In the following months, two TH Institutes will be organized: the CERN-CKC TH Institute on Numerical Holography, from 8 to 18 December, and Understanding the Early Universe, from 6 to 16 January.

The CERN-CKC TH Institute on Numerical Holography aims at an in-depth exchange on the class of challenging problems that are now under study with numerical techniques in holography. Over the last decade, holographic duality has emerged as a powerful tool for studying strongly interacting systems. To date, the vast majority of work in this field  focuses on problems which are either static, or sufficiently close to equilibrium that analytic methods can be used to solve the required differential equations. However, in recent years there has been increasing attention focused on challenging problems which require greater use of numerical techniques. These include the question of how strongly coupled systems far from equilibrium relax, how turbulent behavior can be studied in the gravity dual description of fluids or superfluids, and how ground states of strongly interacting matter with broken translational invariance can be found.

Read more about the CERN-CKC TH Institute on Numerical Holography here: http://indico.cern.ch/event/309107/

The second Theory Institute, in January, aims to bring together researchers interested in the physics of the early Universe. The high-quality observational data on the cosmic microwave background and large scale structure have greatly increased our understanding of it. The unprecedented precision of the Planck results enabled to significantly restrict the range of allowed inflationary models. It is now time to ask what common features distinguish the inflationary models favored by the data, what symmetry principles can stand behind them and how they can be incorporated in a complete quantum theory containing the Standard Model and gravity. The programme will include review talks on the latest experimental data, including the Planck release expected at the end of 2014. This Institute is included in the framework of the PACT activities in 2015 with the support from APPEC and is organized by Diego Blas, Daniel Figueroa, Julien Lesgourgues, Antonio Masiero, Antonio Riotto, and Sergey Sibiryakov.

Find more information about this TH institute here: http://indico.cern.ch/event/343575/