmos 5 - 5th International workshop on space-based research in fundamental physics and astronomy 1.9 26th Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics in Sao Paulo, Brazil 2. Jobs 2.1 Postdoc in gravitational physics at the University of Vienna 2.2 2012 VESF fellowships for theoretical research on Gravitational Wave Detection 2.3 Lecturer in Applied Mathematics at Queen Mary, London 3. News 3.1 Living Reviews in Relativity: "Stationary Black Holes" (major update) and "Dynamical Boson Stars" 3.2 Paris Spring Open Session of Scientific Culture 2012, "The Human and the Universe" 3.3 Einstein Toolkit Release 3.4 Gravity Research Foundation, Awards for the Essays 2012 3.5 2012 IOP Gravitational Physics Group Thesis Prize (sponsored by CQG) 3.6 John Miller awarded 2011 IOP Gravitational Physics Group thesis prize co-sponsored by CQG 3.7 Call for Nominations: Fellows of the GRG Society (revised mailing address) ================================================================= 1. Conferences ================================================================= 1.1 Thirteenth Marcel Grossman Meeting (MG13) in Stockholm (6th circ.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2012/05/31/thirteenth-marcel-grossman-meeting-… Starting Sun, Jul 01, 2012 to Sun, Jul 07, 2013 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Additional Information: http://www.icra.it/MG/mg13/ The proceedings will be published as usual by World Scientific. However, the plenary session written contributions together with the chair selected rapporteur reports (both nominally up to 20 pages) will be published in early 2013 in the journal IJMPD (submission deadline of December 31, 2012). The remaining parallel session contributions up to 5 pages in the normal proceedings and poster contributions up to 2 pages (submission deadline of February 28, 2013) will be published together with the previously described contributions as usual as a three volume set by World Scientific. On Saturday July 7 at the International Conference on High Energy Physics in Melbourne, Australia the CERN scientists will announce their possible discovery of the Higgs particle, until which time news on this topic will be restricted. However, thanks to the time difference between Melbourne and Stockholm, just after the announcement in Melbourne, a special presentation will be made in the Saturday morning MG13 plenary session by two scientists, one from each of the two experimental groups involved, followed by a talk about the theoretical implications of the findings by Luciano Maiani. The plenary program is available on-line. During the month of June parallel session chairs will prepare the final program of their sessions. Contact the appropriate chairperson with any questions that arise; their emails are on the conference website. Any abstracts remaining to be submitted should be uploaded as soon as possible to receive consideration by the chairperson. The final parallel session program will be published in late June. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1.2 Spanish Relativity Meeting in Portugal, ERE2012 (3rd circ.) --------------------------------------------------------------- Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2012/05/31/spanish-relativity-meeting-in-portu… Starting Mon, Sep 03, 2012 to Fri, Sep 07, 2012 Location: Guimarães, Portugal Additional Information: http://w3.math.uminho.pt/~ERE2012 The Spanish Relativity Meeting (ERE) is an international conference devoted to Relativity and Gravitation and it is supported by the Spanish Society of Gravitation and Relativity (SEGRE) http://www.segre.es/en/congresos.shtml. Invited speakers - Alan Rendall (Albert Einstein Institut, Golm, Germany) - Claes Uggla (Karlstad University, Sweden) - Gabriel Lopes-Cardoso (IST, Lisbon, Portugal) - George Ellis (University of Cape Town, South Africa) - Jörg Frauendiener (Otago University, New Zealand) - José Edelstein (University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain) - Juan Valiente Kroon (Queen Mary, University of London, UK) - László Szabados (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary) - Marc Mars (University of Salamanca, Spain) - Pau Figueras (University of Cambridge, UK) - Paul Tod (University of Oxford, UK) - Pedro Ferreira (University of Oxford, UK) - Peter Dunsby (University of Cape Town, South Africa) - Radu Roiban* (Penn State University, USA) - Vítor Cardoso (IST, Lisbon, Portugal) *To be confirmed We remind those interested in submitting an abstract to the conference that the deadline for abstract submission (10th of June) is quickly approaching. Also it is expected that the conference dates will be a busy period in Guimarães as the city is the "European Capital of Culture" in 2012. This makes it advisable to book accommodation well in advance. Finally we would like to ask participants to check regularly the conference website for further information updates. We look forward to seeing you all in Guimarães, The Local Organizing Committee (LOC) Alfonso García-Parrado Estelita Vaz (Coordinator) Irene Brito Filipe Mena Filipe Moura M. Piedade Machado-Ramos Viktor Czinner +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1.3 Algebro-geometric methods in fundamental physics, Bad Honnef, Germany ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2012/05/29/algebro-geometric-methods-in-fundam… Starting Sun, Sep 02, 2012 to Fri, Sep 07, 2012 Location: Bad Honnef, Germany Additional Information: http://www.zarm.uni-bremen.de/agm2012 The issue of this WEH Seminar goes back to the very early period where physical problems started to trigger the development of mathematical methods. That means, it started with astronomical problems of describing the motion of