Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences Annual Report 2008 – 2009 Contents Director’s Foreword 1 Science at the Institute 2 Scientific Steering Committee 2 Future Programmes 3 Programme Reports: Mathematics and Physics of Anderson Localization: 50 years and after 4 Design of Experiments 7 Nature of High Reynolds Number Turbulence 9 Algebraic Lie Theory 12 Discrete Integrable Systems 15 Cardiac Physiome Project 18 Serving the UK Community 20 Newton Institute Correspondents 21 Institute Activities 22 Institute News 24 Stakeholder Engagement 25 Management and Statistical Reports 26 Management Committee 26 Programme Participation 27 Finances 30 APPENDICES Please note that the following statistical information may be obtained from the Institute on request, or from www.newton.ac.uk/reports/0809/appendices.html 1 Invited Participants 2 Junior Members of the Newton Institute 3 Nationality and Country of Residence of Participants 4 Preprints Produced by Participants 5 Papers Produced or in Preparation by Participants 6 Seminars and Lectures 7 Seminars Given Outside the Institute Director’s Foreword International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM). The Institute also hosted the Institute of Math ematics and its Applications (IMA) David Wallace Conf erence on Dense Granular Flows , as a follow- Director of the Institute up to the 2003 Institute programme on Particle and Granular-laden Flows . During the year, 794 seminars were given, and videos of most are available on the Institute web I am pleased to report that the Governance arran - archive. Highlights included successive seminars gements put in place last year are working well. by Nobel Laureate Gerard ’t Hooft, and Fields The Management Committee is, for the first time, Medallist Serguei Novikov in a workshop on chaired by someone external to the University of Quantum Discrete Integrable Systems . A remark - Cambridge, and I am very grateful to Howard able workshop to celebrate the award of the Abel Covington for taking on this role. Prize to John Thompson saw participation by two External representation on the Management other Fields Medallists, Jean-Pierre Serre and Committee has been strengthened further with the Laurent Lafforgue (Rothschild Visiting Professor); co-option of the Chair of Correspondents. After Thompson and Serre are unique in holding Abel, Fields and Wolf Prizes. consultation with the national network of more than 80 Institute Correspondents, names were The Institute has also supported a number of other forwarded to the five Learned Societies forming the short meetings. The Open for Business series, Council for the Mathematical Sciences, who designed to enable senior people from business and selected Caroline Series for this role. Working with industry to engage with the Institute, continued Ben Mestel, the Deputy Director, Caroline has with two meetings, on Turbulence , and on transformed the role of the Correspondents. For Quantitative Finance . In a new development, a example, the Annual meeting this year had a most two-day meeting at Reading to scope a possible stimulating and helpful discussion on a ten-year proposal to the Institute on Adaptive Mesh vision for the Institute, which is now being further Modelling of the Atmosphere and Ocean attracted developed. some 80 climate scientists and applied mathematicians. There are again three sections in this report: Science at the Institute; Serving the Community; We report also on the exciting development of the and Management and Statistics. Each section is network of friends of the Institute in the City, introduced by the relevant Chair: John Ball for the through dinners hosted by Howard and Veronika Scientific Steering Committee (SSC); Caroline Series Covington in their London home. for Institute Correspondents; and Howard Staff have again performed superbly in what has Covington for the Management Committee (MC). been an extremely busy year. My sincere thanks Scientific activities centred around the six main to them, and to all who, with them, make the programmes this year: Mathematics and Physics of Institute such a special place to work: participants, Anderson Localisation ; Design of Experiments ; The programme organisers, and all involved in Nature of High Reynolds Number Turbulence ; overseeing our activities. Algebraic Lie Theory ; Discrete Integrable Systems ; and The Cardiac Physiome Project . Twenty three workshops were held in conjunction with these programmes, including five satellite meetings, in Glasgow (2), Gregynog, Leeds and Warwick, and an additional workshop in collaboration with the ____ 1 Science at the Institute Science at the Institute S J W who provided us with more than 80 reports in the i l k i n course of the year, but a significant onus remains on s o n John Ball, members of the Committee. Chair of the Scientific Steering Committee It is vital that SSC has a good balance of experienced members and we are very grateful to the Learned Societies and other organisations for their suggestions. In order to give more attention to these This