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INSTYTUT FIZYKI TEORETYCZNEJ WYDZIAŁ FIZYKI UNIWERSYTETU WARSZAWSKIEGO |
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October 17, 2024
July 18, 2024 With deep regret we inform that on April 14th,, at the age of 75 professor Wojciech Kopczyński has passed away. He was a member of our Faculty and one of the founding member of the Polish Society on General Relativity. Wojciech Kopczyński graduated with a master’s degree from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw in 1969. The same year he became a member of the Chair of Relativity and Gravitation, with which he remained close for the rest of his life. His pioneer research was concerned with geometry of spacetime in the presence of matter with non-zero spin in Einstein-Cartan theory. He discovered that spin and torsion can indeed eliminate the initial spacetime singularity. He was an outstanding expert in higher-dimensional spacetimes and teleparallel geometries. At his exquisite lectures several generations of physicists were raised. Together with Andrzej Trautman he co-authored a relativity coursebook “Czasoprzestrzeń I grawitacja” PWN 1984 (“Spacetime and relativity”).
Memorial service for out distinguished college will take place on May 5th at 13:30 in the Northern Communal Cemetery.
Last weekend the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw celebrated its 100 birthday.
Professor Andrzej Trautman was awarded Amaldi Medal. The Amaldi Medal is a prestigious award named after the great physicist Edoardo Amaldi, a close collaborator of Enrico Fermi and one of the fathers of experimental gravitation physics. The medal, made of solid gold, is awarded by SIGRAV (Società Italiana di Relatività Generale e Fisica della Gravitazione - Italian Society of General Relativity and Gravitational Physics) every two years to an European scientist who has made contributions of great importance to General Relativity and Gravitation Physics.
Professor Trautman was honoured for his contribution to the field of exact solutions of Einstein's, including discovery of many black hole and gravitational wave solutions.
The information in Italian.
[Photo Credit: Wikipedia]
[Photo Credit: Paweł Nurowski]
June 12, 2021
In the upcoming week dr Arman Taghavi-Chabert will be a guest in out Chair. Starting july dr Taghavi-Chabert will be leading a research project on "CR and conformal methods is General Relativity". The project is financed by NCN as a part of POLS calls.
March 31, 2021 Recently a friend and collaborator of many members of our Chair - Ted Newman - passed away. Today we held a gatheing in his rememberance, link to the meeting can be found here.
The US-based Stanford University has recently released a list that represents the top 2 per cent of the most-cited scientists in various disciplines. The exhaustive list has 1,59,683 persons. There is a non-empty intersection with the list of the members of our Chair. October 6, 2020 LATEST NEWS Sir Roger Penrose, the Honorary Member of the Polish Society on Relativity (PoToR) is among the 2020 Nobel Laureates in Physics. His distinguished achievement is the black hole theory. The concept of a black hole can already be found in the work of Laplace and as developed thanks to Einstein's theory and the solutions of Schwarzschild and Kerr (to which also Robinson and Trautman contributed). However, it was Sir Roger who proved the spacetime singularity theorem and formulated the cosmic censorship conjecture that imply that black hole is the final stage for a large class of gravitational collapse processes. In fact it is inevitable if a trapped surface has formed in space-time. [Click HERE for to see the original paper or HERE for a review article] Penrose also discovered, in a purely theoretical way, the process of extracting energy from a black hole at the expense of its momentum.Today's observations confirm the role that the Penrose process plays in black hole astrophysics. PoToR members continue to research various new issues in black hole theory. Sir Roger also made outstanding contributions to other areas of the theory of gravity and other fields of science. His works on the asymptotic properties of space-time are fundamental for the theory of gravitational radiation. Penrose's theory of twistors led to the development of new branches of differential geometry and algebraic topology. Penrose's tailing found its realization in nature in the form of quasicrystals, a special form of a solid body in which atoms arrange themselves in an apparently regular, but not repeating structure. Penrose's Triangle Impossible was the inspiration for Escher's paintings. The last time we hosted Sir Roger Penrose in Warsaw during the Conference on the occasion of Jerzy Lewandowski's 60th birthday on September 16-20, 2019 when he gave a talk on the Twistor Theory.  