Summer 2023 Workshops

Organizers:

*Anna Hasenfratz, University of Colorado Boulder
Ethan Neil, University of Colorado Boulder
Cenke Xu, University of California Santa Barbara

New phases and emergent symmetries found in strongly-coupled QFTs are highly interesting, both for understanding 4-dimensional QFT and the phenomenology of physics beyond the Standard Model, as well as in lower dimensions for application to condensed matter systems.  Symmetric mass generation (SMG) is a key example, observed in low-dimensional systems such as the 1+1d Fidkowski-Kitaev model.  SMG phases may have deep connections to topological phases and states, and could be relevant for realization of lattice chiral gauge theories in 4 dimensions along the lines of Eichten and Preskill.  In addition to symmetric mass generation, other relevant directions may include emergent conformal symmetry in QCD_4 and QED_3, or emergence of higher-form or generalized symmetries at strong coupling.  This program will bring together condensed matter and high-energy theorists, along with experts in both analytic and numerical methods, in order to understand these important open questions in QFTs at strong coupling.

*organizer responsible for participant diversity

Organizers:

Boris Bolliet, Cambridge University
Stefano Borgani, University of Trieste
Stefano Ettori, INAF - OAS Bologna
*Elena Pierpaoli, University of Southern California

The study of galaxy clusters and groups, as the largest gravitationally-bound, dark matter-dominated structures formed in the universe, is expected to play a  crucial role in validating the standard cosmological model. Clusters will shed light on current tensions in the estimate of cosmological parameters, in a way which is complementary to other cosmological probes.

Ongoing and forthcoming surveys in the optical, infrared, X-ray and microwave bands will reach unprecedented sensitivity, allowing for the detection of  smaller and more distant objects, and therefore yielding a larger and more diverse data set.

In order to better interpret these objects within the current cosmological scenario, there is an urgent need for a better understanding of the physical processes driving formation and evolution of galaxy clusters and groups. Motivated by this fact, observers and theorists are developing new ways to study galaxy clusters at different wavelengths and use them as a precise cosmological probe.

The workshop will focus on the aspects at the interface between astrophysics and cosmology of galaxy clusters and groups, bringing together specialists in various areas of cluster studies: theoretical/numerical modeling, observations of the galaxy population and of the intra-cluster medium,  cosmology, and data analysis/inference methods.  Specific topics of discussion will include:

• The physical components of galaxy clusters and their interactions;
• The statistical description of the clusters’ physical properties;
• Galaxy clusters’ simulations;
• Galaxy clusters’ detection;
• Cosmology with galaxy clusters.

*organizer responsible for participant diversity

Organizers:

*Michael Maseda, University of Wisconsin
Allison Strom, Northwestern University
Risa Wechsler, Stanford University
L.Y. Aaron Yung, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Since beginning science operations in Summer 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has already revealed unexpected details about the high-redshift universe, including evidence for relatively massive and enriched galaxies at very early times. There will undoubtedly be more surprises as the community leverages both new and improved observing modes in the near- and mid-infrared to extend studies of galaxy demographics, abundances, and kinematics to previously inaccessible populations. To confidently interpret these novel observations, we must first confront the unique data reduction and analysis challenges presented by JWST, and one goal of this workshop is to provide a venue for discussing best practices for handling the data.

It is also critical to build new connections: between studies of galaxy populations across cosmic time (which may use similar methods to investigate different samples) and between theory and observations (which use different methods to investigate the same phenomena). Ultimately, this will require collaboration between experts in imaging, spectroscopy, stellar population synthesis, photoionization modeling, and semi-analytical and hydrodynamic simulations. To facilitate these efforts, this workshop focuses on areas where new observations from JWST represent a substantial step forward in studying high-redshift galaxies, how we understand the physics of their assembly, and the connection between observations, theory, and simulations.

Topics that will be explored at the workshop include:

• Data reduction and analysis techniques for NIRCam, NIRSpec, MIRI, and NIRISS observations
• The detailed chemical abundance patterns and physical conditions in galaxies across cosmic time
• The spatially-resolved properties of larger, more diverse, and more representative samples of high-redshift galaxies
• The properties of low-mass galaxies and their stellar populations
• The nature of the first stars and black holes

*organizer responsible for participant diversity

Organizers:

Dmitry Abanin, University of Geneva
*Immanuel Bloch, Max Planck Institute of Quantum Dynamics
Vedika Khemani, Stanford University
Rahul Nandkishore, University of Colorado Boulder

Quantum dynamics is a rapidly evolving field of research spanning the condensed matter, AMO, quantum information and high energy theory communities. Key recent developments include the study of random circuit dynamics, hybrid dynamics involving unitary gates and projective measurements, quantum many body scars and attendant ergodicity breaking, anomalous transport in Lindblad dynamics and the associated Kraus maps, new dynamical universality classes in driven dissipative systems, and generalized hydrodynamics and KPZ universality in near integrable systems. In parallel with these conceptual developments, recent years have also witnessed an explosion in our experimental capabilities for analog and digital simulation of many body quantum dynamics, across a range of platforms. This cross-disciplinary program will bring together physicists with a range of backgrounds, both theorists and experimentalists, to discuss the latest developments on the frontiers of quantum dynamics, and to chart a path forward for the field.

