Postdoc at Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques Lukas Nakamura received his doctoral degree in mathematics from Uppsala University in 2024 Thanks to a grant from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation he will hold a postdoctoral position with Professor Maxim Kontsevich Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES) the topic of this project was created in the nineteenth century neither quantum mechanics nor Einstein’s general theory of relativity let alone the string theory of modern physics Geometry grew from the need to replace Newton’s complicated differential equations with simpler methods of describing motion the trajectory of a moving object is determined by its position and velocity – by a pair of quantities that together form a two-dimensional surface: the basic structure of symplectic geometry.  symplectic geometry has experienced a renaissance The twentieth century saw the development of two new pillars of physics: quantum mechanics which describes the smallest parts of the universe and Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity and one promising theory for this reconciliation is called string theory This builds our world in eleven dimensions rather than Einstein’s four and its smallest components are tiny strings instead of quantum particles.  Modern symplectic geometry is further developed in interaction with string theory and quantum field theory Nowadays it not only tackles two-dimensional spaces but all abstract spaces with an even number of dimensions Spaces with odd dimensions are treated by contact geometry which is closely related to symplectic geometry The interaction between these two geometries and mathematical operations inside and in between different geometric spaces are the subjects of the current project.  Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation has since its establishment in 1917 awarded over SEK 39 billion in grants In 2024 the yearly grants to excellent basic research and education in Sweden was in total almost SEK 2.4 billion [email protected] ‘Dutch-style’ roundabouts are becoming increasingly common in France and are designed to enable vehicle drivers and cyclists to better ‘co-exist’ The roundabouts are so-called because they are inspired by the Netherlands where cycling is very popular They are designed to make it safer for cyclists to use and reduce the risk of blind spots and dangerous vehicle-bike collisions They have a ‘second’ roundabout - which is a cycle lane - around the main one used by motorised vehicles They are designed to offer everyone the best possible visibility at every junction Cyclists have priority when entering and exiting the roundabout Read also: Nice trials video software to fine drivers who block cycle routesRead more: New type of traffic light aims to improve cyclist safety in France Some were recently built in the Paris region notably in the towns of Bures-sur-Yvette (Essonne) and in Créteil (Val-de-Marne).  Another was put in place in Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme) last year after they were also introduced in Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine) and Brest (Finistère) They appear to be well-used and well-received by cyclists and may become even more popular and widespread as a result cycling associations have said that there is still work to be done to convince motorists of the new system.  For example, the group Mieux se déplacer à bicyclette (‘Getting around better by bike’) have been campaigning for better awareness and increased adoption of this type of roundabout in a bid to win over more drivers, reports Capital The roundabouts come after a report published in 2022 showed a sharp rise in the number of cyclist deaths - up 30% compared to 2019 This was blamed partly on the reported increase in cyclists on the roads since the Covid pandemic In early 2023, a serious crash - in which a drunk driver ran into the back of a group of young bike riders in Brittany, seriously injuring two of them - prompted renewed debates on how to make cycling safer in France Read also: France to spend €43m to improve cycling paths safety campaigner Teodoro Bartuccio - an Olympic cycling trainer who founded the Mon vélo est une vie association (‘My bike is a life’) - called for an in-depth debate on transport to decide how to make cycling safer “We have worked hard in Paris and other cities on cycle lanes and it is starting to have an effect because there are more and more cyclists,” he told The Connexion.  he called for more to be done in the countryside and warned that many cyclists had even experienced “deliberate violence from motorists” an SUV driver in Paris was charged with murder and is accused of deliberately running over a cyclist in a road rage incident The incident sparked protests calling for a crackdown on road rage and improved cyclist safety in France We recap the rules on safety and bike condition New lights have been authorised and cyclists can now (legally) ride side by side in certain circumstances With 8 Fields Medallists since its creation the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES) in Bures-sur-Yvette is one of the most recognized global institutions in mathematics We visit the institution with its director who has served as a permanent Professor at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES) since 2016 has just been awarded the prestigious Fields Medal It is one more medallist for the IHES which is among the world's institutions that can