Physics – Optics
Scientific paper
Jun 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008cqgra..25k0201s&link_type=abstract
Classical and Quantum Gravity, Volume 25, Issue 11, pp. 110201 (2008).
Physics
Optics
Scientific paper
At GRG17 in Dublin in 2004, it was decided to hold GRG18 in Sydney in 2007. Every six years, the GRG conference (held every three years) and Amaldi meeting (held every two years) occur in the same year around July. This was to be the case in 2007. By mutual agreement of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation (ISGRG), which oversees the GR conferences and The Gravitational Wave International Committee (GWIC), which oversees the Amaldi meetings, it was decided to hold these two important conferences concurrently, for the first time, at the same venue, namely Sydney. At a time when the gravitational wave community was beginning to explore the possibility of searches to probe various aspects of the theory, the vision was to bring that community together with the community of gravitational theorists in order to better appreciate the work being done by both parties and to explore possibilities for future research using the mutual expertise.
The logistics of running two such large meetings concurrently were considerable. The format agreed upon by the ISGRG and GWIC was the following: common plenary sessions in the mornings from Monday to Friday; six parallel GR workshop sessions and an Amaldi session each afternoon from Monday to Friday (except Wednesday); a combined poster session on Wednesday; a full day of Amaldi sessions on the final day (Saturday). The scientific programme for GRG18 was overseen by a Scientific Organising Committee established by the ISGRG and chaired by Professor Sathyaprakash. The scientific programme for Amaldi7 was overseen by GWIC chaired by Professor Cerdonio.
One of the highlights of the conferences was the breadth and quality of the plenary programme put together by the scientific committees. Not only did these talks give an excellent snapshot of the entire field at this time, but they also explored the interfaces with other related fields, which proved of special interest to participants. We were given superb overviews of the state of the art of: observational handles on dark energy; collider physics experiments designed to probe cosmology; gravitational dynamics of large stellar systems; and the use of analogue condensed-matter systems in the laboratory to investigate black hole event horizons. In the more mainstream areas we were given timely reviews of: the Gravity Probe B and STEP missions; quasi-local black hole horizons and their applications; cosmic censorship; the spin foam model approach to quantum gravity; the causal dynamical triangulations approach to quantum gravity; superstring theory applied to questions in particle physics; the current status and prospects for gravitational wave astronomy; ground-based gravitational wave detection; and technological developments for the future LISA mission.
This issue is published as the proceedings of GRG18 and Amaldi7. It contains the overview articles by the plenary speakers, the summaries of each GRG18 workshop parallel session as provided by the workshop chairs, and the highlights of the Amaldi7 meeting as selected by the Amaldi7 chairs. Other Amaldi7 talks and posters will appear as articles in a refereed issue of the electronic Journal of Physics Conference Series. This CQG special issue and the related issue of JPCS will be electronically linked.
The conference organisers would like to acknowledge the financial support of: The Australian National University; IUPAP; The Australian Institute of Physics; BHP Billiton; The University of Western Australia; The University of New South Wales; The Institute of Physics; The Gravity Research Foundation; SGI; CosNet; The Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute; Springer; Duraduct; the New South Wales Government; The Australasian Society for General Relativity and Gravitation; the Mexican GR bid; the Centre for Precision Optics; The Anglo-Australian Observatory; Newspec; CSIRO; and The University of Melbourne.
We would like to thank the GRG18 Scientific Organising Committee, GWIC and the Local Organising Committee for all their hard work in putting together these very successful combined conferences, which attracted 520 participants. Many of the practical aspects of the organisation were handled by the event management company Conexion, and their professionalism, expertise and dedication were greatly appreciated. We would also like to thank the editorial staff at CQG, especially Eirini Messaritaki and Joseph Tennant, for their support and efficiency in preparing this issue. Finally, we would like to thank all the participants for their lively and colourful contributions to making these conferences a success.
McClelland David E.
Scott Susan M.
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