IX QUANTUM GRAVITY IN THE SOUTHERN CONE

July 20-24, 2026

Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Viña del Mar, Chile

The ninth edition of the workshop Quantum Gravity in the Southern Cone (IX QGSC) aims to bring together a small number of experts from diverse fields in theoretical physics in an informal setting with ample time for discussion and brainstorming. The objective of this format is to build and develop research bridges between colleagues in South America and those abroad.

In this edition, we will also include a poster session for early career researchers who want to show their recent work and receive feedback from senior researchers. Limited funding is available to support a selected amount of regional, junior participants.

The registration to participate in the XI QGSC is closed.

Organizers

Giorgos Anastasiou (Adolfo Ibáñez U.)

Ignacio J. Araya (Andres Bello U.)

Cristóbal Corral (Adolfo Ibáñez U.)

Miguel Campiglia (República U.)

Alejandra Castro (Cambridge U.)

Damián A. Galante (King's College London)

Javier Moreno (Yukawa Institute, Kyoto U.)

Francisco Rojas (Adolfo Ibáñez U.)

Guillermo Silva (La Plata U.)

Speakers & participants

List of confirmed participants:

Lucas Acito (La Plata U.)

Monserrat Aguayo (Concepción U.)

Luis Alday (Oxford U.)

Pedro Álvarez (San Sebastián U.)

Patricio Angelini (Federico Santa Maria U.)

Tarek Anous (Queen Mary, U. of London)

Marcos Arcodía (Buenos Aires U.)

Andrés Argandoña (National Autonomous U. of Mexico)

Maximiliano Arroyo (Pontifical Catholic U. Chile)

Diego Arteaga (Pontifical Catholic U. Chile)

Bastián Astudillo (Arturo Prat U.)

Romina Ballesteros (San Sebastián U.)

Máximo Bañados (Pontifical Catholic U. Chile)

José Barrientos (Tarapacá U.)

Connor Behan (Perimeter Inst.)

Ernesto Bianchi (Naples U.)

Arindam Bhattarcharjee (Arturo Prat U.)

Jan de Boer (Amsterdam U.)

Gianni Boschetti (U. of the Republic)

Mayrim Busnego (Pontifical Catholic U. Chile)

Paulina Cabrera (Pontifical Catholic U. Valparaíso)

Nicolás Cáceres (Pontifical Catholic U. Valparaíso)

Federico Capone (Jena U.)

Marcela Cárdenas (San Sebastián U.)

Mariana Carrillo González (Imperial C.)

Matías Castillo (Pontifical Catholic U. Chile)

Pablo Castillo-Guarda (Arturo Prat U.)

Avipsa Chakrabarti (Pontifical Catholic U. Valparaíso)

Sebastian Cespedes (Imperial C.)

Mathias Charbonnier (U. of the Republic)

Erick Contreras (Santiago U. & Federico Santa Maria U.)

Erick Cortés (Andres Bello U.)

Diego Correa (La Plata U.)

Facundo Cruz (La Plata U.)

Ignacio Cruz (Pontifical Catholic U. Chile)

Amaro Díaz (Universidad de Concepción)

Nadav Drukker (King's College London)

Roberto Emparan (Barcelona U.)

Cristián Erices (Central U.)

Alberto Faraggi (Pontifical Catholic U. Chile)

Daniel Fondevila (La Plata U.)

Dante Fonseca (Arturo Prat U.)

Maximiliano Ferro (La Plata U.)

Óscar Fuentealba (Arturo Prat U.)

Diego García-Sepúlveda (Harvard U.)

Gaston Giribet (New York U.)

Nicolás Grandi (La Plata U.)

Victor Godet (Sorbonne U. & CNRS)

Alfredo Guevara (Princeton U.)

Facundo Gutiérrez (U. of the Republic)

Carla Henríquez (U. Mayor)

Camilo las Heras (Valparaíso U.)

Gabriel Hernández (Concepción U.)

Guzmán Hernández-Chifflet (U. of the Republic)

Joaquin Housset (Pontifical Catholic U. Valparaíso)

Fernando Izaurieta (San Sebastián U.)

Macarena Lagos (Andres Bello U.)

Juan Laurnagaray (Buenos Aires U.)

Axel León (Trujillo National U.)

Christopher León (Arturo Prat U.)

Constansa Lizama (Pontifical Catholic U. Chile)

Carlos Mall (Tarapacá U.)

