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In this doctoral thesis the transformation from relativistic hydrodynamics to transport and vice versa is studied. Approximations made by hybrid (hydrodynamics + transport) simulations of relativistic heavy ion collisions are discussed and their reliability is assessed at intermediate collision energies. A new method to simulate heavy ion collisions is suggested, based on the forced thermalization in high-density regions.
Compact stars can be treated as the ultimate laboratories for testing theories of dense matter. They are not only extremely dense objects, but they are known to be associated with strong magnetic fields, fast rotation and, in certain cases, with very high temperatures. Here, we present several different approaches to model numerically the signatures and properties of these stars, namely:
•The effects of strong magnetic fields on hybrid stars by using a fully general relativistic approach. We solved the coupled Maxwell-Einstein equations in a self-consistent way, taking into consideration the anisotropy of the energy-momentum tensor due purely to the magnetic field, magnetic field effects on equation of state and the interaction between matter and the magnetic field (magnetization). We showed that the effects of the magnetization and the magnetic field on the equation of state for matter do not play an important role on global properties of neutron stars (only the pure magnetic _eld contribution does). In addition, the magnetic field breaks the spherical symmetry of stars, inducing major changes in the populated degrees of freedom inside these objects and, potentially, converting a hybrid star into a hadronic star over time.
•The effects of magnetic fields and rotation on the structure and composition of proto-neutron stars. We found that the magnetic field not only deforms these stars, but also significantly alters the number of trapped neutrinos in the stellar interior, together with the strangeness content and temperature in each evolution stage from a hot proto-neutron star to a cold neutron star.
•The influence of the quark-hadron phase transitions in neutron stars. In particular, previous calculations have shown that fast rotating neutron stars, when subjected to a quark-hadron phase transition in their interiors, could give rise to the backbending phenomenon characterized by a spin-up era. In this work, we obtained the interesting backbending phenomenon for fast spinning neutron stars. More importantly, we showed that a magnetic field, which is assumed to be axisymmetric and poloidal, can also be enhanced due to the phase transition from normal hadronic matter to quark matter on highly magnetized neutron stars. Therefore, in parallel to the spin-up era, classes of neutron stars endowed with strong magnetic fields may go through a `magnetic-up era' in their lives.
•Finally, we were also able to calculate super-heavy white dwarfs in the presence of strong magnetic fields. White dwarfs are the progenitors of supernova Type Ia explosions and they are widely used as candles to show that the Universe is expanding and accelerating. However, observations of ultraluminous supernovae have suggested that the progenitor of such an explosion should be a white dwarf with mass above the well-known Chandrasekhar limit ~ 1.4 M. In corroboration with other works, but by using a fully general relativistic framework, we obtained also strongly magnetized white dwarfs with masses M ~ 2:0 M.
In thesis I investigate the possibility that at the smallest length scale (Planck scale) the very notion of "dimension" needs to be revisited. Due to "quantum effects" spacetime might become very turbulent at these scales and properties like those of "fractals" emerge, including a "scale dependent dimension". It seems that this "spontaneous dimensional reduction" and the appearance of a minimal physical length are very general effects that most approaches to quantum gravity share. Main emphasis is given to the"spectral dimension" and its calculation for strings and p-branes.
The first principle lattice QCD methods allow to calculate the thermodynamic observables at finite temperature and imaginary chemical potential. These can be compared to the predictions of various phenomenological models. We argue that Fourier coefficients with respect to imaginary baryochemical potential are sensitive to modeling of baryonic interactions. As a first application of this sensitivity, we consider the hadron resonance gas (HRG) model with repulsive baryonic interactions, which are modeled by means of the excluded volume correction. The Fourier coefficients of the imaginary part of the netbaryon density at imaginary baryochemical potential – corresponding to the fugacity or virial expansion at real chemical potential – are calculated within this model, and compared with the Nt = 12 lattice data. The lattice QCD behavior of the first four Fourier coefficients up to T 185 MeV is described fairly well by an interacting HRG with a single baryon–baryon eigenvolume interaction parameter b 1 fm3, while the available lattice data on the difference χB 2 − χB 4 of baryon number susceptibilities is reproduced up to T 175 MeV.
We study the correlation between the distributions of the net-charge, net-kaon, net-baryon and net-proton number at hadronization and after the final hadronic decoupling by simulating ultra relativistic heavy ion collisions with the hybrid version of the ultrarelativistic quantum molecular dynamics (UrQMD) model. We find that due to the hadronic rescattering these distributions are not strongly correlated. The calculated change of the correlation, during the hadronic expansion stage, does not support the recent paradigm, namely that the measured final moments of the experimentally observed distributions do give directly the values of those distributions at earlier times, when the system had been closer to the QCD crossover.
We report on the results on the dynamical modelling of cluster formation with the new combined PHSD+FRIGA model at Nuclotron and NICA energies. The FRIGA clusterization algorithm, which can be applied to the transport models, is based on the simulated annealing technique to obtain the most bound configuration of fragments and nucleons. The PHSD+FRIGA model is able to predict isotope yields as well as hypernucleus production. Based on present predictions of the combined model we study the possibility to detect such clusters and hypernuclei in the BM@N and MPD/NICA detectors.
HADES experiment at GSI is the only high precision experiment probing nuclear matter in the beam energy range of a few AGeV. Pion, proton and ion beams are used to study rare dielectron and strangeness probes to diagnose properties of strongly interacting matter in this energy regime. Selected results from p + A and A + A collisions are presented and discussed.
We review the recent developments of analytic solutions in transverse magneto-hydrodynamics under Bjorken expansion. It is found that the time dependence of magnetic fields can either increase or reduce the energy density depending on the decay exponent of magnetic fields. Moreover, perturbative solutions under weak magnetic fields with spatial inhomogeneity results in transverse flow, where the directions of flow also depend on the decay exponent of magnetic fields in time.
Cleaning an ion beam from unwanted fractions is crucial for intense ion beams. This thesis will explore separation methods using a collimation channel, electric and magnetic dipoles and a velocity selector for low intensity beams on an experimental basis. In addition, statistical data of degassing events during the commissioning of a pentode extraction system for beam energies from 20 - 120keV will be presented.
