Here I list a few topics I happen to be particularly interested in. Hopefully, I will find the time to do also some serious research in these fields some day, and then parts of this page will move to the Scientific Research section (while the gaps will presumably be refilled with new exciting topics). At the moment, all I can offer is some general information, usually supplemented by links and references, sometimes even by short essays that may be interesting to the public.
In Science, chaos has a meaning somehow different from everyday life. Chaotic systems are, in some sense, all those systems which are not "boring", i.e. easily predictable. The moon orbiting around earth or earth orbiting around the sun exhibit regular, predictable motion (though there are even hints of chaos in the solar system) . The daily weather, on the other hand, is hard to predict even a few days in advance. Wasn't there even something about a butterfly? Yes, that's what I'm actually talking about. Read more...
We don't know the final theory of quantum gravity - yet. (Maybe we will never know it, but soemtimes I prefer to be optimistic.) Still there exists a surprising amount of knowledge we can infer from properties we already know (unless almost everything we believe to know about physics is wrong). This leads to effects like Hawking radiation of black holes or the Bekenstein entropy bound. It's a fascinating and presumably very deep aspect of nature that as soon one combines quantum physics and gravitation, information arises as a fundamental concept. Read more...
Even though I have been trained in elementary particle physics, I am for sure no expert on physics beyond the standard model. Actually the not so small chances for spending years of work on some model which may eventually have nothing to do with reality always made me feel uneasy - one of the main reasons why I decided to work on Quantum Chromodynamics. However, I am still very interested in what is going on at the frontiers of our understanding of the fundamental laws.
One should not conceal that there are several concerned scientists, for example O. E. Rössler, who consider the LHC experiments as a possible hazard to mankind and the very existence of the planet earth. Some of their arguments are collected on LHC facts, a collection of counterarguments can be found in 0806.3414 [hep-ph].
Sadly, many people are afraid of physics and mathematics. (For many, this might have to do with the way those subjects are often taught at school.) But even many physicists and mathematicians are afraid of the - in my opinion - most fascinating discipline of the Art: mathematical physics. In this seemingly unforgiving and dangerous region between theoretical physics and pure mathematics, in the realm of tangent bundels, universal covering groups and cohomologies, one can discover connections and insights of breathtaking beauty. Things may also look significantly different than one would expect. Read more...