Report 2018/2019 ETH Institute for Theoretical Studies ETH-ITS Table of Contents Foreword 5 The ETH Institute for Theoretical Studies 6 History and aims 6 Fellows at the ITS 6 Collaborations 7 Activities 8 Meetings, talks, minicourses 8 The ITS Science Colloquium 10 Programme 2018–2019 11 Fellows’ seminar 12 Programme 2018–2019 12 Awards 13 Fellows’ report 14 Outlook 22 People at the ETH-ITS 24 Director 24 Coordinator 24 Board of Patrons 24 Advisory Committee 24 2013–2017 2017–2019 Fellows 2014–2019 25 Senior Fellows Junior Fellows (with current affiliation of former Junior Fellows) Contact 27 Clausiusstrasse 47, the address of the ETH Institute for Theoretical Studies. 4 Foreword The academic year 2018/2019 was in several ways special for the Institute for Theoretical Studies. Firstly, it experimen- ted a new way of functioning, dedicating a semester to the interdisciplinary subject of «modular forms, periods and scattering amplitudes», hosting over forty physicists and mathematicians, with a school, a workshop and other events involving several young scientists and putting into contact participants with scientists of ETH. Secondly, the Institute was evaluated by an international committee, who was very positively impressed by the achievements of the Institute and gave interesting suggestions for improvement. Thirdly, on a more personal note, this was my last year as the director of the ETH-ITS; the last six years were an intense period in which I had the unique opportunity to meet scientists in a variety of subjects who are shaping their respective disciplines. I thank the donors for making this possible, the Fellows of the Institute for their excellent scientific contributions, the school board of ETH Zurich for their continuous support, the Advisory Committee for its commitment and advice, and Christina Buchmann, who is retiring this year as coordinator, for her invaluable help and competence in running the Institute. The new director Rahul Pandharipande, professor of mathematics at ETH Zurich, took office on 1 June 2019. Livia Kürsteiner is the new coordinator. I wish the new team a successful start. Giovanni Felder, Institute’s director The ETH Institute for Theoretical Studies is supported by Dr. Max Rössler, the Walter Haefner Foundation and the ETH Foundation. 5 Ruth Britto lecturing at the school on Modular forms, periods and scattering amplitudes, organized in collaboration with SwissMAP. The ETH Institute for Theoretical Studies History and aims The ETH Institute for Theoretical Studies (ETH-ITS) is an interdisciplinary Institute dedicated to research in mathematics, theoretical computer science and theoretical natural sciences. It was founded on 1 June 2013 on the initiative of former ETH president Ralph Eichler, with a generous donation of Dr. Max Rössler and the Walter Haefner Foundation. The aim of the Institute is to enable top theoretical scientists to be active for an extended period of time at ETH, interact with local researchers, and establish lasting scientific collaborations in an interdisciplinary context. Fellows at the ITS The Institute hosts up to six Senior Fellows and up to twelve Junior Fellows. Junior Fellows are talented young independent postdocs spending up to three years at ETH Zurich to work on research subjects of their choice. They are supported by a mentor, who is an ETH professor. The Junior Fellows are selected by the director, with the assistance of the scientific Advisory Committee, by a nomination procedure: candidates are selected from a group of young researchers that are nominated by faculty members and senior researchers of universities and research institutions and are invited to apply. 6 Schedule for the selection of Junior Fellows Mid-September Target date for nominations, eligible candidates are invited to apply Mid-October Deadline for application of nominated candidates November Interviews with ETH members of the Advisory Committee December Offers are made Senior Fellows are leading international researchers in mathematics, theoretical computer science and theoretical natural sciences, spending up to a year at the Institute on a sabbatical leave from their home institutions. They dedicate their time to research and participate in the activities of the Institute and of ETH Zurich, for example by giving a course on research topics. They are invited by the Vice-President for Research and Corporate Relations of ETH Zurich on the recommendation of the Advisory Committee. Candidates are often suggested by members of the Advisory Committee or ETH faculty, but they can also apply directly. www.ethz.ch/eth-its/fellows → Collaborations The ETH Institute for Theoretical Studies collaborates with the Departments of ETH and their visitor programmes, such as the Forschungsinstitut für Mathematik (FIM) at the Department of mathematics and the Pauli Centre at the Department of physics. It also nurtures the relationship with other Swiss research institutions through its Fellows and by contributing to scientific activities. This year it organized a school within the thematic programme on «Modular forms, periods and scat- tering amplitudes» together with the National Competence Centre in Research SwissMAP – The Mathematics of Physics and contributed to the programme goMATH – Women in Mathematics of the Department of Mathematics of ETH Zurich. 