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1. Conferences 1.1 Quantum Field Theory Under the Influence of External Conditions 1.2 KITP program 2012: Bits, Branes, and Black Holes 1.3 Microphysics in Computational Relativistic Astrophysics (2nd circular) 1.4 21st Midwest Relativity Meeting 1.5 XXIX Max Born Symposium: "Super, Quantum & Twistors II"
2. Jobs 2.1 PhD position in gravitational theory at the University of Jena 2.2 PhD position in Gravitational Wave Physics in Rome (Tor Vergata) 2.3 Postdoc in gravitational-wave physics and numerical relativity at Cardiff University 2.4 PhD position at Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, Warsaw, Poland 2.5 Postdoctoral position at Florida Atlantic University in numerical astrophysics
3. News 3.1 Dr Barry Wardell to receive thesis prize from IOP’s Gravitational Physics Group co-sponsored by CQG 3.2 Living Reviews in Relativity - No. 100: "Varying Constants, Gravitation and Cosmology"
================================================================= 1. Conferences =================================================================
1.1 Quantum Field Theory Under the Influence of External Conditions -------------------------------------------------------------------
Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2011/03/18/quantum-field-theory-under-the-influ...
Starting Sun, Sep 18, 2011 to Sat, Sep 24, 2011 Location: Benasque, Spain Additional Information: http://benasque.org/2011qfext/
QFEXT11 is a continuation of a series of workshops of the same title held at the University of Leipzig in 1989, 1992, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2007, at the University of Oklahoma in 2003, 2009, and at the University of Barcelona in 2005. Started with the intention of bringing about an East-West scientific dialog, QFEXT developed into one of the most prominent meetings in the field of the Casimir effect, vacuum energy, and related questions in several areas, ranging from quantum field theory and cosmology to atomic, subnuclear, and experimental physics. Typically mathematical questions related to spectral geometry are represented as well. These meetings have created a unique atmosphere where theoreticians, mathematicians and experimentalists are brought together for a week, where talks by colleagues that they might rarely hear otherwise often spark lively debate and result in numerous collaborations.
QFEXT11 will also celebrate the 75th anniversary of the seminal paper "Consequences of the Dirac Theory of the Positron", by W. Heisenberg and H. Euler (Zeitschr. Phys. 98, 714-732, 1936), which played an important part in establishing the study of quantum fields in classical background fields. We plan to include a special session devoted to Heisenberg-Euler effective Lagrangians and their impact in modern physics.
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1.2 KITP program 2012: Bits, Branes, and Black Holes ----------------------------------------------------
Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2011/03/14/kitp-program-bits-branes-and-black-h...
Starting Mon, Mar 19, 2012 to Fri, May 25, 2012 Location: Santa Barbara, CA, USA Additional Information: http://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/activities/dbdetails?acro=bitbranes12
Dear Colleagues,
We are writing to announce the program Bits, Branes, Black Holes, to be held at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, during the period March 19 – May 25, 2012, and to alert you that applications are now being accepted. We also encourage you to inform others who you think might be interested in applying.
We coordinators will be assisted by advisors Joe Polchinski and Ted Jacobson. A summary and the latest information about the program can be found online at http://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/activities/dbdetails?acro=bitbranes12 .
It is necessary for every prospective participant to set up an account and apply online, even if we have already corresponded with you about the program. There will also be a “wrap-up” conference associated with this program, entitled Black Holes and Information to be held from May 21 – 25, 2012. Further information will be posted online when it becomes available. (It is not necessary to be a program participant in order to attend the conference.)
KITP programs differ from many conferences and workshops in that they create a situation where scientists learn from each other and actually do substantive research, often collaborating with other participants. To foster these interactions, KITP strongly encourages theorists to stay for as long as possible, with three weeks being the minimum stay for a regular participant. We understand, however, that experimentalists/observers often cannot manage long visits but can have a big impact even in a week, so we can be more flexible for them. Some level of financial support will be available, the amount depending on the needs of the participants and availability of funds. To apply, go to the aforementioned web page, and click on the Apply link. Application deadline: July 31, 2011. Late applications will be considered as budget and space permits. Due to space and financial constraints, however, we may not be able to accommodate everyone who applies.