celestial bodies. A first essential milestone in that history was the invention of elliptic functions. This then has been developed further yielding the Jacoby inversion problem and the construction of Abelian functions, the cornerstone of the whole building of modern algebraic geometry. Today, algebra-geometric methods are widely implemented in the context of modern physical theories like General Relativity, gauge theory, quantum theory and also string theory. Accordingly, there is a wide interest in developing further these mathematical methods in various directions. It is the purpose of this WE-Heraeus-Seminar to present the state of the art of this area of mathematics and its applications to various issues in theoretical physics. The WEH-Seminar is devoted to master students, PhD students as well as researchers. We will also have a poster session. Every participant is invited to present her/his research as poster. At the end of the meeting we will have the best poster award. Invited and confirmed speakers include M. Atiyah (Edinburgh), B. Dubrovin (Triest), N. Manton (Cambridge), W. Nahm (Dublin), E. Previato (Boston), and D. Zagier (Bonn). Organizers of this conference are V. Enolskii, J. Kunz and C. Lämmerzahl. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1.4 Experimental Search for Quantum Gravity - the hard facts, Perimeter Institute --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2012/05/29/experimental-search-for-quantum-gra… Starting Mon, Oct 22, 2012 to Thu, Oct 25, 2012 Location: Waterloo, Canada Additional Information: http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Events/Experimental_Search_for_QG/Exper… Quantum Gravity tries to answer some of the most fundamental questions about the quantum nature of spacetime. To make progress in this area it is mandatory to establish a contact to observations and experiments and to learn what the "hard facts" on quantum gravity are, that nature provides us with. Quantum Gravity is a field where several approaches, based on different principles and assumptions, develop in parallel. At present it is not clear whether and how some of the approaches are compatible, and might share common properties. This meeting will draw on a diverse set of physicists who come to make proposals for quantum gravity phenomenology from a broad range of perspectives, including path-integral-inspired as well as canonical, and discrete as well as continuum-based approaches, providing a platform to exchange ideas with researchers working on theoretical and experimental aspects of different proposals. This will be the third in a series of meetings, the first of which was held at PI (2007), the second at NORDITA (2010). This meeting looks to the future and has two primary goals: 1) to assess the status of different proposals for QG phenomenology in the light of recent experimental results from Fermi, Auger, LHC etc. and 2) to discuss and stimulate new ideas and proposals, coming from a diverse set of viewpoints about quantum spacetime. In order to allow for a fruitful exchange of ideas across different approaches, and between experimental and theoretical researchers, the workshop will lay a main focus on structured discussion sessions with short (15 min.) presentations. For more information and a list of topics see the conference webpage. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1.5 Exploring New Horizons with Gravitational Waves, Hannover ------------------------------------------------------------- Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2012/05/29/exploring-new-horizons-with-gravita… Starting Fri, Jun 08, 2012 to Fri, Jun 08, 2012 Location: Hannover, Germany Additional Information: https://sites.google.com/site/gwnewhorizons/ "Exploring New Horizons with Gravitational Waves": a one-day intensive workshop on testing General Relativity on Black Hole Horizons with Gravitational Waves. Albert Einstein Institute, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, Hannover and Leibniz Universität, Hannover, Germany Friday, June 8, 2012 The scientific objective of the workshop is to bring together researchers in gravitational theory, numerical relativity and relativistic astrophysics to brainstorm on strategies for using LIGO/Virgo gravitational-wave detectors to test General Relativity in the strong field regime near black hole horizons. For further information and the registration form please see the following website: https://sites.google.com/site/gwnewhorizons/ Participants are encouraged to give short (~15 min) contributed talks. If you would like to give a contributed talk please submit your title and abstract on the web-site when registering for the workshop. Looking forward to seeing you all in Hannover. Organizers: Gian Mario Manca Emil Mottola Ruslan Vaulin Chris Van Den Broeck +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1.6 MG13, Parallel sessions SG1 - SG2: "GR around the Earth and the Sun", Stockholm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2012/05/25/parallel-sessions-sg1-sg2-gr-around… Starting Mon, Jul 02, 2012 to Tue, Jul 03, 2012 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Additional Information: http://www.icra.it/mg/mg13/parallel_sessions.htm Parallel sessions SG1 - SG2, "GR around the Earth and the Sun" Chair: Roberto Peron - Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali (IAPS-INAF), Roma, Italy Neil Ashby - Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA; NIST Affiliate The session deals with the recent advances in testing general relativity and alternative theories of gravitation around Earth and in the Solar System. This includes testing frame dragging and PPN gravitation with laser ranged satellites as well as with dedicated missions around Earth. Also important are the connections with geodesy and reference frames issues, now well known with the use of GPS. Testing general relativity in the framework of Solar System exploration is another important part, including the ongoing Cassini and the forthcoming BepiColombo. Modeling the dynamical environment of a probe in these different contexts is an important issue, and specific contributions in this direction are welcome. A special attention will be devoted moreover to tests of the Equivalence Principle. The verification of this cornerstone for many gravitational theories - in its various formulations - continues to be at the center of scientific interest, also for the potential impact that violations could have in our overall picture of the Universe. