Cross-Disciplinary Platforms
- The scientific links between research areas and projects are essential for the success of the cluster and are expected to grow with time.
- Beyond the main scientific questions, aspects of infrastructure, methodology, and know-how are common to several projects from different research areas.
- In order to strengthen these aspects we have implemented four cross-disciplinary platforms.
Platform for Theoretical and Mathematical Physics
The Platform for Theoretical and Mathematical Physics (PTM) focuses on new theoretical and mathematical developments, which provide links between several projects within the cluster. It is also immersed into the Wolfgang Pauli Centre and the Center for Mathematical Physics (ZMP).
The focus of such activities has been, in particular, on new techniques for Feynman integration, the application of quantum field theory techniques to gravitational dynamics, and new developments in the mathematical study of topological quantum field theory with potential applications to the study of topological phases of matter and quantum computing. The platform is aimed at a synchronisation of the rich variety of research seminars within mathematics and theoretical physics. An example has been a seminar on the Swampland Program which investigates constraints on the low energy physics that are the consequences of the existence of a UV completion involving quantum gravity. In the context of string theory it becomes related to the intricate geometry of the moduli spaces of scalar fields, a rich subject of research for differential geometry.
New areas of recent focus are Amplitudes for Collider Physics and the Binary Problem as well as Algebraic and topological structures in Lattice Models. For example, creating bridges between some of the mathematics and physics explored within the cluster arises in the study of Feynman integration techniques: important applications of these methods in collider physics and the binary problem arising in gravitational-wave physics.
Platform for Challenges in Data Science
Data science, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly important for all areas of science and society — including fundamental physics research. In this context, the platform for challenges in data science (PCD) has two key objectives: Developing new applications of data science techniques to scientific challenges and providing support and education for the widespread use of these methods throughout the cluster.
While a diverse portfolio of ML research exists in the cluster, one key theme are unsupervised and other less-than-supervised approaches for data analysis. This effort includes generative models as well as unsupervised anomaly detection. Another critical challenge required in different scientific environments is developing fast algorithms based on dedicated hardware solutions for low-latency decision-making. ML research projects have included finding suitable network architectures for physics data processing, incorporating uncertainties into the training and evaluation of networks in physics, unfolding and superresolution methods, theoretical aspects, education and tools to reduce correlations when training classifiers.
The PCD also provides support via a dedicated data science basics lecture series, topical PCD seminars, the joint data-science colloquium, and acting as liaison to various local and national data science initiatives. New initiatives for the second part of the funding period include initial developments of AI-as-a-service prototype for use by cluster researchers and additional seed-meetings to identify new projects in other research areas.
Platform for Innovation in Detector Science
The main objectives of the Platform for Innovation in Detector Science (PID) platform are to establish new infrastructures required by the cluster research, foster communication in the detector community and ensure best exploitation of existing infrastructure. Events like a DESY/UHH/XFEL Joint Instrumentation Seminar was also co-organised.
Thanks to the cluster, two new facilities could be created:
Cryogenic Detector Laboratory: this laboratory will allow to host large-scale experiments with needs for cryogenics (ALPS II, MADMAX, GW experiments). It is funded by the Helmholtz Excellence Network and is being installed in north-hall of the former HERA ring at DESY. The project management plan for the infrastructure is ready and the ALPS II cryogenic and interface to cryo-platform is almost completed. Work on specification for the cryo-box to further provide liquid helium for other experiments has started
Shielded Experimental Hall: a 100 m2 hall with low seismic and electromagnetic noise was refurbished by the University of Hamburg and the installation of the prototypes of MADMAX and BRASS has started. Additionally, the University has invested in the procurement of a large size cryostat vessel for the MADMAX prototype and further cryogenic dark matter experiments in the future. The installation of a cryostat in SHELL required the realisation of a technical room for He recovery system, compressors, water chillers etc.
PFF — Platform for Future Facilities
The main drivers for the choice of the next large scale-project in high-energy physics are Higgs precision measurements as well as searches for new Higgs phenomena and dark matter. Hamburg is an international hub for project studies for future lepton colliders. Researchers of the cluster pioneered fundamental R&D and led complete design studies on accelerators and detectors and contribute significantly to corresponding physics studies also, on the prospective projects for future lepton colliders (ILC, CLIC, FCC-ee, CEPC), future hadron colliders (HE-LHC, FCC-hh, SPPC), and future lepton–hadron colliders (LHeC, FCC-eh).
In the field of Dark Matter, and especially DM.2, a strong axion program on the Campus Bahrenfeld and DESY is being developed, with ALPS II starting data-taking at the end of 2021, and future experiments planned, like BRASS, MADMAX and BabyIAXO. The MADMAX experiment uses a new concept, based on the conversion of axions in a strong magnetic field at the interface between different dielectric constants. A prototype has been built at Hamburg and moved to CERN to be tested inside the Morpurgo magnet, which provides a field strength of 1.6 T. Axions or ALPS-like particles could also be ultimately detected at the LUXE experiment using a high power laser to test QED in uncharted territory.
The field of Gravitational Waves, has received quite some boost recently in future projects. The two groups are members of the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA collaboration and of the Einstein Telescope (ET) Collaboration. Tests on squeezed light technology in an interferometer at around 20 K; proposal and analyses of a novel optical design for a compact interferometer based on Deep Frequency Interferometry and setting up of a seismically isolated vacuum chamber in the SHELL lab have been carried out.
People Involved
Area Coordinator: Gregor Kasieczka
Principal Investigators: Ties Behnke, Katharina Behr, Freya Blekman, Elisabetta Gallo, Erika Garutti, Ingrid-Maria Gregor, Christophe Grojean, Caren Hagner, Johannes Haller, Sarah Heim, Beate Heinemann, Jan Louis, Gudrid Moortgat-Pick, Andreas Ringwald, Peter Schleper, Kai Schmidt-Hoberg, Christian Schwanenberger, Géraldine Servant, Kerstin Tackmann, Georg Weiglein, Alexander Westphal
Key Researchers: Juliette Alimena, Lydia Beresford, Johannes Braathen, Alexander Grohsjean, Andreas Hinzmann, Sven-Olaf Moch, Klaus Mönig, Krisztian Peters, Jürgen Reuter, Felix Sefkow, Georg Steinbrück, Frank Tackmann