Physikalisches Kolloquium

The striking imbalance of matter and antimatter in our universe inspires experiments to compare the fundamental properties of matter/antimatter conjugates with high precision. The BASE collaboration at the antiproton decelerator of CERN is performing such high-precision comparisons with protons and antiprotons. Using advanced cryogenic Penning traps, we have performed the most precise comparison of the proton-to-antiproton charge-to-mass ratio with a fractional uncertainty of 16 parts in a trillion [1], and have invented a novel spectroscopy technique, that allowed for the first direct high-precision measurement of the antiproton magnetic moment with a fractional accuracy of 1.5 parts in a billion [2]. Together with our last measurement of the proton magnetic moment [3] this improves the precision of previous magnetic moment based tests of the fundamental CPT invariance by more than a factor of 3000. A time series analysis of the sampled magnetic moment resonance furthermore enabled us to set first direct constraints on the interaction of antiprotons with axion-like particles (ALPs) [4], and most recently, we have used our ultra-sensitive single particle detection systems to derive constraints on the conversion of ALPs into photons [5]. In parallel we are working on the implementation of new measurement technology to sympathetically cool antiprotons [6] and to apply quantum logic inspired spectroscopy techniques [7]. In addition to that, we are currently developing the transportable antiproton-trap BASE-STEP, partly developed at Mainz, to relocate antiproton spectroscopy experiments from CERN’s accelerator environment to dedicated precision laboratory space at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, very recently, the first loaded transport of this trap has been demonstrated successfully I will give a general introduction to the topic, will review the recent results produced by BASE, with particular focus on recent developments towards an at least 10-fold improved coherent measurement of the antiproton magnetic moment, and towards the first antiproton transport. [1] M. J. Borchert et al., Nature 601, 35 (2022). [2] C. Smorra et al., Nature 550, 371 (2017). [3] G. Schneider et al., Science 358, 1081 (2017). [4] C. Smorra et al., Nature 575, 310 (2019). [5] J. A. Devlin et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 041321 (2021). [6] M. A. Bohman et al. Nature 596, 514 (2021) [7] J. M Conrejo et al., New J. Phys. 23 073045

From dark matter and dark energy to neutrino oscillations and the lack of antimatter in the universe, there is growing evidence that the Standard Model is incomplete. Tests of Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) with few-electron systems offer a promising avenue for looking for new physics, as QED is the best understood quantum field theory and extremely precise predictions can be obtained for few-electron systems. Unfortunately, despite decades of effort, QED is poorly tested in the regime of strong coulomb fields, precisely the region where new exotic physics may be most visible. I will present a new paradigm for probing higher-order QED effects using spectroscopy of Rydberg states in exotic atoms, where orders of magnitude stronger field strengths can be achieved while nuclear uncertainties may be neglected. Such tests are now possible due to the advent of quantum sensing microcalorimeter x-ray detectors and new facilities providing low-energy intense beams of exotic particles for precision physics. First measurements have been successfully conducted at J-PARC with muonic atoms, but antiprotonic atoms offer the highest sensitivity to strong-field QED. I will present an overview of the PAX project, a new experiment for antiprotonic atom x-ray spectroscopy with a large-area transition edge sensor (TES) x-ray detector and low-energy cyclotron trap at ELENA. Finally, the experimental paradigm can also be reversed such to study low-lying states and access nuclear properties, such as those pursued in the QUARTET collaboration at Paul Scherrer Institute to improve the charge radii of light nuclei. I will present first results from QUARTET, and discuss synergies between atomic and nuclear physics accessible with these experiments.

This talk will outline three revolutions that happened in the past decades in the development of Earth system models that are used to perform weather and climate predictions. The quiet revolution has leveraged better observations and more compute power to allow for constant improvements of prediction quality of the last decades, the digital revolution has enabled us to perform km-scale simulations on modern supercomputers that further increase the quality of our models, and the machine learning revolution has now shown that machine learned weather models are often competitive with physics based weather models for many forecast scores while being easier, smaller and cheaper. This talk will summarize the past developments, explain current challenges and opportunities, and outline how the future of Earth system modelling will look like. In particular, regarding machine-learned foundation models in a physical domain such as Earth system science.

Our understanding of the origin of heavy elements by the r-process (rapid neutron capture process) has made great progress in the last years. In addition to the gravitational wave and kilonova observations for GW170817, there have been major advances in the hydrodynamical simulations of neutron star mergers and core-collapse supernovae, in the microphysics included in those simulations (neutrinos and high density equation of state), in galactic chemical evolution models, in observations of old stars in our galaxy and in dwarf galaxies. This talk will report on recent breakthroughs in understanding the extreme environments in which the formation of the heavy elements occurs, as well as open questions regarding the astrophysics and nuclear physics involved.