arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to T. Hoffmann.
We give a modern account of the classical theory of Bianchi \cite{Bia03} (see also \cite{KamPedPin98}) relating isothermic surfaces to Bonnet pairs. The main novelty is to identify the derivatives of the Bonnet pair with a component of the retraction form of the isothermic surface.
By an electrical-pump--optical-probe technique we show that the electric-field-induced reversal of the magnetic order parameter in multiferroic MnWO$_4$ occurs on the time scale of milliseconds and maintains a rigid coupling of the magnetization to the magnetically induced electric polarization. The temporal progression of the spatially resolved domain structure was imaged with nanosecond resolution by optical second harmonic generation and compared to the quasi-static domain reversal. A qualitative model gives an estimate of why the magnetoelectric order-parameter reversal in the magnetically induced ferroelectrics is not inherently ultrafast.
Many aspects of the explosion mechanism of Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) still remain unclear -- causing uncertainties in the derived cosmological parameters. Realistic models of the generation and transport of radiation in the ejecta are required which link theoretical explosion models to observations. We aim to construct theoretical spectra and light curves from consistent radiative transfer models that allow to study the dependence of observable features on the physical parameters of the explosion.
We present the current status of our construction of synthetic spectra for type Ia supernovae. These properly take into account the effects of NLTE and an adequate representation of line blocking and blanketing. The models are based on a sophisticated atomic database. We show that the synthetic spectrum reproduces the observed spectrum of 'normal' SN-Ia near maximum light from the UV to the near-IR. However, further improvements are necessary before truly quantitative analyses of observed SN-Ia spectra can be performed. In particular, the inner boundary condition has to be fundamentally modified. This is due to the dominance of electron scattering over true absorption processes coupled with the flat density structure in these objects
Hexagonal circle patterns are introduced, and a subclass thereof is studied in detail. It is characterized by the following property: For every circle the multi-ratio of its six intersection points with neighboring circles is equal to -1. The relation of such patterns with an integrable system on the regular triangular lattice is established. A kind of a B"acklund transformation for circle patterns is studied. Further, a class of isomonodromic solutions of the aforementioned integrable system is introduced, including circle patterns analogons to the analytic functions $z^α$ and $\log z$.
For the characterization of the 10 mA ion beam delivered by the new High Current Linac at GSI, sophisticated, mainly non-intersepting diagnostic devices were developed. Besides the general set-up of a versatile test bench, we discuss in particular bunch shape and emittance measurements. A direct time-of-flight technique with a diamond particle detector is used to observe the micro-bunch distribution with a resolution of $\sim 25 $ ps equals 0.3$^{o}$ in phase. For the determination of the energy spread a coincidence technique is applied, using secondary electrons emitted by the ion passing through an aluminum foil 80 cm upstream of the diamond detector. The transverse emittance is measured within one macro pulse with a pepper-pot system equipped with a high performance CCD camera.