ERIK MCLEAN / UNSPLASH

Physikalisches Kolloquium

Friday, 13. December 2024 5:00 pm  Capturing Innovations and Underlying Physics in Sports

Prof. Chang Kee Jung, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, New York, USA

Sports occupy an important part of our lives. It is often difficult to flip through the TV channels without encountering sports shows. Surprisingly, a large fraction of the intriguing and often spectacular sports actions and feats can be explained using relatively basic physics concepts. In this talk, I will present and discuss the physics behind some remarkably creative innovations in popular sports (baseball, soccer/football, volleyball, basketball, high Jump, gymnastics and swimming) using basic concepts in classical physics. The talk will feature exquisite and exclusive videos created by the New York Times graphics/multimedia team for sports that capture innovative feats of athletes like Simone Biles.

The main part of this presentation was initially created in collaboration with Bedel Saget, a New York Times graphics/multimedia editor for sports. Bedel Saget received a 2nd place award for his team's work, titled, "The Fine Line: Simone Biles Gymnastics" at the prestigious 2017 World Press Photo Digital Storytelling contest in the Immersive Storytelling category.

Particle Colloquium

Astronomy colloquium

Tuesday, 3. December 2024 4:30 pm  Hacking the Universe: Leveraging Data Science in High-Energy Astrophysics and Beyond

Dr Daniela Huppenkothen, University of Amsterdam In data science, the concept of 'hacking' involves ingeniously repurposing solutions from diverse fields to tackle new and complex challenges. My group uses this approach to address fundamental astrophysical questions by drawing on methods and tools originally built for disparate problems in industry or other academic fields. This talk focuses into two such questions, spotlighting the breadth of research areas in astrophysics where data science proves invaluable. Firstly, I will showcase how we use data-driven discovery to unravel the physics behind magnetars—strongly magnetized neutron stars-responsible for triggering and emitting X-ray and (sometimes) radio bursts. In the spirit of hacking, I will also highlight how we apply some of the same methods to other astronomical fields, from asteroids to accreting supermassive black holes. I will then go on to discuss how my group uses machine learning models to accelerate astrophysical inference in black hole X-ray binaries by several orders of magnitude, and how they enable us to ask new kinds of research questions with existing data sets. Dispelling the misconception that machine learning tools are only applicable to datasets from large surveys, I will show how we deploy them extremely effectively when our data and models are especially complex. Throughout, I will emphasise the collaborative nature of interdisciplinary research, underscoring the interconnectedness among communities, methodologies, tools and software across domains. Fostering effective and equitable collaborations is a key requirement for successful interdisciplinary research, and I will highlight recent results in leveraging hackathons for successful community building.  Those unable to attend the colloquium in person are invited to participate online through Zoom (Meeting ID: 942 0262 2849, passcode 792771) using the link: https://eu02web.zoom-x.de/j/94202622849?pwd=dGlPQXBiUytzY1M2UE5oUDRhbzNOZz09 During her visit to Heidelberg, Dr Huppenkothen will be available for meetings by arrangement with her host, Ivelina Momcheva (momcheva@mpia.de).

Center for Quantum Dynamics Colloquium

Wednesday, 11. December 2024 4:30 pm  Observation of continuous and discrete time crystals

Prof. Dr. Andreas Hemmerich, Institute for Quantum Physics, Universität Hamburg