Two Collaborative Research Centers/Transregios (CRC/TRR) co-applied for by the RUB will be funded for another four years each. The CRC/TRR 196 "Mobile Material Characterization and Localization by Electromagnetic Sensing" enters its second funding period, the CRC/TRR 110 "Symmetries and the Emergence of Structure in QCD" its third funding period. The CRC/TRR 191 "Symplectic Structures in Geometry, Algebra and Dynamics" has also been extended. This was announced by the German Research Foundation on November 27, 2020. In addition, the RUB is involved in the new research network "Resist - Multilevel response to stresser increase and release in stream ecosystems", whose speaker university is the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE).
Mobile Material Characterization and Localization by Electromagnetic Sensing
Since 2016, the Collaborative Research Center/Transregio Marie - short for Mobile Material Characterization and Localization by Electromagnetic Sensing - has been researching the fundamentals for a mobile highly sensitive mini-detector. The device will one day be able to determine the material properties of almost any object, even if it is hidden behind a wall. It will also be able to detect people in contaminated rooms or smoldering cables inside walls. To do this, the detector must cover very high frequencies up to the terahertz range.
In the first funding phase, compact high-performance terahertz transmitters and receivers were designed, measured and finally realized in the disciplines of electronics, photonics and micromechanics. According to the international CRC reviewers, these are considered to be among the world's best. In the second funding phase, which begins in January, these detectors will be made mobile, i.e. particularly energy-efficient and lightweight. This will make them suitable for numerous applications, including integration into smartphones.
Marie is led by Professor Dr. Thomas Kaiser as spokesperson, head of the UDE Department of Digital Signal Processing, and Professor Dr. Ilona Rolfes, Head of the RUB Chair of High Frequency Systems. The University of Wuppertal, the Technical University of Darmstadt and the Fraunhofer Institutes for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems (Duisburg) and for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques (Wachtberg) are also involved.
Symmetries and Structure Formation in Quantum Chromodynamics
The focus of the CRC/TRR "Symmetries and Structure Formation in Quantum Chromodynamics" is the strong interaction, a fundamental force acting inside atomic nuclei. These are composed of protons and neutrons, which belong to the particle class of hadrons. Hadrons, in turn, consist of smaller building blocks, the quarks and gluons. How the strong interaction creates such complex structures as atomic nuclei is still a mystery to researchers.
In the third funding period, the CRC/TRR team is working, among other things, on physics beyond the standard model. This model includes all elementary particles as well as the strong, electromagnetic and weak interactions. "Although the model is considered the most successful theory of nature known to us, we know from various sources such as cosmology and astronomical observations that it is incomplete," explains Professor Dr. Evgeny Epelbaum, holder of the Chair of Theoretical Physics, in particular Hadron and Particle Physics. The researchers want to use theoretical calculations to search for traces of physics beyond the standard model.
Further work will focus on the structure of exotic particles that have been experimentally detected at large particle accelerators in recent years. These include tetraquarks and pentaquarks: Unlike previously known particles of the hadron class, they consist of four or five quarks. Using theoretical physics, scientists hope to gain insights into the inner structure of these particles. Properties of conventional hadrons as well as of atomic nuclei are also in the focus of the CRC/TRR. These are also the main areas of research of the RUB researchers in the CRC/TRR.
The research network's host university is the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn; the RUB is a co-applicant. The alliance has been funded since 2012 and will thus run for the maximum possible duration of twelve years. Evgeny Epelbaum is a directorate member of the research network.
Symplectic Structures in Geometry, Algebra and Dynamics
Symplectic geometry has its roots in classical mechanics. It allows to formulate the central mechanical equations of motion without coordinates. This allows a deeper understanding of the underlying dynamics. The CRC/TRR 191 research group is working on symplectic structures and techniques in the areas of geometry, algebra, dynamical systems, and topology.
The team is also intensifying relations with more application-oriented disciplines in which the potential of symplectic access has so far hardly been realized, or only to some extent, such as combinatorics or optimization. In addition, the researchers want to build relationships with disciplines such as computer science, which in turn can contribute new methods for studying symplectic questions.
The speaker university is the University of Cologne. Professor Dr. Kai Zehmisch, Head of the RUB Chair of Symplectic Geometry,* is a co-speaker. The collaboration has been funded since 2017.
Resist - Multilevel response to stresser increase and release in stream ecosystems
Rivers and streams are centers of biodiversity and vital to humans. Due to human intervention, water bodies are affected in many ways, which does not leave animals and plants unscathed. The Collaborative Research Center "Degradation and Recovery of Stream Ecosystems under Multiple Stresses - Resist" aims to understand how different stresses individually and in combination affect the biodiversity and functions of streams, and how previously stressed ecosystems recover. It also aims to develop models to predict the effects.
Experts in a wide range of stressors and a broad spectrum of organism groups are cooperating in the SFB. Its spokespersons are Professors Dr. Bernd Sures and Dr. Daniel Hering from the Department of Aquatic Ecology at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Teams from the RUB as well as from the Universities of Cologne, Kiel and Koblenz-Landau, the Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (Berlin) and the Environmental Research Center Halle-Leipzig are also involved.
* An earlier version of the text stated that Professor Dr. Gerhard Knieper of the RUB Chair of Analysis was co-speaker of the CRC/TRR. This information was corrected on December 1, 2020. Gerhard Knieper was the co-speaker of the research network in an earlier funding phase.
Here you can access the original article.