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1.7 V Black Holes Workshop in Lisbon ------------------------------------ Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2012/05/24/v-black-holes-workshop-in-lisbon/ Starting Mon, Dec 17, 2012 to Tue, Dec 18, 2012 Location: Lisbon, Portugal Additional Information: http://blackholes.ist.utl.pt/blackholes5/ We are pleased to announce the fifth Black Holes Workshop, taking place on 17-18 December 2012 in Lisbon, Portugal. The focus of the meeting will be on gravitational physics, with special emphasis on black hole physics. >From astrophysics to high-energy physics, from information theory to quantum gravity, black holes have acquired an ever increasing role in fundamental physics, and are now part of the terminology of many important branches of observational, theoretical and mathematical physics. This workshop aims at bringing together experts on all aspects of black holes. The deadline for registration and abstract submission is October 15. More details can be found in the official webpage. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1.8 From Quantum to Cosmos 5 - 5th International workshop on space-based research in fundamental physics and astronomy ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2012/05/23/from-quantum-to-cosmos-5-5th-intern… Starting Tue, Oct 09, 2012 to Fri, Oct 12, 2012 Location: Bergisch Gladbach / Cologne, Germany Additional Information: http://www.zarm.uni-bremen.de/Q2C5 The purpose of the Quantum-to-Cosmos workshop series is to highlight the field of fundamental physics, astronomy, and cosmology with experiments and observations on ground and in space in order to gain improved insight into the fundamental laws of nature. The workshop offers a fruitful space to discuss current and future fundamental physics and astronomy missions which are expected to revolutionize our understanding of the universe. The conference will be organized as a series of key-note talks and plenary sessions, covering the topics: - Gravitational Physics - Astronomy and Cosmology - Dark Matter and Dark Energy - Physics beyond the Standard Model - Quantum Physics and Technologies for Space - Geodesy and Planetary Missions - Policy and Opportunities for Space Experiments The preliminary list of confirmed speakers includes: Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Bob Bingham, Thibault Damour, Karsten Danzmann, Gilles Esposito-Farese, Ephraim Fischbach, Philippe Jetzer, Friedrich Koenig, George Picket, Dimitri Psaltis, Serge Reynaud, Gerhard Schaefer, Slava Turyshev, Norbert Wex Following representatives from the major space agencies will attend the event, too: Charles Elachi (NASA JPL), Alvaro Gimenez Canete (ESA), Thierry Duquesne (CNES) At this year’s Q2C5 workshop, we will also celebrate the 40th anniversary of one the largest fully steerable radio telescopes on earth: the 100-meter Effelsberg radio telescope operated by the MPI for Radio Astronomy. For this reason, the workshop organizers - the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) - will be supported by a third partner, the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPI). The Q2C5 workshop starts on Tue, October 9, at 10:00 am and ends on Fri, October 12, 2012, at 4:45 pm, and includes an excursion to the 100-meter Effelsberg radio telescope. Further details on the program and your options for registration are available at: http://www.zarm.uni-bremen.de/Q2C5 The on-line registration is now open! A limited contingent of hotel rooms has been reserved at a reduced rate especially for this event. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1.9 26th Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics in Sao Paulo, Brazil -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2012/05/11/26th-texas-symposium-on-relativisti… Starting Sat, Dec 15, 2012 to Thu, Dec 20, 2012 Location: São Paulo, Brazil Additional Information: http://www.das.inpe.br/texas2012sp The 26th Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics will be held in Sao Paulo city, Brazil, from December 15-20, 2012, hosted by National Institute for Space Research (INPE). The Symposium will be held at Hotel Bourbon Convention Ibirapuera (http://www.bourbon.com.br/en/hotel). As in the previous editions of the Texas Symposium, Texas 2012 will cover recent developments in Cosmology, Gravitation, Astroparticle Physics and related areas of Relativistic Astrophysics with emphasis on the most recent developments in the field. Because of the proximity to Christmas, we anticipated the symposium in one day. So, it starts on Sunday (December 16) and ends on Thursday (December 20) in the middle of the afternoon, allowing people to travel already that evening (on December 20). There will be a cocktail of reception Saturday, on December 15. Therefore, if you arrive in Sao Paulo on December 15 during the day and leave on December 20 at night you won't be missing