*organizer responsible for participant diversity

Organizers:

Vijay Balasubramanian, University of Pennsylvania
Serena Bradde, City University of New York
**Curtis Callan, Princeton University
*Andreas Mayer, University College of London
Armita Nourmohammad, University of Washington

To defend against threats from rapidly evolving pathogens organisms across the tree of life make use of adaptive immune mechanisms, which specifically target pathogens through a learning-and-memory approach. Vertebrates implement such rapid adaptation in their adaptive immune system, which produces diverse antibodies and T cells through genetic recombination, and then selects effector and memory cells when they bind to invaders. Likewise, some bacteria and archaea maintain snippets of previously encountered phages in their genomes to identify recurring infections via the CRISPR-Cas system.

Over the last decade, statistical physicists have made significant contributions to the theory of adaptive immunity, from first principles mastery of the sequence level statistics of the players in vertebrate immune system, to theories of the diversity and organization of CRISPR immune repertoires. With rapid advances in data collection at scale and a rapidly expanding body of theoretical work, now is an opportune time to bring together experimentalists and theorists. We will discuss questions and progress guiding the field, and will chart a path forward to understanding the dynamics of the whole coupled system of defenders, invaders, and their coevolution. We will also discuss where results from our nascent field are having an impact in biology, medicine and biotechnology, and how we can further such broader interactions.

*organizer responsible for participant diversity
**scientific advisor

Organizers:

Clay Cordova, University of Chicago
Isabel Garcia Garcia, New York University and Institute for Advanced Study
*Patrick Meade, Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics
Shu-Heng Shao, Stony Brook University

This workshop aims to bring together theoretical physicists from the formal and particle physics communities in order to present recent advances and explore opportunities for synergy and collaboration. The focus will be on harnessing recent progress in formal theory to address outstanding problems in the Standard Model.  In particular, we will explore how advances in the areas of generalized global symmetries, supersymmetric quantum field theories, conformal field theory, and new perspectives on confining gauge theories may lead to new ideas about the dynamics behind spontaneous symmetry breaking in the electroweak sector, color confinement, the absence of P and CP-violation in the QCD sector, finite temperature phase transitions, and many other outstanding questions.

*organizer responsible for participant diversity

Organizers:

Hae-Young Kee, University of Toronto
Alessandra Lanzara, University of California
*Qimiao Si, Rice University
Senthil Todadri, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Extensive recent advances have been made on the topic of strange metals, which characterize the physics of strongly correlated systems that goes beyond the standard description in terms of quasiparticles. This workshop will bring together physicists working on this subject in a variety of platforms, with the aim of cross-fertilization. The platforms to be covered include:

• Copper- and iron-based high-temperature superconductors
• Heavy-fermion metals
• Metallic systems in proximity to quantum spin liquids
• Moiré structures
• Ultracold atomic systems

One focus of the workshop is to survey the prominent strange-metal properties. These include a scale-invariant spectrum illustrated by a dynamical Planckian (ℏω over kBT) scaling, a T-linear electrical resistivity, striking singularities in thermodynamic quantities and, often, an accompanying “large” to “small” Fermi-surface reconstruction with implications for a localization-delocalization transition. Another focus concerns how the amplified quantum fluctuations of the strange metals drive the formation of novel phases, with high-temperature superconductivity being the most notable candidate. Theoretical understandings based on exotic metallic quantum criticality will be discussed. Potential connections to black holes through the holographic correspondence will also be examined. The workshop promises to set future directions of research for this foundational topic of quantum condensed matter physics.

*organizer responsible for participant diversity

Organizers:

Orsola De Marco, Macquarie University
Natalia Ivanova, University of Alberta
Ilya Mandel, Monash University
*Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, University of California Santa Cruz

A large fraction of stars are found in binaries (and higher multiplicity systems) that interact over the course of their evolution. Mass transfer plays a key role in understanding phenomena as diverse as supernovae, X-ray binaries, gamma ray bursts, kilonovae, tidal disruption events, novae, intermediate luminosity optical transients, and gravitational-wave mergers. With rapidly growing data sets, significant theoretical advances, and the exciting developments of new surveys, now is an opportune time to bring together observers and modelers. We will discuss, among other topics, the observational constraints and theoretical models of mass transfer; binary mergers and their signatures; nebulae as the aftermath of mass-transfer events; supernovae with signatures of binary interaction; X-ray binaries and gravitational-wave sources; spins in stars and compact objects; tidal disruption events; and population-wide models and observational comparisons.