7 Participants at the workshop on Modular forms, periods and scattering amplitudes. Activities Meetings, talks, minicourses In the spring semester 2019 a thematic programme on «Modular forms, periods and scattering amplitudes» took place at the ETH-ITS. It was organized by Babis Anastasiou (ETH Zurich), Claude Duhr (CERN), Giovanni Felder (ETH Zurich) and Eric Panzer (University of Oxford). Over the last few years, the calculations of scattering amplitudes in particle physics and string theory led to the development of sophisticated mathematical methods and brought new questions in the classical area of mathematics of modular forms. The aim of the programme was to bring together experts on these integrals and related objects, both in physics and in mathematics, with the grand goal of advancing the field via a cross-fertilisation between disciplines. The programme started with a school with minicourses by Ruth Britto (Dublin), Claude Duhr (CERN), Javier Fresán (Ecole Polytechnique) and Nils Matthes (Oxford), with talks accessible to both mathematicians and physicists and ended with a workshop. There were a number of visitors and further activities throughout the programme. 8 The fourth edition of the European-Japanese Symposium on Symplectic Varieties and Moduli Spaces took place at ETH with the support of the ETH-ITS. It was organised by Junior Fellow Ulrike Rieß together with Chiara Camere (Università degli Studi di Milano), Daisuke Matsushita (Hokkaido University), Giovanni Mongardi (Università di Bologna), Hisanori Ohashi (Tokyo University of Science). It included minicourses of Claire Voisin and Yoshinori Namikawa and talks by participants. In addition, Senior Fellows Sandu Popescu and Gilles Brassard gave series of lectures on topics related to quantum information theory and foundation of quantum mechanics, see the Fellows’ report below for more details. 9 Former Senior Fellow Robert Brandenberger (left) discusses with Philippe Jetzer and ITS Colloquium Speaker Rainer Weiss (right). The ITS Science Colloquium The ITS Science Colloquium aims at exposing students and researchers in mathematics, theoretical computer science and theoretical natural sciences to new questions and research subjects of common interest to different disciplines. The first talk was by ETH physicist Renato Renner who asked whether quantum mechanics can be used to describe a physicist who herself uses quantum mechanics, a question based on the much discussed thought experiment recently proposed by Renner with Daniela Frauchiger. In another well-attended talk Nobel prize laureate Rainer Weiss, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, co-founder of the LIGO project, told us about the exploration of the Universe through gravitational waves. The third speaker of the academic year was Ranit Aharonov, of IBM Research, manager of Project Debater, an AI system that can engage humans in debates on complex topics. In her talk she addressed the question «How persuasive can a computer be?» Finally, Miranda Cheng, of the University of Amsterdam, told us the story of the 17 mysterious formulae written by Ramanujan in a 1920 letter, that marked the beginning of a theory that has recent application to various research areas, including the moonshine theory in mathematics and black holes in theoretical physics. 10 The audience at Renato Renner’s talk «Beyond Schrödinger’s cat». Programme 2018/2019 25.10.2018 Renato Renner, ETH Zurich Beyond Schrödinger’s cat 28.02.2019 Rainer Weiss, MIT and LIGO Exploring the universe with gravitational waves 07.03.2019 Ranit Aharonov, IBM research Project Debater – How persuasive can a computer be? 14.03.2019 Miranda Cheng, Amsterdam Mock modular forms are everywhere Videos of selected talks can be viewed on www.ethz.ch/eth-its/activities → 11 Fellows’ seminar The aim of the Fellows’ seminar, organized by Junior Fellows Johannes Noller and Ulrike Rieß, is to present the research of the Fellows of the ETH-ITS. It is open to all interested and the rule is that talks should be accessible to other Fellows, which are typically from a different field. Programme 2018/2019 09.10.2018 Sandu Popescu On conservation laws in quantum mechanics 16.10.2018 Pierrick