In April and May 2012 data on Au+Au collisions at beam energies of Ekin = 1.23A GeV were recorded with the High Acceptance Di-Electron Spectrometer, which is located at the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany. At this beam energy all hadrons containing strangeness are produced below their elementary production threshold. The required energy is not available in binary NN collisions but must be provided by the system e.g. through multi-particle interactions or medium effects like a modified in-medium potential (e.g. KN/ΛN potential). Thus, a high sensitivity to these medium effects is expected in the investigated system.
The baryon-dominated systems created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions (HIC) at SIS18 energies reach densities of about 2-3 times ground state density p0 and may be similar to the properties of matter expected in the inner core of neutron stars. It is in particular the behavior of hadrons containing strangeness, i.e. kaons and hyperons, and their potentials in the dense medium which may have severe implications on astrophysical objects and processes. As ab-initio calculations of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) cannot be performed rigorously on the lattice at finite baryo-chemical potentials due to the fermion sign problem, effective descriptions have to be used in order to model properties of dense systems and the involved particles. The only way to access the in-medium potential of strange hadrons above nuclear ground state density p0 is by comparing data from relativistic HIC to such effective microscopic models. Up to now, not much data on neutral kaons and Λ hyperons are available from heavy collision systems close to their NN production threshold. These two electromagnetically uncharged strange hadrons are in particular well suited to study their potential in a dense nucleon-dominated environment as their kinematic spectra are not affected by Coulomb interactions.
We present a method that enables the identification and analysis of conformational Markovian transition states from atomistic or coarse-grained molecular dynamics (MD) trajectories. Our algorithm is presented by using both analytical models and examples from MD simulations of the benchmark system helix-forming peptide Ala5, and of larger, biomedically important systems: the 15-lipoxygenase-2 enzyme (15-LOX-2), the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) protein, and the Mga2 fungal transcription factor. The analysis of 15-LOX-2 uses data generated exclusively from biased umbrella sampling simulations carried out at the hybrid ab initio density functional theory (DFT) quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) level of theory. In all cases, our method automatically identifies the corresponding transition states and metastable conformations in a variationally optimal way, with the input of a set of relevant coordinates, by accurately reproducing the intrinsic slowest relaxation rate of each system. Our approach offers a general yet easy-to-implement analysis method that provides unique insight into the molecular mechanism and the rare but crucial (i.e., rate-limiting) transition states occurring along conformational transition paths in complex dynamical systems such as molecular trajectories.
What is the magnetic field distribution for the equation of state of magnetized neutron stars?
(2017)
In this Letter, we report a realistic calculation of the magnetic field profile for the equation of state inside strongly magnetized neutron stars. Unlike previous estimates, which are widely used in the literature, we find that magnetic fields increase relatively slowly with increasing baryon chemical potential (or baryon density) of magnetized matter. More precisely, the increase is polynomial instead of exponential, as previously assumed. Through the analysis of several different realistic models for the microscopic description of stellar matter (including hadronic, hybrid and quark models) combined with general relativistic solutions endowed with a poloidal magnetic field obtained by solving Einstein–Maxwell's field equations in a self-consistent way, we generate a phenomenological fit for the magnetic field distribution in the stellar polar direction to be used as input in microscopic calculations.
Zur Unterstützung von Lehrkräften bei der Auswahl eines Sachunterrichtsschulbuchs im Hinblick auf die didaktische Aufbereitung physikalischer Themen wurde ein bereits bestehendes und in der Schweiz eingesetztes Schulbuchraster weiterentwickelt. Die ergänzenden Bewertungskriterien berücksichtigen, inwieweit die Schulbücher physikalische Inhalte in einer Weise präsentieren, dass a) häufige Präkonzepte der Schülerinnen und Schüler aufgegriffen, b) Inhalte strukturiert dargestellt werden, c) multiple externe Repräsentationen zum Einsatz kommen, d) Selbsterklärungen angeregt wie auch e) offene Schülerexperimente angeboten werden. Zudem sollten f) für die Lehrkräfte Zusatzmaterialen mit fachwissenschaftlichen und fachdidaktischen Erläuterungen zur Verfügungen stehen. Ergänzende Erläuterungen der Rasterkriterien sollen eine möglichst objektive Beurteilung unterstützen. Anhand dieses weiterentwickelten Rasters wurden exemplarisch die 2017 in Hessen zugelassenen Sachunterrichtsschulbücher analysiert.
In this study, we investigate the interaction of jets with their environment at a microscopic level, which is a key open question in the study of relativistic jets. Using small simulation systems during past research, we initially studied the evolution of both electron–proton and electron–positron relativistic jets containing helical magnetic fields, by focusing on their interactions with an ambient plasma. Here, using larger jet radii, we have performed simulations of global jets containing helical magnetic fields in order to examine how helical magnetic fields affect kinetic instabilities, such as the Weibel instability, the kinetic Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (kKHI) and the mushroom instability (MI). We found that the evolution of global jets strongly depends on the size of the jet radius. For example, phase bunching of jet electrons, in particular in the electron–proton jet, is mixed with a larger jet radius as a result of the more complicated structures of magnetic fields with excited kinetic instabilities. In our simulation, these kinetic instabilities led to new types of instabilities in global jets. In the electron–proton jet simulation, a modified recollimation occurred, and jet electrons were strongly perturbed. In the electron–positron jet simulation, mixed kinetic instabilities occurred early, followed by a turbulence-like structure. Simulations using much larger (and longer) systems are required in order to further thoroughly investigate the evolution of global jets containing helical magnetic fields.
