I dived into physics with a theoretical education at the University of Bern. I then decided to focus on researching collective effects of charged particle beams. After my PhD and Senior Fellowship at CERN, Geneva, I am now working as an accelerator physicist in collective beam dynamics on the FAIR project at GSI in Germany. See my ORCID records to learn more about my physics passion.
... and now, in my research on beam dynamics, I often develop particular numerical simulation software. High-performance-computing techniques such as GPU computing play a major role in my modelling. Have a look at my GitHub profile. I especially like the PyHEADTAIL playground repository where I contribute some cool projects. They are exhibited in CERN's SWAN gallery on beam dynamics which I initiated.
A. Oeftiger et al.
Published in Phys.Rev.Accel.Beams 25 (2022) 5, 054402.
I. Hofmann, A. Oeftiger and O. Boine-Frankenheim.
Published in Phys.Rev.Accel.Beams 24 (2021) 2, 024201.
S. Antipov, A. Oeftiger et al.
Published in Phys.Rev.Lett. 126 (2021) 16.
A. Oeftiger
Published in Conf.Proc. HB'2018.
E. Métral, A. Oeftiger et al.
Published in IEEE Trans.Nucl.Sci. 63 (2016) 2, 1001-1050.
Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, TU Darmstadt (Germany)
Numerical Methods of Accelerator PhysicsJoint Universities Accelerator School, European Scientific Institute, Archamps (France)
Accelerator Design WorkshopLaboratory of Particle Accelerator Physics, EPFL Lausanne (Switzerland)
Introduction to Particle AcceleratorsInstitute of Theoretical Physics, University of Bern (Switzerland)
Physics with Mathematical Methods I and II
(courses taught by Prof. Dr. Urs Wenger)
Quantum Mechanics I
(course taught by Prof. Dr. Uwe-Jens Wiese)
Statistical Thermodynamics II
(course taught by Prof. Dr. Urs Wenger)
... are a great means to mitigate space charge impact. I developed this new beam type as a part of my PhD thesis. Hollow bunches produced at CERN's Proton Synchrotron Booster help to avoid beam blow-up in the downstream Proton Synchrotron. Thus, CERN can produce higher brightness beams, in particular to reach the High Luminosity upgrade parameters for CERN's flagship accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider.
On cosmic scales our Universe expands ‐ but does your bedroom expand with it? Albert Einstein's general relativity gave me answers.. Investigating the effect of global cosmological expansion on local dynamics, I found essentially two distinct behaviours: some physical systems such as atoms or our Solar System remain bounded, while gravitationally attracted intergalactic objects recede with the Hubble flow. (Think e.g. of galaxy groups at distances of 10 million light years and farther..)
Image credit: NASA/WMAP Science Team
Supersymmetric quantum mechanics is an intriguing off-the-beaten-path technique to solve the quantised energy spectra of potentials. I am particularly interested in periodic systems ‐ and so I investigated the Lamé or ellipsoidal harmonic potentials as a highlight of this thesis. They feature energy band structures which can actually be expressed in semi-analytical form.
I entered the Scouts at the age of 7. It is here where I discovered my love for playing the guitar, exploring Nature, taking responsibility for myself and others, creating wonderful projects in supportive teamwork, and shaping ground-breaking international Scout collaborations.
A few highlights of my Scout life: 4 years of youth leadership in our city's local group "Ata Ulf", team leading conductor in the ScoutingTrain 2014 adventure, organising a "quint-national" long-term programme called S-TEAM in 2015–2016 and establishing a Franco-German Scout organisation partnership with a youth leader exchange platform "XPRO" which regularly takes place since 2017.
Between 2016 and 2019 I shared my passion for physics with the Swiss Silver Scouts in our annual event, where I guided twenty to thirty participants from all across Switzerland through CERN, motivating our fundamental research in physics.
Since 2019 I am working in a small team of volunteers on Azimuth, an online platform to connect Scouts and Guides from all across the European Region. We launched the full platform in autumn 2021 with already a few dozen countries onboard.
I love hiking with my dear wife and daughters. We continue to explore beautiful places in the world... the more off the beaten track the better! The photo shows us hiking across a mountain ridge in Iceland.
While some call it a style of Kung Fu, Wu Shu Kwan really is a distinguished martial art by itself. I draw so much energy and focus from our self-defence training. Exercising always feels like meeting family, no matter whether it's our local Wu Shu Kwan trainings which I teach in Darmstadt or when we organise sessions with inspiring UK instructors.
Image shows a kicking self-defence technique with Lucy (3rd Degree Black Belt), credit: Alex Sutter.
Let me introduce you to my funk&soul band Soul'd'Out. Our groovy sessions in Geneva pumped me up, backing our amazing singer Anne with my Nord Electro or with the Hammond X-5 and my Leslie P3300! We've had some great nights in the Montreux jazz cafe, the famous hotel Beau Rivage, the notorious Pickwick's bar, and many more places.