Quantized Flux in Tightly Knotted and Linked Systems

International Scientific Committee: Natalia G. Berloff (DAMTP, Cambridge), Jason Cantarella (University of Georgia),

Anne-Christine Davis (DAMTP, Cambridge), Thomas W. Kephart (Vanderbilt University),

Paul Sutcliffe (Durham University), and Tanmay Vachaspati (Arizona State University)

in association with the Newton Institute programme Topological Dynamics in the Physical and Biological Sciences
(16 July - 21 December 2012)

Many systems contain flux tubes which tighten due to their own tension. This workshop will study all aspects of tightly knotted and linked systems which support quantized flux tubes. The systems studied will range over, but not be limited to, superconductors, cosmic strings, and gauge theories, such as quantum chromodynamics. Some topics to be considered will be:

• the energy spectrum of knots and links;
• mathematical and physical aspects of tightening;
• relaxation to local and global minima;
• topological aspects of stability related to helicity, quantized helicity and their generalizations;
• curvature corrections, distortion and other physical corrections;
• topology change and the dynamics of flux tube decay, from quantum reconnection and tunneling to monopole-anti-monopole pair production;
• universality aspects of tightly knotted/linked systems of quantized flux, from knotted flux tubes in superconductors to glueballs in QCD.

Invited Speakers:

• Petr M. Akhmet'ev (Moscow State University)
• Egor Babaev (University of Massachusetts Amherst)
• Carlo Barenghi (University of Newcastle)
• Jakob Bohr (Denmark Technical University)
• Yi-Zen Chu (University of Pennsylvania)
• Michael Duff (Imperial College London)
• Claus Ernst (Western Kentucky University)
• Richard Haley (Lancaster University)
• Derek Harland (Durham University)
• Mark Hindmarsh (University of Sussex)
• Juha Jaykka (University of Leeds)
• Bob Kerr (University of Warwick)
• Rafal Komendarczyk (Tulane University)
• Steffen Krusch (University of Kent)
• Carlos Martins (University of Porto)
• Matt Mastin (University of Georgia)
• Joe Niemela (The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics)
• Antti Niemi (University of Tours)
• Jun O'Hara (Tokyo Metropolitan University)
• Heinrich Paes (Technical University of Dortmund)
• R. Jason Parsley (Wake Forest University)
• George Pickett (Lancaster University)
• Levon Pogosian (Simon Fraser University)
• Philipp Reiter (University of Freiburg)
• Mairi Sakellariadou (Kings College London)
• Hayder Salman (University of East Anglia)
• Clayton Shonkwiler (University of Georgia)
• Martin Speight (University of Leeds)
• Tigran Tchrakian (National University of Ireland)
• Mikhail Volkov (University of Tours)
• Heiko von der Mosel (RWTH Aachen University)
• Alexei Yung (University Minnesota)