Vienna invites you to a "Mad Tea Party"!

In 1965, Jean-Marc Lévy-Leblond discovers a new non-relativistic limit of the Poincaré group, obtained by sending the speed of light to zero, while the Galilean group is obtained in the limit of infinite speed of light. At the level of the causal structure of the spacetime, this limit contracts light cones on the time axis and any motion in the spacelike directions becomes non-causal. This observation inspires Lévy-Leblond to give the name of "Carrollian spacetime" to this new type of relativity for which the space interval is invariant, by the pen name of the author of the famous "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", Lewis Carroll. He explains: [1]

Le comportement d'un éventuel Univers qui serait régi par le groupe d'invariance ici n'est pas sans rappeler celui du "Pays des Merveilles". L'absence de causalité est particulièrement claire dans les aventures d'Alice ainsi que la valeur arbitraire des intervalles de temps (cf. en particulier le chapitre 7, "Un thé de fous"). C'est pourquoi il ne nous a pas paru déplacé d’associer le nom de L. Carroll à cette nouvelle limite non-relativiste du groupe de Poincaré.

The behavior of such a Universe, which would be governed by the invariance group discussed here, is somewhat reminiscent of some features of the "Wonderland." Absence of causality as well as arbitrarinesses of time intervals are especially clear in Alice's adventures (cf. in particular the Chapter 7, "A Mad Tea-Party"). Therefore, it did not seem out of place to associate L. Carroll's name to this novel non-relativistic limit of the Poincaré group.

Since this pionneering work, Carrollian physics has been playing a key role in several research directions, including fluid/gravity and holographic correspondences, asymptotically flat spacetimes at null infinity and the related BMS symmetries, cosmology and geometries of null hypersurfaces such as black hole horizons.

The main purpose of the CARROLL WORKSHOP is to gather people who are currently participating to this research endeavor around the world and share our intense interest in Carrollian physics! The first edition will be organized in Vienna, at the Technische Universität Wien from the 15th to the 22nd of February 2022. The second edition will be organized in Mons, at the Université de Mons from the 12th to the 16th of September 2022. Anyone engaged in the fascinating Carrollian research effort is most welcome to join us for this "Mad Tea Party" in Vienna in a casual mood to take this opportunity to share innovative ideas and perhaps create new collaborative motions. We have the pleasure of having with us among the finest experts in the field, including Prof. Lévy-Leblond, who kindly accepted to tell us about historical and epistemic aspects of scientific discoveries. Thirty-minute talk slots have also been made available for young Ph.D. and postdoc researchers to talk about their current investigations.

Download the poster!

Organizing comittee

Local organizers: Laura DONNAY, Adrien FIORUCCI, Romain RUZZICONI (TU Wien);
Partner organizers: Andrea CAMPOLEONI, Yannick HERFRAY (UMONS).

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the following sponsors:
Technische Universität Wien (Austria) | Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (Austria) | Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (Belgium) | Université de Mons (Belgium).

Header picture: Original illustration of the first edition of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). "The Mad Tea Party" illustrated by Sir John Tenniel (1820–1914).

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