KITP provides office and computing facilities on-site at UC Santa Barbara and also provides help in finding living accommodations. Actual commitments of office space and financial support can be made only by written formal invitations from the KITP Director, David Gross, regardless of any communications you may have had with us. If you think you might like to participate, it will help us with our planning if you could apply early, including your proposed length of stay and any financial requirements. If you have any questions, please contact one of the coordinators.
Sincerely yours,
Vijay Balasubramanian <vijay [AT] physics.upenn.edu> Alex Maloney <maloney [AT] physics.mcgill.ca> Donald Marolf <marolf [AT] physics.ucsb.edu> Joan Simon <J.Simon [AT] ed.ac.uk>
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1.3 Microphysics in Computational Relativistic Astrophysics (2nd circular) --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2011/03/10/microphysics-in-computational-relati...
Starting Mon, Jun 20, 2011 to Sat, Jun 25, 2011 Location: Waterloo, ON, Canada Additional Information: http://micra2011.org
The Microphysics in Computational Relativistic Astrophysics (MICRA 2011) workshop will take place June 20-25 at the Perimeter Institute, in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Registration is now open at http://micra2011.org
The goal of MICRA is to bring together researchers from the numerical relativity/computational astrophysics community with experts in the microscopic physics of matter and radiation at high densities to facilitate exchange between these communities leading to improved models of relativistic astrophysical systems.
Topics covered by MICRA 2011 will include
* Hot and cold nuclear EOS (including implementation in codes), * Improved neutrino interactions, * Efficient implementations of interactions/neutrino transport (approximate schemes [leakage,diffusion], Monte Carlo schemes etc.), * Crust physics and its inclusion in computational models, * Nucleosynthesis in compact object mergers and the potential radioactive afterglow signature? (including implementation issues),
MICRA 2011 will take place in an informal workshop setting with much time for interaction and discussion. Registration will open on March 1 and will close on June 1. We aim for 30-40 participants and can accomodate a maximum of 50. Please register ASAP.
The MICRA 2011 organizers, Cliff Burgess, James Lattimer, Luis Lehner, Christian Ott, Chris Pethick, Achim Schwenk
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1.4 21st Midwest Relativity Meeting -----------------------------------
Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2011/03/04/21st-midwest-relativity-meeting/
Starting Fri, Nov 04, 2011 to Sat, Nov 05, 2011 Location: Urbana, IL, USA
The 21st Midwest Relativity Meeting will be held Friday and Saturday, November 4 and 5, 2011 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The format of the meeting will follow previous regional meetings, where all participants may present a talk of approximately 10-15 minutes, depending on the total number of talks. We intend for the meeting to cover a broad range of topics in gravitation physics, including classical and quantum gravity, numerical relativity, relativistic astrophysics, cosmology, gravitational waves and experimental gravity.
As this is a regional meeting, many of the participants will be from the greater United States Midwest and Canada, but researchers and students from other areas are also welcome. A conference website will be open in September, at which time further details, registration information and abstract submission will be available.
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1.5 XXIX Max Born Symposium: "Super, Quantum & Twistors II" -----------------------------------------------------------
Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2011/03/01/xxix-max-born-symposium-super-quantu...
Starting Tue, Jun 28, 2011 to Thu, Jun 30, 2011 Location: Wroclaw, Poland Additional Information: http://www.ift.uni.wroc.pl/~mborn29/
The aim of the Symposium is to gather together researchers working on different aspects of theoretical physics, such as sypersymmetry, quantum symmetries and twistors, which are all interests of Prof. Lukierski whose 75th birthday will be celebrated at the Symposium.
