Join the Celebration: 't Hooft Birthday Conference on a Beautiful Dutch Island!

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In summary, Renate Loll was co-organizer of a Gerard 't Hooft 60th birthday celebration Physics conference going on now on a pretty Dutch island. Today 15 July, Lee Smolin and Carlo Rovelli gave talks, Frank Wilczek was one of the speakers yesterday. The party lasts three days 14-16 July.
  • #1
marcus
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Renate Loll was co-organizer of a Gerard 't Hooft 60th birthday celebration Physics conference going on now on a pretty Dutch island

Today 15 July, Lee Smolin and Carlo Rovelli gave talks
Frank Wilczek was one of the speakers yesterday. The party lasts three days 14-16 July.

http://www1.phys.uu.nl/gerard60/program/

I think the usual name for this kind of conference is "[name]FEST"

like this one would be called "'t HOOFT FEST"
===============

Renate gave the opening (welcome) talk yesterday.
Later Frank Wilczek gave a talk about 3 candidates for dark matter.
I guess 't Hooft is pretty interested in Quantum Gravity because several of the talks today seem to be QG.
Tomorrow talks include some by famous string personages and by cosmologists:
David Gross, Leonard Susskind, Andrei Linde, Lawrence Krauss
there is a PDF printable version of the program incase anyone is interested.

http://www1.phys.uu.nl/gerard60/program/program-full.pdf

more Utrecht-related links here:
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=77639

the 't Hooft-fest venue is a beach hotel
one of the events is a barbecue, another is a picnic at the lighthouse.
 
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  • #2
**
I guess 't Hooft is pretty interested in Quantum Gravity because several of the talks today seem to be QG. **

No kidding, he is at least writing about this since the beginning of the eighties; he has done some very important work (with Roman Jackiw) in 2+1 ``gravity'' coupled to point particles. Since 1996 he is gradually publishing about deterministic QM as (the ?) solution to the ``damn problem'' (as I call it).

Careful
 
  • #3
Aah, I think that maybe explains where my thesis advisor went. He mumbled something about being abroad this week...
 
  • #4
Dimitri Terryn said:
Aah, I think that maybe explains where my thesis advisor went. He mumbled something about being abroad this week...

the guy has a sense of humor, Dimitri
isnt it just a little offshore island with a beach where you can go for holiday?

"abroad":rolleyes: :wink:
 
  • #5
Careful said:
**
I guess 't Hooft is pretty interested in Quantum Gravity because several of the talks today seem to be QG. **

No kidding, he is at least writing about this since the beginning of the eighties; he has done some very important work (with Roman Jackiw) in 2+1 ``gravity'' coupled to point particles. Since 1996 he is gradually publishing about deterministic QM as (the ?) solution to the ``damn problem'' (as I call it).

Careful

I tried to search for 't Hooft on arxiv just now and it couldn't interpret his name. I tried 't Hooft and they thought I meant Hooft and found no matches. So I put quotes around, "'t Hooft" and they apparently searched for "t AND Hooft". Dumb system! Does anybody know how to do this?
 
  • #6
selfAdjoint said:
I tried to search for 't Hooft on arxiv just now and it couldn't interpret his name. I tried 't Hooft and they thought I meant Hooft and found no matches. So I put quotes around, "'t Hooft" and they apparently searched for "t AND Hooft". Dumb system! Does anybody know how to do this?
http://arxiv.org/find/quant-ph/1/au:+Hooft_G/0/1/0/all/0/1

Here's a list, and I'm not sure if it's exhaustive. I searched for his deterministic QM paper and then clicked on his name to arrive at the above page.
 
  • #7
selfAdjoint said:
I tried to search for 't Hooft on arxiv just now and it couldn't interpret his name. I tried 't Hooft and they thought I meant Hooft and found no matches. So I put quotes around, "'t Hooft" and they apparently searched for "t AND Hooft". Dumb system! Does anybody know how to do this?

I thought you had to type in Hooft.

Careful
 
  • #8
Right, I finally tried that and it worked. We seem to be farther from the Singularity than I thought! Human brains have "grandmother cells", one per important known face, for instant recognition, but arxiv can't find a Nobel winning physicst when his name is spelled correctly!

Do you think he is serious with this mapping to the classical system with the huge "gauge" group? It seems at first sight more of a stunt; he admits it won't work for massive fermions, and hasn't tried it on anything much bigger than the harmonic oscillator, which is like a spin foam guy being restricted to 1+1 spacetime.
 
