Overview
Since 2004, the Centre de Physique Théorique (CPT) has been a joint research unit of the CNRS. It is a multi-institution UMR jointly operated by CNRS – Aix-Marseille University – University of Toulon.
With more than fifty permanent researchers organized into 8 teams and 3 research groups, the CPT is one of the largest French theoretical physics laboratory in terms of size. The research activities carried out there cover a broad range of topics in physics and mathematical physics, from the study of fundamental interactions and their mathematical structures, to the study of complexity in various physical contexts, from statistical physics or condensed matter to classical or quantum dynamical systems and their applications, including to biological systems.
About twenty doctoral students are trained each year at the laboratory, which also hosts numerous postdoctoral researchers through research projects funded by the ANR or European grants. The CPT has developed scientific collaborations with several laboratories of Aix-Marseille University and with numerous research laboratories and institutes in France and abroad.
Brief history of the CPT
The history of the laboratory dates back to the early 1960s, when a theoretical group was founded on the Saint-Charles campus in the center of Marseille (University of Provence). A few years later, this group moved to the Joseph-Aiguier campus, now the headquarters of the CNRS Provence and Corsica Regional Delegation, and became a CNRS Research Unit (UPR 7061), before moving in 1978 to its current location on the Luminy campus.
In 2012, the three former universities of Marseille—University of Provence (U1), University of the Mediterranean (U2), and Paul Cézanne University (U3)—merged to form a single institution: Aix-Marseille University. The CPT is therefore now a Joint Research Unit affiliated with two universities (AMU and UTLN) as well as the CNRS, under the designation UMR 7332.
In the past, three members of the laboratory (including two former directors of the CPT) became deans of the Faculty of Science at Luminy.
Members of the laboratory also played a role in the creation of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Toulon and of the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics (UMR 5152) in Toulouse.
Research themes
Although initially focused on mathematical physics (quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, statistical mechanics, operator algebras, differential geometry, etc.), the CPT quickly developed research activities oriented toward fundamental questions in particle physics and, somewhat later, in nanophysics and cosmology. Through a similar process, expertise acquired in the study of dynamical systems has found new applications in other areas such as the control of chaos in various physical systems, including fusion plasmas, as well as in biology and immunology. More recently, activities in statistical physics have turned toward the study of complex networks, which offer many possibilities for interdisciplinary applications (in epidemiology, but also, for example, in the social sciences).
A multi-site laboratory
The CPT is distributed across two sites: Marseille and Toulon. The main site is located on the Luminy campus in the south of Marseille (one of the three scientific campuses of Aix-Marseille University, the other two being the Saint-Charles and Saint-Jérôme campuses), close to the Calanques National Park. The secondary site on the La Garde campus brings together CPT faculty members within the University of Toulon.
Affiliations and partnerships
Federation of Mathematics Research Units of Marseille
In collaboration with the Marseille Mathematics Laboratory (I2M), the CPT is a founding member of the Federation of Mathematics Research Units of Marseille (FRUMAM, FR2281), created in 2002 by the CNRS and the three (former) Aix-Marseille universities, later joined by the University of Toulon.
National Research Federation for Magnetic Confinement Fusion
The laboratory is also a founding member of the National Research Federation for Magnetic Confinement Fusion (FRFCM ITER), created in 2005 by the CNRS, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), and six other institutions, in connection with the installation of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in Cadarache, about 50 km north of Marseille. In addition, since 2006, the CPT has been a “Contractual Research Laboratory” (LRC) with the CEA in Cadarache, and maintains a collaboration with members of the Institute for Magnetic Fusion Research (IRFM) within the framework of a scientific project funded by the EURATOM organization since 2003 and by the French National Research Agency (ANR).
AMUtech Institute
The AMUtech institute is based on the synergy of the skills and resources of the site’s physics and chemistry research units involved in the study of materials and nanotechnologies. The aim is to harness the properties of matter at the nanometric scale for developing new materials at the meso- and macroscopic scales, with particular focus on intelligent materials and optronics. Resolutely multidisciplinary, the institute is also involved in initiatives concerning the economic and societal challenges of nanotechnologies.
CENTURI Convergence Institute
CENTURI (the Turing Center for the Study of Living Systems) brings together a growing community of biologists, physicists, mathematicians, computer scientists, and engineers. Numerous research institutes are involved in this project, which also includes a significant educational component. Interdisciplinarity lies at the heart of CENTURI, both for research and for teaching and technology. The research projects developed within CENTURI address the nature of the information underlying biological processes and the organization and dynamics of biological structures.
ISFIN Institute
The ISFIN Institute invests in research and training in instrumentation for major nuclear facilities, characterisation of materials and structures, and fusion science, with the aim of successfully transitioning to low-carbon energy sources. Its
interdisciplinary approach incorporates the societal dimension, which is fundamental to the success of this transition.
Origines Institute
The Origines Institute explores the major scientific questions related to the formation of planets and emergence of life.