In dieser Arbeit wurden thermodynamische Eigenschaften eines chiralen Quark Meson Modelles untersucht. Das chirale Quark Meson Model beschreibt die starke Wechselwirkung über den Austausch von Mesonen und zudem die thermische und dichteabhängige Entwicklung der Quarkmassen im Medium über die chirale Symmetrie.Im SU(2) Model wurde zunächst in mean field approximation gearbeitet, um im Anschluss den divergenten Vakuumterm mit einzubeziehen. Nach eingehender Untersuchung der Ergebnisse, wurden dann die thermischen Mesonenfluktuationen studiert. In beiden Ansätzen verschiebt die Nullpunktsenergie den chiralen Phasenübergang zu höheren Temperaturen, wodurch die Massen bei höheren Temperaturen entarten. Beide Ansätze wurden dann zu einem gemeinsamen Modell kombiniert, um den Einfluss der Mesonenfluktuationen auf Ordnungsparameter, Massen und thermodynamische Grössen zu untersuchen. Als Fazit der Studie kann behauptet werden, dass sich der Einfluss der Mesonenfluktuationen in grösserem Maÿ auf die Thermodynamik, als auf den Ordnungsparameter und die Massen auswirkt. Im SU(3) Modell wurden ebenfalls regularisiert und zudem Vektormesonen mitberücksichtigt, welche die Repulsion zwischen den einzelnen Freiheitsgraden modelliert. Die Zustandsgleichung wird durch den Vakuum Term etwas softer und zeigt ein ähnliches Verhalten im niederen Energiebereich. Untersucht wurde neben der Temperatur T, die Elektron Baryon Rate Ye, die Sigma Meson Masse noch der Einfluss der Vektorkopplung. Aus der Zustandsgleichung konntendann Isentropen im T-mu Phasendiagramm errechnet werden, welche in naher Zukunft Aufschluss über eine dritte Familie von kompakten Sternen in Zusammenhang mit der entsprechenden Supernova Explosion geben könnte. Um die Existenz von kompakten Sternen genauer zu analysieren, wurde das chiraleSU(3) Quark Meson Modell bei T = 0 benutzt, um über die aus dem Formalismusgewonnenen Grössen Druck und Energiedichte die Tolmann-Oppenheimer-Volkoff zu lösen. Diese stellen die Masse-Radius Beziehungen kompakter Objekte dar. Auf der Suche nach Twin Stern Lösungen aus dem chiralen SU(3) Quark Meson Model wurde zunächst ein Modell für Hybridsterne entwickelt. Im untersuchten Parameterbereich fanden wir Hybrid Stern Lösungen, bei welchen der Einfluss der Quarkmaterie auf die Stabilität des Sternes untersucht wurde, denn das Einsetzen des Phasenüberganges übt einen zusätzlichen gravitativen Zug auf die hadronische Kruste aus. Der Stern ist stabil, wenn der Druck der Quarkmaterie diesem zusätzlichen Zug standzuhalten vermag. Für einen zu grossen Sprung in der Energiedichte werden die Lösungen jedoch instabil. Zwillingssterne waren nicht unter den Lösungen, da der Übergangsdruck relativklein sein muss, während der Energiedichtesprung eher gross sein sollte. Das Auftreten zweier stabiler Äste in der Masse Radius Relation kann allerdingsmit dem SU(3) Modell und entsprechendem chiralen Phasenübergang modelliert werden. Für einen gewissen Parameterbereich einhergehend mit kleinem Wert des Vakuum Druckes B konnten Nicht-Linearitäten in der Zustangsgleichungzur Lösung der TOV Gleichung beitragen. Im Weitern ist das Zusammenspiel der Vektorkopplung und der Sigma Mesonen Masse einflussreich auf die Lösungen, welche auf Kausalität, Stabilität und neben der 2 Sonnenmassen Bedingung noch auf Restriktionen vom millisecond pulsar PSR J1748-2446ad untersucht wurden.Mit Weltraummissionen wie etwa NICER (Neutron star Interior CompositionExploreR) sollte die Radiusbestimmung kompakter Objekte in Zukunft bis auf einen Kilometer genau bestimmt werden können. Die Entdeckung von zweiSternen mit der gleichen Masse und unterschiedlichen Radien wäre in der Tat ein Beweis für die Existenz von Zwillingssternen, welche dann die Theorie des Phasenüberganges in dichter Materie untermauern würde. Das Kollaps-Szenario eines Zwillingssternes würde weiteren Aufschluss über Neutrino-Emmissivität, Gamma-ray burster und Gravitationswellen Signale geben können. Dynamische Simulationen in allgemein relativistischem Kontext für compact star merger mit den hier diskutierten Zustandsgleichungen sind bereits in Planung, um Eigenschaftenwie beispielsweise das Temperatur- und Dichteprofil solcher Objekte genauer zu analysieren.
The properties of matter at finite baryon densities play an important role for the astrophysics of compact stars as well as for heavy ion collisions or the description of nuclear matter. Because of the sign problem of the quark determinant, lattice QCD cannot be simulated by standard Monte Carlo at finite baryon densities. I review alternative attempts to treat dense QCD with an effective lattice theory derived by analytic strong coupling and hopping expansions, which close to the continuum is valid for heavy quarks only, but shows all qualitative features of nuclear physics emerging from QCD. In particular, the nuclear liquid gas transition and an equation of state for baryons can be calculated directly from QCD. A second effective theory based on strong coupling methods permits studies of the phase diagram in the chiral limit on coarse lattices.
For a chaotic system pairs of initially close-by trajectories become eventually fully uncorrelated on the attracting set. This process of decorrelation can split into an initial exponential decrease and a subsequent diffusive process on the chaotic attractor causing the final loss of predictability. Both processes can be either of the same or of very different time scales. In the latter case the two trajectories linger within a finite but small distance (with respect to the overall extent of the attractor) for exceedingly long times and remain partially predictable. Standard tests for chaos widely use inter-orbital correlations as an indicator. However, testing partially predictable chaos yields mostly ambiguous results, as this type of chaos is characterized by attractors of fractally broadened braids. For a resolution we introduce a novel 0-1 indicator for chaos based on the cross-distance scaling of pairs of initially close trajectories. This test robustly discriminates chaos, including partially predictable chaos, from laminar flow. Additionally using the finite time cross-correlation of pairs of initially close trajectories, we are able to identify laminar flow as well as strong and partially predictable chaos in a 0-1 manner solely from the properties of pairs of trajectories.
The theory of strong interactions — Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) — is well-defined mathematically. However, direct applications of this theory to experiment are rather limited due to significant technical obstacles. Even some general features of QCD remain unclear to date.
Hence, phenomenological input is important and needed for practical applications, e.g. for theoretical analysis of the heavy-ion collision experiments. In this thesis the role of hadronic interactions is studied in the hadron resonance gas (HRG) model — a popular model for the confined phase of QCD. The description of hadronic interactions is based on the famous van der Waals (VDW) equation and its quantum statistical generalization. While this is not the conventional choice for nuclear/hadronic physicspplications, the simplicity of the VDW approach makes it extremely useful.
