40th Saas-Fee Course: Astrophysics at Very-High Energies
The 40th Saas-Fee Course, organized by the Swiss Society of Astrophysics and Astronomy (SSAA), has been held in Les Deablerets in the Swiss Alps during March 14-20, 2010. The course has run annually since 1971, and this time the theme chosen was "Astrophysics at Very-High Energies."
Undergraduate and graduate students traveled to the course from almost every corner of the world. The lectures were given by the three world-leading scientists in the field of high-energy astrophysics. They are Prof. Felix Aharonian (DIAS, Dublin & MPIK, Heidelberg), Prof. Lars Bergström (Stockholm University), Dr. Charles Dermer (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory). The speakers presented the state of the science in the field of high-energy gamma rays, which has been revolutionized in recent years with the success of Cherenkov astronomy and finally with the launch of the NASA Fermi mission. Other topics such as the study of gamma rays from galactic and extragalactic sources and the detection of dark matter were also heavily laid out in the presentations. Many unanswered questions and predictions were also addressed to give the audience some ideas for their research.
Since the lectures were held in the morning and late in the afternoon, there was time for getting to know each other and for informal discussions with other course participants.
The Research Department "Plasmas with Complex Interactions" made it possible for Jenny Reimchen to participate in the Winter School.
Dirk Luggenhölscher bei Prof. Yi-Kang Pu an der Tsinghua Universität in China
Vom 05.04. - 30.04.2010 war Dr. Dirk Luggenhölscher (Institut für Experimentalphysik V) für einen Forschungsaufenthalt bei Prof. Yi-Kang Pu im Department of Electrical Engineering der Tsinghua Universität in Beijing.
Ziel war der Aufbau eines Diodenlasersystems zur Messung von Dichte und Temperatur von metastabilen Helium-Atomen in verschiedenen Entladungstypen. Von besonderem Interesse sind dabei Atmosphärendruck Plasma-Jets, die ähnlich einer dielektrisch behinderten Entladung betrieben werden. Es wird vermutet, dass die Metastabilen eine tragende Rolle bei dem Energietransfer in den Bereich außerhalb der Anregungszone spielen, weshalb die Kenntnis der Dichte dieser Spezies besonders wichtig ist.
Der Besuch vertieft die Zusammenarbeit beider Gruppen mit ähnlichen Forschungsinteressen und soll weiter ausgebaut werden.
Dieser Aufenthalt wurde durch das Research Department ermöglicht.
Trip by Martino Olivo to the IceCube meeting in Annapolis, MD (May 2010)
IceCube is the best instrument for observing neutrinos from astrophysical plasmas. The measurement of neutrinos is essential for understanding the structure of shocked plasmas, which occur e.g. in supernova remnants, active galaxies and gamma ray bursts. Since July 2009, Jun.-Prof. Julia Becker's group and thus the Research Department "Plasmas with Complex Interactions" is a member of the IceCube collaboration. Every 6 months the members of IceCube meet to discuss the status of the experiment, new analysis techniques and the development of theoretical models for neutrino emission. The meetings are essential for the collaboration to advance the progress of IceCube and for us as a working group to take an active role in the experiment. PhD student Martino Olivo gave a talk on neutrino production in Gamma Ray Bursts at the Maryland meeting. At the collaboration meeting he was able to have discussions about the results of the Becker, Halzen, O'Murchada & Olivo, ApJ (2010) publication on neutrino emission from gamma-ray bursts with the IceCube collaboration specialists on this topic.
Jun.-Prof. Julia Becker at "Relativistic Whirlwind"
At the Relativistic Whirlwind conference (June 02-04, 2010) in Trieste, Italy, about 50 international scientists met to discuss the behavior of astrophysical plasmas in the vicinity of black holes. The conference has been held in honor of Prof. Dr. Marek Abramowicz, who turned 65 this year and has significantly shaped research in the field of black hole accretion. The conference featured a presentation by Jun-Prof Dr. Julia K. Becker, PI in the Research Department, on "Pinpointing Primordial Black Holes." Jun-Prof Becker has been working with Prof. Abramowicz on the topic of primordial black holes since 2007.