A group of friends discussing over dinner on classical and quantum black holes. From the left Jerzy Lewandowski, Roger Penrose, Yongge Ma, Ted Newman, Carlo Rovelli, Francesca Vidotto [September 2019, Warsaw]  From the left: Tomasz Trześniewski, Daniel Nemeth, Michał Artymowski, Roger Penrose, Jan Ostrowski, Jerzy Lewandowski [The 4th Conference of the Polish Society on Relativity September 2017, Kazimierz Dolny] Roger: Congratulations! Another part of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 is shared by prof. Andrea Ghez (University of California, Los Angeles) and prof. Reinhard Genzel (Max Plank Instiute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching) "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy". They are leaders of two research teams, who have been monitoring the motions of stars orbiting the Galactic centre for nearly three decades. Genzel’s group used telescopes in Chile operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), while Ghez and her colleagues used the Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Their works have been essential for proving that the supermassive black hole resides in the center of our Galaxy, as predicted by the theory of gravity. Penrose’s discovery of the singularity theorem showed that black holes are a robust consequence of general relativity, forming naturally in very overdense regions. The central few parsecs of the Milky Way harbours a rich cluster of stars and hot gas. These have been used to trace the gravitational potential of the Galactic centre defined by the compact radio source Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), at a distance of 25,000 light years. If the mass concentration at the very centre of the Galaxy is made of a single supermassive black hole, the velocities of stars there should be growing for progressively smaller radii, as for planets around the Sun. Such Keplerian orbits should not arise if the mass is due to a spatially distributed cluster of stellar-mass objects. Thanks to the work of Ghez and Genzel's groups, the orbits of the brightest stars closest to the middle of the Milky Way have been mapped with increasing precision. Their pioneering work has given us the most convincing evidence yet of a supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. Prof. Andrea Ghez became 4th woman winning Nobel Prize in Physics, after Maria Curie-Skłodowska (1903), Maria Goeppert-Mayer (1963), Donna Strickland (2018). June 10, 2020 The second part of the videorealtion from the Loops '19 conference, this time concerning The Big Bang and its Signs in the CMB is out. We invite you to watch it here.  March 15, 2020 To see what's new in the realm of the Black Holes, Dark Matter & Quantum Gravity watch the relation form the Loop Quantum Gravity Conference 2019, starring researchers on Loop Quantum Gravity, among them professor Lewandowski. The video can be found here.  March 11, 2020 We would like to inform you that due to the situation related to coronavirus spread the seminar is cancelled until April 14. For the current information about the situation and the arrival at the University of Warsaw please consult http://welcome.uw.edu.pl/. January 23, 2020 We cordially invite you to listen to Professor Trautman's newest interview. Together with a popular science communicator they discuss Professor Trautman's involvement in the studying and later discovering the gravitational waves by the LIGO Collaboration. The video can be found here. We also invite you to read Professor Trautman's memories concerning his early career in relativity physics. The interview can be found here.  December 03, 2019 Professor Andrzej Trautman won the Award of Centre For Advanced Studies, called Pythagorean Universe for the year 2019. The award ceremony was accompanied by talk: "Moja droga od fal elektromagnetycznych na PW do fal grawitacyjnych na UW" (“My journey from the electromagnetic waves at the WUT to the gravitational waves at the UW”). The award is given to scientist with exceptional merits to scientific community, based both on the research and exquisite personality. Extended list of Professor’s Trautman achievements as well as the biography can be found here.  November 12, 2019 Doctor Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski will deliver a talk at the joint Gravity and Mathematical Methods seminar on the 14th of November (Thursday!) The talk will take place in room 1.40 at 10.15. She already met with our students on Monday and Tuesday.
Doctor Pasterski graduated this year from Harvard University, she is currently at a postdoc position in Princeton. Her research focuses on the interplay between asymptotic symmetries, soft theorems and memory effects. The talk, based on her PhD thesis (published in Physics Reports) will be mainly devoted to the new exciting proposal for the correspondence between 4-dimensional asymptotically flat spacetimes and 2-dimensional CFTs.
