A. Achúcarro: Observar el Big Bang (Outreach talk / Charla divulgativa)

Este es el Año Internacional de la Luz, y se celebra medio siglo del descubrimiento de la luz más antigua del universo, el Fondo Cósmico de Radiación de Microondas, también llamado "CMB" (sus siglas en inglés). El CMB es una imagen del universo tal y como era unos 380.000 años después del Big Bang. Gracias a su estudio hemos podido conocer que el universo se expande, y determinar su edad, su composición, la historia de esa expansión y cómo se han ido formando las galaxias y todo lo que nos rodea. La conclusión, sorprendente, es bien conocida: el universo no se parece en nada a lo que habíamos previsto, parece estar lleno de materia oscura y energía oscura, ambas de naturaleza desconocida. Otra sorpresa reciente es que la radiación de microondas parece contener información sobre el estado cuántico del universo durante la primera fracción de segundo de su existencia. Nunca hemos estado tan cerca de observar el Big Bang.

Lugar y hora: viernes 3 de Julio a las 19:30 h en la 'Sala de la Muralla' del Colegio Mayor Rector Peset, Plaça Forn de Sant Nicolau, 4. 46001 Valencia. Ver póster.

C. Díaz: GENDER AT THE CORE OF THE EUROPEAN RESEARCH: H2020

After some considerations on previous FPs, Horizon 2020 moves gender equality from the borders to the core of European research, at least on the paper. Implementation and results are to be seen.

The three main objectives of H2020 en relation to gender are to achieve :

1. Gender balance in decision-making.
2. Gender balance in research teams.
3. Gender dimension in R & I content.

H2020 also focus on supporting structural changes in the organisation of research institutions and in the content and design of research activities.

There are and will be calls on gender issues and more than 100 topics of research for calls are specially marked as relevant to gender.

R. Emparan: BLACK HOLES IN THE LIMIT OF VERY MANY DIMENSIONS

Almost one hundred years after Einstein formulated General Relativity, the central role of its most fundamental objects --- the black holes --- is nowadays recognized in many areas of physics, even beyond astrophysics and cosmology. Still, solving the theory that governs their dynamics continues to demand new ideas. I will argue that, from many points of view, it is natural to consider the number of spacetime dimensions, D, as an adjustable parameter in the theory. Then we can use it for a perturbative expansion of the theory around the limit of very many dimensions, that is, considering 1/D as a small number. In this limit, a simple picture emerges in which the shape of the black hole is determined by the same equations that describe soap bubbles.

S. de Gregorio: GENDER, RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN THE EU

The presentation will focus on three key instruments of the EU research policy for the integration of gender: i) GenderSTE, the first of a series of policy driven networks set up by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) that was launched in November 2013 with the main objective of advancing the state of the art in knowledge and policy implementation on gender and science through the creation of a network of policy makers, researchers and experts on gender, science and technology; iii) The report by the European Commission ?Structural Change in Research Institutions: Enhancing excellence, gender equality and efficiency in research and innovation? that provides a vision on the present scenario and describes the cost of taking no action in this regard; iii) and the Gendered Innovations Project, which asserts that analyzing sex and gender can lead to innovation and improved knowledge and provides practical methods and case studies to integrate gender in research..

J. Gauntlett: APPLIED AdS/CFT AND BLACK HOLES

There has been a surge of interesting in trying to use the AdS/CFTcorrespondence to understand novel states of matter seen in the real world. These studies have led to the discovery fundamentally new classes of black hole solutions with novel properties.

M. Petrini: MARGINAL DEFORMATIONS OF SUPERCONFORMAL FIELD THEORIES AND GEOMETRY

Superconformal theories in four and three dimensions can have a continuous family of marginal deformations. We use generalised geometry to give a unified description of the conformal manifold on the dual gravity side.

M. Ramos: GENDER DISCRIMINATION: BARRIERS AND GENDER STEREOTYPES

Many aspects are explaining the horizontal and vertical gender discrimination. This presentation will review the gender barriers with special attention in gender stereotypes.

G.Rippon: SEX, SCIENCE AND THE BRAIN

Are scientists born or made? Is the lack of girls in science subjects a brain problem or a social problem? We will look at brain processes such as spatial cognition and social processes such as stereotype threat to find the answers.

P. Bueno: UNIVERSAL CONE ENTANGLEMENT IN CONFORMAL FIELD THEORIES

We study the contribution to the entanglement entropy of (2+1)-dimensional conformal field theories coming from a sharp corner in the entangling surface. This contribution is encoded in a function a(Θ) of the corner opening angle, and was recently proposed as a measure of the degrees of freedom in the underlying CFT. We show that the ratio a(Θ)/CT, where CT is the central charge in the stress tensor correlator, is an almost universal quantity for a broad class of theories including various higher-curvature holographic models, free scalars and fermions, and Wilson-Fisher fixed points of the O(N) models with N=1,2,3. Strikingly, the agreement between these different theories becomes exact in the limit Θ→Π, where the entangling surface approaches a smooth curve. We thus conjecture that the corresponding ratio is universal for general CFTs in three dimensions. We also discuss how this relation generalizes to cones in higher-dimensionsal theories.

