spg mitteilungen communications de la ssp - Schweizerische ...

Nr. 40 

Juli 2013 

SPG MITTEILUNGEN 

COMMUNICATIONS DE LA SSP 

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The scientific community celebrates this year the 

centennary of the Atomic Model of Niels Bohr. 

Read more (on p. 52) about the history of this outstanding 

event in physics, which is also the topic 

of the SCNAT Annual Congress (see p. 60). 

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What have snowflakes to do with a 

hot plasma ? Find out on p. 36. 

Four years after its launch the Herschel 

space observatory completed 

its observations about how stars and 

galaxies are formed. The successful 

mission is described on p. 42. 

Joint Annual Meeting of the 

Austrian Physical Society and Swiss Physical Society 

with 

Austrian and Swiss Societies for Astronomy and Astrophysics 

September 3 - 6, 2013, JKU Linz 

General information: page 10, preliminary program: page 12

SPG Mitteilungen Nr. 40 

Inhalt - Contenu - Contents 

Gemeinsame Jahrestagung in Linz, 03. - 06. September 2013 - Réunion annuelle commune à Linz, 3 - 6 septembre 2013 3 

Vorwort; Preisverleihung, Generalversammlung - Avant-Propos; Cérémonie de remise des prix, Assemblée générale 3 

Informationen für die Mitglieder - Informations pour les membres 4 

Zum Tod von Nobelpreisträger Heinrich Rohrer 9 

Allgemeine Tagungsinformationen - Informations générales sur la réunion 10 

Vorläufige Programmübersicht - Résumé préliminaire du programme 12 

Aussteller - Exposants 24 

Open Access, where do we stand today? 25 

Kurzmitteilungen - Short Communications 25, 45 

19 th Swiss Physics Olympiad 2013 (SPhO) in Aarau 26 

Das Rennen um die Industrieproduktion der Zukunft 27 

First result from the AMS experiment 28 

Progress in Physics (33): Outreach: Can Physics Cross Boundaries? 30 

Progress in Physics (34): On the development of physically-based regional climate modelling 32 

Progress in Physics (35): A snowflake in a million degree plasma 36 

Physics Anecdotes (17): IBM Research – Zurich, a Success Story 40 

Goodbye Herschel 42 

Structural MEMS Testing 44 

Physique et la Société: Quand la Physique rejoint le Sport 46 

History of Physics (8): On the Einstein-Grossmann Collaboration 100 Years ago 48 

Histoire de la Physique (9): Le modèle atomique de Bohr: origines, contexte et postérité (part 1) 52 

Buchbesprechung: Geschichte des SIN 56 

Lehrerfortbildung: 18 Deutschschweizer Lehrer im Herz von CERN 58 

Annual Congress of SCNAT 60 

Präsident / Président 

Dr. Andreas Schopper, CERN, Andreas.Schopper@cern.ch 

Vorstandsmitglieder der SPG / Membres du Comité de la SSP 

Physikausbildung und -förderung / 

Education et encouragement à la physique 

Dr. Tibor Gyalog, Uni Basel, tibor.gyalog@unibas.ch 

Vize-Präsident / Vice-Président 

Dr. Christophe Rossel, IBM Rüschlikon, rsl@zurich.ibm.com 

Sekretär / Secrétaire 

Dr. MER Antoine Pochelon, EPFL-CRPP, antoine.pochelon@epfl.ch 

Kassier / Trésorier 

Dr. Pascal Ruffieux, EMPA, pascal.ruffieux@empa.ch 

Kondensierte Materie / Matière Condensée (KOND) 

Prof. Christian Rüegg, PSI & Uni Genève, christian.rueegg@psi.ch, christian.rueegg@unige.ch 

Angewandte Physik / Physique Appliquée (ANDO) 

Dr. Ivo Furno, EPFL-CRPP, ivo.furno@epfl.ch 

Astrophysik, Kern- und Teilchenphysik / 

Astrophysique, physique nucléaire et corp. (TASK) 

Prof. Martin Pohl, Uni Genève, martin.pohl@cern.ch 

Theoretische Physik / Physique Théorique (THEO) 

Prof. Gian Michele Graf, ETH Zürich, gmgraf@phys.ethz.ch 

Physik in der Industrie / Physique dans l‘industrie 

Dr. Kai Hencken, ABB Dättwil, kai.hencken@ch.abb.com 

Atomphysik und Quantenoptik / 

Physique Atomique et Optique Quantique 

Prof. Antoine Weis, Uni Fribourg, antoine.weis@unifr.ch 

Geschichte der Physik / Histoire de la Physique 

Prof. Jan Lacki, Uni Genève, jan.lacki@unige.ch 

Physik der Erde, Atmosphäre und Umwelt / 

Physique du globe et de l'environnement 

Dr. Stéphane Goyette, Uni Genève, stephane.goyette@unige.ch 

SPG Administration / Administration de la SSP 

Allgemeines Sekretariat (Mitgliederverwaltung, Webseite, Druck, Versand, Redaktion Bulletin 

& SPG Mitteilungen) / 

Secrétariat générale (Service des membres, internet, impression, envoi, rédaction Bulletin 

& Communications de la SSP) 

S. Albietz, SPG Sekretariat, Departement Physik, 

Klingelbergstrasse 82, CH-4056 Basel 

Tel. 061 / 267 36 86, Fax 061 / 267 37 84, sps@unibas.ch 

Buchhaltung / Service de la comptabilité 

F. Erkadoo, SPG Sekretariat, Departement Physik, 

Klingelbergstrasse 82, CH-4056 Basel 

Tel. 061 / 267 37 50, Fax 061 / 267 13 49, francois.erkadoo@unibas.ch 

Protokollführerin / Greffière 

Susanne Johner, SJO@zurich.ibm.com 

Wissenschaftlicher Redakteur/ Rédacteur scientifique 

Dr. Bernhard Braunecker, Braunecker Engineering GmbH, 

braunecker@bluewin.ch 

Impressum: 

Die SPG Mitteilungen erscheinen ca. 2-4 mal jährlich und werden an alle Mitglieder abgegeben. 

Abonnement für Nichtmitglieder: 

CHF 20.- pro Jahrgang (Inland; Ausland auf Anfrage), incl. Lieferung der Hefte sofort nach Erscheinen frei Haus. Bestellungen 

bzw. Kündigungen jeweils zum Jahresende senden Sie bitte formlos an folgende Adresse: 

Verlag und Redaktion: 

Schweizerische Physikalische Gesellschaft, Klingelbergstr. 82, CH-4056 Basel, sps@unibas.ch, www.sps.ch 

Redaktionelle Beiträge und Inserate sind willkommen, bitte wenden Sie sich an die obige Adresse. 

Namentlich gekennzeichnete Beiträge geben grundsätzlich die Meinungen der betreffenden Autoren wieder. Die 

SPG übernimmt hierfür keine Verantwortung. 

Druck: 

Werner Druck & Medien AG, Kanonengasse 32, 4001 Basel 

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Communications de la SSP No. 40 

Gemeinsame Jahrestagung in Linz, 03. - 06. September 2013 

Réunion annuelle commune à Linz, 3 - 6 septembre 2013 

Vorwort 

Avant-Propos 

Im Zweijahresrhythmus organisiert die SPG ihre Jahrestagung 

gemeinsam mit der Österreichischen Physikalischen 

Gesellschaft (ÖPG) sowie den Schweizerischen und Österreichischen 

Gesellschaften für Astronomie und Astrophysik 

(SGAA und ÖGAA). Dieser Modus hat sich in den 

vergangenen Jahren bei den sehr erfolgreichen Tagungen 

in Innsbruck (2009) und Lausanne (2011) bewährt. Die diesjährige 

Tagung in Linz soll diese Tradition fortsetzen und 

den Dialog zwischen Physikern beider Länder weiter vertiefen. 

Mit rund 400 eingereichten Abstracts in 15 Fachsitzungen, 

9 Plenarvorträgen und zwei öffentlichen Abendvorträgen, 

einer davon von Serge Haroche (Physiknobelpreisträger 

2012), steht ein sehr attraktives Programm zur Verfügung. 

Zudem findet vor der gemeinsamen Jahrestagung noch ein 

spezieller Energietag statt, zu dem alle Tagungsteilnehmer 

herzlich willkommen sind. 

Im Folgenden finden Sie die für die SPG-Mitglieder relevanten 

Gesellschaftsnachrichten, die wichtigsten Tagungsinformationen 

sowie eine vorläufige Programmübersicht. 

Das definitive Programm wird in Kürze auf der SPG-Webseite 

verfügbar sein. 

Der SPG-Vorstand hofft auf eine rege Teilnahme an der Tagung 

und freut sich auf Ihren Besuch. 

Tous les deux ans, la SSP organise sa réunion annuelle 

en collaboration avec la société autrichienne de physique 

(ÖPG) et les deux sociétés nationales d'astronomie et 

d'astrophysique (SSAA et ÖGAA). Ce modèle a fait ses 

preuves au cours des dernières années de rencontres très 

fructueuses à Innsbruck (2009) et à Lausanne (2011). La 

conférence de cette année à Linz a comme but de poursuivre 

cette tradition et d’approfondir le dialogue entre les 

physiciens de ces deux pays. 

Avec environ 400 résumés soumis à 15 séances, 9 conférences 

plénières et deux conférences publiques, l'une par 

Serge Haroche (Prix Nobel de physique 2012), un programme 

très attrayant a été mis en place. En outre, une 

journée spéciale de l'énergie aura lieu avant la réunion 

annuelle commune, à laquelle tous les participants de la 

conférence sont les bienvenus. 

Vous trouverez ci-dessous les nouvelles de la société d’intérêt 

pour les membres, ainsi que les informations les plus 

importantes sur la conférence et sur le programme provisoire. 

La version finale sera accessible sous peu sur le site 

de la SSP. 

Le comité de la SSP comptes donc sur une participation 

active et nombreuse à notre réunion annuelle et nous réjouissons 

de votre visite. 

Preisverleihung - Cérémonie de remise des prix 

Mittwoch 04. September 2013, 11:30h - Mercredi 4 septembre 2013, 11:30h 

Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Keplergebäude, Hörsaal 1 

Es werden alle Preise von SPG und ÖPG in einer gemeinsamen 

Zeremonie verliehen. 

Tous les prix de la SSP et l'ÖPG seront remises dans une 

cérémonie commune. 

Generalversammlung 2013 - Assemblée générale 2013 

Donnerstag 05. September 2013, 12:00h - Jeudi 5 septembre 2013, 12:00h 

Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Keplergebäude, Hörsaal 4 

Traktanden 

Ordre du jour 

1. Protokoll der Generalversammlung vom 

21. Juni 2012 

Procès-verbal de l'assemblée générale du 

21 juin 2012 

2. Kurzer Bericht des Präsidenten Bref rapport du président 

3. Rechnung 2012, Revisorenbericht Bilan 2012, rapport des vérificateurs des 

comptes 

4. Wahlen Elections 

5. Projekte Projets 

6. Diverses Divers 

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Neue Mitglieder 2012 - 

Nouveaux membres en 2012 

Acremann Yves, Adams Jonathan, Ancu Lucian Stefan, 

Andreussi Oliviero, Antognini Aldo, Bachmann Maja, Barhoumi 

Rafik, Bernard Laetitia, Bettler Marc-Olivier, Bigler 

Matthias, Bonvin Camille, Braun Oliver, Brunner Bernhard, 

Casadei Diego, Castiglioni Luca, Cepellotti Andrea, Chandrasekaran 

Anand, Cheah Erik, Cholleton Danaël, Cohen 

Denis, Crivelli Paolo, Doglioni Caterina, Dragoni Daniele, 

Ehtesham Alireza, Fantner Georg, Fernandes Vaz Carlos 

Antonio, Gibertini Marco, Goyette Stéphane, Havare Ali Kemal, 

Herzog Benedikt, Huppert Martin, Issler Mena, Jaffe 

Arthur, Jordan Inga, Knabenhans Mischa, Knopp Gregor, 

Kraus Peter, Krauth Felix, Küçükbenli Emine, Kuhn Felix 

Arjun, Laine Mikko, Leindl Mario, Locher Reto, Mariotti Nicolas, 

Marzari Nicola, Mathys Christoph, Mermod Philippe, 

Miguel Sanchez Javier, Montaruli Teresa, Moutafis Christoforos, 

Müller Andreas, Nguyen Ngoc Linh, O'Regan David 

Daniel, Pizzi Giovanni, Pozzorini Stefano, Rakotomiaramanana 

Barinjaka, Reinle-Schmitt Mathilde Léna, Ries Dieter, 

Rochman Dimitri, Rønnow Henrik Moodysson, Rückauer 

Bodo, Sabatini Ricardo, Salman Zaher, Schwarz Sacha, 

Silatani Mahsa, Strassmann Peter, Südmeyer Thomas, 

Šulc Miroslav, Tehlar Andres, Tiwari Rakesh, Tolba Tamer, 

Tourneur Stéphane, van Megen Bram, Vaniček Jiří, Vindigni 

Alessandro, Walter Manuel, Wyszynski Grzegorz, Zimmermann 

Tomáš 

Ehrenmitglieder - Membres d'honneur 

Prof. Hans Beck (2010) 

Dr. J. Georg Bednorz (2011) 

Prof. Jean-Pierre Blaser (1990) 

Prof. Jean-Pierre Borel (2001) 

Prof. Jean-Pierre Eckmann (2011) 

Prof. Charles P. Enz (2005) 

Prof. Øystein Fischer (2010) 

Prof. Hans Frauenfelder (2001) 

Prof. Jürg Fröhlich (2011) 

Prof. Hermann Grunder (2001) 

Prof. Hans-Joachim Güntherodt (2010) 

Dr. Martin Huber (2011) 

Prof. Verena Meyer (2001) 

Prof. K. Alex Müller (1991) 

Prof. Hans Rudolf Ott (2005) 

Prof. T. Maurice Rice (2010) 

Dr. Heinrich Rohrer (1990) 

Prof. Louis Schlapbach (2010) 

Statistik - Statistique 

Assoziierte Mitglieder - Membres associés 

A) Firmen 

• F. Hoffmann-La-Roche AG, 4070 Basel 

B) Universitäten, Institute 

• Albert-Einstein-Center for Fundamental Physics, Universität 

Bern, 3012 Bern 

• CERN, 1211 Genève 23 

• Département de Physique, Université de Fribourg, 

1700 Fribourg 

• Departement Physik, Universität Basel, 4056 Basel 

• Departement Physik, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich 

• EMPA, 8600 Dübendorf 

• Lab. de Physique des Hautes Energies (LPHE), EPFL, 

1015 Lausanne 

• Paul Scherrer Institut, 5332 Villigen PSI 

• Physik-Institut, Universität Zürich, 8057 Zürich 

• Section de Physique, Université de Genève, 1211 Genève 

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C) Studentenfachvereine 

• AEP - Association des Etudiant(e)s en Physique, Université 

de Genève, 1211 Genève 4 

• Fachschaft Physik und Astronomie, Universität Bern, 

3012 Bern 

• Fachschaft Physique, Université de Fribourg, 1700 Fribourg 

• Fachverein Physik der Universität Zürich (FPU), 

8057 Zürich 

• FG 14 (Fachgruppe für Physik-, Mathematik- und Versicherungswissenschaft), 

Universität Basel, 4056 Basel 

• Les Irrotationnels, EPFL, 1015 Lausanne 

• Verein der Mathematik- und Physikstudierenden an 

der ETH Zürich (VMP), 8092 Zürich 

Verteilung der Mitgliedskategorien - 

Répartition des catégories de membres 

(31.12.2012) 

Ordentliche Mitglieder 726 

Doktoranden 55 

Studenten 80 

Doppelmitglieder DPG, ÖPG oder APS 164 

Doppelmitglieder PGZ 41 

Mitglieder auf Lebenszeit 144 

Assoziierte Mitglieder 19 

Bibliotheksmitglieder 2 

Ehrenmitglieder 18 

Beitragsfreie (Korrespondenz) 7 

Total 1256 

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Jahresbericht 2012 des Präsidenten - Rapport annuel 2012 du président 

The major event of our society in 2012 was once more the 

annual SPS meeting that took place from 21-22 June 2012 

at the Hönggerberg campus of the ETHZ, jointly organized 

with the four National Centres of Competence in Research 

(NCCR) MaNEP, MUST, Nano and QSIT as well as with the 

Swiss Society for Crystallography. More than 550 persons 

attended the meeting. The scientific program was rather 

dense with 6 plenary talks, 237 talks distributed over 

14 parallel sessions and 170 posters. Worth mentioning is 

the successful session of the new section "Earth, Atmosphere 

and Environmental Physics" and a dedicated session 

to celebrate the birth of crystallography in 1912 "100 Years 

of Diffraction". It was very satisfying to observe a large 

participation of young enthusiastic physicists sharing their 

research results and their experiences in a lively manner. 

The interest by the commercial exhibitors was once more 

well demonstrated by the attendance of 21 companies. As 

every year, the annual meeting was also the occasion to 

announce and present the winners of the SPS Awards in 

General Physics, Condensed Matter Physics and Applied 

Physics. 

It became a tradition that SPS organises in collaboration 

with the Physikalische Gesellschaft Zürich PGZ a joint symposium 

every year. In September 2012, PGZ and SPS celebrated 

together the 125 years of PGZ with a meeting in 

Zürich on "General relativity and its applications". 

Fostering its international relations, every other year the 

SPS organises its annual meeting together with the Austrian 

Physical Society ÖPG that will take place in Linz in 2013. 

The SPS maintained tight links to the European Physical 

Society EPS, participating in its Council and in various activities 

of its groups. In 2012 our society also welcomed its 

first international Associate Member with domicile in Switzerland, 

namely CERN. 

In view of promoting young scientists, the SPS Young 

Physicist Forum YPF, that was created in 2010 and that 

regroups most of the Swiss physics student associations, 

has been accepted as a Commission of SPS in 2012. In the 

framework of this very active forum, the young physicists 

had organised a SPS sponsored visit to the International 

Laboratory for Particle Physics CERN at Geneva. As every 

year, our society also sponsored activities of the Swiss 

Young Physicists Tournament SYPT as well as of the Swiss 

Physics Olympiads SPhO, with two SPS prizes awarded to 

the best male and female finalists of SPhO. 

Furthermore, our society also supported Swiss students for 

attending the 13 th IONS (International OSA Network of Students) 

conference, that was jointly organized by PhD students 

from EPFL and ETH and that took place in Zürich and 

Lausanne from 9-12 Jan, 2013. 

Three times per year the SPS publishes its "Communications", 

which is the most important SPS publication to disseminate 

information about on-going activities within the 

society and to review scientific progress in various areas. 

High-class articles have been published in the various, 

now well established rubrics. A paper copy is distributed 

to all members, whilst open access to this publication is 

also granted to the entire Swiss scientific community via 

the SPS homepage. 

SPS is a member organization of the Swiss Academy of 

Science SCNAT and part of the platform Mathematics, Astronomy 

and Physics MAP. With two SPS representatives 

in the organising committee, our society is supporting 

the platform MAP actively in organising the "SCNAT-Jahreskongress 

2013" on the occasion of the jubilee of "100 

Jahre Bohr'sches Atommodell". 

We are grateful to the organizational and financial support 

of SCNAT and acknowledge also support of the Swiss 

Academy of Engineering Science SATW. Thanks to a wellbalanced 

program the Swiss Physical Society could once 

more close its budget with a positive balance for 2012. 

Andreas Schopper, SPS President, May 2013 

Protokoll der Generalversammlung vom 21. Juni 2012 in Zürich 

Protocole de l'assemblée générale du 21 juin 2012 à Zürich 

Traktanden 

1. Protokoll der Generalversammlung vom 16.06.2011 

2. Bericht des Präsidenten 

3. Rechnung 2011 & Revisorenbericht 

4. Anpassung der Statuten 

5. Neue Sektion und Kommission 

6. Projekte 

7. Wahlen 

Der Präsident, Christophe Rossel, eröffnet die Generalversammlung 

um 12:00 Uhr. Anwesend sind 41 Mitglieder. 

1. Protokoll der letzten GV vom 16.6.2011 in Lausanne 

Herrn Peter Wolff beanstandet den ihn betreffenden ersten 

Satz unter Traktandum „6. Diverses“ und verweist auf das 

GV-Protokoll 2010 (Basel). Da keine Neuformulierung vorliegt, 

wird über die in den SPG-Mitteilungen veröffentlichte 

Version abgestimmt und diese mit 35 Stimmen genehmigt, 

bei 5 Enthaltungen und 1 Gegenstimme. 

(Siehe dazu den NACHTRAG am Schluss dieses Protokolls). 

2. Bericht des Präsidenten 

Der Jahresbericht 2011 des Präsidenten wurde auf Seite 5 

der "SPG Mitteilungen Nr. 37" im Mai 2012 veröffentlicht. 

Christophe Rossel erläutert kurz einige Punkte: 

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• Die gemeinsame Jahrestagung mit der Österreichischen 

Physikalischen Gesellschaft (ÖPG) und den 

beiden nationalen Gesellschaften für Astronomie und 

Astrophysik (SGAA und ÖGAA) vom 15.-17. Juni 2011 

in Lausanne war wiederum ein Erfolg mit rund 650 Teilnehmenden, 

10 Plenarvorträgen, 470 Beiträgen verteilt 

auf 10 Parallel-Sitzungen, dazu zahlreichen Postern 

und 22 Ausstellern. 

• Die Generalversammlung 2011 ernannte vier neue Ehrenmitglieder: 

Dr. J. Georg Bednorz, Prof. Jean-Pierre 

Eckmann, Prof. Jürg Fröhlich und Dr. Martin Huber. 

• Die Mitgliederzahl ist auf etwa 1'250 gestiegen, was 

einer Zunahme von rund 10% gegenüber dem Vorjahr 

entspricht. Bei den 18 Kollektiv- (neu: assoziierten) Mitgliedern 

ist bei den Firmen ein Rückgang zu verzeichnen, 

dafür sind mehr Universitäten und Studentenorganisationen 

vertreten. 

3. Rechnung 2011 & Revisorenbericht 

Der Kassier, Pierangelo Gröning, präsentiert und erläutert 

die Jahresrechnung 2011, die detailliert in den "SPG-Mitteilungen 

Nr. 37" auf Seite 7 veröffentlicht wurde. Sie schliesst 

mit einem Gewinn von CHF 17'200.36 und einem Vereinsvermögen 

von CHF 36'606.87. 

Der Empfehlung der Revisoren folgend genehmigt die Generalversammlung 

die Jahresrechnung 2011 und der Kassier 

wird mit bestem Dank für die gute Rechnungsführung 

entlastet. 

4. Anpassung der Statuten 

Die Generalversammlung stimmt der auf Seite 9 der "SPG- 

Mitteilungen Nr. 37" veröffentlichten Anpassung der Statuten 

einstimmig zu. Somit wird der Begriff "Kollektivmitglieder" 

durch "Assoziierte Mitglieder" ersetzt und in Art. 2 

die Definition der Gruppe B um "überstaatliche bzw. internationale" 

erweitert. 

5. Neue Sektion und Kommission 

Die Generalversammlung stimmt folgenden Neugründungen 

einstimmig zu. 

• Neue Sektion: 

Physik der Erde, Atmosphäre und Umwelt - 

Earth, Atmosphere and Environmental Physics - 

Physique du Globe et de l'Environnement 

• Neue Kommission: 

Young Physicists Forum 

6. Projekte 

• Im September 2013 soll die nächste gemeinsame Jahrestagung 

mit der ÖPG in Linz stattfinden. 

• In Zusammenarbeit mit der PGZ wird am 29.9.2012 das 

Symposium „Allgemeine Relativitätstheorie und ihre 

Anwendungen“ an der Universität Zürich, organisiert. 

• Das neu als Kommission integrierte „Young Physicists 

Forum“ wird Aktivitäten, Betriebsbesichtigungen und 

Exkursionen für Studenten organisieren. 

• Die Final-Runde der Schweizer Physik-Olympiade 

hat am 21./22. April 2012 in Aarau stattgefunden. Die 

Goldmedaillen-Gewinner Thanh Phong Lê und Laura 

Gremion wurden zusätzlich mit den beiden SPG- 

Nachwuchspreisen ausgezeichnet. Die Internationale 

Physik-Olympiade findet im Juli in Estland statt. 

• Ebenfalls im Juli 2012 wird das „International Young 

Physicists Tournament“ (IYPT) in Bad Sulgau (D) stattfinden. 

• Die SPG könnte sich am Swiss Young Physicists' Tournament 

2013 beteiligen. Im Jahr 2016 wird das IYPT 

möglicherweise in der Schweiz organisiert. 

• Im 2013 wird das Jubiläum "100 Jahre Bohr'sches 

Atommodell" gefeiert. 

• 2015 wurde zum „Internationalen Jahr des Lichts“ bestimmt. 

Dann wird die SCNAT auch ihr 200jähriges Bestehen 

feiern. 

7. Wahlen 

Der Präsident dankt den beiden ausscheidenden Vorstandsmitgliedern 

Urs Staub (Kondensierte Materie) und 

Pierangelo Gröning (Kassier) für Ihren langjährigen Einsatz. 

Und der Vizepräsident, Andreas Schopper, dankt dem zurücktretenden 

Präsidenten, Christophe Rossel, für seine 

vierjährige Amtszeit. 

In corpore werden einstimmig gewählt: 

• Präsident (bisher Vizepräsident): Dr. Andreas Schopper, 

CERN 

• Vize-Präsident (bisher Präsident): Dr. Christophe Rossel, 

IBM Research Zurich 

• Kassier (bisher Revisor): Dr. Pascal Ruffieux, EMPA 

• Kondensierte Materie (neu): Dr. Christian Rüegg, PSI 

• Theoretische Physik (bisher ad interim): Prof. Gian Michele 

Graf, ETH Zürich 

• Physik der Erde, Atmosphäre und Umwelt (neu): Dr. 

Stéphane Goyette, Universität Genf 

Die übrigen Vorstandsmitglieder bleiben für ihre restliche 

Amtszeit unverändert. 

Der neue Präsident dankt den Anwesenden für ihr Erscheinen 

sowie den Delegierten und seinen Vorstandskollegen 

für ihren Einsatz und die gute Zusammenarbeit. 

Ende der Generalversammlung: 12:45 Uhr. 

Zürich, 21. Juni 2012 

Die Protokollführerin: Susanne Johner 

NACHTRAG zu Punkt 1, Protokoll der letzten GV vom 

16.06.2011 in Lausanne 

Nach der GV stimmt Herr Peter Wolff folgender Neuformulierung 

zu: 

Der erste Satz unter Traktandum "6. Diverses" wird ersetzt 

durch: 

"Herr Peter Wolff erinnert an sein Anliegen betreffend die 

Schwierigkeiten, nicht-englische Artikel in wissenschaftlichen 

Zeitschriften zu publizieren, welches er an der GV 

2010 in Basel geäussert hatte." 

6


Jahresrechnung 2012 - Bilan annuel 2012 

Bilanz per 31.12.2012 

Aktiven 

Umlaufsvermögen 

Postscheckkonto 55733,76 

Bank - UBS 230-627945.M1U 14378,51 

Debitoren - Mitglieder 6450,00 

Debitoren - SCNAT/SATW u.a.m. 39180,80 

Transitorische Aktiven 2853,81 

Passiven 

Anlagevermögen 

Beteiligung EP Letters 15840,00 

Mobilien 1,00 

Fremdkapital 

Mobiliar 1,00 

Mitglieder Lebenszeit 59824,50 

Transitorische Passiven 10729,25 

Eigenkapital 

Vefügbares Vermögen 36606,87 

Total Passiven 134437,88 107161,62 

Gewinn 27276,26 

Total 134437,88 134437,88 

Verfügbares Vermögen per 31.12.12 nach Gewinnzuweisung 63883,13 

Erfolgsrechnung per 31.12.2012 

Aufwand 

Gesellschaftsaufwand 

EPS - Membership 14364,81 

SCNAT - Membership 8400,00 

SATW-Mitgliederbeitrag 1750,00 

Ertrag 

SCNAT und SATW Zahlungs- und Verpflichtungskredite 

SPG-Jahrestagung 18240,86 

Schweizer Physik Olympiade 4000,00 

SPG Young Physicist's Forum 1180,80 

SCNAT/SPG Bulletin 9627,00 

SCNAT Periodika (SPG-Mitteilungen, Druckkosten) 15720,20 

SCNAT Int. Young Phys. Tournament 5500,00 

SCNAT Entdeckungen des Jahres 1912 4142,90 

SATW Earth Sciences 2350,00 

SATW Light and Sound Exhibition 3000,00 

Betriebsaufwand 

Löhne 11909,76 

Sozialleistungen 1806,60 

Porti/Telefonspesen/WWW- und PC-Spesen 814,95 

Versand (Porti Massensendungen) 7080,30 

Unkosten 3395,85 

Büromaterial 4492,30 

Ausserordentlicher Aufwand 4536,70 

Bankspesen 138,00 

Debitorenverluste Mitglieder 1665,00 

Debitorenverlust SCNAT/SATW u.a.m. 5319,20 

Sekretariatsaufwand extern 12375,00 

Ertrag 

Mitgliederbeiträge 98826,30 

Inserate/Flyerbeilagen SPG Mitteilungen 5170,00 

Aussteller 12744,94 

Zinsertrag 99,80 

Ertrag aus EP Letters Beteiligung 2745,45 

SCNAT und SATW Zahlungs- und Verpflichtungskredite 

SPG-Jahrestagung (SCNAT) 15000,00 

Schweizer Physik Olympiade 4500,00 

SPG Young Physicist's Forum 6000,00 

SCNAT Entdeckungen des Jahres 1912 4000,00 

SPG Bulletin (SCNAT) 5500,00 

Periodika (SPG-Mitteilungen, Druckkosten) (SCNAT) 4000,00 

SCNAT Int. Young Phys. Tournament 5500,00 

SATW Earth Sciences 2000,00 

SATW Light and Sound Exhibition 3000,00 

Total Aufwand / Ertrag 141810,23 169086,49 

Gewinn 27276,26 

Total 169086,49 169086,49 

7


Revisorenbericht zur Jahresrechnung 2012 

Die Jahresrechnung 2012 der SPG wurde von den unterzeichneten Revisoren geprüft und 

mit den Belegen in Übereinstimmung befunden. 

Die Revisoren empfehlen der Generalversammlung der SPG, die Jahresrechnung zu 

genehmigen und den Kassier mit bestem Dank für die gute Rechnungsführung zu 

entlasten. 

Die Revisoren der SPG: 

Prof. Dr. Philipp Aebi 

Dr. Pierangelo Gröning 

Basel, 04. April 2013 

F. Erkadoo, SPG Büro, Departement Physik, Klingelbergstrasse 82, CH-4056 Basel 

Tel : 061 / 267 37 50, Fax : 061 / 267 13 49, Email : francois.erkadoo@unibas.ch 

8

News from SPS committee meetings (February & April) 


Annual Meetings: The SPS meeting in 2014 will be held in Fribourg 

beginning of July, together with the National Centres of Competence 

in Research (NCCRs). The meeting in 2015 is planned with 

the Austrian Societies in Wien. 

Communications: The SPS has two major means of communication, 

the "SPG Mitteilungen" ("Communications de la SSP") and 

the SPS homepage (www.sps.ch). To further improve communication, 

from now on, we will report about decisions from the executive 

committee meetings in the "SPG Mitteilungen". The editorial 

board is being enlarged, with the entire committee contributing 

to articles of the specific rubrics. With the aim of better publicizing 

colloquia, talks and seminars of general interest in Swiss 

academic centres and universities, a list of these events and their 

links will be provided on the SPS website. You are most welcome 

to communicate events of interest to the SPS Secretariat 

(sps@unibas.ch). 

Projects: One of the main emphases of the SPS is to promote 

young academics through a variety of activities and projects. The 

Young Physicists Forum (YPF), a commission of SPS also represented 

in the executive committee, organized a 2-day meeting on 

"Physics and Sport". (see p. 46 for a detailed report). Another continuous 

endeavour of the SPS is to improve the contact between 

the teachers and the organizers of courses or training for secondary 

school teachers. The involvement of teachers varies from 

canton to canton, due to very different levels of encouragement 

(from the obligation of following paid courses during teaching time 

to the encouragement of following only courses at one’s expense 

and outside working time). In view of this year’s discovery of the 

Higgs particle, a visit to CERN took place in cooperation with H. P. 

Beck and www.teilchenphysik.ch , in particular for teachers from 

the Swiss German. For the enlargement of outreach to all domains 

of physics, it is felt that similar activities should develop over the 

next years in other fields of physics. 

This year the SPS was once more involved in the Swiss Physics 

Olympiad (SPhO) by awarding 4 prizes, in the special recipients’ 

configuration of 2013 including Liechtenstein in the winners. For 

the first time, Switzerland and Liechtenstein will organise the 2016 

International Physics Olympiad (typically 400 participants from 95 

countries), which will require additional organisational and scientific 

forces to be involved. 

There exists a demand from secondary schools students to become 

members of the Society: as a very first action, we will try 

to establish an e-mail list, with the link to the electronic version of 

"SPS Communications" to be sent for each new publication. 

