24.03.2024
From March 24th-25th, the GNN internal Mants Meeting met for the first time in 6 years at the Ruhr University Bochum, hosted by SFB1491. The talks centered on the synergies between different instruments. Almost 100 researchers came together from all over the world to discuss status updates for their projects. The two days were filled with invited and collaborative talks, poster sessions and networking during coffee breaks and the conference dinner.
13.02.2024
Congratulations to our PI Horst Fichtner and his longtime colleague
Prof. Dr. Bidzina Shergelashvili!
Bidzina Shergelashvili has again received the RUB Visiting
International Professor Fellowship (VIP) fellowship. This award honors
outstanding international researchers who are engaged in early career
researcher training at RUB.
Horst Fichtner and Bidzina Shergelashvili have been working for
a number of years on models and numerical simulations in the field of
Connecting the Sun and the Heliosphere: Physical Conditions at
the Heliobase and Their Signatures in Space Weather.
Bidzina Shergelashvili is also closely involved in the supervision and
mentoring of master's and doctoral students.
Thanks to the renewed funding from the VIP fellowship, this successful
collaboration can now continue.
Further information on the VIP program can be found here.
01.02.2024
Between January 22nd and 25th, the Bergische Universität Wuppertal hosted a pivotal workshop on the tuning of hadronic interaction models, sponsored by the SFB1491. The workshop brought together more than 50 experts in simulations and measurements of cosmic ray-induced air showers, accelerator experiments, and hadronic interaction models. Its primary purpose was to create a collaborative space for ample discussions, sparked by presentations focused on testing and enhancing hadronic interaction models.
For more details about the event, please have a look at the conference webpage.
23.01.2024
The Low Frequency Array - LOFAR - is the world's largest radio telescope for measuring short and ultra-short radio waves from space. Together with the Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ), the Ruhr University Bochum operates a LOFAR antenna field close to the FZJ. Furthermore, RAPP member Prof. Ralf-Jürgen Dettmar played a key role in the founding of the International LOFAR Telescope (ILT).
Due to the Europe-wide importance of LOFAR, the European Commission has decided to give the telescope, which was previously organized as a project, an independent legal form: From January 22, 2024, the consortium was transformed into a European research infrastructure, in short: ERIC.
This reinforces the great importance of LOFAR for cutting-edge astronomical research.
The full press release can be found here (in German).
16.01.2024
On Monday, January 22nd, scientists meet at RUB for the yearly meeting "Plasma and Particle Theory Day" to discuss the theory of particles in plasmas.
Understanding the collective behavior of ionized particles is in the focus of research. A particular challenge is to understand how physical collisions of particles and the interactions between ions and electromagnetic fields are included in the various equations to describe the systems. In astrophysics, often these equations are dominated by the interaction of particles with electromagnetic waves.
This is the research focus of the Collaborative Research Center SFB1491, "Cosmic Interacting Matters - From Source to Signal", centered at RUB.
The research department of Plasmas with Complex Interactions also hosts SFB1316, "Transient Atmospheric Plasmas: From Plasmas to Liquids to Solids". Here, non equilibrium processes in atmopsheric plasmas for species conversion are the topic of research. Compared to astrophysical plasmas, these atmopsheric plasmas are very dense and physical collisions dominate the equations.
It is the goal of the Plasma and Particle Theory day to move toward exploring the region in which both terms play a significant role. This is for instance the case in molecular clouds in the Milky way, in which the degree of ionization is as low as ~30% and naturally, collisions become important in the description. Another example is the physics of lightning that can be tested in the plasma lab and for which a briding theory is needed to understand the physics of atmospheric lightning. Once the particle interactions become inelastic, i.e at high energies or at extreme densities like they exist in neutron stars, the classical description needs to be replaced by the quantum mechanical one. Scientists therefore discuss the different methods, how synergies can be build and what the next steps are to build a consistent framework to combine classical and quantum-mechanical interactions.
