The Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Technology at the University of Augsburg can draw a positive balance: Its Master's degree courses in Mathematics and Physics have achieved excellent results in the new CHE University Ranking 2024. This nationwide comparison of degree courses and study conditions was published by the Center for Higher Education Development (CHE) in mid-December.

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A team of researchers at the University of Augsburg has discovered a groundbreaking method to turn a soft magnet into a hard one using nothing more than moderate uniaxial stress - pressure applied in a single direction. Their findings were recently published in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters.

Due to a new method, artificial neural networks, as used in machine learning, will be able to be trained quicker so as to be able to solve complex problems in quantum mechanics. For example, previously unexplained properties of a special state of matter, the quantum spin liquid, can be calculated, something that has not been possible with any previous method to date. This has been made possible by a new optimisation method developed by the Institute of Physics.

The University of Augsburg is delighted to have received the highest rating for five of its bachelor’s degree programmes in the CHE University Ranking 2024. The five degree programmes to receive a top rating were geography, computer science, mathematics, physics, and social sciences, with the general study conditions and supervision by teaching staff highly commended. Conducted by the Centre for Higher Education (CHE), the ranking provides a nationwide comparison of degree programmes and study conditions. It was published in May. Applications to the University of Augsburg for the winter semester 2024/25 are possible until the 15th of July.

Since the beginning of April, an interdisciplinary Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) has been researching the first molecular steps that led to the development of life on Earth. The large-scale project based at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich (LMU) in cooperation with the Technical University of Munich (TUM) is funded to the tune of €2 million by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The Institute of Physics at the University of Augsburg is also involved through a sub-project.

Prof. Dieter Vollhardt was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Warsaw last week in recognition of his scientific achievements and longstanding collaboration with theoretical physicists at the University of Warsaw.

Dr. Alexander Khort, a chemical engineer from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) Stockholm, is a new researcher at the Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Technology at the University of Augsburg for two years. There he is working together with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Suelen Barg on developing new methods for producing smart nanomaterials, investigating their properties, and possible applications, and studying degradation behaviour.

Physicists from the University of Augsburg succeeded to distinguish chiral orders with similar magnetization but opposite sense of rotation through electrical measurements at low temperatures. This is relevant for fundamental research on complex magnets and with respect to possible applications for magnetic data storage. The results were published in the renowned journal Nature Physics.

Researchers at the University of Augsburg and the University of Vienna have discovered co-existing magnetic skyrmions and antiskyrmions of arbitrary topological charge at room temperature in magnetic Co/Ni multilayer thin films. Their findings have been published in the renowned journal Nature Physics and open up the possibility for a new paradigm in skyrmionics research. The discovery of novel spin objects with arbitrary topological charge promises to contribute to advances in fundamental and applied research, particularly through their application in information storage devices.

Lei Zhao, a postdoctoral researcher and leader of an Emmy Noether Junior Research Group at the Institute of Mathematics, has been awarded funding as part of the Heisenberg Programme.