Contact to Academies: The SATW has new structures and commissions 

(scientific advisory board, topical platforms, etc.) in 

which now more physicists can take part as experts; SPS will 

spread the information to its members. The SCNAT encourages 

participation to the "200 years SCNAT" Jubilee in 2015; the SPS 

will support the "Pop-up Lab" for this event, a project supported 

by AGORA, which is a SNF tool to intensify and fund dialogue 

between science and public. 

Contact to EPS: SPS has submitted a nomination to the EPS 

Physics Education Division Award. A delegation has participated 

to the Energy Group Meeting. A variety of SPS actions have been 

defined to follow-up on the outcome of the EPS council meeting. 

Zum Tod von Nobelpreisträger Heinrich Rohrer 

Mit grosser Bestürzung und Trauer 

musste die SPG vom Tod ihres Ehrenmitglieds 

Heinrich Rohrer erfahren, der 

am 16. Mai im Alter von 79 Jahren verstarb. 

Er war von 1963 bis 1997 am IBM 

Forschungszentrum in Rüschlikon tätig 

und gilt als einer der massgebenden 

Pioniere der Nanowissenschaften, deren 

Werdegang aus dem Forschungsstadium 

heraus zur mittlerweile alle 

Bereiche des täglichen Lebens erfassenden 

Nanotechnologie er aktiv mitgestalten 

konnte. Für seine Erfindung 

des Rastertunnelmikroskops wurde er 

1986 zusammen mit Gerd Binnig mit der 

höchsten Auszeichnung in Physik, dem 

Nobelpreis, geehrt. 

Eine der letzten beeindruckenden Anwendungen 

seiner Pionierarbeit ist der kurze Film "a Boy 

and his Atom" über einen Jungen, der mit einem Atom 

spielt, und der als kleinster Film der Welt kürzlich von Wissenschaftlern 

am IBM Forschungslabor Almaden / San 

Jose (USA) produziert wurde. Im gewissen Sinn eine Parabel 

über Heini, der gerne seine Begeisterung für die Nanowissenschaft 

weltweit an die junge Generation weitergab. 

Das mag auch noch folgende kleine Begebenheit illustrieren: 

Als eine Gruppe von Leica-Physikern gegen Ende der 

80er Jahre während einer Zugfahrt von Lausanne nach 

Image courtesy of IBM Research – Zurich 

Heerbrugg unerwartete technische 

Schwierigkeiten in einem Gemeinschaftsprojekt 

mit der EPFL lautstark 

beklagte, kam Heini Rohrer aus dem 

Nebenabteil überraschend zu uns und 

meinte schelmisch, dass wir die Beschäftigung 

mit Problemen im Submikrometerbereich 

doch positiv als Chance 

für den Einstieg in den Nanobereich 

mit all seinen ungeahnten Möglichkeiten 

sehen sollten! Während wir Älteren noch 

recht skeptisch blickten, wurden unsere 

jüngeren Kollegen durch diese ermunternden 

Worte sichtbar aufgerichtet. 

Seine Persönlichkeit und die Bedeutung 

seines Wirkens werden von IBM unter 

folgendem Link http://www.research. 

ibm.com/articles/heinrich-rohrer.shtml 

eindrücklich geschildert. 

So verlieren wir Physiker einen liebenswerten Freund und 

Kollegen, dessen bescheidene Art, sein subtiler Humor, 

seine grossartigen wissenschaftlichen Leistungen und vor 

allem seine stete Hilfsbereitschaft uns in bester Erinnerung 

bleiben werden. 

C. Rossel (IBM Research - Zurich) und B. Braunecker (früher 

Leica Geosystems) 

9


Allgemeine Tagungsinformationen - Informations générales sur la réunion 

Konferenzwebseite und Anmeldung 

Alle Teilnehmeranmeldungen werden über die Konferenzwebseite 

vorgenommen. 

www.sps.ch oder www.jku.at/hfp/oepgsps13 

Anmeldeschluß: 1. August 2013 

Tagungsort 

Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Keplergebäude 

Tagungssekretariat 

Das Tagungssekretariat befindet sich beim Haupteingang 

zur Tagung, vor dem Hörsaal 1. 

Öffnungszeiten: 

Di 03.09. 09:00 - 19:00 

Mi - Do 04. - 05.09. 08:00 - 19:00 

Fr 06.09. 08:00 - 15:00 

Alle Tagungsteilnehmer melden sich bitte vor dem Besuch 

der ersten Veranstaltung beim Sekretariat an, wo 

Sie ein Namensschild und allfällige weitere Unterlagen 

erhalten sowie die Tagungsgebühr bezahlen. 

Wichtig: Ohne Namensschild ist kein Zutritt zu einer 

Veranstaltung möglich. 

Wir empfehlen Ihnen, wenn möglich den Dienstag 

Nachmittag für die Anmeldung zu nutzen. So können 

Sie am Mittwoch direkt ohne Wartezeiten die Vorträge 

besuchen. 

Achtung: Das Tagungssekretariat gibt kein technisches 

oder Büromaterial ab. Jeder Teilnehmer ist für seine 

Ausrüstung (Mobilrechner, Laserpointer, Adapter, Schere, 

Reissnägel, Folien usw.) selber verantwortlich ! 

Hörsäle 

In allen Hörsälen stehen Beamer und Hellraumprojektoren 

zur Verfügung. Bitte bringen Sie Ihre eigenen Mobilrechner 

und evtl. Adapter und USB Stick/CD mit. 

Postersession 

Die Postersession findet am Mittwoch und Donnerstag 

Abend sowie am Freitag während der Mittagspause in 

der Halle statt. Bitte bringen Sie Befestigungsmaterial 

(Reissnägel, Klebestreifen) selbst mit. Die Posterwände 

sind entsprechend diesem Programm numeriert, sodaß 

jeder Teilnehmer "seine" Wand leicht finden sollte. Alle 

Poster sollen an allen drei Tagen präsentiert werden. 

Maximale Postergröße: A0 Hochformat 

Zahlung 

Wir bitten Sie, die Tagungsgebühren im Voraus zu bezahlen. 

Sie verkürzen damit die Wartezeiten am Tagungssekretariat, 

erleichtern uns die Arbeit und sparen 

darüber hinaus noch Geld ! 

Die Angaben zur Zahlung werden während der Anmeldung 

direkt auf der Webseite angezeigt. 

Site web de la conférence et inscription 

L'inscription des participants se fait sur le site web de 

la conférence. 

www.sps.ch ou www.jku.at/hfp/oepgsps13 

Délai d'inscription: 1 er août 2013 

Lieu de la conférence 

Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Bâtiment "Kepler" 

Secrétariat de la conférence 

Le secrétariat de la réunion se trouve juste à l'entrée, 

devant l'auditoire 1. 

Heures d'ouverture : 

Mar 3.9. 09:00 - 19:00 

Mer - Jeu 4. - 5.9. 08:00 - 19:00 

Ven 6.9. 08:00 - 15:00 

Tous les participants doivent se présenter en premier 

lieu au secrétariat de la conférence afin de recevoir leur 

badge et les divers documents ainsi que pour le paiement 

des frais d'inscription. 

Attention: Sans badge, l'accès aux sessions de la manifestation 

sera refusé. 

Nous vous recommandons de vous inscrire déjà mardi 

après-midi afin d'éviter des temps d'attente inutiles 

mercredi matin. 

Attention: Le secrétariat de la conférence ne met aucun 

matériel technique ni matériel de bureau à disposition. 

Chaque participant est responsable de son équipement 

(ordinateur, pointeur laser, adaptateurs, ciseaux, punaises, 

...) ! 

Auditoires 

Les auditoires disposent tous d’un projecteur multimédia 

(beamer) et d'un projecteur pour transparents. 

Veuillez apporter votre ordinateur portable ainsi que 

d'éventuels accessoires tels que clé USB ou CD. 

Séance posters 

Les posters seront présentés dans le hall le mercredi 

et jeudi soir et pendant la pause de midi de vendredi. 

Veuillez amener vous-même le matériel nécessaire pour 

fixer les posters (punaises, ruban adhésif). Les panneaux 

de posters seront numérotés suivant le numéro 

de l'abstract indiqué dans le programme. Tous les posters 

devraient rester installés pendant les trois jours. 

Dimension maximale: A0, format portrait 

Paiement 

Nous vous prions de régler d'avance vos frais d'inscription. 

De cette manière vous éviterez des files d'attente 

et vous nous facilitez notre travail. En plus vous pourrez 

faire des économies ! 

Les informations pour le paiement sont indiquées directement 

sur la page web lors de l'enregistrement. 

10


Preise gültig bei Zahlung bis 1. August - Prix valable pour des paiements avant le 1er août 

Kategorie - Catégorie 

EUR 

Mitglieder von SPG, ÖPG, SGAA, ÖGAA - Membres de la SSP ÖPG, SSAA, ÖGAA 90.- 

Doktoranden, die in einer der obigen Gesellschaft Mitglied sind - 

70.- 

Doctorants qui sont membres d'une des sociétés mentionnées ci-dessus 

Doktoranden, die NICHT Mitglied sind - Doctorants qui ne sont PAS membres 90.- 

Studenten VOR Master/Diplom Abschluß - Etudiants AVANT le degré master/diplôme 30.- 

Plenar-/Eingeladene Sprecher, Preisträger - Conférenciers pléniers / invités, lauréats 0.- 

Andere Teilnehmer - Autres participants 120.- 

Konferenz Abendessen - Dîner de la conférence 70.- 

Zuschlag für Zahlungen nach dem 1. August sowie Barzahler an der Tagung - 

20.- 

Supplément pour paiements effectués après le 1er août et pour paiements en espèces à la conférence 

Am Tagungssekretariat kann nur bar bezahlt werden (in 

EUR). Kreditkarten können leider nicht akzeptiert werden. 

ACHTUNG: Tagungsgebühren können nicht zurückerstattet 

werden. 

Kaffeepausen, Mittagessen 

Die Kaffeepausen und die zur Postersitzung gehörenden 

Apéros finden in der Halle bei Händlerausstellung statt. 

Diese Leistungen sind in der Konferenzgebühr enthalten. 

Die Mensen auf dem Campus sowie umliegende Restaurants 

stehen zum Mittagessen zur Verfügung. 

Konferenz-Abendessen 

Das Abendessen findet am Donnerstag im Anschluß an 

die Postersession statt. Der Preis beträgt EUR 70.- pro 

Person (beinhaltet Transfer, Menü und Getränke) Bitte 

registrieren Sie sich unbedingt im Voraus, damit wir 

disponieren können. Eine Anmeldung vor Ort ist nicht 

möglich ! 

Hotels und Anreise 

Alle Informationen finden Sie auf der Konferenzwebseite: 

www.jku.at/hfp/oepgsps13 

Les paiements lors de la conférence ne pourront être 

effectués qu'en espèces (EUR). Les cartes de crédit ne 

pourront malheureusement pas être acceptées. 

ATTENTION: Les frais d'inscription ne pourront pas être 

remboursés. 

Pauses café, repas de midi 

Les pauses café, et les apéros pendant la séance posters 

se dérouleront dans le hall près des exposants. Ces 

prestations sont inclues dans les frais d'inscription. 

Les restaurants du campus ainsi que des restaurants 

autour de l'université sont disponible pour les repas de 

midi. 

Dîner de la conférence 

Le dîner se tiendra le jeudi soir après la séance posters. 

Le prix est de EUR 70.- par personne (transfert, repas et 

boissons inclus). Veuillez s.v.p. absolument vous enregistrer 

d'avance pour des raisons d'organisation. Il n'est 

plus possible de s'inscrire sur place. 

Hôtels et Arrivée 

Tous les informations se trouvent sur le site web de la 

conférence: www.jku.at/hfp/oepgsps13 

Neuer MANTIS Kontakt für 

die Schweiz und Österreich 

Das britische Unternehmen Mantis Deposition Ltd. 

ist seit dem 1. Oktober 2012 in Deutschland mit 

einer eigenen Niederlassung in Mainz vertreten, die 

für die Betreuung der Kunden in Deutschland, 

Österreich und der Schweiz zuständig ist. 

Mantis wurde im Jahre 2003 in Oxford von 

Wissenschaftlern mit Erfahrung in den Bereichen 

Nanotechnologie sowie Mess-und 

Dünnschichttechnik gegründet. Ein Team von 

erfahrenen und hochqualifizierten Mitarbeitern trägt 

in Entwicklung, Produktion, Beratung, Installation 

und Service zum Erfolg des Unternehmens bei. 

Heute steht das Unternehmen für die Herstellung 

qualitativ hochwertiger Beschichtungskomponenten 

und Vakuumabscheideanlagen. Die Produkte 

werden sowohl in der innovativen 

Materialforschung (Nanobeschichtungen, 

Molekularstrahlexpitaxie, Sputterprozessen uvm.) 

als auch in Pilot-Produktionsbeschichtungsanlagen 

mit Erfolg eingesetzt und stehen an der Spitze der 

Dünnschicht-Beschichtungstechnologie. Die Firma hat 

in kürzester Zeit mehr als 60 komplette Anlagen 

weltweit verkauft. 

Neben universellen Standard Beschichtungssystemen 

werden auch Anlagen nach Kundenspezifikationen 

angeboten. Als besondere Dienstleistung wird ein 

Entwicklungsbeschichtungsservice unter Verwendung 

der eigenen Nanopartikel- Abscheidungsquelle 

angeboten. 

Mantis Deposition GmbH 

Alte Fahrkartendruckerei 

Mombacher Straße 52 

55122 Mainz 

Deutschland 

Tel: +49(0)6131-3272520 

OfficeDE@mantisdeposition.com 

www.mantisdeposition.de 

11


Vorläufige Programmübersicht - Résumé préliminaire du programme 

Das vollständige Programm wird allen Teilnehmern am Tagungssekretariat 

abgegeben sowie auf der SPG-Webseite 

publiziert. 

Hinweise: 

- Je Beitrag wird nur der präsentierende Autor aufgeführt. 

- Die Postersitzung ist am Mittwoch und Donnerstag 

von 18:30 - ca. 20:00 (mit Apéro) sowie am Freitag von 

12:00 - 13:30. 

- (p) = Plenarsprecher, (i) = eingeladener Sprecher 

Special: Energy Day 2013 

Tuesday, 03.09.2013, HS 1 

Le programme final complet sera distribué aux participants 

au stand du secrétariat de la conférence et sera publié sur 

le site de la SSP. 

Indication: 

- seul le nom de l’auteur présentant la contribution a été 

indiqué. 

- la session poster a lieu le mercredi et jeudi de 18.30 à 

env. 20.00 (avec apéro) ainsi que le vendredi de 12:00 

à 13:30. 

- (p) = orateur de la session plénière, (i) = orateur invité 

Special: Thermoelectrics 

Tuesday, 03.09.2013, HS 4 

Time ID Energy Day 

Chair: Werner Spitzl 

10:00 21 Energiespeicherung: Das Vorwort zum Energietag 

2013 

Norbert Pillmayr 

10:15 22 Zukünftiges Energiesystem benötigt neue Lösungsansätze 

besonders bei der Speicherung 

Horst Steinmüller 

10:45 23 Herausforderungen für den Betrieb des kontinentaleuropäischen 

Verbundnetzes 

Martin Geidl 

11:15 Coffee Break 

11:30 24 Smart Grid und das Hauskraftwerk 

Michael Zahradnik 

12:00 25 Wieviel erneuerbare Energie muss zukünftig gespeichert 

werden? Analyse des zukünftigen 

Speicherbedarfs in Österreich mit einem hohen Anteil 

an erneuerbarer Energie. 

Gerfried Jungmeier 

12:30 Diskussion 

12:45 Lunch 

Chair: Brigitte Pagana-Hammer 

13:30 26 Technologische und Ökonomische Aspekte der 

Elektrochemischen Energiespeicherung 

Stefan Koller 

14:00 27 Wasserstoffspeicherung durch Magnesiumhydrid 

Iris Bergmair 

14:30 28 Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage 

Bartlomiej A. Glowacki 

15:00 29 Die Lithium-Ionen Batterie – von der Knopfzelle zur 

Traktionsbatterie 

Michael Sternad 

15:30 Diskussion 

15:50 Schlußbemerkungen 

Norbert Pillmayr 

16:00 END 

18:00 RECEPTION 

19:00 Official Opening of the Joint Annual Meeting of 

ÖPG, SPS, ÖGAA and SSAA 

Public Lecture 

Chair: Günther Bauer, JKU Linz 

19:15 11 Using Nanostructures toward Achieving Energy 

Sustainability 

Mildred Dresselhaus, MIT (p) 

20:30 END 

Time ID Thermoelectrics 

Chair: Armando Rastelli, JKU Linz 

15:15 31 From Superconductivity Towards Thermoelectricity: 

Germanium Based Skutterudites 

E. Bauer (i) 

15:45 32 Half-Heusler compounds for thermoelectricity 

Sascha Populoh 


16:30 33 Seebeck Effect in the Kondo Insulator CeRu 4 

Sn 6 

under 

Magnetic Field 

Valentina Martelli 

16:45 34 Seebeck-effect in organic semiconductors 

Kristin Willa 

17:00 35 Crucial role of surface-segregation-driven intermixing 

on the thermal transport through planar Ge/Si 

superlattices 

Peixuan Chen 

17:15 36 X-ray characterization of Si/Ge thermoelectric 

structures 

Tanja Etzelstorfer 

17:30 37 Intermetallic transition metal clathrates 

Andrey Prokofiev 

17:45 END 

ID 

Thermoelectrics Poster 

41 Influence of process variables of ball milling and hot pressing 

on the thermoelectric performance of type I clathrates 

Xinlin Yan 

42 Development of a Measuring Platform for Thermoelectric 

Properties of Nanowires 

Günther Lientschnig 

43 Thermoelectric properties of melt-spun SPS sintered type- 

VIII Ba 8 

Ga 16 

Sn 30-x 

Ge x 

clathrates 

Petr Tomes 

44 Experimental setup and sample processing for direct measurements 

of the cross-plane Seebeck coefficient of nanostructured 

Si/Ge materials 

Lukas Nausner 

45 Melt spinning of CoSb 3 

: e ect 

of microstructure on phonon 

thermal conductivity 

Matthias Ikeda 

46 Thermoelectric properties of the anisotropic Kondo insulator 

CeRu 4 

Sn 6 

Jonathan Haenel 

47 Resonant scattering induced thermopower peak in one dimensional 

disordered systems 

Daniel Müller 

12


Special: Photovoltaics 

Tuesday, 03.09.2013, HS 5 

Time ID Photovoltaics 

Chair: Markus Clark Scharber, JKU Linz 

14:45 51 Theory of light-harvesting in photosynthesis: From 

structure to function 

Thomas Renger 

15:15 52 Artificial Photosynthesis for the Storage of Chemical 

Energy 

Kerstin Oppelt 

15:30 53 Ultrathin, lightweight, and flexible organic solar 

cells 

Matthew White 

15:45 54 Colloidal Quantum dot photovoltaics: Tuning optoelectronic 

properties 

Philipp Stadler 


16:30 55 Organic nanocrystals from latent pigments for environmentally-friendly 

and biocompatible electronics 

Mykhailo Sytnyk 

16:45 56 Metal sulfide nanoparticle/polymer hybrid solar 

cells 

Gregor Trimmel 

17:00 57 Flexible Monograin Membrane Photovoltaic Membranes 

Axel Neisser 

17:15 58 15 years of research on organic solar cells: lessons 

learned from 1 % to 10 % efficiency 

Christoph J. Brabec (i) 

18:00 END 

Plenary Session 

Wednesday, 04.09.2013, HS 1 

Time ID Plenary Session I 

Chair: NN 

08:55 Welcome note 

09:00 1 Plasmons, forces and currents in atomic and molecular 

contacts 

Richard Berndt, Uni Kiel (p) 

09:40 2 Quantum simulation with Atoms, Ions and Molecules 

Peter Zoller, Uni Innsbruck (p) 


Chair: NN 

10:50 3 The Quantum Way of Doing Computations 

Rainer Blatt, Uni Innsbruck (p) 

11:30 Award Ceremony 

12:30 Lunch 

13:30 Topical Sessions 

18:30 Postersession and Apéro 

Public Lecture 

Chair: Rainer Blatt, Uni Innsbruck 

20:00 12 Manipulation of single quantum systems 

Serge Haroche, Collège de France (p) 

21:15 END 

Thursday, 05.09.2013, HS 1 

Time ID Plenary Session II 

Chair: NN 

09:00 4 100 years Bohr's Atomic Model: Its birth and its importance 

in the rise of QM 

Jan Lacki, Uni Genève (p) 

09:40 5 Exoplanets and their atmospheres 

Lisa Kaltenegger, MPI Heidelberg (p) 


Chair: NN 

10:50 6 GEO: Using Earth observation for Integrated Water 

Resources Management 

Douglas Cripe, GEOSS Genève (p) 

11:30 16 Winner of the ÖPG Boltzmann Award 

12:00 General Assemblies 

12:30 Lunch 


18:30 Postersession (continued) 

20:00 Conference Dinner 

Friday, 06.09.2013, HS 1 

Time ID Plenary Session III 

Chair: NN 

09:00 7 LHC - The first three years 

Rainer Wallny, ETH Zürich (p) 

09:40 8 Quantum phase transitions in condensed matter 

Silke Bühler-Paschen, TU Wien (p) 


Chair: Georg Pabst, Uni Graz 

10:50 9 Theoretical Insights into Structure of Animal Tissues 

Primoz Ziherl, Uni Ljubljana (p) 

11:30 17 Winner of the SPS ABB Award 

12:00 Best Poster Awards 

12:15 Postersession (continued), Lunch 


15:30 END 

Careers for Physicists 

Thursday, 05.09.2013, K001A 

Time ID Careers for Physicists 

Chair: Kai Hencken, ABB Baden 

14:00 71 "Advanced Manufacturing", ein interessantes Feld 

für Physikerinnen und Physiker? 

Bernhard Braunecker (i) 

14:30 72 What does a physicist do at ETH Zürich if he is not 

in research? 

Bernd Rinn (i) 

15:00 73 On the Cutting Edge: Publication Dynamics and the 

Society of Scientific Journals 

Istvan Daruka 


13


16:00 74 A new generation of Physicists 

Stefano Verginelli (i) 

16:30 75 Workshop: Wie? Mit Physik Karriere machen? 

Josef Siess (i) 

17:00 END 



Physik und Schule 

Wednesday, 04.09.2013, K269D 

Time ID Physik und Schule 

Chair: Engelbert Stütz, JKU Linz 

13:15 81 Sexl-Preisträger: Preisvortrag 1 

13:35 82 Sexl-Preisträger: Preisvortrag 2 

14:00 83 Hat Aristoteles doch recht? 

Siegfried Bauer (i) 

Prämierte Fachbereichsarbeiten 

Chair: Leopold Mathelitsch, Uni Graz 

15:00 84 Introduction to Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry 

(RBS) 

Maximilian Heinz Ruep 

15:15 85 Schwerelosigkeit und Mikrogravitation 

Bianca Neureiter 


16:00 86 Stringtheorie; Grundgedanken und ihr Einfluss auf 

Teilchenphysik und Kosmologie 

Stefan Purkhart 

16:15 87 Bildsensorik. Physikalische und technische Grundlagen 

am Beispiel des CCD 

Stefan Janisch 

Chair: Engelbert Stütz, JKU Linz 

16:30 88 Präsentation des österreichischen Teams des IYPT 

2013 

16:50 89 Präsentation des österreichischen Teams der IPhO 

2013 

17:10 Sitzung des FA Physik und Schule 

18:00 ENDE 


ID 

Physik und Schule Poster 

91 Construction, development and tests of a cost-effective 

force platform 

Florian Rieder 

92 Schülervorstellungen zum Thema Strahlung 

Martin Hopf 

93 Astrobiology as an Interdisciplinary Starting Point to Natural 

Sciences 

Johannes Leitner 

94 Let`s Play Physics! Making physics education physically - A 

project on the transit of the venus 

Christina Rothenhäusler 

95 Nanophysik am Beispiel eines Rastertunnelmikroskops in 

der Schule 

Thomas Möst 

96 Professionswissen Physiklehramtsstudierender in Österreich 

Ingrid Krumphals 

KOND 

Wednesday, 04.09.2013, HS 5 

Time ID Magnetism, Superconductivity 

and Quantum Criticality 

Chair: Silke Bühler-Paschen, TU Wien 

13:30 101 Superconductivity in Materials without Inversion 

Symmetry 

Ernst Bauer (i) 

14:00 102 Quantum criticality of the heavy-fermion compound 

CeCoGe 2.2 

Si 0.8 

Julio Larrea 

14:15 103 Strong Pressure Dependence of the Magnetic 

Penetration Depth in Single Crystals of the Heavy- 

Fermion Superconductor CeCoIn 5 

Studied by Muon 

Spin Rotation 

Ludovic Howald 

14:30 104 Electric and magnetic coupling of quantum-critical 

materials to a microwave coplanar waveguide resonator 

at milli-Kelvin temperatures 

Diana Geiger 

14:45 105 Superconductivity and Quantum Criticality 

Johan Chang (i) 

15:15 106 About the origin of frustration in the magnetismdriven 

multiferroic YBaCuFeO 5 

Marisa Medarde 


Neutrons and Synchrotron Radiation 

for Condensed Matter 

Chair: Oskar Paris, Uni Leoben 

16:00 111 X-ray absorption spectroscopy for element selective 

investigations of structure, valence and magnetism 

in doped oxides 

Andreas Ney (i) 

16:30 112 Growing semiconductor nitrides into spintronic and 

magnetooptic materials 

Alberta Bonanni 

16:45 113 X-ray strain microscopy of inhomogoenously 

strained Ge micro-bridges 

Tanja Etzelstorfer 

17:00 114 A New Crystalline Phase of Gallium Phosphide: 

Wurtzite Nanowires Investigated by X-ray Diffraction 

Dominik Kriegner 

17:15 115 In-situ synchrotron SAXS studies on Colloidal Nanocrystal 

Formation 

Rainer T. Lechner 

17:30 116 In-situ and ex-situ study of mesostructured silica 

synthesized in the gas phase 

Barbara Sartori 

17:45 117 Humidity Driven Pore-Lattice Deformation in Ordered 

Mesoporous Thin Films 

Parvin Sharifi 

18:00 118 Radiation assisted material synthesis and processing 

by deep X-ray lithography 

Benedetta Marmiroli 

18:15 119 Novel insights into photoemission from solids: Surface 

RABBITT yields absolute delays and reveals 

temporal structure beyond transport phenomena. 

Luca Castiglioni 


20:00 Public Lecture 

14


Thursday, 05.09.2013, HS 5 

Friday, 06.09.2013, HS 5 

Time ID Soft Matter and Other Systems I 

(Shared with the Biophysics session) 


13:30 121 Equilibrium and flow of cluster-forming complex 

fluids 

Christos N. Likos (i) 

14:00 122 Optimized Fourier Monte Carlo Simulation of Solid 

and Hexatic Membranes 

Andreas Troester 

14:15 123 Biomimetic folding particle chains 

Peter Oostrum 

Soft Matter and Other Systems II 

Chair: Oskar Paris, Uni Leoben 

14:30 124 Small Angle Scattering Study of the self-assembly 

of an amphiphilic designer peptide from the monomer 

to a helical superstructure 

Heinz Amenitsch 

14:45 125 Liquid Structure and the Noncoincidence Effect of 

Liquid Dimethyl Sulfoxide Revisited 

Maurizio Musso 

15:00 126 Generation of multiply twinned Ag clusters (n


Surfaces, Interfaces and Thin Films 

Wednesday, 04.09.2013, HS 1 

Time ID Surfaces + organic thin films 

Chair: Christian Teichert, Uni Leoben 

13:30 201 Isolated Pd Sites on PdGa Model Catalyst Surfaces 

Jan Prinz 

13:45 202 Metal clusters and simple adsorbates on ultra-thin 

ZrO 2 

/Pt 3 

Zr 

Joong Il J. Choi 

14:00 203 Mechanics of single molecules 

Ernst Meyer (i) 

14:30 204 Initial steps of indigo film growth on silicon dioxide 

Boris Scherwitzl 

14:45 205 Tuning the 1D-self-assembly of dicyano-functionalized 

helicene building-blocks 

Aneliia Shchyrba 

15:00 206 Using polarized light in PEEM 

Thorsten Wagner 

15:15 207 Substrate enhanced intermolecular dispersion: 

Pentacene on Cu(110) 

Thomas Ules 


Theory + clusters 

Chair: Ernst Meyer, Uni Basel 

16:00 211 Ohmic contacts for resistance measurements of 

ultra-thin metal-on-silicon layers 

Bernhard Lutzer 

16:15 212 Electrical and Physical Characterization of Interfacial 

Germanates in Ge-based MOS devices 

Ole Bethge 

16:30 213 Numerical Simulations of a Capillarity Driven Morphological 

Transition on the Nanoscale 

Istvan Daruka 

16:45 214 Reflectance Anisotropy spectrum of water covered 

Cu(110) surface studied from first principles 

Amirreza Baghbanpourasl 

17:00 215 Organic Semiconductors Interfaces Explored With 

Ab-initio Electronic Structure Methods 

Peter Puschnig (i) 

17:30 216 Solid-solid interfaces in metal oxide nanoparticle 

ensembles 

Oliver Diwald 

17:45 217 Single gold nanoparticles as nanoscopic pH-sensors 

Cynthia Vidal 

18:00 218 Efficient random lasing from star-shaped nanoparticles 

Johannes Ziegler 

18:15 219 Growth of in-plane SiGe nanowires 

Hannes Watzinger 



Thursday, 05.09.2013, HS 1 

Time ID Methodes 

Chair: Peter Zeppenfeld, Uni Linz 

13:30 221 On-surface magnetochemistry: controlling spins in 

adsorbed molecules by a chemical switch 

Christian Wäckerlin (i) 

14:00 222 Electronic and Magnetic Properties of Surface- 

Supported Hydrocarbon Radicals Studied by Low- 

Temperature Scanning Tunneling Microscopy 

Stefan Müllegger 

14:15 223 Using AFM nanoindentation to investigate mechanical 

properties of cellulose fibers in controlled humidities 

Christian Ganser 

14:30 224 Helium Atom Scattering Measurements of the 

Sb(111) Surface 

Markus Polanz 

14:45 225 Formation of HCN + in Heterogeneous Reactions of 

N 2+ and N + with Surface Hydrocarbons 

Martina Harnisch 

15:00 226 Hydrogen Induced Buckling of Gold Films 

Baran Eren 

15:15 ÖPG-OGD Division Meeting 


Oxides 

Chair: Ulrike Diebold, TU Wien 

16:00 231 Growth and Morphology of Epitaxial MgO Films on 

GaAs(001) 

Anirban Sarkar 

16:15 232 Compositional and structural study of homoepitaxial-STO 

based oxides heterostructures 

Mathilde L. Reinle-Schmitt 

16:30 233 Single Metal Adatoms on Fe 3 

O 4 

(001)-(√2x√2)R45° 

Gareth Parkinson (i) 

17:00 234 Water Gas Shift Chemistry at the Fe 3 

O 4 

(001) Surface 

Oscar Gamba 

17:15 235 STM and photoemission study of vacancies and hydroxyls 

at the SrTiO 3 

(110)-(4×1) surface 

Stefan Gerhold 

17:30 236 Interface Fermi states of LaAlO 3 

/SrTiO 3 

and related 

heterostructures 

Claudia Cancellieri (i) 

18:00 237 Combined Spectroscopic Study of the Evolution 

from the Metallic Surface State on SrTiO 3 

to the Interface 

of LaAlO 3 

/SrTiO 3 

Nicholas Plumb 

18:15 238 Field-induced migration of oxygen vacancies towards 

the surface of TiO 2 

anatase(101) 

Martin Setvin 



Friday, 06.09.2013, HS 1 

Time ID Graphene + flexible electronics 

Chair: Adolf Winkler, TU Graz 

13:30 241 Observing Graphene grow: In-situ metrology for 

controlled growth of graphene and carbon nanotubes 

Bernhard Bayer 

13:45 242 Optical characterization of atomically precise 

graphene nanoribbons 

Richard Denk 

14:00 243 Electronic Structure of Atomically Precise Graphene 

Nanoribbons 

Pascal Ruffieux 

14:15 244 Modification of exfoliated graphene: a case study 

Markus Kratzer (i) 

16


14:45 245 In-situ thin film transistor fabrication: Electrical and 

surface analytical characterization 

Roman Lassnig 

15:00 246 Valve metal anodic oxides for flexible electronics 

Andrei Ionut Mardare 

15:15 247 Direct writing of high-k metal oxide dielectrics for 

flexible large area electronics 

Christian M. Siket 

15:30 END 

ID Surfaces, Interfaces and Thin Films Poster 

251 Stabilization mechanisms at polar ZnO surfaces in ideal 

vacuum conditions: a SCC-DFTB study 

Stefan Huber 

252 Shockley Surface States Revisited: A Comprehensive Density 

Functional Study 

Bernd Kollmann 

253 Molecule-Substrate Hybridization Revealed by Angle-Resolved 

Photoemission Spectroscopy 

Dario Knebl 

254 Initial growth of quinacridone on Ag(111) 

Thorsten Wagner 

255 Adsorption of quinacridone on Cu(110) and Cu(110)-(2x1)O 

surfaces 

Harald Zaglmayr 

256 Attachment-limited nucleation and growth of organic films: 

Pentacene on sputter modified mica (001) 

Levent Tümbek 

257 Interfacial structure and device efficiency of an organic bilayer 

heterojunction solar cell 

Michael Zawodzki 

258 Adsorption of pentacene and perfluoro-pentacene on 

Cu(110) studied by reflectance difference spectroscopy 

Johannes Gall 

259 Influences of rippled titania surfaces on to the growth morphologies 

of 6P thin films 

Reinhold Wartbichler 

260 Hydrogen adsorption on TiO 2 

anatase(101) 

Benjamin Daniel 

261 Optical properties of metal doped ZnO thin films on glass 

and polymer substrates 

Meirzhan Dosmailov 

262 Negative muonium as a local probe for the detection of the 

photo-induced inversion of a Ge surface layer 

Thomas Prokscha 

263 Short-Term Metastable Effects in Amorphous Silicon Solar 

Modules 

Ankit Mittal 

264 Oxide diffusion barriers on GaAs(001) 

Shibo Wang 

265 Formation of Tungsten Oxide Nanolayers by (WO 3 

) 3 

Cluster 

Condensation on Ag(100) 

Thomas Obermüller 

266 Influence of the Ni content in AlCu alloy using the combinatorial 

approach. 

