THE I NSTITUTE L E T T E R INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY · SUMMER 2008 PROBING THE DARK SIDE OF THE UNIVERSE ne of The remarkable dis - erTies of dark maTTer, and a Ocoveries in asTrophysics has more precise accounTing of The been The recogniTion ThaT The composiTion of The universe, maTerial we see and are familiar The Two fields of asTrophysics wiTh, which makes up The earTh, (The physics of The very large) The sun, The sTars, and everyday and parTicle physics (The objecTs, such as a Table, is only a physics of The very small) are small fracTion of all of The maTTer each providing some of The in The universe. The resT is dark mosT imporTanT new experi - maTTer, possibly a new form of menTal daTa and TheoreTical elemenTary parTicle ThaT does concepTs for The oTher. Re- noT emiT or absorb lighT, and can search aT The InsTiTuTe for only be deTecTed from iTs gravi - Advanced STudy has played a These three images created by Member Douglas Rudd show the various matter components in a simulation encompassing a volume 86 TaTional effecTs. Megaparsec on a side (for reference, the distance between the Milky Way and its nearest neighbor is 0.75 Mpc). The three compo - significanT role in This develop - In The lasT decade, asTro - nents are dark matter (blue), gas (green), and stars (orange). The stars form in galaxies which lie at the intersection of filaments as menT. The laTe InsTiTuTe Pro - nomical observaTions of several seen in the dark matter and gas profiles. The dark matter, as the dominant matter component in the universe, drives the formation of fessor John Bahcall, Through kinds, parTicularly of disTanT those filaments and structures and dark energy “pushes back,” effectively stopping the growth of that structure and therefore galaxies. his research on solar neuTrinos, supernova and The cosmic was a pioneer in demonsTraTing microwave background, also indicaTe The exisTence of whaT is known as dark energy, a The imporTance of asTrophysical phenomena for undersTanding fundamenTal physics. uniform background field ThaT is acceleraTing The expansion of The universe. The pres - CurrenT knowledge of The fundamenTal forces of physics is based on Two well- ence of dark energy suggesTs a fundamenTal gap in our currenT undersTanding of The esTablished Theories: The STandard Model of parTicle physics, which gives an impres - basic forces of naTure. sively accuraTe descripTion of elemenTary parTicles and Their inTeracTions, buT ignores According To The sTandard cosmological model, dark maTTer comprises abouT 22 per - graviTy and only accounTs for abouT one-sixTh of The maTTer in The universe; and Ein - cenT of The universe, while dark energy makes up 74 percenT. “There is a few percenT of sTein’s Theory of general relaTiviTy, which describes The observed graviTaTional behav - residual dirT lefT over,” says ScoTT Tremaine, Richard Black Professor in The School of ior of large objecTs in The universe, such as galaxies and clusTers of galaxies, buT has yeT NaTural Sciences, “and ThaT is us and The sTars, The galaxies, and everyThing we know.” To be reconciled wiTh quanTum principles. WiTh The discovery of dark energy Ten years ago, a beTTer undersTanding of The prop - (Continued on page 4) NEW TRUSTEES APPOINTED TO THE BOARD OF INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY he InsTiTuTe for Advanced STudy has appoinTed Eric E. New America FoundaTion. He was elecTed To The NaTional TSchmidT and CurTis Callan To iTs Board of TrusTees, Academy of Engineering in 2006 and The American Acade - effecTive July 1, 2008. SchmidT is Chairman and Chief my of ArTs and Sciences in 2007. ExecuTive Officer of Google Inc., and Callan is The J. S. Callan, winner of The Dirac Medal in 2004, was a Mem - McDonnell DisTinguished UniversiTy Professor of Physics ber in The School of NaTural Sciences aT The InsTiTuTe on aT PrinceTon UniversiTy. Callan, who will serve as Academ - Three occasions, in 1969–72, 1983, and 1993–94, and has ic TrusTee for The School of NaTural Sciences, succeeds been a frequenT VisiTor in recenT years. Well known for The Andrew STrominger, Professor of Physics aT Harvard Uni - Callan-Symanzik equaTion, Callan was recenTly elecTed . C N versiTy, who served a five-year Term on behalf of The School. Vice PresidenT of The American Physical SocieTy (APS). I E L E G SchmidT earned his bachelor’s degree in elecTrical engi - Callan was awarded The 2000 Sakurai Medal for ParTicle T O I O H G W E F neering aT PrinceTon UniversiTy (1976), and obTained a Theory of The APS and was elecTed To The NaTional Acad - L O P P Y S A E masTer’s degree (1979) and a Ph.D. (1982) in elecTrical emy of Sciences in 1987. E T S R I U N engineering and compuTer science from The UniversiTy of AfTer receiving an AB in physics from Haverford Col - E O D C Eric E. Schmidt California, Berkeley. In 1983, he joined Sun MicrosysTems lege in 1961, he pursued graduaTe sTudy in physics aT Curtis Callan and rose To become