Program

ABSTRACTS

Monday, November 30, 2015

08:45 - 09:00 Hermann Nicolai (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, Potsdam):
"Welcome and Introduction"

- Chair: Hermann Nicolai -

09:00 - 10:00 Rai Weiss (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge):
"Gravitational waves: Theoretical insight to measurement"

10:00 - 11:00 Paul Steinhardt (Princeton University, Princeton):
"Einstein and Perspectives on Big Bang versus Big Bounce"

11:00 - 11:30 COFFEE BREAK

11:30 - 12:30 Andrea Ghez (University of California, Los Angeles):
"Our Galactic Center: A Laboratory for Exploring the Physics & Astrophysics of Black Holes"

12:30 - 13:50 LUNCH BREAK

- Chair: Bruce Allen -

13:50 - 14:00 Gary Horowitz (UC Santa Barbara):
"Welcome from the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation"

14:00 - 15:00 Sergiu Klainerman (Princeton University, Princeton):
"Are black holes real? - A Mathematics perspective"

15:00 - 16:00 Ingrid Stairs (University of British Columbia, Vancouver):
"Pulsar Tests of General Relativity"

16:00 - 16:30 COFFEE BREAK

16:30 - 17:30 Joseph Polchinski (Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Santa Barbara):
"Quantum Gravity and Strings"

18:15 - 20:00 Reception

20:00 - 21:00 Hanoch Gutfreund (Hebrew University, Jerusalem):
"100 Years of General Relativity - What Are We Celebrating?" (evening lecture)

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

- Chair: Hermann Nicolai -

08:45 - 9:00 Martin Stratmann (President of the Max Planck Society, München)

09:00 - 10:00 Zvi Bern (University of California, Los Angeles):
"A curious story of quantum gravity in the ultraviolet"

10:00 - 11:00 Eric Adelberger (University of Washington, Seattle):
"Tests of Einstein's equivalence principle and Newton's inverse-square law"

11:00 - 11:30 COFFEE BREAK

11:30 - 12:30 Abhay Ashtekar (Penn State University, University Park):
"Even a tiny cosmological constant casts a long shadow"

12:30 - 14:00 LUNCH BREAK

- Chair: Alessandra Buonanno -

14:00 - 15:00 Ted Jacobson (University of Maryland, College Park):
"Einstein's equation from maximal entropy of vacuum entanglement"

15:00 - 16:00 Harvey Reall (Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics – DAMTP, Cambridge):
"Black holes in higher dimensions"

16:00 - 16:30 COFFEE BREAK

16:30 - 17:30 Frans Pretorius (Princeton University, Princeton):
"Ultra-relativistic Collisions and Black Hole Formation"

17:30 - 18:30 David Spergel (Princeton University, Princeton):
"Precision Cosmology: Success and Challenges"

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

- Chair: Bernard Schutz -

09:00 - 10:00 Thibault Damour (Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques – IHES, Bures-sur-Yvette):
"The Problem of Motion in General Relativity: A Centenary Assessment"

10:00 - 10:30 Daniel Kennefick (University of Arkansas):
"Waves without Energy - Einstein and the enigma of gravitational waves: Do they actually transport energy?"

10:30 - 11:00 Joint Q&A and discussion: Damour and Kennefick

11:00 - 11:30 COFFEE BREAK

11:30 - 12:30 David Gross (Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Santa Barbara):
"The Enduring Legacy of Albert Einstein"

12:30 - 13:00 Alexander Blum (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin):
"The making of a legacy: how Einstein's insights slowly permeated physics in the course of the 20th Century"

13:00 - 13:30 Joint Q&A and discussion: Gross and Blum

13:30 - 14:30 LUNCH BREAK

- Chair: Hermann Nicolai -

14:30- 15:00 Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat (Université Pierre et Marie Curie/Sorbonne):
"Some memories from meeting Einstein, 1951-1952"

- Chair: Jürgen Renn -

15:00 - 16:00 Reinhard Genzel (Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Garching):
"Testing the Massive Black Hole Paradigm in the Center of the Milky Way"

16:00 - 16:30 Luisa Bonolis (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin):
"From “Dark Stars” to Gravitational Collapse within Einstein’s Theory: The Emergence of Relativistic Astrophysics"

16:30 - 17:00 Joint Q&A and discussion: Genzel and Bonolis

17:00 - 17:30 Hanoch Gutfreund (Hebrew University, Jerusalem):
Highlights of the exhibition - a combination of science and history
An introduction to the exhibition "Einstein's road to General Relativity"

Closure of Conference

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Program of the MPIWG conference

Webpage of the MPIWG conference