International Solvay Institutes

 

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

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)

TBC

Geneva (4 - 22 Nov)

TBC

Amsterdam (2 - 20 Dec)

TBC

 

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

 

Slides Gravitational waves

Slides Gravitational waves 2_1

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.

 

Please click here to see Geoffrey Compère's lecture notes.

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

 

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SCHEDULE

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

 

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SCHEDULE

 

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


Click here to see the schedule

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

 

Click here to see the schedule

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