Main topics: * Supersymmmetry * Quantum symmetries * Twistors
Local Organizing Committee: A. Borowiec, J. Kowalski-Glikman, M. Mozrzymas, A. Pachol
Location: The Symposium will be held in at Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Wroclaw
Contact: mborn29[at]ift.uni.wroc.pl Address: pl. M. Borna 9; 50-204 Wroclaw; Poland
Lecturers include: * J. Azcarraga * M. Arzano * M. Chaichian* * L. Dabrowski * S. Doplicher * M. Dunajski * L. D. Fadeev* * T.R. Govindarajan * E. Ivanov * R. Kerner * L. Mason * V.N. Tolstoy * M. Rausch de Traubenberg * A. Sitarz * D. Sorokin * P. Stichel * W.J. Zakrzewski
*-to be confirmed
================================================================= 2. Jobs =================================================================
2.1 PhD position in gravitational theory at the University of Jena ------------------------------------------------------------------
Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2011/03/30/phd-position-in-gravitational-theory...
Institution: Jena, Germany Deadline: Wed, Jun 01, 2011 Additional Information: http://www.tpi.uni-jena.de/gravity/Jobs/Ausschreibung_G3.pdf
Applications are invited for a PhD position starting from October 1, 2011 within the DFG Research Training Group 1523/1 "Quantum- and Gravitational Fields" at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena. The successful candidate will work on analytical methods for solving Einstein’s field equations of general relativity. Please send your application with a curriculum vitae and a description of your research interests compiled in one single pdf document to meinel[at]tpi.uni-jena.de. In addition, we request two letters of recommendation.
For further questions please contact: Professor Reinhard Meinel Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena Theoretisch-Physikalisches Institut Max-Wien-Platz 1 07743 Jena, Germany
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2.2 PhD position in Gravitational Wave Physics in Rome (Tor Vergata) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2011/03/17/phd-position-in-gravitational-wave-p...
Institution: Rome, Italy Deadline: Mon, Apr 25, 2011 Additional Information: http://dottorati.uniroma2.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&a...
The University of Roma Tor Vergata is starting a pre-selection process for non-Italian students applying for a position in a PhD Program for the Academic Year 2011/12.
All the information can be found at:
http://dottorati.uniroma2.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&a... 3&catid=275&Itemid=259
For any question regarding the research proposal to be submitted, please contact me at:
viviana.fafone[at]roma2.infn.it
Prof. Viviana Fafone University of Rome Tor Vergata and INFN Rome Tor Vergata Via della ricerca scientifica, 1 - 00133 Rome, Italy Tel: +39 0694038135 / 0672594563 Fax: +39 0694032605
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2.3 Postdoc in gravitational-wave physics and numerical relativity at Cardiff University ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2011/03/11/postdoc-in-gravitational-wave-physic...
Institution: Cardiff, UK Additional Information: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/jobs/physx/research-associate-in-gravitational-wave...
The Cardiff Gravitational Physics Group (http://www.astro.cf.ac.uk/research/gravity) is seeking applications to fill one postdoctoral research position in topics related to numerical simulations of compact binaries and the detection of gravitational waves from these sources.
The group consists of Stephen Fairhurst, Mark Hannam, Bangalore Sathyaprakash, Bernard Schutz (part time), and Patrick Sutton, five postdoctoral associates, and seven PhD students. Group members play leading roles in efforts to detect signals from the coalescence of neutron-star and black-hole binaries, and from gamma-ray bursts. They model astrophysical sources of gravitational waves and develop search algorithms for their detection and interpretation with current and future detectors, including participation in the design study of the Einstein Telescope, a third generation gravitational wave antenna with an anticipated sensitivity a factor of ten better than the advanced LIGO detectors.
The position is available initially for a period of two years and will be appointed at Research Associate (Grade 6) level. The nominal starting date is October 2011.
Salary: £29853 - £35646 per annum. (Grade 6).
Informal enquiries can be made to Dr Mark Hannam by email at Mark.Hannam[AT]astro.cf.ac.uk.
To work for an employer that values and promotes equality of opportunity, visit http://www.cf.ac.uk/jobs, telephone +44 (0) 29 2087 4017, or email vacancies[AT]cardiff.ac.uk for an application form quoting vacancy number 2011/0138.
