American Institute of Physics’ Post

*** Congratulations *** to Vitaly Wirthl, former PhD now Postdoc at MPQ, for receiving this year's Theodor Hänsch Dissertation Prize from the Faculty of Physics at LMU Munich – Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. In his work, Vitaly Wirthl succeeded in measuring a specific energy transition in deuterium, the heavy hydrogen, more precisely than ever before. Ultra-precise measurements such as these enable a direct comparison and test of the theory of quantum electrodynamics, and provide important clues, for example in the search for new physics or the exact determination of natural constants. The final evaluation of Vitaly Wirthl's new data is currently being eagerly awaited by precision physicists. https://lnkd.in/daQKj-d3

The monumental achievements of Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L’Huillier underscore the essence of physics — unraveling the mysteries of our world on unimaginably brief time scales. The laureates have not only pushed the boundaries of our understanding but have also paved the way for countless future applications. Their work has empowered researchers to explore electron behaviors at speeds as fleeting as a few tenths of an attosecond. To put it into perspective, an attosecond is one billionth of a billionth of a second, roughly equivalent to the age of the universe in seconds! This field, known as attosecond physics, employs light pulses lasting just a few hundred attoseconds to scrutinize the interactions between light and matter at minuscule scales. I'm particularly proud to mention that all three laureates have graced the pages of APS’s Physical Review journals. Anne L’Huillier, an APS member and Fellow, has even been distinguished by APS’s Outstanding Referees program. This recognition further solidifies the indispensable role of APS in advancing physics!! #NobelPrize #Physics #AttosecondPhysics #ScienceBreakthroughs

There are a lot of great scientists doing research in China, most of them trained in the US and have worked and researched in the US. If you talk to them, they will tell you that the research environment and the labs in China are still meaningfully behind the US. They will lament the quality and robustness of the published papers, even if quantity has been impressive. However, these amazing scientists still choose to research and teach in China, despite the lower pay and less favorable conditions---not because they are communists or are anti-US or pro-Beijing or suffer from some patriotic ideals. They choose what seems a sub-optimal career, because they, too, were once young aspiring physics students in China wanting to know the mysteries of the universe. These Chinese scientists have gone back to China, because they want to share what they have learnt with the millions of young scientists, who are just like them, but for a variety of reasons, cannot come to the US to learn. These scientists want to create better educational and research institutions in China for the love of science and knowledge. Heart and purpose can overcome a lot and can build amazing things. China imitating and catching up to the US isn't all about two super powers competing--framing it as Beijing stealing IP and espionage actually wrongs a lot of good people, though it is absolutely correct in other instances. A lot of the China's advances is about amazing human beings wanting something beautiful that they have learnt and experienced in the West for the kids back at home in the East.

Peter Ware Higgs CH FRS FRSE HonFInstP ( 1929 – 8 April 2024 ) was a British theoretical physicist, Emeritus Professor at the University of Edinburgh, and Nobel Prize laureate for his work on the mass of subatomic particles. Peter Higgs' most notable scientific contribution is the theoretical prediction of the Higgs mechanism and the associated Higgs boson. His work, along with several other physicists who independently developed similar ideas around the same time, provided a solution to a significant problem in particle physics – how particles acquire mass. The key contributions and implications of his work include: 1. The Higgs Mechanism: In 1964, Peter Higgs, and independently Francois Englert and Robert Brout, proposed a mechanism to explain the origin of mass in fundamental particles. This mechanism involves a field that permeates all of space, known as the Higgs field. Particles interact with this field; the strength of their interaction determines their mass. This idea was a significant breakthrough, as it helped to complete the Standard Model of particle physics by explaining why some particles have mass and others do not. 2. Prediction of the Higgs Boson: The Higgs mechanism implied the existence of a new particle, the Higgs boson, which is a quantum excitation of the Higgs field. The detection of this particle would be crucial evidence supporting the Higgs mechanism. Peter Higgs was one of the first to suggest the existence of this particle in his work. 3. Unification of Forces: The Higgs mechanism also played a pivotal role in the unification of the electromagnetic and weak nuclear forces into the electroweak force, a cornerstone of the Standard Model. It showed how the breaking of electroweak symmetry could give rise to the masses of W and Z bosons (responsible for the weak force) while leaving the photon (carrier of the electromagnetic force) massless. 4. Experimental Verification: The existence of the Higgs boson was experimentally confirmed in 2012 by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This discovery was a monumental moment in the field of particle physics, confirming Higgs' theoretical predictions made nearly five decades earlier. 5. Nobel Prize in Physics: In 2013, Peter Higgs and Francois Englert were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their theoretical predictions of the Higgs boson, which was confirmed through the discovery at the LHC. Peter Higgs' contributions are foundational to modern particle physics. They have not only enhanced our understanding of the universe at the most fundamental level but have also driven forward the field of high-energy physics through experimental searches for the Higgs boson and other phenomena predicted by the Standard Model. Source: Wiki, Ais and Humans AIFI - Artificial Intelligence Finance Institute