anything. ================================================================= 2. Jobs ================================================================= 2.1 Postdoc in gravitational physics at the University of Vienna ---------------------------------------------------------------- Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2012/05/16/postdoc-in-gravitational-physics-at… Institution: Vienna, Austria Deadline: Wed, Aug 01, 2012 Additional Information: https://univis.univie.ac.at/ausschreibungstellensuche/flow/bew_ausschreibun… The Gravitational Physics group of the Department of Physics of University of Vienna (see http://gravity.univie.ac.at/) is seeking to fill a post-doctoral position (Universitaetsassistent/in) in the field of mathematical general relativity and/or numerical general relativity; in the latter case candidates with strong interest in rigorous aspects of numerical analysis will be sought. The appointment will be up to four years without a possibility of extension. The employment will start on December 1, 2012. The list of members of the group at the start of the appointment, including scientifically active retired members, will include Peter Aichelburg, Robert Beig, Piotr T. Chrusciel, James Grant, Helmut Rumpf, Walter Simon and Helmuth Urbantke. The gross salary is EUR 3381 fourteen times a year. The yearly teaching load averaged over four semesters is four hours/week, in English or in German, and the candidate will not be asked to teach more than six hours a week in any given semester in any case. Applications done online before August 1, 2012 at URL http://http://jobcenter.univie.ac.at/en/applications/ position numbered "Kennzahl 3109" (follow the link to the online advertisements) will receive full attention, but applications before July 1st are strongly encouraged. The candidates should arrange to have three letters of recommendation to be sent before August 1, 2012 to Mrs Karin Picek, Mathematical Physics, Faculty of Physics, Boltzmanngasse 5/5/3521, A-1090 Vienna, Austria. Further enquiries can be directed to karin.picek[AT]univie.ac.at +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2.2 2012 VESF fellowships for theoretical research on Gravitational Wave Detection ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2012/05/13/2012-vesf-fellowships-for-theoretic… Institution: VESF Institutions Deadline: Sat, Jun 30, 2012 Additional Information: http://www.roma1.infn.it/teongrav/VESF 2012 Call for VESF Fellowships for theoretical research on Gravitational Wave Detection The Virgo EGO Scientific Forum (VESF) is glad to announce the following call for fellowship applications to work on theoretical research relevant to the physics of the Virgo experiment. Mostly contemplated topics will be: potentially detectable gravitational wave sources, emitted waveforms, rates, data analysis algorithms and strategies and any other topic of interest for Virgo. This call is open to individual candidates (PhD holders or students) and to groups as well, that are members of VESF. Applications from individuals are encouraged. The VESF shall fund four one-year fellowships, each at the cost of 25.000 euros. However, proposals of particular interest for Virgo and which may need two years of activity may be considered as well. VESF will not consider positions having a yearly cost higher than 25 KE, unless co-sponsorship is foreseen by the proponent. Basic criteria to assess the applications will be: - The relevance of the proposal with respect to the Virgo detector. In particular, a direct impact on the data analysis will be considered as an additional credit; - Proposals for funding postdoctoral positions will be preferred although VESF will try to keep a balance; Applications must be sent electronically to: severine.perus[AT]ego-gw.it The documents required for submitting the application are: - the VESF application form available at: http://www.roma1.infn.it/teongrav/VESF/ - For individual applications: * curriculum vitae of the proponent; * two letters of reference * a letter of endorsement by the hosting Institution, providing hospitality as well as logistic and scientific support for the proposed research activity. VESF encourages applications from individuals with disabilities, minorities, and women. The deadline for submitting applications is June 30th 2012 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2.3 Lecturer in Applied Mathematics at Queen Mary, London --------------------------------------------------------- Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2012/05/03/lecturer-in-applied-mathematics-2/ Institution: London, UK Additional Information: http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AEI814/lecturer-in-applied-mathematics/ Lecturer in Applied Mathematics Queen Mary, University of London - School of Mathematical Sciences Queen Mary is one of London and the UK's leading research-focused universities. With over 16,000 students, it is amongst the largest of the colleges of the University of London. Queen Mary's 3,000 staff teach and research across a wide range of subjects in Science and Engineering, the Humanities, Social Sciences and Laws, and Medicine and Dentistry. Queen Mary has made a strategic commitment to the highest quality of world-class research across all its disciplines. As part of this strategy, we are in the process of a 3 year programme of recruitment in the School of Mathematical Sciences. The School of Mathematical Science has a very strong research presence across the spectrum of Pure Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Statistics. The School also have a large and popular Undergraduate and Graduate School. Applications are invited for a Lectureship in Applied Mathematics. The successful applicant