Bangalore School on Statistical Physics - VIII DATE: 28 June 2017 to 14 July 2017 VENUE: Ramanujan Lecture Hall, ICTS, Bengaluru This advanced level school is the eighth in the series. This is a pedagogical school, aimed at bridging the gap between masters-level courses and topics in statistical physics at the frontline of current research. It is intended for Ph.D. students, post-doctoral fellows and interested faculty members at the college and university level. The following courses will be offered. Preparatory lectures by Abhishek Dhar (ICTS) and Sanjib Sabhapandit (RRI) Critical dynamics by Uwe C Täuber (Virginia Tech, USA) Thermalization in quantum systems by Subroto Mukerjee (IISc, Bangalore) Non-equilibrium statistical physics: Introductory examples by Sidney Redner (Santa Fe USA) Conformal field theory and statistical mechanics by John Cardy (UC Berkeley, USA) Macroscopic fluctuation theory by Tridib Sadhu (TIFR, Mumbai) Statistical physics of active matter by (Sriram Ramaswamy (IISc, Bangalore) Registration opens on 1 December 2016 REGISTRATION DEADLINE 31 January 2017 CONTACT US bssp@icts.res.in PROGRAM LINK: https://www.icts.res.in/program/bssp2017

Srinivas Ramanujan Lecture Hall

05 June 2017 to 09 June 2017 VENUE: Ramanujan Lecture Hall, ICTS Bangalore DARK MATTER AND THE SEARCH FOR PHYSICS BEYOND THE STANDARD MODEL "Darkness is your candle. Your boundaries are your quest."- Jalal-ud-din Rumi of Balkh (1207 - 1273) High energy Physics today has, in a sense, literally entered into a Dark Age. We know for about two decades that the Universe is mainly dark, with more than a quarter being Dark Matter, and roughly two-thirds being Dark Energy. It is only the remaining five percent or so of the Universe which we have been able to investigate thoroughly, and even here all that we have is a very successful phenomenological model – which we proudly call the Standard Model – which itself has plenty of loopholes. At the moment, both on the theoretical and experimental front, therefore, high energy physicists are essentially groping in the dark for answers to these puzzles. This is a good moment, therefore, to introspect, and it is in this context that the thought-provoking words quoted above become especially relevant, for it is by probing the present darkness that we will have to find the way forward. This discussion meeting is therefore called ‘Candles of Darkness’, for it is our hope to further the cause of introspection and out-of-the-box thinking which is the need of the day. A highlight of the meeting will be the three Infosys-ICTS Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar lectures, which will be delivered by Professor John Ellis of King's College, London, UK, doyen of the high energy phenomenologist community. Other eminent speakers will review more specific topics and share their insights and perspective. For logistic reasons, participation in this discussion meeting is limited. You are, therefore, encouraged to apply early. REGISTRATION DEADLINE 15 May 2017 CONTACT US candark@icts.res.in PROGRAM LINK https://www.icts.res.in/discussion-meeting/candark

Program Cauchy-Riemann Equations in Higher Dimensions 15 July 2019 to 02 August 2019 Ramanujan Lecture Hall, ICTS Bangalore

Lecture 1: June 5, Monday, 17:00 - 18:15 pm Title: The Dark Side of the Universe Astrophysicists and cosmologists tell us that most of the Universe is invisible - the stars in galaxies are held together by dark matter and dark energy spread throughout space is accelerating the expansion of the Universe. The dark matter could be provided by particles that may be detectable at particle colliders, in deep underground experiments or in space, as in theories based on super symmetry. Lecture 2: June 6, Tuesday, 9:15 - 10:30 am Title: What will we see through the Higgs Portal? Studies of the Higgs boson may reveal what particle physics lies beyond the Standard Model. Paradoxically, while the Higgs mass and coupling measurements are consistent, so far, with expectations in supersymmetric models, the LHC has not yet found any evidence of supersymmetric particles. Will these be revealed by future LHC data, or must we wait for some future collider? Lecture 3: June 7, Wednesday, 9:15 - 10:30 am Title: Models of Cosmological Inflation Cosmological inflation may serve as a bridge between collider physics and physics at much higher energies, possibly string theory. The speaker will argue that supersymmetry is the appropriate general framework for constructing models of inflation, and specifically no-scale supergravity and that particle interactions may be described by a flipped SU(5) grand unified theory that also provides links with neutrino physics. This lecture series is a part of the discussion meeting: Candles of Darkness

