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Entropy is a central and fundamental concept in statistical mechanics, but considerations of entropy remain far from routine, and exhibit non-trivial and surprising aspects, particularly in soft matter phenomena. Soft matter self-assembly is replete with subtle and fascinating entropic effects. Moving away from the conventional view of entropy as a measure of disorder, current trends in soft matter self assembly increasingly have focused on the connection to information and algorithmic complexity as relevant aspects. Whether organizational principles in non-equilibrium systems may be built around entropy like concepts is an unresolved open question. Transitions in disordered matter such as the glass transition and jamming centrally involve entropy. The nature of order present in seemingly amorphous structures have been explored with concepts of entropy and information. These are some themes that will be explored in the program.The goal of the program is to bring together researchers in...

Entropy is a central and fundamental concept in statistical mechanics, but considerations of entropy remain far from routine, and exhibit non-trivial and surprising aspects, particularly in soft matter phenomena. Soft matter self-assembly is replete with subtle and fascinating entropic effects. Moving away from the conventional view of entropy as a measure of disorder, current trends in soft matter self assembly increasingly have focused on the connection to information and algorithmic complexity as relevant aspects. Whether organizational principles in non-equilibrium systems may be built around entropy like concepts is an unresolved open question. Transitions in disordered matter such as the glass transition and jamming centrally involve entropy. The nature of order present in seemingly amorphous structures have been explored with concepts of entropy and information. These are some themes that will be explored in the program.The goal of the program is to bring together researchers in...

This school is part of the annual ICTS summer schools on gravitational-wave (GW) astronomy. Recent observations of GW signals from coalescing binaries of black holes and neutron stars have firmly established the field of GW astronomy. The promise of GW astronomy to address foundational questions in physics and astrophysics has been widely recognized. Physicists and astrophysicists are now coming up with novel ways of using GW observations to understand a variety of questions in fundamental physics and astrophysics. Recognizing this, the school has started to include courses which are considered to be outside to the traditional scope of GW physics. This year’s school will involve four graduate-level courses: Exotic compact objects and their gravitational-wave signatures (Andrea Maselli, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisbon)Physics and astrophysics of electromagnetic counterparts of binary mergers (Kenta Hotokezaka, Princeton University) Dynamic formation of compact binaries in dense stell...

This school is part of the annual ICTS summer schools on gravitational-wave (GW) astronomy. Recent observations of GW signals from coalescing binaries of black holes and neutron stars have firmly established the field of GW astronomy. The promise of GW astronomy to address foundational questions in physics and astrophysics has been widely recognized. Physicists and astrophysicists are now coming up with novel ways of using GW observations to understand a variety of questions in fundamental physics and astrophysics. Recognizing this, the school has started to include courses which are considered to be outside to the traditional scope of GW physics. This year’s school will involve four graduate-level courses: Exotic compact objects and their gravitational-wave signatures (Andrea Maselli, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisbon)Physics and astrophysics of electromagnetic counterparts of binary mergers (Kenta Hotokezaka, Princeton University) Dynamic formation of compact binaries in dense stell...

This program aims to address various aspects of integrability and its role in the advancement of Mathematics, Mathematical Physics, Condensed Matter Physics and Statistical Mechanics. The scope of the proposed program is therefore highly interdisciplinary, being aimed at mathematicians and physicists who are working on different aspects of integrability. The purpose is to bring together experienced as well as young scientists, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who are working on various aspect of quantum as well as classical systems in which integrability plays a paramount role.Dates:July 16 - July 27 (First Division: Integrable systems in Mathematics and Mathematical Physics)July 30 - Aug 10 (Second Division: Integrable systems in Condensed Matter / Statistical Physics)The above two divisions are only made just as a broad reference for gathering like-minded mathematicians and physicists. But, we aim to strongly encourage cross-disciplinary discussions throughout the 4 week pr...

The power of symmetries lies at the heart of interaction between modern mathematics and theoretical physics. A classic instance of such an interaction is the parallel development of Quantum Mechanics and that of the theory of finite dimensional representations of complex semi-simple lie algebras in the early 20th century. Natural questions arising from physics served as motivation for the development of the mathematical theory.  The initiation of the theory of infinite dimensional representations of non-compact groups was also motivated by the need to understand the Representation Theory of the Poincare Group, the symmetry group of Special Relativity.Quantum Theory and Representation Theory have since flourished independently but have continued to benefit from a cross fertilization of ideas. In recent years, there has been renewed interest in this interaction centered especially around various Supersymmetric Quantum Field Theories and Geometric aspects of Representation Theory. These t...