will have outstanding profile of research in an area of Applied Mathematics or Theoretical Physics, together with the ability and flexibility to teach across a wide range of topics in mathematics. They will be expected to develop a research platform within the School or to contribute to an existing one. Applicants with a research area in complex systems, statistical mechanics, dynamical systems, applied probability, or mathematical general relativity are particularly encouraged to apply. The post is full time and permanent. The starting salary will be in the range of £37,819 - £47,088 per annum, subject to experience and qualifications. Benefits include 30 days annual leave, childcare vouchers scheme, defined benefit pension scheme and interest free season ticket loan. Candidates must be able to demonstrate their eligibility to work in the UK in accordance with the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006. Where required this may include entry clearance or continued leave to remain under the Points Based Immigration Scheme. Informal enquiries may be made to the Director of Applied Mathematics, Professor Christian Beck on c.beck[AT]qmul.ac.uk or on 0207 882 3286 Information about the group is available at http://www.maths.qmul.ac.uk/research/applied To apply, please visit the Human Resources website on http://www.hr.qmul.ac.uk/vacancies and search for reference QMUL0862. The closing date for applications is 31st May 2012. Interviews are expected to be held early July 2012. Valuing Diversity and Committed to Equality ================================================================= 3. News ================================================================= 3.1 Living Reviews in Relativity: "Stationary Black Holes" (major update) and "Dynamical Boson Stars" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2012/05/29/living-reviews-in-relativity-statio… Additional Information: http://relativity.livingreviews.org/ This month, Living Reviews in Relativity has published two new articles, a major update of the review "Stationary Black Holes: Uniqueness and Beyond" by Piotr T. Chrusciel, Joao Lopes Costa, and Markus Heusler and a new article on "Dynamical Boson Stars" by Steven L. Liebling and Carlos Palenzuela. Please find the abstracts and further details below. ------------------ PUB.NO. lrr-2012-7 Chrusciel, Piotr T. and Lopes Costa, Joao and Heusler, Markus "Stationary Black Holes: Uniqueness and Beyond" ACCEPTED: 2012-03-29 PUBLISHED: 2012-05-29 FULL ARTICLE AT: http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2012-7 ABSTRACT: The spectrum of known black-hole solutions to the stationary Einstein equations has been steadily increasing, sometimes in unexpected ways. In particular, it has turned out that not all black hole equilibrium configurations are characterized by their mass, angular momentum and global charges. Moreover, the high degree of symmetry displayed by vacuum and electrovacuum black-hole space-times ceases to exist in self-gravitating non-linear field theories. This text aims to review some developments on the subject and to discuss them in the light of the uniqueness theorem for the Einstein–Maxwell system. ------------------ PUB.NO. lrr-2012-6 Liebling, Steven L. and Palenzuela, Carlos "Dynamical Boson Stars" ACCEPTED: 2012-03-29 PUBLISHED: 2012-05-08 FULL ARTICLE AT: http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2012-6 ABSTRACT: The idea of stable, localized bundles of energy has strong appeal as a model for particles. In the 1950s, John Wheeler envisioned such bundles as smooth configurations of electromagnetic energy that he called geons, but none were found. Instead, particle-like solutions were found in the late 1960s with the addition of a scalar field, and these were given the name boson stars. Since then, boson stars find use in a wide variety of models as sources of dark matter, as black hole mimickers, in simple models of binary systems, and as a tool in finding black holes in higher dimensions with only a single killing vector. We discuss important varieties of boson stars, their dynamic properties, and some of their uses, concentrating on recent efforts. UPCOMING ARTICLES AT: http://relativity.livingreviews.org/Articles/upcoming.html +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 3.2 Paris Spring Open Session of Scientific Culture 2012, "The Human and the Universe" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2012/05/29/paris-spring-open-session-of-scient… Additional Information: http://chalonge.obspm.fr/Programme2012.html We are pleased to inform you that the presentations by the lecturers during the Open Spring Session of the Chalonge School 10 May 2012 as well as the Photo Album of the meeting capturing moments of the stimulating atmosphere created by all lecturers and participants are available on-line at: http://chalonge.obspm.fr/Programme2012.html The session gathered together scientists, specialized journalists, students and personalities in a rich intellectual, open and inter-disciplinary prestigious framework. Science with great intellectual endeavor and a human face. The session included the following panels and highlights: - The Human and the Universe and the Human in Space. Profession Astronaut. - High Mountain Observatories: scientific and human world heritage. Challenging Scientific Programmes for Space and results. - The Chalonge School Scientific Programme 2012. - From Jean Dominique Cassini (1625-1712) to the spacecraft Cassini-Huygens with a tour of the historic Perrault building and exhibition We thank all again, both lecturers and participants, for having contributed so much to this session and we look forward to seeing you again in the next event of this series. With