Kirchhoff-Institute for Physics

The Kirchhoff Institute for Physics (KIP) is named after a prominent physicist of the 19th Century: Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, who worked in Heidelberg for 21 years. His well-known lectures on experimental and theoretical physics attracted many students. Kirchhoff's ground-breaking research was extraordinarily diverse, spanning electrical, magnetic, optical, elastic, hydrodynamic and thermal processes. His laws for electrical circuits are well-known. At the time he was in Heidelberg, in conjunction with Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, he discovered spectral analysis and its application to solar radiation. In this way, Kirchhoff laid the foundation for modern astrophysics, as well as formulating the laws of thermal radiation, which played a key role in the discovery of quantum physics. The KIP aims to continue in this tradition of diverse scientific research and education.

Physikalisches Kolloquium

22. June 2018 17:00   Einstein, Bell, the Cosmos and You - recent tests of local realism

Prof. Morgan W. Mitchell, The Institute of Photonic Sciences, Barcelona, Local realism is the principle of locality (no instantaneous action-at-a-distance) joined to realism (the world and its properties exist whether or not we observe them). While it is typical for philosophers to question realism, in physics (as in common sense), realism was implicitly assumed until Niels Bohr and Wehner Heisenberg introduced the anti-realist Copenhagen Interpretation in 1927. Einstein's 1927-1935 arguments in support of local realism showed how Bohr's position describes a radically different understanding of physics and our relation to the physical world. In 1964 John Bell gave local realism a mathematical form, and showed that it was in principle testable. The first such Bell test was reported in 1970, and by now several generations of physicists have grappled with the problem of how to rigorously test a claim at the boundary of physics and philosophy. more...

Aktuelle Mitteilungen

Center for Quantum Dynamics Colloquium, Wednesday, June 27, 2018, 5 p.m.

"Quantum Magnetism with Ultracold Fermions"
Dr. Randall G. Hulet 
(Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston)
Wednesday, 27.06.2018 at 17:00 / 17:30 o'clock
Pretalk: Clément Hainaut, PI, Universität Heidelberg, tba
Kirchhoff-Institut, INF 227 SR 1.403
Ultracold atoms on optical lattices form a versatile platform for studying many-body physics, with the potential of addressing some of the most important issues in strongly correlated matter. 

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Lehrpreis der Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie

In Anerkennung Ihrer herausragenden Beiträge zur Lehre der Fakultät erhalten Dr. Astrid Eichhorn (Bild mitte) und Prof. Björn-Malte Schäfer (Bild links) den Lehrpreis der Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie, verliehen durch Studiendekan Joerg Jaeckel (Bild rechts). Frau Eichhorn hat in Ihrer Vorlesung “Black Holes” ein schwieriges Thema mit Begeisterung vermittelt. Herr Schäfer hat in seiner “Theoretischen Physik III” mit viel Engagement und Motivation zum Verständnis der Elektrodynamik geführt.

Die Fakultät bedankt bei den Preisträgern für die exzellenten Beiträge zur Lehre.

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