Werner Israel Memorial Symposium

18 May 2023, 09:00 → 19 May 2023, 19:30 Canada/Pacific

BWC A104 (University of Victoria)

This symposium will celebrate the scientific career and legacy of Werner Israel, one of the leading figures in the development of our modern understanding of general relativity and black holes. Among many impactful contributions, Werner proved the foundational no-hair theorems for the exterior of static black holes, and later the phenomenon of mass inflation for the interior of rotating black holes (with his student E. Poisson); he devised the Israel junction conditions for extended gravitating sources, and developed the causal Muller-Israel-Stewart theory for relativistic thermodynamics and hydrodynamics. 

The symposium will be held in hybrid format on the campus of the University of Victoria, in Victoria BC, and will run over two full days May 18-19, 2023. The evening of May 18th will include a reception followed by a conference dinner.

In celebrating Werner's remarkable scientific legacy, the symposium aims to bring together researchers with interests aligned with various themes of Werner's research, both historical and modern. To this end, the focus of the meeting will be on properties of black holes and relativistic matter.

Invited Speakers

• Ahmed Almheiri (NYUAD)
• Patrick Brady (UW-Milwaukee)
• Elena Georgi (Columbia)
• Ruth Gregory (King's College London)
• Gary Horowitz (UCSB)
• Ted Jacobson (Maryland) 
• Christoph Kehle (ETH Zurich)
• Jess McIver (UBC)
• Sharon Morsink (Alberta)
• Carolyn Raithel (IAS Princeton)
• Misao Sasaki (Tokyo,Kyoto)
• Derek Teaney (Stony Brook)
• Bill Unruh (UBC)
• Amos Yarom (Technion)

Alert about spam communication - please be aware that some registrants have received spam emails requesting information about travel to Victoria and offering support for hotel reservations. 

Local Organizing Committee

Nikita Blinov, Kristan Jensen, Pavel Kovtun, Eric Mefford, Adam Ritz, Karun Thanjavur

Scientific Advisory Committee

Valeri Frolov (Alberta), Shinji Mukohyama (Kyoto), Julio Navarro (UVic), Eric Poisson (Guelph), Frans Pretorius (Princeton)

Sponsors

Thursday, 18 May

1 Welcome

2 Black Hole Surprises

Speaker: Prof. Gary Horowitz (UCSB)

Horowitz

3 Aspects of the Black Hole Final State Proposal

Speaker: Prof. Ahmed Almheiri (NYUAD)

10:40 Break

4 Walls, Bubbles, and Israel!

Speaker: Prof. Ruth Gregory (King's College, London)

Gregory

5 Gravitational collapse to extremal black holes and the third law of black hole thermodynamics

Speaker: Dr Christoph Kehle (ETH Zurich)

Kehle

12:20 Lunch

6 LIGO is Quantum

Speaker: Prof. Bill Unruh (UBC)

7 Counting states of quantum space

Speaker: Prof. Ted Jacobson (University of Maryland)

Jacobson

15:20 Break

8 Multiple Classical Histories as a Solution to the Black Hole Information Loss Paradox

Speaker: Prof. Misao Sasaki (University of Tokyo/Kyoto University)

Sasaki

9 Stability problems in Mathematical GR

Speaker: Prof. Elena Giorgi (Columbia University)

17:30 Reception and Dinner

Friday, 19 May

10 Gravitational-wave astronomy in 2023: progress and prospects

Speaker: Prof. Patrick Brady (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)

11 The Universe in High Fidelity

Speaker: Prof. Jess McIver (UBC)

McIver.pdf

10:40 Break

12 Using General Relativity to Understand Neutron Stars

Speaker: Prof. Sharon Morsink (University of Alberta)

Morsink

13 Probing hot and dense matter with neutron star mergers

Speaker: Dr Carolyn Raithel (IAS Princeton)

12:20 Lunch

14 Hydro, Heavy Ions, and Soft pions

Speaker: Prof. Derek Teaney (Stony Brook University)

Teaney.pdf

15 Steady state holographic turbulence

Speaker: Prof. Amos Yarom (Technion)

Yarom.pdf

16 Reflections & Closeout

Speaker: Prof. Eric Poisson

Astbury Public Lecture - Whispers from the Universe: Gravitational Waves, Black Holes, and Neutron Stars

Convener: Prof. Patrick Brady (University of Wisonsin - Milwaukee)