par europhysicsnews THE MAGAZINE OF THE EUROPEAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY 50/5 The long-sought-after Higgs boson 50/6 Carbon Neutral Aviation 2019 Routes to antispacetime included) not (VAT year per 107€ price: countries Union European 50 Volume Transforming physics pedagogy in the UK • The Exoplanet revolution number 5&6 CONTENTS par europhysicsnews THE MAGAZINE OF THE EUROPEAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY 50/5 europhysicsnews The long-sought-after Higgs boson 50/6 Carbon Neutral Aviation 2019 107€ per year European Union countr V Routes to antispacetime olume 50 Transforming physics pedagogy in the UK • number 5&6 number The Exoplanet revolution (V AT not included) ies price: Cover picture: Three years after its final landing in Abu Dhabi (UAE), Solar Impulse, the solar-powered airplane in which Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg flew around the world without a drop of fuel, may once again reach the skies. ©Solar Impulse - Jean Revillard - Rezo.ch EPS EDITORIAL 03 Physics and Innovation – P. Rudolf NEWS 04 EPS Historic Sites: the former Department of Theoretical Physics of the Goethe University 06 Sarah Köster awarded the EPS Emmy Noether Distinction 09 GRAND: a Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection 11 Improving the gender balance at a Dutch university m PAGE 24 12 The eyes of the Baikal GVD neutrino telescope the long-sought- 13 A personal report: setting up a junior research group in Hamburg after Higgs boson 14 Nobel prize for Jim Peebles for his theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology 15 Nobel prize for Mayor and Queloz as fathers of the field of extrasolar planets 16 OSA Frontiers in Optics 2019 HIGHLIGHTS 17 Machine Learning for Characterization and Control of Non-equilibrium Plasmas Delocalization of edge in topological phases Partial synchronization as a model for unihemispheric sleep 18 Fractal agglomerates fragment into dissimilar fragments Chemotherapy drugs react differently to radiation while in water 19 Science puts historical claims to the test Improving heat recycling with the thermodiffusion effect m PAGE 29 Optimising structures within complex arrangements of bubbles 20 New insights into the early stages of creep deformation Carbon Neutral Fragmenting ions and radiation sensitizers Aviation Improving the signal-to-noise ratio in quantum chromodynamics simulations 21 Conductivity at the edges of graphene bilayers WONDER-2018: a workshop on nuclear data FEATURES 22 Letter: Some comments on the historical paper by H. Schmidt-Böcking – J. Vigué 24 How we found the long-sought-after Higgs boson – C. Mariotti 29 Carbon Neutral Aviation – R. Terwel, J. Kerkhoven and F. W. Saris 34 Safe and dangerous routes to antispacetime – V.B. Eltsov, J. Nissinen and G.E. Volovik 38 Transforming physics pedagogy in the UK – D. Sands 41 The Exoplanet revolution – Y. Miguel 44 Advanced instructions for imparting knowledge – M. Plu¨ss m PAGE 41 The Exoplanet ANNUAL INDEX revolution 47 Annual index volume 50 - 2019 EPN 50/5&6 01 EPS EDITORIAL [EDITORIAL] Physics and Innovation In October, the EPS presented to the press "The Importance of Physics to the Economies of Europe", an analysis of the contribution of our scientific discipline to the economies of Europe over the six-year period 2011-2016. his study, prepared by the Centre for "Innovation and Youth" title. Accentuating Another issue that needs to be clarified Economics and Business Research economic exploitability (i.e. "innovation") to the general public and to policy makers is T(Cebr) using statistics available in at the expense of research and education, the importance to fund academic research the public domain through Eurostat, shows and reducing “education” to “youth” while in order to guarantee the quality of edu- that the physics-based sector accounts for it is essential to all ages, neglects that re- cation required for generating a sufficient 16% of the total turnover of the EU28 busi- search and education are the foundation number of highly skilled graduates for the ness economy, which is more than the gross of the wealth and comfort we enjoy in Eu- physics-based industry. In many European turnover contribution of the entire retail rope. Many of you, together with members countries investments in research have been sector. Physics-based industries within Eu- of other disciplines forming the scientific stagnating and the urgently needed grow- rope employed 17.8 million people in 2016, community of Europe, have signed the ing numbers of graduate and post-graduate more than a million more than in 2011. open letter demanding that the EU com- students are difficult to sustain at the pres- The production of physics-based goods mission revise the title for commissioner ent investment level. More and more often and services also has a significant knock- Gabriel to “Education, Research, Innova- I also hear of talented young researchers, on ‘downstreamstream’ effect throughout tion and Youth” reflecting Europe's dedica- who decide to leave university because they the