The seventh COLLOQUE COSMOLOGIE
will be held in
Paris at the Observatoire de Paris, from
Tuesday June 11 (arrival) to Saturday June 15, 2002.
The purpose of these meetings is to cover selected
topics
of high current interest in the interplay between
cosmology and
fundamental physics.
The COLLOQUES COSMOLOGIE are informal meetings.
The main aim of this series of COLLOQUIA is to put in contact fundamental theoretical physics (including string theory) with real physical problems that arise in the study of the universe. The Paris Cosmology Colloquia bring together physicists, astrophysicists and astronomers. The format of the Colloque is intended to allow easy and fruitful mutual contacts and communication.
The purpose of these Colloquia is an updated understanding, from a fundamental point of view, of the progress and current problems in the early universe, cosmic microwave background radiation, large scale structure, gamma ray bursts and neutrinos in astrophysics, dark matter problem, and the interplay between them. Emphasis is given to the mutual impact of fundamental physics and cosmology, both at theoretical and experimental -or observational- levels.
Deep understanding, clarification, synthesis, a careful interdisciplinarity within a fundamental physics approach, are goals of this series of Colloques.
All Lectures are plenary and are followed by a discussion.
Sessions will leave enough time for private discussions and to enjoy the beautiful parisian campus of the Observatoire de Paris (built on orders from Colbert and to plans by Claude Perrault from 1667 to 1672).
More information can be found in the Proceedings of the Second (1994), Third (1995) and Fourth Colloquia (1997) published by World Scientific (H J de Vega and N. Sánchez, Editors). The Proceedings of the Fifth Colloquium (1998) and Sixth Colloquium (1999) has been published by the Observatoire de Paris, (H J de Vega and N. Sánchez, Editors).
PROGRAMME
The seventh COLLOQUE COSMOLOGIE will be held in Paris at the Observatoire de Paris, from Tuesday June 11 (arrival) to Saturday June 15, 2002.
The entrance of the Observatoire de Paris is at 77, Av. Denfert-Rochereau, Paris 75014. [Notice that this differs from the postal address: 61, Avenue de l'Observatoire, Paris 75014, although they are nearby]. The nearest metro station is Denfert-Rochereau (100 m. approx). The RER station Port Royal is about the same distance. You can also reach the Observatoire with the buses 38, 91, 83 and Orlybus.
The `salle de séminaires' will be at the disposal of the COLLOQUE for discussions at the ground floor of bâtiment B of 77, Av. Denfert-Rochereau. Participants are invited to bring their recent preprints and reprints for display. Participants may have lunch at the Observatoire Cafeteria. Tickets will be on sale on Wednesday morning.
A guided tour of the historic Perrault building will be organized. The visit will take 1 hour, approximately. All participants to the COLLOQUE and accompanying persons are kindly invited to it.
Sessions start on Wednesday June 12 in the morning. We shall stick strictly to the timetible during the whole meeting.
Hotel reservations for the invited Lecturers and accompanying persons will be provided by the Colloque organizers.
REGISTRATION
Participants wishing to attend the Colloque should register in time by sending an email to
Chalonge.Ecole@obspm.fr with copy to
Nicole.Letourneur@obspm.fr
and specifying their full names, position, Institution and whole address.
NEARBY HOTELS
Hotel du Midi, 4, Av. René Coty, Paris 75014,A FEW CHEAPER ACCOMODATIONS NOT FAR FROM THE OBSERVATOIRE DE PARIS:
Hotel Floridor, 28, place Denfert-Rochereau, Paris 75014.
Tel. 33(0)1-4321-3553. Fax 33(0)1-4327-6581.
Single room. Double room. With shower, WC and TV.
Breakfast.
NEARBY RESTAURANTS
La Contre-allée, 83, Av. Denfert-Rochereau. Tel. 014354-9986. Closed Saturday noon and Sunday.L'OBSERVATOIRE DE PARIS
A BRIEF HISTORY
It is the oldest observatory still serving.In 1665 the physicist and astronomer Auzout convinced Colbert and Louis XIV to construct `l'Observatoire Royale'. It is built without wood (to avoid fire) or metal (to avoid magnetic disturbances). At the summer solstice of 1667, the orientation (north-south) is traced in its place by members of the Académie Royale.
Claude Perrault (the architect of the Louvre Colonnade) projected the building and directed its construction. It was finished in 1672. It is a large rectangle (31 m x 29 m) with its four faces oriented with the cardinal points of the compass. The latitude of the south face defines the Paris latitude (48° 50' 11''). The meridian line passing through its center defines the Paris longitude.