In particular, this framework allows to include the two most basic ingredients of hadron-hadron interaction: the short-range repulsion, modeled by excluded-volume (EV) corrections, and the intermediate range attraction. The first part of the thesis considers just the repulsive EV interactions between hadrons. A hitherto unknown, but surprisingly strong sensitivity of the long known thermal fits to heavy-ion hadron yield data to the choice of hadron eigenvolumes is uncovered. It challenges the robustness of the chemical freeze-out temperature and baryochemical potential determination from the thermal fits. However, at the same time, the extracted value of the entropy per baryon is found to be a robust observable which depends weakly on this systematic uncertainty of the HRG model.
A Monte Carlo procedure to treat EV interactions in HRG is also introduced in this thesis. It allows to study simultaneous effects of EV and of exact charge conservation in HRG for the first time. Generalizations of the classical VDW equation are required for its applications in hadronic physics. he grand canonical ensemble (GCE) formulation of the classical VDW equation is presented. Remarkably, this important aspect of the VDW equation was not discovered before. The GCE formulation yields the analytic structure of the critical fluctuations, both in the vicinity of and far off the critical point. These critical fluctuations are presently actively being used as probes for the QCD critical point. Another extension is the hitherto undiscovered generalization of the VDW equation to include quantum Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac statistics. It is performed for both single-component and multi-component fluids. The Fermi-Dirac VDW equation is applied for the first time. It is used to describe nucleons and basic properties of nuclear matter. The quantum statistical generalization of the VDW equation developed in this work is quite general, and can be applied for any fluid. Thus, its applications are not restricted to QCD physics, but may also find themselves in chemistry and/or industry. The quantum statistical VDW equation is used to describe baryonic interactions in full HRG. The VDW parameters $a$ and $b$ are fixed to the nuclear ground state and the predictions of the model are confronted with lattice QCD calculations. The inclusion of baryonic interactions leads to a qualitatively different behavior of the fluctuations of conserved charges in the crossover region. In many cases it resembles the lattice data. These results suggest that hadrons do not melt quickly with increasing temperature, as one could conclude on the basis of the common simple ideal HRG model. Calculations at finite chemical potentials show that the nuclear liquid-gas transition manifests itself by non-trivial fluctuations of the net baryon number in heavy ion collisions. In the final part of the thesis the pure glue initial scenario for high-energy hadron and heavy-ion collisions is explored. This scenario is shown not to spoil the existing agreement of the hadronic and electromagnetic observables description in Pb+Pb collisions at energies available at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Hydrodynamic calculations suggest that collisions of small-sized nuclei at lower collision energies available at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider are promising in the search for the traces of the chemically non-equilibrium gluon-dominated phase transition.
Relativistic jets from active galactic nuclei (AGN) often display a non-uniform structure and are, under certain conditions, susceptible to a number of instabilities. An interesting example is the development of non-axisymmetric, Rayleigh-Taylor type instabilities in the case of differentially rotating two-component jets, with the toroidal component of the magnetic field playing a key role in the development or suppression of these instabilities. We have shown that higher magnetization leads to stability against these non-axisymmetric instabilities. Using ray-casting on data from relativistic MHD simulations of two-component jets, we now investigate the effect of these instabilities on the synchrotron emission pattern from the jets. We recover many well known trends from actual observations, e.g., regarding the polarization fraction and the distribution of the position angle of the electric field, in addition to a different emitting region, depending on the stability of the jet.
Autophagy is a physiological process for the recycling and degradation of cellular materials. Forming the autophagosome from the phagophore, a cup-shaped double-membrane vesicle, is a critical step in autophagy. The origin of the cup shape of the phagophore is poorly understood. In yeast, fusion of a small number of Atg9-containing vesicles is considered a key step in autophagosome biogenesis, aided by Atg1 complexes (ULK1 in mammals) localized at the preautophagosomal structure (PAS). In particular, the S-shaped Atg17-Atg31-Atg29 subcomplex of Atg1 is critical for phagophore nucleation at the PAS. To study this process, we simulated membrane remodeling processes in the presence and absence of membrane associated Atg17. We show that at least three vesicles need to fuse to induce the phagophore shape, consistent with experimental observations. However, fusion alone is not sufficient. Interactions with 34-nm long, S-shaped Atg17 complexes are required to overcome a substantial kinetic barrier in the transition to the cup-shaped phagophore. Our finding rationalizes the recruitment of Atg17 complexes to the yeast PAS, and their unusual shape. In control simulations without Atg17, with weakly binding Atg17, or with straight instead of S-shaped Atg17, the membrane shape transition did not occur. We confirm the critical role of Atg17-membrane interactions experimentally by showing that mutations of putative membrane interaction sites result in reduction or loss of autophagic activity in yeast. Fusion of a small number of vesicles followed by Atg17-guided membrane shape-remodeling thus emerges as a viable route to phagophore formation.
In this work we present, for the first time, the non-perturbative renormalization for the unpolarized, helicity and transversity quasi-PDFs, in an RI′ scheme. The proposed prescription addresses simultaneously all aspects of renormalization: logarithmic divergences, finite renormalization as well as the linear divergence which is present in the matrix elements of fermion operators with Wilson lines. Furthermore, for the case of the unpolarized quasi-PDF, we describe how to eliminate the unwanted mixing with the twist-3 scalar operator.
We utilize perturbation theory for the one-loop conversion factor that brings the renormalization functions to the MS-scheme at a scale of 2 GeV. We also explain how to improve the estimates on the renormalization functions by eliminating lattice artifacts. The latter can be computed in one-loop perturbation theory and to all orders in the lattice spacing.
We apply the methodology for the renormalization to an ensemble of twisted mass fermions with Nf = 2 + 1 + 1 dynamical quarks, and a pion mass of around 375 MeV.
According to a proposal by 't Hooft, information loss introduced by constraints in certain classical dissipative systems may lead to quantization. This scheme can be realized within the Bateman model of two coupled oscillators, one damped and one accelerated. In this paper we analyze the links of this approach to effective Hamiltonians where the environmental degrees of freedom do not appear explicitly but their effect leads to the same friction force appearing in the Bateman model. In particular, it is shown that by imposing constraints, the Bateman Hamiltonian can be transformed into an effective one expressed in expanding coordinates. This one can be transformed via a canonical transformation into Caldirola and Kanai's effective Hamiltonian that can be linked to the conventional system-plus-reservoir approach, for example, in a form used by Caldeira and Leggett.
