Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie

Physikalisches Kolloquium

Freitag, 24. April 2026 17:00 Uhr Cancer treatment with ion beams

Prof. Dr. med. Dr. rer. nat. Jürgen Debus, RadioOnkologie und Strahlentherapie (Czerny-Klinik), Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg, Cancer treatment with ion beams Prof. Dr. Jürgen Debus Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg Ion beam therapy has emerged as a highly precise form of radiation treatment, exploiting the physical and biological advantages of protons and heavier ions. Its characteristic Bragg peak enables superior dose conformity compared to conventional photon therapy. Based on 20 years of fundamental research in radiation biology and physics, heavy ion beam therapy in Europe was pioneered in joint projects of the GSI Helmholtzzentrum, Heidelberg University Hospital and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, and the Rossendorf Research Center FZR (today’s Helmholtzzentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, HZDR). The clinical results demonstrated promising outcomes particularly in radio-resistant and geometrically complex tumor and led to the construction of the Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Center (HIT), the first center worldwide with a rotating heavy ion gantry. HIT is also an interdisciplinary research platform with a dedicated research infrastructure, that exploits the unique properties of different ion species for new treatment options. A dynamic research environment integrates medical physics, biophysics, radiobiology, and technology development. Along with translational and basic research, these advances aim to further optimize ion beam therapy and expand its clinical impact in the coming decade.

Teilchenkolloquium

Litht Ion Collisions at LHC

Dr. Aleksas Mazeliauskas, Institut für Theoretische Physik Universität Heidelberg Light-Ion Collisions at the LHC Aleksas Mazeliauskas Kirchhoff Institut, Universität Heidelberg The Large Hadron Collider is not only a machine for discovering new particles — it is also a laboratory for creating and studying a new phase of QCD matter. When lead nuclei collide at ultrarelativistic energies, the resulting energy densities far exceed the QCD confinement scale, melting hadrons into a Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP): a strongly coupled, nearly perfect fluid well-described by relativistic Navier-Stokes equations. Yet a fundamental question remains: how do a handful of elementary particles thermalize and form a collective medium in such a vanishingly short window of time? Light-ion collisions probe the critical regime where nuclear structure, perturbative QCD, and quark–gluon plasma physics intersect. The first oxygen–oxygen and neon– neon runs at the LHC in July 2025 have opened a new chapter in the LHC ion program, bridging the gap between proton–proton and heavy-ion collisions in a controlled and theoretically tractable way. For a decade, experiments had found QGP-like collective flow even in proton–proton collisions, while jet quenching — the canonical signature of QGP — remained elusive in small systems. The 2025 runs have changed the picture: first results show evidence of jet quenching in systems with as few as ten participating nucleons, and collective flow measurements in oxygen–oxygen and neon–neon collisions are in good agreement with hydrodynamic predictions using ab initio nuclear structure calculations. I will discuss what these results reveal about thermalization, collectivity, and the boundaries of the QGP phase — and what might come next in the ion program at the LHC.

Astronomisches Kolloquium

Dienstag, 28. April 2026 16:30 Uhr Strongly Interacting Multiple Planet Systems as a Rosetta Stone for Planet Formation

Trifon Trifonov , Heidelberg University (ZAH/LSW) Well-characterised multiple-exoplanet systems are particularly valuable because their physical and dynamical architectures preserve a fossil record of their formation and subsequent dynamical evolution. In strongly interacting systems composed of massive Jovian planets detected through radial velocities (RVs) and transit timing variations (TTVs), the mutual gravitational interactions are strong enough to constrain the system architecture with high precision through N-body dynamical modelling. Such models recover the time-dependent osculating orbital elements that more accurately describe the true configuration and dynamical state of the system. Reproducing the observed dynamical architecture of these systems enables reverse engineering of the initial conditions under which they formed. In particular, planetary systems trapped in mean-motion resonances (MMRs) retain a “memory” of the migration process, including the possible migration rate during the proto-planetary disk phase, the excitation of eccentricity, and disk-planet interactions at the moment of capture. In this talk, I will present the cascade from observations to detailed dynamical modelling of the data, and the following migration simulations. I will highlight several exceptionally well-characterised giant planet systems that provide important insights into the mechanisms shaping planetary systems during their formation and early evolution.

Zentrum für Quantendynamik Kolloquium

Mittwoch, 6. Mai 2026 16:30 Uhr Analog gravity in atomic condensates: a fruitful bidirectional synergy of gravity and quantum optics

Dr. Iacopo Carusotto, INO-CNR BEC Center and Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Trento Analog gravity in atomic condensates: a fruitful bidirectional synergy of gravity and quantum optics Prof. Dr. Iacopo Carusotto INO-CNR BEC Center and Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Trento In this talk I will review recent advances in the theoretical and experimental study of ultracold atomic gases as a platform for analog models of gravity, aka the quantum simulation of gravitational and quantum field problems using atomic systems. Beyond analog Hawking emission from black holes and super-radiance from rotating objects, special attention will be paid to back-reaction effects in cosmological particle generation and false vacuum decay phenomena. Avenues for application of these effects to new quantum technologies will be finally outlined.

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