The Erwin Schrödinger International Boltzmanngasse 9/2 Institute for Mathematical Physics A-1090 Vienna, Austria ESI NEWS Volume 5, Issue 2, Autumn 2010 Editorial nized by A. Rebhan (Vienna), S. Husa Contents (Univ. Illes Balears, Spain) and K. Land- Klaus Schmidt steiner (IFT Madrid, Spain) and ran for Editorial1 three months from August – October 2010. This programme studied quantum chromo- Stefan Hollands: Correlators in de- dynamics (QCD), the theory of the strong Sitter spacetime and the ‘heat As many readers of nuclear interactions and focussed on the death’ of the Universe3 this newsletter will theory behind some of the expected – and know already, the year some unexpected – properties of the state Letters in Support of the ESI 10 2010 was ‘interesting’ of matter in heavy-ion collisions at the News from the ESI Community 19 for the ESI. Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Scientifically, the the Brookhaven National Laboratory in the Current and Future Activities of second half of this USA, for example. Two workshops were the ESI 22 year continued very well. The programme part of this programme, one on AdS holog- raphy and the quark-gluon plasma, and one Erwin Schrödinger Lectures 24 Matter and radiation, organized by V.Bach (Mainz), J. Fröhlich (ETH Zürich) und J. on Hot matter. More than 100 participants Senior Research Fellows’ Lecture Yngvason (Vienna) ended on July 31. Its visited the ESI for various periods of time Courses 2011 24 subject matter was the quantum mechanical during this activity. description of non-relativistic matter, with The last thematic programme in 2010 Lectures on physical and math- about 50 participating scientists. was Higher structures in mathematics ematical sciences in historical and physics, organized by A. Alekseev context 25 From early June until August 15 the programme Topological String Theory, (Geneva), H. Bursztyn (IMPA, Rio de Modularity and Non-Perturbative Physics, Janeiro, Brazil) and T. Strobl (Lyon). organized by L. Katzarkov (Vienna), A. This programme ran from the beginning Klemm (Bonn), M. Kreuzer (Vienna) and of September until early November 2010 D. Zagier (Bonn), focussed on topologi- and focussed on recent geometrical devel- cal properties of gauge- and string theo- opments studied by mathematicians and ries, which are the basis of our understand- mathematical physicists. The three main ing of particle physics and quantum grav- topics were Generalizations of symplec- ity. The programme brought together ex- tic and Poisson geometry, Higher degree perts on the theory and application of au- graded manifolds, higher gauge theories tomorphic forms, on techniques for solv- and gauged supergravity and Quantum ing the integrable structures as developed groups and quasi-Hopf algebras, Drinfeld in statistical mechanics and matrix mod- associators and applications to low dimen- els, and on application of these techniques sional topology. The programme had more to the study of non-perturbative contribu- than 100 participants and contained a se- tions to the effective action of string- and ries of minicourses on topics like Higher gauge theory models. Almost 60 mathe- gauge theories, Supergeometry and differ- maticians and mathematical physicists par- ential graded manifolds, and Gauged super ticipated in this programme, which also gravity. contained workshops on D-branes, effec- In addition to these major research pro- tive actions and homological mirror sym- grammes and their workshop there were a metry and topological strings, modularity number of independent shorter workshops and non-perturbative physics. at the ESI during the second half of 2010, The programme Anti – de Sitter holog- as well as a Senior Research Fellows Lec- raphy and the quark-gluon plasma: ana- ture Course on Representations contribut- lytical and numerical aspects was orga- ing to Cohomology of Arithmetic Groups 2 Volume 5, Issue 2, Autumn 2010 ESI NEWS by T.N. Venkataramana (TIFR, Mumbai). Erwin-Schrödinger-Institut forschen. Der sities and other reputable scientific insti- Details of all these activities can be Frauenanteil liegt dabei bei bis zu 40 tutions. The ESI got off relatively lightly: found on the ESI web pages. Prozent. “Die Nachwuchsförderung ist für thanks largely to the overwhelming re- den Wissenschafts- und Forschungsstan- sponse by the international scientific com- As one can see, the scientific activities dort Österreich zentral. Gerade im Bereich munity (including numerous Fields-Medal of the ESI in 2010 were more than satis- der Mathematik, aber auch der Informatik, and some Nobel Prize winners) to the im- factory. In other respects, however, the year Naturwissenschaften und Technik . ", so minent demise of the ESI, the Ministry of 2010 had a sting in its tail, to use a popular die Ministerin zur geplanten Info-Offensive Science has agreed to provide basic fund- literary expression: in diesem Bereich. ing to the ESI for the years 2011 – 2014, and possibly until 2015, at the same level The end of the ESI as an independent in- Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft und as in 2003, without any compensation for stitute. Forschung inflation since then. This funding will not Minoritenplatz 5, 1014 Wien Things started harmlessly enough. On go to the ESI directly: the Institute will July 27, 2010, the Minister of Science, Dr. Readers familiar with the German lan- become part of the University of Vienna, Beatrix Karl, visited the ESI and afterwards guage will notice the frequent references through which the funding for the ESI will sent out a glowing press release about the to the importance of Nachwuchsförderung, be channeled. work done by the Institute (in German: i.e., of support and training of young scien- What is unfortunate, but completely translation would not do the content jus- tists (postdocs and PhD students). in line with the government’s attitude to tice): higher education and scientific training, is Since 2004 the ESI had been running that the highly successful JRF Programme a ‘Junior Research Fellows’ (JRF) Pro- Beatrix Karl: Mobilität und Nachwuchs- of the ESI will be suspended from early gramme for advanced PhD students and förderung werden am Erwin-Schrödinger- 2011 due to lack of funding. It is worth re- postdocs to allow them to participate in the Institut groß geschrieben flecting on this in the light of the ministerial activities of the ESI. This programme was press release from July 27, 2010. Wissenschafts- und Forschungsministerin about to come to an end in early 2011. Dr. Beatrix Karl hat heute das Erwin- We (the directors of the ESI) discussed this The ‘rescue’ of the ESI as part of the Schrödinger-Institut (ESI) in der Wiener with Dr. Karl, who was very impressed by University of Vienna will bring financial Boltzmanngasse besucht. “Das Erwin- the JRF Programme and suggested that we security (at a reduced level), and — at least Schrödinger-Institut ist auf dem Gebiet discuss options for its extension with one in the short term — allow the institute to der mathematischen Physik und Mathe- of her section heads. continue operating, perhaps even at a rea- sonable level of independence. In the long matik weltweit führend und wurde für Wis- We met the section head responsible on run, however, the chronically under-funded senschafter und Forscher aus der ganzen October 25, 2010 and were told there that university will put pressure on the institute Welt zu einer wichtigen Forschungs- aber the funding of the ESI would be ended with to churn out graduates and reduce its bud- auch Begegnungsstätte", so die Minis- the end of 2010. In order to cover immedi- get for visitors. In the first year, the Erwin terin. Besonders erfreulich sei der rege ate commitments the ESI would be offered Schrödinger Institute may be seen as a gift Austausch, kommen doch jährlich mehr about 40% of its basic annual budget as a to the university by the Ministry of Science, als 500 Wissenschafterinnen und Wissen- one-time payment for 2011. Hope was ex- but in the following years it will be just schafter aus der ganzen Welt an das Institut pressed that the ESI could be saved by be- another player in a zero sum game whose nach Wien. “Wissenschaft und Forschung coming part of the University of Vienna. am Erwin-Schrödinger-Institut profitieren rules will not be conducive to the needs and von dieser Mobilität der Forscherinnen The ESI was one of more than 70 sci- priorities of a research institute operating und Forscher, das stärkt auch den Stan- entific institutions affected in this manner. at an international level. It is a clear por- dort Wien", betont Karl. Das Erwin- The criteria for the selection of these in- tent for the future that the University is not Schrödinger-Institut bildet auch einen zen- stitutions are completely mysterious. What prepared to provide funding for a continua- tralen Schwerpunkt der Ministerin ab: is abundantly clear is that scientific excel- tion of the ESI JRF Programme from 2011. lence — or the lack thereof — played no die Nachwuchsförderung. 2004 initiierte In late 2010 neither the Ministry of Sci- part in the selection process. das Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft ence nor the University of Vienna can af- und Forschung (BMWF) das “Junior I should not complain too much about ford to take the blame for the closure of the Research Fellows"-Programm, es wird this ill-considered, irrational and com- ESI. By 2014 or 2015 the picture may look jährlich mit rund einer Million Euro pletely mismanaged attempt to save small different, and the closure of a down-at-heel gefördert. Junge Doktoranden und Post- amounts of money as part of a more gen- ESI may then be seen as justified. docs können dadurch für ein Semester am eral policy of cutting support for univer- Erwin Schrödinger Institute of Mathematical Physics http://www.esi.ac.at/ ESI NEWS Volume 5, Issue 2, Autumn 20103 Correlators in deSitter spacetime and the ‘heat death’ of the Universe Stefan Hollands Questions about the origin of our universe belong to the deepest and most intriguing in all of science.