3rd Summer School and Internship Programme at CTP

24 Jul - 03 Aug 2023

Overview

We are happy to announce the third annual session of the 3rd Summer School and Internship Programme at CTP organized by the Centre for Theoretical Physics (CTP) at The British University in Egypt (BUE). This is a pedagogical scheme aimed at advanced undergraduate and beginning postgraduate students in physics, mathematics, or engineering. It allows highly motivated potential researchers to attend short courses on scientific topics not widely taught or researched in Egypt; such as general relativity and cosmology, quantum field theory and black hole physics. Among our motivations is to provide a taste of active research areas in fundamental physics and astrophysics; to familiarize students with topical problems and proposed solutions. This year's programme will include a more thorough discussion of currently topical issues in galaxy formation, as well as an introduction to machine learning, with applications to high energy physics, and to the fundamentals of quantum computing. As was the case last year, we expect to have lectures on the standard model of particle physics and the search for physics beyond it. In addition, as in past two years, there will be student projects, which will include training with numerical computation and symbolic manipulation packages (such as GRTensor). The courses are listed as follows (stay tuned for more details and updates!).

Course Topics

  • General Relativity (Adel Awad)
    • Foundations of GR: General covariance and the equivalence principle
    • The field equations
    • Black hole physics
  • Physical Cosmology (Amr El-Zant)
    • The maximally symmetric universe: Evidence and evolution
    • Evolution of its components: Matter, radiation and dark energy
    • Distance measures and cosmological parameter estimation
    • The hot big bang and the advent of the cosmic microwave background
    • Elementary introduction to parameter estimation from the CMB
    • Growth of perturbations and large-scale structure in the Universe
    • Press-Schecter formalism and the dark halo mass function
    • Galaxy formation in context of the standard cosmological model: successes and challenges
  • Quantum Field Theory and Inflationary Cosmology (Alexey Golovnev)
    • From classical mechanics to fields
    • The structure of quantum mechanics
    • Free field quantization
    • Inflation
    • Quantum fluctuations as sources of cosmological perturbations
    • Introduction cosmological perturbation theory
    • Interactions between scalar fields
  • The Standard Model of Particle Physics (ElSayed Lashin)
    • Weak interactions (Fermi model and its discontents)
    • Higgs mechanism
    • The standard model
  • Sketch of Grand Unification Theories and Supersymmetry (Ahmed Moursy)
    • Grand unified theories
    • Supersymmetry
  • Machine Learning (Ahmed Hammad)
    • Overview of ML and quantum ML in physics
    • Introduction to ML, linear and non-linear regression models
    • Ensemble learning, Decision Trees, Random Forest and Boosted decision trees
    • Introduction to deep learning and Feed Forward deep neural network
    • Convolution based neural network for image recognition
      • (Optional, time permitting, auto-encoders and variational auto-encoders for anomaly detection)
    • Introduction to QML, quantum gates, quantum feature map and data embeddings
    • Variational quantum classifier for non-linear separable data analysis
      • (Optional: Hybrid classical-quantum models for image recognition)
  • Statistical methods in Astronomy (Mahmoud Hashim)
    • Probability and Statistical Distributions
    • Classical Statistical Inference
    • Bayesian Statistical Inference
  • Introduction to Quantum Information (Mohammad AlFiki)
    • Quantum entanglement
    • Quantum teleportation
    • EPR paradox and Bell inequality
More details about topics and projects will follow. For guidance, you may look at material from last year's school, at this Link

Eligibility

We particularly welcome applications from undergraduates in physics/astronomy, mathematics or engineering, who have completed their third year of university studies, as well as postgraduate students who have obtained their BSc degree not more than four years ago.
Please note that lectures will be in English. Many of the lectures will also be of an advanced nature. To benefit most from the programme, applying students should have working knowledge of English and strong background knowledge in physics and mathematics. They should be familiar with the fundamentals of at least some of the following topics:
  • Classical and Quantum Mechanics
  • Special Relativity
  • Electrodynamics
  • Statistical Mechanics
  • Linear algebra
  • Differential Equations
  • Mathematical Physics (Fourier analysis being particularly desirable)

Timetable

From Sunday 23 July to Thursday 3 August (for 7-8 days). The lectures will start at 9:30 AM and end at 4:15PM. More updates will follow!

Speakers

  • Adel Awad (Ain Shams University and CTP, BUE)
  • Mohammad AlFiki (Ain Shams University)
  • Amr El-Zant (CTP, BUE)
  • Alexey Golovnev (CTP, BUE)
  • Ahmad Hammad (IPMU, Tokyo)
  • Mahmoud Hashim (CTP, BUE)
  • ElSayed Lashin (Ain Shams University)
  • Ahmed Moursy (Cairo University)
There will also be additional talks from guest speakers. Please check for updates!

Organizing committee

  • Adel Awad (Ain Shams University and CTP, BUE)
  • Amr El-Zant (CTP, BUE)
  • Alexey Golovnev (CTP, BUE)
  • Waleed Abdallah (Cairo University)
  • Moustafa Ashry (Cairo University)
  • Ahmed Moursy (Cairo University)

Tech. and Admin. Assistance

  • EGYPlasma Team (Technical support)
  • Mahmoud Hashim (CTP, Technical Support)
  • Walaa Tarek (Administrative Assistance)

Material

To be announced.

Registeration fess

This fee will cover coffee breaks (including cookies etc.…) but not lunches. Students can bring their own lunch or choose from several options in or near the BUE campus.
  • EGP 400.
There is a possibility to cover accommodation on campus for some students who are based outside Cairo. When this is possible it will be conveyed with the offer of acceptance. Those who would like to be considered can include a brief note of their reasons in their letter of motivation. * Can be waived via the ICTP grant, which covers the travel expenses, accommodation, and meals for students from OAE countries.

Important Dates

  • 10 May 2023 Application open
  • 04 Jun 2023 Application deadline
  • 15 Jun 2023 Decision results
  • 20 Jun 2023 Attendance confirmation
  • 06 Jul 2023 Payment deadline
  • 24 Jul 2023 School starts
  • 03 Aug 2023 School end

Logistics

  1. Accommodation
  2. Directions and Transportation
  3. Food outlets
To be updated ...

Application steps

  1. Create an account.
  2. Login.
  3. Complete your personal data.
  4. Upload the following documents:
    • CV
    • Motivation Letter
  5. Submit the application before the deadline.

Sponsors