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We study the strong interaction at low and medium energies. Our activities focus on the theoretical interpretation of the experiments at MAMI and at other accelerator facilities. Beside analytical methods like effective field theories and dispersion theory numerical simulations of Quantum Chromodynamics on the lattice are applied.

Physics Colloquium

28.01.2020
Professor Dr. Manfred Popp, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie

What Pre-empted Hitler's Atomic Bomb?
Nuclear Physics during World War II in Germany

The current historical narrative, the German physicists had worked on nuclear weapons for Hitler, but the effort to develop an atomic bomb would have exceeded the economic power of the “Third Reich”, will be discussed from the view of a physicist. After a brief look into the physics of a nuclear reactor and a nuclear explosive, the lecture will provide answers to the following questions: Was an atomic bomb really economically unattainable? Why did the German physicists not succeed to demonstrate the neutron chain reaction? Why did they not try to measure natural constants needed for the design of a bomb? Why had the Heidelberg cyclotron project a low priority and why was the most modern cyclotron in occupied Copenhagen not seized for the Uranium Project? Finally, the resulting question is whether the conclusions of the historians are scientifically convincing. ...

NEWS AND PRESS
15.11.2019
Jülicher John von Neumann-Institut für Computing zeichnet Mainzer Projekt als "Exzellenzprojekt 2019" aus

Das John von Neumann-Institut für Computing (NIC) hat ein von Prof. Dr. Hartmut Wittig von der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (JGU) beantragtes Projekt zu theoretischen Berechnungen der starken Wechselwirkung als "John von Neumann Exzellenzprojekt 2019" ausgewählt. "Dotiert" ist die Auszeichnung aber nicht etwa mit einem Preisgeld, sondern mit zusätzlicher Rechenzeit an den beiden Supercomputern JUWELS und JURECA BOOSTER, die am Forschungszentrum Jülich betrieben werden.

"Für uns als theoretische Physiker ist Rechenzeit die entscheidende 'Währung', um unsere Forschung voranzutreiben", sagt Hartmut Wittig, Professor für theoretische Kernphysik und zugleich Sprecher des Mainzer Exzellenzclusters PRISMA+. "Zudem sind wir bei unserem aktuellen Projekt auf extrem leistungsstarke Supercomputer angewiesen, wie sie deutschlandweit nur an sehr wenigen Standorten, wie dem NIC in Jülich, zur Verfügung stehen." Unter dem Titel "Lattice-QCD with Wilson Quarks at zero and non-zero Temperature" wollen die Mainzer Wissenschaftler zu mehreren Aspekten der starken Wechselwirkung theoretische Vorhersagen treffen. ...

22.10.2019
Theory group paper highlighted as Editors' Suggestion in Phys. Rev. D

A recent theory group paper authored by Matthias Heller, Oleksandr Tomalak, Shihao Wu and Marc Vanderhaeghen on Leading order corrections to the Bethe-Heitler process in the $$\gamma p \to l^+ l^- p$$, published in Phys. Rev. D 100, 076013 (2019) was recently chosen as Editors' Suggestion.

22.10.2019 - 25.10.2019
SFB School 2019

The annual Summer School of the SFB 1044 (The Low-Energy Frontier of the Standard Model) takes place from 22-25 October 2019 at the Hotel Ebertor in Boppard. The program covers the current research activities of the SFB 1044. Expert lectures are held on theoretical and experimental physics followed by contributions from graduate students and postdocs working in the SFB 1044. ...

26.09.2019
Sonia Bacca elected Fellow of the American Physical Society

Professor Sonia Bacca, Professor of Theoretical Physics at the PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), has this year been elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS). This American scientific association is acknowledging her outstanding contribution to theoretical calculations of the electromagnetic properties of atomic nuclei, contributing to our understanding of nuclear structure at the microscopic level.

"To be accepted into the circle of APS Fellows is an enormous honor for me and I am of course absolutely delighted," said Bacca. "Not only does this represent an affirmation of the quality of my scientific research but it will further enhance the reputation of the Mainz research hub as a leading international center of nuclear and hadron physics." ...

09.05.2019
PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence inaugurated

The PRISMA+ cluster of excellence has been inaugurated with a short symposium on the new physics searches at the heart of the Cluster of Excellence. The keynote lecture "Why are the weak interactions so weak?" was given by Prof. Francis Halzen. PRISMA+ is the successor to the successful PRISMA cluster of excellence that was funded from 2012 to 2018. ...

06.02.2019
Outstanding Thesis Award goes to Alexandra Stillert

Alexandra Stillert received the outstanding thesis award of the Faculty 08 for her Master of Education thesis General Relativity and Black Holes (Allgemeine Relativitätstheorie und Schwarze Löcher). The thesis was supervised by Prof. Dr. Stefan Scherer and has been published in the BestMasters series at Springer.