Robinson Mancilla (Brussels U.)

Pedro J. Martínez (La Plata U.)

Roberto Martínez (Andres Bello U.)

Benjamín Mellado (Concepción U.)

Dmitry Melnikov (International Institute of Physics, UFRN)

Martín Molina (Pontifical Catholic U. Valparaíso)

Cristóbal Moreno (Pontifical Catholic U. Chile)

Sayid Mondal (Arturo Prat U.)

Antonia Montecinos (Pontifical Catholic U. Valparaíso)

Ayan Mukhopadhyay (Pontifical Catholic U. Valparaíso)

Iván Muñoz (Pontifical Catholic U. Chile)

Robert C. Myers (Perimeter Inst.)

Vladimir Narovlansky (Princeton U.)

Camilo Núñez-Barra (Pontifical Catholic U. Chile)

Rodrigo Olea (Pontifical Catholic U. Valparaíso)

Julio Oliva (Concepcion U.)

Gabriel Ortega (Concepción U.)

Tomás Ortín (IFT UAM-CSIC)

Pablo Pais (Austral U.)

Yoel Parra (Chile U.)

Mónica Pate (New York U.)

Agustina Pereyra (Buenos Aires U.)

Alfredo Pérez (San Sebastian U.)

Claudio Pérez (Arturo Prat U.)

Benjamin Pethybridge (Naples U.)

Nicolás Pinochet (Pontifical Catholic U. Valparaíso)

Francisca Ramírez (Federico Santa Maria U.)

Cielo Ramírez de Arellano (Concepción U.)

Alan Ríos Fukelman (Queen Mary, U. of London)

Rodrigo Rivadeneira (Pontifical Catholic U. Chile)

Brian Rivera (Pontifical Catholic U. Valparaíso)

Tadeo Rodríguez (Buenos Aires U.)

Facundo Rost (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa)

Rudranil Roy (Tarapacá U. & La Serena U & Valparaíso U.)

Marcelo Rozas (Pontifical Catholic U. Valparaíso)

Nicolás Salazar (Santiago U.)

Adrián Sánchez-Garrido (Southampton U.)

Leonardo Sanhueza (Concepción U.)

Aditya Sharma (San Sebastian U.)

Bruno Sivilotti (Buenos Aires U. & Perimeter Inst.)

Pedro Schmiedt (Buenos Aires U.)

Felipe Sulantay (Pontifical Catholic U. Chile)

Valeria Tapia (Andres Bello U.)

Ronaldo Thibes (Southwestern Bahia U.)

Chiara Toldo (Brussels U.)

Jorge Urbina (Concepción U.)

Diego Valerio (National U. Callao)

Teófilo Vargas (National U. San Marcos)

Gopal Yadav (Pontifical Catholic U. Valparaíso)

Iñaki Zalduendo (Buenos Aires U. & La Plata U.)

Juliana Zanatta (São Paulo State U.)

Jorge Zanelli (Center for Scientific Studies & San Sebastián U.)

Participants

Schedule

Schedule & Talks

Luis Alday: On the soft behaviour of N=4 Super Yang-Mills
Tarek Anous: QFT in de Sitter, some general lessons from some simple models
Connor Behan: Spinning holographic correlators from a mixed system
Jan de Boer: Microstates for cosmology
Mariana Carrillo-González: (A)dS correlators from twistor space
Diego Correa: Holographic description of correlators in a conformal line
Roberto Emparan: Cold Black Holes as Quantum Systems
Gaston Giribet: Perplexing features of imaginary Liouville theory
Guzmán Hernández-Chifflet: Finite volume amplitudes to exponential precision
Macarena Lagos: Nonlinearities in Gravity: Gravitational Wave Ringdown
Pedro J. Martínez: Degenerate Perturbation theory in AdS/CFT
Dmitry Melnikov: Knitting entanglement from loops and spaces
Ayan Mukhopadhyay: The Architecture of Typical Black Hole Microstates: From Holographic Quantum Information to the Statistical Mechanics of Chaotic Large-(c) CFTs
Robert C. Myers: Flat Space Entanglement: A Coulomb Branch Perspective
Vladimir Narovlanski: TBA
Rodrigo Olea: Conformal Renormalization of anti-de Sitter gravity
Tomás Ortín: Old and new uses of old and new conserved charges
Monica Pate: Infinite Symmetry Algebras in Four-Dimensional Conformal Field Theories
Alfredo Pérez: An analog of the memory effect in He II superfluids
Adrián Sánchez-Garrido: Black hole formation from the operator product expansion
Chiara Toldo: Quantum corrections to near extremal black hole thermodynamics

