Münchner Physik-Kolloquium: Materials physics in space: the benefit of experiments in weightlessness

Through the absence of gravitationally driven phenomena, like convection and sedimentation,
investigations in weightlessness provide well-dened experimental conditions. This enables
the application of measurement techniques, that cannot be realized on earth, it guides the
development of novel earth-bound measurement principles, and it allows for the accurate and
precise measurement of physical quantities. With the development of advanced container-less
processing techniques, such as electrostatic levitation (ESL), and in-situ X-ray radiography,
on earth as well as in microgravity on parabolic ights, sounding rockets and the International
Space Station, in particular coeffcients of transport of mass in liquid metals and alloys are accurately measured. Quasielastic neutron scattering and neutron diffraction on levitated liquid droplets complements these experiments. Results are discussed in the context of generally accepted text book knowledge, i.e. the relation of self- and interdiffusion (Darken’s equation), of the relation of self-diffusion and viscosity (Stokes-Einstein relation), and structure-property relations (Mode-Coupling-Theory).

Student event: Meet the speaker
We invite you to a student-only discussion-round with Prof. Dr. Andreas Meyer before his Munich Physics Colloquium talk.
Be curious and feel free to ask any question.
Monday, 16 January 2017, 16:00 h
Seminar room PH 3076 (upper floor), Physik-Department der TUM, Garching