boast the most Fields Medals The IHES also has a highly developed visitors programme hosting 200 international scientists per year for average stays of two and a half months with housing and offices available for their entire stay and we expect nothing in return from our invitees The goal is to attract those who produce new and original science so that they can directly discuss with their peers and explain their approach a method that is much more effective than reading publications U. : There are no calls for applications for permanent professor positions The Institute's Scientific Council continually works to identify the most promising researchers in mathematics and theoretical physics and conducts a rigorous examination process before extending a definitive offer the salary remains our primary difficulty in the face of international competition that they would be spared administrative constraints and that they could surround themselves with a team These advantages are familiar to the community The living environment offered by our magnificent institute amid a wooded estate along with the proximity of the Université Paris-Saclay ecosystem are also obviously beneficial factors.   We also receive applications from visitors and postdoctoral fellows with the Scientific Council making selections twice per year and even more so in the fields in which our scientists work which is very characteristic of the institute The IHES is a founding member of the new Université Paris-Saclay U. : It is highly advantageous on numerous levels it gives us international visibility: the ARWU or the famous "Shanghai ranking," ranked l'Université Paris-Saclay number one worldwide in mathematics two years in a row The collaboration also offers more possibilities for professors to supervise theses in collaboration with doctoral schools such as the Jacques Hadamard Doctoral School of Mathematics or the Ile-de-France Doctoral School of Physics We have also emphasized partnerships by organising events such as the Lectures series which have become anticipated and prestigious meetings in addition to seminars and the start of the school year for masters students and doctoral schools.  How is the IHES positioned within the international community U. : The institute is distinctive in this regard It was modelled after the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton although that institute includes more disciplines than us this interdisciplinary dimension is not absent from the IHES where there is true interaction between mathematicians and physicists Only a small number of other institutes abroad such as the Korea Institute for Advanced Study in Seoul You have been directing the institute for 9 years U. : We have developed a number of initiatives that are already at the contract stage Postdoctoral fellows were considered visitors and as such were not employees of the institute We also offer new types of tenure-track professorships over five years The leading Chinese probabilist Yilin Wang joined the IHES this year thanks to such a contract we emphasized our interactions with l'Université Paris-Saclay in which a scientific committee of experts meets one hundred researchers at IHES to present the state of research in a particular field This model is very popular with both the organisers and participants for instance through the adoption of an Ethics Charter by our Scientific Council the Scientific Council expanded with the arrival of three excellent women mathematicians at the institute (Fanny Cassel CNRS Senior Researcher; Laure Saint-Raymond the first permanent female professor at the IHES; and Yilin Wang).  We also have many projects for the future notably with a view to recruiting new permanent professors What is your view of the role of French mathematics in the world U. : French academic mathematics continues to do well in 2021 l'université Paris-Saclay and Sorbonne Université came in first and third respectively in the Shanghai ranking There is a tremendous concentration of high-level mathematics in France with great wealth within laboratories in the provinces as well We are one of the nations with the most Fields Medallists This demonstrates a genuine tradition of mathematics at the highest level It is nevertheless important to underscore the dichotomy between excellent academic mathematics and scholastic mathematics Perhaps there is a lack of scientists in the circles around political decision makers to stress these concerns Copyright © 2025 University of Southern California Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article Alain Connes (born April 1, 1947, Draguignan, France) is a French mathematician who won the Fields Medal in 1982 for his work in operator theory Connes’s publications included Géométrie non commutative (1990; Noncommutative Geometry) He served as editor for the Journal of Functional Analysis and the Journal of Noncommutative Geometry By David Shiga Wormholes could provide portals to other worlds (Illustration: NASA/Les Bossinas) The objects scientists think are black holes could instead be wormholes leading to other universes it would help resolve a quantum conundrum known as the black hole information paradox but critics say it would also raise new problems such as how the wormholes would form in the first place A black hole is an object with such a powerful gravitational field that nothing can escape it if it strays within a boundary known as the event horizon Einstein’s theory of general relativity says black holes should form whenever matter