MGK/Theorie-Sonderseminar

Marcel Schmidt (d-fine)
How to save the financial system: My journey from Physics to Risk Management @ d-fine

For over 3 years I have worked at d-fine, a leading consultancy for analytically demanding topics from branches like finance, energy industry or manufacturing. Early in my career, I have specialized in market risk management. In our projects, we help banks to secure against price fluctuations, using state-of-the-art methods from mathematics, machine learning, and modern software development.
In this talk, I would like to provide an impression on my career path and show how we as physicists contribute to a more secure financial system.

Informal Theory Seminar

Sota Yoshida (University of Tokyo)
Uncertainty quantification in nuclear shell model

Shell-model calculations are now playing key roles to investigate a wide variety of properties of nuclei owing to the developments in realistic nuclear potentials from chiral EFT and ab initio methods like IMSRG to derive effective interactions for a valence space. Under these circumstances, it is an urgent task to assess the validity of shell model itself, i.e. which states should be described within a given model space. In this seminar, I will talk about how to quantify the uncertainties in shell-model calculations, what could be concluded from that, and possible applications.

Doktorprüfung

David Scheffler (TU Darmstadt)
Two-Color Lattice QCD with Staggered Quarks

Dense Matter Seminar

Daniel Nowakowski (TU Darmstadt)
Inhomogeneous Chiral Symmetry Breaking in Isospin-Asymmetric Matter

Doktorprüfung

Ralf-Arno Tripolt (TU Darmstadt)
Spectral Functions and Transport Coefficients from the Functional Renormalization Group

IKP Seminar

Prof. Michael Kohl (Jefferson Lab)
What is so puzzling about the electric charge of the proton?

The proton is not an elementary particle but has a substructure
governed by quarks and gluons. The size of the proton is manifest
in the spatial distributions of the electric charge and magnetization,
which determine the response to electromagnetic interaction.
Recently, seemingly contradicting observations both at high and
low momentum transfer have challenged our understanding of the
proton. For several years the effects of two-photon exchange have
been much in focus of theory and experiment. The recently established
proton radius puzzle constitutes another problem area that has received
much attention even in public media.
I will discuss ways that will eventually help to resolve the present
puzzles.

Joint Nuclear Astrophysics Seminar

Camilla J. Hansen (Landessternwarte, Heidelberg University)
Linking stellar observations to nuclear physics

Stellar spectra carry a wealth of information, and depending on their resolution we can extract e.g. the stellar ages, chemical composition, radial velocities, as well as the stellar parameters. By observing a large sample of different stars with high-resolution spectrographs, we can investigate the chemical evolution, of all elements detectable, from lithium to uranium. Furthermore, knowing the complete abundance pattern of the star enables a comparison with model predictions, which in turn will provide information on the formation site and process of the detected elements.
In this way stellar abundances are chemical tracers. Hence, they can guide our understanding of nuclear processes, and thereby link nuclear physics (e.g. reaction rates), through astrophysics theory (such as yield predictions) to astronomy (chemical evolution and stellar abundances).

In this talk I will outline how stellar abundances are derived and used in a chemical evolution scheme. The main focus is on the heavy elements (Sr, Y, Zr, Mo, Pd, Ag, Ba, Nd, and Eu), and how these can be used as tracers of their formation processes.

For more information see https://indico.gsi.de/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=2310

Joint Nuclear Astrophysics Seminar

Kerstin Sonnabend ()
Proton capture reactions in thermonuclear supernovae and the p process

There are about 35 proton-rich nuclei whose production cannot be explained by neutron capture processes. The synthesis of these so-called p nuclei is thought to be realized in different astrophysical scenarios which are usually referred to as sites of p-process nucleosynthesis. These scenarios will be briefly introduced including the different approaches to determine the nuclear physics needed for their modelling. As a highlight, the production of the lightest p nuclei via proton capture reactions in thermonuclear supernovae will be presented. Two recent publications [1,2] found a significant contribution to the production of the most abundant p nucleus 92-Mo by this mechanism. Experimental approaches for the determination of the required reaction rates will be explained and first results will be shown.
[1] C. Travaglio et al., The Astrophysical Journal 739 (2011) 93
[2] M. Kusakabe et al., The Astrophysical Journal 726 (2011) 25
For more information see https://indico.gsi.de/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=2310

CSC / Dense Matter Seminar

Daniel Fernandez-Fraile (Frankfurt)
A non-abelian gauge theory in a magnetic field at strong coupling and applications

No Lunch Club Seminar

Philipp Scior (TU Darmstadt)
Fractional Charge and Confinement of Quarks

Joint Nuclear Astrophysics Seminar

Klaus Blaum (Uni Heidelberg)
Nuclear masses for astrophysics

Among all nuclear ground-state properties, atomic masses are highly specific for each particular combination of N and Z and the data obtained apply to a variety of physics topics. One of the most crucial questions to be addressed in mass spectrometry of unstable radionuclides is the one of understanding the processes of element formation in the Universe. To this end, accurate atomic mass values of a large number of exotic nuclei participating in nucleosynthesis are among the key input data in large-scale reaction network calculations.

However, the nuclides involved, e.g., in the r-process, the process responsible for the synthesis of about one half of the matter heavier than iron, are as a rule very short-lived and, moreover, have very tiny production cross-sections. Therefore, the modern mass-spectrometry techniques have to be fast and extremely efficient, such that in special cases even a single nucleus can be sufficient to determine its mass with high accuracy.

An overview on the latest achievements and future perspectives in mass spectrometry for nuclear astrophysics will be given with a focus on some recent highlights from precision Penning trap and storage ring mass measurements.

For more information see https://indico.gsi.de/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=1973

Joint Nuclear Astrophysics Seminar

Achim Schwenk (TU Darmstadt)
Nuclear forces and neutron-rich systems

For more information see https://indico.gsi.de/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=1973

CSC / Dense Matter Seminar

Wolfgang Unger (Frankfurt)
Strong-coupling expansion, worm algorithm, and their applications to QCD

Theory Colloquium

Donald Lynden-Bell (University of Cambridge)
Magnetohydrodynamic force-free jets

other

Haris Djapo (Akdeniz University, Antalya)
Catalyzed big-bang nucleosynthesis

CSC Seminar

(TU Darmstadt)
Dyson Schwinger Studies of Color Superconductivity

CSC seminar

Harmen Warringa (Frankfurt)
Vortex formation in a rotating two-component Fermi gas

A two-component Fermi gas with attractive s-wave interactions forms a superfluid at low temperatures. When this gas is confined in a rotating trap, fermions can unpair at the edges of the gas and vortices can arise beyond certain critical rotation frequencies, as has been observed experimentally. I will discuss the computation of the critical rotation frequencies and present the phase diagram in the plane of scattering length and rotation frequency for different total number of particles.

Christmas Palaver

(TU Darmstadt)
Some topics somehow related to physics