Open Academy Lecture by Prof. Dr. Klaus Blaum. The lecture is hosted by the Academy’s class for physics.
An overview is given on recent measurements with extreme precision on single or few cooled ions stored in Penning traps. On the one hand, mass measurements provide crucial information for atomic, nuclear and neutrino physics as well as for testing fundamental symmetries. On the other hand, g-factor measurements of the bound electron in highly-charged hydrogen-like ions allow for the determination of fundamental constants and for constraining Quantum Electrodynamics. For example, the most stringent test of CPT symmetry in the baryonic sector could be performed by mass comparison of the antiproton with H- and the knowledge of the electron atomic mass could be improved by a factor of 13.
Klaus Blaum received his PhD in 2000 at the University of Mainz. After a four-years stay at CERN, he moved back to Mainz to lead a Helmholtz-Young-Investigator Group. In 2007, he became director at the Max-Planck-Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, heading the Division on “Experiments with Stored and Cooled Ions”. He is member of the Physics Faculty of the University of Heidelberg.
The lecture is free of charge and open to the public. Registration is not needed.