has been another busy year for the SSC. Six suggestions and other possible names, a Nominating programme pro p osals were considered in our October meeting and seven in May; two proposals Committee has been established. It is chaired by the were approved, and six carried forward for resub - Chair of SSC with two members appropriate to the mission in October 2009. vacancies to be filled (Elmer Rees and David Harman in 2007 and Caroline Series and Peter The table of future programmes is shown opposite. Green in 2008), and is served by the Director. It is a It is very healthy in terms of commitment; a helpful step in strengthening SSC for the future. minimum of 18 months’ lead time is needed in organising the longer programmes but we must be My thanks go to Peter Coveney and Caroline Series careful not to over-commit into the future. A second for their contributions as members, and I am very characteristic is the range of both pure mathematics pleased that David Preiss and Marie-Francoise Roy and applications. We are again indebted to referees, agreed to join the Committee from 1 January 2009. Scientific Steering Committee Membership of the Scientific Steering Committee at 31 July 2009 was as follows: Sir John Ball FRS FRSE (Chair) University of Oxford Professor KG Binmore CBE FBA University College London Professor M Broué Institut Henri Poincaré Professor EK Burke University of Nottingham Professor DR Fearn FRSE University of Glasgow Professor CS Frenk FRS University of Durham Professor É Ghys École Normale Supérieure de Lyon Professor PJ Green FRS University of Bristol Professor D Preiss FRS University of Warwick Professor SR Reid FREng University of Aberdeen Professor M-F Roy FREng Institute of Mathematical Research of Rennes Professor JF Toland FRS FRSE ( ex-officio ) University of Bath; ICMS Professor LN Trefethen FRS University of Oxford Professor M Vingron Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics Sir David Wallace CBE FRS FREng (Secretary) Director, Newton Institute The Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) meets twice each year to consider proposals for programmes (of 4-week, 4-month or 6-month duration) to run two or three years later. Successful proposals are usually developed in a discussion between the proposers and the SSC conducted through the Director, and may well be considered at more than one SSC meeting before selection is recommended. Proposers may wish to submit a shorter ‘preliminary’ proposal in the first instance with a view to obtaining feedback from the SSC prior to the submission of a ‘full’ proposal. Complete details of the Institute’s regular call for proposals, including guidelines for submission, can be found on the Institute’s website at www.newton.ac.uk/callprop.html ____ 2 Future Programmes Future Programmes The schematic below shows the forthcoming programmes selected by the Scientific Steering Committee. Long- stay participation in a programme is at the invitation of the programme organisers; anyone interested should contact them directly. One- or two-week workshops are advertised, and applications invited with specific deadlines. Visits of one or two days are always welcome; we ask only that [email protected] is emailed in advance to assist us with planning; see page 20 for more details. Further details of each of these programmes, including the names and contact details of the organisers, can be found on the Newton Institute website at www.newton.ac.uk/programmes/ Further information on how to participate in programmes can also be found on the website at www.newton.ac.uk/participation.html JAN JUL SEP DEC Statistical Theory and Methods Design of The Nature of High for Complex, High-Dimensional Data Experiments Reynolds Number Turbulence 8 0 0 2 Mathematics and Physics of Combinatorics and Statistical Mechanics Anderson Localization: 50 Years After The Cardiac Dynamics of Algebraic Lie Theory Physiome Project Discs and Planets 9 0 0 2 Non-Abelian Fundamental Groups Discrete Integrable Systems in Arithmetic Geometry Statistical Challenges Mathematical and Statistical Stochastic Processes in Communication Sciences Arising from Genome Approaches to Climate Modelling Resequencing 0 and Prediction 1 0 2 Gyrokinetics in Partial Differential Equations Stochastic Partial Differential Equations Laboratory and in Kinetic Theories Astrophysical Plasmas Moduli Spaces Design and Analysis of Experiments 1 1 0 2 Discrete Analysis Inverse Problems Mathematics and Applications of Branes Topological Dynamics in the Physical in String and M-Theory and Biological Sciences 2 1 0 2 Spectral Theory TBA of Relativistic TBA Operators Key: nominal programme duration 6 months 4 months 1 month ____ 3 Mathematics and Physics of Anderson Localization: 50 Years After Mathematics and Physics of Anderson Localization: 50 Years After 14 July to 19 December 2008 Report from the Organisers: YV Fyodorov (Nottingham), I Goldsheid (Queen Mary), T Spencer (IAS) and MR Zirnbauer (Institut für Theoretische Physik, Köln) S G J a satellite meeting at Gregynog Hall, University of P e n t Wales).