News / Highlights / Colloquium
EPJ ST: Baohua Ji new Editor on board
- Details
- Published on 17 January 2022
The publishers of The European Physical Journal Special Topics are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Baohua Ji as new Editor in the board.
Dr. Baohua Ji is currently professor of biomechanics of Zhejiang University. He earned his B.S and Ph.D degrees from Xi’an Jiaotong University of China in 1993 and 1998, respectively. He did his postdoc research at Institute of Mechanics of Chinese Academy of Science during 1998-2001, and at Max-Planck Institute for Metal Research during 2001-2004. His research is currently focused on cell-matrix interaction, collective cell behaviors, and mechanomedicine (mechanobiology based medicine). The objective of the research is to achieve a quantitative understanding of how forces and deformation affect human health and disease from molecular, cellular and tissue levels. Dr. Ji has published over 120 peer-reviewed Journal papers. And he has received several awards including the Outstanding Young Scientist Award of the Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (2009), the NSFC Outstanding Young Scientists Award (2010) and National 10-Thousand program for leading talents (2017).
EPJ ST Highlight - Examining recent developments in Quantum Chromodynamics
- Details
- Published on 14 December 2021
The strong nuclear force is responsible for binding together quarks, the basic building blocks of protons and neutrons, that comprise almost all of the visible matter. A new collection looks at recent development in the field of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) from a range of perspectives.
Created as an analogy for Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) — which describes the interactions due to the electromagnetic force carried by photons — Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is the theory of physics that explains the interactions mediated by the strong force — one of the four fundamental forces of nature.
A new collection of papers published in EPJ Special Topics, and edited by Diogo Boito, Instituto de Fisica de Sao Carlos, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Irinel Caprini, Horia Hulubei National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Bucharest, Romania, brings together recent developments in the investigation of QCD.
EPJ ST Highlight - An exploration of tipping in complex systems
- Details
- Published on 22 November 2021
This special issue examines the extensive landscape of research into tipping within complex systems, and provides guidance as to where the field will likely be headed in the future.
Complex systems can be found in a diverse array of real-world scenarios, but are unified by their ability to suddenly transition between drastically different patterns of behaviour. Known as ‘tipping,’ this type of transformation is generally triggered by small changes in the parameters of individual systems – whose effects can rapidly cascade to alter entire networks of interacting subsystems. This special issue of EPJ Special Topics explores the nature of tipping in complex systems through 21 new articles. Together, the studies reveal recent trends and directions of research within the field, and highlight the pressing challenges it will face in the future.
EPJ ST Highlight - Examining the dynamics of complex networks
- Details
- Published on 15 November 2021
A new collection of papers focuses on the theories and methodology of dynamical networks with a focus on neuroscience and Earth sciences, and climate systems.
A special issue of EPJ Special Topics, edited by Jürgen Kurths (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research), Elbert E. N. Macau (Federal University of São Paulo), Antonio C. Roque (University of São Paulo) and Serhiy Yanchuk (Humboldt University Berlin) brings together a collection of papers focusing improving our understanding of the collective dynamics of complex systems. The special issue pays particular attention to the applications of this understanding in the diverse fields of neuroscience, climate modelling, and Earth science.
EPJ ST: Shahriar Afkhami new Editor on board
- Details
- Published on 22 October 2021
The publishers of The European Physical Journal Special Topics are pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Shahriar Afkhami as new Editor in the board.
Shahriar Afkhami, is Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at New Jersey Institute of Technology and his research interests lie at the interface of applied mathematics, chemical engineering, and mechanical engineering. He is particularly interested in computational and mathematical modeling of complex systems including viscoelastic liquids, electro/magnetohydrodynamics, interfacial flows in porous media, dynamic contact lines, and microfluidics. The main focus of his research is based on developing accurate and robust numerical methods for describing moving boundaries involving multiple phases and complex flows.
EPJ ST: Alfonso San Miguel new Editor on board
- Details
- Published on 22 October 2021
The publishers of The European Physical Journal Special Topics are pleased to announce the appointment of Alfonso San Miguel, professor at the University Lyon 1 and president of the Rhône section of the French Physical Society, who will support EPJ ST in Materials Science.
Alfonso San Miguel explores the physical properties of matter under extreme conditions of pressure and temperature including semiconductors, liquids or simple molecular systems. He presently focuses on the evolution of geometry, topology and dimensionality under extreme conditions, in particular in nanomaterials and low dimensional systems. He has a taste for instrumental development and interdisciplinary work combining theory and experience with specialists from different fields (physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering).
EPJ ST Highlight - Examining the accelerating Universe
- Details
- Published on 19 October 2021
A new collection of papers focuses on the paradigm of the accelerating expansion of the Universe in turn unpacking some of cosmology’s most pressing questions.
A special edition of EPJ Special Topics, edited by Balasubramanian Ananthanarayan, Centre for High Energy Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and Subhendra Mohanty, Department of Theoretical Physics, Physical Research Laboratory, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad, brings together a collection of papers focusing improving our understanding of the accelerating expansion of the Universe and the nature of the dark energy that drives it.
EPJ ST Highlight - Using particle accelerators to investigate the quark-gluon plasma of the infant Universe
- Details
- Published on 29 July 2021
In the early stages of the Universe, quarks and gluons were quickly confined to protons and neutrons which went on to form atoms. With particle accelerators reaching increasingly higher energy levels the opportunity to study this fleeting primordial state of matter has finally arrived.
Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) is a state of matter which existed only for the briefest of times at the very beginning of the Universe with these particles being quickly clumped together to form the protons and neutrons that make up the everyday matter that surrounds us. The challenge of understanding this primordial state of matter falls to physicists operating the world’s most powerful particle accelerators. A new special issue of EPJ Special Topics entitled ‘Quark-Gluon Plasma and Heavy-Ion Phenomenology’ edited by Munshi G. Mustafa, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, India, brings together seven papers that detail our understanding of QGP and the processes that transformed it into the baryonic matter around us on an everyday basis.
EPJ ST Highlight - Gaining insight into the Universe’s most powerful objects and events
- Details
- Published on 28 July 2021
A timely new collection reminds us that even in times of great hardship, our understanding of the Universe’s most explosive, spectacular and mysterious events and objects continues to grow
Supernovas, neutron stars, and neutron star mergers are some of the Universe’s most powerful events and mysterious objects, leftover after the burning of nuclear fuel is exhausted within massive stars. A new special issue of EPJ Special Topics entitled ‘Nuclear astrophysics in our time: supernovae, neutron stars and binary neutron star mergers’ edited by Debades Bandyopadhyay, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, India, brings together several papers that document our understanding of these astrophysical events and compact stars.
EPJ ST Highlight - Hunting Dark Energy with Gravity Resonance Spectroscopy
- Details
- Published on 29 June 2021
A highly sophisticated technique enables researchers to search for minuscule anomalies in the quantum state transitions of neutrons, which could offer key clues about the elusive nature of Dark Energy
Dark Energy is widely believed to be the driving force behind the universe’s accelerating expansion, and several theories have now been proposed to explain its elusive nature. However, these theories predict that its influence on quantum scales must be vanishingly small, and experiments so far have not been accurate enough to either verify or discredit them. In new research published in EPJ Special Topics, a team led by Hartmut Abele at TU Wien in Austria demonstrate a robust experimental technique for studying one such theory, using ultra-cold neutrons. Named ‘Gravity Resonance Spectroscopy’ (GRS), their approach could bring researchers a step closer to understanding one of the greatest mysteries in cosmology.