Martina Hafner 

267 Susceptibility measurements of Ni clusters embedded in 

organic matrices 

Mariella Denk 

268 Investigation of Single Ni Adatoms on the Magnetite (001) 

Surface 

Roland Bliem 

269 Investigation of Exchange Coupled Composites with Scanning 

Transmission X-ray Microscopy 

Phillip Wohlhüter 

270 Spin resolved photoemission spectroscopy of Fe 3 

O 4 

: The 

effect of surface structure 

Jiri Pavelec 

271 Charge behavior on insulating monocrystallic surfaces by 

Kelvin probe force microscopy 

Monika Mirkowska 

272 Stabilization of explosive compounds on metallic surfaces 

Stefan Ralser 

273 Characterizations of HOPG and Graphene Treated with Low 

Temperature Hydrogen Plasma 

Baran Eren 

274 Characterization of thin two-element compound material 

films by time-of-flight Low Energy Ion Scattering 

Dietmar Roth 

275 Indication of phonon-assisted electron-hole relaxations on 

Sb(111) and Bi(111) in iHAS measurements 

Patrick Kraus 

276 Determination of atmospheric corrosion of coated steel 

surfaces by in situ infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy 

(IRRAS) 

Maurizio Musso 

277 Al-Si thin films for hydrogen reference materials 

Cezarina Cela Mardare 

Nuclear, Particle- and Astroparticle Physics 

Wednesday, 04.09.2013, HS 6 

Time ID I: LHC Physics I 

Chair: Martin Pohl, Uni Genève 

13:30 301 Search for a Higgs-like Boson decaying into bottom 

quarks 

Philipp Eller 

13:45 302 Search for long lived charged and massive particles 

at LHCb detector 

Thi Viet Nga La 

14:00 303 Measurement of differential isolated diphoton production 

cross section at CMS 

Marco Peruzzi 

14:15 304 Search for Higgs boson production in supersymmetric 

cascades using fully hadronic final states 

Mario Masciovecchio 

14:30 305 Search for supersymmetry in hadronic final states 

with MT2 at CMS 

Hannsjörg Weber 

14:45 306 Search for supersymmetry in events with two opposite-sign 

same-flavor leptons, jets and missing 

energy 

Marco - Andrea Buchmann 

15:00 307 Application of CMS and ATLAS Simplified Models 

Results to Theories Beyond the Standard Model 

(BSM) 

Ursula Laa 

15:15 308 Measurement of quarkonium polarization at CMS 

Valentin Knünz 


II: Astroparticle and Non-accelerator Physics 

Chair: Eberhard Widmann, ÖAW Wien 

16:00 311 Neutron Capture Measurements on 62 Ni, 63 Ni and 

197 

Au and their Relevance for Stellar Nucleosynthesis 

Claudia Lederer (i) 

17


16:30 312 Latest Results of Searches for Point and Extended 

Sources with Time Independent and Time Dependent 

emissions of Neutrinos with the IceCube Neutrino 

Observatory 

Asen Christov (i) 

17:00 313 High resolution 3D-simulations of galactic cosmic 

ray propagation using GALPROP 

Michael Werner 

17:15 314 The cosmological constant puzzle: Vacuum energies 

from QCD to dark energy 

Steven Bass 

17:30 315 Numerical 3D-hydrodynamic modelling of colliding 

winds in massive star binaries: particle acceleration 

and gamma-ray emission 

Klaus Reitberger 

17:45 316 High precision tests of the Pauli Exclusion Principle 

for Electrons at LNGS 

Johann Marton 

18:00 317 Search of neutrinoless double beta decay with the 

GERDA experiment 

Giovanni Benato 

18:15 318 qBounce: A quantized frequency reference with 

gravity-resonance-spectroscopy 

Gunther Cronenberg 



Thursday, 05.09.2013, HS 6 

Time ID III: Protons and Neutrons 

Chair: Johann Marton, ÖAW Wien 

13:30 321 Spectroscopy apparatus for the measurement of 

the hyperfine structure of antihydrogen 

Chloe Malbrunot (i) 

14:00 322 A progress report on detector and analysis development 

for the Hbar-HFS experiment within the 

ASACUSA collaboration 

Clemens Sauerzopf 

14:15 323 Beamline Simulations for cold Antihydrogens 

Bernadette Kolbinger 

14:30 324 Gravitational interaction of antihydrogen: the AEgIS 

experiment at CERN 

Michael Doser 

14:45 325 Design of the downstream interface in the AEgIS 

beamline 

Sebastian Lehner 

15:00 326 Ultracold neutrons for fundamental physics experiments 

at the Paul Scherrer Institute 

Bernhard Lauss (i) 


IV: Protons and Neutrons, Flavor Physics 

Chair: Christoph Schwanda, ÖAW Wien 

16:00 331 Comparison of the Larmor precession frequencies 

of 199 Hg and ultracold neutrons in the nEDM experiment 

at PSI 

Beatrice Franke 

16:15 332 Vector Cesium Magnetometer for the nEDM Experiment 

Samer Afach 

16:30 333 The future neutron beta decay facility PERC 

Jacqueline Erhart 

16:45 334 Tailoring of polarised neutron beams by means of 

spatial magnetic spin resonance 

Erwin Jericha 

17:00 335 

PMNS 

Flavour GUT models with u 13 

= u C 

/ 2 

Constantin Sluka 

17:15 336 Angular analysis of B d 

" K*µ + µ - with the ATLAS detector 

Emmerich Kneringer 

17:30 337 Measurement of B (B 0 " J/cf), B s (B0 " J/cf' (1525)) 

s 2 

and B (B 0 " s J/cK+ K - ) and a determination of the 

B 0 " J/cf polarization at the Belle experiment 

s 

Felicitas Thorne 

17:45 338 Measurement of |V cb 

| through exclusive semileptonic 

B -> D l n decays with a tagged fully reconstructed 

B meson at the Belle experiment 

Robin Glattauer 

18:00 339 Monte Carlo simulation for Kaonic deuterium studies 

Carolina Berucci 

18:15 



Friday, 06.09.2013, HS 6 

Time ID V: LHC Physics II and Detectors 

Chair: Rainer Wallny, ETH Zürich 

13:30 341 Measurement of Charged Particle Multiplicities 

with the ATLAS detector at the LHC 

Wolfgang Lukas 

13:45 342 Jet production in association with a Z boson at CMS 

Andrea Carlo Marini 

14:00 343 The Readout System of the Belle II Silicon Vertex 

Detector 

Richard Thalmeier 

14:15 344 Interstrip capacitance of double sided silicon strip 

detectors 

Bernhard Leitl 

14:30 345 Over Saturation Behaviour of SiPMs at High Photon 

Exposure 

Lukas Gruber 

14:45 346 FLUKA studies of hadron-irradiated scintillating 

crystals for calorimetry at the High-Luminosity LHC 

Milena Quittnat 

15:00 347 Studies of radiation hardness of diamond strip 

trackers. 

Felix Bachmair 

15:15 348 Irradiation Studies with the New Digital Readout 

Chip for the Phase I Upgrade of the CMS Pixel Detector 

Jan Hoss 

15:30 END 

ID Nuclear, Particle- and Astrophysics Poster 

351 Measurement of the thermal neutron flux at the source for 

ultracold neutrons at the Paul Scherrer Institute 

Dieter Ries 

352 An uncompensated magnetic field drifts in a search for an 

electric dipole moment of the neutron (nEDM) carrying out 

at Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). 

N Prashanth Pataguppi 

353 High-volume production of Silicon strip detectors for particle 

physics experiments 

Thomas Bergauer 

354 Bethe–Salpeter Description of Light Pseudoscalar Mesons 

Wolfgang Lucha 

355 Lock-in based detection scheme for a hydrogen beam 

Michael Wolf 

356 Spin polarized atomic hydrogen beam source 

Martin Diermaier 

18


357 A neutron interferometric measurement and calculation of 

a phase shift induced by Laue transmission 

Thomas Potocar 

358 Development of a novel muon beam line for next generation 

precision experiments 

Kim Siang Khaw 

359 Measurements and simulations of magnetic field inside the 

ASACUSA Antihydrogen spin-flip cavity 

Nazli Dilaver 

360 Neutron Reflectometry as Matura project - Verifying the 

Wave-Particle Dualism at the NARZISS Instrument at the 

Paul Scherrer Institut. 

Carla Kreis 

Theoretical Physics 

Wednesday, 04.09.2013, K034D 

Time ID Theoretical Physics I 

Chair: Jakob Yngvason, Uni Wien 

14:00 401 Lattice effects on vortex dynamics in strongly correlated 

electron systems 

Sebastian Huber (i) 

14:30 402 Strongly Interacting Dipolar Quantum Gases 

Robert Zillich (i) 

15:00 403 On currents, anomalies and the RG-behaviour of 

supersymmetric gauge theories. 

Jean-Pierre Derendiger (i) 


16:00 404 Maximally entangled sets 

Barbara Kraus (i) 

16:30 405 Geometry as a Semiclassical Effect in a Quantum 

World - Emergent gravity from matrix models 

Daniel Blaschke 

16:45 406 Electrostatic Interactions with Dielectric Samples 

in Scanning Probe Microscopies 

Alexis Baratoff 

17:00 



Thursday, 05.09.2013, K034D 

Time ID Theoretical Physics II 

Chair: Gian Michele Graf, ETH Zürich 

13:30 411 Exterior Navier-Stokes problems in two dimensions: 

results and open questions 

Peter Wittwer (i) 

14:00 412 Quantum many-body effects in transport through 

quantum dots: renormalization-group approaches 

Sabine Andergassen (i) 

14:30 413 Atomic clocks: A mathematical physics perspective 

Martin Fraas (i) 

15:00 414 Non-local perturbations of hyperbolic PDEs and 

QFT models on non-commutative spacetimes 

Gandalf Lechner (i) 

15:30 Coffee Break; END 

Applied, Plasma and Geophysics 

Wednesday, 04.09.2013, K153C 

Time ID Applied Physics 

Chair: Ivo Furno, CRPP-EPFL 

13:30 451 Analysis of the Microscopic Fluid Flow of State-ofthe-art 

Absorption Heat Pump Working Pairs under 

Operational Conditions 

Johann Emhofer 

13:45 452 Entwicklung eines Kondensationswindkanals zur 

Untersuchung des Wärme- und Massetransports 

an Wärmeüberträgern 

Sanda Seichter 

14:00 453 Precision Metrology with a Diode-Pumped Solid- 

State Laser Optical Frequency Comb 

Stephane Schilt 

14:15 454 Identifying Photoreaction Products in Cinnamatebased 

Photoalignment Materials 

Daniele Passerone 

14:30 455 Experimental and simulated results on adsorption 

of molecules on fullerenes. 

Alexander Kaiser 

14:45 456 Dual-Comb Spectroscopy based on Mid-IR Quantum-Cascade-Lasers 

Frequency-combs 

Gustavo Villares 

15:00 457 Coincidence Time Resolution(CTR) of PMT and 

SiPM and readout components 

Albulena Berisha Shabani 

15:15 


Geohysics and Applied Physics 

Chair: Stéphane Goyette, Uni Genève 

16:00 461 Towards an integrated Observation System of the 

Black Sea catchment 

Nicolas Ray (i) 

16:30 462 Cs-137 in Wildpilzen in Österreich: Verteilung und 

zeitliche Trends 

Herbert Lettner 

16:45 463 Simulation of microwave propagation and absorption 

in heterogeneous rocks 

Ronald Meisels 

17:00 464 Calculation of atom evaporation rates using entropy 

production maximisation 

Frank Kassubek 

Plasma Physics 

Chair: Ivo Furno, CRPP-EPFL 

17:15 465 Zeitaufgelöste schnelle Messungen von Wachstumsrate 

und Teilchentransport in HIPIMS-Plasmen 

Christian Maszl 

17:30 466 Plasma fluctuations study in the new closed fluxsurfaces 

configuration of the TORPEX experiment 

Fabio Avino 

17:45 467 Simulating the effect of fine radial structures resulting 

from non-adiabatic passing electrons on turbulent 

transport in the ITG and TEM regimes 

J. Dominski 

18:00 468 Characterization of rf discharges in non-thermal atmospheric 

pressure plasma jets using helium 

Johann Laimer 

18:15 END 



19


ID 

Applied, Plasma and Geophysics Poster 

481 Simulated insertion loss of noise barriers using the boundary 

element method 

Holger Waubke 

482 In-line measurements of chlorine containing polymers in an 

industrial waste sorting plant by laser-induced breakdown 

spectroscopy 

Norbert Huber 

483 Element analysis of complex materials by calibration-free 

laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy 

Johannes D. Pedarnig 

484 Variable Capacitance Energy Harvesting 

Robert Pichler 

485 Photoluminescence enhancement of Double-Walled Carbon 

Nanotubes filled with linear carbon chains 

Philip Rohringer 

486 Inter-atomic Coulombic Decay (ICD) of clusters upon electron 

impact 

Elias Jabbour Al Maalouf 

487 The Inner Structure of Jupiter’s Moon Europa – Estimations 

on the Physical Conditions at the Sea Floor of its Potential 

Subsurface Ocean 

Susanne Pollack-Drs 

488 The evolution of hotspots on Earth and Venus 

Elisabeth Fahrngruber 

489 Comparing Characteristics of Polygonal Impact Craters on 

Mercury and Venus 

Gerhard Weihs 

490 Modeling the evolution and fate of early Mars' hypothesized 

ocean 

Gabor Imre Kiss 

Atomic Physics and Quantum Optics 

Wednesday, 04.09.2013, HS 4 

Time ID Atomic Physics and Quantum Optics I 

Chair: NN 

13:30 501 Measuring higher-order interferences with a fivepath 

interferometer 

Thomas Kauten 

13:45 502 Extraction of Ionic Cores From Charged Helium Nanodroplets 

Michael Renzler 

14:00 503 Probing Non-Equilibrium Dynamics of Isolated 

Quantum Many-Body Systems 

Bernhard Rauer 

14:15 504 Buffer gas cooling of atoms and molecules 

Sarah Skoff 

14:30 505 Spectroscopic and Theoretical Studies of Chromium 

Doped Helium Nanodroplets 

Andreas Kautsch 

14:45 506 A graph state formalism for mutually unbiased bases 

Christoph Spengler 

15:00 507 Strong coupling between single atoms and nontransversal 

photons 

Christian Junge 

15:15 508 Interactions of He – in doped He droplets 

Michael Neustetter 


Time ID Atomic Physics and Quantum Optics II 

Chair: NN 

16:00 511 Decoration of anionic and cationic fullerenes with 

polar and apolar molecules. 

Nikolaus Weinberger 

16:15 512 Nonequilibrium dynamics, Optimal Control and Nanofibers 

on an Atom Chip 

Dominik Fischer 

16:30 513 A Spin Polarised Temperature Controlled Atomic 

Hydrogen Beamline 

Peter Caradonna 

16:45 514 Theoretical Investigation of Excited States of the 

Diatomic Molecule LiCa 

Johann Pototschnig 

17:00 515 Single atom cavity quantum electrodynamics with 

non-transversally polarized light fields 

Michael Scheucher 

17:15 516 Mapping Magnetic Nanostructures Using Radical 

Pair Reactions 

Jofre Espigule Pons 

17:30 517 Merging two immiscible BECs of Rb and Cs for optimized 

production of RbCs ground-state molecules 

Lukas Reichsöllner 

17:45 518 Cavity cooling of free silicon nanoparticles in high 

vacuum 

Peter Asenbaum 

18:00 519 Integrated Mach-Zehnder interferometer for Bose- 

Einstein condensates 

T. Berrada 

18:15 520 Entanglement Swapping over a 143 km free-space 

link 

Thomas Herbst 



Thursday, 05.09.2013, HS 4 

Time ID Atomic Physics and Quantum Optics III 

Chair: NN 

13:30 521 Tenfold reduction of Brownian noise in high-reflectivity 

optical coatings 

Garrett D. Cole 

13:45 522 Doublon stability and decay mechanisms 

M. J. Mark 

14:00 523 Cavity cooling of an optically levitated nanoparticle 

Nikolai Kiesel 

14:15 524 Entanglement properties of locally maximally entangleable 

states 

Martí Cuquet 

14:30 525 Decrease in query complexity for quantum computers 

with superposition of circuits 

M. Araujo 

14:45 526 Optimal state reconstruction for cavity-optomechanical 

systems via Kalman filtering 

Jason Hoelscher-Obermaier 

15:00 527 Quantum Entanglement of High Angular Momenta 

Robert Fickler 

15:15 528 Cooling-by-measurement and mechanical state tomography 

via pulsed optomechanics 

M. R. Vanner 


20


Time ID Atomic Physics and Quantum Optics IV 

Chair: NN 

16:00 531 Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen correlations from colliding 

Bose-Einstein condensates 

M. Ebner 

16:15 532 Real-Time Imaging of Quantum Entanglement 

Robert Fickler 

16:30 533 Creation of nitrogen-vacancy centres for cavity 

QED 

Kathrin Buczak 

16:45 534 Studies of Quantum Entanglement in 100 Dimensions 

Mario Krenn 

17:00 END 



ID Atomic Physics and Quantum Optics Poster 

541 Coupling Spins and Diamond Color Centers to 

Superconducting Cavities 

Stefan Putz 

542 Dipole-dipole influenced Ramsey interferometry 

Laurin Ostermann 

543 Ultracold atoms on a superconducting Atomchip 

Stefan Minniberger 

544 Coherent manipulation of cold cesium atoms in a nanofiberbased 

two-color dipole trap 

Daniel Reitz 

545 Coherence properties of cold cesium atomic spins in a 

nanofiber-based dipole trap 

Rudolf Mitsch 

546 see talk 516 

547 Photonic platform for experiments in higher dimensional 

quantum systems 

Christoph Schaeff 

548 Loophole- free Einstein Podolsky Rosen Experiment via 

Quantum Steering 

Bernhard Wittmann 

549 Quantum communication with satellites, its preparatory 

terrestrial free-space demonstrations and future missions 

Thomas Scheidl 

550 Laser desorption/vaporization/ionization techniques for 

matter-wave interferometry 

Ugur Sezer 

Infrared Optical Nanostructures 

Wednesday, 04.09.2013, HS 3 

Time ID I: Quantum Cascade Lasers 

Chair: Karl Unterrainer, TU Wien 

13:30 601 Quantum cascade laser frequency combs: spectroscopy 

and novel developments 

Jerome Faist (i) 

14:00 602 Bi-functional Quantum Cascade Laser/Detectors 

for Integrated Photonics 

Gottfried Strasser (i) 

14:30 603 Broadband external cavity tuning of a quantum cascade 

laser in the 3 - 4 µm window 

Sabine Riedi 

14:45 604 Terahertz spectroscopy of coupled cavity quantum 

cascade lasers 

Dominic Bachmann 

15:00 605 Terahertz Photonic Crystal Quantum Cascade Laser 

Coupled to a Second Order Bragg Vertical Extractor 

Christopher Bonzon 

15:15 606 From photonic crystal to micropillar terahertz quantum 

cascade lasers and recent progress towards 

nanowire-based devices 

Michael Krall 


II: Nanocrystals 

Chair: Gunther Springholz, JKU Linz 

16:00 611 Ultra strained Si and Ge for device applications 

Hans Sigg (i) 

16:30 612 Nanowires for solar cell applications 

Knut Deppert (i) 

17:00 613 On polytypism in III-V nanowires 

Friedhelm Bechstedt (i) 

17:30 614 PbS nanocrystal photodetectors with inorganic ligands 

Wolfgang Heiss (i) 

18:00 615 X-ray analysis of nanowires 

Julian Stangl 

18:15 616 Towards group IV direct gap semiconductors 

Martin Glaser 



Thursday, 05.09.2013, HS 3 

Time ID III: Quantum Nanostructures 

Chair: Jérôme Faist, ETH Zürich 

13:30 621 Superconducting Split Ring Resonators for Ultrastrong 

Coupling 

Curdin Maissen 

13:45 622 Terahertz-induced nonlinear intersubband dynamics. 

Daniel Dietze 

14:00 623 Symmetric farfield, short-wavelength ( = 4.53 µm) 

MOPA quantum cascade lasers with Watt-level optical 

outpout power 

Borislav Hinkov 

14:15 624 Optically pumped QD VECSEL for the Mid-Infrared 

Amir Khiar 

14:30 625 Intersublevel transition study of InAs/AlInAs quantum 

dashes by absorption, electroluminescence 

and magneto-tunneling spectroscopy 

Gian Lorenzo Paravicini Bagliani 

14:45 626 Erasing the exciton fine structure splitting in semiconductor 

quantum dots 

Rinaldo Trotta 

15:00 627 Grating-design based polarization modifications of 

ring cavity quantum cascade lasers 

Rolf Szedlak 

15:15 628 Active control of THz-waves by coupling large-area 

CVD-graphene to a THz-Metamaterial 

Federico Valmorra 

15:30 Coffee Break; END 



21


ID 

Infrared Optical Nanostructures Poster 

631 Enhancement of light extraction from aligned SiGe-based 

photonic crystal slabs 

Magdalena Schatzl 

632 Optically driven current turnstile based on self-assembled 

semiconductor quantum dots 

Giancarlo Cerulo 

633 PbS quantum dots - silicon on insulator hybrid photonics 

Markus Humer 

634 Electronic and optical properties of strained and unstrained 

group-IV semiconductor Germanium alloys 

Kerstin Hummer 

635 Enhanced photoluminescence efficiency of SiGe islands integrated 

into large area photonic crystals 

Elisabeth Lausecker 

636 Tuning the emission properties of single semiconductor 

quantum dots via electro-elastic fields 

Johannes Wildmann 

637 High power terahertz quantum cascade laser for 63 μm 

Dana Turcinkova 

638 Quaternary Barrier InGaAs/AlInGaAs Terahertz Quantum 

Cascade Laser 

Keita Ohtani 

639 Distributed-Feedback Quantum Cascade Laser at 3.2 µm 

Johanna Wolf 

640 Tuning of resonances in photonic crystal photodetectors 

Andreas Harrer 

641 Frequency noise in mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers 

Lionel Tombez 

642 Observation of THz Photo-luminescence from Multilayer SiC 

Epitaxial Graphene Pumped by a Mid-infrared Quantum Cascade 

Laser 

Peter Qiang Liu 

15:15 703 Innovating nanosensing technique to detect living 

bacteria and reveal resistance to antibiotics 

Justin Notz 


Biophysics/Medical Physics 

Chair: Giovanni Dietler, EPF Lausanne 

Georg Pabst, Uni Graz 

16:00 711 Cell mechanics measured with Atomic force microscopy 

Jose Luis Toca- Herrera 

16:15 712 Measuring the stability of lipid membrane domains 

with nanometer resolution. 

Georg Fantner 

16:30 713 Protein partitioning in liquid-ordered (Lo) / liquiddisordered 

(Ld) domains 

Benjamin Kollmitzer 

16:45 714 Filter gate closure inhibits ion but not water transport 

through potassium channels 

Peter Pohl 

17:00 715 Core-shell nanoparticles and their assembly 

Erik Reimhult 

17:15 716 Characterization of augmented bone structures 

with µ-computed tomography and Raman spectroscopy 

Johann Charwat-Pessler 

17:30 717 Raman spectroscopic investigation of urinary calculi 

and salivary stones 

Matthias Eder 

17:45 718 Saving Joint with Aerosolphysics 

Karoline Mühlbacher 

18:00 719 Probing metabolism in vivo in real time via hyperpolarized 

NMR 

Arnaud Comment (i) 

18:30 END; Postersession and Apéro 


Biophysics and Medical Physics 

Thursday, 05.09.2013, K153C 

Time ID Soft Matter 

(Shared with the Condensed Matter session) 

Go to HS 5 


13:30 121 Equilibrium and flow of cluster-forming complex 

fluids 

Christos N. Likos (i) 

14:00 122 Optimized Fourier Monte Carlo Simulation of Solid 

and Hexatic Membranes 

Andreas Troester 

14:15 123 Biomimetic folding particle chains 

Peter Oostrum 

14:30 Go back to K153C 

Biophysics 


14:30 701 Fluorescence and atomic force microscopy to 

visualize the interaction of HDL particles with lipid 

membranes 

Gerhard J. Schütz (i) 

15:00 702 Characterization of Curli A Production on Living 

Bacterial Surfaces by Scanning Probe Microscopy 

Yoojin Oh 

ID 

Biophysics and Medical Physics Poster 

721 Photomodification and Nanopatterning of Polystyrene for 

Bioapplications 

R. A. Barb 

722 Fractal characterization of tissue with the new Pyramid 

Method 

Michael Mayrhofer-Reinhartshuber 

723 The open pore of SecYEG does not show physiologically relevant 

ion selectivity 

Denis Knyazev 

724 Advancing high resolution structural analysis of lipid membranes 

using a generic algorithm 

Peter Heftberger 

725 Studies on the Cherenkov effect for improved TOF-PET 

Stefan Brunner 

726 Progress in the Structure-based Simulation of Plant Light- 

Harvesting Complexes 

Frank Müh 

727 The density and distribution of sacrificial bonds in polymer 

chains determines the amount of dissipated energy 

S. Soran Nabavi 

728 STED-lithography nano-anchors with single protein capacity 

Richard Wollhofen 

729 These IgGs are made for walkin’: Random antibody movement 

on bacterial and viral surfaces 

Johannes Preiner 

730 Chemically tagged DNA tetrahedra as linker for single molecule 

force spectroscopy 

Michael Leitner 

22


731 Long and short lipid molecules experience the same interleaflet 

drag in lipid bilayers 

Andreas Horner 

732 Bachelor thesis: Hyper Spectral Imaging with Two-Photon 

Microscopy 

Harald Razum 

733 Investigation of the pH stability of avidins and newly developed 

avidin mutants with atomic force microscopy based on 

single molecule sensors 

Melanie Köhler 

734 Electrokinetic Trap 

Metin Kayci 

735 Towards a Non-Perturbative Theory of Optical Spectra of 

Pigment Protein Complexes: Application to the Water Soluble 

Chlorophyll Protein. 

Thanh-Chung Dinh 

17:15 820 Dynamical atmospheres of earth-like protoplanets 

Ernst Dorfi 

17:30 821 Constraining stellar wind properties in habitable 

zones 

Colin Johnstone 

17:45 822 The analysis of young solar-like stars and their stellar 

winds observed with the EVLA to define mass 

loss rates 

Bibiana Fichtinger 

18:00 823 Stellar magnetic fields and their potential influence 

on planetary surroundings 

Theresa Lüftinger 

18:15 824 Photometry of different Minor Bodies and comparisons 

Mattia Galiazzo 

18:30 END; Postersession and Apéro 


Astronomy and Astrophysics 

Thursday, 05.09.2013, K269D 

Time ID Astronomy and Astrophysics 

11:00 General Assembly ÖGAA 

12:30 Lunch 

13:30 801 Talk 1 

NN 

13:45 802 Talk 2 

NN 

14:00 803 Talk 3 

NN 

14:15 804 Talk 4 

NN 

Selected ÖGAA Talks 

Chair: NN 

Habitable Worlds: 

From Detection to Characterization 

Chair: NN 

14:30 811 Observing Exoplanet Atmospheres: Recent Results 

from ESO and National Facilities 

Monika Lendl 

14:45 812 A massive stars' view on carbon-to-oxygen abundance 

ratios in exoplanet host stars 

Norbert Przybilla 

15:00 813 Composition of extrasolar planets 

Amaury Thiabaud 

15:15 814 The effect of metallicity in the envelope of protoplanets 

Julia Venturini 


16:00 815 Pathways to Habitability (PatH): An Austrian National 

Research Network 

Manuel Güdel 

16:15 816 Long term evolution of protoplanetary disks 

Alexander Stökl 

16:30 817 Formation of Chondrules in radiative shock waves 

Helmut Joham 

16:45 818 Formation of terrestrial planets in binary stellar systems 

Zsolt Sándor 

17:00 819 A possible model of water delivery by collisions in 

early planetary systems 

Thomas I. Maindl 

ID 

Astronomy and Astrophysics Poster 

831 BRITE-Constellation and the chances for detecting exoplanets 

Werner Weiss 

832 Simulations of Prebiotic Chemistry under Post-Impact Conditions 

on Titan 

Johannes Leitner 

833 On the Internal Structure of Enceladus 

Ruth-Sophie Taubner 

834 Kepler-62 e and Kepler-62 f: The Potential Internal Structure 

of these habitable worlds 

Ruth-Sophie Taubner 

835 Theoretical models of planetary system formation 

David Swoboda 

History of Physics 

Thursday, 05.09.2013, K012D 

Time ID History of Physics 

Chair: Heinz Krenn, Uni Graz 

13:30 901 Die Untersuchung planetarer und interplanetarer 

Magnetfelder: von den ersten Satellitenmissionen 

bis zur Landung auf Asteroiden und Kometen 

Konrad Schwingenschuh 

14:00 902 Die Novara-Weltumsegelung (1857-1859): Wendepunkt 

für Geophysik / Meteorologie / Ozeanographie 

in Österreich 

Bruno Besser 

14:15 903 Eine frühe Anwendung radioaktiver Tracer 

Heinrich Mitter 

14:30 904 G. E. Rosenthal, a follower of Deluc in northern Germany 

Jean-François Loude 

14:45 905 Die steinernen Schattenlinien der Sonne: Die Sonnenuhren 

des Andreas Pleninger 

Reinhard Folk 

15:00 906 The Incosistencies of the Lorentz transformations 

first formulated by Woldemar Voigt in 1887 

Hartwig Thim 

15:15 Discussion 


23


Time ID Chair: Reinhard Folk, Uni Linz 

16:00 911 Physics in magnetic fields from Faraday to Pierre 

Weiss and his contemporaries 

Jean-François Loude 

16:30 912 Zur Erfindung des Magnetinduktions-Zeigertelegraphen 

durch Charles Wheatstone 

Franz Pichler 

16:45 913 The Effective Mass Concept 

Gerhard Brunthaler 

17:00 914 Das Elektrotechnische Institut der Universität Innsbruck, 

1907 – 1946. Ein 'vergessenes' Institut 

Armin Denoth 

17:15 915 Die Kommentare in Le Seurs und Jacquiers Ausgabe 

von Newtons Principia 

Harald Iro 

17:30 916 Viktor von Lang und Ernst Lecher – die Säulen des 

I. Physikalischen Institutes 

Franz Sachslehner 

17:45 917 Das wissenschaftliche Exil in Großbritannien 

Wolfgang L. Reiter 

18:00 918 The *Squinting* in the Doppler-effect and the Hidden 

Ether-drifts 

Karl Mocnik 

18:15 END 



Aussteller - Exposants 

Agilent Technologies, Vacuum Products Division, 

DE-60528 Frankfurt 

www.agilent.com 

Anton Paar GmbH, 8054 Graz; 

www.anton-paar.com/ 

attocube systems AG, DE-80539 München 

www.attocube.com 

CryoVac GmbH & Co. KG, DE-53842 Troisdorf 

www.cryovac.de 

Dr. Eberl MBE-Komponenten GmbH, DE-71263 Weil der Stadt 

www.mbe-komponenten.de 

EPL-IOP, UK-Bristol 

www.iop.org 

Finetech GmbH & Co. KG, DE-12681 Berlin 

www.finetech.de 

Goodfellow GmbH, DE-61213 Bad Nauheim 

www.goodfellow.com 

Hositrad Deutschland Vacuum Technology, 

DE-93047 Regensburg 

www.hositrad.com 

Mad City Labs GmbH, CH-8302 Kloten 

www.madcitylabs.eu 

Mantis Deposition GmbH, DE-55122 Mainz 

www.mantisdeposition.com 

MaTecK GmbH, DE-52428 Jülich 

www.mateck.de 

Nanosurf AG, CH-4410 Liestal 

www.nanosurf.com 

Pfeiffer Vacuum Austria GmbH, AT-1150 Wien 

www.pfeiffer-vacuum.com 

Physik Instrumente (PI) GmbH & Co.KG, DE-76228 Karlsruhe 

www.pi.ws 

SPECS Surface Nano Analysis GmbH, DE-13355 Berlin 

www.specs.com 

VAQTEC - Scientific, DE-13189 Berlin 

www.vactec-scientific.com 

VAT – Deutschland GmbH, DE-85630 Grasbrunn bei München 

www.vatvalve.com/de/contacts/vat-deutschland 

VIDEKO GmbH, AT-2512 Oeynhausen 

www.vacuumtechnology.at 

Zurich Instruments, CH-8005 Zürich 

www.zhinst.com 

24

Open Access, where do we stand today? 

