NORDITA

Program   30 May — 25 June 2011

The program will try to cover what string theory has to say about physics beyond the Standard Models of both particle physics and cosmology. Topics may include but are not limited to: string effective actions, string instantons, stringy supersymmetry breaking, intersecting D-branes, generalized flux compactifications, inflation in string theory, string-inspired MSSM-like models and dark matter in those models.

Coordinators: Paolo Di Vecchia, Marcus Berg

Program   26 April — 27 May 2011

Predicting the unpredictable is a challenge that is common to various physical systems whose dynamics is governed by the equations of fluid dynamics. The oldest example is weather prediction. Other examples include climate prediction, space weather forecast, and solar cycle forecast. The mathematics developed for these applications is extremely interesting and deserves more detailed understanding, so that these techniques can be used also in other areas where the application of this technique is less well developed.

Coordinators: Axel Brandenburg, Erik Lindborg, Jonas Nycander

Program   28 March — 20 April 2011

The main idea is to convene key world-class researchers on complex networks and let them interact freely with the Nordic groups interested in the area. The program will be divided into four thematic areas: biological networks, general network theory, technological networks, and social networks. Many of the intended participants are interested in several of these points.
A more intense, 3-day workshop will be arranged during the middle of the program.

Coordinators: Petter Holme, Petter Minnhagen

Program   28 February — 25 March 2011

Research topics to be covered include: cosmological probes of dark energy, induced gravity on higher codimension surfaces and defects, K–essence, alternatives to the cosmological constant, technical naturalness as a qualified guide to new physics, vacuum structure, and stringy perspectives.

Coordinators: Ariel Goobar, Fawad Hassan, Stefan Hofmann

Program   12—17 December 2010

The impressively successful classical theories on phase transitions are based on the thermodynamic limit, which implies infinitely large or small extension on all the systems that are considered. These theories fail, however, to address many important aspects, as finiteness in extension is apparent in most physical systems. The question is of highly generic nature and has significance within condensed matter physics, chemistry as well as biology.
This program will run in two installments: 15 February-1 March and 12-17 December 2010.

Program   1 November — 10 December 2010

The concept of Random Geometry covers a variety of techniques and methods. These include the physics of interfaces in statistical mechanical systems, polymer and membrane physics, the theory of propagating strings relevant in high energy physics, the functional integral approach to quantum gravity, the description of gene regulatory networks as well as of computer networks and their use in the design of algorithms, and also random graphs and random maps with important applications in physics, combinatorics and probability theory.
Two workshops, 1-2 November and 6-7 December, and a mini-conference, 22-23 November, are planned during the program period.

Coordinators: Bergfinnur Durhuus, Zdzislaw Burda

Program   27 September — 29 October 2010

The interdisciplinary field of quantum information processing and communication connects at its deepest level quantum mechanics, photonics, solid state physics, atomic physics, and electronics with computer science and information theory in order to gain features in cryptography, communication, and computing that are impossible to achieve using classical methods. Quantum information science has also revitalized the discussions about the foundations of quantum theory. This field has grown explosively and is now one of the hottest subfields of both computer science and physics.

Coordinators: Ingemar Bengtsson, Gunnar Björk, Mohamed Bourennane

Workshop   30 August — 24 September 2010

The workshop is aimed at bringing together experts in the fields of nanoscale and low-dimensional condensed matter physics, quantum gases, integrable models, statistical and quantum field theory, and mathematical physics, to develop interdisciplinary communication and collaborations. Experimentalists will be visiting for shorter periods, to provide overview talks on recent developments.
A conference, co-sponsored by INSTANS, will be held 6-10 September.