Closing date: March 25 2011. (NOTE the close deadline.)
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2.4 PhD position at Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, Warsaw, Poland ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2011/03/09/ph-d-program-high-luminosity-black-h...
Institution: Warsaw, Poland Deadline: Mon, May 16, 2011 Additional Information: http://www.camk.edu.pl/studok/2011/bh-accr-program-poster.pdf
Ph.D. program "High-luminosity black hole accretion disks - unsolved problems" at Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, Warsaw, Poland
advisor: Prof. Marek A. Abramowicz (NCAC, Poland; Göteborg University, Sweden) co-advisor: Prof. Ramesh Narayan (Harvard University, USA) co-advisor: Dr. Aleksander Sądowski (Harvard University, USA)
Applications are invited for a four-year stipend to conduct work on the above mentioned doctorate thesis at the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center in Warsaw.
The project goal is to develop accurate hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic numerical codes to calculate physically realistic "Slim Disk" models for black hole accretion with luminosities in the Eddington range. The problem is considered to be one of the most interesting and challenging in today's high energy astrophysics. Slim disk models are applied to explain the observed properties of quasars, microquasars, and similar astronomical objects, which contain accreting black holes in their high luminosity states. By fitting the observed X-ray spectra (continuum and line) to those calculated from state-of-art slim disk models, and by fitting the observed variability Fourier spectra to the calculated model's oscillatory behaviour, one can deduce fundamental properties of the accreting system, and of the black hole itself.
The student(s) will use numerical methods that have been developed by our scientific team in the last few years. The student(s) will improve and expand these methods. Initial projects include the following, which will naturally lead to other topics: * The alpha viscosity prescription at high luminosities, * The vertical structure of slim disks at high luminosities.
The student(s) will collaborate not only with our colleagues at the Copernicus Centre (Włodek Kluźniak, Agata Różańska) and at Harvard and MIT (Jeff McClintock, Ron Remillard), but possibly also with our collaborators at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Astronomy Institute in Prague and Silesian University in Opava in the Czech Republic, Paris Observatory and Institute d'Astrophysique in France, Göteborg University and NORDITA in Sweden, Xiamen and Peking universities in China, Kyoto University in Japan, and University of California in USA. The studies will be conducted in Warsaw, but the student(s) should be prepared for one or two long stays at Harvard University (up to a few months). The candidate should have some experience in serious numerical simulations.
Literature: Relativistic slim disks with vertical structure A. Sądowski et al., A&A, (http://arxiv.org/abs/1006.4309) Slim disks around Kerr black holes revisited A. Sądowski, ApjS, (http://arxiv.org/abs/0906.0355)
Deadline for applications is on 16th May 2011. Decision about admission will be made in June. Studies start on 1st October 2011. The stipend fully covers all living expenses in Warsaw.
More information, and announcements about other Ph.D. projects at NCAC, at http://www.camk.edu.pl/studok/studokeng2011.html
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2.5 Postdoctoral position at Florida Atlantic University in numerical astrophysics ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2011/03/05/postdoctoral-position-at-florida-atl...
Institution: Boca Raton, FL, USA Deadline: Sun, Jul 31, 2011 Additional Information: https://jobs.fau.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/frameset/Frameset.jsp?time=129933...
The Florida Atlantic University Space Time Group (FAUST) invites applications for a postdoctoral research position for a two year period, renewable to a third beginning in Fall 2011.The FAUST group includes seven faculty members of the Department and its research interests cover a wide range of subjects from Astrophysics, General Relativity and Quantum Gravity. The successful applicant will be part of the longstanding collaboration between FAU, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and North Carolina State University that pursues the numerical modeling of supernovae explosions. Applicants who have received their Ph.D. in Physics are eligible for consideration. For this position,applicants will submit a cover letter, a curriculum vitae with a list of publications, a brief description of research interests and arrange for three letters of recommendation. An on-line application must be completed in order to be considered for the position: https://jobs.fau.edu, reference position numbe r 980115. Applicants selected for employment must complete a background check prior to employment. Florida Atlantic University is an Equal Employment/Equal Access Institution. All applications will be fully considered until the position is filled.
