Workshop on
"Theoretical Challenges of 4th Generation Light Sources"

Intense work has been progressing towards the realization of the "Fourth-Generation" light sources which promise to deliver ultrabright UV and X-ray photon beams with laser-like properties (full transverse space coherence) in pulses of ~ 10 - 100 fs duration. Some techniques are being developed to further reduce pulse duration towards the attosecond range. Atoms, molecules, clusters and condensed matter in the very strong time-dependent fields generated by these new sources enter a regime of matter-radiation interactions which brings about new phenomena, in part already explored with fs visible lasers and with the very first experiments on VUV free electron lasers. The purpose of this workshop is to explore the new theoretical ideas and tools required to explore strong-field phenomena, ionization processes and in general time-dependent electronic states which are becoming accessible with the new sources. To this end, the workshop shall bring theoretical and computational physicists in contact with members of the communities of ultrafast lasers and of fourth-generation UV and X light sources.

Organizing Committee:

• M. Altarelli, Elettra Synchrotron Light Laboratory and Abdus Salam ICTP, Trieste
  
• F. Parmigiani, Elettra Synchrotron Light Laboratory and Università Cattolica, Brescia
  
• W.A. Barletta, Accelerators and Fusion Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA
  

List of Sessions:

• Time-dependent Density Functional Theory
  
• Dynamics of Excited States
  
• Ionization in Strong Fields: Semiclassical and Quantum Description
  
• 4th Generation Light Sources: progress reports
  
• Time-Resolved Experiments
  
• Numerical methods and applications
  

List of Invited Speakers:

R. Bakker (Trieste), W.A. Barletta (Berkeley), P. Carloni (Trieste), M. Chergui (Lausanne), E.K.U. Groß (Berlin), V. Olevano (Palaiseau), A. Rubio (San Sebastian), E. Plönjes (Hamburg), R.W. Schoenlein (Berkeley), A. Scrinzi (Wien), I. Tavernelli (Lausanne), M. Wulff (Grenoble).

Venue:

Adriatico Guesthouse (AGH)
Giambiagi Lecture Hall
Via Grignano, 9
34014 Trieste, Italy

Program

Secretariat:

Elda Radosic, Ilde Weffort