|
Calendar of Physics Talks Vienna
| Matrix Theories and Holography |
| Speaker: | Shota KOMATSU (CERN) |
| Abstract: | I will discuss recent progress on the mass-deformed IKKT matrix model and its holographic dual. I will first review BFSS and IKKT conjectures and contrast them with standard AdS/CFT. I will then introduce the mass-deformed IKKT matrix model and discuss its holographic dual. Finally I will also discuss a setup in which one can directly relate AdS/CFT and the BFSS conjecture. |
| Date: | Tue, 10.03.2026 |
| Time: | 14:00 |
| Duration: | 60 min |
| Location: | Erwin-Schroedinger Lecture Hall, 1090 Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, 5th floor |
| Contact: | S. Fredenhagen, M. Sperling |
| Characterization of an industrial high-rate plasma treatment and deposition technique for steel strip processing |
| Speaker: | Gustav Gürtler (voestalpine Stahl GmbH ) |
| Abstract: | voestalpine Stahl GmbH has developed an integrated, plasma‑assisted PVD process chain that combines efficient substrate activation, rapid plasma heating, and high‑rate metal evaporation into a scalable coating technology initially designed for steel strip and metallic substrates. Leveraging laboratory and pilot‑scale simulators (for narrow strip) as well as a newly commissioned high‑temperature evaporator (HTV), the approach enables controlled surface cleaning and plasma‑assisted metal deposition at very high deposition rates.
In this work, the characterization of the plasma treatment used to prepare batch steel samples for subsequent coating processes is conducted. The plasma treatment combines a supportive plasma discharge, ignited via a tungsten wire employed as an electron source, with a pulsed-DC discharge to sputter the sample surface. Optical emission spectroscopy is employed to |
| Date: | Tue, 10.03.2026 |
| Time: | 16:00 |
| Location: | TU Wien, Institut für Angewandte Physik, E134 1040 Wien, Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10 Yellow Tower „B“, 5th floor, SEM.R. DB gelb 05 B |
| Contact: | Univ.Prof. Dr. Markus Valtiner |
| Old dog, new tricks: how the Standard Model could be the TOE |
| Speaker: | Paul ROMATSCHKE (TU Vienna) |
| Abstract: | The discovery of the Higgs Boson in high energy physics and Parity-Time reversal symmetry in quantum mechanics feature among the most important physics discoveries of the 21st century. In this talk, I will argue that the two are in fact linked, which leads to surprising predictions for the Standard Model of Particle Physics. |
| Date: | Tue, 10.03.2026 |
| Time: | 16:15 |
| Duration: | 60 min |
| Location: | Erwin-Schroedinger Lecture Hall, 1090 Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, 5th floor |
| Contact: | A. Hoang, J. Pradler, M. Procura |
| Singularities, Fluids, and the BKL Conjecture |
| Speaker: | Elliot MARSHALL (University of Crete) |
| Abstract: | The Penrose-Hawking singularity theorems guarantee that a wide class of cosmological models are past geodesically incomplete, indicating that these spacetimes contain ‘big bang’ singularities. However, these theorems do not provide any information about the nature of the nature of the singularity. A longstanding problem in mathematical cosmology, therefore, has been to understand the dynamical behaviour of solutions to the Einstein equations near the big bang. In the seminal work of Belinskiǐ, Khalatnikov, and Lifschitz (BKL), it was conjectured that the initial singularity is generically spacelike, local, and oscillatory. Roughly speaking, this means that solutions to the Einstein equations are well-approximated by a chaotic system of ODEs near the big bang. Rigorous results in this setting have thus far been limited to spatially homogeneous spacetimes, although there is... |
| Date: | Wed, 11.03.2026 |
| Time: | 14:15 |
| Duration: | 60 min |
| Location: | Seminar room A, Währinger Straße 17, 1090 Vienna, 2nd floor |
| Contact: | D. Fajman |
| Geodesics in quantum gravity |
| Speaker: | Benjamin Koch (Atominstitut, TU Wien) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the motion of test particles in quantum-gravitational backgrounds by introducing the concept of qâdesics, quantum-corrected analogs of classical geodesics. Unlike standard approaches that rely solely on the expectation value of the spacetime metric, our formulation is based on the expectation value of quantum operators, such as the affine connection operator. This allows us to capture richer geometric information. We derive the qâdesic equation using both Lagrangian and Hamiltonian methods and apply it to spherically symmetric static backgrounds obtained from canonical quantum gravity. Exemplary results include lightlike radial motion and circular motion with quantum gravitational corrections far above the Planck scale. This framework provides a refined description of motion in quantum spacetimes and opens new directions for probing the interface between quantum gravity an |
| Date: | Wed, 11.03.2026 |
| Time: | 16:15 |
| Duration: | 45 min |
| Location: | Atominstitut, Helmut Rauch Hörsaal, |
| Contact: | Elena Redchenko |
| Cabibbo unitarity: Status and Outlook |
| Speaker: | Mikhail Gorshteyn (UNI Mainz) |
| Abstract: | Unitarity of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) quark mixing matrix is one of the cornerstones of the Standard Model. The unitarity constraint that involves the top-row matrix elements, $|V_{ud}|^2+|V_{us}|^2+|V_{ub}|^2=1$ is particularly important because all elements are measured very precisely permitting a test at the 0.01\% level. At this accuracy, $V_{ub}\sim10^{-3}$ is irrelevant, and the unitarity constraint reduces to the two-flavor Cabibbo unitarity pattern with a single Cabibbo angle $\theta_C$ and $V_{ud}=\cos\theta_C$ and $V_{us}$. At present, a mild deficit is observed, $|V_{ud}|^2+|V_{us}|^2=0.9985(7)$. As such, this deficit may suggest some new physics, but to make this claim, all Standard Model ingredients must be firmly under control. I review these ingredients across theory and experiment and review the most recent developments. |
| Date: | Fri, 13.03.2026 |
| Time: | 10:00 |
| Duration: | 45 min |
| Location: | Helmut Rauch Hörsaal ATI |
| Contact: | Hartmut Abele |
|