4 years of physics didn’t feel like quite enough so here goes 4 more! Super excited to embark on this next step under the guidance of Dr Amelle Zair within the Attokings group. My project title is “High harmonic generation in quantum materials” and the aim is to shed light on the behaviour of electrons in topologically “strange” materials like Mott insulators. (Full project description here: https://lnkd.in/euahhvvs) Usually HHG is the prerequisite to synthesising attosecond (10-18 s) pulses which are used to temporally resolve electron behaviour at their natural timescales. This was important enough to win the 2023 Nobel prize in physics!(explained very nicely here: https://lnkd.in/e3hy6iGk) I’ll be looking directly at the harmonics produced by targets to make inferences about what’s going on inside - a built-in pump-probe technique known as HHG spectroscopy. The project will involve developing my skills in a range of different areas - many-body quantum mechanics, laser physics and nonlinear light-matter interaction to name a few! Of course, I’ll understand more when I actually start. The first few months will be learning how to do HHG in solids at all (which involves firing a massively powerful laser at targets without melting them! Some of these are expensive and time consuming to fabricate…) and developing my mathematical background with the help of my second supervisor, Dr George Booth. I also plan to continue the work done in my master’s project which involves shaping the fundamental field used to drive such processes. I also look forward to learning from the group at the University of Bordeaux, who I met back in December. This is an extremely strong collaboration driven by my supervisor, and the other side of my project will involve developing the mathematical theory with them to describe HHG in solids. My other theory link will be my friend Anna, who sits behind me and is geographically a bit closer. We are also welcoming two new theory postdocs in January, who bring expertise from the realms of quantum information technology and the interface of topology and attosecond physics. I am very excited to start my PhD in October (it still feels surreal to say it!), see you all in the next academic year 😎

Pierre Agostini (The Ohio State University), Ferenc Krausz (Max Planck Society) and Anne L’Huillier (Lund University) share the 2023 #NobelPrize in Physics for, briefly put, giving us attosecond physics. What does that mean, just how short is an attosecond and who are the new Nobel Laureates? Find out on our blog:

As 2023 Nobel prize winners gather in Stockholm this week, we reflect on the physics prize, awarded for the development of attosecond science, and its link to research at Paul Scherrer Institut PSI. “We can now open the door to the world of electrons. Attosecond physics gives us the opportunity to understand mechanisms that are governed by electrons. The next step will be utilising them.” So said Eva Olsson, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics at the The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, at the announcement of the The Nobel Prize 2023 in Physics in October. This year’s physics prize is close to our heart at PSI. A number of PSI researchers contributed to the development of this area in work that is recognised in the scientific background to the prize. There is a unifying theme to these researchers: they all now work at #SwissFEL. This is no coincidence. With recent technical developments enabling attosecond and fully coherent X-ray pulses, SwissFEL promises to rapidly advance this emerging research area, combining the possibilities of this astounding time resolution with the advantages of X-ray free electron laser light. These developments at a user facility such as SwissFEL would allow the science that attosecond timescales illuminate to be truly explored: the “next step” that Olsson speaks of. #ScienceWithLight #Attosecond #Electrons #NobelPrize #ResearchAtPSI

