Physics Teaching and Research at Göttingen University 2 GREETING FROM THE PRESIDENT 3 Greeting from the President Physics has always been of particular importance for the Current research focuses on solid state and materials phy- Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. As early as 1770, Georg sics, astrophysics and particle physics, biophysics and com- Christoph Lichtenberg became the first professor of Physics, plex systems, as well as multi-faceted theoretical physics. Mathematics and Astronomy. Since then, Göttingen has hos- Since 2003, the Physics institutes have been housed in a new ted numerous well-known scientists working and teaching physics building on the north campus in close proximity to in the fields of physics and astronomy. Some of them have chemistry, geosciences and biology as well as to the nearby greatly influenced the world view of physics. As an example, Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biophysical Chemistry, the MPI I would like to mention the foundation of quantum mecha- for Dynamics and Self Organization and the MPI for Solar nics by Max Born and Werner Heisenberg in the 1920s. And System Research. The Faculty of Physics with its successful Georg Christoph Lichtenberg and in particular Robert Pohl research activities and intense interdisciplinary scientific have set the course in teaching as well. cooperations plays a central role within the Göttingen Cam- pus. With this booklet, the Faculty of Physics presents itself It is also worth mentioning that Göttingen physicists have as a highly productive and modern faculty embedded in an accepted social and political responsibility, for example Wil- attractive and powerful scientific environment and thus per- helm Weber, who was one of the Göttingen Seven who pro- fectly prepared for future scientific challenges. tested against the abrogation of the constitutional law by King Ernst August in 1837. More recently, by signing the Göt- tingen declaration of 1957, eighteen nuclear scientists fought against the nuclear armament of the Federal Republic of Germany. Physics in Göttingen experienced its heyday from about 1900 onwards, when famous scientists such as Werner Hei- senberg, Max Born, Emil Wiechert and Karl Schwarzschild Prof. Dr. Ulrike Beisiegel taught and did research here. When the National Socialists President of Georg-August-Universität Göttingen came into power in 1933, this golden age came to an abrupt end. Not until the end of the Second World War could physics in Göttingen start to successfully develop again. Affiliated with the Faculty of Physics is the Institute of As- trophysics, which originated from the University Observatory. This observatory was founded in 1751 and has always been in close contact with physics since the time when Carl Fried- rich Gauß was its first director. Furthermore, the Institute of Geophysics, which was founded in 1898, and the Institutes for Experimental Physics, dating back to Weber and later at the beginning of the 20th century to Pohl (1st Institute), Franck (2nd Institute) and Simon (3rd Institute), were part of the Faculty. James Franck came to Göttingen in 1921, at the same time as Max Born, when the Institute for Theoretical Physics was founded. In the second half of the 20th century, the 4th Institute, the Institute for Materials Physics, and, with the availability of synchrotrons as intensive X-ray sources, the Institute of X-ray physics were added. Today the Faculty of Physics comprises ten institutes, providing a broad spectrum of research disciplines and offering a large variety of lectures and seminars (teaching). 4 GREETING FROM THE DEAN 5 Greeting from the Dean The great history of the Faculty of Physics has been pointed out Beyond that and due to the embedding in the stimulating Göt- in her greetings by the President Prof. Beisiegel. Due to my ab- tingen Campus many Faculty Principal Investigators success- solute admiration for Carl Friedrich Gauß I reserved for myself a fully cooperate with colleagues from other science faculties mention to him and his illuminating acting in Göttingen over and local non-university research institutions, such as the Max half a century in astronomy, physics and towards the end of his Planck Institutes. This is reflected in three current collaborative life even in philology. After having studied mathematics from research programs funded by the DFG and the research centers 1795 to 1798 at the University of Göttingen he returned at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) and Georgia Augusta 1807 when he was appointed Director of the Center for Molecular Physiology of the Brain (CMBP). We are Göttingen Observatory by the duke of Hanover and where he very proud to count among our adjunct Professors the 2014 stayed until his death in 1855. At the time the government com- Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry Stefan Hell from the Max- mitted him with the huge task of the calibration and measure- Planck-Institut for Biophysical Chemistry. 