PhaseCAP: Phase Transitions in Combinatorics, Algorithms, Probability

PhaseCAP draws on the theory of phase transitions in statistical physics to shed light on fundamental questions in combinatorics, algorithms, and probability. The PhaseCAP research semester programme will take place in the first half of 2026.

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Summary

How can we understand the underlying structure of a large-scale network? Which local constraints determine an algorithm’s running time? In recent years, ideas inspired by physics have proved fruitful in tackling such questions. Central to this approach is the notion of a phase transition: a sudden change in macroscopic behaviour (for example, matter shifting from solid to liquid at a critical temperature) in models governed by local interactions.

We aim to connect the combinatorics, algorithms, and probability communities through this lens. This will be pursued through three interactive four-day workshops focused on problem-solving and collaboration.

The workshops:

Organization

The Research Semester Programme PhaseCAP is organized by:

Ferenc Bencs (CWI), Jop Briët (CWI), Serte Donderwinkel (Groningen University), Carla Groenland (TU Delft), Ross Kang (University of Amsterdam), Noela Müller (TU Eindhoven), Guus Regts (University of Amsterdam).

Invited participants

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* indicates invited speaker
** indicates speaker at public afternoon

Marie Albenque (CNRS)
Anurag Bishnoi (TUD)
**Tom Bohman (CMU)
Márton Borbényi (ELTE)
Pjotr Buys (UvA)
Stijn Cambie (KU Leuven)
Sarah Cannon (Claremont McKenna)
Philippe van Dordrecht (CWI)
*Guillaume Chapuy (CNRS)
**Amin Coja-Oghlan (TU Dortmund)
David Conlon (CalTech)
Péter Csikvári (ELTE)
Yatin Dandi (EPFL)
Ewan Davies (Colorado State)
Holger Dell (Copenhagen)
Anita Dürr (MPII)
Jacob Fox (Stanford)
Andreas Galanis (OXford)
David Gamarnik (MIT)
Dion Gijswijt (TUD)
**Leslie Goldberg (Oxford)
**Christina Goldschmidt (Oxford)
Heng Guo (Edinburgh)
Thekla Hamm (TUE)
**Penny Haxell (Waterloo)
Rajat Hazra (Leiden)
Markus Heydenreich (Augsburg)
*Frank den Hollander (Leiden)
Aukosh Jagannath (Waterloo)
Mark Jerrum (QMUL)
*Matthew Jenssen (KCL)
*Mihyun Kang (TU Graz)
Júlia Komjáthy (TUD)
Florent Krzakala (EPFL)
Aiya Kuchukova (Georgia Tech)
Matthew Kwan (IST Austria)
*Leticia Mattos (Heidelberg)
Xandru Mifsud (Oxford)
Cris Moore (Santa Fe)
**Rob Morris (IMPA)
*Jesper Nederlof (Utrecht)
Konstantinos Panagiotou (LMU Munich)
Viresh Patel (QMUL)
Guillem Perarnau (UPC)
Will Perkins (Georgia Tech)
Gábor Pete (Rényi)
Aaditya Potukuchi (MPI-SWS)
Anant Ravi (TUD)
Marc Roth (QMUL)
Wojciech Samotij (Tel Aviv)
Alex Scott (Oxford)
Davi Castro Silva (Cambridge)
Fiona Skerman (Uppsala)
Paulina Smolarova (Oxford)
*Joel Spencer (NYU)
Clara Stegehuis (Twente)
Karol Węgrzycki (MPII)
Corrine Yap (Georgia Tech)
Yitong Yin (Nanjing)
*Lenka Zdeborová (EPFL)
Gabriëlle Zwanenveld (UvA)

More information will follow.

Support

In addition to support from CWI, our research semester programme acknowledges the support from the Gravitation Consortium NETWORKS of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW); from the Dutch Science Council (NWO); from the 4TU+AMI under the auspices of a Strategic
Research Initiative; and from the Korteweg-de Vries Institute for Mathematics of the University of Amsterdam.