Coordinators: Eddy Ardonne, Henrik Johannesson, Giuseppe Mussardo

Program   19 July — 27 August 2010

Coordinators: Egor Babaev, Emil Lundh, Jani-Petri Martikainen, Christopher Pethick, Mats Wallin

Program   31 May — 9 July 2010

The program has two main themes: Integrability in N=4 gauge theories and AdS/CFT duality and its applications to eg. quark-gluon plasmas, non-relativistic CFTs, hydrodynamics, and condensed matter systems.
An objective of the program is to support interaction between the two main themes. It is anticipated that specialists from each group will be simultaneously present, allowing for the exchange of new ideas between the two groups.
The 2010 conference on Integrability in Gauge and String Theories (IGST2010) will be held at the program site from 28 June to 2 July.

Coordinators: Shiraz Minwalla, Lisa Freyhult, Joseph Minahan, Konstantin Zarembo, Giuseppe Policastro

Program   6 April — 28 May 2010

This program has two related focus areas, each of which culminate in a 2-day conference.
Turbulent boundary layers, appearing on solid surfaces of bodies submerged in fluids and in channel and pipe flows, have been the focus of experimental and analytical investigations for almost a century. Still there are several unresolved issues even related to fairly basic mechanisms.
In turbulent combustion there are also many unresolved problems, such as how a turbulent premixed flame propagates. The importance of basic research in connection with energy production is evident. Simulations are important, because questions regarding the temperature distribution cannot easily be addressed experimentally.

Coordinators: Axel Brandenburg, Henrik Alfredsson, Arne Johansson, Nils Erland L. Haugen, Geert Brethouwer, Philipp Schlatter

Program   15 February — 1 March 2010

The impressively successful classical theories on phase transitions are based on the thermodynamic limit, which implies infinitely large or small extension on all the systems that are considered. These theories fail, however, to address many important aspects, as finiteness in extension is apparent in most physical systems. The question is of highly generic nature and has significance within condensed matter physics, chemistry as well as biology.
This program will run in two installments: 15 February-1 March and 12-17 December 2010.

Coordinators: B. Hjörvarsson, O. Eriksson, Anders Rosengren, S T Bramwell

Program   2—29 November 2009

This four-week event joins a school, a scientific program and a conference, where teachers, students and scientists in computational science and engineering will be brought together to present, discuss and solve problems in areas of reserach involving multiple scales.

Coordinators: Hans Ågren, Kenneth Ruud, Aatto Laaksonen, Olof Runborg, Anders Szepessy, Axel Brandenburg

Program   26 September — 26 October 2009

Understanding the origin of solar and stellar magnetic fields is one of the central problems of physics and astrophysics, and a key to understanding the cosmic magnetism, in general. The first two weeks of the programme are dedicated to stellar dynamo theory and observations, and the last two for solar magnetic activity, dynamos and data assimilation methods. The 5th-6th of October there is a special workshop in the honor of the 70th birthday of Professor Ilkka Tuominen.

Coordinators: Alexander Kosovichev, Maarit Korpi

Program   14—25 September 2009

Bringing together experts on neutron star dynamics, condensed matter and nuclear physics, surface layers and the magnetosphere, the key questions taht will be discussed are: What input from microphysics calculations do we need to build realistic theoretical models? What bounds can the dynamical models in conjunction with observations provide on the state of matter at extreme densities? How do we use observations to constrain these parameters? If a neutron star is oscillating, how does information of the oscillations propagate to the observers?

Coordinators: Lars Samuelsson, Nils Andersson

Program   17 August — 11 September 2009

The aim of this workshop is to bring together a group of theorists with a broad and varied range of competences in numerical techniques, low energy effective theories, conformal field theory and lattice models, but with quantum Hall phenomena as a common interest.

Coordinators: Eddy Ardonne, Thors Hans Hansson, Anders Karlhede, Susanne Viefers

Program   15 June — 31 July 2009

The exciting prospect of exploring the Higgs sector of the Standard Model and its presumed extensions at the LHC has renewed interest in electroweak baryogenesis and the electroweak phase transition.

Coordinators: Mark Hindmarsh, Kari Rummukainen, Stephan Huber

Program   4 May — 13 June 2009

Relativistic jets are responsible for the huge luminosities seen in active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray bursts and are probably launched from the central black holes in these objects. The details of the jet launching mechanism, its acceleration, mechanisms of the energy dissipation, particle acceleration and the emission remain unknown.

