High Energy Physics

The workshops focuses on novel frontiers in observational cosmology and astrophysics and how they shed light fundamental questions in understanding the universe. Registration for this workshop is now open.

Boundaries and defects play central roles in quantum field theory (QFT) both as means to make contact with nature and as tools to constrain and understand QFT itself. Boundaries in QFT can be used to model impurities and also the finite extent of sample sizes while interfaces allow for different phases of matter to interact in a controllable way. More formally these structures shed light on the structure of QFT by providing new examples of dualities and renormalization group flows.  Broadly speaking this meeting will focus on three areas: 1) formal and applied aspects of boundary and defect conformal field theory from anomalies and c-theorems to topological insulators 2) supersymmetry and duality from exact computations of new observables to the construction of new theories and 3) QFT in curved space and gravity from holographic computations of entanglement entropy to ideas in quantum information theory. Registration for this event is now open.

Quantum field theory (QFT) is a universal language for theoretical physics describing the Standard Model gravity early universe inflation and condensed matter phenomena such as phase transitions superconductors and quantum Hall fluids. A triumph of 20th century physics was to understand weakly coupled QFTs: theories whose interactions can be treated as small perturbations of otherwise freely moving particles. However weakly coupled QFTs represent a tiny island in an ocean of possibilities. They cannot capture many of the most interesting and important physical phenomena from the strong nuclear force to high temperature superconductivity.The critical challenge for the 21st century is to understand and solve strongly coupled QFTs. Meeting this challenge will require new physical insight new mathematics and new computational tools. Our collaboration combines deep knowledge of novel non-perturbative techniques with a concrete plan for attacking the problem of strong coupling. The starting point is the astonishing discovery that in numerous physical systems there is a unique quantum field theory consistent with general principles of symmetry and quantum mechanics. By analyzing the full implications of these general principles one can make sharp predictions for physical observables without resorting to approximations.This strategy is called the Bootstrap the topic of this three week program.

The 2018 Tri-Institute Summer School on Elementary Particles (TRISEP) will be held July 9-20 2018 in Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics Waterloo ON, Canada. TRISEP is an international summer school organized jointly by the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, SNOLAB, and TRIUMF Canada s laboratory for particle and nuclear physics. TRISEP will feature lectures by leading experts in the field of particle physics in its broadest sense and is designed to be very interactive with ample time for questions, discussions and interaction with the speakers. The school is intended for graduate students of all levels who were already exposed to quantum field theory. For further information, please visit http:///.trisep.ca

The asymptotic safety paradigm is currently emerging as a highly promising idea for Beyond-Standard-Model physics with key progress in asymptotically safe quantum gravity and asymptotically safe matter models. The last years have seen not only the development of asymptotically safe gravity-matter models but also the discovery of asymptotically safe beyond Standard Model matter models that are under control in perturbation theory. New exciting avenues in (astro) particle physics are now waiting to be explored. For example although the nature of dark matter is a long-standing riddle it is a fact that experimental searches have so far not provided any direct clues but have instead come up with ever more stringent constraints on theoretically preferred regions of parameter space for dark-matter-models. Thus the key to unraveling this riddle could be a new theoretical paradigm to guide model builders. This workshop aims at exploring whether asymptotic safety can be a candidate for this new paradigm. We aim to bring together experts on phenomenological models and quantum gravity to probe both the theoretical viability and empirical signatures of asymptotically safe extensions of the standard model that include gravity. To facilitate a highly productive meeting that can trigger new collaborations each talk will be followed up by 15-20 minutes discussion time. Further each day of the workshop will feature a dedicated discussion session. Participants will be encouraged to contribute questions for the discussion both before as well as during the workshop. The last day of the workshop will conclude with a roadmap discussion during which all participants will be given the opportunity to propose concrete suggestions for follow-up work that might lead into future joint projects.

Black hole superradiance is a fascinating process in general relativity and a unique window on ultralight particles beyond the standard model. Bosons -- such as axions and dark photons -- with Compton wavelengths comparable to size of astrophysical black holes grow exponentially to form large clouds spinning down the black hole in the process and produce monochromatic continuous gravitational wave radiation. In the era of gravitational wave astronomy and increasingly sensitive observations of astrophysical black holes and their properties superradiance of new light particles is a promising avenue to search for new physics in regimes inaccessible to terrestrial experiments. This workshop will bring together theorists data analysts and observers in particle physics gravitational wave astronomy strong gravity and high energy astrophysics to explore the signatures of black hole superradiance and to study the current and future possibilities of searching for new particles with black holes.

The past decade has witnessed significant breakthroughs in understanding the quantum nature of black holes, with insights coming from quantum information theory, numerical relativity, and string theory.  At the same time, astrophysical and gravitational wave observations can now provide an unprecedented window into the phenomenology of black hole horizons.  This workshop seeks to bring together leading experts in these fields to explore new theoretical and observational opportunities and synergies that could improve our physical understanding of quantum black holes.

In the last few years there has been a resurgence of interest in small scale high sensitivity experiments that look for new forces and new particles beyond the Standard Model. They promise to expand our understanding of the Cosmos and possibly explain mysteries such as Dark matter in a way that is complementary to colliders and other large scale experiments. There is a number of different physics motivations and approaches currently being explored in many on-going and newly proposed experiments and they often share common experimental techniques.Many workshops in this field focus on the theory motivations behind these experiments without emphasis on the details of the experimental techniques that enable precision measurements. There is also substantial experimental expertise across many fields, often outside of fundamental physics community, that can be relevant to ongoing and proposed experiments.Thus, we decided to organize the workshop around some of the common experimental techniques. We hope it will be educational for both experimentalists and theorists and lead to discussions on the best way forward. We would like to bring together experimentalists with different expertise in the hope that it will lead to new ideas through interdisciplinary interactions. For theorists, we expect it to provide better appreciation of the challenges and opportunities in improving the sensitivity of precision measurement experiments.

Continuing investment in fundamental weakly-coupled science, primarily through neutrino experiments and dark matter searches, prompts the question: is the maximum possible scientific information going to be extracted from these experiments? Are there new creative uses of the existing and planned facilities that would advance our knowledge of fundamental physics? Are there physics targets that have been overlooked by the current approach? This workshop will attempt to advance discussion of these topics, and concentrate on non-traditional ideas and alternative methods of probing new physics, both at underground laboratories and at high-intensity accelerators. The workshop aims to complement the large international conference, Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics 2017, to be held in Sudbury ON July 24-28, by directly preceding that meeting.