13โ€“18 Dec 2015
International Conference Centre Geneva
Europe/Zurich timezone

Session

Plenary talks

Plenary
14 Dec 2015, 09:35
International Conference Centre Geneva

International Conference Centre Geneva

17 Rue de Varembรฉ, 1211 Geneva

Presentation materials

There are no materials yet.

  1. Prof. Thanu Padmanabhan (ICAA Pune)
    14/12/2015, 09:35
    Talk
    General Relativity revolutionized the way we we thought about gravity. After describing briefly the key successes of GR and their impact, I will discuss the major conceptual challenges it faces today. I will conclude by outlining the prospective future directions of development, which hold the promise for deepening our understanding of the nature of gravity further.
    Go to contribution page
  2. Camille Bonvin (CERN)
    14/12/2015, 10:10
    Talk
    The distribution of galaxies provides a powerful way to probe the properties of our universe. In order to exploit this observable properly it is necessary to understand what we are really measuring when we look at the large-scale structure. Since our universe is not completely homogeneous and isotropic, we only see a distorted picture of our sky. In this talk, I will discuss the various...
    Go to contribution page
  3. Nabila Aghanim (Universite Paris Sud)
    14/12/2015, 11:20
    Talk
    Over the last two decades cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies have revolutionised our view of cosmology. Generations of experiments have successively uncovered the amplitude of the temperature fluctuations at large scales, the existence of acoustic peaks in both temperature and polarisation and the small scale damping. These observations have now established a minimal cosmological...
    Go to contribution page
  4. Prof. Rashid Sunyaev
    14/12/2015, 11:55
    Talk
  5. David LANGLOIS (CNRS)
    15/12/2015, 09:00
    Talk
    I will present an effective description of dark energy/modified gravity models involving a single scalar field. It is based on a 3+1 splitting of space-time with respect to uniform scalar field hypersurfaces. The advantage of this approach is that it can describe in the same language a vast number of existing models, including quintessence, F(R) gravity, Horndeski theories, as well as...
    Go to contribution page
  6. Prof. Laura Baudis (University of Zurich)
    15/12/2015, 09:35
    Talk
    A major challenge of modern physics is to decipher the nature of dark matter. Astrophysical observations provide ample evidence for the existence of an invisible and dominant mass component in the observable universe, from the scales of galaxies up to the largest cosmological scales. The dark matter could be made of new, yet undiscovered elementary particles, with allowed masses and...
    Go to contribution page
  7. Prof. Hiranya Peiris (University College London)
    15/12/2015, 10:10
    Talk
    Surveys of the cosmic microwave background and large galaxy surveys of the next decade carry immense promise for measurements of new physics beyond the Standard Models of cosmology and particle physics. However, these observations are complicated by multiple sources of systematics, either intrinsic, observational, or instrumental, which must be carefully controlled in order to make reliable...
    Go to contribution page
  8. Prof. Anna Watts (University of Amsterdam)
    15/12/2015, 11:20
    Talk
    With an average density higher than the nuclear density, neutron stars provide a unique test bed for nuclear physics, quantum chromodynamics, and nuclear superfluidity. Determination of the fundamental interactions that govern matter under such extreme conditions is one of the major unsolved problems of modern physics and - since it is impossible to replicate these conditions on Earth - a...
    Go to contribution page
  9. Prof. Fulvio Ricci (University of Rome La Sapienza and INFN Sez. Roma)
    15/12/2015, 11:55
    Talk
    The european detector Advanced Virgo is ending the installation phase and the plan is to run during 2016 joining the LIGO detectors installed in USA. Its improved sensitivity will increase the detection probability of GW events. In this talk we summarize the scientific outcome of the old network of advanced detectors in the past configuration. Then, we emphasize the potentialities of the new...
    Go to contribution page
  10. Prof. Alessandra Buonanno (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics)
    16/12/2015, 09:00
    Talk
    Gravitational waves were first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916 on the basis of his theory of general relativity. In the next five years ground-based interferometers, such as advanced LIGO, advanced Virgo and KAGRA, are likely to provide the first direct detections of gravitational waves from binary systems composed of black holes and/or neutron stars. In this talk, we review the...
    Go to contribution page
  11. Prof. Luis Lehner (Perimeter Institute)
    16/12/2015, 09:35
    Talk
    Compact binary systems are copious producers of gravitational waves and are also expected to radiate strongly electromagnetically. This talk will describe several processes --intrinsically requiring the strongly gravitating/highly dynamical behaviour of the system-- that can yield observable signals in a variety of frequencies. Moreover, we will discuss how such radiation might prove...
    Go to contribution page
  12. Prof. Michael KRAMER (Max-Planck-Institut fuer Radioastronomie)
    16/12/2015, 10:10
    Talk
