The Erwin Schrodinger¨ International Boltzmanngasse 9/2 Institute for Mathematical Physics A-1090 Vienna, Austria ESI NEWS Volume 4, Issue 1, Summer 2009 Editorial scientific budget of the ESI is not expected Contents to materialise in the near future, forcing us Klaus Schmidt to introduce some cuts to the programme Editorial1 budgets for 2010. The JRF Programme, Visit of Science Minister Hahn2 In terms of scien- which is funded by the Austrian Ministry tific activities, the year of Science and Research and allows PhD Press Release2 2008 set a new record students and postdocs to spend up to six months at the ESI to engage in research A Summer of Bandol-Ellmau Free for the ESI. The Insti- tute spent more than and participate in the scientific activities of Institute of Mathematics and the Institute, may not be continued beyond Mathematical Physics3 e 810.000 on its sci- entific activities while 2010. The JRF Programme has been remark- A Philatelic Introduction to Statis- keeping its infrastruc- ably successful in terms of numbers and tical Physics5 ture costs around e 400.000 (as in previ- ous years). The number of visiting scien- quality of applications, as well as in the ESI News8 tists also set a new record: more than 700 very positive feedback the programme has mathematicians and physicists worked at received from the scientific community Current and Future Activities of the ESI in 2008, more than 10% of whom world wide. Let me quote a few lines from the ESI9 worked at the Institute for at least 4 weeks. the final report on the ESI PROGRAMME ON NUMBER THEORY AND PHYSICS, or- Schrodinger¨ Lectures 2008/2009 11 The ESI organized 4 major thematic pro- grammes and a total of 11 workshops. Sev- ganized by Alan Carey (ANU, Canberra), Senior Research Fellows’ Lecture eral of these workshops were specifically Harald Grosse (University of Vienna), Courses 2009 11 aimed at supporting the ESI Junior Re- Sylvie Paycha (Universite´ Blaise Pascal, search Fellows (ESI JRF) Programme, and Clermont-Ferrant) and Steven Rosenberg Workshop on Mathematics at the most of them were at least partially sup- (Boston University) to illustrate this point: Turn of the 20th Century 12 ported by external sources. the programs [at the ESI] extend over a longer period than is usual at other re- In its Senior Research Fellows Pro- search institutes. This is particularly valu- gramme the ESI offered five lecture able for junior researchers at the beginning courses for graduate students and postdocs of their careers . We also find that the in 2008, and the JRF Programme attracted medium size of the ESI’s programs works 23 postdocs and PhD students during that very well, as opposed to the more stan- year. dard model of large conferences, which Last, but not least in this brief account junior researchers can find intimidating. of scientific events and activities in 2008, I ... [The ESI] provides efficiently run pro- should mention the ESI Lectures in Math- grams that both train the next generation ematics and Physics, a lecture note series of researchers and host leading senior re- edited by the Institute’s Scientific Direc- searchers. We hope ESI will continue its tors Joachim Schwermer and Jakob Yngva- valuable activities for years to come. son and published by the European Mathe- The threatened discontinuation of the matical Society. Three further volumes ap- ESI JRF Programme would be particularly peared in 2008: The Cauchy Problem in disappointing in view of the press release General Relativity by Hans Ringstroem, after the visit of the Austrian Minister for Boltzmann’s Legacy, edited by Giovanni Science and Research, Dr. Johannes Hahn, Gallavotti, Wolfgang L. Reiter and Jakob to the ESI on March 30, 2009: The promo- Yngvason, and Recent Developments in tion and support of young scientists is ab- Pseudo-Riemannian Geometry by Dmitry solutely central to science and research in V. Alekseevsky and Helga Baum. Austria. Especially in the area of Mathe- matics with its applications in many areas Unfortunately the current economic of life it is important for Austria to ‘stay on crisis is casting a shadow over the activi- the ball’, the Minister said, and I could not ties of the ESI. A hoped for increase in the agree more! 2 Volume 4, Issue 1, Summer 2009 ESI NEWS Visit Dr. Johannes Hahn, Federal Minister for Science and Research March 30, 2009 Jakob Yngvason, scientific director of the ESI, Johannes Hahn, Federal Minister for Science and Research, Heinz Engl, vice rector for research, University of Vienna, Joachim Schwermer, scientific director of the ESI and Klaus Schmidt, president of the ESI – from left to right, in front of the longest blackbord worldwide. Press Release 500 Wissenschafter aus der ganzen Welt nach Wien, um zu forschen. So waren bisher insgesamt rund 5.000 Gastforscherinnen und Gastforscher Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research aus 64 Landern¨ zu Gast. Aus der erfolgreichen internationalen Zusam- menarbeit gingen bisher rund 1.500 wissenschaftliche Arbeiten hervor, Press Release of the Austrian Federal Ministry die in renommierten Fachzeitschriften publiziert wurden. ”Der rege