Issue 1, 2014
Issue 4, 2009
The Nordic Council of Ministers has renewed its agreement with the Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University, the two host universities of NORDITA in Stockholm, to jointly support the institute for the next four years. According to the new contract, NORDITA will continue to receive approximately 10 million DDK per year from the Nordic Council of Ministers with a matching contribution from the universities in the form of housing and facilities, excemption from overhead charges, and a combined financial contribution of 5 million SEK per year. The contract will come up for renewal in 2013.
Meanwhile, the Swedish Research council (Vetenskapsrådet) has announced that it is awarding a two-year infrastructure operating grant to Nordita - a joint Nordic Infrastructure in Theoretical Physics in the amount of 2,7 million SEK per year. This award recognizes the high quality of work carried out at NORDITA but it also highlights the value of co-operation at the Nordic level in advanced research.
Professor Georg Bruun, is visiting Nordita from Lund University during December 2009 and January 2010. His current research is on theoretical many-body physics and quantum optics with a focus on atomic gases. The study of atomic gases is interdisciplinary by nature with concepts from a wide range of fields in physics playing a central role. Key words include: Superfluidity, strong interactions, lattices, collective modes, quantum transport, light-matter interactions, dipolar gases...
Bernard Pagel, Professor of Astrophysics at Nordita from 1990-1998 was an international authority on the abundances of elements in the Cosmos. For his work, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society and he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. At Nordita he pursued an active research programme and gave series of lectures, which resulted in the publication of his book "Nucleosynthesis and Chemical Evolution of Galaxies". Shortly before his death in 2007, he completed the second edition of the book, which has now appeared.
Here is a link to the CUP website: http://www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521840309
Dates: January 11 - 22, 2010.
The objective of the School is to provide training for PhD students working in magnetohydrodynamics in general, and in astrophysical dynamos, the geodynamo, and laboratory dynamos in particular. A proper understanding of dynamos has become mandatory in many fields of research. Solar activity with its 11 year cycle is just one example where we are still lacking a theoretically consistent model in spite of the urgent need to predict the intensity of the next cycle. The latter is particularly critical for estimating the life time of artificial satellites in Earth orbit and hence the need for costly service missions. In the last 10 years major theoretical advances have led to a much deeper understanding of dynamos at large magnetic Reynolds numbers. In addition, three different laboratory experiments have now successfully displayed dynamo action, broadening the range of phenomena that need to be understood theoretically.
The web page for electronic registration is www.nordita.org/winterschool2010 where you may also download the poster of the school.
This event is supported by NordForsk. Travel and local expenses for all accepted students from the Nordic countries will be reimbursed.
Nordita programs are open events. Anyone can apply. Participation is however limited to a maximum of about 25 participants. Notifications will be sent out by Nordita. See the list of all Nordita programs on our home paper, or on: http://agenda.albanova.se/categoryDisplay.py?categId=270
→ Details and application form: http://agenda.albanova.se/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=1136
Coordinators: B. Hjörvarsson, O. Eriksson, A. Rosengren, C.T. Bramwell
Dates: February 15 - March 1, 2010.
Standard theories of phase transitions are based on the thermodynamic limit. This implies in?nitely large extension in some directions and infinitely small in others in the systems that are considered. The success of the resulting scaling laws is impressive. However, these theories fail to address many important aspects, as ?niteness in extension is apparent in most physical systems.
As an example, the physics of magnetic multilayers has attracted considerable attention lately, largely due to their technological importance. This interest has led substantial increase in our knowledge and triggered renewed discussions on e.g. the range of the magnetic interactions. Interactions over large distances are now integrated into the description of the ordering of such systems.
In classical Monte Carlo calculations interactions are most frequently mapped onto nearest neighbours. This has been shown to yield the correct behaviour for in?nite systems, thus there has been limited incentive to use more complicated models (and CPU intensive) in this type of studies. However, this approach will not hold for ?nite systems with long-range interactions. Obtaining better understanding of phase transitions of con?ned systems is not only timely, it will enhance our understanding of dimensional crossovers, as well as changes in the critical parameters.
These effects are not limited to magnetic phase transitions. Any second order transition, with corresponding ?uctuations is expected to show strong ?nite size effects, on ordering temperature as well as the critical exponents. Thus, this question is of highly generic nature and has signi?cance within condensed matter physics, chemistry as well as biology.
In this program we will EXPLORE THE INFLUENCE OF CONFINEMENT ON PHASE TRANSITIONS. This exploration will address both static and dynamic aspects, as these are intimately linked.
→ Details and application form: http://agenda.albanova.se/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=527
This program has two related focus areas, each of which culminate in a 2-day conference:
6-9 April: Spring School on Turbulent Boundary Layers 29-30 April: Conference on Turbulent Boundary Layers
26-28 May: Conference on Turbulent Combustion
The meeting is sponsored jointly by Nordita and the in Stockholm
The next meeting of the Nordita Board will be 4-5 February, starting with scientific presentations and informal discussions on Thursday, and then the board meeting itself on Friday.
→ Link to electronic preprints: www.nordita.org/preprints
The following preprints have been posted to the Nordita on-line archive since the last newsletter issue:
If you have information about meetings or other items that would be useful to include in Nordita News, please send it to Anne Jifält, Nordita, email: anne@kth.se.
For back issues of the Nordita newsletter, see http://www.nordita.org/news/nordita_news/available_issues/index.php