Conferences

Workshop PMMP'26: informality and focus on youth

On 16 - 20 February, BLTP hosted the next International Workshop "Problems of Modern Mathematical Physics". It was attended by more than a hundred specialists in the field of theoretical and mathematical physics from Russia and a number of foreign countries.

Kant's famous thesis " Each natural science contains as much truth as it has mathematics" can be generalized as follows: "The naturalist is the closer to truth the more perfect he is in mathematics". The trinity of mathematics, mechanics and physics, minted in bronze on a commemorative plaque to the first Director of the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Academician N.N.Bogolyubov nowadays seems to be the only factor in the stability of the development of science.

Once an abstract mind game, Lie group representation and algebra theories, knot theories or even more so - Hochschild cohomology are the basis of research in many areas of modern physics today. And modern mathematical physics is, as it is currently fashionable to say, a platform where a theoretical physicist can acquire a new apparatus or a technique for his further research but at the same time, pure mathematics is often replenished with fundamental results produced in this area. There are no examples of the latter: here are Donaldson invariants of smooth structures on four-dimensional manifolds, derived from the Young-Mills theory; knot invariants arising from the Chern-Simons theory and numerous others.

Three years ago, the idea arose to hold a workshop under the general title "Problems of Modern Mathematical Physics" not as an official forum, but as a meeting of like-minded people working, of course, not in all areas of modern mathematical physics: three areas were highlighted, presented in our Laboratory within the framework of the topic "Modern mathematical physics". It is remarkable that our Institute today can afford to be a welcoming host thanks to the significant financial support of international scientific and technological cooperation, which such events are impossible without.

The two basic principles of our Conference - informality of communication (including rather long reports) and a special focus on attracting young people paid off in full: the first two meetings showed the great interest of leading specialists and young representatives of the Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Mathematical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (including the St. Petersburg Branch), ITEP, Moscow State University, National Research University Higher School of Economics. In addition to Russian scientists, the representatives of Bulgaria, Armenia, Serbia regularly participate in meetings.

This year, another principle was added: along with scientific reports, additional lectures were presented within the framework of the DIAS School, to participate in which the youngest participants in our event, that is, students were invited. At the same time, the lectures were allocated exclusively by time frames - more time was allotted for each than for a regular report; although lecturers often did not limit themselves to review the matter and presented the latest results of their investigations. The Conference hall of our Laboratory was full all the time, from the first report to the last lecture, since the "adult" participants were attracted by the choice of lecturers - world-class specialists. In the third year, the total number of PMMP'26 participants exceeded a hundred and throughout the Conference, there was a manifold desire to hold this event in the future.

The floor to the participants of the Workshop PMMP'26

Mikhail Vasiliev

RAS Corresponding Member, a chief researcher at LPI RAS (Moscow) M.A.Vasiliev:

"The International Workshop was attended by a large number of young specialists from various Russian institutes and scientific groups. The topic of the Workshop covered a wide range of relevant research areas of modern theoretical and mathematical physics. Holding such conferences is especially important since the current stage in the development of the theory of fundamental interactions is characterized by a high degree of unity of ideas and techniques applied to the investigation of seemingly completely different areas that makes the direct exchange of ideas during the Workshop especially important. An example is the analogy revealed during the meeting between the cohomological approach used to study the gauge theory of higher spins and the heat conduction core technique used to study effective action in quantum field theory. Finally, an important distinguishing feature of the 2026 meeting is the holding of a school for young scientists within its framework based on lectures given by well-known scientists - leaders of their scientific fields. The work of the international meeting was undoubtedly extremely stimulating and useful and we can only welcome the holding of such events in the future."

A leading researcher at PDMI RAS (St. Petersburg) S.E.Derkachev:

"Dubna is a special place. The path from the banks of the Volga from the Dubna Hotel first along Veksler Street, then, along Flerov Street among the pines and famous cottages where the Great lived and then, through the square with a fountain and further, along Joliot-Curie Street to JINR usually immediately disperses the clouds inside and lifts the mood for the whole day. Then, you find yourself in the famous Bogolyubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics... Sitting at a conference and listening to reports, for some time, I could not understand why you experience only positive emotions and in general, there is a feeling of celebration in the soul. When we were taking pictures, it finally dawned on me what the reason was - a large number of young people around. A few years ago, I kept catching myself thinking that in general photographs, there are mostly adult scientists.