The foundations are as deep (27 m) as high is the building itself. The Observatoire is in charge of the French legal time: UTC(OP) and of the Central Bureau of the International Earth Rotation Service.
In 1933, the first speaking clock in the world started to give the accurate time by telephone (tel. 3699) from the ground floor of the Observatoire. The basement of the Observatoire is connected with the Paris catacombs (visits forbidden). The catacombs consist of 65 km of underground galleries.
First, at the head of the Observatoire de Paris was Jean-Dominique Cassini (Cassini I), born in Italy in 1625. He was followed by his son Jacques (Cassini II), his grand-son César-François and his grand-grand-son Jean-Dominique.
The Observatoire was later leaded by Joseph Jerôme Lefrançois de Lalande, Pierre-André Méchain, François Arago (1843-1853), Urbain Le Verrier (1854-1870 and 1873-77) and other distinguished personalities.
Further illustrious scientists worked at the Observatoire like Jean-Baptiste Delambre, Charles Marie de La Condamine and Pierre Simon de Laplace.
One can mention as principals scientific works made in the Observatoire:
The map of the Moon by Cassini I that was the best till the photography was invented.
The discovery of the gap in the Saturne ring by Cassini I and the table of the satellites of Jupiter movements that allowed the danish astronomer Olaüs Römer to show that the speed of light was finite and compute approximately, for the first time in 1676 while he was working at the Observatoire.
Jacques Cassini discovered the proper motion of Arcturus, showing the first that the stars were not fixed.
César-François and Jean-Dominique (IV) Cassini made the first modern map of France from 1750 to 1790.
The units of mass (gramme) and length (meter) were defined following measurements (along the France meridian) and researches made at the Observatoire. Lavoisier worked here on the mass unit.
Arago introduced here the photography in astronomy. In 1845 Hyppolite Fizeau and Léon Foucault obtained the first daguerreotype of the sun.
Foucault in 1850-51 showed manifestly the rotation of the earth with his pendulum hanging in the salle Cassini (after a first experiment at his home, and before the demonstration at the Panthéon).
The works by Le Verrier lead to the discovery of Neptune. His tables of sun and planets positions were used for more than one century. Discrepancies remarked by him between the calculated and observed orbit of Mercury were only solved with the advent of general relativity.
The three main halls in the Observatoire are the `Grande Gallerie' and the `Salle du Conseil' in the ground floor and the Cassini hall in the first floor. In the `Salle du Conseil' are displayed the portraits of Laplace, Le Verrier, Lalande, Arago, Delambre, as well as other distinguished scientists and the one of Louis XIV.
At present the Observatoire de Paris owns three campuses: Paris, the Meudon astrophysics section and the radioastronomy station at Nançay. More than 700 scientists, technicians and administrative staff work there.
Nearby Historic Monuments
The Observatory Fountain (1873) by Davioud is known for its decoration of the four quarters of the globe by Carpeaux (Oceania was omitted for symmetry reasons).
Before the Closerie des Lilas café stands the statue of Marshal Ney by François Rude (1853). Ney was shot nearby in 1815 for his support of Napoleon. Rodin said that this was the nicest statue in Paris.
Inside the Baudelocque Maternity (123, boulevard Port Royal) remain some buildings from the Port Royal abbey. There is the nuns chapel (constructed by Le Pautre, 1646-47), the cloister (1652-55) and the hôtel d'Atry. The benedictian nuns of Saint Bernard were there from 1626 till 1664 when Louis XIV dispersed them due to their jansenist ideas. Afterwards Visitandins nuns stay there till the French revolution. It become then a prison (Lavoisier was jailed here) and a Maternity since 1818.
In the middle of the place Denfert-Rochereau is a small bronze version of Bartholdi's Lion in commemoration of colonel Denfert-Rochereau successful defence of Belfort against the prussians in 1870-71.
In 1, Place Denfert-Rochereau there is the entrance of the Paris Catacombs. Several million skeletons are stored inside. The headquarters of the Résistance - F.F.I. (Interior French Forces) of the Ile-de-France commanded by colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy were here, inside the catacombs during the liberation of Paris in August 1944.
The elegant and vast hôtel Massa, (38, rue du Faubourg Saint-Jacques) was built in 1784 on the Champs-Elysées at the present location of the Virgin Megastore. The duke of Richelieu, the count Marescalchi and the duke of Massa lived there. In 1928 was moved here. It belongs to the Men of Letters Society.
Honoré de Balzac lived from 1829 to 1834 at the house in 6, rue Cassini. He wrote there `Eugénie Grandet', `Le Père Goriot' and may be `La Peau de Chagrin'.