Energy Landscapes 2022: Structure, Dynamics and Exploration Algorithms

Dear colleagues,

we would like to invite you for a workshop on "Energy Landscapes: Structure, Dynamics and Exploration Algorithms" at the Telluride Science Research Center (TSRC) for the period July 18th - July 21st 2022.

The workshop  will be devoted to a discussion of systems with multi-minima energy landscapes, such as glasses, crystalline solids, proteins, clusters, large molecules, and combinatorial optimization problems. Of particular interest is a characterization 2f the landscape geometry ('how does it look like'), of the system dynamics ('what happens in the landscape') and of the relation between the two. This is complemented with the presentation of simulation, optimization and exploration methods for multi-minima systems, and their applications, but any contribution in the area of energy landscapes is welcome, of course.

The workshop will allow lots of time for the crucial extensive and intensive but constructive quizzing of the speaker by the audience. This also allows the participants to exchange ideas in detail, and experience has shown that many collaborations have resulted from these meetings.

Regarding the specific topics, this workshop has always attempted to bring people from different communities together; thus every contribution is welcome that addresses issues in the field of complex energy landscapes - ranging from abstract models, questions of e.g. multistage (solid state) chemical syntheses, phase transitions in physics, chemistry or biology that proceed in finite time, residence times in metastable states and relaxation or aging phenomena on multiminima energy landscapes, issues in optimal control, simulation of time evolution of complex systems, energy landscapes of microscopic vs. macroscopic systems, and global optimization problems, over algorithm development to system specific applications in e.g. molecules (clusters, proteins, etc.) or solids (crystals, glasses, spin glasses, ionic conductors, etc.).

Hoping to see you in Telluride,

with best greetings,

Janett Prehl, Karl Heinz Hoffmann and Christian Schön

Note: In the week following this workshop, there will be a workshop on optimizing thermodynamic systems, which deals with related topics to the - a participation in this second workshop is also highly recommended.

Details about arrival, board and lodging and possible activities in Telluride can be found on the web pages of TSRC as well as the list of participants.