News

EPJ ST: Baohua Ji new Editor on board

Details: Published on 17 January 2022

The publishers of The European Physical Journal Special Topics are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Baohua Ji as new Editor in the board.

Dr. Baohua Ji is currently professor of biomechanics of Zhejiang University. He earned his B.S and Ph.D degrees from Xi’an Jiaotong University of China in 1993 and 1998, respectively. He did his postdoc research at Institute of Mechanics of Chinese Academy of Science during 1998-2001, and at Max-Planck Institute for Metal Research during 2001-2004. His research is currently focused on cell-matrix interaction, collective cell behaviors, and mechanomedicine (mechanobiology based medicine). The objective of the research is to achieve a quantitative understanding of how forces and deformation affect human health and disease from molecular, cellular and tissue levels. Dr. Ji has published over 120 peer-reviewed Journal papers. And he has received several awards including the Outstanding Young Scientist Award of the Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (2009), the NSFC Outstanding Young Scientists Award (2010) and National 10-Thousand program for leading talents (2017).

EPJ C – New structure for the theory sections as of 2022

Details: Published on 12 January 2022

The publishers of The European Physical Journal C - Particles and Fields (EPJ C) are pleased to announce a new structure for the theory sections of the journal. As of January 2022 the current section ‘Theoretical Physics II: Gravitation, Astroparticle Physics, Cosmology, Quantum Field Theories’ (Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Kostas Skenderis, Deputy Editor-in-Chief Prof. Dominik Schwarz) will be split – into ‘Theoretical Physics II: Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology - Models and Phenomenology’, to be headed by Dominik Schwarz; and ‘Theoretical Physics III: Quantum Field Theory and Gravity - Fundamental and Formal Aspects’, to be headed by Kostas Skenderis. This change reflects the rapid development of the current Theoretical Physics II section under Kostas Skenderis over the past few years. We would like to thank Professor Skenderis for his excellent management of the section and to welcome Professor Schwarz as a new Editor-in-Chief of EPJ C. As head of the Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology Working Group at Bielefeld University, Schwarz is an expert on the interfaces between particle physics and cosmology and between modelling and observational cosmology. His research interests include cosmological inflation and the thermal history of the Universe, the cosmic microwave background and large-scale structures, dark matter and dark energy.

EPJ ST Highlight - Examining recent developments in Quantum Chromodynamics

Details: Published on 14 December 2021

The strong nuclear force is responsible for binding together quarks, the basic building blocks of protons and neutrons, that comprise almost all of the visible matter. A new collection looks at recent development in the field of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) from a range of perspectives.

Created as an analogy for Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) — which describes the interactions due to the electromagnetic force carried by photons — Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is the theory of physics that explains the interactions mediated by the strong force — one of the four fundamental forces of nature.

A new collection of papers published in EPJ Special Topics, and edited by Diogo Boito, Instituto de Fisica de Sao Carlos, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Irinel Caprini, Horia Hulubei National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Bucharest, Romania, brings together recent developments in the investigation of QCD.

EPJA appoints Patrizia Rossi as Managing Editor for Reviews and Letters to the Editor (experiment)

Details: Published on 13 December 2021

The publishers of The European Physical Journal A: Hadrons and Nuclei are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Patrizia Rossi as Managing Editor for Reviews and Letters to the Editor (experiment) as of 1 January 2022.

Patrizia Rossi is the Deputy Associate Director for Nuclear Physics at Jefferson Lab (JLab), Research Professor at George Washington University, and Research Director at the Frascati National Laboratories of INFN-Italy (on leave). Her scientific research focuses on hadron and nuclear physics using electromagnetic probes. This research aims to study the structure of the nucleon and the nature of the strong interaction in terms of fundamental constituents of QCD. Her most recent investigations are related to the study of the transverse momentum parton distribution functions for which she is co-spokesperson for several experiments.

EPJ Plus Focus Point on Small and Medium Particle Accelerator Facilities in Europe

Details: Published on 10 December 2021

Small and Medium Particle Accelerator Facilities (SMPAF) play a very important role in the landscape of European research. They can accelerate a variety of atomic nuclei, at energies in the MeV range, and have a cross-disciplinary application field. In most cases, they are open to external users, so a proper knowledge by the community of the possibilities provided by these facilities is of great importance.