supply chain. This multiplier effect tion to all of these crucial areas. At the time are frustrated by the low success rates of entails that for every €1 of physics-based of writing this editorial, the letter has been their grant proposals. When student num- output, a total of €2.49 output is generated signed by more than 10.000 scientists and bers increase not only more staff has to be throughout the EU28 economy as a whole. institutions, among them 19 Nobel Prize hired but research budgets need to increase The employment multiplier is even higher, winners but its effect is not known yet. Even if we want our universities to retain their with every job in physics-based industries if I have had very positive feedback from academic standards. supporting a total of 3.34 jobs in the econ- some Europarliamentarians who have em- If you are willing to advocate but feel omy as a whole by these industries. phasized that they support this request and unsure how to approach this, your Member To keep its competitiveness, the Euro- that they will fight for more EU funding for Society may help: EPS will support this by pean physics-based sector is highly R&D research and education, the walk is still very offering a “train the trainers” workshop in intensive and its expenditure on R&D with- much uphill. 2020, where a delegate of each member so- in the EU28 exceeded €22 billion in every This is why I would like to invite each ciety will be trained in how to organize (and year of the period 2011-2016. However, and everyone of you to reach out to the give) workshops for teaching physicists how what seems to be difficult to comprehend general public, as well as to relevant poli- to talk to policy makers. for policy makers and for the general public ticians on the local, regional, national and According to the Lisbon treaty of 2000, that elects them is that keeping the physics- European Union level: it is important that European governments and firms should based sector in the economy strong and we show them our work and explain that together spend 3% of GDP annually on addressing global societal challenges is a pro- while industrial R&D is important for R&D, but in many countries this objective cess of a very long-term nature. Solutions to product improvement and for creating is not yet reached. Let’s all engage in con- these challenges will require investments in the next generation of goods and servic- vincing our policy makers that more dedi- innovation and development but also in all es, basic and foundational research often cated funding for education and research is stages of research, from basic (frontier and lead to discoveries and applications with urgently needed to maintain a sound basis open-ended) to applied. Indeed, it will not long term economic impact. As Serge Ha- for innovation in Europe and to guarantee suffice to develop technologies on the basis roche said at the Festakt for the 50 years a high standard of living for European cit- of the current knowledge: new paths and of EPS: Einstein certainly did not think izens in the future, as well as to warrant a new knowledge will be needed, which can of improving eye-operations with lasers high research content of the Physics educa- only be generated by open-ended research. when working on stimulated emission. tional programmes of our students who will In this context it is worrying that in the We as a community are very much aware be the ones to produce the science for this. n new European Commission the areas of of the link between research and innova- education and research are not explicitly tion but people outside science very often l Petra Rudolf, represented anymore but hidden under the are not. EPS President EPN 50/5&6 03 europhysicsnews 2019 • Volume 50 • number 5&6 Europhysics news is the magazine of the European physics community. It is owned by the European Physical Society and produced in cooperation with EDP Sciences. The staff of EDP Sciences are involved in the production of the magazine and are not responsible for editorial content. Most contributors to Europhysics news are volunteers and their work is greatly appreciated by the Editor and the Editorial Advisory Board. EPS HISTORIC SITES Europhysics news is also available online at: www.europhysicsnews.org General instructions to authors can be found at: www.eps.org/?page=publications The former Department Editor: Els de Wolf (NL) Twitter @elsdewolf1 of Theoretical Physics Science Editor: Ferenc Igloi (HU) Email: [email protected] Executive Editor: David Lee of the Goethe University Email: [email protected] Graphic designer: Xavier de Araujo Frankfurt, Germany Email: [email protected] Director of Publication: Jean-Marc Quilbé Editorial Advisory Board: An EPS Historic Site was inaugurated at the Tracey Clarke (UK), Gonçalo Figueira (PT), Zsolt Fülöp (HU), Manuel Güdel (A), Tero Heikkilä (FI), University of Frankfurt in recognition of key Agnès Henri (FR), Jo Hermans (NL), Christoph Keller (NL), Robert Klanner (DE), Antigone Marino (IT), contributions to quantum mechanics made by Laurence Ramos (FR), Chris Rossel (CH), Victor R.