A strong couple: Nanotechnology and catalysis research have combined to bring about a new Colloborative Research Centre, which will be established at the University Duisburg-Essen (UDE) in July. Today the German Research Foundation (DFG) announced that a new CRC combining nanotechnology and catalysis research would be set up at the UDE in July. The DFG will sponsor the new network “Heterogeneous oxidation catalysis in the liquid phase” with approx.10 million Euros for an initial period of 4 years under the umbrella of the Ruhr University Alliance (UA Ruhr).

Link to University Duisburg-Essen press release

The Dean of the Faculty of Physics, Professor Dr. Michael Schreckenberg, together with 11 other male and female professors, was accepted as a new member of the North Rhine Westphalian Academy of Science and Arts at its annual celebration on 16^th May. The President of the Academy, Professor Dr. Wolfgang Löwer, handed out the certificates in the presence of the NRW Prime Minister, Armin Laschet, and the Minister for Culture and Science, Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen. Michael Schreckenberg had already been accepted as a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2011 in recognition of his research activities in the field of transport physics.

Link to University Duisburg-Essen press release

Good marks: In the current university ranking carried out by the centre for university development (CHE), the subjects examined at the University Duisburg-Essen (UDE) obtained top ratings in several respects.

Physics, for example, was in the top group when it came to issues such as finishing a degree within a reasonable timeframe, the support provided during the course of study and the courses on offer. Biology, Computer Science, Mathematics, Medicine and Sport (Teaching) also got top marks for the support they provided to students beginning their studies.  The UDE Chemistry students are very satisfied with the study situation in general, the organization of study programmes and the imparting of technical expertise.

Link to University Duisburg-Essen press release

Weightlessness makes it possible
3-2-1-zero! The recent launch of the rocket “New Shepard” from the launching pad in Van Horn, USA, was cheered by physicists from the University Duisburg-Essen (UDE) as their experiment was on board. The experiment had been chosen by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) for exclusive research in the field of weightlessness. It was an exciting time for Dr. Jens Teiser. The astrophysicist had sent a vacuum chamber, a laser a camera and a control unit in miniature form on the flight into space and was crossing his fingers on the ground. The UDE researcher intends to use the experiment to show how small particles are transported from the internal to the external solar system during planet formation.

“The particles are warmed by light, in our case by the laser, so that their dark side remains cooler. The transmission of pulses surrounded by gas molecules produces such a force that the particles are accelerated away from the sun.” This acceleration can only be observed by a camera during weightlessness. This was achieved for three minutes on board the “New Shepard”. “The experiment worked very well technically”, Teiser said enthusiastically upon his return from Texas.

The project partners, the centre for applied space travel and micro gravitation (ZARM) and the Universities of Magdeburg and Bayreuth, who participated with one project each, were also satisfied. The fact that the suborbital flight had an unlucky start due to the bankruptcy of the first flight provider and delays in rocket development by the new provider Blue Origin was almost forgotten when a successful landing was made. “Now it’s back to the UDE to analyze the data”, said Teiser.

On 20^th March 20 students went on an excursion to Düsseldorf Airport. The excursion was part of the lecture on transport physics (air traffic) which is given by Florian Mazur in Professor Dr. Michael Schreckenberg’s research group. Florian Mazur is not only a transport physicist but also a pilot and therefore well suited to combine the two themes.

E.ON has awarded 150 Euros per month each to three students for a period of one year under the “Deutschlandstipendium” program. The students will receive an additional amount of 150 Euros per month from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.  This signifies that E.ON is highly interested in the students pursuing the Energy Science degree course.

Link to degree course Energy Science

Highly dynamic solid state research

They are highly dynamic: The microscopic processes inside solid states take place within a billionth of a second. What exactly happens to the electrons, ions and spins in the process and how it affects the electrical, optical, magnetic and mechanical material properties is being researched by Prof. Dr. Dmitry Turchinovich (40), who has been appointed as Professor in Experimental Physics at the University Duisburg-Essen.

Link to University Duisburg-Essen press release

Using ultrafast electron diffraction, the dynamics of a structural phase transition driven by femtosecond laser pulses could be observed with atomic spatial and femtosecond-temporal resolution. With a time resolution of less than 350 fs (10^-15 s), Dr. Tim Frigge succeeded in tracing the movement of the atoms for the first time. These ground-breaking results have been published in Nature, supplemented by the work of  the Bovensiepen group at the University of Duisburg-Essen and the work of the Schmidt group at the University of Paderborn.

You can read the paper here
You can read an article about it in Physics World here
You can read the University of Duisburg press release here: English Deutsch

In cooperation with scientists from the universities of Haifa (Israel), Kaiserslautern and Stuttgart, Professor Frank Meyer zu Heringdorf’s team published an article in Science magazine. Using time-resolved non-linear photoemission microscopy, surface plasmon polariton waves were observed with sub-femtosecond time-resolution to spiral to the center of an archimedean spiral. The spiral plasmon waves show an orbital angular momentum that was imprinted into the plasmon wave by using circularly polarized femtosecond laser pulses.

