The EPS Conference will be held for the second time in Hamburg – last time, in 2021, it was held entirely digitally.
DESY and the Universität Hamburg are hosting this year’s Conference for High Energy Physics of the European Physical Society (EPS-HEP). The conference’s public programme begins on 20 August, with the conference itself beginning one day later. Public talks, exhibitions, and a concert in St. Michael’s Church are all open to the public free of charge.
At the conference, scientists from around the world meet to present their latest results from different areas across the field of high-energy physics: from experiments at particle accelerators, to the search for dark matter, to the search for particles not yet known to science.
“It is a great honour that this year the Particle Physics section of the European Physics Society is coming to Hamburg to discuss the latest scientific results in this exciting research area,” says Beate Heinemann, director for particle Physics at DESY. “DESY and Universität Hamburg have been playing a world-leading role in advancing particle and accelerator physics in the past 60 years, and still are doing this today.”
“Among the most important topics of discussion this year are the search for a new, comprehensive physics that brings together all previous physical theories, as well as an exchange about future, even more powerful particle detectors and accelerators and the technologies needed for them. We are looking forward to welcoming up to 1000 colleagues in our beautiful hometown,” says Johannes Haller, professor of physics at Universität Hamburg and, alongside DESY leading scientist Ties Behnke, one of the chairs of the local organising committee.
Haller is one of the leading scientists of the Cluster of Excellence “Quantum Universe” at Universität Hamburg. In this research cluster, scientists are investigating the origin, development, and composition of the universe. A central pillar of research at the cluster is particle physics, which is why “Quantum Universe” is sponsoring the conference. With the support of the Cluster of Excellence, special emphasis was placed this year on a publicly accessible supporting program, after the last conference in 2021 had to be held purely digitally. Among the events taking place:
> Public talk on the building blocks and interactions of matter (in German)
Andreas Höcker from CERN in Geneva will present a general and accessible overview of particle physics and the origin of matter during the time immediately following the Big Bang on 22 August at 8:00pm in the historic main building of Universität Hamburg (Auditorium A). Höcker is the speaker of the ATLAS experiment at CERN.
> Public talk and concert at St. Michael’s Church
Wolfgang Hillert, professor at Universität Hamburg, will explain the physics of the organ on 24 August at 8:00pm at St. Michael’s Church in the Hamburg city centre. A concert will follow, featuring works played by Hillert from various composers including Johann Sebastian Bach and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.
> Exhibition of particle physics in art
From 21 to 27 August, artists who are inspired by particle physics and the questions it explores will present their work in a gallery at Grindelallee 129. The exhibition is open from 3:00pm to 9:00pm daily, except on Sunday (until 7:00pm).
The opening will take place on 20 August at 5:00pm. At 7:00pm, the art historian Belinda Grace Gardner, Universität Hamburg professor and DESY leading scientist Christian Schwanenberger, and the participating artists Marcel Große, Simone Kessler, Julia Münstermann, and Jana Schumacher will discuss the relationship between art and science.
> Mobile Exhibition “Urknall Unterwegs” (in German)
On 21 August, the pop-up participatory exhibition Urknall Unterwegs, presented by the particle physics network Netzwerk Teilchenwelt, will be on Gänsemarkt from 11:00am to 6:00pm, followed by another showing on 22 August from 12:00pm to 8:00pm in the Ernst Cassirer Park behind the historic main building of Universität Hamburg.
> Exhibition of Ukrainian photographers on threatened science
The photography exhibition can be seen during the conference hours at the Audimax of Universität Hamburg, Von Melle Park 4, from 21 August to 25 August.
All events are free of charge and no registration is required.
The European Physical Society (EPS) is a federation of 42 physical societies in Europe. It was founded in 1968 and has 100,000 members. The biennial conference on high-energy physics organized by the EPS is an important exchange format for the participating scientists. The meeting takes place each time in a different European city. Hamburg is the host for the second time in a row, as the previous meeting had to be held digitally due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
More information can be found about the conference and the public events at:
https://www.eps-hep2023.eu/
https://indico.desy.de/event/34916/page/4624-public-events