Compliments and kind regards Norma G Sanchez, Hector J. de Vega http://chalonge.obspm.fr +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 3.3 Einstein Toolkit Release ---------------------------- Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2012/05/29/einstein-toolkit-release-3/ Additional Information: http://einsteintoolkit.org/about/releases/ET_2012_05_announcement.php We are pleased to announce the fifth release (code name Lovelace (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace) of the Einstein Toolkit, an open, community developed software infrastructure for relativistic astrophysics. This release includes beginning support for OpenCL (disabled by default). In addition, bug fixes accumulated since the previous release in October 2011 have been included. The Einstein Toolkit is a collection of software components and tools for simulating and analyzing general relativistic astrophysical systems that builds on numerous software efforts in the numerical relativity community including CactusEinstein, the Carpet AMR infrastructure and the relativistic hydrodynamics code GRHydro (an updated and extended version of the public release of the Whisky code). The Cactus Framework is used as the underlying computational infrastructure providing large-scale parallelization, general computational components, and a model for collaborative, portable code development. The toolkit includes modules to build complete codes for simulating black hole spacetimes as well as systems governed by relativistic hydrodynamics. The Einstein Toolkit uses a distributed software model and its different modules are developed, distributed, and supported either by the core team of Einstein Toolkit Maintainers, or by individual groups. Where modules are provided by external groups, the Einstein Toolkit Maintainers provide quality control for modules for inclusion in the toolkit and help coordinate support. The Einstein Toolkit Maintainers currently involve postdocs and faculty from five different institutions, and host weekly meetings that are open for anyone to join in. Guiding principles for the design and implementation of the toolkit include: open, community-driven software development; well thought out and stable interfaces; separation of physics software from computational science infrastructure; provision of complete working production code; training and education for a new generation of researchers. For more information about using or contributing to the Einstein Toolkit, or to join the Einstein Toolkit Consortium, please visit our web pages at http://einsteintoolkit.org. The Einstein Toolkit is primarily supported by NSF 0903973/0903782/0904015 (CIGR), and also by NSF 0701566/0855892 (XiRel), 0721915 (Alpaca), 0905046/0941653 (PetaCactus), and 0710874 (LONI Grid). The Einstein Toolkit contain over 170 regression test cases. On a large portion of the tested machines, all of these testsuites pass, using both MPI and OpenMP parallelization. The changes between this and the previous release include: - Accelerator Support This release of the Einstein Toolkit adds support for GPUs and other accelerators. This support comprises three levels of abstraction, ranging from merely building and running both CUDA and OpenCL code, to automated code generation targeting GPUs instead of CPUs. As with any other programming paradigm (such as MPI or OpenMP), the performance benefits depend on the particular algorithms used and optimizations that are applied. In addition, the Simulation Factory greatly aids portability to a wide range of computing systems. At the lowest level, Cactus now supports compiling, building, and running with either CUDA or OpenCL. CUDA is supported as new language in addition to C, C++, and Fortran; OpenCL is supported as an external library, and builds and executes compute kernels via run-time calls. Details are described in the user's guide (for CUDA) and in thorn ExternalLibraries/OpenCL (for OpenCL). Many accelerator platforms today separate between host memory and device memory, and require explicit copy or map operations to transfer data. An intermediate level of abstraction aids transferring grid variables between host and device, using schedule declarations to keep track of which data are needed where, and minimizing expensive data transfers. For OpenCL, there is a compact API to build and execute compute kernels at run time. Details are described in thorns CactusUtils/Accelerator and CactusUtils/OpenCLRunTime (with example parameter file). Finally, the code generation system Kranc has been extended to be able to produce either C++ or OpenCL code, based on the infrastructure described above. This allows writing GPU code in a very high-level manner. However, it needs to be stated that the efficiency of the generated code depends on many variables, including e.g. the finite differencing stencil radius and the number of operations in the generated compute kernels. Non-trivial kernels typically require system-dependent tuning to execute efficiently, as GPUs and other accelerators generally show a rather unforgiving performance behavior. The thorns McLachlan/ML_WaveToy and McLachlan/ML_WaveToy_CL are examples, generated from the same Kranc script, showing the generated C++ and OpenCL code. - SimFactory - Machine database and optionlists updated due to system changes on HPC resources - Simfactory's capability of running the testsuites is properly tested on a lot of systems. - IOUtil: checkpoint_dir is now steerable - SphericalSurface: added functionality to name spherical surfaces - Formaline: Support a "local repository" that collects all machine-local repositories - TimerReport: Allow different timers on different processes - WeylScal4: Enable use of