REGISTRATION HAS BEEN CLOSED SINCE DECEMBER 16, 2012.
General inquies can be directed to Oleg Evnin <oleg.evnin@gmail.com> and/or Auttakit Chatrabhuti  <dma3ac2@gmail.com> with "BANGKOK WORKSHOP 2013" in the subject line.

LOCAL ORGANIZERS: Auttakit CHATRABHUTI and Oleg EVNIN.

INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Ignatios ANTONIADIS (CERN), Eric BERGSHOEFF (Groningen U), Rajesh GOPAKUMAR (HRI, Allahabad), Henry TYE (HKUST-IAS, Hong Kong).

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

PUBLIC LECTURE

DETAILED ARRIVAL INFORMATION


OBJECTIVES:

The workshop will broadly focus on issues surrounding conjectured and proved connections between gravitational and gauge fields and systems with matrix and string degrees of freedom, as well as related subjects. Well-known examples of such connections include, in a non-preferential order, (1) string worldsheet description of perturbative gravity, (2) AdS/CFT correspondence, (3) gravitational matrix theories: BFSS, IKKT, etc, (4) triangulation approach to low-dimensional gravities, (5) matrix integral description of gauge theories (via reduced models in the large N limit, and via localization in supersymmetric contexts), (6) spin foams, Ponzano-Regge model (7) effective confining strings in gauge theories, etc.

Participants are expected to give seminars on their current research and/or review lectures in their fields of expertise. Due to the diversity of subjects covered, informal and pedagogical style of presentation is preferred, and blackboard talks are welcomed.

PRE- AND POST-WORKSHOP RESIDENCE PROGRAM:

Participants are encouraged to remain in residence for informal communication and collaboration during the weeks preceeding (January 21-25) and succeeding (February 4-8) the workshop. Please indicate the prospective timing of your stay in your registration e-mails.

VENUE:

The workshop will be hosted by the physics department of Chulalongkorn University (commonly abbreviated as "Chula", pronounced choo-lah), Thailand's leading school in natural science fields centrally located in the modernized Pathumwan district of Bangkok.

PRACTICALITIES:

Citizens of a large number of nations (including EU, US, Canada, Russia, Japan, Korea, a number of South-East-Asian countries and Hong Kong passport holders) enjoy visa-free entry to Thailand for up to 30 days. Some others (including India, mainland China and Taiwan passport holders) can obtain a visa-on-arrival at the airport for up to 15 days.

Participants are expected to arrange their own accommodations, though the organizers can provide some advice in this matter. Reservations should not be difficult to make via, e.g., booking.com or other similar sites, or by contacting the hotels directly. Being an epicenter of a gigantic tourist industry, Bangkok offers plentiful accommodations at all luxury levels, priced considerably lower than the general international standards. It should not be difficult to find housing within 1km of the workshop location indicated on this map. Two neat and clean mid-range (around 1200 baht/night) hotels within walking distance that we can recommend are Vista Residence Bangkok and Pathumwan House. Luxurious Pathumwan Princess is located across the street from campus. (Very) basic accommodations can start at as low as 400 baht/night for a private room, for example, at White Lodge. (As of October 28, 2012, requests are no longer taken for university-owned housing. Available rooms will be distributed among those who had submitted requests before that date.)

Climatic conditions in Bangkok are advantageous during the season of the workshop (roughly corresponding to a pleasantly warm and sunny summer in temperate countries).