We present entropy-limited hydrodynamics (ELH): a new approach for the computation of numerical fluxes arising in the discretization of hyperbolic equations in conservation form. ELH is based on the hybridisation of an unfiltered high-order scheme with the first-order Lax-Friedrichs method. The activation of the low-order part of the scheme is driven by a measure of the locally generated entropy inspired by the artificial-viscosity method proposed by Guermond et al. (J. Comput. Phys. 230(11):4248-4267, 2011, doi:10.1016/j.jcp.2010.11.043). Here, we present ELH in the context of high-order finite-differencing methods and of the equations of general-relativistic hydrodynamics. We study the performance of ELH in a series of classical astrophysical tests in general relativity involving isolated, rotating and nonrotating neutron stars, and including a case of gravitational collapse to black hole. We present a detailed comparison of ELH with the fifth-order monotonicity preserving method MP5 (Suresh and Huynh in J. Comput. Phys. 136(1):83-99, 1997, doi:10.1006/jcph.1997.5745), one of the most common high-order schemes currently employed in numerical-relativity simulations. We find that ELH achieves comparable and, in many of the cases studied here, better accuracy than more traditional methods at a fraction of the computational cost (up to ∼50% speedup). Given its accuracy and its simplicity of implementation, ELH is a promising framework for the development of new special- and general-relativistic hydrodynamics codes well adapted for massively parallel supercomputers.
The neutron capture cross sections of several unstable key isotopes acting as branching points in the s-process are crucial for stellar nucleosynthesis studies, but they are very challenging to measure directly due to the difficult production of sufficient sample material, the high activity of the resulting samples, and the actual (n, γ) measurement, where high neutron fluxes and effective background rejection capabilities are required. At present there are about 21 relevant s-process branching point isotopes whose cross section could not be measured yet over the neutron energy range of interest for astrophysics. However, the situation is changing with some very recent developments and upcoming technologies. This work introduces three techniques that will change the current paradigm in the field: the use of γ-ray imaging techniques in (n, γ) experiments, the production of moderated neutron beams using high-power lasers, and double capture experiments in Maxwellian neutron beams.
We study a random matrix model for QCD at finite density via complex Langevin dynamics. This model has a phase transition to a phase with nonzero baryon density. We study the convergence of the algorithm as a function of the quark mass and the chemical potential and focus on two main observables: the baryon density and the chiral condensate. For simulations close to the chiral limit, the algorithm has wrong convergence properties when the quark mass is in the spectral domain of the Dirac operator. A possible solution of this problem is discussed.
We present an in-depth study of masses and decays of excited scalar and pseudoscalar q¯q states in the Extended Linear Sigma Model (eLSM). The model also contains ground-state scalar, pseudoscalar, vector and axial-vector mesons. The main objective is to study the consequences of the hypothesis that the f0(1790) resonance, observed a decade ago by the BES Collaboration and recently by LHCb, represents an excited scalar quarkonium. In addition we also analyse the possibility that the new a0(1950) resonance, observed recently by BABAR, may also be an excited scalar state. Both hypotheses receive justification in our approach although there appears to be some tension between the simultaneous interpretation of f0(1790)/a0(1950) and pseudoscalar mesons η(1295), π(1300), η(1440) and K(1460) as excited q¯q states.
The thermodynamics of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) in external (electro-)magnetic fields shows some unexpected features like inverse magnetic catalysis, which have been revealed mainly through lattice studies. Many effective descriptions, on the other hand, use Landau levels or approximate the system by just the lowest Landau level (LLL). Analyzing lattice configurations we ask whether such a picture is justified. We find the LLL to be separated from the rest by a spectral gap in the two-dimensional Dirac operator and analyze the corresponding LLL signature in four dimensions. We determine to what extent the quark condensate is LLL dominated at strong magnetic fields.
The Karl Schwarzschild Meeting 2017 (KSM2017) has been the third instalment of the conference dedicated to the great Frankfurter scientist, who derived the first black hole solution of Einstein's equations about 100 years ago.
The event has been a 5 day meeting in the field of black holes, AdS/CFT correspondence and gravitational physics. Like the two previous instalments, the conference continued to attract a stellar ensemble of participants from the world's most renowned institutions. The core of the meeting has been a series of invited talks from eminent experts (keynote speakers) as well as the presence of plenary research talks by students and junior speakers.
List of Conference photo and poster, Sponsors and funding acknowledgments, Committees and List of participants are available in this PDF.
Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wird darauf eingegangen, welche Anpassungen erforderlich sind, um Protonendichten vergleichbar zu bereits erzeugten Elektronendichten in Gabor-Linsen zu erhalten. Zur Vorbereitung zukünftiger Experimente werden vergleichende Simulationen zum Einschluss der Ladungsträgerdichten durchgeführt und die Strahldynamik bei der Wechselwirkung eines positiven Ionenstrahls mit einem in einer Gabor-Linse eingeschlossenen Protonenplasma untersucht. Die Ergebnisse der Strahldynamiksimulationen werden mit theoretischen Berechnungen vertieft, in dem die Brennweite einer Gabor-Linse, die mit einer beliebigen Teilchensorte gefüllt ist, berechnet und die Drift-Masse eingeführt wird.
Eine weitere analytische Betrachtung ist die Erweiterung der Teilchendynamik in der Gabor-Linse auf beliebige Anfangsbedingungen, in dem die dazugehörige Differentialgleichung entkoppelt und ganz allgemein gelöst wird. Die daraus berechneten Trajektorien der Teilchen führen zu einem besseren Verständnis, das weitere Anwendungen erschließen könnte.