LoopControl, and hence OpenMP - EOS_Omni: use C interface for HDF5 to avoid needing Fortran HDF5 bindings - EOSG_*: Support for the so-called 'general EOS interface' has been dropped from the Einstein Toolkit - A new arrangement EinsteinExact has been added to the toolkit, providing a wide range of exact initial data, which will eventually replace the 'Exact' thorn. - The *_O2 versions of McLachlan have been removed from the toolkit. This functionality is already provided by the regular McLachlan thorns now. - A new thorn ADMMass has been added to the Einstein Toolkit, which can calculate approximations of the ADM mass using a finite surface or volume integral. - The old library mechanism in Cactus (e.g. HDF5=yes) is now deprecated. Expect it to be removed in one of the next releases. - The thorns ADM and LegoExcision are deprecated and will be removed in one of the next releases. - GRHydro: - use atmosphere integer mask instead of bitmask - remove (now) unused old Tmunu interface - Implemented enhanced PPM scheme by Colella & Sekora 2008, McCorquodale & Colella 2011. Can be activated by setting use_enhanced_ppm = yes - External Libraries: several updates and configuration improvements - Cactus - implement per-variable tolerances for Cactus testsuites, for long discussion, see ET ticket #114 - Allow arithmetic expression in ParameterSet: parameter files can now contain a limited set of expressions - Handles requirements recursively - A lot of smaller bug fixes - McLachlan: Implement CCZ4 formulation - CarpetMask: Keep track of the volume that is masked out - CarpetLib: Define MPI reduction operators for complex numbers - CarpetIOASCII: Add new "compact" output format - Csrpet: Support accelerator data transfer - CarpetRegrid2: Add periodic boundary conditions - Simfactory - Use OpenMP by default - Make running testsuites using Simfactory possible - Updated a lot of configurations All repositories participating in this release carry a branch ET_2012_05 marking this release. These release branches will be updated if severe errors are found. For more detailed information about the "Lovelace" release please read the long release announcement on the Einstein Toolkit web pages: http://einsteintoolkit.org/about/releases/ET_2012_05_announcement.php. On behalf of the Einstein Toolkit Consortium: the "Lovelace" Release Team Eloisa Bentivegna Tanja Bode Peter Diener Roland Haas Ian Hinder Frank Löffler Bruno Mundim Christian D. Ott Erik Schnetter May 28, 2012 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 3.4 Gravity Research Foundation, Awards for the Essays 2012 ----------------------------------------------------------- Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2012/05/16/gravity-research-foundation-awards-… Additional Information: http://www.gravityresearchfoundation.org GRAVITY RESEARCH FOUNDATION PO BOX 81389 WELLESLEY HILLS MA 02481-0004 USA Roger W. Babson, Founder George M. Rideout, Jr., President The trustees are pleased to announce the Awards for Essays for 2012. 1. $4,000 - Can Effects of Quantum Gravity Be Observed in the Cosmic Microwave Background? by Claus Kiefer and Manuel Kraemer, Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Cologne, Zuelpicher Strasse 77, 50937 Koeln, Germany; e-mail: kiefer[AT]thp.uni-koeln.de mk[AT]thp.uni-koeln.de 2. $1,250 - What Can the Information Paradox Tell Us about the Early Universe? by Samir D. Mathur, Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210; e-mail: mathur[AT]mps.ohio-state.edu 3. $1,000 - The Unbearable Beingness of Light - Dressing and Undressing Photons in Black Hole Spacetimes by Timothy J. Hollowood and Graham M. Shore, Department of Physics, Swansea University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, UK: e-mail: t.hollowood[AT]swansea.ac.uk g.m.shore[AT]swansea.ac.uk 4. $750 - Holographic Space-Time by Tom Banks, NHETC and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8019, and SCIPP and Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077; e-mail: banks[AT]scipp.ucsc.edu 5. $500 - Secret Life of the Spacetime by T. Padmanabhan, IUCAA, Post Bag 4, Ganeshkhind, Pune - 411007, India; e-mail: paddy[AT]iucaa.ernet.in Selected for Honorable Mention this year were (listed in alphabetical order) Giovanni Amelino-Camelia, Valerio Astuti and Giacomo Rosati; Jacob D. Bekenstein; Adam R. Brown and Alex Dahlen; Marcelo Botta Cantcheff; Marios Christodoulou, Aldo Riello and Carlo Rovelli; Joseph P. Conlon; Christian Corda; Lawrence B. Crowell; Upasana Das and Banibrata Mukhopadhyay; Arundhati Dasgupta and Adamantia Zampeli; Aharon Davidson and Ben Yellin; Henrique P. de Oliveira, Leopoldo A. Pando Zayas and Cesar A. Terrero-Escalante; Irina Dymnikova; Ariel Edery and Hugues Beauchesne; Homer G. Ellis; Tiberiu Harko and Francisco S. N. Lobo; Shahar Hod; Viqar Husain and Dawood Kothawala; Ted Jacobson; Priti Mishra and Tejinder P. Singh; Sujoy Kumar Modak and Douglas Singleton; Kouji Nakamura; M. B. Paranjape; Ira Z. Rothstein; Rolf Schimmrigk; C. Sivaram and Kenath Arun; Albert Stebbins; W.M. Stuckey, T.J. McDevitt and M. Silberstein; Yu Tian, Xiao-Ning Wu and Hongbao Zhang; Christos G. Tsagas; C. S. Unnikrishnan and G. T. Gillies; Ram Gopal Vishwakarma. This announcement and abstracts of award-winning and honorable mention essays will be posted when ready on our web site, http://www.gravityresearchfoundation.org. The five award-winning essays will be published in a special issue of the International Journal of Modern Physics D (IJMPD). They will also be posted at a later date on our web site. