The Paris-Saclay AstroParticle Symposium 2019 has begun at the Institute Pascal The 2019 AstroPascal workshop on astroparticles is taking place place at the Pascal Institute of the Paris-Saclay University. It is organized by Philippe Brax of IPhT and Yann Mambrini of LPT-Orsay.  Around 30 specialists of astrophysics, cosmology and particle physics will be invited to discuss and work on the themes: Dark Energy and Dark Matter.  The format will be flexible enough to allow for strong interactions between participants. There will be working sessions every day and on Fridays, a « conference » format day with invited speakers. We have invited confirmed researchers and are strongly encouraging the presence of their students and/or postdocs. The ultimate aim is to initiate-continue-finalise research projects in a nice environment.

Bertrand Eynard est un physicien théoricien, qui après une thèse sur les matrices aléatoires (sous la direction de Jean Zinn-Justin), est devenu chercheur au CEA (Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies renouvelables) depuis 1995. Ses travaux ont d'abord porté sur les matrices aléatoires où il a apporté d'importantes contributions et écrit et enseigné plusieurs cours. En 2004, il a introduit une nouvelle méthode algébrique pour le calcul du développement asymptotique des matrices aléatoires de grande taille, appelée la "récurrence topologique".

We are pleased to learn that Lenka Zdeborovà, CNRS researcher at IPhT, has just been awarded the Irène Joliot-Curie "Young Woman Scientist" prize for the year 2018. The Irène Joliot-Curie Awards are intended to promote women's place in research and technology in France. They are awarded by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation and Airbus with the support of the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Technology. Lenka is interested in applications of methods developed in statistical physics, such as advanced mean-field methods, replica method and message passing algorithms, for problems in machine learning and artificial intelligence, signal processing, inference and optimization. In other words: what are the problems that can be solved effectively using a computer? If this question is traditionally addressed in the fields related to informatics, she approaches it from the point of view of statistical physics.

  After having delivered for several years a course on quantum field theory at the Master program ¨High Energy Physics¨ at the Ecole Polytechnique, Francois Gelis's lecture notes have been published by Cambridge University Press in a volume entitled Quantum Field Theory: from basics to modern topics.  

General relativity has just celebrated its centenary and the early detection of gravitational waves by LIGO and Virgo has confirmed Einstein's prediction that accelerated masses can produce an oscillation of space-time spreading at the speed of light.

In this review Marc Barthelemy describes how statistical physics helps understand some of the key aspects of cities. Modelling the structure and evolution of cities became critical because policy makers need robust theories and new paradigms for mitigating problems arising with their growth. Fortunately, the increased data available about urban systems opens the possibility of constructing a quantitative ‘science of cities’ with the aim of identifying and modelling essential phenomena. Statistical physics plays a major role in this effort by bringing tools and concepts able to bridge theory and empirical results.