The organizers, it seems to me, made a brilliant move - they united the Conference with a school for young scientists that gave such a wonderful result. The second ingenious move is the organization of reports and again with an emphasis on the younger generation. First, the report is made by the leader of the scientific group and then, by the members of the team that consists entirely of students or graduate students. As it turned out, there are quite a few such active young teams and of course, it is a great pleasure to observe this boiling of life. The third ingenious move is an almost perfect balance between the number of reports from young participants and the number of very professional reports from famous scientists that surprisingly "cemented" the entire building.

This is the third Conference and I really wish the series to be held in future in the same format and with the same right and "healthy" proportions of adults and young scientists."

A leading researcher at LPI RAS (Moscow) A.D.Mironov:

"This Conference was the third one, thus becoming traditional. It is difficult to overestimate its significance. Firstly, this is the only annual traditional Russian conference on string theory with a wide representation. Secondly, this is one of the few conferences on theoretical physics, in which a lot of young people take part and active participation is in the form of reports. Its third most important property is the level of reports, all of them are dedicated to problems at the very forefront of modern science. Finally, (last but not least) due to the fact that the Conference was held in Dubna, the participants are relatively accessible all week that allows organizing meaningful scientific discussions in addition to reports. I hope that the organizers will hold a series of such conferences in subsequent years."

Head of Laboratory at MIPT A.V.Sleptsov:

"This is not the first time I have taken part in this Conference and I see that it becomes the largest conference in Russia in mathematical physics and related areas. It brings together researchers in the fields of integrable systems, quantum field theory, gravity, string theory and mathematical physics. Many leading researchers from most specialized Russian institutions come to it that turns the Conference into a convenient platform for exchanging opinions and news. Separately, I would like to emphasize that the Conference has a large number of young, novice researchers that make reports and participate in discussions on an equal basis with experienced researchers. The infrastructure of the Dubna Institute is the best suited for holding such events, since it allows you to make your stay very comfortable and fully focus on scientific issues."

Alexey Morozov	Dmitry Kazakov	Alexey Sleptsov

A senior researcher at BLTP, Scientific Secretary of PMMP'26 M.A.Podoinitsyn:

"The International Workshop "Problems of Modern Mathematical Physics" united with the traditional Winter School for students and graduate students, pleased with a rich and diverse programme: from lectures on the theory of higher spins and quantum invariants of knots to more than 50 highly specialized reports covering supersymmetry, integrable systems and modern gravity. I would especially like to emphasize the high level of the School, where recognized scientists, such as D.I.Kazakov, M.A.Vasiliev, D.V.Gorbunov, A.D.Sleptsov, E.T.Akhmedov, brilliantly lectured for the young participants. The programme was structured so that there was enough time left for deep immersion in the subject and for live informal communication in between sessions.

On behalf of the Organizing Committee, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Directorate of the Institute for its constant support: it was thanks to this help that we managed not only to pay for the accommodation of a significant part of young scientists and graduate students, but also to ensure the arrival of eminent specialists from federal centres and JINR Member States. The entire technical part - from preparing the halls with broadcasting to printing various handouts (programmes, booklets with schedules and souvenirs) was debugged like clockwork that allowed us, the organizers, to focus exclusively on scientific content and on creating a warm atmosphere for the Conference."

Rector of DIAS-Th, Co-Chair of the Organizing Committee E.A.Kolganova:

"As mentioned above, the idea of holding a school in parallel with the conference, in which junior students could be involved (and thereby, to involve them in scientific life), was very fruitful. Thanks to the well-coordinated work of the Organizing Committee and here, I would especially like to thank the Co-Chair of the Organizing Committee Professor S.O.Krivonos, this idea was not only successfully implemented. As the responses of our guests show, the prospect of further development of the Conference itself and in part, the general policy of holding schools within the framework of DIAS-Th has opened up. Within the framework of the PMMP'26, we got acquainted not only with individual outstanding scientists, but also with entire schools established by these scientists that is incredibly useful for the youngest participants in the "school" part of our event. There is only one point of dissatisfaction: our Laboratory could be more widely represented in the PMMP'26 programme, since we also have "something to show". So, it will be necessary to think about expanding the time frame for a future meeting next 2027."

The article was prepared by the Organizing Committee of the PMMP'26
Photos by Igor LAPENKO