9th International Conference on Interconnections between Particle Physics and Cosmology

Recent advances in observational astronomy and the discovery of 125-GeV Higgs boson have brought paradigm shifts on the potential connections between new fundamental particles and our understanding of their impact on the early universe and its evolution. With the content of the universe well known from astrophysical observations, a key aspect is that 27% of the universe appears to consist of dark matter. If current theories are correct, the particle physics candidate for this matter may well be observed in ongoing direct and/or indirect dark matter detection experiments or at the LHC. In addition, about 69% of the universe, the dark energy, still remains a significant mystery that major theoretical attempts are trying to understand.

From super-Earths to brown dwarfs: Who’s Who?

The year 2015 marks the 20th anniversary of the discovery of 51 Peg b, the first confirmed exoplanet around a Sun-like star. This detection has triggered extraordinary development in exoplanet research all around the world, through various observational techniques such as radial velocity variations, transit, microlensing, direct imaging and astrometry.

Disc dynamics and planet formation

The connection between star formation, protostellar discs and planetary systems is unquestionable  but the path from stars to planets is highly uncertain. Recent discoveries with space-borne telescopes (Spitzer, CoRoT, Kepler) and ground-based facilities (VLT, Gemini, ALMA) have given new impetus to the search for exoplanetary systems and for the properties of their maternal discs.