 Source: forbes.com October 7, 2019 Professor Lewandowski will deliver a lecture "Non-expanding horizons in the BH and GV theory" at the inauguration of the United Center for Gravitational Wave Physics and the first International Meeting on Graviational Waves, to be held at Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, China, during the time, October 11-13, 2019.   September 5, 2019 W dniu 18 września 2019 r. o godzinie 12:15 w Instytucie Fizyki Teoretycznej Wydziału Fizyki Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego przy ul. Pasteura 5 w sali nr 2.22 (II piętro) odbędzie się publiczna obrona rozprawy doktorskiej mgr. Ilkki Mäkinena. Tytuł rozprawy: Dynamics in Canonical Models of Loop Quantum Gravity Promotor: prof. dr hab. Jerzy Lewandowski (Uniwersytet Warszawski) Recenzenci: prof. dr hab. Jerzy Kowalski-Glikman (Uniwersytet Wrocławski), dr Simone Speziale (Aix-Marseille Universite) Z pracą można zapoznać się w bibliotece Wydziału Fizyki Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego. Streszczenie rozprawy doktorskiej jest umieszczone na stronie internetowej Wydziału Fizyki (link). July 5, 2019 Prof. Lewandowski was a foreign speaker at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Chinese Physical Society, Division of Gravitation and Relativistic Astrophysics. 
April 5, 2019
April 16, 2018 Zachęcamy do wysłuchania audycji Polskiego Radia pt. Krótka historia Stephena Hawkinga (link), prowadzonej przez Panią Marię Gizę, której gośćmi byli prof. Marek Abramowicz oraz prof. Jerzy Lewandowski.
December 29, 2017
Z wielkim żalem zawiadamiamy, że 27 grudnia zmarł prof. dr hab. Stanisław Bażański. Stanisław Bażański od początku lat pięćdziesiątych był związany z Instytutem Fizyki Teoretycznej. Główne zainteresowania naukowe Stanisława Bażańskiego koncentrowały się na badaniu równań ruchu cząstek punktowych i obiektów rozciągłych w ogólnej teorii względności, rozchodzeniu się światła w układach nieinercjalnych, zasadom wariacyjnym w mechanice klasycznej i relatywistycznej oraz podstawom mechaniki klasycznej i szczególnej teorii względności. Był tłumaczem i redaktorem cyklu książek Landaua i Lifszica poświęconych wszystkim działom fizyki teoretycznej i słynnych wykładów Feynmana. Na podstawie wykładów Leopolda Infelda napisał pierwszy podręcznik ogólnej teorii względności. Wspólnie z J. Plebańskim, B. Mielnikiem i J. Ryteń napisał znakomitą książkę popularno naukową Znane i Nieznane. Dla wielu był wzorem stoickiego spokoju i dobrych manier.
Pogrążeni w smutku koledzy z Katedry Teorii Względności i Grawitacji, Wydział Fizyki, UW November 7, 2017 Professor Andrzej Trautman has received the Foundation for Polish Science Prize 2017 in the mathematical, physical and engineering sciences for the theoretical demonstration of the reality of gravitational waves. Congratulations! November 5, 2017 Between November 6 and 16, 2017, Professor Yongge Ma from the Beijing Normal University in China and Pennsylvania State University in the USA, and between November 6 and 10, 2017, Dr. Andrea Dapor from FAU Erlangen-Nurnberg in Germany will be visiting our Chair. October 12, 2017 On October 12 and 13, 2017, Professor Benjamin Bahr from the University of Hamburg in Germany will be visiting our Chair. March 18, 2017 Between March 20 and April 4, 2017, Professor Yaser Tavakoli from the University of Tehran in Iran will be visiting our Chair. December 29, 2016 On December 28, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland announced a call for proposals in the Mobilność Plus competition. Within the programme, young researchers can apply for financing research stays abroad. Detailed information can be found here. December 13, 2016 On December 9-11, the conference Gravitational waves. Mathematical, computational, astrophysical and quantum approaches was held at the Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw. Photos from the conference can be found here. On December 12, a ceremony of awarding national decorations by the President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda was held in the Presidential Palace in Warsaw.
Professor Andrzej Trautman was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta for outstanding achievements in research and academic work, for achievements in international scientific cooperation.
Professor Sir Roger Penrose was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland for outstanding scientific achievements in the field of physics, the development of Polish-British scientific cooperation.
A note on the ceremony and official photos can be found on the website of the President of the Republic of Poland.
January 23, 2020 March 11, 2020 |
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