  • #9
neutrino said:
http://arxiv.org/find/quant-ph/1/au:+Hooft_G/0/1/0/all/0/1

Here's a list, and I'm not sure if it's exhaustive. I searched for his deterministic QM paper and then clicked on his name to arrive at the above page.

that link gives 5 papers,
however this link gives 51 papers
http://arxiv.org/find/grp_physics/1/au:+Hooft/0/1/0/all/0/1

the difference is in the area quantifier, where your link has
.../find/quant-ph/1...

the alternative link, which gets more papers, has
.../find/grp_physics/1...

what Careful says is quite right, the form of the name to use is simply Hooft
but when one uses the search engine one must also select the area
and one should specify "all" physics to get the most hits.
 
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  • #10
Noted. Thanks, marcus.

Also, he ('t Hooft) hasn't stuck to a single name; you can see a few G.W.'t Hooft's, too. :biggrin:
 
  • #11
**
Do you think he is serious with this mapping to the classical system with the huge "gauge" group? **

Yes, very serious. Why do you think he keeps on writing about this?

** It seems at first sight more of a stunt; he admits it won't work for massive fermions **

The particular ansatz he makes for the massless case does not work for the massive one. All this says is that he does not know the beables for -say- electrons at the moment which is not a shame since that is a partially open problem with a very long history.

**and hasn't tried it on anything much bigger than the harmonic oscillator, which is like a spin foam guy being restricted to 1+1 spacetime. **

I cannot disagree more with what you say (in many ways). Anyone who knows quantum mechanics and the old theorems concerning the possibility of deterministic interpretations knows that getting out the harmonic oscillator requires a very different way of thinking about reality. The reason is that the excited states of the harmonic oscillator are known to be non-classical in the sense that the Wigner density becomes negative. Therefore, it is useful to construct ``weird'' toy models which are able to surpass this - as well as looking at quantization in ways which are not immediatly what one would like it to be (such as the quantum constraint idea applied to classical quantum systems to make the Hamiltonian positive). Many realists would perhaps even doubt that one needs to find all states of the harmonic oscillator since we do not measure them separately anyway.

Concerning the spinfoam analogy, they will face similar problems as realists a la 't Hooft do now in the future (when they have to say what particles are, and how the standard model has to emerge). More about that later, bedtime now.

Careful
 
  • #12
careful said:
the excited states of the harmonic oscillator are known to be non-classical in the sense that the Wigner density becomes negative. Therefore, it is useful to construct ``weird'' toy models which are able to surpass this - as well as looking at quantization in ways which are not immediatly what one would like it to be (such as the quantum constraint idea applied to classical quantum systems to make the Hamiltonian positive).

Thanks for the context, careful. I'll take another look at the 2004 paper.
 
  • #13
Outside his recent work on quant-ph, I have around the table a review paper on the instanton thing, http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9903189 (It is not a widely quoted paper; I think I come to it via a recent short note of Tornqvist, hep-ph/0606041)
 
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  • #14
selfAdjoint said:
I tried to search for 't Hooft on arxiv just now and it couldn't interpret his name. I tried 't Hooft and they thought I meant Hooft and found no matches. So I put quotes around, "'t Hooft" and they apparently searched for "t AND Hooft". Dumb system! Does anybody know how to do this?

If you're trying to find 't Hooft's most important papers, don't bother looking on the arXiv. He's basically a pre-arXiv guy.
 
  • #15
The stuff I've found seems to be mostly talks and other summaries of his off-arxiv papers. But for my light-minded purposes that's enough for the moment.
 
  • #17
Ops, someone named Hooft, Emilie E. E. also entered in the search I mentioned, but it seems to be a minor intrusion.

Christine
 

What is the "Join the Celebration: 't Hooft Birthday Conference on a Beautiful Dutch Island!" event?

The "Join the Celebration: 't Hooft Birthday Conference on a Beautiful Dutch Island!" is a scientific conference honoring the 75th birthday of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Gerard 't Hooft. It will bring together leading physicists and other scientists to discuss cutting-edge research in theoretical physics.

Where and when will the conference take place?

The conference will take place on the beautiful Dutch island of Texel from July 5-9, 2021. This island is known for its stunning landscapes, rich history, and vibrant culture, making it the perfect location for a celebration of science and discovery.

Who can attend the conference?

The conference is open to all scientists, researchers, and students who are interested in theoretical physics and related fields. We welcome participants from all over the world, regardless of their background or level of experience.

What topics will be discussed at the conference?

The conference will cover a wide range of topics in theoretical physics, including quantum mechanics, particle physics, cosmology, and more. There will be a mix of plenary talks, parallel sessions, and poster presentations, providing opportunities for participants to share their research and engage in discussions with their peers.

How can I register for the conference?

You can register for the conference by visiting our website and completing the online registration form. Early bird registration is available until May 1, 2021, and space is limited, so we encourage you to register as soon as possible. We also offer discounted rates for students and postdocs.

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