Practical information

Location

The workshop will take place in:

Classroom AZ-101, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Campus Viña del Mar

Av. Padre Hurtado 750, Viña del Mar, Valparaíso, Chile

Viña del Mar is a coastal city in central Chile, located 120 km from Santiago. Regular bus services connect Santiago’s Terminal Alameda and Pajaritos stations with the Viña del Mar Bus Terminal, with buses running at high frequency throughout the day. The trip takes roughly 1.5–2 hours depending on traffic.

There are different main ways to get there. We recommend two:

1) PRIVATE TRANSFER OR OFFICIAL AIRPORT TAXI — easiest, recommended for late arrivals

- Door-to-door from the terminal straight to the hotel.
- Official operators have counters inside the arrivals hall; this is located after you have already passed baggage claim.
- We recommend Transvip and We-Transfer, as well as the official taxi companies such as Taxi Oficial / Taxi Blue. Book at their desk after clearing customs; avoid unofficial drivers who approach you.
- Approximate cost: CLP $100,000–130,000 (about USD 110–140) for a private car, tolls included; shared vans are cheaper per person. Always confirm the fare before boarding.
- Best choice if you arrive in the evening/at night or have a lot of luggage.

2) BUS — most economical, but two legs and a transfer

- Leg 1: From the airport, take a Centropuerto or TurBus Aeropuerto shuttle to subway station "Pajaritos" (about 30–40 min). The bus terminal is located basically inside this subway station.
- Leg 2: At Pajaritos, take an intercity bus to the Viña del Mar bus terminal (Terminal de Buses de Viña del Mar, Av. Valparaíso 1055). Companies include TurBus, Pullman Bus, and Condor Bus; departures are frequent, typically from 6:15 am to 10:20 pm, and the ride is about 1.5-2 hours.
- Total cost is well under CLP $15,000 (~ USD 16), but this is the slowest option and involves handling luggage during the transfer.

IMPORTANT — the last stretch from the Viña del Mar bus terminal to the hotel:
If you arrive by bus, we strongly recommend taking an Uber or an official taxi from the bus terminal to the Veranda Hotel rather than walking. The area around the terminal can feel a little unsafe, especially after dark. The ride to the hotel is short and inexpensive.

Transportation

Daily buses run from Journal restaurant (Viña del Mar) to UAI campus, with three intermediate stops: (i) at Plaza parroquia, (ii) 4 Norte con Libertad, and (iii) 5 norte con Los Castaños streets (see map below). The schedule is the following: (see map below). The schedule is the following:

Monday, July 20: Two buses will depart at 8:30 a.m. from the Journal to the UAI campus. For the return trip, two buses will depart from UAI to the Journal at 6:45 p.m.
Tuesday, July 21: Two buses will depart at 9:15 a.m. from the Journal to the UAI campus. For the return trip, two buses will depart from UAI to the Journal at 5:25 p.m.
Wednesday, July 22: Two buses will depart at 9:15 a.m. from the Journal to the UAI campus. For the return trip, two buses will depart from UAI to the Journal at 6:45 p.m.
Thursday, July 23: Two buses will depart at 9:15 a.m. from the Journal to the UAI campus. For the return trip, two buses will depart from UAI to the Journal at 5:25 p.m.
Friday, July 24: Two buses will depart at 9:15 a.m. from the Journal to the UAI campus. For the return trip, two buses will depart from UAI to the Journal at 4:40 p.m.

The buses itinerary is the following:

Accommodation

The Veranda Hotel Viña del Mar (named Hotel Novotel Viña del Mar until early May) offers rooms for conference participants at a discounted rate. To make a reservation, please contact the reservations email address reservas@verandahotel.cl and indicate that you are a conference participant. Single rooms are available for CLP 92,000 + VAT, and double rooms for CLP 107,000 + VAT. VAT is refundable for foreign participants.

Beware of scams

You may be contacted by fraudulent travel agencies claiming to represent the organization. Please do not respond to them and report any such messages instead. We will contact you directly to arrange accommodation.

Related events in the region

We would like to draw attention to a related conference in the region: the Advances in Quantum Gravity and Strings. This meeting will take place on 29, 30, 31 July 2026, Instituto de Física La Plata, Argentina.