16.12.2011
News from the Physics of the Universe
The Symposium “Symmetries and Phases in the Universe” will offer an ambitious program that covers a broad range of current research issues. The symposium is divided in six different topical sessions, for which the organizers have won renowned experts. As to the latest hints for the existence of the Higgs boson CERN director Rolf Heuer, his colleague John Ellis and Johanna Stachel (Universität Heidelberg) display the LHC experiments’ implications on today’s physical models for the formation of matter and fundamental forces.
Scientists hope for new insights also in the field of Flavour Physics: The Double Chooz experiment is expected to clarify what mechanisms neutrinos use to change from one family to another. Current developments are covered by Alexei Smirnov (INR Trieste), Thierry Lasserre (Saclay, CEA Paris) among others. A further lecture series deals with Dark Energy and Dark Matter. In summer 2011, the CRESST collaboration published first indications for WIMPs (Weakly interacting massive Particles), considered as potential candidates for Dark Matter. Jean Lanfranchi (TUM, Excellence Cluster Universe) informs the audience on the course of investigations in the Gran Sasso laboratory.
Star formation and galaxy evolution make up a topical focus of their own. Linda (Tacconi (MPE) and Garth Illingworth (UC Santa Cruz) describe the processes leading to the assembly of galaxies and stars in the early Universe. For many years scientists have been working on a unified theory that provides a common fundament for both the quantum field as well as gravitational theories. Eva Silverstein of Stanford University presents the latest models in String theory. Georgi Dvali (LMU, MPP) and Cliff Burgess (Perimeter Institute, McMaster University) display recent developments in the physics of gravity and beyond the standard model, whereas Hartmut Abele of the TU Vienna shows from an experimental perspective, how gravity can be measured at microscopic scales.
With its sixth session, the symposium covers high-energy astrophysics, cosmic rays and black holes. For these subjects the Universe Cluster is pleased to have consents from leading scientists as Werner Hofmann (MPIK Heidelberg), Roberto Battiston (INFN, University of Perugia) and Jeremiah Ostriker (Princeton University).
