Vol. 1 No. 1 • Fall / Winter 2005 KITP Director Awarded 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics DAVID J. GROSS, director of the Kavli Gross was awoken shortly after 2:30 Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) and a.m. PST by a call from the Royal Swedish the first incumbent of the Frederick W. Academy of Sciences and participated by Gluck Chair in Theoretical Physics at the phone in the press conference under way University of California, Santa Barbara, was in Stockholm. awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics Gross said, “This Nobel Prize for solving in 1973 the last great remaining recognizes the efforts not only by us, but problem of what has since come to also the community of high energy physics. be called “the Standard Model” of the Scientific explorations into fundamental quantum mechanical picture of reality. He reality are no longer the province of the and his co-recipients discovered how the lone genius such as Galileo or Newton nucleus of atoms works. or Einstein, but a collaborative effort by Gross shares the prize with Frank a community of scientists. Hundreds of Wilczek, who was Gross’s graduate student experimental physicists at the world’s at Princeton University, when the pair accelerator laboratories have designed completed the calculation that resulted in and run the experiments that gave us the discovery for which they have received early hints about how the strong force the Nobel Prize. Wilczek, now a physics operates and then, after we published our professor at the Massachusetts Institute of theory, proved it. The effort to explore the Technology, was a permanent member of subtleties of the nuclear force continues the then Institute for Theoretical Physics today; we still have many implications of (ITP) at Santa Barbara from 1980 to 1988. Arielle Viny the theory to work out.” The other recipient, H. David Politzer, a Frozen momentarily is the equation that garnered the Nobel Prize for David Gross. The ice The Swedish Academy cited the physics professor at the California Institute sculpture was created for a Bon Voyage à Stockholm party in Gross’s honor, hosted by Fred winners “for the discovery of asymptotic of Technology, was working independently and Linda Gluck at their Montecito home. Gluck endowed the chair in theoretical physics freedom in the theory of the strong on a similar calculation. that Gross holds at UC Santa Barbara. interaction.” SEE NOBEL ON PAGE 4 I N S I D E … INSIDE… New Kohn Hall Proves Whole Can Be More Than From the director, p. 2 Will whiplash confirm strings? p. 3 Sum Of Old and New Parts Nobelists read Einstein, p. 5 Michael Graves Executes Design to Enhance Probing biological physics, pp. 6-9 Collaborations Among Physicists New permanent member, p. 6 FOR 10 YEARS THE KEY LANDMARK for arrivals at the principal entrance to the ocean-side Postdoc in neuroscience, p. 7 campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) has been the flat-topped, Biologist hires physicists, p. 7 orange tower of Kohn Hall, home of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP), which celebrated its 25-year existence under the aegis of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Nell Campbell Brain workshop, p. 8 with an international conference on “The Future of Physics,” from Oct. 7 to 9, 2004. A Physicists watch fly movie, p. 8 decade after the opening of Kohn Hall (named for KITP founding director and winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize, Walter Kohn), an addition was dedicated at the outset of the Polchinski Elected Party fetes biophysics, p. 9 conference on Oct. 7. Quest for physics of biology, p. 9 Michael Graves, internationally known for the startling eclecticism of his postmodernist To National design, is the architect for both the original building and the new wing. The result—more than the sum of old plus new parts—is a wholly integrated and transformed structure Academy ‘Future of Physics’: 25 ?s, p. 11 superbly designed to enhance the practice of theoretical physics. First and foremost, Kohn Hall, both inside and out, with its predominant shades Upcoming, p. 12 of muted orange from peach tones to copper, is beautiful. The structure is both sited of Sciences and designed to direct inhabitants’ points of view to take advantage JOSEPH G. POLCHINSKI, professor of of the stunning vistas from the location on a bluff overlooking the physics at the University of California, blue Pacific. Santa Barbara (UCSB) and a permanent What does beauty have to do with physics? Over and over again, member of the Kavli Institute for the beauty of a given theory has been an indication of its accurate Theoretical Physics (KITP), has been representation of deep reality. But less fanciful a reason for the elected a member of the National beauty of this structure is its purpose in attracting physicists Academy of Sciences