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We are happy to announce the workshop “Pseudoholomorphic Curves in Hamiltonian Dynamics” taking place from February 27 to March 3, 2023 at the Mathematical Institute Hei­del­berg. The workshop is aimed at graduate students that are interested in the topic. The first three days we will work in small groups on some foundations of the field. On Thursday we will again in small groups look at some more recent papers (or advanced topics) and have a conference dinner in the evening. Finally, on Friday we shall have a small conference. Every participant will play an active role in the seminar - either by preparing a talk in the first part of the workshop or by presenting their favourite paper on pseudoholomorphic curves in Hamiltonian dynamics. The registration is open until February 03, 2023.

• Workshop page – Information and registration

The Eu­ro­pean Re­search Council (ERC) has awarded Annalisa Pillepich, re­search group leader at Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), one of the prestigious ERC Consolidator Grants. In her project COSMIC-KEY, Pillepich and her colleagues will be developing the next generation of simulations of galaxies and of the universe as a whole – a key to understanding obser­vational data that is set to become available over the next years.

The objective of COSMIC-KEY is to create the most realistic suites of simu­lations yet of galaxy formation and its consequences for cosmic evolution and cosmic structures. This includes, among many other physical phenomena, the influence of the central black holes not only on the rate of star formation in galaxies but, crucially, on the physical properties of the gas that surrounds galaxies and permeates dark-matter halos. The ultimate goal is to use such numerical and theo­re­ti­cal models to fit data of the X-ray and Sunyaev–Zel'dovich signatures of groups and clusters of galaxies and in turn to infer fundamental cosmological parameters that describe the functioning of the Universe.

With a total amount of 2 million euros, the consolidator grant will be used to finance 4 post-doctoral positions and 2 PhD students at MPIA over the coming five years.

• Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) - Press Release
• Eu­ro­pean Re­search Council - Press Release
• Annalisa Pillepich: Galaxies and Cosmology Theory Group

With simulations that resolve finer details than ever before, scientists Brooke Polak (Hei­del­berg Uni­ver­si­ty) and STRUC­TURES member Hubert Klahr (MPIA, Hei­del­berg Uni­ver­si­ty) have modelled a key phase in the formation of planets in our solar system: the way that centimetre-size pebbles aggregate into so-called planetesimals tens to hundreds kilometres in size. The simulation reproduces the initial size distribution of planetesimals that can be checked against observations of present-day asteroids. It also predicts the prevalence of close binary planetesimals in our solar system.

Planet formation around a star proceeds in several stages. Initially, cosmic dust in the swirling protoplanetary disk around a new star clumps together due to electrostatic (van der Waals) forces, forming so-called pebbles a few centimetres in size. The pebbles in turn join together to form planetesimals: space rocks between tens and hundreds of kilometres in diameter. Finally, collisions among these planetesimals form even larger, gravitationally-bound, solid cosmic objects: planetary embryos, which can continue accreting planetesimals and pebbles until they become planets. Simulating this progression from centimetre-size pebbles to planetesimals, however, is challenging due to the disparate scales involved. The simulations by Polak and Klahr follow an innovative approach by using a kinetic description in which small groups of pebbles in a collapsing cloud in a protoplanetary disk are treated like a gas that can undergo certain phase transitions, and assigning a pressure to this “pebble gas.” In their new work, Polak and Klahr look at several versions of collapsing protoplanetary disk regions, each with at a different distance from the Sun, starting with a distance as close as Mercury's orbit and ending with a collapsing region as far away as Neptune.

• Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) - Press Release
• Hubert Klahr: Planet and Star Formation Theory Group

In the new episode of Marsilius im Gespräch, the Podcast of Hei­del­berg's Marsilius Kolleg, Friederike Nüssel talks to Andreas Dreuw (Chemistry), Robert Scheichl (Mathematics, STRUC­TURES Cluster) and Jan Schuhr (Law) about chances, limitations and risks of Artificial Intelligence (AI). During their time as Marsilius Fellows, the three scientists have been working on an interdisciplinary project Künstliche Intelligenz: Zwischen Wunderglaube und Wissenschaft.

The Marsilius Kolleg at Hei­del­berg Uni­ver­si­ty bridges the gap between sciences and humanities through meetings and joint projects, which in turn promotes understanding and cooperation between the sciences and the humanities. Founded in 2007, the Marsilius Kolleg is a central component of Hei­del­berg’s successful proposal granted by the Excellence Initiative, launched by the federal and state governments of Germany.

• Podcast episode: Künstliche Intelligenz - Zwischen Wunderglaube und Wissenschaft (in German)
• Fellow report by Andreas Dreuw: “Der digitale Chemiker”
• Fellow report by Robert Scheichl: “Der digitale Mathematiker”
• Fellow report by Jan Schuhr: “Der digitale Richter”