Pondering a Miracle
By Graham Farmelo Fellow, Churchill College, University of Cambridge, U.K.Adjunct Professor of Physics, Northeastern University, Boston, MA Miracle of miracles—that’s how the great physicist Frank Yang described the discovery that some of the beautiful structures of modern mathematics precisely describe our universe’s underlying order. This link between the concrete world of physics and the abstractions […]
A Unity of Knowledge
Conversation with Spenta R. Wadia Interview by Lorraine Walsh Spenta R. Wadia is Founding Director and Infosys Homi Bhabha Chair Professor at the International Center for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS) of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bangalore, India. His main research interests are in elementary particle physics, string theory and quantum gravity. His other […]
Spacetime and Quantum Mechanics
By Juan Maldacena Carl P. Feinberg Professor, School of Natural Sciences Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ Photo: Jean-Francois Dars Juan Maldacena is Carl P. Feinberg Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. After receiving his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1996, Juan Maldacena became associate professor of physics at Harvard in 1997. In […]
What is Geometry?
Geometry, from the ancient Greek geo (earth) and metron (measurement), is often considered a universal quality in human thinking. In fact, this idea of an innate ability to “know” geometry dates back to Plato. In the dialogue Meno, written about 380 BC by Plato, the philosopher Socrates draws out an accurate answer to a geometric […]
Simons Center Art and Science Program Tuesday Concert Series, Summer 2019
Summer 2019 Tuesday Concerts The Art and Science Program at the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook University is pleased to present a new music series free and open to the public: Tuesday, July 16, 2019Three Village Chamber Players5:00 – 5:30 pm: Reception in the Simons Center Lobby and Gallery5:30 – 6:30 […]
Friends of SCGP
The mission of the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics is to further fundamental research in geometry and theoretical physics, specifically at the interface of these two fields. The Center supports collaborative research at the frontiers of mathematics and physics, and is committed to sharing this knowledge with the broader community. As government funding for […]
Simons Summer Workshop: Cosmology and String Theory July 15 – August 9, 2019
Scientific organizers: Marilena Loverde and Cumrun Vafa, Local organizer: Martin RocekThis Workshop is the twelfth conducted by the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook and the seventeenth in the series Simons Summer Workshops. This year’s summer workshop will focus on cosmology and its realization in string theory. We review the status of […]
Quantum-Mechanical Systems at Large Quantum Number: August 26 – September 20, 2019
Organized by: Luis Alvarez-Gaume, Simeon Hellerman, Domenico Orlando, and Susanne Reffert QFT is the basic paradigm for the description of condensed matter physics and high-energy particle physics. Despite decades of research, strongly coupled regimes of QFT are largely inaccessible to analytic methods, even though important progress has come from the conformal bootstrap and non-Lagrangian methods. […]
Universality and ergodicity in quantum many-body systems: August 26-October 18, 2019
Organized by: Boris Altshuler, Anatoly Dymarsky, Lea Santos, and Jacobus Verbaarschot Dynamics of quantum many-body systems is attracting extensive attention across different fields of physics: theoretical and experimental condensed matter, AMO physics, high energy theory, quantum information, and others. Remarkable progress has been achieved in the past years understanding thermalization, or lack thereof, of isolated […]
Graduate Summer School on the Geometry and Modular Representation Theory of Algebraic Groups: August 19 – 23, 2019
Organized by Mark Andrea de Cataldo, Francois Greer, Christian Schnell The goal of this summer school is to introduce Ph.D. students and Postdocs to exciting recent developments in the geometry of algebraic groups and in modular representation theory. The school will consist of two morning lecture series and of afternoon lectures on topics […]