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 3.5 2012 IOP Gravitational Physics Group Thesis Prize (sponsored by CQG) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2012/05/14/2012-gravitational-physics-group-th… Additional Information: http://gp.iop.org/ The 2012 Institute of Physics Gravitational Physics Group Thesis Prize, sponsored by Classical and Quantum Gravity (CQG), will be made for excellence in postgraduate research and communication skills in gravitational physics. All members of the IOP Gravitational Physics Group who passed their PhD viva voce exam between 30 September 2010 and 31 December 2012 are entitled to enter the competition. Note that the viva period for eligible candidates is longer than in previous years. The winner will be awarded £500 and they will be invited to submit a paper to CQG based on the winning thesis which, if accepted, will be made a ’select article’ in CQG. Furthermore, the winner will be given the opportunity to present their work at one of the UK BritGrav meetings. Anyone (student or otherwise) can nominate a candidate (including the candidate themselves). If you have someone in mind, please send an email to the IOP Gravitational Physics Group secretary (David Burton at d.burton[AT]lancaster.ac.uk) containing the candidate’s contact details and the committee will encourage them to enter the competition. The candidate must be a member of the IOP Gravitational Physics Group, and will be asked to provide their IOP membership number. Please note that the student’s external PhD examiner must be willing to comment on the student’s research, quality of the student’s thesis and the student’s ability to cogently communicate their work (evidenced by their viva performance and/or seminars). Students are advised to consult their external examiner before entering the competition. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 3.6 John Miller awarded 2011 IOP Gravitational Physics Group thesis prize co-sponsored by CQG --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2012/05/11/john-miller-awarded-2011-iop-gravit… Additional Information: http://www.iop.org/activity/groups/subject/gp/prize/page_40694.html I am delighted to announce that the 2011 IOP Gravitational Physics Group’s thesis prize, co-sponsored by Classical and Quantum Gravity, has been awarded to Dr John Miller, currently at Australian National University (ANU), for his excellent work on non-Gaussian beams and optomechanical parametric instabilities in gravitational wave detectors and their impact on designing future gravitational wave detectors. Dr Miller completed his thesis at Glasgow University under the supervision of Prof. Ken Strain and Prof. Norna Robertson The thesis is available to download from Glasgow University’s website. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1869/ Details of the prize, including nomination instructions for the 2012 prize, can be found at the Gravitational Physics Group’s web page. http://www.iop.org/activity/groups/subject/gp/prize/page_40694.html Sincerely Clifford M Will Editor in Chief Classical and Quantum Gravity +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 3.7 Call for Nominations: Fellows of the GRG Society (revised mailing address) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2012/05/07/call-for-nominations-fellows-of-the… The International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation has instituted Fellowships to recognize its outstanding members. In a steady state we expect the total number of Fellows to constitute approximately 10% of the membership. To reach this goal and to ensure that younger members of our Society are also elected in the initial rounds, the following procedure will be used: i) Fellows will be elected once every three years, prior to the GRG conferences. For the first two rounds (GR19 and GR20), at least half of the number of Fellows elected in any one round should be of 45 years or less of age on the day the conference begins. ii) The fellowship committee for GR20 will be asked to elect 10 fellows. Thereafter, the committees will elect approximately 1.5% of the members per 3-year cycle. The precise number for each round will be established at the prior GR meeting by the Executive Committee of the Society. The primary criterion for election is excellence in research, especially the impact of candidate’s work on the development of our field. The candidate will be generally expected to have made additional contributions to the field, for example through service, and/or outreach, and/or books and monographs, etc. In exceptional cases such criteria could constitute the primary basis of nomination provided these activities have had influence on a significant portion of our community, not just the home institution of the candidate. Nominations are due by December 31st, 2012. Any member of the Society can make nominations but self-nominations will not be considered. The nomination packet will consist of: i) A letter summarizing the basis for nomination; ii) An up-to-date CV and publication list of the nominee; iii) 1 to 3 supporting letters from members of the Society, and, iv) A proposed citation. Once made, the nomination will remain active for two additional rounds. Further details can be found at http://www.isgrg.org/fellowrules.php Electronic nominations in the form of emailed PDF files are strongly preferred. The nomination PDF files should be sent to the Chair of the Fellowship committee, Clifford Will (cmw[AT]wuphys.wustl.edu). If an electronic nomination is not possible, a single paper copy of the nomination should be mailed or faxed to Clifford Will at Department of Physics University of Florida P.O. Box 118440 Gainesville FL 32611-8440 Fax: 1-352-392-0524 The elected Fellows will be inducted during the Business Meeting of the Society at GR 20 in Warsaw, 8 – 13 July, 2013.

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