@phdthesis{Meyer2023,
  author    = {Meyer, Dominique M.-A.},
  title     = {The circumstellar medium of massive stars},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {318},
  year      = {2023},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Omelchenko2021,
  author    = {Omelchenko, Oleh},
  title     = {Synchronit{\"a}t-und-Unordnung-Muster in Netzwerken gekoppelter Oszillatoren},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-53596},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-535961},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {152},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {Synchronization of coupled oscillators manifests itself in many natural and man-made systems, including cyrcadian clocks, central pattern generators, laser arrays, power grids, chemical and electrochemical oscillators, only to name a few. The mathematical description of this phenomenon is often based on the paradigmatic Kuramoto model, which represents each oscillator by one scalar variable, its phase. When coupled, phase oscillators constitute a high-dimensional dynamical system, which exhibits complex behaviour, ranging from synchronized uniform oscillation to quasiperiodicity and chaos. The corresponding collective rhythms can be useful or harmful to the normal operation of various systems, therefore they have been the subject of much research. Initially, synchronization phenomena have been studied in systems with all-to-all (global) and nearest-neighbour (local) coupling, or on random networks. However, in recent decades there has been a lot of interest in more complicated coupling structures, which take into account the spatially distributed nature of real-world oscillator systems and the distance-dependent nature of the interaction between their components. Examples of such systems are abound in biology and neuroscience. They include spatially distributed cell populations, cilia carpets and neural networks relevant to working memory. In many cases, these systems support a rich variety of patterns of synchrony and disorder with remarkable properties that have not been observed in other continuous media. Such patterns are usually referred to as the coherence-incoherence patterns, but in symmetrically coupled oscillator systems they are also known by the name chimera states. The main goal of this work is to give an overview of different types of collective behaviour in large networks of spatially distributed phase oscillators and to develop mathematical methods for their analysis. We focus on the Kuramoto models for one-, two- and three-dimensional oscillator arrays with nonlocal coupling, where the coupling extends over a range wider than nearest neighbour coupling and depends on separation. We use the fact that, for a special (but still quite general) phase interaction function, the long-term coarse-grained dynamics of the above systems can be described by a certain integro-differential equation that follows from the mathematical approach called the Ott-Antonsen theory. We show that this equation adequately represents all relevant patterns of synchrony and disorder, including stationary, periodically breathing and moving coherence-incoherence patterns. Moreover, we show that this equation can be used to completely solve the existence and stability problem for each of these patterns and to reliably predict their main properties in many application relevant situations.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Regenstein1989,
  author    = {Regenstein, Wolfgang},
  title     = {Fluoreszenzl{\"o}schung durch Elektronen- und Resonanzenergietransfer in L{\"o}sungen},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-49137},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-491377},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {86, 17},
  year      = {1989},
  abstract  = {Intermolekulare Desaktivierung zwischen einem angeregten Fluorophor und einem L{\"o}scher durch Elektronen{\"u}bertragung kann mit dynamischer und statischer L{\"o}schung beschrieben werden. Es wird vorgeschlagen den dynamischen L{\"o}schprozess in Transport- und Wechselwirkungsphase einzuteilen. Ergebnisse der L{\"o}schung der N-Heteroarene durch Naphthalen bei hohen L{\"o}scherkonzentrationen werden mit der statischen L{\"o}schung beschrieben. Außerdem werden CT-Systeme untersucht. Nach einem {\"U}berblick {\"u}ber statische Modelle zum Resonanzenergietransfer wird ein aus der Treffertheorie abgeleitetes Modell vorgestellt und an Beispielen getestet. Die Experimente sind computergesteuert.},
  language  = {de}
}
@phdthesis{Feulner2017,
  author    = {Feulner, Georg},
  title     = {The influence of solar radiation changes on the energy budget of Earth's climate},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {200},
  year      = {2017},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Qiu2017,
  author    = {Qiu, Xunlin},