A. Davis: PROGRESSING GENDER EQUALITY IN CAMBRIDGE AND THE UK

I will discuss the Athena SWAN scheme which aims to redress the imbalance of gender in the sciences in the UK. I will then discuss my work in Cambridge, both in Cambridge Mathematics and my role as Gender Equality Champion for Sciences in the University. I will briefly discuss the challenges and hopes for the future as well as a little bit about myself and why I'm doing this.

A. Davis: THE STRING DILATON AS A DARK ENERGY PARTICLE

In the strong coupling regime the string dilaton has a runaway potential. This makes it a candidate for dark energy. However, the coupling to matter is unknown in this regime. I show how a coupling function to matter can be derived, which keeps the dilaton in the strong coupling regime, and is consistent with tests of general relativity in the solar system. I will show this gives a modified gravity theory and discuss ways to test this model of dark energy.

J. Ecker: SYSTEMATICS ON PARTICLE PHYSICS D6-BRANE MODELS ON Z2 X Z6

The aim of our work is to launch a systematic search for particle physics models arising at the intersection of D6-branes in type II A String Theory on the Z2 X Z6 orbifold. First, the geometry of the T^6/(Z2 X Z6) orbifold will be presented. The next step consists of reviewing basic methods of model building in type IIA String Theory. Difficulties appearing in string model building and their resolution will be discussed in some detail. Finally, our results will be presented, including a systematic search for three generation models and the presentation of concrete global Pati-Salam models.

J. Edelstein: CAUSALITY CONSTRAINTS ON THE GRAVITON 3-POINT COUPLING

I will consider higher derivative corrections to the graviton 3-point coupling within a weakly coupled theory of gravity. Lorentz invariance allows further structures beyond that of Einstein's theory. I will argue that these structures are constrained by causality, and show that the problem cannot be fixed by adding conventional particles with spins J ≤ 2, but adding an infinite tower of massive particles with higher spins. Implications of this result in the context of AdS/CFT, quantum gravity in asymptotically flat space-times, and non-Gaussianity features of primordial gravitational waves are discussed.

A. Fabbri: BLACK HOLE EVAPORATION IN BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATES

The Hawking effect (quantum particle creation by black holes) is not specific to gravity. An analog of it can be found in fluids undergoing subsonic-supersonic transition (acoustic black holes). We briefly review ongoing attempts to observe it in condensed matter systems, and focus on a proposal to detect it through correlation measurements in Bose-Einstein condensates.

A. O'Bannon: A MONOTONICITY THEOREM FOR TWO-DIMENSIONAL BOUNDARIES AND DEFECTS

I will propose a proof for a monotonicity theorem, or c-theorem, for a three-dimensional Conformal Field Theory (CFT) on a space with a boundary, and for a two-dimensional defect coupled to a higher-dimensional CFT. The proof is applicable only to renormalization group flows that are localized at the boundary or defect, such that the bulk theory remains conformal along the flow, and that preserve locality, reflection positivity, and Euclidean invariance along the defect. The method of proof is a generalization of Komargodski's proof of Zamolodchikov's c-theorem. The key ingredient is an external 'dilaton' field introduced to match Weyl anomalies between the ultra-violet (UV) and infra-red (IR) fixed points. Reflection positivity in the dilaton?s effective action guarantees that a certain coefficient in the boundary/defect Weyl anomaly must take a value in the UV that is larger than (or equal to) the value in the IR. This boundary/defect c-theorem may have important implications for many theoretical and experimental systems, ranging from graphene to branes in string theory and M-theory.

C. Pantelidou: HOLOGRAPHIC THREE-DIMENSIONAL YM WITH COMPRESSIBLE MATTER

I will discuss the holographic dual of strongly coupled, three-dimensional Yang-Mills theories with massless flavour in the Veneziano limit at finite quark density and zero temperature. The fundamental degrees of freedom are modelled by a distribution of D6-branes with a non-vanishing electric field on their worldvolume that backreact on the geometry of a stack of colour D2-branes. I will present the RG flows corresponding to this system as well as results for some simple observables.

J. Tarrio: SUPER YANG-MILLS THEORIES WITH BACKREACTED FLAVORS IN DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS

In this talk I will discuss holographic models of super Yang-Mills theories coupled to Nf quark flavors, with the backreaction of the latter in the dynamics included. In the gravity side this is achieved by considering the backraction of Dp-branes in the geometric background dual to sYM theory. In the classes of models under discussion these branes are smeared in the compact part of the manifold, corresponding to the explicit breaking of the U(Nf) global symmetry group to U(1)^Nf.

M. Martínez Montero: EXTREME MASS RATIO BLACK HOLE MERGER

General Relativity is a very successful theory that has not yet been exhaustively tested in the strong field regime. Black holes are simple objects predicted in the theory and are a good arena to study some strong field features of General Relativity. With a simple idea we have been able to construct an event horizon that describes the merger of two black holes, one of them being much more massive than the other one.

A. Sanchez Puente: CURVATURE DIVERGENCES WITHOUT SINGULARITY IN THE CONTEXT OF PALATINI THEORIES

Black hole solutions in General Relativity present curvature divergences that are also singular points of the geometry. However, for certain extension of GR in the Palatini approach, charged black holes present a wormhole structure that may contain curvature divergences, but is nonsingular. In this talk i will review the concept of singularity, the properties of this charged black holes, and will study the geodesic completeness and the scattering of waves through the central divergence.