IRTG Summerschool 2024

From 10.-13.09.2024, the biannual IRTG Summer School took place in Burghausen. Just under the longest castle in the world, 16 master's and doctoral students came together to discuss current research topics outside of the university. After arriving, Rudolf Gross (Walther Meissner Institute) opened the SummerSchool with a lecture starting with the basics of the wave function and moving on to historical events and quantum interference effects. R. Gross managed to give the students a comprehensive insight into the broad world of the wave function. After a short coffee break, the opportunity was taken to catch a few more sunny moments. The poster session was therefore moved outside. On Wednesday, Felix von Oppen (Freie Universität Berlin) started his first session with the question ‘Why are insulators insulating?’, which was clearly answered by everyone. The second question, ‘Why are superconductors superconducting?’, was not answered so quickly. Over the course of the 90 minutes, the answer became clear as the basics, including BCS theory and the Josephson effect, were refreshed. The microphone was afterwards in the hands of Rudolf Gross, who focused from an experimental view on superconductivity The afternoon started with a ‘homework’ set by Felix von Oppen. In small groups, the doctoral students were taken back to the early semesters of their physics studies and tried to solve the challenging tasks. As a well-deserved break for exercise, the participants then went up to the castle, where they were given a 90-minute guided tour. After dinner, the results of the tasks were presented and corrected if necessary. Three lectures followed the next day. Angela Wittmann (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz) began with a motivational speech and the question: How can light and magnetism be combined? This was followed once again by Felix von Oppen, who had the attention of the audience with his theoretical insight into the world of Majorana fermions, which have not yet been experimentally proven. In the afternoon, a second poster session followed, in which the speakers also contributed well. Ilaria Zardo (University of Basel) began with a general introduction to phonons and photons. For the final evening, the participants were invited to the ‘Hochburg-Ach’ forest restaurant for a conference dinner. After a 30-minute walk across the German-Austrian border, the participants were able to enjoy burgers and ”Palatschinken” in a cosy atmosphere. The last day was started by Angela Wittmann with an extended discussion of spin-selective transport. Ilaria Zardo ended the SummerSchool with an insight into the many ways in which the properties of the wave function influence her research fields, including the latest findings and as yet unpublished data. Afterwards, the participants returned home. On behalf of all participants, we would like to thank the speakers and the SFB1277 for a successful Summer School 2024.