Your opinion interests us. 

Christophe Rossel, SPS Vice-President 


With the development of Open Access (OA) where the research 

papers become freely accessible by the readers, the 

academic publishing scheme is changing rapidly all over 

the world. The general consensus is that the results of research 

should be accessible in the public domain so that 

they will bring benefits for public services and economic 

growth. They need nevertheless to undergo some quality 

control for relevance and reliability reasons and for avoiding 

misleading statements and erroneous conclusions. Open 

Access is not strictly speaking free access because somewhere 

time and money must be found to make it functioning. 

Any new business model, different from the conventional 

subscription-based model must then be robust and 

sustainable. 

In 2009 the European Physical Society (EPS) published a 

position paper, declaring its support, like other organizations, 

to the 2003 Berlin Declaration on Open Access to 

Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (http://oa.mpg. 

de/openaccess-berlin/berlindeclaration.html). 

The ongoing discussions are based on several critical issues. 

Whereas most researchers are essentially concerned 

about publishing their results in the journal of their choice 

without concerns about any business models, librarians 

who are facing decreasing budgets and increasing journal 

prices are ready for alternatives to the subscription-based 

model. But how to meet publication costs if the subscription 

income is removed? 

Part of the debate is to decide whether the Gold OA model 

where publishers get their revenues from authors rather 

than from readers is preferable to the Green OA model 

where the final refereed article is placed temporarily in their 

institutional repository, in a central repository, or on some 

other OA archive like arXiv for physics. Critical voices claim 

that some detrimental embargo time of 6–12 months or 

longer might be associated with the Green OA model, as 

done already by some non-OA journals. 

Funding is therefore a critical issue for research agencies 

and academic institutions, which will have to subsidize not 

only the work of editors but also support charges related to 

Gold OA. This leads to another concern, namely the academic 

freedom. Critics claim indeed that full Open Access 

model will see universities, not readers, pay for articles to 

be published in journals, meaning the decision on how to 

publish new research will rest with university and funding 

agencies administrators and not academics themselves. 

Science Europe (www.scienceeurope.org), an umbrella 

organization of the most important research and funding 

institutions in Europe, has published in April 2013 a declaration 

entitled Principles for the Transition to Open Access 

to Research Publications. It describes the benefits of OA 

and proposes a set of common principles agreed by all its 

members to support the transition to full OA. It is stated 

that each organization will have to implement policies according 

to their own needs but in agreement with the proposed 

principles, viewed as a contribution to a global dialogues 

and cooperation with other stakeholders in Europe 

and worldwide. 

Funding organizations, including the Swiss National Science 

Foundation, endorse both publications in openaccess 

journals and second publications on document 

servers. However, they are explicitly against supporting 

so-called hybrid publication models offered by most large 

commercial publishers. Indeed in the case of hybrid journals, 

the authors can, in exchange for a fee, place the 

article with publishers on OA. This model might result in 

double charges since on one side libraries still pay for the 

journal subscriptions and licenses and, on the other, for the 

OA publication fees of the authors 

The OA policies of all participating institutions, including 

those in Switzerland, are published in the Registry of Open 

Access Repository Mandatory Archiving Policies (ROAR- 

MAP) and can be found under http://roarmap.eprints.org/. 

Since the active debate on the economics and reliability 

of OA continues among researchers, librarians, universities 

and funding agencies administrators, government officials, 

and commercial publishers, the SPS Board would 

be very interested in collecting comments by its members 

in order to evaluate the general opinions prevailing in the 

Swiss scientific community. Please send your comments to 

sps@unibas.ch. 

Kurzmitteilungen - Short Announcements 

Initiative for Science in Europe 

The Initiative for Science in Europe is an independent platform 

of European learned societies and scientific organizations 

whose aim is to promote mechanisms to support all 

fields of science at a European level, involve scientists in 

the design and implementation of European science policies, 

and to advocate strong independent scientific advice 

in European policy making. In Winter 2012/13, ISE has coordinated 

the campaign "No-Cuts-On-Research.EU". 

More Info: http://www.initiative-science-europe.org/ 

25


2013 PSI Summer School on Condensed Matter Research: 

Materials - structure and magnetism 

August 17-23, 2013, Lyceum Alpinum, Zuoz, Switzerland 

The 12 th edition of the PSI summer school on condensed 

matter physics is open for registration. This year the school 

will be dedicated to some of the main topics addressed at 

large scale user facilities such as neutron and muon sources 

or synchrotron photon sources: Materials - structure 

and magnetism. 

International experts and PSI staff members will introduce 

and deepen your knowledge not only about these scientific 

topics but also about the main methods applied to understand 

the phenomena, which are presently at the forefront 

of modern solid state physics and chemistry. 

The school is fully open to the national and non-national 

public and the language of the school is English. 

Following the school a practical training is offered at PSI. It 

will allow a limited number of participants to get hands-on 

experience with state-of-the-art instrumentation using photons, 

neutrons, and muons. 

More information, the school’s programme and online registration 

is available from the school’s webpage: 

http://www.psi.ch/summerschool 

19 th Swiss Physics Olympiad 2013 (SPhO) in Aarau 

The final round of the Swiss Physics Olympiad took place 

on March 23/24 in Aarau at the Neue Kantonsschule. The 

competition was held between twenty-four students from 

Switzerland and two from Liechtenstein. 

The selection process began in January with a preliminary 

round with a record participation of over 100 students, a 

success with 50% more participation than in earlier years. 

The students, aged between 16 and 20, had the chance to 

prepare for the final round at a three day training 

session at EPFL. The final round consisted of two 

challenging days, totalling no less than six and a 

half hours of theoretical and experimental exams, 

something like a Marathon! The top five participants 

– gold medals - will have the unique opportunity 

to travel to Denmark to represent Switzerland 

at the International Physics Olympiad in July. 

The award ceremony was a dedicated moment with talks 

and piano pieces, where one could feel the mood of the 

accomplished effort. After an excellent pedagogical talk by 

Gabriel Palacios on Fraunhofer lines, president of SPhO, it 

was the tour of the Swiss Physical Society – who is sponsoring 

the event – to present the mission and vision of the 

Society, and to proceed to the awards distribution. 

Antoine Pochelon, SPS Secretary 

The absolute best was Lukas Lang, from Liechtenstein. 

Followed just next by Sven Pfeiffer, from Münsingen (BE) 

and Rafael Winkler, from Mettauertal (AG). The SPS was 

happy to deliver the woman award to Viviane Kehl, from 

Küsnacht (ZH) who already illustrated herself in the preliminary 

round as 4 th and at the time best of the present Swiss 

winner group. 

Such an event is the opportunity to strengthen 

contact with offspring and teachers in a nice and 

stimulating climate. As summarized by Markus 

Meier, the local organizer: I hope and believe that 

this event (with SPS presentation and award giving) 

is the first and also successful contact of the 

SPS to future physicists. And truly, at this occasion 

young people of 15 or 16 were asking how to become 

member of the SPS and how they could be better 

informed about courses, seminars, ateliers … : a hint for the 

SPS to be well present for the young leaves. 

PS: Let us note that in Switzerland such Olympiads - in addition 

to Physics (www.swisspho.ch) - are also organized in 

Biology, Chemistry, Informatics, Mathematics, Philosophy 

(www.olympiads.ch). 

The four recipients of the SPS awards: Sven Pfeiffer (first Swiss), Rafael Winkler (second Swiss), Viviane Kehl (first woman) and Lukas 

Lang (first Liechtensteiner and absolut best) 

26


Das Rennen um die Industrieproduktion der Zukunft 

Rolf Hügli, SATW Generalsekretär 

Die Schweiz gehört bekanntlich zu den innovativsten Ländern 

der Welt. Die Ausgaben für die Forschung sind hoch 

und auf Jahre hinaus gesichert. Wenn die Schweiz aber 

eine bedeutende Industrienation bleiben will, muss auch 

der Produktionsstandort Schweiz eine Zukunft haben. Produktions-Knowhow 

gehört zu den Schlüsselkompetenzen 

für die "alten Industrienationen", die nicht auf billige Arbeitskräfte 

setzen können. 

In den letzten 5 Jahren hat die EU 10% ihrer Industrieproduktion 

und 3 Millionen Jobs verloren. Zumindest vorderhand 

hat sich die Schweiz gut behaupten können, weil 

ihre Industriegüter hochspezialisiert sind. Diese Produkte 

sind weniger preissensitiv und ihre Herstellung ist sehr anspruchsvoll. 

Ob dies in Zukunft hilft, ist ungewiss. Die Währungssituation 

ist nach wie vor angespannt und Länder wie 

China und Indien sind im Begriff, immer komplexere Eigenprodukte 

zu entwickeln und herzustellen. 

Hinzu kommt, dass sich bedeutende Neuerungen bei den 

Herstellungsverfahren abzeichnen. Die massgeblichen Treiber 

dafür sind: 

• weitgehende Digitalisierung der Wertschöpfungskette 

(Herstellungsdaten werden verschickt, nicht physische 

Produkte) 

• präzisere Verfahren bei der automatischen maschinellen 

Bearbeitung (schnelle, hochwirksame Korrekturalgorithmen 

verbessern die automatisierte mechanische 

Bearbeitung) 

• völlig neue, additive Herstellungsverfahren (z.B. 3D 

Printing). 

Dadurch wird eine kostengünstige Produktion anspruchsvoller 

Komponenten an einem beliebigen Ort der Welt 

denkbar. Auch die rentable Produktion von Kleinstserien 

oder Einzelstücken könnte damit gelingen. 

Während diese Entwicklung für qualifizierte Facharbeiter 

eine Gefahr darstellen könnte, bietet sie den westlichen Industrienationen 

die Möglichkeit, dank kostengünstiger Produktion 

einen Teil des verlorenen Marktes zurückzuerobern. 

Welcher Aspekt dominieren wird, ist völlig unklar. Für den 

Werkplatz Schweiz ist es von grosser Bedeutung, diese 

Trends zu verstehen und richtig darauf zu reagieren. 

Die SATW hat kürzlich ein Forum unter dem Titel "advanced 

manufacturing" veranstaltet. Unter den Teilnehmern waren 

Produktions- und Materialexperten, Wissenschaftler und 

Repräsentanten von Verwaltung und Industrieverbänden. 

Auch unter den Anwesenden herrschte keine Einigkeit, in 

welche Richtung sich die Dinge entwickeln werden. Klar 

herausgeschält haben sich jedoch zwei Dinge: 

• Die neuen Verfahren bestehen aus einzelnen Komponenten 

und Arbeitsschritten, die aufeinander abgestimmt 

sein müssen. Es ist daher empfehlenswert, 

diese Verfahren „vertikal integriert“, d.h. in Konsortien 

zu entwickeln, welche die ganze Wertschöpfungskette 

abdecken. 

• C. M. Clayton hat den Begriff der "disruptiven" Innovation 

geprägt. Gemeint sind damit Veränderungen, 

die auf (vom Markt) unerwarteten, neuen Prinzipien 

beruhen und die die Spielregeln einer ganzen Branche 

verändern können. Die erwähnten neuen Herstellungsmethoden 

haben das Potential dazu. Allerdings 

ist unklar, welche Verfahren sich wo durchsetzen werden. 

Damit entstehen grosse Investitionsrisiken. Da 

nicht gewartet werden kann, bis völlige Klarheit darüber 

herrscht, ist zu prüfen ob eine finanzielle Förderung 

von Pilotprojekten durch Bundesmittel (evtl. im 

Rahmen KTI oder SNF) im Sinne eines Schwerpunktprogrammes 

angezeigt wäre. 

Die SATW wird dieses Thema weiter bearbeiten. Im Verbund 

der europäischen technischen Akademien (Euro-CASE) ist 

sie an einem Diskussionspapier für die EU-Kommission beteiligt. 

Sie verfolgt zudem den Jahreskongress der Canadian 

Academy of Engineering (CAE), an dem ähnliche Fragen 

diskutiert werden. Die SATW plant ausserdem im Herbst ein 

Folgemeeting mit einzelnen Teilnehmern des Forums, um 

praktische Handlungsoptionen zu bestimmen. Zusätzlich 

möchte die SATW ihr Netzwerk mit Produktionsexperten 

aus der Industrie verstärken. Gerne nimmt sie auch Beiträge 

oder Anregungen von Mitgliedern der SPG entgegen. 

"Advanced Manufacturing’", ein interessantes Feld 

für Physikerinnen und Physiker? 

Moderne Produktionsmethoden beruhen auf der durchgängigen 

Digitalisierung nahezu aller Prozessschritte, 

vom Design über die eigentliche Fertigung bis zur Auslieferung. 

Dabei umfasst der Begriff Digitalisierung sowohl 

computergesteuerte Datenerfassung, numerische 

Modellierung wie Echtzeit-Kommunikation. Weist das 

zu fertigende Gerät ab einer gewissen Fertigungsstufe 

einen bestimmten Grad an interner Digitalisierung auf, 

kann es -ab dann- selber mit den Produktionswerkzeugen 

kommunizieren, was zu Genauigkeitssteigerungen 

und Durchlaufzeitverkürzungen führt. Im gleichen Sinne 

kann die interne Digitalisierung später im Einsatz beim 

Kunden die Kommunikation mit der Herstellfirma oder 

einem Provider ermöglichen, um die Dienstleistung des 

Gerätes nur dann und dort abzurufen, wann und wo es 

vom Kunden benötigt wird. Für den Kunden bedeutet 

das eine deutliche Effizienzsteigerung seiner Arbeit und 

eine Senkung der Betriebskosten. 

Im Mittelpunkt all dieser Ansätze steht die Erfassung der 

realen Fertigungsabläufe und deren mathematische Modellierung 

('Virtuelle Fabrik'). Das erfordert ein profundes 

physikalisches Verständnis, wenn man an die technischen 

Machbarkeitsgrenzen gehen will. Für Industriephysiker 

öffnen sich attraktive Betätigungsfelder 

B. Braunecker 

27


First result from the AMS experiment 

Martin Pohl, Center for Astroparticle Physics, CAP Genève 

Beginning of April 2013, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer 

(AMS) Collaboration published its first physics result in 

Physical Review Letters 1 . The AMS experiment is a powerful 

and sensitive particle physics spectrometer. As seen in 

Figure 1, AMS is located on the exterior of the International 

Space Station (ISS). Since its installation on 19 May 2011 it 

has measured over 30 billion cosmic rays in the GeV to TeV 

energy range. Its permanent magnet and array of precision 

particle detectors collect and identify charged cosmic rays 

passing through. Over its long duration mission on the ISS, 

AMS will record signals from 16 billion cosmic rays every 

year and transmit them to Earth for analysis by the AMS 

Collaboration. This is the first of many physics results to be 

reported. 

onboard the final mission of space shuttle Endeavour (STS- 

134) on 16 May 2011. Once installed on 19 May 2011, AMS 

was powered up and immediately began collecting data 

from primary sources in space and these were transmitted 

to the AMS Payload Operations Control Center located at 

CERN, Geneva, Switzerland. 

Once AMS became operational, the first task for the AMS 

Collaboration was to ensure that all instruments and systems 

performed as designed and as tested on the ground. 

The AMS detector, with its multiple redundancies, has proven 

to perform flawlessly in space. Over the last 22 months in 

flight, AMS collaborators have gained invaluable operational 

experience in running a precision spectrometer in space 

and mitigating the hazardous conditions to which AMS is 

exposed as it orbits the Earth every 90 minutes. Conditions 

like this are not encountered by ground-based accelerator 

experiments or satellite-based experiments and require 

constant vigilance in order to avoid irreparable damage. 

They include the extreme thermal variations caused by solar 

effects and the re-positioning of ISS onboard radiators 

and solar arrays. In addition, the AMS operators regularly 

transmit software updates from the AMS POCC at CERN to 

the AMS computers in space in order to match the regular 

upgrades of the ISS software and hardware. 

Figure 1: From its vantage point about 400 km above the Earth, the 

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) collects data from primordial 

cosmic rays that traverse the detector. 

The first publication from the AMS Experiment is a major 

milestone for the AMS international collaboration. Hundreds 

of scientists, engineers, technicians and students from all 

over the world have worked together for over 18 years to 

make AMS a reality. The collaboration represents 16 countries 

from Europe, Asia and North America (Finland, France, 

Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, 

Romania, Russia, Turkey, China, Korea, Taiwan, Mexico 

and the United States) under the leadership of Nobel 

Laureate Samuel Ting of M.I.T. The collaboration continues 

to work closely with the NASA AMS Project Management 

team from Johnson Space Center as it has throughout the 

entire process. Many countries have made important contributions 

to the AMS detector construction and presently 

to the data analysis. These include two groups from Switzerland, 

University of Geneva and ETHZ, supported by federal 

and cantonal authorities as well as the SNF. 

AMS was constructed at universities and research institutes 

around the world and assembled at the European Organization 

for Nuclear Research, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland. 

It was launched by NASA to the ISS as the primary payload 

1 AMS Collaboration, M. Aguilar et al., First Result from the Alpha 

Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station: Precision 

Measurement of the Positron Fraction in Primary Cosmic Rays of 0.5–350 

GeV, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 141102 (2013) 

28 

Positron fraction measurement 

In the initial 18 months period of space operations, from 

19 May 2011 to 10 December 2012, AMS analyzed 25 billion 

primary cosmic ray events. Of these, an unprecedented 

number, 6.8 million, were unambiguously identified as 

electrons and their antimatter counterpart, positrons. The 

6.8 million particles observed in the energy range 0.5 to 

350 GeV are the subject of the precision study reported in 

this first paper. 

Electrons and positrons are identified by the accurate and 

redundant measurements provided by the various AMS instruments 

against a large background of protons. Positrons 

are clearly distinguished from this background through the 

robust rejection power of AMS of more than one in one million. 

Currently, the total number of positrons identified by AMS, 

in excess of 400,000, is the largest number of energetic 

antimatter particles directly measured and analyzed from 

space. The first paper can be summarized as follows: 

AMS has measured the positron fraction (ratio of the positron 

flux to the combined flux of positrons and electrons) 

in the energy range 0.5 to 350 GeV. We have observed that 

from 0.5 to 10 GeV, the fraction decreases with increasing 

energy. The fraction then increases steadily between 10 

GeV to ~250 GeV. Yet the slope (rate of growth) of the positron 

fraction decreases by an order of magnitude from 20 to 

250 GeV. At energies above 250 GeV, the spectrum appears 

to flatten but to study the behavior above 250 GeV requires 

more statistics – the data reported represents ~10% of the


total expected. The positron fraction spectrum exhibits neither 

structure nor time dependence. The positron to electron 

ratio shows no anisotropy indicating the energetic positrons 

are not coming from a preferred direction in space. 

Together, these features show evidence of a new physics 

phenomena. Figure 2 illustrates the AMS data presented in 

the first publication. 

statistics available distinguish the reported positron fraction 

spectrum from earlier experiments 3 , by extending the 

energy range and improving the precision by an order of 

magnitude. 

Outlook 

AMS is a magnetic spectrometer with the ability to explore 

new physics because of its precision, statistics, energy 

range, capability to identify different particles and nuclei and 

its long duration in space. It is expected that hundreds of 

billions of cosmic rays will be measured by AMS throughout 

the lifetime of the Space Station. The volume of raw data 

requires a massive analysis effort. The parameters of each 

signal collected are meticulously reconstructed, characterized 

and archived before they undergo analysis by multiple 

independent groups of AMS physicists thus ensuring the 

accuracy of the physics results. 

Figure 2: The positron fraction measured by AMS demonstrates 

excellent agreement with the model described below. Even with 

the high statistics, 6.8 million events, and accuracy of AMS, the 

fraction shows no fine structure. 

The exact shape of the spectrum, as shown in Figure 2, extended 

to higher energies, will ultimately determine whether 

this spectrum originates from the collision of dark matter 

particles or from pulsars in the galaxy. The high level of accuracy 

of this data indicates that AMS may soon resolve 

this issue. 

Over the last few decades there has been much interest on 

the positron fraction from primary cosmic rays by both particle 

physicists and astrophysicists. The underlying reason 

is that by measuring the ratio between positrons and electrons 

and by studying the behavior of any excess across 

the energy spectrum, a better understanding of the origin 

of dark matter and other physics phenomena may be obtained. 

The first AMS result has been analyzed using several phenomenological 

models, one of which is described in the 

paper and included in Figure 2. This generic model, with 

diffuse electron and positron components and a common 

source component, fits the AMS data surprisingly well. This 

agreement indicates that the positron fraction spectrum is 

consistent with electron positron fluxes each of which is the 

sum of its diffuse spectrum and a single energetic common 

source. In other words, a significant portion of the highenergy 

electrons and positrons originate from a common 

source. More specific models 2 based on dark matter self 

annihilation and/or pulsar sources in the Milky Way have 

been published immediately after the release of the AMS 

data. 

As shown in Figure 3, the accuracy of AMS and the high 

2 See e.g.: Andrea De Simone, Antonio Riotto, Wei Xuec, CERN- 

PH-TH/2013-054 (April 3, 2013). Tim Linden and Stefano Profumo, 

arXiv:1304.1791v1 [astro-ph.HE], (April 5, 2013). Peng-Fei Yin, Zhao-Huan 

Yu, Qiang Yuan and Xiao-Jun Bi, arXiv:1304.4128v1 [astro-ph.HE] (April 

15, 2013) 

Figure 3: A comparison of AMS results with recent published measurements. 

With the wealth of data emitted by primary cosmic rays 

passing through AMS, the Collaboration will also explore 

other topics such as the precision measurements of the boron 

to carbon ratio, nuclei and antimatter nuclei, and antiprotons, 

precision measurements of the helium flux, proton 

flux and photons, as well as the search for new physics and 

astrophysics phenomena such as strangelets. 

The AMS Collaboration will provide new, accurate information 

over the lifetime of the Space Station as the AMS 

detector continues its mission to explore new physics phenomena 

in the cosmos. 

(This article is based on http://press.web.cern.ch/tags/ams.) 

3 TS93: R. Golden et al., Astrophys. J. 457 (1996) L103. Wizard/ 

CAPRICE: M. Boezio et al., Adv. Sp. Res. 27-4 (2001) 669. HEAT: J. J. 

Beatty et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 93 (2004) 241102; M. A. DuVernois et al., 

Astrophys. J. 559 (2001) 296. AMS-01: M. Aguilar et al., Phys. Lett. B 646 

(2007) 145. PAMELA: P. Picozza, Proc. of the 4 th International Conference 

on Particle and Fundamental Physics in Space, Geneva, 5-7 Nov. 2012, 

to be published. O. Adriani et al., Astropart. Phys. 34 (2010) 1; O. Adriani 

et al., Nature 458 (2009) 607. Fermi-LAT: M. Ackermann et al., Phys. Rev. 

Lett. 108 (2012) 011103. 

29


Progress in Physics (33) 

Outreach: Can Physics Cross Boundaries? 

Jean-Pierre Eckmann, Département de Physique Théorique et Section de Mathématiques, Université de Genève 

Recently, physical thinking has been making progress in 

domains at which it did not aim originally. In this contribution, 

I want to sketch some examples of what can be done. 

The method consists of finding systems which originate in 

complex or complicated structure or dynamics, and which 

can profit from questions physicists ask. The examples I 

want to present comprise biology, language and the Worldwide-web 

(WWW). 

I find it fascinating that relatively simple methods, questions, 

and techniques from the exact sciences seem to be 

able to shed new light, and also new insight, into structures 

which are mostly self-generated. I want to suggest 

and illustrate that questions outside physics proper can be 

developed fruitfully by physicists. My story is neither totally 

new (see, e.g., [14]) nor as revolutionary as it may seem. I 

just want to convey my interest and pleasure in addressing 

"esoteric" questions with the tools of mathematics and 

physics. 

The discussion will be in the subject of "network theory," 

and I first summarize some of its literature [1, 12] : With the 

advent of powerful computers on every scientist’s desk, it 

has become easy to analyze large data sets. These data 

sets come often, and quite naturally, in the form of large 

networks (graphs, directed or undirected), where the nodes 

of the graph are certain objects, and the edges are certain 

binary relations between them. For example, the nodes 

could be individual researchers, and the links could signify 

that they either co-author a paper, or cite each other. 

Other examples are pages and links in the WWW, which 

connect two pages; airports and connections provided by 

commercial airlines; words and links between these words 

and their definition in a dictionary. I will call such graphs 

real-life graphs 1 . Experimental automation, and the availability 

of large databases through the internet provide many 

interesting networks for analysis. The most useful ones are 

obtained in collaboration with experimental scientists. 

Continuing a long tradition in statistical physics, the studies 

of large networks often concentrate on their statistical 

properties. Erdős and Rényi described a set of random 

graphs which are built as follows [3]: Take N nodes (N very 

large) and assume that the mean degree (number of links 

coming out of a node) is k > 0, independently of N. Then, 

paraphrasing Erdős and Rényi, one can make two statements: 

1. Such a graph looks locally like a tree (i.e., it has very 

few loops, and these loops are all very long) [4]. 

2. The expected number of triangles is k 3 /6, (i.e., this 

number does not grow with N). (Longer loops are also 

rare 2 .) 

1 One may legitimately ask why only binary relations seem important, but 

I will argue later that triangles in these graphs play the role of three-bodyinteractions 

and are the main indicators of semantic contexts. 

2 It is actually quite easy to prove these statements, although, at first, 

they certainly seem totally anti-intuitive. 

3 also called "rich get richer" 

30 

The first surprise was the discovery that real-life graphs are 

not random in the above sense. In contrast to general results 

on random graphs, the graphs of "affinities" or "connections" 

between "authors," "entities" have very specific 

general properties, namely power law behavior over several 

decades [1]. By this, one means the statistics of the number 

N^ j h of nodes which are attached to exactly j others (the 

-c 

degree of the node). In formulas, N^ j h . const. 

j for large 

j. The point here is that the decay is a power law, and not 

an exponential, pointing to the important feature of nodes 

in the graph with very many connections, many more than 

a Gaussian, or Poisson distribution would allow for. In many 

real-life graphs g takes a value between 2 and 3. 

What this means is that there are a few nodes which have 

a really high degree. For example, in studying the connections 

in Twitter, one finds that there are a few nodes with 

over 100’000 "friends" (these are usually politicians, perhaps 

also singers), the interesting question here is whether 

they are friends (the singers) or whether they think they 

have friends (the politicians...). 

Many studies then concentrate on the dynamics of how 

such networks come into being. This is usually called the 

"preferential attachment" 3 problem [2], namely the idea 

that the networks build up in time, and that people have a 

tendency to connect to well-known other people (or services). 

These models have successfully explained how longrange 

(scale-free) properties of graphs come about. 

Another important aspect of network studies is summarized 

under the term of "clustering coefficient" [18]. In contrast to 

the power laws described above, this is a local property of 

any graph. In mathematical terms, if a node n has j neighbors, 

then you count the number t of triangles which have 

the node n as a corner. Obviously, there cannot be more 

than T^ 

j h = j^j - 1h / 2 such triangles, and the clustering 

coefficient is defined as t/ 

T^ j h, which is a number between 

0 and 1. A high clustering coefficient means that many of 

the possible triangles are actually realized. 

When I started to study real-life graphs [7], I was puzzled by 

the abundance of triangles, which appear orders of magnitude 

above (k 3 ) predicted by Erdős and Rényi. What 

does this mean? It soon turned out that triangles play a 

strong semantic role. In other words, in all studies of this 

type, one can attach meaning to this abundance. 

The first case where we discovered this phenomenon was 

the set of links in the WWW [7]. While there are many links 

which seem irrelevant, we found that those links which form 

triangles relate to common interests of the owners of the 

pages involved. Carrying this idea further, we found that 

triangles of connections among neurons of C. Elegans (a little 

worm with 302 neurons) organize their function. Another 

example is provided by triangles of e-mail messages sent 

between people, and this determines their social grouping 

[8].


The neurons of C. Elegans and their connections: Height is clustering 

coefficient, color codes function (motor, sensory,...) 

My final example is the appearance of loops in the definitions 

of words in a dictionary [10]. Here, the graph is formed 

by arrows pointing from each word (actually nouns) to the 

words in their definition. One finds not only triangles, but 

also bi-angles, back-and-forth, (which are synonyms) and 

also longer loops. When the loops are too long, there might 

be a jump in interpretation, such as at the broken arrow in 

railcar & rails & bar & weapon & instrument & 

skill Z train & railcar. 

But the surprising fact is that the medium size loops are 

semantically coherent, and their words form the core of the 

language. (We checked that by comparing the core-words 

to those of [13].) And furthermore, as a bonus, one can 

show that they are related to the historical appearance of 

new concepts in language [9]. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What fascinates me in all this is that questions and methods 

from physics can shed new light on several systems 

with complex dynamics or structure. The most accessible 

among such systems are those where sub-units are assembled 

without a master building plan. 

The common structure which appears in such studies is 

that the more "interesting dynamics" (biochemistry, feedback) 

[16], the "meaning" (language) [5] or "mechanisms" 

(emergent life) are all revealed by deviations from the natural 

statistical structures of random assemblies. In general, the 

connected objects have some "deeper" identity (meaning, 

semantics) that curves the pathways back to some originating 

node, in contrast to the "rich get richer" scenario. 

So far, these methods have allowed to give some insight 

into realms outside of physics proper. I am convinced that 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The structuring of words in a dictionary. 

 

 

 

 

 

this outreach has an interesting future, and will penetrate 

further new domains. 

Where does all this lead? The studies I have presented all 

use only the topology of the network, but never the metrics, 

namely the way some real-life networks are embedded in 

the space in which we live. Adding this component opens 

new possibilities, especially in studying aspects of life. This 

is so because many aspects of life are about spatial connections, 

organisms are a linked set of individual units that 

have to interact well and "intelligently" in order to function. 

It is too early to make strong methodological statements 

about how mathematics and physics can play a role in 

studying such problems, but certainly, a few studies on 

neuronal networks [6, 17], or the interaction of ants in colonies 

[11, 15] seem to me promising beginnings in developing 

a methodology for studies in living systems. 

References 

[1] R. Albert and A.-L. Barabási. Statistical mechanics of complex 

networks. Rev. Modern Phys. 74 (2002), 47–97. 

[2] A.-L. Barabási and R. Albert. Emergence of scaling in random 

networks. Science 286 (1999), 509–512. 

[3] B. Bollobás. Random graphs, volume 73 of Cambridge Studies 

in Advanced Mathematics (Cambridge: Cambridge University 

Press, 2001), second edition. 

[4] A. Dembo and A. Montanari. Ising models on locally tree-like 

graphs. Ann. Appl. Probab. 20 (2010), 565–592. 

[5] B. Dorow, D. Widdows, K. Ling, J.-P. Eckmann, D. Sergi, and 

E. Moses. Using curvature and Markov clustering in graphs for 

lexical acquisition and word sense discrimination. In: MEAN- 

ING-2005, 2nd Workshop organized by the MEANING Project, 

February 3rd-4th 2005, Trento, Italy. (2005). 

[6] J.-P. Eckmann, O. Feinermann, L. Gruendlinger, E. Moses, 

J. Soriano, and T. Tlusty. The physics of living neural networks. 

Physics Reports 449 (2007), 54–76. 

[7] J.-P. Eckmann and E. Moses. Curvature of co-links uncovers 

hidden thematic layers in the World Wide Web. Proc. Natl. Acad. 

Sci. USA 99 (2002), 5825–5829 (electronic). 

[8] J.-P. Eckmann, E. Moses, and D. Sergi. Entropy of dialogues 

creates coherent structures in e-mail traffic. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 

USA 101 (2004), 14333–14337 (electronic). 

[9] D. Harper. Online Etymology Dictionary. (2010). 

[10] D. Levary, J.-P. Eckmann, E. Moses, and T. Tlusty. Loops and 

self-reference in the construction of dictionaries. Phys. Rev. X 2 

(2012), 031018. 

[11] D. P. Mersch, A. Crespi, and L. Keller. Tracking individuals 

shows spatial fidelity is a key regulator of ant social organization. 

Science 340. 

[12] M. Newman, A.-L. Barabási, and D. J. Watts, eds. The structure 

and dynamics of networks. Princeton Studies in Complexity 

(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006). 

[13] C. Ogden. Basic English: a general introduction with rules and 

grammar (Kegan Paul, London, 1930). 

[14] L. Onsager. Nobel lecture, The motion of ions: Principles and 

concepts. In: Nobel Lectures (December 11, 1968). 

[15] N. Razin, J.-P. Eckmann, and O. Feinerman. Desert ants 

achieve reliable recruitment across noisy interactions. J. Royal 

Soc. Interface 10 (2013) 20130079. 

[16] S. Shen-Orr, R. Milo, S. Mangan, and U. Alon. Network motifs 

in the transcriptional regulation network of Escherichia coli. Nature 

Genetics 31 (2002), 64–68. 

[17] T. Tlusty and J.-P. Eckmann. Remarks on bootstrap percolation 

in metric networks. J. Phys. A 42 (2009), 205004, 11. 

[18] D. Watts and S. Strogatz. Collective dynamics of 'small-world' 

networks. Nature 393 (1998), 409–410. 