iTs Chief Technology Officer. He was PrinceTon, where he was awarded his Ph.D. in 1964. From named Chairman and CEO of Novell in 1997, where he led The company’s sTraTegic There, he became assisTanT professor in physics aT Harvard UniversiTy. In 1972, he joined planning, managemenT, and Technology developmenT. SchmidT was recruiTed by Google The faculTy of PrinceTon, where he became J. S. McDonnell DisTinguished UniversiTy in 2001 and became Chairman of The Board and CEO of The company in March and Professor of Physics in 1995. He currenTly serves as Chair of The Physics DeparTmenT aT AugusT of ThaT year, respecTively. The UniversiTy. Callan is The founding DirecTor of The PrinceTon CenTer for TheoreTical An inTernaTionally recognized TechnologisT and business leader, SchmidT serves on Physics, which works To promoTe inTeracTion among TheorisTs and seed new direcTions The Board of DirecTors of Apple Inc. and is Chairman of The Board of DirecTors of The in research, especially in areas cuTTing across TradiTional dis ciplinary boundaries. NEWS OF THE INSTITUTE COMMUNITY IMA ARKANI-HAMED, Professor in The School rinceTon UniversiTy Press has published Galactic chool of HisTorical STudies former Member (2002) Nof NaTural Sciences, has been awarded The 2008 PDynamics: Second Edition by James Binney and Sand VisiTor (2005–06) CELIA CHAZELLE , and for - Raymond and Beverly Sackler InTernaTional Prize in SCOTT TREMAINE, Richard Black Professor in The mer Member (2006–07) FELICE LIFSHITZ have ediTed Physics, presenTed by Tel Aviv UniversiTy. The physics School of NaTural Sciences. The volume is a major revi - Paradigms and Methods in Early Medieval Studies (Palgrave, prize alTernaTes each year wiTh one for chemisTry, and is sion of The 1987 original, which has become one of The 2007), which feaTures conTribuTions from several former awarded To an ouTsTanding scienTisT who is noT older mosT widely used advanced TexTbooks on The sTrucTure InsTiTuTe Members and is dedicaTed To The medieval sTud - Than 42. Arkani-Hamed was ciTed for his “novel, deep, and dynamics of galaxies and oTher sTellar sysTems, as ies seminar organized by The School of HisTorical STudies. and highly influenTial conTribuTions To new paradigms well as one of The mosT ciTed references in asTrophysics. q for physics beyond The STandard Model.” q IMON DONALDSON, former Member (1983–84) q ostly Miniatures: An Introduction to Persian Painting Sin The School of MaThemaTics and Royal SocieTy M(PrinceTon UniversiTy Press, 2001) by OLEG Research Professor aT Imperial College, London, has he Royal DuTch MaThemaTical SocieTy has GRABAR , Professor EmeriTus in The School of HisTori - been awarded The 2008 Frederic Esser Nemmers Prize in Tannounced ThaT PHILLIP A. GRIFFITHS, Profes - cal STudies, has been TranslaTed inTo boTh Persian and MaThemaTics for his “groundbreaking work in four- sor in The School of MaThemaTics, has been selecTed To Arabic. Islamic Art and Architecture 650–1250 (Yale dimensional Topology, symplecTic geomeTry, and gauge receive The 2008 Brouwer Prize. GriffiThs was ciTed for UniversiTy Press, 2003) by Richard ETTinghausen, Theory, and for his remarkable use of ideas from physics his work in complex algebraic geomeTry and (complex) Grabar, and Marilyn Jenkins-Madina, has been TranslaT - To advance pure maThemaTics.” differenTial geomeTry: “He combines, in a modern incar - ed inTo Polish. naTion, The sTyle and TradiTion of Henri Poincaré and q q Elie CarTan. His research of algebraic cycles and varia - AVID DeVORKIN, former Member (1991) in The Tion of Hodge sTrucTures has opened new roads, which he InTernaTionale Spinozaprijs FoundaTion in The DSchool of NaTural Sciences, has been awarded The were followed by many afTer him. GriffiThs is senior TNeTherlands has named MICHAEL WALZER , Pro - LeRoy E. DoggeTT Prize of The HisTorical AsTronomy Divi - auThor of several books which have raised generaTions of fessor EmeriTus in The School of Social Science, as The sion of The American AsTronomical AssociaTion for “his geomeTers of The lasT ThirTy years.” recipienT of The 2008 Spinoza Lens Prize. Walzer was seminal work in illuminaTing The origins and developmenT ciTed as “one of The mosT imporTanT and versaTile poliTi - of modern asTrophysics and The origins of The space sciences q cal Thinkers of our Time.” during The TwenTieTh cenTury.” DeVorkin also has received he Royal NeTherlands Academy of ArTs and Sci - q The American HisTorical AssociaTion’s HerberT Feis Award Tences has announced ThaT JONATHAN ISRAEL, for Public HisTory, which recognizes disTinguished conTri - nsTiTuTe TrusTee ROGER W. FERGUSON, JR. , has Professor of Modern European HisTory in The School of buTions To public hisTory during The previous Ten years. Ibeen named PresidenT and Chief ExecuTive Officer of HisTorical STudies, has been selecTed To receive The 2008 DeVorkin is CuraTor of AsTronomy in The DeparTmenT of TIAA-CREF, The leading provider of reTiremenT services Dr.