Amsterdam-Brussels-Geneva-Paris Doctoral School
The aim of the Amsterdam-Brussels-Geneva-Paris Doctoral School on “Quantum Field Theory, Strings and Gravity” is to provide first-year PhD students with advanced courses in theoretical physics that help bridge the gap between Master-level courses and the most recent advances in the field. Responsible for the organization as well as for teaching the courses are the ULB, the VUB, the University of Amsterdam, various institutions in Paris led by Ecole Normale Supérieure, and various institutions in Switzerland led by the Swiss network "SwissMap" (ETH, U. Bern, U. Geneva, CERN).
The program typically starts at the end of September/beginning of October and consists of three times three weeks of lectures in three cities among Amsterdam, Brussels, Geneva (CERN) and Paris (depending on the year), with a one-week break between the segments. This way, the students are exposed to several institutes, each with their own research and teaching culture, and to professors from the various institutes. Last but not least, they get to meet fellow students from neighboring institutes and countries, who will be their peers and colleagues throughout (and possibly beyond) their PhD studies.
Participating institutions
Institute for theoretical physics - University of Amsterdam
Laboratoire de physique théorique - Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris)
Physique théorique et mathématique-ULB
Theoretical particle physics-VUB
SwissMap (ETH, U. Bern, U. Geneva, CERN)
The School is partly supported by the International Solvay Institutes. Students from institutions other than the participating ones are also encouraged to apply, but the number of available places is rather limited since the aim is to keep the total number of students at a reasonable classroom level.
2024 Doctoral School
REGISTRATION
If you wish to register, please download and complete the application form below and
send it to Isabelle Van Geet at isabelle.vangeet@solvayinstitutes.be by MONDAY JULY 8, 2024.
!!Only first year PhD students should apply!!
Attendance to the school is free of charge. Students will have to arrange and pay for their own travel and accommodation.
DOWNLOAD APPLICATION FORM 'DOCTORAL SCHOOL 2024' HERE.
Brussels (7 - 25 Oct)
Adel Bilal: Advanced Quantum Field Theory
Marco Billó: Introduction to String Theory
Geoffrey Compère: Advanced General Relativity
Alberto Lerda: Introduction to String Theory
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SCHEDULE
Please click here to see Adel Bilal's lecture.
Advanced Lectures on General Relativity
(Geoffrey Compère)
Geneva (4 - 22 Nov)
Mariana Grana: Superstrings and D-branes Elias Kiritsis,: Dualities in string theory
Silvia Penati: Introduction to supersymmetry Antoine van Proeyen: Supergravity
Amsterdam (2 - 20 Dec)
Kyriakos Papadodimas: AdS/CFT
Lorenz Eberhardt: 2d CFT and 2d gravity Guilherme Pimentel: Primordial cosmology
Erik Verlinde: Topics in quantum gravity
Past Doctoral Schools
2023 Doctoral School
Paris (9 - 27 Oct)
Alberto Lerda: Introduction to String Theory
Marco Billo: Introduction to String Theory
Geoffrey Compère: Advanced General Relativity Adel Bilal: Advanced Quantum Field Theory
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SCHEDULE
LOCATION: Lectures in Paris will take place in two different locations: At Institut Henri Poincaré, 11 rue Pierre et Maris Curie, 5th arrondissement and at Ecole Normale Supérieure, site de Montrouge,1 rue Maurice Arnoux, 92120 Montrouge.
Geneva (6 - 24 Nov)
Domenico Orlando: TBA
Silvia Penati: TBA
Antoine van Proeyen: TBA
Susanne Reffert: TBA
LOCATION: CERN Meyrin
CERN Rte de Meyrin 385
1217 Meyrin
Suisse.
Amsterdam (4 - 22 Dec)
Kyriakos Papadodimas: AdS/CFT (Part 1)
Lorenz Eberhardt: AdS/CFT (Part 2)
Balt van Rees (CFT and bootstrap)
Migeul Monteiro (Swampland)
LOCATION: University of Amsterdam
Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam
Netherlands.
PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR MORE PRACTICAL INFORMATION.