31



On the development of physically-based regional climate modelling 

Stéphane Goyette 

Institute for Environmental Sciences, University of Geneva, 7 route de Drize, Geneva 

There are huge scientific and technical challenges in research 

directed towards understanding climate and climate 

change. No clear picture of how the weather and climate 

system works emerged prior to the 20 th century because 

of the lack of connection between atmospheric variables. 

In fact, there was still some doubt about deriving a theory 

about how to interpret daily weather patterns, general circulation 

of the atmosphere, and the global climate. Atmospheric 

physics reached a landmark in the early 20 th century 

when empirical climatology, theoretical meteorology and 

forecasting were about to converge into a conceptualisation 

of this "vast machine" (Edwards, 2010). The problem of 

understanding the causes of weather, climate and climate 

change is not one to be solved quickly or easily, but contributing 

to its solution is particularly worthwhile. In fact, the 

status of the climate results from the complex interactions 

between the atmosphere with the physical and biological 

systems which bound it - the lakes and oceans, ice sheets, 

land and vegetation through a spectrum of temporal and 

spatial scales. These elements all determine the state and 

the evolution of the Earth’s weather and climate, owing to 

a particular influence of the general circulation of the atmosphere 

which redistributes energy, along with the ocean 

currents, from the Tropics to the Poles. This highly-coupled 

system presents a genuine challenge for modellers, and 

this has led to a body of literature which details the range 

and hierarchy of numerical climate models (e.g. Trenberth, 

1996, Schlesinger, 1988). 

Back in 1904, Vilhelm Bjerknes recognised that a physically-based 

weather forecast is a fundamental initial-value 

problem in the mathematical sense; this was later classified 

as predictability of the first kind according to Lorenz (1975). 

The foundation of what became a framework of studying 

the geophysical fluid motions in order to predict the state 

of the atmosphere was shaping up. The derivation of the 

equations of motion began in the 17 th century with Newton’s 

Laws of Motion, which were later applied for fluid flow 

purposes by Euler and Bernoulli in the 18 th century. The 

modern conservation of momentum formulation consists 

of a form of the Navier–Stokes equations, an extension of 

Euler’s (but for viscous flow), that describe hydrodynamical 

flow. A continuity equation, also accredited to Euler, represents 

the conservation of mass. Hadley in 1735, and Ferrel, 

around 1850, showed that the deflection of rising warm air 

is due to the Coriolis effect, a force that began to be used in 

connection with meteorology in the early 20 th century. The 

first law of thermodynamics, a version of the law of conservation 

of energy, was codified near the end of the 19 th century 

by a number of scientists, but the first full statements 

of the law came earlier from Clausius and Rankine. This led 

to the thermal energy equation relating the overall temperature 

of the system to heat sources and sinks. The gas state 

variables were related in 1834 when, Clapeyron combined 

Boyle’s Law and Charles’ law into the first statement of the 

ideal Gas Law. The basic ingredients employed to approximate 

atmospheric flow were then gathered to progress 

from concepts to operational computer forecasting, thus 

aiming at representing weather by numbers (Harper, 2008). 

The partitioning of the atmospheric fluid into a dry and water 

vapour mixture, according to the Dalton’s law, was later 

included in numerical models; this premise led to a genuine 

improvement when the water cycle and its associated energy 

exchange was introduced as an extra equation, describing 

the transport of water vapour handling the effects of 

changes of water phases for calculating precipitation. All of 

the above form the basic equations used today for weather 

forecasting and climate prediction. The conservation equations 

are partial differential equations. For a unit mass, with 

a frame of reference attached to the Earth and the origin at 

its centre, these equations may be written as follows (e.g. 

Washington and Parkinson, 1986, Henderson-Sellers and 

McGuffie, 1987, Jacobson, 1998, Coiffier, 2011): 

dV 

=-2X 

# V - 

1 

dp 

- dU 

+ F momentum equation (1) 

dt 

t 

dT dp 

= 

1 

c + Q m 

dt c p dt 

thermodynamic equation (2) 

dt 

=- td $ V 

dt 

continuity equation (3) 

dq 

dt 

p 

= M 

water vapour equation (4) 

= tRT 

equation of state (5) 

which gives us a set of seven equations with seven unknowns, 

where V represents the three-dimensional wind 

velocity, T is the air temperature, p is the pressure, q is 

the specific humidity, and t is the air density, all varying in 

space and in time. The other quantities are: X is the angular 

of rotation of the Earth, is the geopotential defined as 

the product of geometric height above the surface z by the 

acceleration due to gravity g, (the latter including the Newtonian 

gravity and the centrifugal acceleration), R and c p 

are 

the specific gas constant and the specific heat at constant 

pressure, and t is the time. F, Q and M represent the sources 

and sinks of momentum (e.g. frictional forces), heat (e.g. 

solar and infrared radiation, and latent heat release) and 

moisture (e.g. evaporation and condensation), respectively, 

and their expression depends on the scale of the atmospheric 

motion the model aims to describe, and they represent 

subgrid-scale processes commonly expressed in 

terms of resolved quantities. In the prognostic equations 

(1-4), the derivative of any scalar quantities } with respect 

to time taken following the fluid is expressed as 

d} 2} 

= + V $ d} 

(6) 

dt 2t 

where the first term on the right is a local partial deriva- 

32


tive at a fixed point in the chosen frame of reference and 

the second the advection of the same quantity. Advection 

that induces non-linear effects is a transport mechanism of 

a quantity by a fluid due to its bulk motion. Simplification 

and transformation are required in order to resolve for some 

analytical solutions or the numerical methods used to seek 

numerical solutions. The discretization of these continuous 

equations would render them amenable, using appropriate 

algorithms, to a numerical solution of the continuous behaviour 

of the circulating atmosphere. 

Around 1920, Richardson, who may be considered as the 

father of today’s models for weather and climate, tried to 

solve a simplified set of equations using numerical methods 

"by hand and step-by-step". However, his 6-hour 

"retrospective forecast" proved unrealistic. Computational 

instability and imbalance in the initial data set were later 

found to be the cause of this "setback". However, in 1928, 

Courant, Friedrichs, and Lewy showed that a time step 

must be less than a certain value in explicit time-marching 

schemes to warrant stable numerical solutions using the 

method of finite differences. Then, Richardson realised that 

64’000 computers [human automata] would be needed to 

race the weather for the whole globe, but by the time he 

published "Weather Prediction by Numerical Process" in 

1922, fast computers were unavailable. The development 

of complex models remained dormant until the development 

of electronic computers handling self-programmed 

sequences of instructions. In 1950, Charney, Ragnar Fjörtoft, 

and von Neumann made the first numerical weather 

prediction (NWP) using "simplified" equations to represent 

large-scale eddy motion. This accomplishment then fostered 

the development of more complex prediction models 

of even greater spatial resolution, allowing small scales of 

motion to be resolved. In 1956, Phillips developed a model 

which could realistically depict monthly and seasonal patterns 

in the troposphere, which became the first successful 

climate model. Following Phillips’ work, several groups 

began working out General Circulation Models (GCMs) of 

the atmosphere of increasing complexities, including the 

effects of sub-systems such as these induced by oceans. 

The challenge of numerical models is to run forward in time 

much faster than the real atmosphere and oceans with 

available electronic computers. To do this, they must make 

a large number of simplifying assumptions. Although there 

have been great advances made in the discipline of climate 

modelling over the last fifty years, the most sophisticated 

models remain very much simpler than that of the full climate 

system (McGuffie and Henderson-Sellers, 2001). 

The first atmospheric general circulation model applied 

for long-term integrations, were derived directly from numerical 

models designed for short-term numerical weather 

forecasting, which did not have a global coverage at this 

time. Then, the advance of computing technologies, along 

with the requirements of weather predictions needing hemispheric 

or even global computational domains, the longer 

integration periods became a matter of availability of computer 

resources. The early climate model grid spacing was 

very coarse in the horizontal and vertical dimensions. The 

evolution towards greater resolution and increased complexity 

has been the rule since. This has been facilitated 

by the availability of large computing technologies and 

by new algorithms and numerical methods thus allowing 

longer numerical time-stepping (Mote and O’Neil, 2000). To 

this day, climate modelling and weather forecasting groups 

co-exist, but the needs and focus of the two disciplines 

differ. For climate modelling, long-term mass, energy and 

moisture conservation is an important issue. This may thus 

be considered as a fundamental boundary-value problem 

in the mathematical sense, classified as predictability of 

the second kind according to Lorenz (1975). Not all climate 

models originated from weather forecast models, however. 

Simpler models based on global energy conservation are 

collectively called Energy Balance Models, or EBMs (Henderson-Sellers 

and McGuffie, 1987). They take into account 

the different forms of energy driving the climate system and 

look for a steady state solution for the surface temperature. 

Their main advantage is that they can be extensively used 

to do sensitivity studies of the role of external forcing on the 

surface temperature (that of the greenhouse gases, of the 

Earth’s orbital parameters in the very long term, the impacts 

of volcanic eruptions, etc.), which can thus be investigated 

at a low computational cost. However, the atmospheric circulation 

is not explicitly resolved so they cannot be used 

neither to forecast daily conditions nor the general circulation 

of the atmosphere. 

During the early days of weather forecasting, the computational 

domains were restricted to an area of interest. These 

Limited Area Models (LAMs) were developed to enable 

short range predictions to be made over a large domain. 

Their major drawback is that flow field values have to be 

specified at the area boundary for each time step. Later on, 

to overcome this problem, these field values were interpolated 

from those obtained from a global larger-scale model. 

This technique has led to "nested models" that are the basis 

of operational prediction systems in most meteorological 

services. Following the pioneering work in the U.S. in 

the 1980s (e.g. Giorgi et al., 1989), the approach, consisting 

of driving a high resolution LAM lateral boundaries with 

low-resolution GCM flow fields, entered the scene (Laprise, 

2008). In practice, one order of magnitude in resolution can 

be gained with this approach, so the small-scale structures 

of atmospheric circulation can be reproduced. One advantage 

of such a LAM is that it can also be driven by atmospheric 

reanalyses (data derived from global observations 

using data assimilation schemes and models), rather than 

by GCM outputs; this feature is very convenient for development 

and validation purposes. When LAMs are applied 

to long time scales, they are referred to as Regional Climate 

Models (RCMs). They are now exploited in a number of research 

centres around the world and used in a wide range of 

climate applications, from palaeoclimate to anthropogenic 

climate change studies (IPCC, 2007). The development and 

application of such numerical tools has been motivated by 

the needs of assessing what the impact of global climate 

will be in different regions. This downscaling approach is 

very versatile since RCMs are locatable in any part of the 

world. Moreover, simulating climate and climate change at 

the regional and national levels is of paramount importance 

for policymaking. Any regional climate modelling approach 

affords focusing over an area of the globe with a regional 

grid-point spacing of a few tens of kms in the horizontal, for 

operational use on climate timescales. Furthermore, even 

when the increase of computing power will permit the operational 

use of GCMs at a resolution of a few tens of km, 

33


Global reanalysis (~ 2.5° x 2.5°) or GCM simulated outputs 

20-km RCM 

2-km 

RCM 

Figure 1. Regional climate models self-nesting methodology 

indicating two computational domains onto 

which simulations are performed. Starting with low 

resolution GCM outputs or global reanalysis, the finegrain 

details of the flow fields are downscaled in a 

step-wise manner to 2 km grid-spacing. The intermediate 

5-km RCM domain has been omitted for better 

clarity. The relative humidity, represented in colour 

shades, is meant to show how the increase in the horizontal 

resolution impacts on the reproduction of these 

small scale details. 

the RCM approach could still be useful, allowing reaching 

resolution of a few kms for a similar computational load. In 

principle, specific physical parameterizations for the sources 

and sinks of momentum, heat and moisture, respectively 

F, Q and M as depicted in Eqs (1) - (2), and (4) are scale 

dependent. In the historical development of RCMs, these 

parameterisations often benefited from packages coming 

from either NWPs or from GCMs. Improvements to existing 

schemes and also new developments were nevertheless 

deemed necessary. This enables RCMs to be applied 

to a large range of atmospheric flows. This downscaling 

technique can be further extended to finer detail with the 

cascade self-nesting capability as shown in Fig 1 (Goyette 

et al., 2001). The enhancement of horizontal resolution, 

also prompted for on the specification of surface boundary 

conditions as a sizeable portion of the performance of 

RCMs relies on the surface forcing not captured by GCMs. 

Their success depends on their ability to respond to these 

forcing factors in a realistic manner in space and time. An 

important surface forcing not captured by GCMs (Fig 2.) 

which has received much attention lately is the regional influence 

of inland water bodies (Goyette et al., 2000). Also, 

much attention is being paid to the capability of RCMs to 

reproduce extreme events. Wind gusts are fundamental 

characteristics of the variability of wind climate; physicallybased 

parameterization to simulate gusts has been developed 

to better capture the effects of extremes associated 

with these features (Goyette et al., 2003). 

There is also a need for future climate projection at local and 

regional scales. In addition, climate models, either global or 

regional, are constantly improved so as to include stateof-the-art 

numerical schemes, physical parameterizations, 

new scenarios for greenhouse gas forcing, etc. to warrant 

realistic simulations at an ever-increasing spatial resolution. 

For example, the European project "PRUDENCE" was 

34


20-km RCM 

2-km 

RCM 

Figure 2. Surface topography prescribed as a lower boundary 

condition in a 20- and a 2-km RCM. Local weather and climate 

are significantly influenced by local topographical features such as 

mountains. Small-scale topographical features are not resolved by 

GCMs neither by low resolution RCMs (e.g. 20-km RCM) due to 

the coarse resolution of their computational grids. 

aimed at quantifying confidence and uncertainties in predictions 

of future European climate and its impacts using a 

suite of high resolution RCMs driven by a coarser resolution 

GCM (Christensen et al., 2002). 

Ultra-high climate simulations, i.e. 30 years or more with an 

horizontal grid spacing on the order of one kilometre, is not 

foreseen in the near future due to as yet inadequate computational 

resources. Some specific case studies using RCMs 

with 2 and even 1 km grid spacing have been carried out 

for short term integrations to test the downscaling ability of 

such an approach (Goyette, 2001). The analysis has shown 

that the model cannot overcome the massive increase in 

resolution from coarse resolution GCM or reanalysis data 

down to these fine scales without introducing intermediate 

steps (Fig 1). The cascade self-nesting method requires, for 

long-term simulations, that the ratio between successive 

grid meshes should range between 3 and 5 to avoid numerical 

inconsistencies. However, 2.2-km numerical weather 

predictions do exist and this model is particularly aimed at 

assisting in short-term local forecasting, showing skill for 

a 24-h forecast (COSMO 1 ). Much research remains to be 

done, despite all the post World War II achievements. There 

are still many scientific and technical challenges in weather 

and climate research, and contributing to these innovations 

and findings is indeed worthwhile. 

1 www.meteosuisse.admin.ch/web/fr/meteo/previsions_numeriques/ 

cosmo.html 

References 

Coiffier, J.: Fundamentals of numerical weather prediction. Cambridge 

University Press, Cambridge 2011, 340 pp. 

Charney, J., R. Fjørtoft, J. von Neumann, 1950: Numerical Integration 

of the Barotropic Vorticity Equation. Tellus, 2, 237-254. 

Christensen, J. H., T. Carter, F. Giorgi, 2002: PRUDENCE Employs 

New Methods to Assess European Climate Change, EOS, 83, 

147. 

Courant, R., Friedrichs, K., Lewy, H., 1928: "Über die partiellen 

Differenzengleichungen der mathematischen Physik", Mathematische 

Annalen, 100 (1), 32–74. 

Edwards, P.: A vast machine: Computer models, climate data, and 

the politics of global warming. MIT Press, Cambridge, 2010, 

518 pp. 

Giorgi. F, and G.T. Bates, 1989: The climatological skill of a regional 

model over complex terrain, Mon. Weather Rev. 11, 

2325–2347. 

Goyette, S, O. Brasseur, and M. Beniston, 2003: Application of 

a new wind gust parameterisation. Multi-scale case studies 

performed with the Canadian RCM. J. of Geophys. Res., 108, 

4374-4390. 

Goyette, S., M. Beniston, D. Caya, J. P. R. Laprise, and P. Jungo, 

2001: Numerical investigation of an extreme storm with the 

Canadian Regional Climate Model: The case study of windstorm 

VIVIAN, Switzerland, February 27, 1990. Clim. Dyn., 18, 

145 - 178. 

Goyette, S., N. A. McFarlane, and G. M. Flato, 2000: Application 

of the Canadian Regional Climate Model to the Laurentian 

Great Lakes region: Implementation of a lake model. Atmos.- 

Ocean, 38, 481 - 503. 

Harper, K. J.: Weather by the numbers: The genesis of modern 

meteorology. MIT Press 2008, 308 pp. 

Henderson-Sellers, A, and K. McGuffie: A climate modelling primer. 

Wiley, Chichester, 2006, 296 pp. 

IPCC 2007, Solomon, S., D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, 

K. B. Averyt, M. Tignor and H. L. Miller (eds.). Contribution 

of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of 

the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge 

University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, 

NY, USA, 996 pp. 

Jacobson, M. Z.: Fundamentals of atmospheric modelling. Cambridge 

University Press, Cambridge 1998, 828 pp. 

Laprise, R, 2008: Regional climate modelling. J. Comput. Phys, 

227, 3641-3666. 

Lorenz, E. N.: Climate predictability. In: The Physical Basis of Climate 

and Climate Modelling, WMO GARP Publ. Ser. No. 16, 

1975, 265 pp. 

McGuffie, K, and A. Henderson-Sellers, 2001: Forty years of numerical 

climate modelling. Int. J Climatol., 12, 1067 - 1109. 

Mote, P., and A. O’Neill, Numerical Modeling of the Global Atmosphere 

in the Climate System. Kluwer Academic Publishers 

2000, Boston, Massachusetts, 517 pp. 

Phillips, N. A., 1956: The general circulation of the atmosphere: 

a numerical experiment. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc. 82, 123– 

154. 

Richardson, L. F.: Weather prediction by numerical processes. 

Cambridge University Press (reprinted by Dover Publications, 

1966), 236 pp. 

Schlesinger, M (ed.): Physically-based modelling and simulation of 

climate and climatic change - Part 1 and 2, Nato ASI Series C, 

No 243,Kluwer Academic Publisher, Dordrecht 1988, 1084 pp. 

Washington, W., and C. Parkinson: An introduction to three-dimensional 

climate modeling. University Science books, 1986, 

Mill Valley, CA, 322 pp. 

WMO, The World Meteorological Organisation: The physical basis 

of climate and climate modelling. Garp Publication series No 

16, WMO/ICSU, Geneva 1975, 265 pp. 

35



A snowflake in a million degree plasma 

Y. Martin, B. Labit, H. Reimerdes, W. Vijvers 

CRPP, EPFL, Association EURATOM – Confédération Suisse, CH-1015 Lausanne 

Introduction 

Fusion is the energy that powers the stars. Harnessing fusion 

on Earth would offer the world almost inexhaustible, 

environmentally clean and safe energy, see box 1. Research 

and development performed during a few decades already 

brought significant results. In the domain of magnetic confinement, 

for instance, 16MW of fusion power have been 

produced in the JET tokamak [1] in 1997. Since then an 

international collaboration was set to build the next step 

device, ITER 1 , the first fusion reactor that would deliver 

500 MW of fusion power, 10 times the power injected into 

the device, see box 2. Recently, the European fusion scientists, 

under the banner of European Fusion Development 

Agreement 2 (EFDA), developed and published a roadmap 3 

that describes the steps and the challenges to achieve the 

production of electricity from fusion before 2050, see box 

3. The steps consist in completing the construction of ITER, 

operating ITER, designing, building and operating DEMO, a 

prototype reactor that would provide the electrical network 

1 ITER: www.iter.org 

2 EFDA: www.efda.org 

3 Fusion roadmap: http://www.efda.org/efda/activities/the-road-tofusion-electricity/ 

with several hundreds of MW. The roadmap is divided into 

8 missions, including the 'heat exhaust' issue: if one extrapolates 

from the present devices to a reactor grade device, 

the heat flux density produced by particles escaping 

from the plasma would reach levels that may exceed the 

material capabilities. To mitigate the heat flux impact several 

strategies are proposed. One of these strategies aims 

at the exploration of the so-called snowflake configuration. 

The scientists of the CRPP-EPFL were the first to realise a 

snowflake configuration in a tokamak, thanks to the high 

shaping capability of the TCV tokamak but especially to 

the hard work of these dedicated scientists. It should be 

emphasized that this work was subsequently awarded the 

R&D100 prize in 2012 4 . This paper presents the achieved 

snowflake configuration and its advantages with respect to 

heat exhaust. 

Plasma configuration 

The TCV tokamak is equipped with 16 independently driven 

poloidal field coils that are used for shaping the plasma. 

Depending on the combination of coil currents, the plas- 

4 R&D magazine: http://www.rdmag.com/award-winners/2012/08/highperformance-tokamak-exhaust 

Fusion 

The fusion of hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium, 

is the easiest reaction that could be implemented 

on Earth, because of its higher cross section at a lower 

temperature than other possible reactions. 

Temperatures of about 100 MºC must be achieved 

so that fusion power becomes exploitable. Before 

reaching these temperatures, a gas turns to plasma 

wherein particles are ionised. 

Magnetic fields then provide a good way to guide the 

ionised particles. 

The most attractive magnetic confinement device so 

far is the tokamak, a toroidal device wherein a poloidal 

field, induced by a toroidal current, is superimposed to 

a toroidal magnetic field to form the magnetic structure 

that guides and maintains the plasma away from the 

vacuum vessel walls. In addition poloidal field coils are 

used to shape the plasma. 

To reach the required temperatures, the plasma is heated 

by either energetic neutral particles or by microwaves 

delivering their power in the plasma through 

different possible resonant schemes. 

The CRPP-EPFL tokamak, called TCV 1 for 'Tokamak 

à Configuration Variable' has a high shaping capability 

and an Electron Cyclotron Heating (ECH) system of 4.5 

MW. 

Figure: The CRPP-EPFL Tokamak à Configuration Variable (TCV). 

Cyan: vacuum vessel; green: main toroidal field coils; orange: 

poloidal field coils (for plasma current induction and plasma shaping); 

yellow: microwave launchers; pink: plasma. TCV diameter: 

3.3m 

1 http://crpp.epfl.ch/research_TCV 

36


ma either lies against the carbon tile covered wall of the 

vacuum vessel, the so-called limited configuration, or is 

fully detached from the wall thanks to the presence of a null 

point in the poloidal field (X-point) and the resulting separatrix 

that delimits the plasma as shown in Fig. 1. In the 

latter configuration, the so-called divertor configuration, the 

plasma is not in immediate contact with the wall. Particles 

that escape from the plasma are diverted towards the vessel 

wall, along the 'separatrix legs', towards a more remote 

position than in the limited configuration. In addition, the 

journey of particles escaping from a diverted plasma is particularly 

long because the low value of the poloidal field in 

the vicinity of the X-point leads to almost entirely toroidal 

trajectories. For these reasons, higher performances can 

be achieved in diverted plasmas, making this configuration 

most suitable for fusion reactors. 

However, those escaping particles may damage the surface 

of the divertor because they deposit their significant 

energy on a relatively small area leading to unacceptably 

high heat flux densities. The snowflake configuration has 

been proposed as a potential solution to mitigate the strong 

heat flux in the divertor. 

and SF-, reflecting the excess or lack of current flowing in 

the conductors, respectively. The distance between the two 

X-points, indicated by the green crosses, normalized by the 

minor radius of the plasma torus, is used as the measure, 

denoted s, of the proximity to the perfect snowflake. 

SF+ SF SF- 

I d1 

I p 

(a) ( b ) ( c) 

Figure 2: Schematic representation of a perfect snowflake configuration 

(b). Upper lobe represents the plasma while the lower lobes 

encompass the current conductors. A small vertical displacement 

of the plasma would generate the (a) or (c) configurations depending 

of the direction of the displacement. 

I d2 

(a) SF+ (b) SF (c) SF- 

1 

1 

1 

#19421 t=2.2s 

#24239 t=0.37s 

2 

4 

2 

4 

2 

4 

Figure 1: Comparison of plasma cross-sections in the limited (left, 

19421) and diverted (right, 24239) configurations. Also shown are 

the vessel and plasma shaping coils cross-sections. 

Snowflake configuration 

A snowflake configuration is obtained when not only the 

poloidal field vanishes, as in the diverted configuration, but 

also its first derivatives. This second order null implies that 

six separatrix sprout from the X-point instead of four for the 

diverted configuration, as shown in sketch (b) of Fig. 2. The 

name 'snowflake' comes from this 6-fold geometry. In the 

sketch, the upper lobe represents the plasma enclosed in 

its separatrix while the lower lobes encompass two poloidal 

field coils. The vacuum vessel then cuts both lower lobes 

resulting in four separatrix legs instead of two. It directly 

reveals the advantage of such a configuration: the heat flux 

power may be diverted towards four sections of the vacuum 

vessel walls, thereby reducing the heat flux densities 

onto the divertor plates. If the configuration slightly deviates 

from the perfect snowflake shown in Fig. 2b, it produces the 

other configurations shown in Fig. 2. These variants of the 

snowflake configuration are labelled SF+ (snowflake plus) 

37 

1 

2 

3 

4 

1 

2 

3 

3 3 

3 

Figure 3: Equilibrium reconstruction and tangential views of the 

plasma obtained with a CCD camera at three different times during 

a plasma discharge in which the plasma was vertically displaced 

to go through the variant configurations shown in Fig. 2. 

4 

1 

2 

3 

4


The snowflake configuration was proposed by Ryutov et al 

[2,3]. It was experimentally realised for the first time in the 

TCV tokamak at the CPPP-EPFL [4] and then reproduced in 

the NSTX spherical tokamak at the Princeton Plasma Physics 

Laboratory [5] and more recently in the DIII-D tokamak 

at General Atomics [6]. 

Fig. 3 shows an example of a TCV discharge wherein the 

plasma was vertically shifted to reveal the different snowflake 

configurations described in the schematic representation 

(Fig. 2). The plasma equilibrium reconstructions, based 

on magnetic measurements, are shown in the first row. The 

numbering 1-4 helps to identify the regions where the separatrix 

legs reach the vacuum vessel walls. Locations 1 & 4 

are called primary locations since they correspond to the 

divertor legs of the traditional divertor configuration (field 

lines surrounding the plasma hit the wall at the primary location). 

In opposition locations 2 & 3 are called secondary 

regions due to the absence of direct connection with the 

vicinity of the plasma. 

The second row exhibits tangential views of the plasma 

obtained with a CCD camera. Since most line radiation 

originates from relatively "cold" plasma, the measurement 

of the emitted visible light provides an excellent mean to 

locate the edge of the plasma as well as the separatrix legs. 

This series of measurements shows a clear agreement between 

both information sources. 

In all three cases shown in Fig. 3, the emitted light clearly 

reveals that all separatrix become active. This suggests 

that the low poloidal field in the vicinity of the null point enhances 

the cross-field transport. If this transport were sufficiently 

large it could not only distribute the heat among four 

divertor legs instead of two, but also widen the power flux 

ITER 

ITER, currently under construction in the south of France, 

aims to demonstrate that fusion is an energy source of 

the future. ITER is a collaboration between European Union, 

including Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, China, 

India, Russia and United States. 

Main goals 

• Ratio of fusion power to input power larger than 10 

(Q>10) 

• Fusion power up to 500 MW 

• Test of key technologies such as divertor materials 

and blanket modules wherein neutrons will deliver 

their energy and breed tritium 

Main parameters 

• Plasma major & minor radii: 6.2 m & 2 m 

• Toroidal field: 5.3T 

• Plasma current: 15 MA 

• Plasma duration: 500 s 

Figure: ITER. Orange: divertor; dark blue: blanket modules. ITER diameter: 28.6m 

38


channel at each leg and thereby further reduce the power 

flux density onto material surfaces. Dedicated measurements 

were done in the most promising scenario for ITER: 

the H-mode. 

H-mode and snowflakes 

In the early 1980's, tokamak experiments performed in 

diverted configuration revealed the existence of an operational 

regime wherein the confinement of particles and 

energy suddenly increases by a factor of two [7]. It was 

called H-mode regime (H for 'high') and has since been obtained 

in most tokamaks. By comparing results obtained 

in several devices it was shown that the additional heating 

power should exceed a threshold that depends on the 

plasma density, the plasma size and the main toroidal field 

[8]. The improvement in the plasma confinement properties 

observed in this H-mode regime makes it the selected 

operational mode for the ITER baseline scenario. Unfortunately, 

H-modes are generally accompanied with plasma 

edge instabilities (ELM) that repeatedly release particles towards 

the divertor in sharp bursts that threaten the divertor 

material. 

H-modes are also regularly obtained and investigated in 

TCV diverted plasmas. Soon after the realisation of the 

first snowflake in TCV, efforts have been dedicated to the 

search for H-modes in snowflake configuration and results 

came soon: the access to the H-mode regime occurs at approximately 

the same power as in the quadrupole diverted 

configuration. The confinement improvement is similar or 

even slightly better. 

Regarding the heat flux to the divertor, dedicated measurements 

were performed. The high pressure observed near 

Fusion electricity – EFDA roadmap 

European scientists established the necessary steps 

and challenges that should be solved in order to realise 

a fusion reactor that would provide the electrical 

network with electricity before 2050. 

Steps 

• 2012-2020: Construction of ITER 

• 2020-2030: Exploitation of ITER 

• 2030-2050: Construction and exploitation of 

DEMO 

Challenges 

• Plasma regimes of operation 

• Heat exhaust 

• Neutron resistant materials 

• Tritium self-sufficiency 

• Integration of intrinsic safety features 

• Integrated DEMO design 

• Competitive cost of electricity 

• Stellarator 

The roadmap to fusion electricity can be downloaded 

from: http://www.efda.org/efda/activities/the-road-tofusion-electricity/ 

the second order null even increased the cross-field transport 

relative to the conventional configuration. This resulted 

in an efficient distribution of the power on the secondary 

divertor regions as shown in Fig. 4. The power deposited 

onto the divertor tiles, measured in regions labelled 1 and 

3 in Fig. 3, shows a strong reduction in the primary divertor 

region while the secondary zone receives a significantly 

larger fraction. [9]. 

Fraction of ELM energy loss (%) 

100 

80 

60 

40 

20 

Snowflake 

Primary region 

Second. region 

Traditional 

divertor 

0 

0 0.5 1 1.5 

σ 

Figure 4: Fraction of the ELM energy loss reaching two of the divertor 

plates as a function of s, the measure of the proximity to the 

perfect snowflake (perfect at s=0). When the snowflake is formed 

by decreasing s below 0.75, up to 20% of the power (red curve) 

reaches the divertor at the additional location (label 3 in Fig. 3) 

while the power decreases (blue curve) at the primary location (label 

1 in Fig. 3). 

Conclusions 

CRPP-EPFL scientists have demonstrated the feasibility 

of the snowflake configuration and shown the advantage 

of the corresponding increase of the number of separatrix 

legs, in the form of a significant reduction of the heat flow 

onto the divertor plates. While snowflakes will not likely be 

achievable in ITER, design studies for the subsequent device, 

DEMO, are evaluating the snowflake configuration as 

a potential divertor solution. 

[1] M. Keilhacker et al., Nucl. Fus. 39 (1999) 209. 

[2] D. D. Ryutov et al., Phys. Plasmas 14 (2007) 064502. 

[3] D. D. Ryutov et al., Phys. Plasmas 15 (2008) 092501. 

[4] F. Piras et al., Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 51 (2009) 055009. 

[5] V. A. Soukhanovskii et al., Phys. Plasmas 19 (2012) 082504. 

[6] S. L. Allen et al., 24th IAEA FEC Conf. 2012, PD/1-2. 

[7] F. Wagner et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 49 (1982) 1408. 

[8] Y. Martin et al., Jou. Phys. Conf. Ser. 123 (2008) 012033. 

[9] W. Vijvers et al., IAEA FEC Conf. 2012, San Diego, US. 

39


An Industrial Lab Grows in Switzerland 

As the Zurich Lab recognizes its 50 th year in the leafy Zurich 

suburb of Rüschlikon, a closer look inspects the details of 

how this lab became the home of four Nobel Prize laureates 

and countless innovations spanning material sciences, 

communications, analytics and Big Data. 

There are several reasons why IBM was considering a research 

lab outside of the United States in the 1950s. At this 

time IBM was in its heyday. The company was financially 

strong, and the success of the recently opened San Jose 

lab made the management realize the benefits of having research 

conducted with the support of headquarters in New 

York, but without the local stress and peer pressure. 

Physics Anecdotes (17) 

IBM Research – Zurich, a Success Story 

Chris Sciacca and Christophe Rossel 

Switzerland wasn’t IBM’s first option for a European research 

lab; London and Amsterdam were also on the short 

list, and in 1955 an IBM electrical engineer named Arthur 

Samuel was tasked with scouting the three cities. 

Fig. 1. The building of IBM Research in Adliswil in 1956. Inset: Ambros 

Speiser, first lab director, in discussion with Thomas Watson 

Jr., CEO of IBM 

While officials in England were receptive to the idea, the 

proposed location was in the suburbs of London that he described 

as, "the most dismal places that I have ever seen." 

And shortly after, Samuel passed on England and travelled 

to Switzerland, to a completely different experience - he 

never made it on to Amsterdam. 

