Organizers: Ruth Durrer (Univ. Geneva), Klaus Fredenhagen (Univ. Hamburg), Juerg Froehlich (ETH Zurich), Daniel Wyler (Univ. Zurich) and Pedro Schwaller (JGU Mainz)
May 20 - June 7, 2019, JGU Campus Mainz
The application is open until January 18, 2019.
Today's picture of the Universe suggests that classical structures originally grew out of quantum fluctuations encoded in the initial state of the Universe. But it is not really understood how this may have come about and whether quantum mechanics can be applied to describe the state of the very early Universe. Furthermore, data concerning gravitational interactions of visible matter with invisible sources suggest that three distinct contributions to the energy density of the Universe are essential to understand its evolution: Dark Energy (68%), Dark Matter (27%), and Visible Matter and Radiation (5%). But their nature, origin and evolution remain largely unknown or speculative. Thirdly, there are clear signs, related to synchrotron radiation and Faraday rotation, for the existence of tiny magnetic fields, filing huge intergalactic voids of the Universe. Yet, the basic mechanism underlying the formation of such magnetic fields remains mysterious. More questions arise when one connects cosmology to the microscopic description of matter, such as the standard model of elementary particles. The goal of the Scientific Program is to come up with a concise (albeit coarse) survey of the present state of facts and understanding in cosmology, to identify some key open problems and to initiate focused activities towards their solutions.