The detailed biophysical mechanisms through which transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) activates cortical circuits are still not fully understood. Here we present a multi-scale computational model to describe and explain the activation of different pyramidal cell types in motor cortex due to TMS. Our model determines precise electric fields based on an individual head model derived from magnetic resonance imaging and calculates how these electric fields activate morphologically detailed models of different neuron types. We predict neural activation patterns for different coil orientations consistent with experimental findings. Beyond this, our model allows us to calculate activation thresholds for individual neurons and precise initiation sites of individual action potentials on the neurons’ complex morphologies. Specifically, our model predicts that cortical layer 3 pyramidal neurons are generally easier to stimulate than layer 5 pyramidal neurons, thereby explaining the lower stimulation thresholds observed for I-waves compared to D-waves. It also shows differences in the regions of activated cortical layer 5 and layer 3 pyramidal cells depending on coil orientation. Finally, it predicts that under standard stimulation conditions, action potentials are mostly generated at the axon initial segment of cortical pyramidal cells, with a much less important activation site being the part of a layer 5 pyramidal cell axon where it crosses the boundary between grey matter and white matter. In conclusion, our computational model offers a detailed account of the mechanisms through which TMS activates different cortical pyramidal cell types, paving the way for more targeted application of TMS based on individual brain morphology in clinical and basic research settings.
The detailed biophysical mechanisms through which transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) activates cortical circuits are still not fully understood. Here we present a multi-scale computational model to describe and explain the activation of different pyramidal cell types in motor cortex due to TMS. Our model determines precise electric fields based on an individual head model derived from magnetic resonance imaging and calculates how these electric fields activate morphologically detailed models of different neuron types. We predict neural activation patterns for different coil orientations consistent with experimental findings. Beyond this, our model allows us to calculate activation thresholds for individual neurons and precise initiation sites of individual action potentials on the neurons’ complex morphologies. Specifically, our model predicts that cortical layer 3 pyramidal neurons are generally easier to stimulate than layer 5 pyramidal neurons, thereby explaining the lower stimulation thresholds observed for I-waves compared to D-waves. It also shows differences in the regions of activated cortical layer 5 and layer 3 pyramidal cells depending on coil orientation. Finally, it predicts that under standard stimulation conditions, action potentials are mostly generated at the axon initial segment of cortical pyramidal cells, with a much less important activation site being the part of a layer 5 pyramidal cell axon where it crosses the boundary between grey matter and white matter. In conclusion, our computational model offers a detailed account of the mechanisms through which TMS activates different cortical pyramidal cell types, paving the way for more targeted application of TMS based on individual brain morphology in clinical and basic research settings.
Im Weltall existieren hunderte sehr helle Objekte, die eine hohe konstante Leuchtkraft im Wellenlängenbereich von Gammastrahlung besitzen. Die konstante Leuchtkraft mancher dieser Objekte wird in regelmäßigen Abständen von starken Ausbrüchen, den sogenannten X-Ray-Bursts, unterbrochen. Hauptenergiequelle dieser X-RayBursts ist der „rapid-proton-capture“-Prozess (rp-Prozess). Dieser zeichnet sich durch eine Abfolge von (p,γ)-Reaktionen und β+-Zerfällen aus, die die charakteristischen Lichtkurven produzieren. Für viele am Prozess beteiligte Reaktionen ist der Q-Wert sehr klein, wodurch die Rate der einzelnen Reaktionen von den resonanten Einfängen in die ungebundenen Zustände dominiert wird. Die Unsicherheiten in der Beschreibung der Lichtkurve sind derzeit aufgrund fehlender kernphysikalischer Informationen von vielen am Prozess beteiligten Isotopen sehr groß. Sensitivitätsstudien zeigen, dass dabei die Unsicherheiten der 23Al(p,γ)24Si-Reaktion eine der größten Auswirkungen auf die Lichtkurve hat. Diese werden durch ungenaue und widersprüchliche Informationen zu den ungebundenen Zuständen im kurzlebigen 24Si hervorgerufen.
Um Informationen über die Kernstruktur von 24Si zu erhalten, wurde am National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL), Michigan, USA, die 23Al(d,n)24Si Transferreaktion untersucht. Der in dieser Form erstmals umgesetzte Versuchsaufbau bestand aus einem Gammadetektor zur Messung der Übergangsenergien des produzierten 24Si, einem Neutronendetektor zur Messung der Winkelverteilung der emittierten Neutronen und einem Massensprektrometer zur Identifikation des produzierten Isotops. Mit diesem Aufbau, der eine Detektion der kompletten Kinematik der (d,nγ)-Reaktion ermöglichte, konnten folgende Erkentnisse gewonnen werden:
Aus der Energie der nachgewiesenen Gammas konnten die Übergänge zwischen den Kernniveaus von 24Si bestimmt und daraus die Energien der einzelnen Zustände ermittelt werden. Dabei konnte neben dem bereits bekannten gebundenen 2+-Zustand (in dieser Arbeit gemessen bei 1874 ± 2,9keV) und dem ungebundenen 2+-Zustand (3448,8 ± 4,6keV), erstmals ein weiterer ungebundener (4+,0+)-Zustand bei 3470,6 ± 6,2 keV beobachtet werden. Zusätzlich konnte die Diskrepanz, die bezüglich der Energie des ungebundenen 2+-Zustands aufgrund früherer Messungen bestand, beseitigt und die Energieunsicherheit reduziert werden.
Aus der Anzahl der nachgewiesenen Gammas konnten ebenfalls die (d,n)-Wirkungsquerschnitte in die einzelnen Zustände von 24Si bestimmt werden. Unter Verwendung der Ergebnisse von DWBA-Rechnungen konnte mithilfe dieser die spektroskopischen Faktoren berechnet werden. Für die angeregten Zustände musste dabei zwischen verschiedenen Drehimpulsüberträgen unterschieden werden. Mittels der Winkelverteilung der nachgewiesenen Neutronen konnte gezeigt werden, dass die Gewichtung anhand der theoretischen spektroskopischen Faktoren zur Berechnung der Anteile des jeweiligen Drehimpulsübertrags am gesamten Wirkungsquerschnitt für den entsprechenden Zustand gute Ergebnisse liefert. Für eine quantitative Bestimmung der spektroskopischen Faktoren der Zustände anhand der Neutronenwinkelverteilungen in 24Si war allerdings die Statistik zu gering. Für den Fall der deutlich häufiger beobachteten 22Mg(d,n)23Al-Reaktion konnte hingegen ein spektroskopischer Faktor für den 23Al-Grundzustand von 0,29 ± 0,04 bestimmt werden. Abschließend wurden die Auswirkungen der gewonnenen Erkenntnisse zur Kernstruktur von 24Si auf die Rate der 23Al(p,γ)-Reaktion untersucht. Dabei konnte aufgrund der besseren Energiebestimmung zum einen die Diskrepanz zwischen den Raten die auf Grundlage der beiden früheren Untersuchungen berechnet wurden und bis zu einem Faktor von 20 voneinander abweichen, beseitigt werden. Zum anderen konnte aufgrund der kleineren Unsicherheit in der Energiebestimmung der Fehlerbereich der Rate verkleinert werden. Die Untersuchungen zeigen, dass die Unsicherheit in der neuen Rate von der Ungenauigkeit der Massenbestimmung der beiden beteiligten Isotope und damit dem Q-Wert der Reaktion dominiert wird. Durch eine bessere Bestimmung des Q-Werts könnte die Unsicherheit in der Rate aufgrund der neuen experimentellen Ergebnisse auf ein Zehntel gesenkt werden.