2022 Doctoral School
Brussels (3 - 21 Oct)
Adel Bilal: Advanced Quantum Field Theory
Alberto Lerda: String Theory I
Marco Billò: String Theory II
Silvia Penati: Introduction to Supersymmetry
Geoffrey Compère: Gravitational waves
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SCHEDULE
Slides Gravitational waves - Chap 1
Slides Gravitational waves - Chap 2
Paris (31 Oct - 18 Nov)
Domenico Orlando: Introduction to Superstrings
Susanne Reffert: D-branes and Superstring Dualities
Antoine van Proyen: Introduction to Supergravity
Andrea Puhm: Infrared aspects of gravity and holography
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SCHEDULE
Geneva (28 Nov- 16 Dec)
Victoe Gorbenko: Cosmology
Kyriakos Papadodimas: AdS/CFT
Eric Perlmutter: TBA
Julian Sonner: AdS/CFT
Erik Tonni: TBA
2021 Doctoral School
Brussels (4 - 22 Oct)
Adel Bilal: Advanced Quantum Field Theory
Alberto Lerda: String Theory I
Marco Billò: String Theory II
Geoffrey Compère: Gravitational waves & Advanced Lectures on General Relativity
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SCHEDULE
Notes on Advanced Lectures on General Relativity
Paris (2 - 19 Nov)
Silvia Penati: Introduction to Supersymmetry
Domenico Orlando: Introduction to Superstrings
Susanne Reffert: D-branes and Superstring Dualities
Julian Sonner: AdS/CFT
Antoine van Proyen: Introduction to Supergravity
Amsterdam (29 Nov- 17 Dec)
Kyriakos Papadodimas: AdS/CFT
Andrea Puhm: A celestial holography primer
Jan Pieter van der Schaar: Cosmology
Michael Walter: Quantum Information and Quantum Gravity
Erik Verlinde: Quantum Gravity and Quantum Information
2020 Doctoral School
Brussels (5 - 23 Oct) - ONLINE
Adel Bilal: Advanced Quantum Field Theory
Alberto Lerda: String Theory I
Marco Billò: String Theory II
Monica Guica: Advanced GR
Geoffrey Compère: Gravitational waves
CANCELLED: Douglas Stanford (New Horizons Solvay Lecture)
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SCHEDULE
- Please click here to see Adel Bilal's lecture notes
Geneva (2 - 20 Nov) - ONLINE
Silvia Penati: Introduction to Supersymmetry
Domenico Orlando: Introduction to Superstrings
Susanne Reffert: D-branes and Superstring Dualities
Julian Sonner: AdS/CFT
Antoine van Proyen: Introduction to Supergravity
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SCHEDULE
Amsterdam (30 Nov- 18 Dec) - ONLINE
Agnese Bissi: Modern methods in QFT
Kyriakos Papadodimas: AdS/CFT
Erik Verlinde: Quantum Gravity and
Quantum Information
Michael Walter : Quantum Information and Quantum Gravity
Marcel Vonk: Resurgence
2019 Doctoral School
Paris (7 - 25 Oct)
Alberto Lerda: String Theory I
Marco Billò: String Theory II
Monica Guica: Advanced GR
Adel Bilal: Advanced Quantum Field Theory
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SCHEDULE
Geneva (4 - 22 Nov)
Julian Sonner: Introduction to AdS/CFT
Nikolay Bobev: Introduction to Supersymmetry
Antoine van Proyen: Introduction to Supergravity
Susanne Reffert: Introduction to Superstrings
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SCHEDULE
Amsterdam (2 - 20 Dec)
Marcel Vonk: Resurgence
Agnese Bissi: Modern methods in QFT
Michael Walter: Quantum information
Kyriakos Papadodimas: AdS/CFT
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SCHEDULE
2018 Doctoral School
Brussels (8 - 26 Oct)
Alberto Lerda: String Theory I
Marco Billò: String Theory II
Adel Bilal: Advanced Quantum Field Theory
Geoffrey Compère & Stephane Detournay: General Relativity and Black Holes
Zohar Komargodski (2018 New Horizons Lecturer in Physics): Using Topology to Solve Strongly Coupled Quantum Field Theories
Bernard Derrida (2018 Solvay Chair in Physics):
The Importance of Large Deviations in Non-Equilibrium Systems
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SCHEDULE
Please click here to see Geoffrey Compère's lecture notes.
Please click here to see Adel Bilal's lecture notes to print and take with you to the class.
Please click here to see Adel Bilal's exercises.