  title     = {Ferroelectrets: heterogenous polymer electrets with high electromechanical response},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-398425},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {viii, 172},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {Ferroelectrets are internally charged polymer foams or cavity-containing polymer-_lm systems that combine large piezoelectricity with mechanical flexibility and elastic compliance. The term "ferroelectret" was coined based on the fact that it is a space-charge electret that also shows ferroic behavior. In this thesis, comprehensive work on ferroelectrets, and in particular on their preparation, their charging, their piezoelectricity and their applications is reported. For industrial applications, ferroelectrets with well-controlled distributions or even uniform values of cavity size and cavity shape and with good thermal stability of the piezoelectricity are very desirable. Several types of such ferroelectrets are developed using techniques such as straightforward thermal lamination, sandwiching sticky templates with electret films, and screen printing. In particular, uoroethylenepropylene (FEP) _lm systems with tubular-channel openings, prepared by means of the thermal lamination technique, show piezoelectric d33 coefficients of up to 160 pC/N after charging through dielectric barrier discharges (DBDs) . For samples charged at suitable elevated temperatures, the piezoelectricity is stable at temperatures of at least 130°C. These preparation methods are easy to implement at laboratory or industrial scales, and are quite flexible in terms of material selection and cavity geometry design. Due to the uniform and well-controlled cavity structures, samples are also very suitable for fundamental studies on ferroelectrets. Charging of ferroelectrets is achieved via a series of dielectric barrier discharges (DBDs) inside the cavities. In the present work, the DBD charging process is comprehensively studied by means of optical, electrical and electro-acoustic methods. The spectrum of the transient light from the DBDs in cellular polypropylene (PP) ferroelectrets directly confirms the ionization of molecular nitrogen, and allows the determination of the electric field in the discharge. Detection of the light emission reveals not only DBDs under high applied voltage but also back discharges when the applied voltage is reduced to sufficiently low values. Back discharges are triggered by the internally deposited charges, as the breakdown inside the cavities is controlled by the sum of the applied electric field and the electric field of the deposited charges. The remanent effective polarization is determined by the breakdown strength of the gas-filled cavities. These findings form the basis of more efficient charging techniques for ferroelectrets such as charging with high-pressure air, thermal poling and charging assisted by gas exchange. With the proposed charging strategies, the charging efficiency of ferroelectrets can be enhanced significantly. After charging, the cavities can be considered as man-made macroscopic dipoles whose direction can be reversed by switching the polarity of the applied voltage. Polarization-versus-electric-field (P(E)) hysteresis loops in ferroelectrets are observed by means of an electro-acoustic method combined with dielectric resonance spectroscopy. P(E) hysteresis loops in ferrroelectrets are also obtained by more direct measurements using a modified Sawyer-Tower circuit. Hysteresis loops prove the ferroic behavior of ferroelectrets. However, repeated switching of the macroscopic dipoles involves complex physico-chemical processes. The DBD charging process generates a cold plasma with numerous active species and thus modifies the inner polymer surfaces of the cavities. Such treatments strongly affect the chargeability of the cavities. At least for cellular PP ferroelectrets, repeated DBDs in atmospheric conditions lead to considerable fatigue of the effective polarization and of the resulting piezoelectricity. The macroscopic dipoles in ferroelectrets are highly compressible, and hence the piezoelectricity is essentially the primary effect. It is found that the piezoelectric d33 coefficient is proportional to the polarization and the elastic compliance of the sample, providing hints for developing materials with higher piezoelectric sensitivity in the future. Due to their outstanding electromechanical properties, there has been constant interest in the application of ferroelectrets. The antiresonance frequencies (fp) of ferroelectrets are sensitive to the boundary conditions during measurement. A tubular-channel FEP ferroelectret is conformably attached to a self-organized minimum-energy dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA). It turns out that the antiresonance frequency (fp) of the ferroelectret film changes noticeably with the bending angle of the DEA. Therefore, the actuation of DEAs can be used to modulate the fp value of ferroelectrets, but fp can also be exploited for in-situ diagnosis and for precise control of the actuation of the DEA. Combination of DEAs and ferroelectrets opens up various new possibilities for application.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Habicht2016,