MSc and PhD Students watch out: Are you interested in learning about „Scattering Amplitudes in Quantum Field Theory “? Johannes Henn, Simon Badger, Jan Plefka and Simone Zoia published a lecture book including the most up-to-date and relevant topics in this field. As it requires only basic knowledge in QFT, you can use it as a preparation for research projects in theoretical particle and gravitational physics. The book is part of the Lecture Notes in Physics by Springer Nature Group and is also available via Open Access. https://lnkd.in/eB4vUkUx https://lnkd.in/eVvUQBx2 #quantumfieldtheory #particlephysics #gravitationalphysics #scatteringamplitudes

Dear colleagues, on behalf of organizers, I would like to invite you to attend to the minicolloquium “Collective and nonlinear phenomena in confined quantum systems” (MC8) within the 31th General Conference of the Condensed Matter Division of the European Physical Society CMD31, which will be held from 2 to 6 September 2024 in Braga, Portugal. The topics that will be discussed include quantum gases, particularly ultracold atoms, with a special emphasis on collective excitations, solitons, and vortices. The colloquium will bring together both theorists and experimentalists in condensed matter physics. Quantum gases are a fascinating area of research, and ultracold atoms have been at the forefront of this field for several years. For example, the observation of Bose-Einstein condensation in ultracold atomic gases has opened up new avenues for research in quantum mechanics. The study of collective response, both linear and nonlinear, in these systems has led to a lot of interesting and important discoveries. In addition to the aforesaid topics, we will also explore other areas of research that are related to confined quantum systems. These may include, but are not limited to, quantum computing, quantum information theory, and quantum optics. We hope that this minicolloquium will provide a platform for researchers to share their latest findings and ideas, and to foster new collaborations. We look forward to welcoming both theorists and experimentalists in condensed matter physics to this exciting event. This minicolloquium continues and expands the scope of the successful minicolloquia “Collective Effects & Non-Equilibrium Phenomena in Quantum Gases and Superconductors” held at CMD29 – Manchester in 2022 and “Quantum gases as analogues of condensed matter systems” held at CMD30 – Milano in 2023. Please visit the CMD31 website for more details: https://lnkd.in/ePcgGfhm and the webpage of the mini-colloquia: https://lnkd.in/esH22QpH The abstract submission is now open at the CMD31 website: https://lnkd.in/eMCKGxVY The abstract submission deadline is 15 April 2024. We will appreciate if you spread this announcement to your colleagues. We will be happy to assist you if you have any queries. Best regards, Organizers of the minicolloquium: Serghei Klimin (University of Antwerp, Belgium) sergei.klimin@uantwerpen.be Jacques Tempere (University of Antwerp, Belgium) jacques.tempere@uantwerpen.be Luca Salasnich (University of Padova, Italy) luca.salasnich@pd.infn.it Vladimir V. Konotop (University of Lisbon, Portugal) vvkonotop@ciencias.ulisboa.pt

Physics Pioneer Receives PhD After 75 Years For Discovering Kaon Particle: Rosemary Fowler, a pioneering physicist who discovered the kaon particle during her doctoral research in 1948, has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Bristol -- 75 years after she left her PhD to raise a family. The Guardian reports: Rosemary Fowler, 98, discovered the kaon particle during her doctoral research under Cecil Powell at the University of Bristol in 1948, which contributed to his Nobel prize for physics in 1950. Fowler's discovery helped lead to a revolution in the theory of particle physics, and it continues to be proven correct -- predicting particles such as the Higgs boson, discovered at Cern in Geneva, Switzerland. But she left university without completing her PhD to marry fellow physicist Peter Fowler in 1949, a decision she later described as pragmatic after she went on to have three children in a time of postwar food rationing. At 22, Fowler spotted something when viewing unusual particle tracks -- a particle that decayed into three pions, a type of subatomic particle. She said: "I knew at once that it was new and would be very important. We were seeing things that hadn't been seen before -- that's what research in particle physics was. It was very exciting." The track, later labelled K, was evidence of an unknown particle, now known as the kaon or K meson. The K track was the mirror image of a particle seen before by colleagues in Manchester, but their track decayed into two pions, not three. Trying to understand how these images were the same, yet behaved differently, helped lead to a revolution in the theory of particle physics. The year after the discovery, Fowler left university having published her discovery in three academic papers. Read more of this story at Slashdot.