    The radio sky is a fascinating laboratory for a very wide range of physics. The laws of nature can be probed at a fundamental level, in particular when observing the most extreme matter in the observable universe - neutron stars. When they are visible as radio pulsars they can act as cosmic clocks that become especially interesting if they have a binary companion. Indeed, binary pulsars...
    Go to contribution page
  13. Prof. Carlo Rovelli (Universitรฉ de la Mรฉditerranรฉe, Marseille)
    16/12/2015, 11:20
    Talk
    Black holes are well understood in their classical dynamics or as background geometry for quantum fields. But their quantum gravitational properties remain elusive. These are crucial to understand what happens to the matter falling inside, and to know the holes' long term stability. There are a number of recent results and ideas on this issue, including the firewall theorem, Planck stars,...
    Go to contribution page
  14. Gian Giudice (CERN)
    16/12/2015, 11:55
    Talk
    From the discovery of the Higgs boson to constraints on dark-matter interactions and on new-physics effects, the LHC run at 8 TeV has contributed greatly to our knowledge of the particle physics world. I will highlight how this knowledge is influencing advancements in the physics of the early universe and how the interplay between particle physics and cosmology will progress with the 13 TeV LHC run.
    Go to contribution page
  15. Prof. Francis Halzen (IceCube/WIPAC)
    17/12/2015, 09:00
    Talk
    The IceCube project has transformed one cubic kilometer of natural Antarctic ice into a neutrino detector. The instrument detects more than 100,000 neutrinos per year in the GeV to PeV energy range. Among those, we have recently isolated a flux of high-energy cosmic neutrinos. I will discuss the instrument, the analysis of the data, and the significance of the discovery of cosmic neutrinos....
    Go to contribution page
  16. Prof. Jim Hinton (Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics)
    17/12/2015, 09:35
    Talk
    The last decade has marked a renaissance in the field of gamma-ray astronomy. Results from space and ground-based instruments, in particular Fermi and the big three of ground-based gamma-ray astronomy: HESS, VERITAS and MAGIC, have transformed our view of the gamma-ray sky. The current datasets allow the very detailed study of archetypal particle accelerators across a very wide energy...
    Go to contribution page
  17. Prof. Pasquale Blasi (INAF)
    17/12/2015, 10:10
    Talk
    I will summarize the current understanding of the physical processes responsible for cosmic ray acceleration, mainly in supernova remnant shocks, and their transport in the interstellar medium. Special attention will be devoted to the comparison with most recent data of both multifrequency emission from astrophysical sources and spectra of CRs measured locally.
    Go to contribution page
  18. Prof. Stefano Vitale (University of Trento)
    18/12/2015, 09:00
    Talk
    The talk will likely take place during the cruise of LISA Pathfinder to its final interplanetary orbit. LISA Pathfinder is the technology precursor of the Gravitational Wave (GW) observatory that ESA intends to launch as their 3rd large size mission within the current planning. The talk will review the status and the scientific objectives of the GW observatory, and of its reference mission...
    Go to contribution page
  19. Prof. Mustapha Ishak (The University of Texas at Dallas)
    18/12/2015, 09:35
    Talk
    There are over 1300 known exact solutions to Einsteinโ€™s equations. Part of these solutions found applications in astrophysics including the solar system, compact objects, and cosmology. These have offered some physical or mathematical insights into the systems under consideration. In this review talk, some characterizing notions about exact solutions will be outlined along with some examples....
    Go to contribution page
  20. Prof. Luigi Stella (INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma)
    18/12/2015, 10:10
    Talk
    High-time-resolution and spectroscopic observations of accreting collapsed objects in the X-ray range provide access to strong-field gravity, through measurements of the motions of matter orbiting a few gravitational radii away from black holes. Key predictions of strong field general relativity, such as relativistic epicyclic motions, precession, light bending and the presence and radius of...
    Go to contribution page
  21. Prof. Andrew Fabian (University of Cambridge)
    18/12/2015, 11:20
    Talk
    The innermost region of the accretion flow around X-ray bright, unobscured, Active Galactic and Black Hole Binaries (AGN and BHB) is being routinely mapped by X-ray spectral-timing of the reflection spectrum produced by irradiation of the accretion disc. The spin of the black hole can be determined by identifying the inner edge of the reflection region with the ISCO. The black hole in many of...
    Go to contribution page
  22. Alexander Tchekhovskoy (Uiversity of California Berkeley)
    18/12/2015, 11:55
    Talk
    After reviewing the physics of jet formation by accreting black holes, I will present the results of recent 3D general relativistic magnetized fluid dynamics simulations and discuss the insights they give us into the disk-jet connection. I will finish by presenting the simulated spectra and images and the constraints on the near event horizon physics coming from the comparison to the...
    Go to contribution page
Building timetable...