  author    = {Habicht, Klaus},
  title     = {Neutron-resonance spin-echo spectroscopy},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {276},
  year      = {2016},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Dunlop2015,
  author    = {Dunlop, John William Chapman},
  title     = {The physics of shape changes in biology},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-96554},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {vii, 202},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {Biological materials, in addition to having remarkable physical properties, can also change shape and volume. These shape and volume changes allow organisms to form new tissue during growth and morphogenesis, as well as to repair and remodel old tissues. In addition shape or volume changes in an existing tissue can lead to useful motion or force generation (actuation) that may even still function in the dead organism, such as in the well known example of the hygroscopic opening or closing behaviour of the pine cone. Both growth and actuation of tissues are mediated, in addition to biochemical factors, by the physical constraints of the surrounding environment and the architecture of the underlying tissue. This habilitation thesis describes biophysical studies carried out over the past years on growth and swelling mediated shape changes in biological systems. These studies use a combination of theoretical and experimental tools to attempt to elucidate the physical mechanisms governing geometry controlled tissue growth and geometry constrained tissue swelling. It is hoped that in addition to helping understand fundamental processes of growth and morphogenesis, ideas stemming from such studies can also be used to design new materials for medicine and robotics.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{AmaroSeoane2016,
  author    = {Amaro-Seoane, Pau},
  title     = {Dense stellar systems and massive black holes},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-95439},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {239},
  year      = {2016},
  abstract  = {Gravity dictates the structure of the whole Universe and, although it is triumphantly described by the theory of General Relativity, it is the force that we least understand in nature. One of the cardinal predictions of this theory are black holes. Massive, dark objects are found in the majority of galaxies. Our own galactic center very contains such an object with a mass of about four million solar masses. Are these objects supermassive black holes (SMBHs), or do we need alternatives? The answer lies in the event horizon, the characteristic that defines a black hole. The key to probe the horizon is to model the movement of stars around a SMBH, and the interactions between them, and look for deviations from real observations. Nuclear star clusters harboring a massive, dark object with a mass of up to ~ ten million solar masses are good testbeds to probe the event horizon of the potential SMBH with stars. The channel for interactions between stars and the central MBH are the fact that (a) compact stars and stellar-mass black holes can gradually inspiral into the SMBH due to the emission of gravitational radiation, which is known as an "Extreme Mass Ratio Inspiral" (EMRI), and (b) stars can produce gases which will be accreted by the SMBH through normal stellar evolution, or by collisions and disruptions brought about by the strong central tidal field. Such processes can contribute significantly to the mass of the SMBH. These two processes involve different disciplines, which combined will provide us with detailed information about the fabric of space and time. In this habilitation I present nine articles of my recent work directly related with these topics.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Vocks2012,
  author    = {Vocks, Christian},
  title     = {Electron kinetic processes in the solar corona and wind},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-65259},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  year      = {2012},
  abstract  = {The Sun is surrounded by a 10^6 K hot atmosphere, the corona. The corona and the solar wind are fully ionized, and therefore in the plasma state. Magnetic fields play an important role in a plasma, since they bind electrically charged particles to their field lines. EUV spectroscopes, like the SUMER instrument on-board the SOHO spacecraft, reveal a preferred heating of coronal ions and strong temperature anisotropies. Velocity distributions of electrons can be measured directly in the solar wind, e.g. with the 3DPlasma instrument on-board the WIND satellite. They show a thermal core, an anisotropic suprathermal halo, and an anti-solar, magnetic-field-aligned, beam or "strahl". For an understanding of the physical processes in the corona, an adequate description of the plasma is needed. Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) treats the plasma simply as an electrically conductive fluid. Multi-fluid models consider e.g. protons and electrons as separate fluids. They enable a description of many macroscopic plasma processes. However, fluid models are based on the assumption of a plasma near thermodynamic equilibrium. But the solar corona is far away from this. Furthermore, fluid models cannot describe processes like the interaction with electromagnetic waves on a microscopic scale. Kinetic models, which are based on particle velocity distributions, do not show these limitations, and are therefore well-suited for an explanation of the observations listed above. For the simplest kinetic models, the mirror force in the interplanetary magnetic field focuses solar wind electrons into an extremely narrow beam, which is contradicted by observations. Therefore, a scattering mechanism must exist that counteracts the mirror force. In this thesis, a kinetic model for electrons in the solar corona and wind is presented that provides electron scattering by resonant interaction with whistler waves. The kinetic model reproduces the observed components of solar wind electron distributions, i.e. core, halo, and a "strahl" with finite width. But the model is not only applicable on the quiet Sun. The propagation of energetic electrons from a solar flare is studied, and it is found that scattering in the direction of propagation and energy diffusion influence the arrival times of flare electrons at Earth approximately to the same degree. In the corona, the interaction of electrons with whistler waves does not only lead to scattering, but also to the formation of a suprathermal halo, as it is observed in interplanetary space. This effect is studied both for the solar wind as well as the closed volume of a coronal magnetic loop. The result is of fundamental importance for solar-stellar relations. The quiet solar corona always produces suprathermal electrons. This process is closely related to coronal heating, and can therefore be expected in any hot stellar corona. In the second part of this thesis it is detailed how to calculate growth or damping rates of plasma waves from electron velocity distributions. The emission and propagation of electron cyclotron waves in the quiet solar corona, and that of whistler waves during solar flares, is studied. The latter can be observed as so-called fiber bursts in dynamic radio spectra, and the results are in good agreement with observed bursts.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Theilmann2011,
  author    = {Theilmann, Florian},
  title     = {Die Kunst der Untersuchung : Essays zu einem erscheinungsorientierten Physikunterricht},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-56145},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  year      = {2011},
  abstract  = {Die vorliegende Arbeit versammelt zwei einleitende Kapitel und zehn Essays, die sich als kritisch-konstruktive Beitr{\"a}ge zu einem "erlebenden Verstehen" (Buck) von Physik lesen lassen. Die traditionelle Anlage von Schulphysik zielt auf eine systematische Darstellung naturwissenschaftlichen Wissens, das dann an ausgew{\"a}hlten Beispielen angewendet wird: Schulexperimente beweisen die Aussagen der Systematik (oder machen sie wenigstens plausibel), ausgew{\"a}hlte Ph{\"a}nomene werden erkl{\"a}rt. In einem solchen Rahmen besteht jedoch leicht die Gefahr, den Bezug zur Lebenswirklichkeit oder den Interessen der Sch{\"u}ler zu verlieren. Diese Problematik ist seit mindestens 90 Jahren bekannt, didaktische Antworten - untersuchendes Lernen, Kontextualisierung, Sch{\"u}lerexperimente etc. - adressieren allerdings eher Symptome als Ursachen. Naturwissenschaft wird dadurch spannend, dass sie ein spezifisch investigatives Weltverh{\"a}ltnis stiftet: man m{\"u}sste gleichsam nicht Wissen, sondern "Fragen lernen" (und nat{\"u}rlich auch, wie Antworten gefunden werden...). Doch wie kann dergleichen auf dem Niveau von Schulphysik aussehen, was f{\"u}r einen theoretischen Rahmen kann es hier geben? In den gesammelten Arbeiten wird einigen dieser Spuren nachgegangen: Der Absage an das zu modellhafte Denken in der ph{\"a}nomenologischen Optik, der Abgrenzung formal-mathematischen Denkens gegen wirklichkeitsn{\"a}here Formen naturwissenschaftlicher Denkbewegungen und Evidenz, dem Potential alternativer Interpretationen von "Physikunterricht", der Frage nach dem "Verstehen" u.a. Dabei werden nicht nur Bez{\"u}ge zum modernen bildungstheoretischen Paradigma der Kompetenz sichtbar, sondern es wird auch versucht, eine ganze Reihe konkrete (schul-)physikalische Beispiele daf{\"u}r zu geben, was passiert, wenn nicht schon gewusste Antworten Thema werden, sondern Expeditionen, die sich der physischen Welt widmen: Die Schl{\"u}sselbegriffe des Fachs, die Methoden der Datenerhebung und Interpretation, die Such- und Denkbewegungen kommen dabei auf eine Weise zur Sprache, die sich nicht auf die Fachsystematik abst{\"u}tzen m{\"o}chte, sondern diese motivieren, konturieren und verst{\"a}ndlich machen will.},
  language  = {de}
}