Prospects in Theoretical Physics-2013

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LHC Physics

July 15-26, 2013

Program completed.

Program Description

From July 15-26, 2013, the Institute for Advanced Study offered the 12th annual Prospects in Theoretical Physics (PiTP) summer program on the Institute campus in Princeton, New Jersey, USA. The PiTP program provided lectures and informal sessions on the latest advances and open questions in various areas of theoretical physics.

PiTP 2013, entitled "LHC Physics," was a program intended for advanced graduate students and postdoctoral scholars interested in the latest developments at the LHC and their implications. It covered topics ranging from experimental results on the Higgs to prospects for physics beyond the standard model. In addition to lectures, it included study sessions where participants worked through some of the basic experimental papers.

Organizers and Lecturers

Nima Arkani-Hamed (Institute for Advanced Study), Robbert Dijkgraaf (Institute for Advanced Study), Beate Heinemann (University of California, Berkeley), Elliot Lipeles (University of Pennsylvania), Juan Maldacena (Institute for Advanced Study), Michelangelo Mangano (CERN), Patrick Meade (Stony Brook University), Chiara Nappi (Princeton University), Nathan Seiberg (Institute for Advanced Study), Sunil Somalwar (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey), Raman Sundrum (University of Maryland), Jesse Thaler (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Scott Thomas (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey), Natalia Toro (Perimeter Institute), Chris Tully (Princeton University), Neal Weiner (New York University), Edward Witten (Institute for Advanced Study), and Kathryn Zurek (University of Michigan).

Important Details to Note

*This was an intensive program open to both advanced graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.

*Individuals from IAS, Princeton University or other local institutions who were interested in attending the program as commuting participants were required to submit an application.

*Participants were expected to be in attendance for the entire two weeks of the program, and to participate in all scientific activities.

*There was no fee charged for participating in the program, however participants were responsible for their own travel expenses and accommodation charges (as appropriate).

*Non-local applicants accepted into the program were allowed to arrange for their own local accommodations, if they wished, or could apply to stay in housing arranged for by the Program. Due to renovations at the IAS campus, most participants were housed in a Princeton University dorm which was located only a short walk from the IAS campus. We heavily subsidized the cost of this housing, so that the charge to participants was only $400 USD for the length of the program (12 nights). In addition, since the dorm did not include kitchen amenities, we provided all participants staying in the dorm with all weekday meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) in the Institute dining hall, plus afternoon tea, at no additional charge.

If you have questions regarding the 2013 PiTP program, please contact:
Susan Higgins
Phone: (609) 734-8198

2013 APPLICATION FORM - Program completed.
2013 PROGRAM VIDEOS
2013 PROGRAM PHOTOS
2013 PROGRAM SCHEDULE
2013 Pre-reading List
2013 Participant Information For Graduate Students Staying in Princeton University Dorm
2013 Participant Information For Postdocs Staying in Institute Apartments
2013 Participant Information For Commuters
2013 Suggested Weekend Activities
2013 Hints for Traveling to the PiTP Program

2013 Hints for Those Applying for U.S. Visa

Future PiTP Programs

The 2014 PiTP Program will take place June 16-20 and will be focused on String Theory. For this year only, the program will be held in June and will last one week instead of two. It is being planned in this manner so that it will immediately precede the "Strings 2014" Conference that will take place at Princeton University from June 23-28, 2014.

Background on PiTP

Prospects in Theoretical Physics is an intensive two-week summer program typically designed for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars considering a career in theoretical physics. First held by the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in the summer of 2002, the PiTP program is designed to provide lectures and informal sessions on the latest advances and open questions in various areas of theoretical physics.
One of the goals of the program is to help the physics community train the next generation of scholars in theoretical physics. A special effort is made to reach out to women and minorities, as well as to graduate students in small universities who typically do not have the same opportunities and access to leaders in the field as graduate students in large research institutions.
Prospects in Theoretical Physics builds on the strong relationship of the research groups at the Institute and Princeton University, and many faculty members from the physics departments at both institutions are actively involved in the program together with scientists from neighboring institutions.

Additional Program History: 2002 - 2012

The pilot program in the summer of 2002 was an introduction to string theory tailored to graduate students entering the field, where much attention was paid also to particle phenomenology and cosmology. PiTP 2003 was devoted to the problems and techniques at the interface of particle physics and cosmology. PiTP 2004 was a program for advanced graduate students in string theory, while PiTP 2005 was designed to provide an introduction to collider physics. The 2006 program covered recent advances in string theory that have found applications to gauge theories, integrable models, cosmology and mathematics, and the 2007 program - "The Standard Model and Beyond" - focused on particle physics phenomenology with special emphasis on model building. In 2008 the program - entitled "Strings and Phenomenology" - was designed for string theorists who wanted to learn about issues of compactification relevant to phenomenology and cosmology, and for phenomenologists who wanted to learn about strings and their applications to phenomenology. The 2009 program focused on "Computational Astrophysics" and was designed to assist young researchers in honing the numerical methods they employ in their own research and to learn about the techniques used in other areas of computational astrophysics. In 2010, "Aspects of Supersymmetry" was designed to give a coherent overview of the fundamental theoretical aspects of supersymmetry, emphasizing the common themes running throughout the subject, from the major advances made in the duality revolution of the 90's to the most exciting recent developments (integrability, M2/5 branes, N=2 theories and scattering amplitudes). An introduction to the formal aspects of SUSY breaking and softly broken SUSY at the weak scale was also given in parallel. The 2011 program, "Frontiers of Physics in Cosmology," explored the interphase between fundamental physics and cosmology, covering topics ranging from early universe cosmology to the late time acceleration of the cosmic expansion. "Computation and Biology" was the topic of the 2012 program, which explored a range of topics at the interface of theoretical computer science, statistical physics and quantitative biology.
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