Simultaneously, as Samuel was visiting Switzerland, Ambros 

Speiser, a young Swiss electrical engineer from ETH 

Zurich, had applied for positions at Remington Rand and 

IBM. He never got a response from Rand, but by that summer 

Speiser became an IBMer. 

How to Build a Research Lab 

Now that Speiser was on board he was tasked with building 

a new laboratory, and the challenges he faced were 

immense. 

As he tells it in the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 

[1], "There was no established pattern to follow - an industrial 

laboratory, separate from production facilities, did not 

exist in Switzerland." 

But Speiser knew he needed to be close to Zurich, its universities 

and within reach of public transport. After viewing 

a number of locations, he decided to rent the wing of a 

Swiss stationary company in Adliswil, which was at the end 

of a tram line and only a few kilometers from the city. 

Having the building for the new lab, Speiser needed brilliant 

scientists and engineers. Leveraging his acquaintances, 

professional societies and contacts at ETH, he began a 

recruiting campaign and quickly amassed a team from all 

parts of Europe. 

The goal set by IBM management was to build new and 

better computer hardware. At the time everyone knew that 

vacuum tubes would be replaced by solid-state circuits, 

40 

so it was obvious that IBM should begin developing transistors 

and magnetic devices, but this was never formalized. 

This lack of direction weighed heavily on Speiser’s mind because 

he knew that similar research was being conducted 

inside and outside of IBM and that they would never achieve 

the global recognition he so desired by doing the same 

science as everyone else. 

After building a stronger rapport with Research’s new management 

team in 1958, Speiser was given new direction 

for the Zurich Lab to change from electronics to physics, 

with a focus on solid-state as the basis for electronic devices 

of the future. 

Once again Speiser went on recruiting missions across Europe 

to find young, creative physicists. Little did he know 

at the time that he was also laying the groundwork for what 

would become a renowned team for decades to come. 

Fig. 2. Hans Peter Louis one of the earlier research staff members 

in the 50’s, in front of a prototype technology called the phototron, 

which was never finished.


Moving to Rüschlikon 

In addition to electrical engineering and physics, Speiser 

soon added a mathematics department, and quickly the lab 

was outgrowing its modest space in Adliswil. Knowing that 

the growth would continue and to establish a more stable 

reputation, he requested approval from Thomas Watson Jr., 

IBM’s CEO at the time and son of the founder, to look for 

a new location where the lab would have its own facilities. 

Again, Speiser knew the new lab had to be close to the city, 

the airport, but most importantly to ETH Zurich, and after 

some debate a 10-acre site was purchased in Rüschlikon 

for $400,000. 

As for the actual design of the lab, Speiser’s main tenant 

was that it created spaces for personal interaction, which 

he referred to as "a vital process for a research laboratory". 

To assure this idea, instead of building up, he wanted 

the lab to be horizontal with long corridors to encourage 

chance meetings, similar to the design of Bell Laboratories 

in New Jersey. It was also important for the lab to have a 

proper cafeteria for informal discussion and an auditorium 

for guest lectures. While initially this was met with some 

skepticism because of its costs, he eventually got his wish 

and construction started in 1961. The lab was officially inaugurated 

in front of several hundred guests on 23 May 

1963, that is, 50 years ago. 

Fig. 3. Introduced in 1956, the IBM 305 RAMAC (Random Access 

Memory Accounting System) was an electronic general purpose 

data-processing machine that maintained business records on a 

real-time basis. The 305 RAMAC was one of the last vacuum tube 

systems designed by IBM, and more than 1000 of them were built 

before production ended in 1961. 

Impacting the Future of the Lab 

In the coming decade, the groundwork of Speiser and his 

successor began to bear fruit. The idea to start a physics 

department resulted in the hiring of Heinrich Rohrer and 

Karl Alex Müller, who through their research and subsequent 

publications began to cement a strong reputation for 

the Zurich Lab, which reached its apex in the mid-80s when 

these two scientists and their colleagues Gerd Binnig and 

Georg Bednorz were recognized with the Nobel Prize for 

Physics in 1986 and 1987. 

This period also saw the addition of a new line of research 

in communications. Once again the lab succeeded with the 

development of the token ring and trellis-coded modulation, 

each playing a critical role in making the Internet what 

it is today. 

By 1987 the lab also had its own manufacturing line for 

semiconductor lasers which were used by telecommunication 

equipment manufacturers. The research became 

so successful that the Uniphase Corporation acquired the 

technology and the people from IBM for $45 million, a huge 

sum for the future telecommunications giant with only 500 

people at the time. 

The Crash and Recovery 

With the end of the 80s, towards the mid-90s, IBM found 

itself in a dire position. IBM’s near-death experience was 

caused by its failure to recognize that the 40-year-old mainframe 

computing model was out of touch with the needs of 

clients, and other firms like Sun Microsystems pounced on 

the opportunity. 

This experience also impacted IBM Research. Throughout 

the 1970s IBM Research was corporate funded, it had its 

own research agenda and occasionally it did some technology 

transfer, but it was not done in a very coordinated 

manner because the funding kept coming every year and 

the profit margins were strong. This afforded the scientists 

the freedom they needed. 

By the 1980s IBM began doing more applied research, and 

management took a more active role in influencing the direction 

in which the developments had to go. For example, 

IBM started joint programs between Research and the 

product divisions with a shared agenda that both parties, 

Research and Development, had to agree upon. IBM also 

created collaborative teams to accelerate the transfer of 

research results which went into products spanning from 

storage to personal computers. It’s strange to look back at 

this now, as today this seems so obvious. 

In the 1990s change truly came. To preserve Research, scientists 

in Zurich tried to become more proactive in working 

on actual customer problems. At the time this was unheard 

of at IBM and a large reason why the company stumbled. 

The idea was to interact with clients, gain insights into their 

challenges, and find solutions. The concept was a great 

success, and in 2000 the Zurich Lab opened up a dedicated 

facility called the Industry Solutions Lab (ISL), with the 

goal of hosting and interacting with clients on a daily basis. 

Today, there are similar facilities around the world hosting 

hundreds of clients every month and working directly with 

clients. This is a fundamental strategy across all twelve IBM 

Research labs on the six continents. "The world is now our 

lab," as says Dr. John E. Kelly III, IBM senior vice president 

and director of Research. 

IBM Research in Zurich Today 

Under the direction of seven successive lab directors, the 

expansion in Zurich continued well into 2000s. Today, there 

are five departments, namely, storage, computer science 

and systems in addition to physics (science and technology) 

and mathematics (mathematics and computational 

sciences). 

41


In addition, the lab has a new cutting-edge facility called 

the Binnig and Rohrer Nanotechnology Center, named for 

the two Nobel Laureates. When the current lab director requested 

the funding to upgrade the existing clean rooms on 

the campus he was greeted with a pleasant surprise: "I was 

told to make it much bigger and to find a partner. ETH Zurich 

was an obvious and logical choice," says Dr. Matthias 

Kaiserswerth, the current director of IBM Research - Zurich. 

No one could have predicted it, but Speiser’s intuition to 

keep the lab close to ETH Zurich was a fortuitous decision. 

Nobel Laureates K. Alex Müller, Georg Bednorz and Heinrich 

Rohrer all came from ETH. And now nearly 60 years 

later, the partners built a $90 million facility, which features 

a large clean room and in particular six Noise Free Labs 

unlike any in the world. 

Outside of the nano world, IBM scientists are working on 

some of the greatest challenges of our society today. 

On Earth Day 2013, scientists in Zurich announced that 

they will be building an affordable photovoltaic system 

capable of concentrating solar radiation 2,000 times and 

converting 80 percent of the incoming radiation into useful 

energy. The system can also provide desalinated water and 

cool air in sunny, remote locations where both are often in 

short supply. 

Another team is collaborating with a consortium of scientists 

in the Netherlands and South Africa on extremely fast, 

but low-power exascale computer systems aimed at developing 

advanced technologies for handling the Big Data 

that will be produced by the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), 

the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope that 

consortium will build. 

And to improve the much-strained energy grid, IBM scientists 

are collaborating with utility companies in Denmark, 

Austria and Switzerland to improve to balance between demand 

and the supply of renewable energy. 

While much has changed at IBM Research – Zurich, the 

essence of collaboration and the spirit of innovation and 

excellence that Speiser envisioned remains true to this day. 

Fig. 4. The newly built Binnig and Rohrer Nanotechnology Center 

and as inset an example of the complete atomic structure of a 

pentacene molecule resolved by AFM [2]. The extreme resolution 

of the C, H atoms and chemical bonds is achieved by the CO molecule 

attached to the tip. 

[1] A. P. Speiser, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 20(1), 15 

(Jan.-March 1998). 

[2] L. Gross, F. Mohn, N. Moll, P. Liljeroth, G. Meyer, Science 325, 

1110 (2009). 

On April 29 this year the Herschel space observatory exhausted 

its supply of helium that cooled the sensors in the 

far-infrared and submillimeter range, wavelengths that cannot 

be observed from the ground. Herschel was put into the 

Lagrange position L2 in the Sun-Earth system, 1.5 million 

kilometres from us. Four years after its launch by the European 

Space Agency (ESA), the mission completed its novel 

observations about how stars and thus galaxies form and 

evolve throughout the universe. The Herschel observatory 

was sent to space with 2,300 litres of superfluid helium. The 

helium was pumped around the spacecraft in such a way as 

to cool the three observing instruments and gradually evaporated 

in the process. Herschel cannot observe without 

cooling below 1 K in the most critical components, but the 

amount was limited and chosen to outlast the expected lifetime 

of the cutting-edge, but new-to-space electronics. 

Herschel exceeded expectations both in technology and 

science. The technical developments required by the unusual 

observing wavelengths delayed the start by more than 

two years. Swiss industry provided the large cryostat and 

Goodbye Herschel 

Arnold Benz, ETH Zürich 

42 

the optical assemblies for the HIFI instrument; the low-noise 

low-power indium phosphide amplifiers for HIFI (Heterodyne 

Instrument for the Far Infrared) were developed at 

ETH Zürich, software for HIFI at the Fachhochschule FHNW 

in Windisch. After four years in space all three instruments 

on board were still fully operational. 

Herschel's observations have revealed the cosmos in unprecedented 

detail at these wavelengths. This raised interest 

in the astronomical community and resulted in 160 

"first results papers" within the first four months of scientific 

data taking. However, most results emerged and still do 

so after careful data analysis, modelling and interpretation. 

Some highlights of my personal selection are described below. 

Herschel observations allowed studying galaxies in the 

early universe that form stars at prodigious rates and apparently 

also in the absence of mergers. Other processes 

like inflowing intergalactic streams of cold gas may thus 

be equally effective. In nearby active galaxies, on the other


The region of ionized molecules in the inner parts of star 

and planet forming regions is certainly a field of future research. 

On the other hand, O 2 

, also not observable from the 

ground, was much harder to detect than predicted. Free 

oxygen, not bound to carbon monoxide, doesn’t seem to 

be in molecular gas form, but might hide in silicates of the 

interstellar dust. 

The Herschel image is a composite of observations at 70 (blue), 

160 (green), and 250 – 500 μm (red) wavelengths indicating hot, 

warm and cold regions, respectively. The image size is 2×2 degree 

in the constellation of the Southern Cross. Note cloud cores (white 

dots) located on filaments (Credit: ESA and the SPIRE & PACS 

consortia). 

intensity 

hand, Herschel found for the first time vast amounts of outflowing 

molecular gas that may deplete a galaxy's supply 

to form new stars. 

In observations of our own galaxy, Herschel identified the 

presence of a filamentary network in the gas of molecular 

clouds, filaments which contain cloud cores that will collapse 

under their own weight to form stars. Herschel demonstrated 

that filaments are nearly everywhere in clouds 

and that they are a key to star formation. It is not clear how 

filaments originate; intersecting shock waves and magnetic 

fields are proposed. 

A chief goal of Herschel is the study of the chemical composition 

of cosmic objects through high-resolution spectroscopy, 

and in particular the search for water in the gas 

state, which cannot be observed from the ground. Of special 

interest at ETH Zürich were the chemical network of water 

in star formation and the evolution of protostellar disks. 

Herschel found gaseous water already in a cold pre-stellar 

core before the start of star formation. It amounts to a few 

million times the amount of water in the Earth's oceans. The 

10 million year old disc surrounding nearby star TW Hydrae 

still contains a water supply equivalent to several thousand 

times Earth's oceans. Disks older than some 60 million years 

were observed to contain not enough gas to form new 

planets. These findings suggest that water played an important 

role throughout the formation of the solar system. 

Several molecules were discovered in interstellar clouds for 

the first time. We modelled the chemistry in regions of star 

formation in an attempt to predict which molecules – especially 

ionised ones – exist there and could be used to 

infer the physical conditions. In particular, ultraviolet and 

X-ray irradiation change the chemistry and heat the collapsing 

envelope and its walls to the outflows. The surprise: 

new molecules in interstellar space, like SH + , OH + , and 

H 2 

O + were discovered to be more abundant than expected. 

frequency 

The Herschel space observatory has discovered ionized water, 

H 2 

O + , in absorption at a location where a massive star is forming 

in the W3 molecular cloud. The star- forming region in the Perseus 

spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy is completely opaque in visual 

light shown as background in colour (Diameter of image: 500 light 

years; credit: ESA/ETH Zürich/Sierra Remote Observatories, Don 

Goldman, CA, USA). 

The water profile in the atmospheres of Mars is studied at 

the University of Bern. For the first time the water vapour 

was determined from a global perspective yielding a view 

on overall seasonal changes. The group was also part of 

the team that discovered O 2 

in the Mars atmosphere. 

Two weeks after the end of the helium the Herschel observatory 

was moved away from the Lagrange point and the 

communication was terminated. The loss of pointing control 

ends the direct contact with Herschel. The observatory 

will slowly drift away from Earth and orbit indefinitely the 

Sun like a small planet. 

Herschel has observed more than we expected, but the 

project is not over yet. More than 35,000 scientific observations 

were executed with Herschel, and more than 50.000 

lines have been detected with the HIFI instrument alone. 

They will eventually be identified, analyzed in more detail, 

and modelled. Only limited parts of the data are fully exploited. 

It will probably be a long time before the next opportunity 

to gather this kind of data in space. Due to the breadth 

and completeness throughout the entire wavelength range, 

the Herschel data are bound to be unparalleled for many 

years to come. In a year, all the data will become a public 

legacy. Most important will be their combination with 

observations at other wavelengths, such as the millimetre/ 

submillimetre telescope ALMA in Chile. ESA has just announced 

a Herschel data analysis course for beginners. 

43


Structural MEMS Testing 

Alex Dommann and Antonia Neels* 

EMPA, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, 9014 St. Gallen, alex.dommann@empa.ch 

*CSEM, Microsystems Technology Division, 2002 Neuchâtel 

In single crystal silicon (SCSi) based devices, stress and 

loading in operation introduces defects during the Micro- 

ElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) life time and increases 

the risk of failure. Reliability studies on potential 

failure sources have an impact on MEMS design and are 

essential to assure the long term functioning of the device. 

Defects introduced by Deep Reactive-Ion Etching (DRIE), 

thermal annealing, dicing and bonding and also the device 

environment (radiations, temperature) influence the crystalline 

perfection and have a direct impact on the mechanical 

properties of MEMS and their aging behavior. Defects and 

deformations are analyzed using High Resolution X-ray Diffraction 

Methods (HRXRD) such as Reciprocal Space Maps 

(RSM). Micro systems technology can be highly reliable, 

but can be different from those of solid-state electronics. 

Therefore testing techniques must be developed to accelerate 

MEMS-specific failures [1 - 4]. 

which is detected via the broadening of the X-ray peak 

in a "rocking-curve" (RC) measurement. Analysis is performed 

with high resolution X-ray diffraction. The set-up is 

composed by curved multilayer x-ray mirrors named after 

Herbert Göbel (Göbel mirror) in front of the X-ray tube, followed 

by a monochromator for monochromatization and 

collimation of X-ray beams by using a 4-Crystal monochromator 

with two channel-cut Ge [220] called Bartels monochromator 

(Fig. 2). Two configurations are possible for the 

diffracted beam side, depending on the methods applied: 

Rocking curve (RC) or Reciprocal space map (RSM). Both 

methods allow measuring strain and defects concentration 

in a crystal. The instrument used for HRXRD is shown (Figure 

1). 

New MEMS fabrication processes and packaging concepts 

find applications in areas where a high reliability is needed 

such as in aerospace, automotive or watch industry. This 

creates a strong demand in quality control and failure analysis 

and also brings new challenges, particularly in the fields 

of testing and qualification. Non-destructive HRXRD methods 

are applied to monitor the mobility of defects and strain 

Figure 1: Diffractometer used for HRXRD applications. 

HRXRD allows measuring the strain of a crystal with high 

resolution (Fig. 1). We use HRXRD to assess the strain in 

DRIE etched processed silicon beams. Strain deforms the 

silicon beam leading to an appreciable sample curvature 

A rocking curve (RC) is obtained as angular distribution 

of the reflected X-ray beam, when the detector is 

set at a specific Bragg angle and when the sample is 

rotated about small angles normal to the Bragg plane 

axis. The rocking curve is broadened by disruptions of 

the plane parallelity and by crystal defects like those 

introduced by mechanical stress. Reciprocal space 

mapping (RSM) adds, by the restriction of the angular 

acceptance of the detector, another dimension to 

the information available from the HRXRD experiment. 

Strain and tilt elements being present in a sample are 

identified separately. An excellent introduction to both 

analytical methods can be found at http://prism.mit. 

edu/xray/tutorials.htm. See 'Basics of High Resolution 

X-Ray Diffraction for Studying Epitaxial Thin Films'. 

Fig 2: Diffractometer setup for RSM’s (detector position 1) and RC’s (detector position 2) 

44


As the Q-factor is not only dependent on the vacuum level 

of the MEMS cavity but also on the strain state of the device, 

the simultaneous data collection for the Q factor determination 

and the strain state is evident. The packaging 

induced strain created at the important interfaces such as 

the interfaces close to the bonding material and more importantly 

to the device layer has been analyzed by means 

of X-ray Rocking Curves (Fig. 3). The stress profile can be 

determined. Especially the strain close to the functional device 

is important as the strain state influences the application 

relevant physical parameters such as the resonance 

frequency and the Q factor in resonator. 

The combination of functional testing with state-of-the-art 

X-ray methods for the evaluation of defect and strain gradients 

will serve as a useful tool for setting up a fundamental 

understanding of the reliability and also aging problems of 

MEMS. 

References 

Figure 3: Schematic HRXRD measurement setup and silicon crystal 

orientation (top) and measured rocking curves RC’s from the 

bonding interface 1 of the device layer to the bonding interface 2 

(bottom) resulting in a stress profiling. 

and along the MEMS fabrication and packaging processes. 

RSM is a powerful tool for evaluating the strain state of 

the entire structure. Due to the much more limited vertical 

divergence and the very small horizontal divergence of 

the RSM settings, it is possible to get a 'g-function like' 

reciprocal-space probe which is almost invariant over the 

Ewald sphere. Figure 2 shows a setup used for measuring 

such RSMs. 

HRXRD is a very sensitive and non-destructive technique 

for determining the strain in MEMS devices. 

An example of such a test structure is a silicon based piezoelectric 

resonator (Fig. 3), developed at CSEM, targeting 

vacuum hermetic wafer-level packaging technology [5]. The 

monitoring of quality factors (Q) for the resonators permits 

to evaluate the pressure level (hermeticity) of the device 

cavity and the leakage rate. 

[1] A. Dommann, A. Neels, “Reliability of MEMS” (2011), Proceedings 

of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, 

7928, art. no. 79280B. 

[2] A. Neels, A. Dommann, A. Schifferle, O. Papes, E. Mazza, Reliability 

and Failure in Single Crystal Silicon MEMS Devices, Microelectronics 

Reliability, 48, 1245-1247, 2008. 

[3] Herbert R. Shea ; Reliability of MEMS for space applications, 

Proc. SPIE Int. Soc. Opt. Eng. 6111, 61110A (2006). 

[4] Schweitz, J.-Å; Mechanical Characterization of Thin Films by 

Micromechanical Techniques, MRS Bulletin, XVII, 7, 1992, pp.34- 

45. 

[5] J. Baborowski, et al. "Wafer level packaging technology for 

silicon resonators", Procedia Chemistry 1, 1535-1538 (July 2009). 

Alex Dommann's research concentrates on the 

structuring, coating and characterization of thin films, 

MEMS and interfaces. In July 2013 he was appointed 

Head of Departement "Materials meet Life" at Empa, 

Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and 

Technology. He is member of different national and international 

committees. 

Antonia Neels is heading the XRD Application Lab of 

CSEM’s Microsystems Technology Division. She has a 

broad experience in the application of X-ray diffraction 

methods for microsystems (MEMS) and thin films with 

respect to quality control and failure mode analysis. 

Kurzmitteilungen (Fortsetzung) 

Felicitas Pauss und Karl Gademann neu im Vorstand SCNAT 

Die Physikerin Felicitas Pauss und der Chemiker Karl Gademann 

sind an der Delegiertenversammlung der Akademie 

der Naturwissenschaften Schweiz (SCNAT) am 24. Mai 

2013 in Bern neu in den Vorstand gewählt worden. Zudem 

wurde der Verein Schweizerischer Naturwissenschaftslehrerinnen 

und -lehrer in die Akademie aufgenommen. Die 

Professorin für Experimentelle Teilchenphysik, Felicitas 

Pauss, forscht an der ETH Zürich und am CERN in Genf, 

wo sie die «Internationalen Beziehungen» führt. Karl Gademann 

ist Professor für organische Chemie an der Universität 

Basel und aktueller Präsident der Platform Chemistry 

der SCNAT. 2012 wurde er mit dem renommierten Latsis- 

Preis ausgezeichnet. Felicitas Pauss nimmt ab Juni 2013 

Einsitz im Vorstand, Karl Gademann ab Januar 2014. In den 

Vorstand wiedergewählt wurde Helmut Weissert von der 

ETH Zürich. 

Quelle: SCNAT Newsletter Juni 2013 

45


Paul Scherrer Institute: User facilities - calls for proposals 

The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Villigen operates four 

major user laboratories: a third generation X-ray synchrotron 

source (SLS), the only continuous spallation neutron 

source worldwide (SINQ), the world’s most powerful continuous-beam 

μSR facility (SμS) and a meson factory for 

fundamental nuclear and elementary particle physics (LTP). 

In fact, PSI is the only place worldwide to offer the three 

major probes for condensed matter research (synchrotron 

X-rays, neutrons and muons) on one campus. 

The installations are all open access user facilities and offer 

regular calls for proposals. 

More information is available here: 

http://www.psi.ch/useroffice/proposal-deadlines 

Contact address: 

Paul Scherrer Institute phone: +41-56-310-4666 

User Office 

email: useroffice@psi.ch 

5232 Villigen PSI 

User facility 

Proposal submission 

deadline 

SLS 

all beamlines, except PX-I,-II,-III Mar 15, Sep 15 

PX beamlines Feb 15, Jun 15, Oct 15 

SINQ 

all beamlines May 15, Nov 15 

SμS 

DOLLY, GPD, GPS, LEM and LTF Dec 10 

GPD, GPS and LTF June 11 

PARTICLE PHYSICS 

all Dec 10 

Physique et la Société 

Quand la Physique rejoint le Sport 

Christophe Rossel 

Une quarantaine d’étudiants et étudiantes en physique des 

universités suisses se sont réunis les 17 et 18 mai 2013 à 

Macolin pour un atelier de travail sur le thème Physique 

et Sport. Organisée dans le cadre du Forum des Jeunes 

Physiciens (YPF) en collaboration avec la Société Suisse 

de Physique (SSP) et l’office fédéral du sport (OFSPO) cette 

réunion a permis à ces jeunes de se rencontrer dans une 

atmosphère amicale. 

L’YPF a été créé en 2009 à l’instigation de la SSP, grâce au 

soutien financier de l’Académie suisse des sciences naturelles 

(SCNAT) et de sa plateforme MAP. Les buts du Forum 

sont d’encourager la communication entre les sociétés 

d’étudiants en physique entre elles, avec les physiciens 

professionnels membres de la SSP ainsi que de créer une 

plateforme pour discuter des sujets d’intérêts communs et 

organiser des évènements divers tels que visites ou séminaires. 

C’est dans ce contexte qu’a eu lieu ce premier workshop 

sur le splendide site de la Haute école fédérale de sport 

(HEFS) de Macolin. Arrivés le vendredi soir les étudiants 

ont été reçus officiellement par le recteur de cette école, 

Walter Mengisen, qui leur a décrit la fonction et les activités 

de l’OFSPO qui est un centre de prestations, de formation 

et d’entraînement au service du sport d’élite, du sport de 

compétition et du sport populaire. 

Après une soirée conviviale de discussion et de jeux au bar 

et la nuit passée au Grand Hôtel, les participants se sont 

retrouvés le samedi matin pour la série de conférences prévues 

au programme. Après une introduction générale sur le 

thème et l’organisation du workshop par Christophe Rossel, 

le premier conférencier, Didier Staudenman du département 

de médecine de l’université de Fribourg a présenté 

le sujet de la biomécanique et de l’activation musculaire 

à une audience attentive. En particulier, il a décrit la tech- 

Une partie des participants réunis devant le Grand Hôtel de Macolin avec une vue imprenable sur les alpes 

46


nique d'électromyographie (EMG) qui permet d'enregister 

et analyser les signaux électriques produits par les variations 

physiologiques des fibres musculaires. 

Dans une seconde présentation Pierre Cornu, avocat et 

conseiller juridique pour les affaires d’intégrité et de régulations 

à l’UEFA ainsi qu’au Centre international d’étude du 

sport (CIES) de Neuchâtel a développé le sujet des manipulations 

dans les compétitions sportives et la bonne gouvernance. 

De manière captivante avec maints exemples il 

a évoqué les paris illégaux, les manipulations en football, 

le dopage et ses effets pervers ainsi que les méthodes de 

contrôle et de sanctions disciplinaires. 

Pascal Arnold, doctorant à l’Institut des systèmes mécaniques 

de le l’ETHZ nous a ensuite expliqué les défis humains 

et technologiques dans le bobsleigh de compétition. 

De manière remarquable il nous a décrit toutes les étapes 

techniques dans la construction d’un bob professionnel 

qu’il a développé dans le cadre de sa thèse de doctorat. 

Par chance un exemplaire d’un tel bob a été exposé en 

présence du pilote professionnel Rico Peter de l’équipe Suisse. 

II qui a aussi répondu aux nombreuses questions. 

Démonstration d’agilité sur la slackline 

Changement de décors l’après-midi où l’occasion a été 

donnée de passer de la théorie à la pratique grâce au soutien 

organisationnel de Bruno Tschanz. Sous un soleil radieux 

et en tenue sportive les participants se sont rendus à la 

salle et au stade de la Fin du Monde pour tester différentes 

installations. Par exemple ils ont pu se mesurer aux professionnels 

de l’équipe de bob du Lichtenstein à la poussée 

d’engins d’entrainement similaires sur roues ou encore 

tester leur habileté d’équilibristes en slackline, ou littéralement 

corde souple. Dans ce sport créé dans les années 80, 

l’objectif est de se déplacer ou de faire des figures sur une 

sangle légèrement élastique et ceci sans aucun accessoire. 

Un autre clou des activités sportives a été sans conteste 

le football joué avec analyse des performances de chaque 

joueur, visionné sur petit écran après la partie. Enfin chacun 

a aussi pu tester les signaux induits par le mouvement de 

leur biceps grâce à un système de mesure électriques avec 

électrodes multiples et en comprendre les principes avec 

les explications de Didier Staudenman. 

Pascal Arnold présentant les caractéristiques techniques du bob 

Suisse II en présence de son pilote Rico Peter 

Tous les secrets de la mesure de position en sport nous ont 

été révélés par Martin Rumo de la Haute école fédérale de 

sport de Macolin. Il a expliqué les développements récents 

dans les instruments d’analyse de performance dans les 

sports d’élite et en particulier les méthodes de mesures locales 

de la position des joueurs de football et du ballon. En 

effet les données 3D obtenues en temps réel permettent un 

entraînement précis, une observation exacte et une analyse 

de chaque joueur et de l’équipe. 

Finalement le dernier conférencier, Benedikt Fasel du Laboratoire 

de mesure et d'analyse des mouvements de l’EPFL 

s’est exprimé sur les méthodes d’analyse du mouvement et 

en particulier sur la prévention des accidents dans les compétitions 

de ski alpin. Il a expliqué l’utilisation de senseurs 

inertiels placées sur le skieur, de caméras 3D ou du GPS 

pour mesurer la trajectoires, les forces et la dynamique du 

corps pendant la descente et comment utiliser les données 

pour optimaliser la géométrie des skis. 

Un bel exercice sportif, la poussée du bob à deux 

C’est enthousiastes et presque à regret que les participants 

ont quitté le site en fin d’après-midi pour retourner chez 

eux après une journée riche en information scientifique et 

technique et en activités sportives. 

47


Introduction 

History of Physics (8) 

On the Einstein-Grossmann Collaboration 100 Years ago 

Norbert Straumann, Institute for Theoretical Physics, Uni Zürich 

Einstein’s path to general relativity (GR) meandered steeply, 

encountered confusing forks, and also included a big U- 

turn. In this brief account I discuss in some detail Einstein's 

remarkable progress beginning in August 1912, after his 

second return to Zürich, until Spring 1913. Before we come 

to this, some indications of what he had already achieved 

until this period are necessary. 

In 1907, while writing a review article on special relativity 

(SR), Einstein speculated – attempting to understand the 

empirical equality of inertial and gravitational mass – on the 

possibility of extending the principle of relativity to accelerated 

motion, and added an important section on gravitation 

in his review [2] 1 . With this "basic idea", which he referred 

to as principle of equivalence, he went beyond the framework 

of SR. His (special formulation) of the equivalence 

principle – "the most fortunate thought of my life" – became 

the guiding thread in his search for a relativistic theory of 

gravitation. Until 1911 Einstein worked apparently mainly 

on the quantum puzzles and did not publish anything about 

gravitation, but continued to think about the problem. In 

[3] he writes: "Between 1909-1912 while I had to teach 

theoretical physics at the Zürich and Prague Universities I 

pondered ceaselessly on the problem". When Einstein realized 

in 1911 that gravitational light deflection should be 

experimentally observable [4], he took up the problem of 

gravitation again and began to "work like a horse" in developing 

a coherent theory of the static gravitational fields. 

Since he had found that the velocity of light depends on the 

gravitational potential, he concluded that the speed of light 

plays the role of the gravitational potential, and proposed a 

non-linear field equation, in which the gravitational energy 

density itself acts as a source of the gravitational potential. 

Therefore, the field equation implied that the principle of 

equivalence is valid only for infinitely small spatial regions. 

In the second of his Prague papers on "gravito-statics" [5] 

he also showed how the equations of electrodynamics and 

thermodynamics are modified in the presence of a static 

gravitational field. At this point he began to investigate the 

dynamical gravitational field. 

Einstein gains Marcel Grossmann as a collaborator 

When Einstein arrived in Zürich in early August, he was 

convinced that a metric field of spacetime, generalizing 

the Minkowski metric to a pseudo-Riemannian dynamical 

metric, was the right relativistic generalization of Newton’s 

potential. The main question was to find the basic equation 

for this field. But how to achieve this was in the dark 

and he looked for mathematical help. Fortunately, Marcel 

Grossmann, his old friend since his student time, was now 

also professor at the ETH and Einstein succeeded in gain- 

1 References to papers that have appeared in the Collected Papers of 

Albert Einstein (CPAE) [1] are always cited by volume and document of 

CPAE. 

48 

ing him as a collaborator in his search for the gravitational 

field equation. In a 1955 reminiscence, shortly before his 

death, Einstein wrote [3]: 

I was made aware of these [works by Ricci and Levi-Civita] 

by my friend Grossmann in Zürich, when I put the 

problem to investigate generally covariant tensors, whose 

components depend only on the derivatives of the coefficients 

of the quadratic fundamental invariant. 

He at once caught fire, although as a mathematician he 

had a somewhat sceptical stance towards physics. (...) 

He went through the literature and soon discovered that 

the indicated mathematical problem had already been 

solved, in particular by Riemann, Ricci and Levi-Civita. 

This entire development was connected to the Gaussian 

theory of curved surfaces, in which for the first time systematic 

use was made of generalized coordinates. 

Louis Kollros, another student friend of Einstein, who was 

also mathematics professor at the ETH during this time, remembered 

also in 1955 [6]: 

[Einstein] spoke to Grossmann about his troubles and 

said one day: "Grossmann, you must help me, otherwise 

I’ll go crazy ! ". 

The fruitful collaboration of 

Einstein and Grossmann 

led to the famous joint article 

with the modest title 

"Outline of a Generalized 

Theory of Relativity and a 

Theory of Gravitation" [7], 

one of the most important 

physics papers in the 

twentieth century. A lot of 

additional insight can be 

gained from Einstein’s detailed 

'Zürich Notebook' 

[8]. It is really fascinating 

Figure 1: Marcel Grossmann. 

to study these research 

notes, because one can see Einstein at work, and theoretical 

physics at its best: A delicate interplay between physical 

reasoning, based on an intuitive estimate of the most 

relevant empirical facts, and – equally important – mathematical 

structural aspects and requirements. We shall see 

that already late in 1912 Einstein came very close to his 

final theory, but physical and conceptual arguments, that 

will be discussed later, convinced him for a long time that – 

with "heavy heart" – he had to abandon the general covariance 

of the gravitational field equation. In a letter to Lorentz 

[9] he called this the "ugly dark spot" of the theory. With 

this decision, based on erroneous judgement, Einstein lost 

almost three years until physics and mathematics came 

into harmony in his beautiful general theory of relativity. 