2004 he was appoin- ment revision of the whole kingdom, revealing a certain un- ted as Honorarprofessor at the University of Göttingen after derestimation of Gauß genius. In the Theoria motus (1809) he nomination by the Faculty of Physics. describes the method of determining precisely unknown planet Furthermore, the Faculty of Physics participates in national re- orbits from close observations without any assumption. At the search networks in particle physics and condensed matter phy- same time Gauß engaged in Theoretical Dioptric Studies show- sics as well as international collaborations in the field of particle ing how to improve performances of telescopes. 1831 he started physics and astrophysics. to think about Crystallography pioneering the notation later made known by Miller. In the same year, soon after the appoint- With the introduction of bachelor and master study programs ment of the physicist Wilhelm Weber at the Georgia Augusta he also including the double-major Bachelor and Master of Edu- focused on basic physical questions in the field of Electromag- cation, and the structured graduate programs leading to the netism. With his 27 year younger Göttingen colleague he had a degrees of Dr. rer.nat. or Ph.D the process of comparability in the very fruitful and close collaboration leading e.g. to the practical standards and quality of higher education qualification within realization of the first electric telegraph (1833-34). Europe has been accomplished. For the Faculty of Physics, it was of utmost importance to transfer the recognized high quality Inspired by the spirit of Gauß the Faculty of Physics is charac- of the previous diploma study program to the bachelor and terized by a broad spectrum of disciplines in research and master programs. Moreover, novel teaching concepts were im- teaching such as astrophysics and cosmology, particle physics, plemented in the new study programs and a variety of choices solid state- and material physics, biophysics and complex sys- for specialization are currently offered. With the new study pro- tems. The wide offer attracts a lot of physics students to Göt- grams, the faculty is also striving to open up internationally, e.g. tingen, more than 200 beginners each year (bachelor of science with the Master of Science in English starting in 2016. and double-major bachelor). Since 2003 the whole Faculty of Physics is housed in the “new” Physics building located in the With this booklet, the Faculty of Physics presents itself as a mod- north Campus area where most research and teaching activi- ern and forward looking academic institution – yet conscious ties take place thus promoting scientific exchange and giving of its responsibility towards the achievements of our great pre- both the Faculty and its students a visible corporate identity. decessors – and gives an overview of its broad research spect- rum, comprehensive teaching and modern infrastructure. I am The Faculty is structured in 10 Institutes that currently host 33 convinced that the Faculty of Physics will be an inspiring place professorships. Collaborative laboratories join innovative com- for scientific exchange more than ever. Scientists and students petences in nanoscale photonic imaging and spectroscopy, in from all over the world are cordially welcome to visit and join ultra-f ast and high spatial resolution in-situ Electron Microscopy. the Faculty of Physics in Göttingen. Groups from the particle and astrophysics are involved in large- -scale collaborations contributing e.g. with the development of detectors for the LHC at CERN and with the construction of instrumentation for the European Southern Observatory. The theoretical research activities are focused on Quantum Field Theory and Cosmology, Statistical Physics, Condensed Matter as well as Soft Matter and Biophysics. Therefore a fruitful basis for exchange and collaboration has been established within the Prof. Angela Rizzi Faculty. Dean of the Faculty of Physics 6 CONTENT CONTENT 7 Content « Faculty of Physics: Research and Structure 8 Solid State Physics and Materials Physics « The Study Paths in Physics 10 DFG-Collaborative Research Centre 1073 28 Activities of the Student Body 13 First Institute of Physics 30 On the Shoulders of Giants: a Brief History of Physics in Göttingen 14 Second Institute of Physics 37 Museum „Physicalisches Cabinet“ 17 Fourth Institute of Physics 40 Faculty Building 22 Institute for Theoretical Physics 50 Institute for Materials Physics 54 The Mechanical Workshop of the Physics Department 24 Collection of Lecture Hall Experiments 25