is squeezed into a small enough space astronomers have identified many objects that appear to be black holes based on observations of how matter swirls around them But physicists Thibault Damour of the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques in Bures-sur-Yvette and Sergey Solodukhin of International University Bremen in Germany now say that these objects could be structures called wormholes instead Wormholes are warps in the fabric of space-time that connect one place to another If you imagine the universe as a two-dimensional sheet you can picture a wormhole as a “throat” connecting our sheet to another one the other sheet could be a universe of its own Damour and Solodukhin studied what such a wormhole might look like and were surprised to discover that it would mimic a black hole so well that it would be virtually impossible to tell the difference Matter would swirl around a wormhole in the same way as for a black hole since both objects distort the space around them in the same way One might hope to distinguish the two by something called Hawking radiation an emission of particles and light which should only come from black holes and would have a characteristic energy spectrum But this radiation is so weak that it would be completely swamped by other sources such as the background glow of microwaves left over from the big bang Another difference one might hope to exploit is that unlike black holes This means that things could go in a wormhole and come back out again theorists say one variety of wormhole wraps back onto itself But this does not provide a foolproof test either Depending on the detailed shape of the wormhole it could take billions of years or more for things to pop back out after falling in even the oldest wormholes in our universe would not have had time to spit anything back out yet It seems the only way to decide the issue for sure with astronomical black holes is to make a daring plunge inside the incredibly strong gravitational field inside would tear apart every atom in your body you might find yourself in another universe on the other side the wormhole would tend to suck you back in and carry you back to the opening in your universe “The spaceship would do this yo-yo motion,” Damour told New Scientist then you can escape from the attracting power of the wormhole and explore” the space on the other side But a friend in either universe might have to wait billions of years to hear back from you since the transit time could be excruciatingly long Such a delay would make meaningful communication with anyone on the other side impossible But the delay gets smaller with smaller wormholes If a microscopic wormhole could be found or constructed the delay across it could be as short as a few seconds potentially making two-way communication possible Stephen Hsu of the University of Oregon in Eugene who has studied the formation of black holes and the properties of wormholes says he agrees that distinguishing between the two types of object with observations is practically impossible “The most important property of a black hole – that there is a ‘point of no return’ for an object falling in – is not something we can test at the moment,” he told New Scientist he says the objects out there suspected to be black holes probably really are black holes rather than wormholes There are plausible scenarios for forming black holes but it is not clear how you would form a wormhole “Wormholes that might be confused with a macroscopic black hole require some kind of exotic matter to stabilise them and it is not known whether such exotic matter exists,” he says Solodukhin says that a wormhole might form in much the same way that black holes form Physicists normally expect in these situations that a black hole would be produced but Solodukhin says that quantum effects may stop the collapse just short of producing a black hole He says this mechanism might be inevitable in a more complete picture of physics that unites gravity and quantum mechanics – a longstanding goal of physics then wherever we used to expect black holes to form And there might be a way to test the conjecture. Some physicists say that future particle accelerator experiments could produce microscopic black holes (see Atom smasher may give birth to ‘Black Saturns’) Such tiny black holes would emit measurable amounts of Hawking radiation proving that they are black holes rather than wormholes and microscopic wormholes are formed instead you would actually see if it is a black hole or a wormhole,” he says An added benefit of wormholes is that they could resolve the so-called black hole information paradox. The only way anything can exit a black hole is in the form of Hawking radiation, but it is not clear how the radiation carries information about the original object that was swallowed. This scrambling effect conflicts with quantum mechanics, which forbids such erasing of information (see Black holes: The ultimate quantum computers?) wormholes are much better than black holes because all these problems with information loss don’t exist in this case,” Solodukhin says things are free to leave without first being converted into Hawking radiation so there is no problem with lost information <Dialog description or question goes here> This site uses cookies to offer you a better browsing experience. By continuing, you are agreeing to the use of cookies on your device as described in our privacy policy Beware of fake email, SMS and WhatsApp messages: check before clicking. Read more