Space, Time and Matter

Modern technology developed experimental techniques that enable study space, time and matter in their extremes. Nowadays there are several areas of research where the extreme conditions are encountered and stand in the pathways of progress in understanding Nature. One in its perhaps the most extreme is understanding the universe, such as study of Dark Ages, dark matter and Early Universe, the last one being intimately connected with the ongoing experiment at CERN. One of the most intriguing subjects to discuss is appearance of living matter as the end product of the evolution of the Universe. Several sessions shall be devoted to this subject because it is one of the basic unsolved problems in understanding nature. Seeking the answer to this problem is a highly interdisciplinary subject and the answer has far reaching consequences for the future of humanity.

The subject that is greatly expanding is the study of interaction between very strong electromagnetic field and matter. Strong fields are achieved with very short laser pulses and they are used in the study of internal dynamics of molecules. The other is control of this dynamics with the aim of designing molecules of particular kind. Manipulation of matter with electromagnetic field results in various intriguing phenomena, such as quantum matter and vacuum polarization, and because of their importance both subjects will be reviewed.

Greatly developing subject of recent years is manipulation of molecules on the individual or small number, level. One area is conglomerate of molecules in extremely cold environment, the most intriguing result being Bose-Einstein condensation. There are a number of obstacles to achieving BE condensation of molecules, such as efficient way of slowing them to low temperatures, confining them as a gas rather than producing clusters and releasing their internal energy without heating up the environment. The other topic is related to nanotechnology, design of molecules to prescribed purpose. The subject is important for the fundamental science, because one should learn how to manipulate molecules on the individual level; however its practical implications cannot be foreseen because of immense diversity of applications.

All the subject will be discussed from the interdisciplinary point so that at the conference the discussion periods are assigned significant lengths of time and the oral presentations are designed to form a framework for meaningful discussion. Apart from the usual aim of developing an up-to-date perspective of the present state of a given topic, the fundamental scientific philosophy behind the series of conferences is the stimulation of cross-disciplinary flow of knowledge and expertise from both the experimental and theoretical standpoints. In particular it is hoped that the impact of the topic on areas which are distantly related can be explored

Brijuni

A perfect place for science and inspiration

impressions by Visnja i Marijan Anic
artists of photography

Interplay of light and sea ripples produces only a finite number of patterns on the seafloor, called catastrophes.
Photo taken in Brijuni island by the Anic`s