Einstein (left) and Planck (right) at a dinner given by Max von Laue on November 12, 1931 in Berlin (photographer unknown), against the cosmic microwave background (credit: Planck collaboration-ESA, 2013).

4^th “ASTRONOMY NIGHT” AT THE IAP: “WHEN PLANCK MEETS EINSTEIN”

On June 4, 2022, starting at 7:30 p.m. and lasting until the middle of the night, the Institut d’astrophysique de Paris (IAP) is organizing its fourth “Astronomy Night”. Previous nights explored the prospective of the discipline at the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the CNRS (2019), some new challenges in cosmology (2020), and the discovery of exoplanets (2021). The 2022 edition is related to the annual international colloquium of the IAP (38^th édition), and will attempt to highlight the relationship between quantum mechanics (of which the physicist Max Planck was one of the discoverers) and the physics of the Universe at large scales, which is governed by the theory of gravitation developed by Albert Einstein.

The standard theory of the primordial Universe proposes that the distribution of matter at large scales in the Universe (galaxies, clusters of galaxies) is the result of quantum effects that happened during the very first instants of the Universe, after the Big Bang (during the period of “inflation”). This astonishing model, which links the physics of the infinimentally large and the infinimentally small, is the one that best explains the measurements of our observatories and in particular those of the European satellite Planck, whose analysis was piloted, and largely carried out at the IAP. The validation of the quantum origin of the organization of matter in the Universe, the question of our capacity to use the primordial Universe as a laboratory to test some of the hypotheses of quantum mechanics, or the problem of the implementation of a theory of quantum gravity are subjects that will animate the 38^th IAP symposium in 2022. The ambition of the fourth “Astronomy Night” is to involve the public in these questions and to show to the public of the Région Île-de-France the activity of the laboratories in these themes.

The main event of the night will be a series of conferences, which will take place in the amphitheater of the laboratory (120 places) and will be retransmitted in a complementary room (40 additional places). The public will be invited to circulate regularly in order to allow everyone (maximum laboratory capacity of 300) to attend at least two lectures in the amphitheater. These lectures will be broadcasted live on the IAP YouTube channel and the chat will allow Internet users to interact with each other and with the speakers. The night will be hosted by Mathieu Grousson (PhD in physics and science journalist), and Alice Thomas (independent science journalist), as well as by cartoonists from the Café des sciences.

Rebroadcast website:  https://youtu.be/ppQkQJgeAnc&t=830s

Photos: White night of astronomy 2019.

Program

All talks and conferences are given in French.

Opening by François Bouchet (IAP director) and Mathieu Grousson	20:10
Conference by Mairi Sakellariadou (Prof., Theoretical physics King’s College London)	20:20	“Cosmology for everyone”
Conference by Patrick Peter (Prof. CNRS, GreCo, IAP-CNRS-SU)	21:05	“Cosmic inflation”
Interview with Amaury Micheli, PhD student IAP, by Mathieu Grousson	21:55
Conference by Ruth Durrer (Prof., Theoretical Physics, Université de Genève)	22:10	“From vacuum to the large scale structure of the Universe”
Interview with Denis Werth, PhD student IAP, by Mathieu Grousson	23:00
Conference by Pierre-François Cohadon (Assistant Prof., Ecole Normale Supérieure, Laboratoire Kastler Brossel)	23:15	“The vacuum and its measurable effects”
Interview with Michaël Croquette, PhD student Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, by Mathieu Grousson	00:05
Conference by Aurélien Drezet (Prof. CNRS, Institut Néel, Grenoble)	00:20	“Foundations of quantum mechanics and cosmology”
Conclusion by Karim Benabed	01:10

View photos of the evening taken by Brigitte Pharabod

View photos of the evening taken by Sandy Artero

View photos of the evening taken by Henry Joy McCracken

Free booking on Weezevent: Entry to the IAP is subject to the reservation of an entry ticket: Each reservation is personal and gives guaranteed access to a conference (one can choose the a specific conference). Participation in the other conferences of the evening in the amphitheater is possible depending on the seats remaining available. Failing that, the conferences can be followed from a room where they are broadcasted. The entrance ticket to the IAP allows one to participate in the other events of the evening, without special reservation. Book your tickets!

In addition (without reservation, except an entry ticket to the IAP, see above): Sessions offered to doctoral students: Quiz with small prizes (posters, small educational material in astronomy, Legos) Animation on the constellations of the sky Meeting and interaction spaces with laboratory scientists: Exhibition presenting current topics in astrophysics and cosmology Stand with the model of the Euclid satellite Tables shared with young researchers in the laboratory courtyard, around a food truck

Live sketching from Café des sciences Gilles Bellevaut Mélanie Laborde Agatha Liévin-Bazin Guillaume Monnain Zélie Tournoud See the photos of the evening's drawings (in French)

Our partners Action financed by Région Île-de-France. La Délégation régionale Paris-Centre du CNRS Sorbonne Université

Contact

 Jean Mouette
Institut d’astrophysique de Paris, CNRS, SU
mouette [at] iap [dot] fr

Organization: Karim Benabed, Pierre Boldrini, Denis Werth
Video, communication, iconography and layout: Jean Mouette
Scientific committee: Patrick Peter, Karim Benabed
Administration and welcome: Sandy Artero
Logistics: Christophe Gobet
Web writing: Karim Benabed, Valérie de Lapparent

May 2022

Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris - 98 bis boulevard Arago - 75014 Paris