You can read the paper here.
You can read an interview about it here (in German).

Freestyle-physics tasks are online
Lots of young tinkerers have been waiting for this moment: The free-style physics tasks are now on the internet - five in number and tricky as usual. The University Duisburg-Essen's large pupils' competition is running until 16th May and those who would like to be in the final in the summer can already start working on a smart solution. Don't forget to register!

freestyle-physics homepage

Programme for top researchers
He is an outstanding scientist who has already done research in Geneva and Würzburg. Now Prof. Dr. Björn Sothmann is pursuing his career at the University Duisburg-Essen. The physicist is one of the three researchers who are moving this year to a university in North-Rhine-Westphalia through the science ministry's return programme.

More information in german

Solar energy
Sunlight sends an almost inexhaustible supply of energy to the earth. How this energy can be exploited using a minimal amount of raw materials is being investigated by Prof. Dr. Martina Schmid (35) who has now been appointed to the University Duisburg-Essen.

More information in german

Black Holes in the Laboratory

Apart from Stephen Hawking, William Unruh is probably the most well-known expert in the field of the quantum effects of black holes. The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation award winner investigates these fundamental effects and examines to what extent they may be reproduced in the laboratory. At the moment he is a guest in the research group of Professor Dr. Ralf Schützhold in theoretical physics at the University Duisburg-Essen (UDE).

Black holes are amongst the most exotic objects in the universe. Their gravitational strength is so strong, that nothing - not even light - can escape them. The understanding of the physics of black holes is very important in the search for a theory that combines all the forces of nature.

Forty years ago Stephen Hawking discovered that based on the laws of quantum physics, these black holes should emit weak radiation. William Unruh is one of the leading experts in this field, investigating the characteristics and the origin of this radiation. He also had an idea how one could produce and thus better understand a very similar effect in the laboratory. This idea has since found much support resulting in the first successful experiments.

William Unruh studied Physics at the University of Manitoba (Canada) and completed his PhD in Princeton (USA) under the supervision of John Wheeler. After several research visits (e.g. in London with Roger Penrose) he was appointed as professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver (Canada) and still holds this position. Much of his work has received distinction.

Introduction to Physics and Energy Science Degrees
Tuesday, 11.10.2016, lecture hall MC 122:
    10:00 hrs Introduction to university studies
    12:00 hrs Get-together with the student council
Thursday, 13.10.2016, Meeting Point Foyer in front of the lecture hall MC 122:
    10:00 hrs Breakfast (please bring your own plates, cups and cutlery)
    12:00 hrs Rally through the university
    15:00 hrs Professors’ Cafe
    17:00 hrs Pub crawl

Newspaper report of the Rally in 2012

Physics is top all-round
In the CHE-University Ranking Physics at the University Duisburg-Essen has achieved top marks in many categories. The UDE students are very satisfied with the personal supervision by lecturers and contact with their fellow students. Physics at the UDE is also in the top group for its international orientation and for obtaining a degree within a reasonable period.

On 07.05.2015 the newspaper “Die Zeit” referred to this as excellence in the Ruhr area, saying that the University Duisburg-Essen is the only university which is in the top group for each of the three listed categories, namely  international orientation, obtaining a degree within a reasonable period and  supervision by lecturers.

It’s all happening here: With four event locations at the same time the University Duisburg-Essen is participating in the Ruhr Night of Knowledge on 30.09.2016 when the Ruhr area will be transformed into a huge research laboratory from 16:00-22:00 hrs. The UDE will present itself in Duisburg and Essen with exciting contributions from the Faculties of Physics and Medicine, the Nano Technology Centre and the Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance.

From dark matter to planet formation
Cosmic radiation is a flow of particles from outer space that bombards us constantly. It provides the link between the research groups that have joined forces in the Ruhr Astroparticle and Plasma Physics Center, RAPP for short. These include the experimental physicists in Professor Gerhard Wurm’s group. Around 100 scientists will now celebrate the opening of the new center on 21st September 2016 in the planetarium in Bochum. Afterwards a conference will take place at the Ruhr University.

Lecturer Dr. Fred Hucht has been invited to Lyon to give a talk on his latest research results at Statphys – the largest statistical physics conference. The title of his talk is “The Casimir effect in near-critical systems”.

On Tuesday, 25th October 2016, from 16:00 – 18:15 hrs, in MC 122, the Faculty of Physics will hold the Energy Science Day for the second time. The event is directed towards students of this degree (including first-term students), tutors, lecturers, professors and guests.

Dr. Florian M. Römer was very successful right on his first application.
The project that will last for three years includes the funding of a PhD student and various material expenses. Within the framework of this project, and with the help of in situ multi-frequent ferromagnetic resonance, Dr. Römer will investigate the damping qualities of ferromagnet / non ferromagnet interfaces. One of the evaluators is expecting “a huge acquisition of knowledge on spin pumping” which will also be relevant for other “research fields that use spin-transfer torque effects, and moreover for the highly topical spin caloric effects and the spin transistor”. The unofficial job advertisement (official one to follow) may be found here. Themes for writing Bachelor and Master theses are also available in this field.