Coordinators: Juri Poutanen, Felix Ryde

Program   30 March — 30 April 2009

The research topics to be covered at the program are: neutrino physics, dark matter, cosmology, supersymmetry, dark energy, inflation, extra dimensions, ultra-high energy cosmic rays, supernovae, leptogenesis.
We intend to keep the program rather loose what concerns seminars, thus giving more time for actual research and discussing future research projects among the participants of the program.

Coordinators: Tommy Ohlsson, Joakim EdsjÖ, Steen Hannestad

Program   6—28 March 2009

The environmental and health effects of nanomaterials are of global concern, both in view of assessing the impact of nanomaterials discharged into nature and for a safe and transparent development of nanotechnology, especially in relation to novel applications in biomedicine.
The aim of this scientific program is to establish an international think-tank of researchers excelling in state-of-the-art computational and analytical theoretical methods to assess these and related issues.

Coordinators: Emppu Salonen, Ilpo Vattulainen

Program   15 October — 15 December 2008

Ever since the birth of superstring theory, interaction with geometry has been one of the primary driving forces that has led to progress. On one hand, string theory has generated many new geometrical concepts; and on the other hand new ideas from geometry have often found their first applications in string theory.
Within the program there will be the "Geometrical Aspects of String Theory" workshop and "The 22nd Nordic Network Meeting on Strings, Fields and Branes"

Coordinators: Ulf Lindström, Maxim Zabzine

Program   1 June — 31 July 2008

The Standard Model of Elementary Particle Physics suffers from a number of inconsistencies and requires extreme fine-tuning of parameters in some areas. This has led to the widespread belief that the Standard Model is the low-energy effective theory of some more fundamental theory in which all, or most, of the difficulties plaguing it are removed. The search for this more fundamental theory is one of the main enterprises of theoretical elementary particle physics.
The program will be divided into different themes: nonminimal supersymmetry, supersymmetry without R-parity, higher-dimensional models, nonsupersymmetric models beyond the standard model, etc., with emphasis on collider studies and connection to dark matter. During a specific theme period within the program, lectures and discussion sessions on that theme are arranged.

Coordinators: Katri Huitu, Per Osland

Program   5—31 May 2008

Statistical physics has recently applied been to understanding, analysis and design of large distributed information systems. These range from decoding algorithms (Belief Propagation) and phase transitions and typical-case hardness in combinatorial optimization problems to content distribution and dynamical phenomena on the Internet, to the modelling of distributed agent systems - Peer-to-Peer networks, auction mechanisms and more. The PhysDIS program aims to survey current trends in this exciting area, and foster new research into untapped directions.

Coordinators: Mikko Alava, Erik Aurell

Photos of the participants

Program   17 March — 11 April 2008

The origin of astrophysical magnetic fields remains controversial. The intense progress in nonlinear and turbulent dynamo theory of the last ten years has prepared ground for imminent fundamental progress in this area. The programme will bring together experts in various relevant areas in order to (1) identify the critical problems to allow further rapid progress, (2) focus the effort on the most fruitful areas of research and (3) establish new collaborations, especially those between theoreticians and observers, that might ensure such a progress.

Coordinators: Anvar Shukurov, Maarit Korpi, Kandaswamy Subramanian

Photos of the participants

Program   1—29 February 2008

Homochirality is a unique property of living matter, and a property that gradually disappears after death. The origin of homochirality is therefore closely linked to the origin of life, which makes this topic a prominent research field in astrobiology.

Coordinators: Axel Brandenburg, Raphaël Plasson, Anja C. Andersen

Photos of the participants

Program   15 August — 30 September 2007

Focus of the program: quantum fluids, Bose-Einstein condensates, supersolids, quantum hall systems, exotic states such as projected quantum fluid states of metallic hydrogen, topological defects and vortex matter in quantum fluids.

Coordinators: Hans Thors Hansson, Anders Karlhede, Susanne Viefers, Frank Wilczek, Egor Babaev