Unlike other user-focused accelerators facilities such as synchrotrons, SMPAF have different characteristics. Given the relevance and the variability of the instrumentation and the available techniques (including medical science, neutrons, irradiation with swift heavy ions, detectors tests, low-energy nuclear physics, etc.), it has been found very timely to publish a series of focused articles, describing the current situation of some key centres of this kind. This Focus Point on Small and Medium Particle Accelerator Facilities in Europe presents a selection of ten representative and significant European SMPAF. Each article contains a brief description of the facility, including its often unique instrumentation or techniques, and a few recent research highlights.

All articles are available here and are freely accessible until 9 February 2022. For further information read the Editorial

EPJE has appointed new Editor-in-Chief Giovanna Fragneto

Details: Published on 08 December 2021

The publishers of European Physical Journal E: Soft Matter and Biological Physics are delighted to announce the appointment of Prof Giovanna Fragneto as Editor-in-Chief, starting January 1 2022. Prof Fragneto has served on the Editorial Board of EPJE since 2011, and takes over the EiC role from Prof François Graner, who steps down at the end of this year.

Prof Fragneto joins Prof Fabrizio Croccolo and Prof Holger Stark as Editors-in-Chief for EPJE, with collective responsibility for papers submitted across the scope of the journal.

EPJE Topical review - Advances in the study of supercooled water

Details: Published on 29 November 2021

Water connects to life at many levels, from biology to human activities, health, climate, and technology. And it is the most peculiar simple liquid on our planet. In fact, water presents several anomalies as compared to other simple liquids. These anomalies become more conspicuous at low temperatures within the metastable supercooled regime, that is, the region below its melting point where the stable form is the ordered solid. In this regime water can also exist in the liquid state while at lower temperatures it can also be found in the amorphous (glassy) solid state. In the supercooled state liquid water displays polymorphism displaying both a high density and a low-density structure. The two possible structures that water can choose, and their interplay, are connected with the possible existence of the terminating (critical) point of a line that separates a low-density region from a high-density region and above which the liquid exists in a single phase.

EPJ ST Highlight - An exploration of tipping in complex systems

Details: Published on 22 November 2021

This special issue examines the extensive landscape of research into tipping within complex systems, and provides guidance as to where the field will likely be headed in the future.

Complex systems can be found in a diverse array of real-world scenarios, but are unified by their ability to suddenly transition between drastically different patterns of behaviour. Known as ‘tipping,’ this type of transformation is generally triggered by small changes in the parameters of individual systems – whose effects can rapidly cascade to alter entire networks of interacting subsystems. This special issue of EPJ Special Topics explores the nature of tipping in complex systems through 21 new articles. Together, the studies reveal recent trends and directions of research within the field, and highlight the pressing challenges it will face in the future.

EPJ E Topical review - Structure and dynamics of nanoconfined water and aqueous solutions

Details: Published on 16 November 2021

Water, regarded as the matrix of life, is an ubiquitous and peculiar liquid that exhibits a plethora of anomalous properties, both in its stable and metastable bulk states, which fostered a lot of experimental and theoretical studies. Less explored is the field of water and aqueous systems confined in nanoporous materials that, in addition to its fundamental interest, are present in a number of practical situations, including biological and separation processes and energy generation and storage, among others. These facts have triggered a vast amount of research that, so far, has not been conveniently reviewed.

EPJ ST Highlight - Examining the dynamics of complex networks

Details: Published on 15 November 2021

A new collection of papers focuses on the theories and methodology of dynamical networks with a focus on neuroscience and Earth sciences, and climate systems.

A special issue of EPJ Special Topics, edited by Jürgen Kurths (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research), Elbert E. N. Macau (Federal University of São Paulo), Antonio C. Roque (University of São Paulo) and Serhiy Yanchuk (Humboldt University Berlin) brings together a collection of papers focusing improving our understanding of the collective dynamics of complex systems. The special issue pays particular attention to the applications of this understanding in the diverse fields of neuroscience, climate modelling, and Earth science.