ORGANIZERS Tanweer Hussain, Ambarish Kunwar and Prabal K Maiti DATE & TIME 28 October 2017 to 02 November 2017 VENUE Ramanujan Lecture Hall, ICTS Bangalore Our knowledge of cytoskeletal filaments, nucleic acid filaments (DNA and RNA) as well as their associated proteins is constantly expanding due to application of a range of recent biophysical techniques which has helped scientists to probe biophysical phenomena at molecular, cellular and tissue levels. Cytoskeletal filaments, particularly microtubules (MT) and filamentous actin (F-actin), not only provide mechanical strength to an eukaryotic cell but also form a fibrous network that serves at the network of tracks for transporation system of the cell. The dynamics of these filaments and the mechanisms of force generation by polymerization/depolymerization have been investigated experimentally as well as theoretically at multiple scales. Nucleic acid strands (DNA/RNA) are more flexible filaments. The hierarchical organization and dynamics of both cytoskeletal and nucleic acid filaments depend crucially on the proteins bound to these filaments. Cytoskeletal motor proteins utilize the respective cytoskeletal filamentous tracks for directed, albeit noisy, movements that result in intracellular motility and/or contractility. The power and efficiency of these motors have been under intense investigation over the last two decades. Although most of the physical principles involved in the energy transduction and motility of the cytoskeletal motors and NA-based motors are common, most often these are investigated by two distinct communities of investigators, hence limited interaction between them. Exchange of ideas and methodologies between these two communities is likely to enrich both these areas of research. The main focus of this Discussion Meeting is to bring leading practitioners from both these areas on a single forum thereby catalyzing progress in both by comparing and contrasting the main conceptual challenges in these two areas. Sessions will be organized based on common underlying principles for cytoskeletal motors and NA-based motors looking at sub-, single- and multi-machine level. There will be 20 hours of lectures over the course of the meeting and the rest of the time will be reserved for interactions and discussions. REGISTRATION DEADLINE 12 September 2017 CONTACT US cdflc ictsresin PROGRAM LINK https://www.icts.res.in/discussion-meeting/CDFLC

Discussion Meeting: Complex Algebraic Geometry ORGANIZERS: Indranil Biswas, Mahan Mj and A. J. Parameswaran DATE & TIME: 01 October 2018 to 06 October 2018 VENUE: Madhava Lecture Hall, ICTS, Bangalore The discussion meeting on Complex Algebraic Geometry will be centered around the "Infosys-ICTS Ramanujan lectures" of Professor Claire Voisin. Complex algebraic geometry is a rich, classical area of mathematics. We shall focus on some specific themes including, but not restricted to vector bundles over complex varieties, topology of varieties, Chow groups, etc. CONTACT US: program@icts.res.in PROGRAM LINK: https://www.icts.res.in/discussion-meeting/cag2018

ICTS will have a concert by Dr Prakash Sontakke group (http://prakashsontakke.com/concerts-and-tours/) on 8th March as part of the program "Laser Plasma Accelerator".

ORGANIZERS Rajesh Gopakumar DATE & TIME 19 October 2017 VENUE Ramanujan Lecture Hall, ICTS Bangalore The recent detection of gravitational waves from a merging binary neutron star system, along with follow-up observations in the full frequency band of the electromagnetic spectrum mark the dawn of multimessenger astronomy. In celebration of this wonderful milestone in astronomy, ICTS is organizing a half-day scientific event. The event will feature several talks summarizing the gravitational and electromagnetic observations, accessible to general scientists and scientifically inclined public.