Toulouse, Nov 25-27 2026
Organizers : P. M. Dinh, N. Maitra and E. Suraud
Aim and objectives
Following the tradition of the previous successful meetings that have started in 2009, the
Theory Days workshop aims at stimulating constructive discussions, collaborations, and
knowledge exchange among a selected group of theoreticians. This year, the 18th edition
will be dedicated to “Dynamics of symmetry breaking”.
Symmetry breaking is the collapse of a symmetric system into a less symmetric state. Examples are numerous in
physics and chemistry. Symmetry breaking may occur during the dynamics of an initially symmetric system. It may then
lead to counterintuitive behaviors. Generally speaking, mean-field is well known to potentially drive symmetry breaking. This reflects its
usually incomplete quantum nature, for example in relation to the loss of linearity of governing equations leading to the loss of superposition
features. Conversely mean-field overlooks dynamical scenarios involving bifurcations which require treatments beyond an average one.
The aim of the workshop is to discuss state of the art of some of these symmetry breaking in both situations, the ones in which effective DFT approaches
miss it and the ones in which they spuriously create it.
Recent developments will be particularly addressed, in particular to the extent that increasing computational power allows more and more
ambitious and realistic complete treatments of dynamics.
We plan to gather people from various groups working in this domain, mostly in western Europe. The workshop is intended to be a working forum, thus rather informal. The format will consist in a series of long detailed talks, typically 1 hour (40 mn talk + 10 mn for questions) focusing in particular on ongoing problems and open issues. We thus urge participants to prepare their talks in this spirit. Ultimately a most efficient organisation would consist in having a limited number of talks per representative group to avoid doublings.
Scientific program
The meeting will take place from Wed Nov 25th 2pm to Friday Nov 27th noon. It will be a hybrid event. Visioconference links will be provided below soon.
The scientific program will come soon.
Access to Toulouse
Airports
Toulouse airport is connected to major west European airports and hubs (Paris Orly and Roissy Charles de Gaulle, Munich, Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam) with regular connections by Air France/KLM, Lufthansa, British Airways for the major companies and also with connections by (Low Cost) Easy Jet. Plane provides by far the simplest access to Toulouse with reasonable fees for sufficiently early booking.
There is a shuttle to downtown (first stop at Compans Caffarelli, on line B of metro) every 20 mn (cost is 8 euros for a one-way combined shuttle/metro ticket, no special fare for a return trip). As soon as one catches the shuttle, it takes about half an hour to get to the University, thanks to the connection with line B at Compans Caffarelli station (direction “Ramonville-Saint-Agne”, get off at station Université Paul Sabatier).
Train
Central station is Toulouse Matabiau connected to line A of the metro and is connected to major French cities. To go to the university, take metro line A towards Basso Cambo, get off at Jean Jaurès (1 stop from Marengo-SNCF station), change to metro line B towards Ramonville-Saint-Agne and get off at Université Paul Sabatier. It takes about 20-25 minutes.
Directions to the meeting venue
The meeting will take place in the seminar room of the 3R1 building, third floor, in the Laboratoire de Physique Théorique de Toulouse.
To reach the venue, follow the instructions below :
- Take metro line B, direction Ramonville Saint-Agne
- Get off at “Universite Paul Sabatier”
- Exit towards the university
- Follow the indications of the map below.