Paris (5 - 23 Nov)
TBA: Introduction to supersymmetry
Antoine van Proeyen:
Introduction to supergravity
Costas Bachas: Introduction to superstrings
Marc Henneaux: Asymptotic properties
of gravity
Geneva (3 - 21 Dec)
Kyriakos Papadodimas: Intro to AdS/CFT
Julian Sonner: Applied AdS/CFT
Francisco Morales: N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories in four dimensions
Marcel Vonk: Introduction to topological string theory
Marcos Marino: Large N
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SCHEDULE
2017 Doctoral School
Brussels (2 - 20 Oct)
Alberto Lerda: String Theory I
Marco Billò: String Theory II
Adel Bilal: Advanced Quantum Field Theory
Geoffrey Compère & Stephane Detournay: General Relativity and Black Holes
Dam Thanh Son (2016 Solvay Chair in Physics):
Quantum Hall physics and
field-theoretic dualities
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SCHEDULE
Please click here to see Adel Bilal's lecture notes to print and take with you to the class.
Please click here to see Adel Bilal's exercises.
Paris (6 - 24 Nov)
TBA: Introduction to supersymmetry
Antoine van Proeyen:
Introduction to supergravity
Costas Bachas: Introduction to superstrings
Axel Kleinschmidt: Lie algebras in physics
Amsterdam (4 - 22 Dec)
Kyriakos Papadodimas: Intro to AdS/CFT
Julian Sonner: Applied AdS/CFT
Gui Pimentel: QFT on curved space
Marcel Vonk: Resurgence
Dionysis Anninos: Topics in Large N
2016 Doctoral School
Brussels (3 - 21 Oct)
String Theory I by Alberto Lerda
String Theory II by Marco Billò
Advanced Quantum Field Theory by Adel Bilal
General Relativity and Black Holes by Glenn Barnich
Quantum Hall physics and field-theoretic dualities by Dam Thanh Son (2016 Solvay Chair in Physics)
*Please click here to see Adel Bilal's lecture notes to print and take with you to the class.
Click here to see the schedule
Amsterdam (31 Oct - 18 Nov)
String Theory II by Elias Kiritsis
Supergravity by Antoine van Proeyen
Susy QFT / CFT by Nikolay Bobev
Quantum Fields in Curved Space-Time by Guilherme Pimentel
Introduction to AdS/CFT by
Kyriakos Papadodimas
Geneva (28 Nov - 16 Dec)
4d N=2 susy QFT by Wolfgang Lerche
Lie algebras by Matthias Gaberdiel
Large N by Marcos Marino
Foundations of AdS/CFT by Ben Hoare
Applied AdS/CFT by Julian Sonner
2015 Doctoral School
Paris (5 - 23 Oct)
Quantum Field Theory by Adel Bilal
General Relativity by Luc Blanchet
2d Conformal Field Theory
Supersymmetry
Amsterdam (2 - 20 Nov)
Introduction to Supergravity by Antoine van Proeyen
Introduction to String Theory by Marco Billo & Alberto Lerda
Supersymmetric Gauge and Conformal Field Theories by Nikolay Bobev
Black Holes and Quantum Gravity by
Bartek Czech
Geneva (30 Nov- 18 Dec)
String theory II by Boris Pioline and Julian Sonner
AdS/CFT by Kyriakos Papadodimas
Topological Strings by Hans Jockers
Instantons & large N by Marcos Marino
Lie algebras for physicists by
Axel Kleinschmidt
2014 Doctoral School
Brussels (13 - 31 Oct)
Advanced Quantum Field Theory by Adel Bilal
General Relativity, Cosmology and Black Holes by Glenn Barnich
String Theory I by Alberto Lerda
String Theory II by Marco Billò
Physics of the Early Universe by Viatcheslav Mukhanov (2014 Solvay Chair in Physics)
*Please click here to see Adel Bilal's lecture notes
Click here to see the schedule
Paris (3 - 21 Nov)
Introduction to Supersymmetry by
Ullrich Ellwanger (7 lectures)
Introduction to Supergravity by
Antoine van Proeyen (8 lectures)
Introduction to Superstrings and D-branes by
Pierre Vanhove and Costas Bachas (8 lectures)
N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories by
Amir Kashani-Poor (5 lectures)
Geneva (1 - 19 Dec)
Intergrability in QFT and AdS/CFT by Niklas Beisert
QFT in curved space by Matthias Blau
2d CFT by Matthias Gaberdiel
Large N and instantons in QFT by Marcos Marino
Introduction to AdS/CFT by Kyriakos Papadodimas