The Einstein-Grossmann theory, published almost exactly 

hundred years ago, contains, however, virtually all essential 

elements of Einstein’s definite gravitation theory.


The corresponding Euler-Lagrange equation is the geodesic 

equation of motion for a point particle. Considering 

an incoherent dust distribution as an ensemble of particles, 

Einstein guesses that the energy-momentum conservation 

law of special relativity, n 

T mn = f m , with the energy-stress 

tensor T mn = 0 

u m u n ( 0 

= rest-mass matter density, u m = fourvelocity 

field) and an external force density f m , should be 

replaced by 

1 

mo 

( g g T ) 

1 

ab 

2o 

- nm - 2ngabT 

= 0 (2) 

-g 

2 

(g := det(g mn 

). The details of Einstein’s considerations are 

described in his Part I, Sect. 4 of the "Entwurf" paper by 

Einstein and Grossmann [7]. This is just an explicit form of 

the equation n 

T mn 

= 0, as stated by Grossmann in his Part II 

of [7]. Later in Sect. 6 of [7] Einstein generalizes Maxwell’s 

equations in generally covariant form. This part has survived 

in GR. The coupling of electromagnetic fields to external 

gravitational fields is not yet formalized to the " $ " rule, 

as a mathematically precise expression of a local version of 

the equivalence principle. 

In search of the gravitational field equation 

Figure 2: Cover sheet of the Einstein-Grossmann "Entwurf" paper. 

Requirements to be satisfied by the future theory 

The following mixture of physical and mathematical properties 

of a relativistic theory of gravitation are among Einstein’s 

main guiding principles: 

• The theory reduces to the Newtonian limit for weak 

fields and slowly moving matter. 

• Conservation laws for energy and momentum must 

hold. 

• The equivalence principle must be embodied. 

• The theory respects a generalized principle of relativity 

to accelerating frames, taking into account that gravitation 

and inertia are described by one and the same 

metric field g mn 

. Einstein expressed this by the requirement 

of general covariance of the basic equations (to 

become a much debated subject). 

Non-gravitational laws in external gravitational fields 

The easier part of the new theory was to describe the coupling 

of external gravitational fields to matter and electromagnetic 

fields. In one of the Prague papers Einstein had 

derived the equation of motion for a point particle in a static 

field from a variational principle, which is now generalized 

in an natural manner to 

2 

n o 

d # ds = 0, ds = g no dx dx . 

(1) 

Soon, Einstein begins to look for candidate field equations. 

The pages before 27 of the Zürich Notebook show that he 

was not yet acquainted with the absolute calculus of Ricci 

and Levi-Civita. On p. 27, referring to Grossmann, Einstein 

writes down the expression for the fully covariant Riemann 

curvature tensor R abg 

. Next, he forms by contraction the 

Ricci tensor R mn 

. The resulting terms involving second 

derivatives consist, beside g ab a 

b 

g mn 

, of three additional 

terms. Einstein writes below their sum: "should vanish" 

["sollte verschwinden"]. The reason is that he was looking 

for a field equation of the following general form: 

with 

no 

no 

C 6 g@ = lT 

, 

(3) 

no 

ab no 

C 6 g@ = 2a( g 2bg 

) + terms that vanish in linear 

approximation. (4) 

After long complicated calculations, Einstein discovers that 

the Ricci tensor is of the desired form, when the coordinates 

are assumed to be harmonic. (Readers who are not familiar 

with this may regard this as a kind of gauge condition, 

analogous to the Lorentz condition in electrodynamics.) 

This seems to look good, and Einstein begins to analyse 

the linear weak field approximation of the field equation 2 

R 

= lT 

. 

no no (5) 

(Readers, familiar with GR, know that Einstein has to run 

into problems, because of the contracted Bianchi identity.) 

2 Never before had Einstein used in his work such advanced and complex 

mathematics. This is expressed in a letter to Arnold Sommerfeld on 29 

October 1912 (CPAE, Vol. 5, Doc. 421): “But one thing is certain: never 

before in my life have I toiled any where near as much, and I have gained 

enormous respect for mathematics, whose more subtle parts I considered 

until now, in my ignorance, as pure luxury. Compared with this problem, 

the original theory of relativity is child’s play.” 

49


The weak field approximation 

The linearized harmonic coordinate condition becomes for 

h no: = g no - hno ( hno : Minkowski metric) 

na 

( h 

1 na 

2n 

- h h) 

= 0 

(6) 

2 

(h := h μ , indices are now raised and lowered by means of 

μ 

the Minkowski metric). This is nowadays usually called the 

Hilbert condition, but Einstein imposed it already in 1912. 

The field equation becomes an inhomogeneous wave 

equation: 

Xh 

=-2lT 

no no (7) 

Einstein takes for T mn 

his earlier expression for dust. 

But now he runs into a serious problem: 

From n T mn 

= 0 in the weak field limit, it follows that 

o 

X( 2 h no ) = 0 hence the harmonic coordinate condition requires 

X( 2 o h) 

= 0 , and therefore the trace of the the field 

equation implies Xh =- 2lT = const., T: 

= T 

n n . For dust 

this requires that T = -r 0 

= const. This is, of course, unacceptable. 

One would not even be able to describe a star, 

with a smooth distribution of matter localized in a finite region 

of space. 

Einstein’s modified linearized field equation 

Now, something very interesting happens. Einstein avoids 

this problem by modifying the field equation (7) to 

X( h - 

1 

h h) 

=-2lT 

2 

no no no (8) 

Then the harmonic coordinate condition (6) is compatible 

with n 

T mn = 0 . Remarkably, (8) is the linearized equation 

of the final theory (in harmonic coordinates). One wonders 

why Einstein did not try at this point the analogous substitution 

R no $ R no - 2 g no R or Tno $ Tno - 2 g no T in the full 

1 

1 

non-linear equation (5), which would have led to the final 

field equation of GR. One probable reason for this is connected 

with the Newtonian limit. 

The problem with the Newtonian limit 

The problem with the Newtonian limit was, it appears, one 

of the main reasons why Einstein abandoned the general 

covariance of the field equation. Apparently, (8) did 

not reduce to the correct limit. That it leads to the Poisson 

equation for g 00 

(x) is fine, but because of the harmonic 

coordinate condition the metric can not be spatially flat. 

(The almost Newtonian approximation of (6) and (8) is derived 

in textbooks on GR; see, e.g., [11], Sect. 4.2.) Einstein 

found this unacceptable. He was convinced that for 

(weak) static gravitational fields the metric must be of the 

form (g mn 

) = diag(g 00 

(x), 1, 1, 1), as he already noted on p. 1 

of his research notes. I wonder why he did not remember 

his cautious remark in one of his Prague papers [12] on 

static gravitational fields, in which – while assuming spatial 

flatness – he warned that this may very well turn out to be 

wrong, and says that actually it does not hold on a rotating 

disk. Since a non-flatness would not affect the geodesic 

equation in the Newtonian limit, there is actually, as we 

all know, no problem. But Einstein realized this only three 

years later 3 . Well(!): "If wise men did not err, fools should 

despair" (Wolfgang Goethe). 

At the time, Einstein arrived at the conviction that there 

were other difficulties implied by generally covariant field 

equations. One was connnected with energy-momentum 

conservation (see [10].) 

The 'hole' argument against general covariance 

At the time when he finished the paper with Grossmann, 

Einstein wrote to Ehrenfest on May 28, 1913: "The conviction 

to which I have slowly struggled through is that there 

are no preferred coordinate systems of any kind. However, 

I have only partially succeeded, even formally, in reaching 

this standpoint." (CPAE, Vol. 5, Doc. 441.) In a lecture given 

to the Annual Meeting of the Swiss Naturforschende Gesellschaft 

in September 1913, Einstein stated: "It is possible 

to demonstrate by a general argument that equations 

that completely determine the gravitational field cannot be 

generally covariant with respect to arbitrary substitutions." 

(CPAE, Vol. 4, Doc. 16.) He repeated this statement shortly 

afterwards in his Vienna lecture [13] of September 23, 1913. 

The so-called "hole" ("Loch") argument runs as follows 

(instead of coordinate transformations, I use a more modern 

language): Imagine a finite region D of spacetime – the 

'hole' – in which the stress-energy tensor vanishes. Assume 

that a metric field g is a solution of a generally covariant 

field equation. Apply now a diffeomorphism on g, 

Figure 3: A typical page in Einstein's 'Zürich Notebook', CPAE, 

Vol. 4, Doc. 10, p.262. 

50 

3 In his calculation of the perihelion motion (on the basis of the vacuum 

equations R mn 

= 0) it became clear to him that spatial flatness did not hold 

even for weak static fields.


producing *g (push-forward), and choose the diffeomorphism 

such that it leaves the spacetime region outside D 

pointwise fixed. Clearly, g and *g are different solutions 

of the field equation that agree outside D. In other words, 

generally covariant field equations allow huge families of 

solutions for one and the same matter distribution (outside 

the hole). At the time, Einstein found this unacceptable, because 

this was in his opinion a dramatic failure of what he 

called the law of causality (now usually called determinism). 

He then thought that the energy-momentum tensor should 

(for appropriate boundary or initial conditions) determine 

the metric uniquely. 

It took a long time until Einstein understood that this nonuniqueness 

is an expression of what we now call gauge 

invariance, analogous to the local invariance of our gauge 

theories in elementary particle physics. On January 3, 1916 

he wrote to Besso: "Everything in the hole argument was 

correct up to the final conclusion." 

The role of diffeomorphism invariance of GR, especially for 

the Cauchy problem, was first understood by Hilbert. 

Final remarks 

When Einstein was finishing his work on GR under great 

stress and was suspending all correspondence with colleagues, 

he still found time to communicate with Michele 

Besso. On November 17, 1915 he mailed a postcard from 

Berlin, that contains the great news: 

I have worked with great success during these months. General 

covariant gravitational equations. Motions of the perihelion 

quantitatively explained. (...). You will be amazed. I 

worked horribly strenuously [schauderhaft angestrengt], [it 

is] strange that one can endure that. (...) (CPAE, Vol. 8, Part 

A, Doc. 147). 

Besso passed this card on to Zangger: "I enclose the historical 

card of Einstein, reporting the setting of the capstone 

of an epoch that began with Newton’s 'apple'." 

The discovery of the general theory of relativity has often 

been justly praised as one of the greatest intellectual 

achievements of a human being. At the ceremonial presentation 

of Hubacher’s bust of A. Einstein in Zürich, W. Pauli 

said: 

The general theory of relativity then completed and - in 

contrast to the special theory - worked out by Einstein 

alone without simultaneous contributions by other researchers, 

will forever remain the classic example of a 

theory of perfect beauty in its mathematical structure. 

Auszug aus einem Interview von Res Jost mit Otto 

Stern, der mit Einstein von Prag nach Zürich kam 

und zwei Jahre später an der ETH (mit einem Gutachten 

von Einstein) habilitierte: 

In Zürich war's natürlich sehr schön (...) und besonders 

deswegen interessant, weil Laue an der Universität 

war. Ausserdem waren Ehrenfest und Tatjana (...) 

mindestens ein Vierteljahr, vielleicht auch etwas länger 

zu Besuch (...). Das gab natürlich immer herrliche Diskussionen 

im Kolloquium (...). Wir waren auch ein paar 

jüngere Leute, die ganz eifrig waren. Ehrenfest nannte 

uns immer den 'Dreistern'. Das waren der Herzfeld 

und der Kern (und ich). (Kern hatte den Doktor bei Debye 

gemacht.) Debye war ja der Vorgänger von Laue 

an der Universität (...). Nur der Weiss (...), Pierre Weiss 

war damals Experimentalphysiker und Institutsdirektor, 

der kam nie ins Kolloquium. Er verbot auch das 

Rauchen, das war furchtbar (...). Dem Einstein konnte 

man das aber nicht verbieten. Infolgedessen, wenn 

es eben zu schlimm war, dann bin ich einfach ins 

Einstein'sche Zimmer gegangen (...) und konnte mich 

mit ihm unterhalten (...). Das gab dann immer lebhafte 

Diskussionen (...) über damals völlig ungelöste Rätsel 

der Quantentheorie. Das einzige, was man über 

Quantentheorie wirklich wusste, war die Planck'sche 

Formel, Schluss (...). Ich bin auch ins Kolleg zu Einstein 

gegangen (...), das war (...) auch sehr schön, 

aber nicht für Anfänger. Einstein hat sich ja nie richtig 

vorbereitet auf die Vorlesung, aber er war eben doch 

Einstein (...), wenn er da so herumgemorkst hat, war 

es doch sehr interessant (...), immer sehr raffiniert gemacht 

und sehr physikalisch vor allen Dingen (...). 

References 

[1] CPAE, The collected papers of Albert Einstein, Edited by J. 

Stachel et al., Vols. 1-12. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 

1987–2010. 

[2] A. Einstein, On the Relativity Principle and the Conclusions 

Drawn from It, CPAE, Vol. 2, Doc. 47. 

[3] A. Einstein, Erinnerungen-Souveniers, Schweizerische Hochschulzeitung 

28 (Sonderheft) (1955), pp. 145-153; reprinted as 

"Autobiographische Skizze", in Carl Seelig, ed., Helle Zeit-Dunkle 

Zeit. In Memoriam Albert Einstein, Zürich, Europa Verlag, 1955, 

pp. 9-17. 

[4] A. Einstein, On the Influence of Gravitation on the Propagation 

of Light, CPAE, Vol. 3, Doc. 23. 

[5] A. Einstein, On the Theory of the Static Gravitational Field, 

CPAE, Vol. 4, Doc. 4. 

[6] L. Kollros, Erinnerungen-Souveniers, Schweizerische Hochschulzeitung 

28 (Sonderheft) (1955), pp. 169-173; reprinted as 

"Erinnerungen eines Kommilitonen", in Carl Seelig, ed., Helle Zeit- 

Dunkle Zeit. In Memoriam Albert Einstein, Zürich, Europa Verlag, 

1955, pp. 17-31. 

[7] A. Einstein and M. Grossmann, Outline of a Generalized Theory 

of Relativity and a Theory of Gravitation, CPAE, Vol. 4, Doc. 

13. Entwurf einer verallgemeinerten Relativitätstheorie und einer 

Theorie der Gravitation, Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik, 62, 

225-259 (1914). 

[8] A. Einstein, Research Notes on a Generalized Theory of Gravitation, 

August 1912, CPAE, Vol. 4, Doc. 10. 

[9] A. Einstein, Letter to H.A. Lorentz, CPAE, Vol. 5, Doc. 470. 

[10] N. Straumann, Einstein’s Zürich Notebook and his Journey 

to General Relativity, Ann. Phys. (Berlin) 523, 488 (2011); [arXiv:1106.0900]. 

[11] N. Straumann, General Relativity, Graduate Texts in Physics, 

Springer Berlin, 2013. 

[12] A. Einstein, The Speed of Light and the Statics of the Gravitational 

Field, CPAE, Vol. 4, Doc. 3. 

[13] A. Einstein, On the Present State of the Problem of Gravitation, 

CPAE, Vol. 4, Doc. 17. 

51


Histoire de la Physique (9) 

Le modèle atomique de Bohr: origines, contexte et postérité (part 1) 

Jan Lacki, Uni Genève 

Nous célébrons cette année le centième anniversaire du 

modèle atomique de Niels Bohr. Pour le physicien, il est le 

commencement de la route qui allait mener à la formulation 

de la mécanique quantique; pour l'homme de la rue, 

il symbolise à lui tout seul la nature quantique du monde 

atomique. Nombre de ses particularités sont depuis passées 

dans les esprits et se sont banalisées: c'est oublier 

combien ce modèle a été révolutionnaire à son époque et 

combien il reste encore aujourd'hui paradoxal, mais de ces 

paradoxes profonds et fructueux qui ont pavé la voie de 

la physique contemporaine. L'atome de Bohr appartient 

ainsi à cette classe restreinte de grandes idées qui ont fait 

basculer le cours de la science. Malgré cette importance, 

peu de personnes, y compris les physiciens, connaissent le 

contexte précis de la découverte de Bohr et la formulation 

qu'il donna à ses idées. Son article, tout comme, pour donner 

un autre exemple notable, celui d'Einstein initiant la relativité 

en 1905, est aujourd'hui peu connu et encore moins 

lu. Le centennaire du modèle de Bohr offre une excellente 

occasion de revenir sur cet épisode capital de l'histoire de 

la physique quantique. 

1 Une courte histoire de la spectroscopie 

Quand Bohr entre en scène, l'étude des spectres est vieille 

de plus d'un demi-siècle, et ses racines remontent encore 

plus loin 1 . L'histoire commence avec l'observation du 

spectre solaire par le britannique William H. Wollaston, qui 

relève en 1802 l'existence des raies sombres; elles intrigueront 

ensuite fortement Joseph v. Fraunhofer qui en comptera 

476 entre 1814 et 1815. Fraunhofer introduira aussi dans 

le champ de la spectroscopie l'usage des réseaux et obtiendra 

ainsi des résultats remarquables sur la relation entre 

l'angle d'observation et la longueur d'onde des raies. Il se 

livrera également à l'étude des spectres d'émission provenant 

de flammes colorées ou encore d'étincelles produites 

par décharge des machines électrostatiques. L'étude des 

spectres électriques se poursuivra et se systématisera avec 

l'utilisation des bobines d'induction et, dans les années 

1845-1850, de la bobine de Ruhmkorff. 

Il reviendra à Gustav Kirchhoff (1859) d'apporter des arguments 

décisifs en faveur de l'interprétation des raies 

sombres du soleil comme des raies d'absorption. Observons 

que c'est dans le contexte de ces travaux que Kirchhoff 

parviendra à une découverte capitale pour le développement 

ultérieur de la physique. Réfléchissant sur le 

rapport entre les pouvoirs d'émission et d'absorption d'un 

corps à une longueur d'onde et température données, Kirchhoff 

obtient son fameux résultat affirmant son universalité 

pour tout corps. C'est le début de la problématique du 

rayonnement du corps noir qui amènera à la toute fin du 

siècle à la loi du rayonnement de Planck et la découverte 

des quanta. 

A défaut d'une correspondance stable entre les éléments et 

leurs spectres (on a réalisé dans les années 1870 qu'un élément 

peut produire plusieurs spectres selon les conditions 

physiques ce qui met fin à l'espoir d'une spectrochimie), on 

observe tout de même d'autres régularités. On remarque 

des analogies entre les spectres d'éléments aux mêmes 

propriétés chimiques et on relève des rapports numériques 

entre raies d'un même élément (Mascart 1869, Lecoq de 

Boisbaudrant 1869, Cornu 1885). L'observation des doublets 

et triplets suggère que l'on a affaire à des harmoniques. 

Les tentatives d'expliquer les spectres sur la base 

d'une mécanique de vibrations en analogie avec les phénomènes 

sonores s'en trouvent renforcées. Les spectres 

à raies correspondraient aux vibrations internes des molécules 

alors que leur interaction dans les liquides et les solides 

conduirait aux spectres continus (Clifton 1866, Stoney 

1868, 1871). L'hypothèse d'harmoniques perd cependant 

de son attrait à partir des années 1880: certaines raies seraient 

associées à des harmoniques d'ordre trop élevé par 

rapport à ce qui est physiquement plausible. Alors que l'on 

ne croit plus à une explication aussi simple des spectres, 

la conviction de l'existence de lois bien définies régissant 

les fréquences spectrales et susceptibles de renseigner sur 

les mécanismes internes à l'atome va cependant croissant. 

L'histoire de la spectroscopie franchit une étape capitale 

avec l'obtention de premières lois empiriques pour les longueurs 

d'onde des raies. La formule de Balmer (1885) pour 

les raies d'Ångström de l'hydrogène (1868), d'une précision 

remarquable, donne une impulsion forte à la recherche 

de formules empiriques de plus en plus générales. Cellesci 

culminent avec les contributions de Rydberg (1890) et 

bien sûr de Ritz avec son principe de combinaisons (1908). 

Ces travaux s'appuient de manière fondamentale sur la découverte 

récente, pour des éléments chimiquement semblables, 

de l'existence de séries homologues aux propriétés 

communes comme celles de présenter un point d'accumulation 

vers les hautes fréquences avec des intensités de 

raies allant décroissant. 

2 La spectroscopie et la structure de l'atome: questions 

et enjeux au tournant du siècle 

1 Pour des études détaillées de l'histoire de la spectroscopie, on 

consultera H. Dingle, A Hundred Years of Spectroscopy, British Journal 

of History of Science, vol. 1 (1963), 199-216 ; M.C. Lawrence, The Role of 

Spectroscopy in the Acceptance of an Internally Structured Atom (1860- 

1920), thèse de doctorat, University of Wisconsin, 1964 ; W. McGucken, 

Nineteenth-Century Spectroscopy : development of the understanding of 

spectra, 1802-1897, Johns Hopkins Press, 1969 ; J. C. D. Brand, Lines 

of Light: The Sources of Dispersive Spectroscopy, 1800-1930, Gordon 

& Breach Science Pub., 1995 ou encore M. Saillard, Histoire de la 

spectroscopie, Cahiers d'histoire et de philosophie des sciences, no 26 

(1988). 

52 

L'obtention de formules empiriques pour les fréquences 

de séries de raies ne pouvait qu'aviver les tentatives pour 

concevoir un modèle de l'atome. Des modèles dynamiques 

avaient été proposés bien avant l'avènement de la théorie 

des quanta et la découverte de l'électron. La conception de 

la lumière comme ondulation d'un éther élastique suggérait 

que les spectres résultaient de vibrations moléculaires 

transmises mécaniquement à l'éther (Stokes 1852, Stoney 

1868). La question de la structure atomique qui permettait


ces vibrations ne pouvait donner lieu qu'à des spéculations. 

Suivant les travaux de Helmholtz sur l'hydrodynamique 

des vortex dans un fluide idéal (1858), William Thomson 

(Lord Kelvin) proposait déjà en 1867 un modèle de l'atome 

comme un vortex de l'éther. Plus que les résultats de la 

spectroscopie, la découverte de l'électron (1896) rendit 

obsolètes ces premières tentatives. Avec l'idée d'électrons 

comme corpuscules fondamentaux de la matière, et 

donc de l'atome, on disposait d'un nouveau principe de 

sa construction en prenant en compte l'émission de rayonnement 

électromagnétique par des charges en accélération. 

Le mécanisme d'excitation mécanique de l'éther était 

remplacé par celui de l'excitation électromagnétique par le 

mouvement de l'électron devenu oscillateur hertzien (Larmor 

1897, pressenti par Stoney 1889). La difficulté principale 

consistait alors à concilier les conditions assurant les 

stabilités mécanique et radiative de l'atome. En effet, on 

savait depuis longtemps (Earnshaw 1831) qu'un système 

de corpuscules sous l'effet mutuel des forces en inverse du 

carré de la distance ne pouvait donner lieu à des configurations 

statiques stables: il fallait donc que les électrons de 

l'atome soient en mouvement. Cela impliquait à son tour 

que ces électrons devaient, pour rester confinés et assurer 

la permanence de l'atome, subir nécessairement des accélérations 

et donc rayonner de l'énergie électromagnétique, 

ce qui hypothéquait de nouveau la stabilité de l'atome par 

perte de son énergie. 

Larmor montrait cependant en 1897 que les déperditions 

d'énergie pour un système de charges accélérées pouvaient 

être limitées, voire nulles, si la somme vectorielle des 

accélérations était nulle. On le voit, la satisfaction simultanée 

de conditions assurant la stabilité constituait déjà en 

soi un problème formidable mais il fallait encore que les solutions 

de ce problème soient en nombre suffisant pour expliquer 

la variété d'éléments chimiques connus. Comme si 

ces défis ne suffisaient pas, tout modèle stable de l'atome 

devait de surcroît rendre compte des raies spectrales en 

accord avec les formules empiriques de Rydberg et Ritz. 

Au vu de ces multiples exigences, souvent contradictoires, 

il n'est pas étonnant que peu de modèles atomiques réussissaient 

à les satisfaire toutes et encore, ils ne le faisaient 

qu'au prix d'hypothèses au caractère ad hoc marqué 2 . En 

1901, James H. Jeans proposait pour chaque électron de 

l'atome l'existence d'un partenaire positif de même masse. 

Dans l'état normal de l'atome, la configuration d'ensemble 

pouvait être stable grâce à l'hypothèse d'une force compensant 

l'interaction électrostatique ; le spectre résultait 

des oscillations électroniques autour des positions d'équilibre. 

Avec ses "dynamides", Philipp Lenard concevait au 

contraire des paires de charges où le partenaire de l'électron 

avait une masse sensiblement plus grande (1903). 

Nous nous souvenons mieux aujourd'hui des conceptions 

de Jean Perrin qui, en 1901, suggérait un atome planétaire 

avec une charge positive retenant les charges négatives en 

orbite. Le Japonais Hantaro Nagaoka 1904 s'inspirait pour 

sa part des réflexions de jeune Maxwell sur la stabilité gravitationnelle 

des anneaux de Saturne (1860) pour proposer 

un modèle saturnien où des anneaux de charges négatives 

en orbite présentent des oscillations responsables des 

2 Pour une étude des modèles atomiques proposés dans le cadre de 

la physique classique, voir Bruno Carazza et Nadia Robotti, Explaining 

Atomic Spectra within Classical Physics: 1897-1913, Annals of Science, 

vol. 59 (2002), 299-320. 

raies. Comme il s'avéra rapidement, le modèle de Nagaoka, 

basé sur les forces électrostatiques et non gravitationnelles, 

présentait en fait des problèmes de stabilité mécanique, 

un handicap plus sérieux que celui de la déperdition 

d'énergie par rayonnement qui pouvait être résolu selon les 

lignes suggérées par Larmor. 

Dès 1903, J. J. Thomson concevait à son tour un modèle 

qui marqua pendant quelques années les esprits. Selon sa 

conception, la charge positive de l'atome était distribuée 

de manière uniforme dans tout le volume de l'atome. Les 

électrons, distribués en anneaux, tournaient à l'intérieur. 

S'appuyant sur les observations de Larmor, Thomson mettait 

beaucoup d'espoir dans le fait que ses configurations 

électroniques, pourvu qu'un nombre suffisant d'électrons 

soit considéré, présentaient un moment dipolaire total nul, 

ce qui assurait, à cet ordre, l'absence de rayonnement 

électromagnétique. Peu de temps après le même Thomson 

montrait cependant que le nombre d'électrons dans l'atome 

devait être de même ordre de grandeur que le nombre atomique 

(1906). Cela mettait fin à de nombreux modèles qui 

multipliaient le nombre des électrons à outrance, à commencer 

par le sien. 

La contrainte sur le nombre d'électrons présents dans 

l'atome permit à l'époque de trancher aussi l'importante 

question de savoir si l'ensemble de raies du spectre pouvait 

être imputé à une seule source, un atome dans une 

seule configuration, ou si des configurations différentes 

d'un même atome, voire des variétés atomiques différentes, 

devaient être envisagées pour chaque raie. Comme 

les solutions à une seule source pour l'ensemble du spectre 

impliquaient un nombre prohibitif d'électrons 3 , on finit par 

pencher en faveur de configurations atomiques différentes 

pour chaque raie. 

Une étude des modèles atomiques ne devrait pas à ce 

stade omettre les conceptions du suisse Walter Ritz et de 

son compatriote Arthur Schidlof. Comme j'eus déja l'occasion 

de traiter du parcours scientifique de ces deux pionniers 

de la physique théorique suisse dans les Communications 

4 je terminerai juste sur une remarque. Les modèles 

de Ritz étaient caractéristiques de leur temps. Tout comme 

ceux de ses contemporains, ils étaient a posteriori handicapés 

par la conjonction d'une physique classique et d'hypothèses 

ad hoc. Schidlof, en prenant en compte l'existence 

du quantum d'action (1911), apparaît au contraire se mettre 

résolument du côté d'une physique nouvelle 5 . Sa pensée 

est pourtant encore insuffisamment affranchie de la tradition 

classique: elle ne visait pas tant l'obtention d'un modèle 

quantique de l'atome qu'une explication de l'existence 

et de la valeur du quantum d'action de Planck. Ce sera tout 

le contraire avec la contribution de Bohr. 

3 L'avancée de Niels Bohr 

Quand Bohr propose son modèle, les quanta viennent à 

peine d'être acceptés comme une réalité physique incon- 

3 Voir Carazza et Robotti, op. cit., pp. 313-315. 

4 J. Lacki, Arthur Schidlof, un pionnier de la physique théorique suisse, 

Communications de la SSP, no 34, mai 2011, 48-51; Walter Ritz (1878- 

1909), the revolutionary classical physicist, Communications de la SSP, 

no 35, septembre 2011, 26-29. 

5 A. Schidlof, Zur Aufklärung der universellen elektrodynamischen 

Bedeutung der Planckschen Strahlungskonstanten h, Annalen der Physik, 

vol. 340 (1911), 90-100. 

53


tournable. Autant on salue en 1900 la loi du rayonnement 

du corps noir de Planck comme une grande réussite, autant 

on fait peu de cas, pour ne pas dire qu'on rejette, l'explication 

("désespérée" comme l'avait qualifiée lui-même 

Planck) de cette loi en termes de discontinuités dans les 

échanges énergétiques entre matière et rayonnement. Des 

années après la découverte de Planck on en cherchera encore 

une justification "classique". Il y a pourtant des esprits 

qui prennent les quanta d'emblée au sérieux, ainsi le jeune 

Einstein qui contribuera pour beaucoup à leur donner une 

respectabilité. Dans l'un des articles de sa "merveilleuse 

année" 1905 Einstein montre que dans le régime de Wien 

(grandes fréquences/petites températures) les propriétés 

thermodynamiques d'un volume d'énergie électromagnétique 

monochromatique de fréquence n sont thermodynamiquement 

semblables à celles d'un gaz de corpuscules 

d'énergie individuelle hn 6 . Ces "grains" d'énergie, dont 

Einstein se garde encore bien d'affirmer l'existence physique 

autonome, signalent un aspect corpusculaire de la 

lumière: plus tard Einstein montrera, toujours dans le cadre 

d'une analyse de propriétés énergétiques, que cet aspect 

cohabite avec celui, classique et familier, des phénomènes 

ondulatoires 7 . C'est l'application de la nature "granulaire" 

de l'énergie électromagnétique à l'explication de l'effet photoélectrique, 

plutôt que la relativité, qui apportera à Einstein 

son prix Nobel 8 . En 1907 Einstein récidive sur le chemin de 

l'exploration des conséquences "quantiques" de la loi de 

Planck: si on comprend cette dernière comme remplacant 

l'énergie moyenne classique d'un oscillateur unidimensionnel, 

kT, par l'expression: 

kT " 

ho 

ho 

e kT - 1 

alors pourquoi ne pas opérer cette substitution pour les oscillateurs 

matériels modélisant la matière dans les solides ? 

9 

Le résultat permet d'expliquer immédiatement la décroissance 

des chaleurs spécifiques à basse température, l'une 

des énigmes qui, vers la fin du XIX e siècle, constituait un 

argument puissant contre la théorie cinétique des gaz et 

contre toute reconstruction de la thermodynamique sur la 

base d'une mécanique des constituants atomiques: grâce 

à Einstein, on comprend que ce n'était pas tant cette approche 

qui était fautive, mais les lois mécaniques sur les- 

6 Über einen die Erzeugung und Verwandlung des Lichtes betreffenden 

heuristischen Gesichtspunkt, Annalen der Physik, vol. 17 (1905), pp. 132- 

148 

7 Entwicklung unserer Anschauungen über das Wesen und die 

Konstitution der Strahlung, Physikalische Zeitschrift, vol. 10 (1909), 

817-825, conférence donnée lors du 81 e congrès de la Gesellschaft 

Deutscher Naturforscher à Salzburg. Einstein y argumente aussi en faveur 

d'un quantum de lumière aux propriétés résolument corpusculaires. Il 

faudra cependant encore des années avant que l'idée ne s'impose: les 

expériences de la diffusion de Compton (1923) jouèrent ici un rôle décisif. 

Il est intéressant d'observer que Niels Bohr lui-même rejettera intialement 

la réalité des corpuscules de lumière préférant dans un premier temps 

voir dans les aspects corpusculaires une manifestation de l'insuffisance, 

à l'échelle atomique, des descriptions spatio-temporelles, voir par 

exemple Dugald Murdoch, Niels Bohr's philosophy of physics, Cambridge 

University Press, 1989. 

8 On connaît bien les hésitations du comité du Nobel de physique à 

récompenser Einstein pour la relativité, voir R. M. Friedman, The Politics 

of Excellence: Behind the Nobel Prize in Science, W. H. Freeman Books, 

2001. 

9 Die Plancksche Theorie der Strahlung und die Theorie der spezifischen 

Wärme, Annalen der Physik, vol. 22 (1907),180-190. 

54 

quelles elle s'appuyait 10 . 