Aus- of Science and Research on the Occasion of the Visit by the Federal Min- tausch bereichert die Arbeit der Forscherinnen und Forscher, wirkt ister for Science and Research, Dr. Johannes Hahn on 30 March, 2009 sich sehr positiv auf die Forschungsergebnisse aus und starkt¨ den (OTS0184 5 CI 0255 MWF0002 II Mo, 30. Marz¨ 2009) Forschungsstandort Osterreich”¨ , betont Hahn. Johannes Hahn: Reger Austausch von Forschern Am Erwin-Schrodinger-Institut¨ wird auch besonderen Wert gelegt auf starkt¨ Forschungsstandort Osterreich¨ die Forderung¨ der Nachwuchsforscherinnen und -forscher. Dazu wurde u.a. im Jahr 2004 das vom Bundesministerium fr Wissenschaft und Forschung (BMWF) geforderte¨ ”Junior Research Fellows” – Pro- Wissenschaftsminister Dr. Johannes Hahn hat heute das Erwin- gramm aus der Taufe gehoben. Jungen Doktoranden und Postdocs Schrodinger-Institut¨ in der Wiener Boltzmanngasse besucht. ”Das wird auf diesem Weg ermoglicht,¨ fur¨ ein Semester an das Erwin- Erwin-Schrodinger-Institut¨ zahlt¨ zu den weltweit fuhrenden¨ Schrodinger-Institut¨ zu kommen und zu forschen. ”Die Forderung¨ Forschungsinstituten im Bereich der mathematischen Physik und des wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchses ist fur¨ den Wissenschafts- und Mathematik und wurde zu einer internationalen Begegnungsstatte¨ Forschungsstandort Osterreich¨ zentral”, so der Minister. Gerade im fur¨ fuhrende¨ Wissenschafter und Forscher”, so der Minister. Bereich der Mathematik, die mit ihren Anwendungen zahlreiche Lebens- Besonders erfreut zeigte sich der Minister uber¨ die hohe Zahl der Gast- bereiche beeinflusst, erachtet es der Minister fur¨ wichtig, dass Osterreich¨ wissenschafterinnen und Gastwissenschafter: Jahrlich¨ kommen mehr als ”am Ball bleibt”. Erwin Schrodinger¨ Institute of Mathematical Physics http://www.esi.ac.at/ ESI NEWS Volume 4, Issue 1, Summer 20093 A Summer of the Each summer throughout the two and a half sphere, Ellmau’s crisp air and alpine meadows decades starting in the early 60s, academic provided an ideal environment for the academic Bandol-Ellmau Free friends of the Kastler family came to Bandol, research activities of Kastler’s friends. a small lovely Mediterranean seaside town with Institute of Mathematics less than 8 thousand inhabitants growing to and Mathematical Physics more than 20 thousand residents from July 14th through the end of August. Bandol is situated 54 Masamichi Takesaki km east of Marseille and 20 km west of Toulon, along the Mediterranean coast. In this short essay, I would like to describe the life, in the summer of 1977, of a pri- vate research group of math- The Bandol-Ellmau Free Institute (BEFI) was ematicians and mathematical unusually busy in the summer of 1977. That physicists, the heart of which summer a conference on operator algebras and was Daniel Kastler. This research group was algebraic quantum field theory, with an empha- born of and led by Daniel Kastler with the dedi- sis on the theory of duality, was held at the cated assistance of his wife, Lisl Sander Kastler. newly born Luminy Mathematical Research In- What follows is my personal account of this dis- Among these visitors, in random order, were stitute. This conference attracted many special- tinguished research group with a focus on that Rudolf Haag, Hans Borchers, Richard V. Kadi- ists in duality theory, many of whom went on special summer of ’77. In an effort to avoid a son, Nico M. Hugenholtz, Huzihiro Araki, to Bandol thereafter, and then on to Ellmau, boring, businesslike list of events, I have cho- Derek W. Robinson, Marinus Winnink, Robert 1000 km east of Bandol. Some came directly sen to relate a possibly unbalanced selection T. Powers, Erling Størmer, Sergio Doplicher, to Ellmau, skipping the Marseille conference. of episodes with which I am personally most John Roberts, Marc Rieffel, Gert K. Peder- The Doplicher-Haag-Roberts theory of supers- familiar. I apologize in advance to those peo- sen, Dorte Olsen, Ola Bratteli, Alain Connes, election sectors had just appeared for the first ple who might be offended by my unintentional Vaughn F. R. Jones, and many others. They time. Other current mathematical developments omission of their significant contributions to the came to Bandol as soon as their universities en- of the period included the Enock-Schwartz the- research group. tered summer vacation. Most of them came with ory of Kac algebras, the classification of ap- their families to enjoy the Mediterranean sea- proximately finite dimensional (AFD) factors side. Year after year Lisl skilfully and artfully by Connes, Connes’ extension of the Atiyah- arranged accommodations for these many visi- Singer index theory to foliations, the chem- tors during the popular summer tourist season ical potential theory of Araki-Haag-Kastler- along the Mediterranean coast. Takesaki wherein Tannaka’s duality theorem played a fundamental role. Daniel and Lisl live in a hillside house with a large living room, and a large garden where After learning that the focal point of the con- many exciting academic (and non academic) ference was duality theory, the author proposed discussions have taken place.