The aim of this thesis is finding a geometric configuration that allows electron insertion into a Gabor plasma lens in order to increase the density of the confined electrons and provide ignition conditions at parameters where ignition is not possible. First, simulations using CST and bender were conducted to investigate several geometric configurations in terms of their performance of inserting electrons manually. One particular design has been chosen as a basis for an experiment. In order to prepare the experiment, further simulations using the code bender have been conducted to investigate the density distribution that is formed inside the Gabor lens when inserting electrons transversally in compliance with the chosen design. Additionally, bender was used to investigate the impact of the initial electron energy on the distribution inside the lens. Simulations with and without space charge effects have shown a significant impact of the space charge effects on the resulting density dstribution. Therefore, space charge effects have proven to be the major electron redistribution process. A given electron source was characterised in order to find the performance under the conditions inside a Gabor lens. In particular, a transversal magnetic field that will be present in the experiment has to be compensated by shielding the inner regions of the source by a μ-metal layer. Using a μ-metal shield, transversal magnetic fields are sufficiently tolerable to perform measurements in a Gabor lens. Additionally, operating close to 100 eV electron energy yields a maximum in the emitted current. Adding a Wehnelt cylinder to the electron source furthermore improves the extracted current to roughly 1 mA. A test stand consisting of a newly designed anode for the Gabor lens, as well as a terminal for the electron source, was constructed. The electron source was thoroughly characterised in the environment of the Gabor lens and the ignition properties of the new system were evaluated. In further experiments, electron beam assisted ignition by increasing the residual gas pressure was observed and the impact of the position of the electron source on the ignition properties was investigated. In addition, ignition of a sub-critical state, that is a state consisting of potential, magnetic field and pressure that did not yet perform ignition by itself, was performed by increasing the extracted current from the electron source. Finally, the electron source was used to influence a pre-ignited plasma. The density was measured, which was increased by the use of the electron source in most cases. This project is part of the EDEN collaboration (Electron DENsity boosting) of the NNP Group at IAP Frankfurt with INFN institutes in Bologna and Catania.
Gabor lenses were invented for focusing hadron beams by the electric field of a confined electron column. A homogenous magnetic field created by a solenoid confines electrons in transverse direction while a potential well created by a cylindrical electrode system confines them longitudinally.
In this thesis the investigation and characterization of a nonneutral electron plasma (NNP) in a Gabor lens with a toroidal magnetic confinement and a 30 degree-bent anode is presented. Motivated by fundamental research on NNPs in this special environment, diagnostic methods were investigated to characterize the plasma. As a non-invasive method a PCO camera is placed in front of the experimental setup. A ring of 31 photodiodes is used inside the plasma for light intensity and distribution measurements. The experimental data is evaluated and the following results will be presented.
Das Zusammentreffen zu Beginn der Sommerferien von 60 wissbegierigen und experimentierfreudigen Schülerinnen und Schülern mit einem ebensolchen Team aus Hochschullehrenden und Kulturschaffenden, versprach wie immer eine intensive und aufregende Zeit zu werden. Diese positive Erwartung wurde auch voll erfüllt und gipfelte am Gästenachmittag mit Eltern, Verwandten, Freunden und interessierten Besuchern in einen feierlich-fröhlichen Abschluss mit spannenden und auch überraschenden Werkschauen der Kurse. Ein besonderes Highlight war die großformatige Gestaltung eines Modells der BURG FÜRSTENECK als interdisziplinäres Ergebnis des Hauptkurses Mathematik und des Wahlkurses Modellbau.
The goal of heavy ion reactions at low beam energies is to explore the QCD phase diagram at high net baryon chemical potential. To relate experimental observations with a first order phase transition or a critical endpoint, dynamical approaches for the theoretical description have to be developed. In this summary of the corresponding plenary talk, the status of the dynamical modeling including the most recent advances is presented. The remaining challenges are highlighted and promising experimental measurements are pointed out.
We present a calculation of the global polarization of Λ hyperons in relativistic Au–Au collisions at RHIC Beam Energy Scan range sNN−−−√=7.7−200 GeV with a 3+1-dimensional cascade+viscous hydro model, UrQMD+vHLLE. Within this model, the mean polarization of Λ in the out-of-plane direction is predicted to decrease rapidly with collision energy from a top value of about 2% at the lowest energy examined. We explore the connection between the polarization signal and thermal vorticity and estimate the feed-down contribution to Λ polarization due to the decay of higher mass hyperons.
We study simulated animats in terms of wheeled robots with the most simple neural controller possible – a single neuron per actuator. The system is fully self-organized in the sense that the controlling neuron receives uniquely the actual angle of the wheel as an input. Non-trivial locomotion results in structured environments, with the robot determining autonomously the direction of movement (time-reversal symmetry is spontaneously broken). Our controller, which mimics the mechanism used to transmit power in steam locomotives, abstracts from the body plan of the animat, working without problems also in the presence of noise and for chains of individual two-wheeled cars. Being fully compliant our controller may be also used, in the spirit of morphological computation, as a basic unit for higher-level evolutionary algorithms.
Distillation of scalar exchange by coherent hypernucleus production in antiproton–nucleus collisions
(2017)
The total and angular differential cross sections of the coherent process p¯ + A Z → A (Z − 1) + ¯ are evaluated at the beam momenta 1.5 ÷ 20 GeV/c within the meson exchange model with bound proton and -hyperon wave functions. It is shown that the shape of the beam momentum dependence of the hypernucleus production cross sections with various discrete states is strongly sensitive to the presence of the scalar κ-meson exchange in the p p¯ → ¯ amplitude. This can be used as a clean test of the exchange by scalar π K correlation in coherent p A¯ reactions.
