This is a preliminary announcement of LOOPS’15, the eighth conference with focus on Loop Quantum Gravity, which will take place in Erlangen, Germany from July 6th to July 10th in 2015.

More details will soon be available from the url: http://www.gravity.physik.fau.de/events/loops15/loops15.shtml

The local organising committee can be contacted using the email address:

conference-loops15@fau.de.

Loops is the core biannual conference of the quantum gravity community and focuses on current developments in loop quantum gravity and other background independent approaches to quantum gravity. These include causal dynamical triangulations, causal sets, emergent gravity, asymptotic safety and string theory. This year’s conference emphasizes the key recent results across the field and is meant to appeal to a broad range of theorists interested in diverse approaches to quantum gravity.

The program features morning plenary talks complemented by contributed talks. Those wishing to give contributed talks are urged to register at http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/conferences/loops-13 as early as possible. Some financial support will be available for PhD students, and postdocs who apply to give talks. The deadline to apply for financial support is Friday, April 12. Applications will be reviewed after the deadline and selected participants will be contacted if support is available.

The plenary talks give an exciting and diverse overview of the field and are listed on the webpage and poster. A few talks will be selected closer to the date to report on breaking developments. The conference program will also feature panel discussions and debates. Review sessions will be available to orient non-experts to the different approaches featured in the conference.

We very much hope that you will be able to take part in this exciting occasion and look forward to welcoming you this July in Waterloo!

The scientific organizing committee:

Bianca Dittrich
Laurent Freidel
Lee Smolin

2nd announcement

The LOOPS 11 conference will take place at the main campus of the CSIC in Madrid (SPAIN) in May 23-28, 2011. This edition will commemorate the twenty fifth anniversary of the publication by Abhay Ashtekar of the landmark paper on the “new variables” that sparked the loop quantum gravity (LQG) revolution. In addition to the expected participation of LQG researchers, we would like to invite the quantum gravity community at large to be present in this occasion as this would provide a very fruitful exchange of ideas with researchers working on other approaches to the quantization of general relativity.

The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the state of the art in LQG research and review the open issues and problems that must be solved to complete the quantization of general relativity in this framework. However we would like to place special emphasis on the impact of LQG on other approaches to quantum gravity and, reciprocally, on the exploration of ideas originating in other frameworks that could be eventually beneficial for LQG.

The main topics that will be covered in the conference will be:

• Foundations of Quantum Gravity.
• Hamiltonian Loop Quantum Gravity.
• Covariant Loop Quantum Gravity and Spinfoams.
• Polymer Quantization and Quantum Field Theory.
• Loop Quantum Cosmology.
• Black Hole Physics.
• Dynamical Triangulations and other discrete approaches.
• Phenomenology derived from Quantum Gravity.

INVITED SPEAKERS

• Abhay Ashtekar (Penn State University, USA).
• Martin Bojowald (Penn State University, USA).
• Alejandro Corichi (UNAM-Morelia, Mexico).
• Bianca Dittrich (Albert Einstein Institute, Germany).
• Kristina Giesel (Louisiana State University, USA).
• Jerzy Lewandowski (Warsaw University, Poland).
• Renate Loll (Utrecht University, Netherland).
• Yongge Ma (Beijing Normal University, China).
• Don Marolf (Univ. California-Santa Barbara, USA).
• Daniele Oriti (Albert Einstein Institute, Germany).
• Tomasz Pawlowski (University of New Brunswick, Canada).
• Alejandro Pérez (Univ. Méditerranée, Marseille, France).
• Jorge Pullin (Louisiana State University, USA).
• Carlo Rovelli (Univ. Méditerranée, Marseille, France).
• Hanno Sahlmann (Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics, Korea).
• Parampreet Singh (Perimeter Institute, Canada).
• Lee Smolin (Perimeter Institute, Canada).
• Thomas Thiemann (Univ. Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany).
• Madhavan Varadarajan (Raman Research Institute, India).

LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

• J. Fernando Barbero González (IEM, CSIC).
• Guillermo A. Mena Marugán (IEM, CSIC).
• Luis J. Garay Elizondo (Univ. Complutense, Madrid).
• Eduardo J. Sánchez Villaseñor (Univ. Carlos III, Madrid).
• Iñaky Garay Elizondo (Univ. Erlangen-Nürnberg)
• Mercedes Martín-Benito (AEI-Potsdam).
• Gonzalo Olmo Alba (IFIC, CSIC).
• Tomasz Pawlowski (Univ. New Brunswick).
• Mikel Fernández Méndez (IEM, CSIC).
• Daniel Martín de Blas (IEM, CSIC).
• Javier Olmedo Nieto (IEM, CSIC).

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Detailed information about registration, fees, abstract submission, accommodation, travel and financial support for participants can be found in the conference web page.

http://www.iem.csic.es/loops11/

This web page will be regularly updated with the necessary information. In particular the RELEVANT DATES and deadlines will be posted there.

Please note the following deadlines:

• Deadline for early registration: 28 February 2011
• Deadline for late registration: 20 March 2011
• Deadline for abstract submission: 20 March 2011
• Deadline for application for financial support: 28 February 2011
• Deadline for reservations to the banquet: 15 April 2011.