Ces deux succès, où le génie d'Einstein se révèle autant 

que dans son article sur l'électrodynamique des corps en 

mouvement, contribuent plus que tout autre, à convaincre 

la communauté de l'intérêt de l'hypothèse quantique et, 

progressivement, de l'existence réelle des quanta. La première 

conférence Solvay en 1911 dont nous connaissons 

la photographie emblématique est consacrée à "La théorie 

du rayonnement et les quanta": on peut dire que ses travaux 

officialisent les quanta comme partie intégrante de la 

physique 11 . Cependant, nous sommes encore loin d'une 

modification que les quanta opéreraient sur les lois des 

systèmes individuels: dans ses deux travaux Einstein tire 

les conséquences de l'existence des quanta à partir d'un 

travail d'analyse des lois phénoménologiques obtenues par 

ses prédécesseurs (Wien, Planck, etc.) mais il ne les dérive 

pas d'une modification postulée des lois de base de la mécanique 

ou de l'électrodynamique affectant les constituants 

élementaires 12 . Bohr se confrontera en revanche frontalement 

à ces lois classiques et c'est précisément pour cette 

raison que sa contribution est une étape capitale sur le chemin 

de la mécanique quantique. 

A l'époque de la formulation de son modèle Niels Bohr est 

depuis mars 1912 collaborateur au laboratoire de Rutherford 

à Manchester. Il vient à peine de défendre sa thèse 

à Copenhague sur "la théorie électronique des métaux" 

(1911). Après un séjour décevant chez J. J. Thomson à 

Cambridge qui voit les deux hommes s'affronter à propos 

du... modèle atomique de Thomson, Bohr se tourne 

vers Rutherford 13 . Celui-ci vient à l'époque d'apporter des 

arguments décisifs contre la conception de Thomson en 

montrant que les expériences de la diffusion à large angle 

des particules alpha concluent aux effets d'une déflection 

unique sur des centres de diffusion intraatomiques: le 

noyau atomique est découvert 14 . L'accueil que Bohr reçoit 

de la part du Néo-zélandais est d'emblée meilleur que celui 

que lui a reservé Thomson. Rutherford est convaincu de 

l'importance des idées de Planck et encourage les efforts 

de son jeune collègue. Dans son laboratoire Bohr travaille 

sur l'absorption des particules alpha par la matière et c'est 

pour lui l'occasion de se rapprocher encore plus de la pro- 

10 Pour les critiques de la théorie cinétique au XIXe siècle, voir S. Brush, 

The kind of motion we call heat. A History of the Kinetic Theory of Gases in 

the Nineteenth Century, North Holland, 1986. 

11 C'est Walter Nernst, impressionné par les travaux d'Einstein, qui 

persuade le riche industriel Ernest Solvay de financer une conférence 

solennelle consacrée à la physique quantique, voir D. Kormos Barkan, 

The Witches' Sabbath: The First International Solvay Congress in Physics, 

Science in Context, vol. 6 (1993), 59-82. aussi M.-C. Bustamante, Paul 

Langevin et le Conseil Solvay de 1911, Images de la physique, 2011, 3-9. 

12 Cela permet de comprendre comment Einstein est dans ces 

années indiscutablement un père fondateur de la théorie quantique alors 

qu'il deviendra, un dizaine d'années plus tard, un féroce critique de la 

mécanique quantique. L'existence des quanta n'entrait à ce moment pas 

en conflit avec les convictions profondes d'Einstein sur la réalité et sur 

la manière dont nous devrions la décrire: les thèmes d'indéterminisme, 

de l'inexistence de propriétés objectives des systèmes, contre lesquels 

Einstein se battra jusqu'à la fin, n'étaient pas (encore) affleurants à 

la surface de la nouvelle physique quantique. Tout changera avec la 

mécanique quantique et surtout l'interprétation qu'en prônera Bohr. 

13 Dans son survol "60 years of quantum mechanics", E. U. Condon 

rapporte que Bohr, suite à son désaccord avec Thomson, avait été 

"poliment invité" à aller voir ailleurs, voir Physics Today, vol. 15 (1962), 45. 

14 The scattering of alpha and beta particles by matter and the structure 

of the atom, Philosophical Magazine, vol. 21 (1911), 669-688.


blématique de l'atome 15 . Le modèle nucléaire de l'atome 

suggéré par Rutherford offre un cadre prometteur mais entraîne 

aussi son lot de problèmes. En particulier, Bohr réalise 

que les lois dynamiques classiques sont impuissantes 

à fixer seules une échelle pour sa taille. En termes d'analyse 

dimensionnelle, il manque un ingrédient: le modèle de 

Rutherford faisant intervenir les masses et les charges des 

électrons, on peut se convaincre qu'il est impossible de 

construire à partir de là une constante ayant la dimension 

d'une longueur. Tout change cependant si l'on introduit 

la constante de Planck: on peut alors former l'expression 

h 2 /me 2 qui a non seulement la bonne dimension mais aussi 

le bon ordre de grandeur atomique (h 2 /me 2 2·10 -10 m). La 

stratégie de Bohr allait dès lors différer considérablement 

de celle de ses prédecesseurs comme Schidlof. Alors que 

ce dernier espérait, comme on l'a vu, justifier la valeur de 

la constante h sur la base d'un mécanisme atomique décrit 

en termes classiques, Bohr renverse la perspective en 

prenant acte de l'existence du quantum d'action et de sa 

valeur h pour rendre compte de la structure de l'atome et 

dériver les propriétés de son spectre. Il fallait encore qu'il 

comprenne comment lier la constante de Planck au champ 

de ses recherches. De retour à Copenhague dès septembre 

1912, Bohr ne prenait pas encore en considération ce que 

les données spectroscopiques pouvaient lui enseigner mais 

dès qu'il eut compris l'importance des formules établies 

par Balmer, Rydberg et Ritz, les pièces du puzzle commencèrent 

à s'assembler: "dès que je pris connaissance de la 

formule de Balmer, toute cette affaire devint claire" 16 . 

Nous pouvons maintenant examiner les idées fortes du 

modèle de Bohr, non pas tant pour les découvrir (elles sont 

passées largement dans notre culture), mais pour examiner 

comment Bohr les exposa à l'origine dans sa publication 17 . 

Pour un atome constitué d'une charge positive E autour de 

laquelle orbite une charge égale mais de signe opposé e, 

l'énergie totale est: 

W T V 

1 2 

= + = mv + 

Ee 

2 

2 r 

La condition de stabilité pour une orbite circulaire de rayon 

r et fréquence n donne 

mv 

r 

2 

Ee 

2 

=- m r 

Ee 

2 

, ~ =- 

2 

, 

r 

r 

et, pour l'atome d'hydrogène (E = -e), 

2 

2 

2 

m r 

e 

2 e 

2 

~ = 

2 

( ~ = 

3 

= ( 2ro) 

. 

r 

mr 

2 

Ainsi W =- 

e 

, alors que o 

2r 

2 

3 

=- 

8W 

2 4 

. 

4r 

e m 

15 On the theory of the decrease of velocity of moving electrified particles 

on passing through matter, Philosophical Magazine, vol. 25 (1913), 10-31. 

16 "As soon as I saw Balmer's formula, the whole thing was immediately 

clear to me", cité par Max Jammer, The conceptual developement of 

quantum mechanics, McGraw Hill, 1966, p. 77. 

17 On the constitution of atoms and molecules, Philosophical Magazine, 

vol. 26 (1913), 1-25, 476-502, 857-875. 

La donnée de l'energie détermine donc entièrement l'orbite 

circulaire correspondante 18 . 

Mais comment faire entrer l'hypothèse des quanta, et la dimension 

de h, dans le problème de la structure de l'atome ? 

Certes, la quantification des échanges énergétiques entre 

la matière et le rayonnement doit avoir une conséquence 

au niveau de la structure atomique, mais comment faire le 

lien ? Bohr propose de considérer le processus de la formation 

de l'atome par la capture d'un électron par le noyau. 

Infiniment loin du noyau l'électron est libre, W = 0. Supposons 

qu'il soit capturé sur une orbite d'énergie W négative 

(état lié !). Par la conservation de l'énergie, une quantité 

d'énergie positive, -W, doit être libérée dans le processus: 

Bohr, suivant l'hypothèse quantique, suppose que c'est 

sous la forme d'un rayonnement d'un certain nombre t (entier 

!) de quanta d'énergie. Il pose: 

- W = xhol / xh o , (1) 2 

avec la fréquence du quantum rayonné n' posée égale à 

la moitié (!) de la fréquence de révolution mécanique de 

l'orbite de capture. L'hypothèse de Bohr fixe, parmi le 

continuum des énergies un nombre infini, mais néanmoins 

discret, d'entre elles : 

2 4 

- W = 

2r 

e m 1 

2 2 

. (2) 

h x 

La différence des énergies, pour deux nombres t 1 

et t 2 

donnés est alors : 

2 4 

D W =- 

2r 

e m 1 1 

2 c 2 

- 

2 m ; 

h x2 

x1 

Si de tels processus de changement de niveau énergétique 

surviennent dans l'atome, on doit supposer, avec Bohr, 

qu'ils donnent lieu à une émission/absorption de quanta 

d'énergie de rayonnement électromagnétique de frequence 

n' donnée par la formule 

2 4 

hol =- DW 

= 

2r 

e m 1 1 

2 c 2 

- 

2 m . 

h x2 

x1 

En posant t 2 

= 2, et t 1 

= 3; 4; 5; ... la formule ci-dessus 

reproduit les valeurs des fréquences des raies spectrales 

de la série de Balmer (1885) exprimée, dans la formule de 

Rydberg (1890), par: 

ol = Rcc 1 1 

2 

- 

2 m . 

x2 

x1 

Bohr avait donc réussi à obtenir la valeur de la constante de 

Rydberg R à partir de constantes élémentaires, 

2 4 

R = 

2r 

e m 

3 

. 

ch 

18 En fait on peut montrer que le résultat s'applique aussi aux orbites 

elliptiques: leur grand axe 2r et la fréquence de rotation de l'électron n sont 

déterminés par la donnée de l'énergie de l'orbite et ne dependent pas de 

la valeur de l'excentricité. 

Pour des raisons éditoriales, la suite de cet article apparaîtra dans les prochaines Communications de la SSP, no. 41. 

55


Geschichte des SIN 

Buchbesprechung von Andreas Pritzker 

Im Hinblick auf Scherrers Emeritierung 1960 wählte der 

Bundesrat 1959 Jean-Pierre Blaser zu dessen Nachfolger 

an der ETH. Blaser "erbte" die Zyklotronplanungsgruppe. 

Unter dem Eindruck der weltweiten Entwicklung strebte 

Blaser allerdings anstelle eines Zyklotrons für die Kernphysik 

eine Maschine an, die den Einstieg in die Hochenergiephysik 

ermöglichte. Er wurde dabei unterstützt durch den 

Theoretiker Res Jost, der die Hochenergiephysik als fruchtbares 

künftiges Arbeitsgebiet betrachtete. 

Blaser, der Ende Februar 2013 seinen 90. Geburtstag feiern 

konnte, verfolgte dabei die Idee eines grossen Teilchenbeschleunigers, 

den die ETH für sämtliche schweizerischen 

Universitäten betreiben sollte. In den 1950er Jahren waren 

weltweit mehrere Maschinen im Bereich um 500 MeV gebaut 

worden. Sie ermöglichten es, Mesonen künstlich zu 

erzeugen und vorerst als solche zu studieren. Der nächste 

Schritt war die Idee, Mesonen als Werkzeuge einzusetzen. 

Die Mesonen wurden mit Protonenbeschleunigern erzeugt. 

Für die sogenannten Mesonenfabriken waren hohe Protonenströme 

- man sprach von 100 Mikroamp - notwendig. 

Andreas Pritzker: Geschichte des SIN. 188 Seiten, 

ISBN 978-3-905993-10-3, munda-Verlag. 

Das Buch erzählt die Geschichte des Schweizerischen Instituts 

für Nuklearforschung (SIN). Das Institut wurde 1968 

gegründet und ging 1988 ins Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) 

über. Die Gründung des SIN erfolgte in einer Zeit, als die 

Physik als Schlüsseldisziplin für die technologische und 

gesellschaftliche Entwicklung galt. Der Schritt war für ein 

kleines Land wie die Schweiz ungewöhnlich und zeugte 

von Mut und Weitsicht. Ungewöhnlich waren in der Folge 

die Leistungen des SIN im weltweiten Vergleich sowie sein 

Einfluss auf die schweizerische, teils auf die internationale 

Wissenschaftspolitik. 

Die Ausgangslage war günstig. Die ETH Zürich war bereits 

in den 1930er Jahren führend im Gebiet der Kernphysik. 

Zudem wurde in den 1950er Jahren das CERN in Genf gegründet. 

An beidem war Paul Scherrer, Leiter des Physikalischen 

Instituts der ETH, massgeblich beteiligt. Er sorgte 

früh dafür, dass an der ETH Teilchenbeschleuniger als Forschungsinstrumente 

eingesetzt wurden. Eines davon war 

das berühmte ETH-Zyklotron. Als sich dessen Nutzungsmöglichkeiten 

in den 1950er Jahren allmählich erschöpften, 

gründete Scherrer die Zyklotronplanungsgruppe, welche 

den Bau einer leistungsfähigeren Maschine für die Kernphysik 

zum Ziel hatte. Bereits diese hätte den Rahmen 

eines einzelnen Hochschulinstituts gesprengt. In der Planungsgruppe 

waren denn auch die Universitäten von Basel 

und Zürich vertreten. 

56 

Der Ringbeschleuniger des SIN mit seinen Erbauern im September 

1973 

Hans Willax, den bereits Scherrer als Physiker angestellt 

hatte, entwarf das zweistufige Zyklotron-Konzept, das später 

unter seiner Leitung verwirklicht wurde. Obschon dem 

Projekt, wie bei solchen Vorhaben üblich, Opposition aus 

Hochschulkreisen erwuchs, waren Bundesrat Tschudi und 

ETH-Präsident Pallmann entschlossen, es zu verwirklichen, 

weil sie sich starke Impulse für den Forschungsstandort 

Schweiz versprachen. Die Eidgenössischen Räte bewilligten 

1965 (im Rahmen einer Baubotschaft, welche auch die 

ersten Bauten der ETH-Hönggerberg umfasste) einen Baukredit 

von beinahe 100 Millionen Franken. Und auf Anfang 

1968 wurde das SIN als Annexanstalt der ETH gegründet. 

Von 1966 an entwickelten zumeist junge, begabte Physiker 

unter der Leitung von Blaser und Willax an der ETH, dann 

bei der Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon das SIN-Zyklotron, und 

ab 1968 wurde das Institut auf der grünen Wiese in Villigen, 

gegenüber dem ebenfalls zur ETH gehörenden Eidgenössischen 

Institut für Reaktorforschung (EIR) erbaut. Im Februar 

1974 war es dann soweit: das SIN produzierte die 

ersten Pionen.


Gute Stimmung im Kontrollraum des SIN am 24. Februar 1974, als 

die ersten Pionen produziert wurden. 

Die Beschleunigeranlage erfüllte sämtliche Erwartungen. 

Sie wurde in den folgenden Jahrzehnten laufend ausgebaut 

und erreichte in ihrem Einsatzbereich die Weltspitze. Ihre 

Qualität lag aber darin, dass sie, als die Teilchenphysik an 

Aktualität verlor, zusätzlich für viele weitere Forschungsprogramme 

in Medizin und Materialwissenschaften eingesetzt 

worden konnte. Sie ist heute noch ein Standbein des PSI. 

Dass diese Geschichte nun in allgemein verständlicher 

Form vorliegt, ist das Verdienst einiger von Anfang an am 

Projekt beteiligter Physiker, welche die Initiative dazu ergriffen, 

solange noch Zeitzeugen befragt werden konnten. 

Wie immer zeigen die offiziellen Dokumente nur einen Ausschnitt 

der Wirklichkeit. Will man den Menschen, die ihren 

Beitrag zum Gelingen leisteten, nahe kommen, braucht es 

persönliche Erinnerungen. Der Text stützt sich auf beides. 

Er hält zudem die Geschehnisse in zahlreichen (schwarzweiss) 

Bildern fest. 

Widerstand gegen das SIN-Projekt 

Das Projekt der Mesonenfabrik traf teilweise bei den Physikern 

auf Widerstand. Besonders die Kernphysiker hätten 

lieber eine Maschine gehabt, wie sie von der ursprünglichen 

Zyklotron-Planungsgruppe ETH-Uni Zürich-Uni Basel geplant 

gewesen war. Die Projektleiter der Mesonenfabrik gingen 

daher einen Kompromiss ein, indem sie als Injektor für 

den Ringbeschleuniger das Philips-Zyklotron wählten. Da 

dieses nicht geeignet war für den späteren Hochstromausbau, 

entwickelte das SIN schon bald den Injektor II nach 

demselben Prinzip wie für den Ringbeschleuniger. 

Im Hinblick auf den SIN-Baukredit in der ETH-Baubotschaft 

1965 wandte sich eine Gruppe von Physikern an Bundesrat 

Tschudi, um das Projekt zu verhindern. Tschudi und 

ETH-Präsident Pallmann liessen sich nicht beirren. Tschudi 

meinte Blaser gegenüber, dass ein Projekt, das dermassen 

auf Opposition stosse, gut sein müsse; er solle weiterfahren 

damit. 

Der Autor arbeitete in den 1980er Jahren selbst am 

SIN, später beim ETH-Rat und schliesslich in der Direktion 

des PSI. 

Die Opposition flammte in den Eidgenössischen Räten 

nochmals beim teuerungsbedingten Zusatzkredit in der 

ETH-Baubotschaft 1972 auf. Sprecher der Opposition war 

der Basler Standesherr Wenk, der sich wohl auf eine Intervention 

von Basler Physikern stützte. Das veranlasste Bundesrat 

Tschudi zur Erklärung: 

"Die Finanzverwaltung ist in der Lage, dieses Kreditbegehren 

zu beurteilen, weil die Direktion der Finanzverwaltung 

in der Baukommission für das Schweizerische Institut für 

Nuklearforschung mitwirkt. Ich muss - Herr Wenk hat das 

schon gesagt - unterstreichen: die Finanzverwaltung ist der 

Meinung, dass hier ein besonders mustergültiger Bau erstellt 

wird, der in bezug auf Planung des Baus, auf sparsame 

Bauausführung andern als Modell dienen kann, dass also in 

Bezug auf die Sparsamkeit und die gute Bauorganisation, 

die gute Planung des Baues der Baukommission, die unter 

Leitung des früheren Direktors der Brown Boveri, Herrn Dr. 

Seippel, steht, das beste Zeugnis ausgestellt werden kann." 

Andreas Pritzker hat mit Unterstützung von Kollegen 

aus dem ehemaligen Schweizerischen Institut 

für Nuklearforschung (SIN) die Vorgeschichte, Gründung 

und Forschungsaktivitäten des SIN nachgezeichnet. 

Es wird lebendig, mit zahlreichen Anekdoten 

umrahmt beschrieben, wie die erste Schweizer 

Grossforschungsanlage, eine "Mesonenfabrik", mit 

dem von Hans Willax entworfenen zweistufigen Protonenbeschleuniger 

mit Injektor- und Ringzyklotron, 

in Zusammenarbeit mit der Industrie realisiert wurde. 

Eng verbunden mit der Geschichte des SIN ist 

das Wirken von Prof. Dr. Jean-Pierre Blaser. Er war 

Initiant dieser strategischen Forschungsinitiative, die 

den Aufbau eines nationalen Forschungslabors für 

universitäre Forschungsbedürfnisse auch ausserhalb 

der Grundlagenphysik zum Ziel hatte. Er war Gründer 

und Direktor des SIN während den 20 Jahren seines 

Bestehens. Und er war auch einer der Hauptinitianten 

für die Zusammenführung des SIN mit dem Eidgenössischen 

Institut für Reaktorforschung (EIR) zum Paul 

Scherrer Institut (PSI) im Jahre 1988. Andreas Pritzker 

zeigt in der Nachzeichnung der SIN-Geschichte wie 

die breiten naturwissenschaftlichen Interessen von 

Jean-Pierre Blaser über die Physik hinaus zur Realisierung 

und Förderung von einzigartigen Projekten im 

Bereich der Medizin (Krebstherapie und -diagnostik), 

der Material- und Festkörperforschung (Spallationsneutronenquelle, 

Supraleitung) und der Energieforschung 

(Kernfusion) führten. Das Buch über das SIN 

gibt einen guten Einblick in den Forschungsbetrieb einer 

Institution, die grosse Forschungsanlagen kreiert 

und betreibt und diese auch externen Forschenden 

zur Verfügung stellt. Das Buch ist sehr lesenswert. 

Es ist auch eine Hommage an Jean-Pierre Blaser, der 

dieses Jahr bei guter Gesundheit seinen 90. Geburtstag 

feiern konnte. 

Martin Jermann, Paul Scherrer Institut 

57


Lehrerfortbildung: 

18 Deutschschweizer Lehrer im Herz von CERN 

Christine Plass (Text und Bilder) 

Im Rahmen der Nachwuchsförderung setzt sich die SPG 

für die Lehrerfortbildung im Gebiet der Physik ein. Im Frühjahr 

wurde aus aktuellem Anlass, im Zusammenhang mit 

der Higgs-Entdeckung am CERN, eine Lehrerfortbildung 

mit Schwerpunkt Teilchenphysik zusammen mit teilchenphysik.ch 

durchgeführt. Anfang Juni 2013 reisten 18 Lehrerinnen 

und Lehrer aus der Deutschschweiz nach Genf. Der 

Weiterbildungstag am CERN vermittelte ihnen Anschauungsmaterial 

und Experimente, um Hochenergiephysik zu 

unterrichten. 

"Das ist eine einmalige Gelegenheit, den Detektor zu besichtigen!", 

erkannten acht Physiklehrer der Kantonschule 

Zug, als ihr Kollege Markus Schmidinger ihnen von seiner 

Einladung ans CERN erzählte. Schmidinger hatte an einer 

Fortbildung zu Teilchenphysik in Bern teilgenommen und 

war zur Folgeveranstaltung ans CERN nach Genf eingeladen 

worden. Höflich fragte er an, ob seine Kollegen wohl 

mitkommen dürften? Initiator Hans Peter Beck, Physiker 

am CERN und Dozent der Uni Bern, überlegte nicht lange. 

Er konzipierte sein Programm so um, dass es auch ohne 

Vorbildung verständlich war. Insgesamt nahmen18 Lehrerinnen 

und Lehrer aus der Kantonsschule Ausserschwyz, 

dem Gymnasium Oberaargau, dem Gymnasium Rämibühl 

in Zürich und dem Gymnasium Biel die Chance wahr, das 

CERN von innen kennen zu lernen. Um trotz längerer Anreise 

einen vollen Tag am CERN zu erleben, waren sie bereits 

am Tag zuvor angereist und konnten kostenlos im CERN- 

Hostel übernachten. 

Es gehört zum Verständnis des Conseil Européen pour 

la Recherche Nucléaire (kurz CERN) die Schulbildung zu 

unterstützen. "Wir möchten, dass moderne Physik in die 

Schulen Einzug findet und der Unterricht nicht bei der 

schiefen Ebene aufhört", erklärt Hans Peter Beck. Aus aller 

Welt kommen Lehrkräfte ans CERN um sich dort tage- und 

wochenlang fortzubilden oder gemeinsam mit ihren Schülern 

eines der faszinierendsten Forschungszentren der Welt 

kennen zu lernen. 

Im Herz von CERN, der Protonenquelle. Am Modell erklärt Mick 

Storr, wie dem Wasserstoffgas hier die Protonen entzogen werden, 

die dann im Large Hadron Collider (LHC) miteinander kollidieren. 

Nach der kurzen Einführung durch Hans Peter Beck geht 

es direkt ins Herz von CERN, den LINAC2. Hier werden die 

Protonen bereitgestellt, die sie im Large Hadron Collider 

aufeinander schiessen. "Welcome to the Startrek Enterprise", 

scherzt Mick Storr, als wir den Vorraum zur Protonenquelle 

betreten. Er erstrahlt im Design der 70er Jahre, und 

das ist kein Retro, sondern Original. Fehlt nur noch, dass 

Captain Kirk um die Ecke kommt. Mick Storr weiss, wie 

er seinen Besuchern die Scheu vor der High-End-Physik 

nehmen kann. Doch was vielleicht noch viel wichtiger ist, 

er schätzt sehr, was die Lehrer in den Schulen leisten: "Die 

physikalischen Grundlagen, die Sie an Ihren Schulen vermitteln, 

sind die Grundlage von allem, was hier im CERN 

passiert", sagt Mick Storr und lädt seine Zuhörer ein, das, 

was sie heute sehen, auch einmal mit ihren Schülern zu besichtigen. 

Hans Peter Beck erklärt das CERN und wie Lehrer ihre Schüler mit 

einfachen Modellen und Experimenten an Teilchenphysik heranführen 

können. 

58 

Original-Kontrollraum der Protonenquelle.


Mit dem Bus geht es zur nächsten Station, dem LHCb- 

Experiment. "Sie haben ein Riesenglück, dass Sie direkt 

in den Detektor reingehen können! Das hab ich selbst 

seit zehn Jahren nicht mehr gemacht", begrüsst Andreas 

Schopper seine Besucher. Der Physiker am CERN hat 

das LHCb Experiment mit aufgebaut und ist Präsident der 

Schweizerischen Physikalischen Gesellschaft (SPG). Sie 

hat die Reisekosten für die Lehrer ans CERN übernommen. 

Bevor ein Fahrstuhl die Reisegruppe 100 Meter ins 

Erdinnere befördert, erklärt Schopper an einem Modell, 

was das Besondere am LHCb ist. 700 Wissenschaftler aus 

61 Institutionen und 16 Ländern forschen dort nach den 

Unterschieden zwischen Materie und Antimaterie. Aus der 

Schweiz sind die ETH Lausanne und die Universität Zürich 

am Experiment beteiligt. So untersuchten die Forscher 

erstmals den Zerfall eines weiteren Teilchens, dessen Messung 

abermals beweist, dass Materie und Antimaterie nicht 

exakt symmetrisch sind. 

Nach einer zügigen Fahrt in 100 Meter Tiefe wartet die 

nächste Schleuse. Radioaktivität, vor der auf der Tür gewarnt 

wird, herrscht zur Zeit des Shutdowns hier unten 

zwar nicht. Trotzdem hat Schopper ein Dosimeter dabei, 

da es sich um eine kontrollierte Zone handelt, für die bestimmte 

Sicherheitsvorkehrungen gelten. Langweilig wird 

es den Physikern während des Shutdowns übrigens trotzdem 

nicht, denn es gibt noch riesige Datenmengen, die auf 

ihre Auswertung warten, wie Markus Joos erklärt. Der Informatiker 

arbeitet an der Software, die die Messergebnisse 

aufzeichnet, filtert und speichert. 100 Petabyte Rohdaten 

sind auf 40.000 Festplatten und 40.000 Bandkassetten gespeichert. 

Bandkassetten? Tatsächlich setzten die Informatiker 

am CERN auf diese vermeintlich veralteten Speichermedien, 

da sie die Daten 100 Mal sicherer aufbewahren als 

eine Festplatte. 

durch den LHC hindurch. Gäbe es keine Supraleitungen 

müsste der LHC den Umfang des Äquators haben. 

Unsere vorletzte Station ist der Kontrollraum des Alpha 

Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS2). Der schüttelsichere Detektor 

wurde 16 Jahre lang gebaut und getestet, mit dem 

letzten Spaceshuttle zur Internationalen Raumstation (ISS) 

geschossen und von NASA Astronauten auf der ISS installiert. 

Dort jagt er nach Antimaterie. Wenigstens ein einziges 

Anti-Helium. Noch besser zwei. Zehn, um ein Paper zu 

veröffentlichen. Die Wissenschaftler gehen nämlich davon 

aus, dass beim Urknall riesige Mengen von Materie und 

Anti-Materie freigesetzt wurden, um sich sogleich wieder 

gegenseitig zu zerstören. Nach dieser Theorie dürfte es 

keine stabile Antimaterie in unserem Universum geben – 

es sei denn, AMS2 lieferte den Gegenbeweis. Bislang hat 

AMS2 noch keine Antimaterie dingfest gemacht. Dafür fanden 

Wissenschaftler signifikante Hinweise auf unbekannte 

Quellen kosmischer Strahlung, die beantworten könnten, 

was es mit der dunklen Materie auf sich hat. 

Doch man braucht gar nicht ins All oder ans CERN reisen, 

um Teilchen zu sehen. Wie sie ihren Schülern Elektronen 

und Alphateilchen in einem Experiment zeigen können, erfahren 

die Lehrer am Nachmittag beim Bau einer Nebelkammer. 

Rasch ist klar, hier sind Profis am Werk. In Windeseile 

haben sie die Nebelkammern fachgerecht aufgebaut und 

die Gardinen zugezogen. Dann lauern sie auf Teilchen, die 

sich im Licht der Taschenlampe zeigen. "Joh, jetzt seh' ich 

eins", ruft einer. "Was für ein dicker Brummer!", stellt ein 

anderer fest. Kleine wurmförmige Partikel bewegen sich 

horizontal und vertikal durch den Lichtstrahl. Das einfache 

wie eindrückliche Experiment lässt sich sogar mit Plastikbecher 

und Alu-Aschenbecher durchführen. Trockeneis ist 

allerdings unentbehrlich. 

Die Lehrer sind von ihrem abwechslungsreichen Tag am 

CERN sichtlich begeistert. Als "sehr eindrücklich", beurteilt 

Markus Schmidinger den Tag am CERN: "Es ist etwas anderes, 

wenn man das Experiment vor Ort sieht und Zutritt 

zu einer Welt erhält, die einem sonst verborgen bleibt". Er 

nimmt viele Anregungen mit nach Hause, die er gleich umsetzen 

will: "Zum Beispiel bei der Lorentzkraft im Unterricht 

zeigen, dass es keine blosse Theorie ist, sondern Ingenieure 

am CERN damit arbeiten." 

Gerfried Wiener von der Uni Wien erklärt, warum Supraleitungen 

im LHC zum Einsatz kamen. Alle dürfen mal testen, wie schwer 

konventionelle Kupferkabel sind, die in der Lage wären, 13000 

Ampère zu leiten, ohne zu schmelzen. 

Danach geht es weiter zur Magnettesthalle. Anhand einiger 

Modelle erklärt Gerfried Wiener von der Universität Wien, 

wie der LHC gebaut wurde und welche Hürden dabei zu 

bewältigen waren. Allein die Kabel! 13000 Ampère laufen 

Das von PD Dr. Hans Peter Beck (Universität Bern/ 

CERN) initiierte 1. Deutschschweizer Lehrerprogramm 

am CERN wurde, in Zusammenarbeit mit www.teilchenphysik.ch, 

durch die fachliche und finanzielle 

Unterstützung von CERN und der Schweizerischen 

Physikalischen Gesellschaft (SPG) ermöglicht. In regelmässigen 

Abständen werden weitere Programme 

für Schweizer Lehrer/innen folgen. Anmeldungen zu 

einer weiteren Fortbildung am 8./9. November zu diesem 

Thema, inklusive CERN Besuch, werden schon 

jetzt unter indico.cern.ch/event/swissteachers entgegengenommen. 

59

Annual Congress 2013 of the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) 

The Quantum Atom at 100 – 

Niels Bohr’s Legacy 

Fotos: shutterstock.com | PSI 

November 21-22, 2013 | Winterthur 

The congress will celebrate the 100 th anniversary of Niels Bohr’s publication 

„On the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules“ and offer an overview on subsequent 

developments, leading to the modern version of quantum mechanics and its implications 

and to the current understanding of the constitution of matter. 

The Zurich University of Applied Science in Winterthur will host this year’s congress. 

• Aspects of Bohr’s 1913 Atomic Theory: Helge Kragh, University of Aarhus, Denmark 

• From Bohr’s Atom to Quantum Mechanics: Olivier Darrigol, CRNS, Paris 

• Ultrahigh-Resolution Spectroscopy of the Hydrogen Atom: Thomas Udem, MPI Quantum Optics, Garching 

• Muonic Hydrogen: Atomic Physics for Nuclear Structure: Randolf Pohl, MPI Quantum Optics, Garching 

• Antihydrogen: Past, Present, Future: Michael Doser, CERN, Geneva 

• Hydrogen, the Most Abundant Element in the Universe: Ruth Durrer, University of Geneva 

• Defining and Measuring Time: From Cesium to Atomic Clocks: Jacques Vanier, University of Montreal, 

Canada 

• Rydberg States of Atoms and Molecules: Frédéric Merkt, ETH Zurich 

• Manipulating trapped Photons and raising Schrödinger Cats of Light: Serge Haroche, Nobel Laureate 

2012, ENS and Collège de France, Paris 

• At the End of the Periodic Table: Yuri Oganessian, JINR, FLNR, Dubna, Russia 

• Insights and Puzzles in Particle Physics: Heinrich Leutwyler, University of Bern 

• Quantum Mechanics and Photosynthesis: Rienk van Grondelle, VU Amsterdam, The Netherlands 

Public Evening Lecture: Reinhard Werner, Leibniz Universität Hannover: 

Die Bohr-Einstein-Debatte zur Quantenmechanik 

There is no conference fee for registered participants. Registration Deadline: November 1 st , 2013 

More information and registration: http://congress13.scnat.ch

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