*organizer responsible for participant diversity

Organizers:

*Erez Berg, Weizmann Institute of Science
Premala Chandra, Rutgers University
**Harold Hwang, Stanford University
Srinivas Raghu, Stanford University
Suchitra Sebastian, University of Cambridge

Quantum condensed matter physics thrives on unexpected experimental observations of emergent quantum systems.  The past few years have witnessed impressive progress both in the development of new materials that display unforeseen electronic behavior, and in ground-breaking experiments that shed new light on long-standing problems in the field. In this program we will bring together leading researchers, experimentalists and theorists, at different stages of their scientific careers to brainstorm about experimental enigmas that will inform and drive new theoretical directions in the years to come.

*organizer responsible for participant diversity
**scientific advisor

Organizers:

Masha Baryakhtar, University of Washington
Tao Han, University of Pittsburgh
Zhen Liu, University of Minnesota
*Jessica Turner, Durham University

New physics is highly expected to be not far from the electroweak scale, particularly the physics of the Higgs boson and dark matter. While ensuring that established new physics searches remain powerful in the complex high-luminosity LHC environment, the community is increasing efforts on challenging signatures as exotic Higgs decays and long-lived particles. Specialized detectors positioned off of the collision point have opened exciting opportunities. In parallel, ongoing revolutions in quantum information science, neutrino physics, astroparticle physics, and precision and cosmological probes of the dark sector have brought new questions and perspectives. This program aims to foster interdisciplinary interactions among the energy, neutrino, precision, and cosmic frontiers and open new frontiers in our explorations of particle physics.

*organizer responsible for participant diversity

Organizers:

Hannes Bernien, University of Chicago
*Anushya Chandran, Boston University
Roderich Moessner, Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems
Andriy Nevidomskyy, Rice University

Physical systems incorporating constraints on the microscopic degrees of freedom arise in several subfields of quantum and classical physics. In gauge theories, Gauss' law can be thought of as such a constraint, and emergent gauge theories have become plentiful as low-energy theories of topological quantum matter, such as in the emergent QED of quantum spin ice or higher-rank gauge theories with the resultant `fractonic' mobility-restricted quasiparticles resulting from dipole moment conservation. Consequences for static and dynamic observables are manifold and profound. This interdisciplinary workshop will bring together experts from quantum materials, ultracold atoms, quantum dynamics, high-energy and field-theory communities, with the goal of establishing the common canvas of theories with constrained field configurations and to identify and tackle the outstanding open questions. The workshop will cover a broad list of topics, both theoretically and experimentally motivated, including frustrated magnetism and spin liquids, quantum dimer and link models, lattice gauge theories, kinetically constrained models, Rydberg atom engineering of strongly entangled quantum systems, fracton phases of matter, and quantum dynamics in systems with constraints.

*organizer responsible for participant diversity

Organizers:

B Helen Burgess, University of St. Andrews
*James Cho, Flatiron Institute
Albion Lawrence, Brandeis University
Jane Wang, Cornell University

Astrophysical, geophysical, and biophysical fluids are rapidly developing, high-impact fields with a wealth of new data, computational challenges, and conceptual puzzles. Outstanding problems in these fields include investigating new fluid analogues for gravitational systems and quantum fields, modeling atmospheres of tidally-locked exoplanets, understanding climate response to active tracers, predicting the scale and strength of jets, vortices, and magnetic islands in geophysical and astrophysical fluids, and understanding the interaction between flow and structure in bio-locomotion. Such "real-universe" systems can reside in parameter regimes (eg. strong rotation, stratification, viscosity, or magnetization) that allow analytical control. They are thus amenable to quantitatively accurate applications of modern geometric and field-theoretic techniques, such as asymptotic methods for path integrals, renormalization group and effective field theory approaches, generalized symmetries, holographiç "gauge/gravity" duality, geometric phases, and topologically protected excitations. Many of these field-theoretic techniques have seen significant recent advances, presenting opportunities to develop their applications to fluid systems. In return, specific fluid systems can also provide a context for new formal developments in classical, quantum, and statistical field theories. Hence, the goal of this workshop is to bring together an interdisciplinary group of scientists studying astrophysical and geophysical fluid dynamics, climate science, theoretical fluid and plasma physics, biological physics, turbulence, and field theory to form new connections that will drive these fields forward.

*organizer responsible for participant diversity

Organizers:

*Maissam Barkeshli, University of Maryland
Andrey Gromov, Brown University
**Alexander Maloney, McGill University
Dan Roberts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Eva Silverstein, Stanford University
**James Sully, Anthropic
**Sho Yaida, Meta AI

The rapid growth in the popularity of deep learning has been fueled by transformational advances in the capabilities of artificial intelligence. There is also considerable interest in applications of machine learning and optimization dynamics to a wide variety of scientific and mathematical problems, including data analysis, novel numerical approaches to partial differential equations, wavefunction approximation in condensed matter and AMO physics, and the discovery and verification of mathematical theorems. We invite applications from scientists interested in research at the intersection of physics and artificial intelligence, and in particular on the construction of physics-inspired models of statistical machine learning, the dynamics of optimization, and the workings of deep neural networks. We welcome applications from across the physics community, including high energy, condensed matter and statistical physicists, as well as computer scientists, machine learning researchers, and mathematicians.

*organizer responsible for participant diversity
**scientific advisor