The registration period has been open for some time already. The fee for late registrations will be 250 €. The final decision concerning financial support will be taken shortly after 28 February 2011. So, those participants that need financial support should apply for it as soon as possible. Accommodation can be booked via the registration form that can be found in the conference web page. The web page also offers a list of cheap hotels, provided for informational purposes only, for those participants that prefer to book their hotel accommodation directly. Finally, pdf files with the conference POSTER are available for download at http://www.iem.csic.es/loops11/

Looking forward to meeting you all,

The local organizing committee.

LOOPS 11: “Celebrating 25 years of Loop Quantum Gravity”
Madrid, Spain,
23-28 May 2011

FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT

The LOOPS 11 conference will take place at the main campus of the CSIC in Madrid (SPAIN) in May 23-28, 2011.

This edition will commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication by Abhay Ashtekar of the landmark paper on the “new variables” that sparked the loop quantum gravity (LQG) revolution. The meeting will be the fifth in the series of regular LOOP conferences that have been celebrated, to this date, in Marseille, Potsdam, Morelia and Beijing. In addition to the expected participation of LQG researchers, we would like to invite the quantum gravity community at large to be present in this occasion as this would provide a very fruitful exchange of ideas with researchers working on other approaches to the quantization of general relativity.

The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the state of the art in LQG research and review the open issues and problems that must be solved to complete the quantization of general relativity in this framework. However we would like to place special emphasis on the impact of LQG on other approaches to quantum gravity and, reciprocally, on the exploration of ideas originating in other frameworks that could be eventually beneficial for LQG.

SCIENTIFIC CONTENT

The main topics that will be covered in the conference will be:

• Foundations of Quantum Gravity.
• Hamiltonian Loop Quantum Gravity.
• Covariant Loop Quantum Gravity and Spinfoams.
• Polymer Quantization and Quantum Field Theory.
• Loop Quantum Cosmology.
• Black Hole Physics.
• Dynamical Triangulations and other discrete approaches.
• Phenomenology derived from Quantum Gravity.

The schedule will be divided in morning plenary sessions and a number of parallel sessions covering the subjects listed above. These will take place during the afternoons.

INVITED SPEAKERS

• Abhay Ashtekar (Penn State University, USA).
• Martin Bojowald (Penn State University, USA).
• Alejandro Corichi (UNAM-Morelia, Mexico).
• Bianca Dittrich (Albert Einstein Institute, Germany).
• Kristina Giesel (TU Munich, Germany).
• Jerzy Lewandowski (Warsaw University, Poland).
• Renate Loll (Utrecht University, Netherland).
• Yongge Ma (Beijing Normal University, China).
• Don Marolf (Univ. California-Santa Barbara, USA).
• Daniele Oriti (Albert Einstein Institute, Germany).
• Tomasz Pawlowski (Univeristy of New Brunswick, Canada).
• Alejandro Pérez (Univ. Méditerranée, Marseille, France).
• Jorge Pullin (Louisiana State University, USA).
• Carlo Rovelli (Univ. Méditerranée, Marseille, France).
• Hanno Sahlmann (Karslruhe University, Germany).
• Parampreet Singh (Perimeter Institute, Canada).
• Lee Smolin (Permiter Institute, Canada).
• Thomas Thiemann (Univ. Erlangen-Nurnberg, Germany).
• Madhavan Varadarajan (Raman Research Institute, India).

INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

• Abhay Ashtekar (Penn State University, USA).
• J. Fernando Barbero González (IEM, CSIC, Spain).
• John Barrett (Nottingham University, UK).
• José Manuel Cidade Mourão (Instituto Superior Técnico de Lisboa, Portugal).
• Laurent Freidel (Perimeter Institute, Canada).
• Jerzy Lewandowski (Warsaw University, Poland).
• Guillermo A. Mena Marugán (IEM, CSIC, Spain).
• Jorge Pullin (Louisiana State University, USA).
• Carlo Rovelli (Univ. Méditerranée, Marseille, France).
• Thomas Thiemann (Univ. Erlangen-Nurnberg, Germany)

LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

• Guillermo A. Mena Marugán (IEM, CSIC).
• J. Fernando Barbero González (IEM, CSIC).
• Luis J. Garay Elizondo (Univ. Complutense, Madrid).
• Eduardo J. Sánchez Villaseñor (Univ. Carlos III, Madrid).
• Iñaky Garay Elizondo (Univ. Erlangen-Nürnbeg)
• Mercedes Martín-Benito (AEI-Potsdam).
• Gonzalo Olmo Alba (IFIC, CSIC).
• Tomasz Pawlowski (Univ. New Brunswick e IEM-CSIC).
• Mikel Fernández Méndez (IEM, CSIC).
• Daniel Martín de Blas (IEM, CSIC).
• Javier Olmedo Nieto (IEM, CSIC).

ORGANIZATION

Detailed information about registration, abstract submission, accommodation, travel and financial support for participants can be found in the conference web page.

http://www.iem.csic.es/loops11/

This web page will be regularly updated with the necessary information. In particular the RELEVANT DATES and deadlines will be posted there.

Looking forward to meeting you all,

The local organizing committee.