LLNL set to host International Lattice Physics Conference

Next week, nearly 400 scientists from around the world will converge at the pristine mountains near Lake Tahoe to discuss all aspects of physics related to the fundamental particles of nature, quarks and gluons that form the matter we observe within our visible universe. They also will discuss the physics of new particles that may be discovered at the Large Hadron Collider and could explain the origins of dark matter.

LLNL is hosting the 29th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, held at Squaw Valley, from July 10-16. The chair of the conference is LLNL scientist Pavlos Vranas. The local organizing committee includes all members of the LLNL lattice group: Michael Buchoff, Michael Cheng, Tom Luu, Ron Soltz, and Joseph Wasem, as well as scientists from many major California institutions: University of the Pacific, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, UC Davis, San Francisco State University, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego. Organizers spent nearly two years organizing the conference. There are an unprecedented number off attendees and high profile speakers.

In addition, a new award -- the Ken Wilson Lattice Award, established by P. Vranas (LLNL) and J. Hetrick (UOP) and endorsed by the Nobel Prize winning physicist that invented Lattice Field Theory, Ken G. Wilson -- will be presented at the conference for the first time.

This year's conference is timely due to the anticipated results to come from experiments currently being performed at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Such experiments offer the best probes of physical processes that may reside beyond the world's current understanding of particle physics. Not surprisingly, this year's lattice conference has strong emphasis on physics beyond the standard model, with much of the research being performed directly at LLNL. Other anticipated highlights from the conference include the prediction of exotic bound baryons (three quark nuclear systems) and research that showcases a deeper understanding of the hot and early universe as well as relativistic heavy ion collisions.

LLNL is playing a prominent international role in these research fronts by providing leading lattice theoretical physics staff, unparalleled high performance computation capability, Laboratory Directed Research and Development program support, and the drive to go farther in tackling some of the most singular problems of our time.

For more information about this conference, schedule of talks, and contacts, visit the Lattice 2011 Website.