================================================================= 3. News =================================================================
3.1 Dr Barry Wardell to receive thesis prize from IOP’s Gravitational Physics Group co-sponsored by CQG -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2011/03/30/dr-barry-wardell-to-receive-thesis-p...
Additional Information: http://www.iop.org/activity/groups/subject/gp/prize/page_40694.html
It gives me great pleasure to announce the award of the 2010 IOP Gravitational Physics Group’s Thesis Prize to Dr Barry Wardell of the Albert Einstein Institute at Golm. As Editor-in-Chief of Classical and Quantum Gravity, which co-sponsors the prize, I am delighted to see it going to such a deserving recipient.
The award is made for the development of ground-breaking computational techniques for obtaining highly accurate expressions for Green functions on curved spacetime.
Dr Wardell completed his thesis at Dublin City University in Ireland. The thesis: "Green functions and radiation reaction from a spacetime perspective" is available for download from the ArXiv: http://arxiv.org/abs/0910.2634
The prize will be awarded at IOP’s Nuclear and Particle Physics Divisional (NPPD) conference at Glasgow University on 6 April. Dr Wardell will receive the prize shortly before his talk at 3.30pm in the Humanities Lecture Theatre.
Yours sincerely
Clifford M Will Editor in Chief Classical and Quantum Gravity
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3.2 Living Reviews in Relativity - No. 100: "Varying Constants, Gravitation and Cosmology" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Announcement on Hyperspace@AEI: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/2011/03/29/living-reviews-in-relativity-no-100-...
Additional Information: http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2011-2
Today, Living Reviews in Relativity has published a new review article on "Varying Constants, Gravitation and Cosmology" by Jean-Philippe Uzan. Please find the abstract and further details below.
THIS IS PUBLICATION NO. 100!
Thus, our journal offers 100 review articles on 72 different topics in in various areas of relativity. All full texts are free of charge, following the principles of the Open Access to Scientific Knowledge movement. Our reference database now contains about 20,000 references which are linked to the reviews and can be exported in various formats.
The success of Living Reviews in Relativity has been acknowledged by its high Impact Factor (10.600), and just recently by SPIRES including 10 reviews in the Top Cited Articles during 2010 in gr-qc. Overall, nine articles made it to the list of the 100 most highly cited papers of all time.
We'd like to thank all our readers and authors for their interest and support!
The Living Reviews team.
------------------------------------ PUB.NO. lrr-2011-2 Uzan, Jean-Philippe "Varying Constants, Gravitation and Cosmology"
ACCEPTED: 2011-03-23 PUBLISHED: 2011-03-29
FULL ARTICLE AT: http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2011-2
(incl. 6 Figures and 554 references)
ABSTRACT: Fundamental constants are a cornerstone of our physical laws. Any constant varying in space and/or time would reflect the existence of an almost massless field that couples to matter. This will induce a violation of the universality of free fall. Thus, it is of utmost importance for our understanding of gravity and of the domain of validity of general relativity to test for their constancy. We detail the relations between the constants, the tests of the local position invariance and of the universality of free fall. We then review the main experimental and observational constraints that have been obtained from atomic clocks, the Oklo phenomenon, solar system observations, meteorite dating, quasar absorption spectra, stellar physics, pulsar timing, the cosmic microwave background and big bang nucleosynthesis. At each step we describe the basics of each system, its dependence with respect to the constants, the known systematic effects and the most recent constraints that have b een obtained. We then describe the main theoretical frameworks in which the low-energy constants may actually be varying and we focus on the unification mechanisms and the relations between the variation of different constants. To finish, we discuss the more speculative possibility of understanding their numerical values and the apparent fine-tuning that they confront us with.
UPCOMING ARTICLES AT: http://relativity.livingreviews.org/Articles/upcoming.html
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Living Reviews in Relativity http://relativity.livingreviews.org/ ISSN: 1433-8351
Published by Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)