at the annual worldwide to leave their home institutions for weeks or spring meeting. He was cited as one of months to participate in KITP programs, which address the the “leading field and string theorists questions that define the leading edge of scientific research. of his generation, contributing many That purpose of creating a home away from home to significant ideas to both quantum field stimulate collaborative scientific exploration accounts for theory and to string theory.” the residential scale of the two-story KITP structure. Clean Polchinski’s discovery of D-branes but intimate architectural shaping and their properties is, according to of space—complemented by a the Academy citation, “one of the most surround of soft orange pigments important insights in 30 years of work and light maple wood—creates a on string theory.” warm, inviting environment that SEE NEW WING ON PAGE 10 SEE POLCHINSKI ON PAGE 2 Peter Malinowski events are so weak that they will probably From the Director STRINGS only be visible in the later stages of the CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 experiment. But, according to Polchinski, 2004-05 HAS BEEN AN EXCITING YEAR FOR THE KITP. We “the gravitational signatures from cosmic celebrated our 25th anniversary with a special conference, strings are remarkable because they are and we inaugurated our new wing. about the old instability argument potentially visible even from the early The conference on “The Future of Physics” celebrated against the existence of cosmic strings in stages of LIGO! That means ‘potentially not only the 25th anniversary of the Institute, but also the terms of Tye’s brane-antibrane Inflation, visible’ over the next year.” unity of physics, which is, after all, the assumption on which particularly as worked out in detail by Gravitational waves have yet to be the KITP is founded. Physics still has a common language six physicists in a 2003 paper, “Towards directly detected, which is the mission and a common community who do all these different Inflation in String Theory.” of the LIGO and LISA experiments. So in things from string theory to biology; physics is still one addition to the possibility of confirming field though moving in all these different directions [see Do cosmic strings exist? string theory, the JHEP paper offers a page 11 for 25 questions that represent the diversity of Using that model, Polchinski, Copeland, better target for initial LIGO detection of Tony MastresTony direction]. Special thanks go to the Kavli Foundation and and Myers calculated the decay rates for gravitational waves than any other from to the University of California, Santa Barbara for the support that made this stimulating cosmic strings and discovered how slow cosmic events. conference possible. the rates could be—so slow, in fact, that the The new wing is more than an addition. It has given us an opportunity to re-conceive strings would survive to the present day. and thereby do more with the pre-existing space in Kohn Hall. I especially like the new Will LIGO detect whiplash? By “survive” they mean not just detecting Identifying the gravitational signature enclosed courtyard because it provides such a spectacular, centrally located meeting space, the gravitational footprint left long ago in of cosmic strings is the work of Vilenkin where conference participants and visitors can confer via outdoor blackboards or eat the cosmic microwave background and and Thibault Damour (Institut des Hautes together under blue skies or a sun-shading canopy. “seen” by looking back in time, but actually Etudes Scientifiques, France). They figured The addition was prompted by the need for more space to accommodate more seeing the gravitational effects of cosmic out that when cosmic strings oscillate, science, and indeed we are now able to run three programs at the same time. We tried strings existing if not now, then billions of every once in a while, they crack like a this before the addition, and had to limit the number of participants so that each of the years after the genesis of the universe. whip. “It’s surprising,” said Polchinski, “but programs lacked the critical mass for the most productive of intellectual exchanges. We still Polchinski said their calculations when you write out the equations for an have more applicants than places for our programs (see the exciting line-up for 2006 on the showed that both F and D cosmic strings oscillating string, a little piece of the string back page), which speaks well, we think, for our programming efforts; but because we can could exist and that the JHEP article snaps and moves very fast. Basically, the routinely welcome enough participants to each of three simultaneous programs, we are explains how to distinguish the signature tip will move at the speed of light. When now much better able to serve the diverse research interests of the community.