Conference/School

2017 marks 50 years since the seminal 1967 article of Kochen and Specker proving that quantum theory fails to admit of a noncontextual model.  Despite the fact that the Kochen-Specker theorem is one of the seminal results concerning the foundations of quantum theory, there has never been a large conference dedicated to the subject.  The 50-year anniversary of the theorem seems an opportune time to remedy this oversight.  Furthermore, in the last decade, there have been tremendous advances in the field.  New life has been breathed into the subject as old conceptual issues have been re-examined from a new information-theoretic perspective. Importantly, there has been great progress in making the notion of noncontextuality robust to noise and therefore experimentally testable.  Finally, there is mounting evidence that the resource that powers many quantum advantages for information processing is contextuality.  In particular, it has been shown to underlie the possibility of universal quantum computation.  Many groups worldwide are actively engaged in advancing our knowledge on each of these fronts and in deepening our understanding of the distinction between quantum and classical theories through the lens of contextuality.  Through this conference, we aim to bring together leading researchers in the field in order to develop a broader perspective on the issues, draw connections between different approaches, foster a more cohesive community, and set objectives for future research.

Continuing investment in fundamental weakly-coupled science, primarily through neutrino experiments and dark matter searches, prompts the question: is the maximum possible scientific information going to be extracted from these experiments? Are there new creative uses of the existing and planned facilities that would advance our knowledge of fundamental physics? Are there physics targets that have been overlooked by the current approach? This workshop will attempt to advance discussion of these topics, and concentrate on non-traditional ideas and alternative methods of probing new physics, both at underground laboratories and at high-intensity accelerators. The workshop aims to complement the large international conference, Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics 2017, to be held in Sudbury ON July 24-28, by directly preceding that meeting.

This tenth annual one-day symposium aims to provide an opportunity for condensed matter researchers in Southwest Ontario to gather and discuss informally their most recent research.  The general format of the meeting consists of 2 guest speakers and 5-7 contributed talks.  The names of the contributing speakers and title of their talks will be announced later.  Registration begins at 9:30 am.  The meeting is expected to start around 9:45 am and end between 5-5:30 pm.  A lunch will be provided by the Black Hole Bistro.

There will be two keynote speaker for the symposium; Professor Andrew Mackenzie from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids,Dresden and Professor Anders Sandvik from Boston University.  Their talk titles will be announced at a later date.

Registration for this event will open shortly.

In the past five years their have a been number of significant advances in the mathematics of QFT on manifolds with boundary.  The work of Cattaneo, Mnev, and Reshitihkin--beyond setting rigorous foundations--has led to many computable and salient examples.  Similarly, the work of Costello (specifically projects joint with Gwilliam and Si Li) provides a framework (and deformation/obstruction) for the observable theory of such theories with boundary/defects. There are related mathematical advances: constructible factorization algebras and higher category theory as pioneered by Lurie and the collaboration of Ayala, Francis, and Tanaka. The goal of the workshop is to bring together the leading experts in this multi-faceted subject.The structure of the workshop will be such as to maximize the exchange of knowledge and collaboration. More specifically, the morning sessions will consist of several lecture series, while the afternoons will be reserved for research working groups. The mornings will communicate the essential ideas and techniques surrounding bulk-boundary correspondences and perturbative AKSZ theories on manifolds with boundary/corners. The afternoons will be research driven and focus on specific problems within the following realms: the interaction of renormalization with cutting/pasting, aspects of the AdS/CFT correspondence, cohomological approaches to gravity, and the observable/defect theory of AKSZ type theories.