Welcome
Dear colleagues, we would like to cordially welcome you to the 670th Wilhelm and Else Heraeus-Seminar "Fundamental Constants: Basic Physics and Units" which will be held from May 13th, 2018 to May 18th, 2018 at Physikzentrum Bad Honnef near Bonn in Germany. This seminar is generously funded by the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Foundation.
The goal of the seminar is to bring together experts who share their interest in physics of fundamental constants. During the workshop we will consider the questions of a definition of fundamental constants, relation of these constants with physical laws, and of their minimal set. Together with discussion of basic ideas and theories, emphasis will be also placed on the high-precision experiments aiming determination of the fundamental constants. The impact of this experimental data for metrology applications as well as for our understanding of Nature will be also in the focus of discussions.
Topics covered in the seminar include the following questions:
- What are fundamental constants? How many of those do we need?
- Are fundamental constants varying in space and time?
- What are current best values of fundamental constants? How are they measured?
- How we can use future atomic and nuclear clocks to re-define the second?
- How violations of symmetries of Nature are related to the variation of fundamental constants?
- What are new data about the proton radius and how do they impact the values of fundamental constants?
The ceremony for awarding the prestigious Helmholtz Prize in 2018 will be part of the Heraeus-Seminar. It is dedicated for outstanding scientific achievements in the field of "Precision Measurements in Physics, Chemistry and Medicine". Established in 1973, this prize is considered as the most prestigious one in the field of precision measurements and, since 2015, comes in two categories namely "fundamental principles" and "applications".
The conference language will be English. Please note that the total number of participants is limited. The organizers invite PhD students to apply and to contribute to the poster session. Female researchers are particularly encouraged, since the WE-Heraeus Foundation seeks to support women in science.
Venue
The seminar will take place at
Physikzentrum Bad Honnef
Hauptstr. 5
53604 Bad Honnef
The Physikzentrum is run by the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft e.V. (German Physical Society) and supported by the University of Bonn and the state North Rhine-Westphalia.
The stately mansion housing the Physikzentrum is surrounded by a park at the foot of the Siebengebirge ("the Seven Hills") on the right bank of the Rhine River. In the immediate neighbourhood an extensive net of hiking-paths in Germany's oldest nature preserve invites pleasant short or long walks.
Physikzentrum Bad Honnef can be easily reached both by car and by public transport. To plan your journey, please, follow the link: http://www.dpg-physik.de/
Presentations
Sunday, May 13, 2018 |
Joachim Ullrich | PTB, Braunschweig | Linking the international system of units to fundamental constants |
Monday, May 14, 2018 |
Jean-Philippe Uzan | CNRS/Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris | Fundamental constants, gravitation and cosmology - recent developments |
Christof Wetterich | University of Heidelberg | Are fundamental constants constant? |
Yurii Dumin | Moscow State University | Is the cosmological Lambda-term a new fundamental constant? |
Vincenzo Salzano | University of Szczecin | Measuring the speed of light with cosmological observations |
Marianna Safronova | University of Delaware | The search for variation of fundamental constants with atomic systems |
Ekkehard Peik | PTB, Braunschweig | Search for variations of the fine structure constant with atomic clocks |
Mikhail Kozlov | Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute | Time variation of fundamental constants: Searches via microwave and infrared spectroscopy in space |
Wim Ubachs | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam | Physics beyond the Standard Model from hydrogen molecules |
Tuesday, May 15, 2018 |
Jun Ye | JILA/NIST/University of Colorado | Optical atomic clock based on quantum matter |
Hidetoshi Katori | University of Tokyo | Connecting optical lattice clocks at 10-18 uncertainty |
David Hume | NIST | Precision measurements with trapped-ion optical clocks at NIST |
Gesine Grosche | PTB, Braunschweig | Frequency comparison and dissemination via interferometric optical fibre links |
Peter Thirolf | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | Towards a test bench for time variation of fundamental constants: What do we know about the elusive 229Th isomer? |
Robert Alexander Müller | PTB, Braunschweig | Hyperfine structure of doubly charged 229Th and the excitation of its nuclear clock isomer |
Andrey Volotka | Helmholtz Institute Jena | Nuclear excitation in the two-photon decay of highly charged ions |
Rima Schüssler | Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg | High-precision mass measurements with PENTATRAP |
Wednesday, May 16, 2018 |
Stefan Ulmer | RIKEN | High-precision comparisons of the fundamental properties of protons and antiprotons at BASE |
Stefan Eriksson | Swansea University | Spectroscopy of antihydrogen in the ALPHA experiment |
Masaki Hori | Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik | Antiproton-to-electron mass ratio determined by laser spectroscopy of antiprotonic helium |
Tanya Zelevinsky | Columbia University | Precision spectroscopy and EDMs with cold molecules |
Terry Quinn | BIPM | From artefacts to atoms - from the old to the new SI |
Thursday, May 17, 2018 |
Barry Wood | National Research Council of Canada | Final measurements of the Planck constant |
Holger Mueller | UC Berkeley | Measurement of the fine structure constant as test of the standard model |
Vladimir Yerokhin | St. Petersburg PolytechnicUniversity | QED theory of the Lamb shift of hydrogen and hydrogen-like ions for Rydberg constant and proton radius |
Sven Sturm | Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg | The magnetic moment of highly charged ions: Test of strong field QED and access to fundamental constants |
Klaus von Klitzing | Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung | Quantum Hall effect and fundamental constants |
Friday, May 18, 2018 |
Randolf Pohl | Universität Mainz | Laser spectroscopy of muonic atoms - Nuclear physics and fundamental constants |
Francois Nez | Laboratoire Kastler Brossel -CNRS | Hydrogen 1S-3S spectroscopy with a cw laser |
Natalia Oreshkina | Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg | Hyperfine splitting in simple ions for the search of the variation of fundamental constants |
José Crespo López-Urrutia | Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg | Highly charged ions for fundamental studies |
List of speakers in PDF format
Program
The seminar will start on Sunday (May 13th, 2017) with a welcome evening lecture and will end on Friday (May 18th, 2018) at lunch time. We schedule 30 talks each 35 minute long plus 10 minutes for discussion. Out of these, 24 contributions are invited talks, and 6 are “hot topic” contributions which will be selected from submitted abstracts. In addition, the Helmholtz-Prize award ceremony, the welcome lecture, the after dinner talk, two poster sessions and special evening discussion session will take place during the seminar.
PDF: Final program
The seminar is generously funded by the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus-Foundation, a private German institution which supports scientific research and education with emphasis on physics.
The funding covers local expenses for accomodation and meals for all participants at the Physikzentrum in Bad Honnef. No conference fee will be charged.
more about: Wilhelm und Else Heraeus-Stiftung (German)