Terahertz (THz) physics are an emerging field of research dealing with electromagnetic radiation in the far-infrared to microwave region. The development of innovative technologies for the generation and detection of THz radiation has only in the recent past led to a tremendous rise of both fundamental research as well as investigation of possible fields of application for THz radiation. The most prominent reason has long been the scarce accessibility of the THz region of the electromagnetic spectrum - commonly loosely located between 0.1 and 30 THz - to broad research, and it was mostly limited to astronomy and high energy physics facilities. Over the recent years, numerous novel concepts on both the source and detector side have been proposed and successfully implemented to overcome this so-called THz gap. New technology has become available and paved the way for wide-spread experimental laboratory work and accompanying theoretical investigations. First application studies have emerged and in some cases even commercial development of the field of THz physics is on the rise. Despite these enormous progresses, a continuing demand for more efficient THz detectors still impels current technological research. Relatively low source powers are often a major limiting factor and the request for new detection concepts, their understanding and implementation, as well as the optimization on a device basis has been and still remains in place. One of these concepts is the use of field-effect transistors (FETs) high above their conventional cut-off frequencies as electronic THz detectors. The concept has been proposed in a number of theoretical publications by M. Dyakonov and M. Shur in the early 1990's, who pioneered to show that under certain boundary conditions, non-linear collective excitations of the charge carrier system of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) by incident THz radiation can exhibit rectifying behaviour - a detection principle, which has become known as plasma wave or plasmonic mixing. Up until this day, the concept has been successfully implemented in many device realizations - most advanced in established silicon CMOS technology - and stands on the edge of becoming commercially available on a large scale. The main direction of the work presented in this thesis was the modeling and experimental characterization of antenna-coupled FETs for THz detection - termed TeraFETs in this and the author's previous works - which have been implemented in different material systems. The materials presented in this thesis are AlGaN/GaN HEMTs and graphene FETs. In a number of scientific collaborations, TeraFETs were designed based on a hydrodynamic transport model, fabricated in the respective materials, and characterized mainly in the lower THz frequency region from 0.2 to 1.2 THz. The theoretical description of the plasma wave mixing mechanism in TeraFETs, as initiated by Dyakonov and Shur, was based on a fluid-dynamic transport model for charge carriers in the transistor channel. The THz radiation induces propagating charge density oscillations (plasma waves) in the 2DEG, which via non-linear self-mixing cause rectification of the incident THz signals. Over the course of this work, it became evident in the on-going detector characterization experiments that this original theoretical model of the detection process widely applied in the respective literature does not suffice to describe some of the experimental findings in TeraFET detection signals. Thorough measurements showed signal contributions, which are identified in this work to be of thermoelectric origin arising from an inherent asymmetric local heating of charge carriers in the devices. Depending on the material, these contributions constituted a mere side effect to plasmonic detection (AlGaN/GaN) or even reached a comparable magnitude (graphene FETs). To include these effects in the detector model, the original reduced fluid-dynamic description was extended to a hydrodynamic transport model. The model yields at the current stage a reasonable qualitative agreement to the measured THz detection signals. This thesis presents the formulation of a hydrodynamic charge carrier transport model and its specific implementation in a circuit simulation tool. A second modeling aspect is that the transport equations cover only the intrinsic plasmonic detection process in the active gated part of the TeraFET's transistor channel. In order to model and simulate the behavior of real devices, extrinsic detector parts such as ungated channel regions, parasitic resistances and capacitances, integrated antenna impedance, and others must be considered. The implemented detector model allows to simulate THz detection in real devices with the above influences included. Besides presentation of the detector model, experimental THz characterization of the fabricated TeraFETs is presented in this work. Careful device design yielded record detection performance for detectors in both investigated materials. The respective results are shown and the experimental observations of the thermoelectric effect in TeraFETs are compared to modeling results. It is the goal of this work to provide a framework for further theoretical and experimental studies of the plasmonic and thermoelectric effect in TeraFETs, which could eventually lead to a new type of THz detectors particularly exploiting the thermoelectric effect to enhance the sensitivity of today's plasmonic TeraFETs.
We study the charmonium coherent photoproduction and hadroproduction consistently with modifications from both cold and hot nuclear matters. The strong electromagnetic fields from fast moving nucleus interact with the other target nucleus, producing abundant charmonium in the extremely low transverse momentum region pT<0.1 GeV/c. This results in significative enhancement of J/ψ nuclear modification factor in semi-central and peripheral collisions. In the middle pT region such as pT<3∼5 GeV/c, J/ψ final yield is dominated by the combination process of single charm and anti-charm quarks moving in the deconfined matter, c+c¯→J/ψ+g. In the higher pT region, J/ψ production are mainly from parton initial hard scatterings at the beginning of nucleus–nucleus collisions and decay of B hadrons. We include all of these production mechanisms and explain the experimental data well in different colliding centralities and transverse momentum regions.
Overrepresentation of bidirectional connections in local cortical networks has been repeatedly reported and is a focus of the ongoing discussion of nonrandom connectivity. Here we show in a brief mathematical analysis that in a network in which connection probabilities are symmetric in pairs, Pij = Pji, the occurrences of bidirectional connections and nonrandom structures are inherently linked; an overabundance of reciprocally connected pairs emerges necessarily when some pairs of neurons are more likely to be connected than others. Our numerical results imply that such overrepresentation can also be sustained when connection probabilities are only approximately symmetric.
The ability to learn sequential behaviors is a fundamental property of our brains. Yet a long stream of studies including recent experiments investigating motor sequence learning in adult human subjects have produced a number of puzzling and seemingly contradictory results. In particular, when subjects have to learn multiple action sequences, learning is sometimes impaired by proactive and retroactive interference effects. In other situations, however, learning is accelerated as reflected in facilitation and transfer effects. At present it is unclear what the underlying neural mechanism are that give rise to these diverse findings. Here we show that a recently developed recurrent neural network model readily reproduces this diverse set of findings. The self-organizing recurrent neural network (SORN) model is a network of recurrently connected threshold units that combines a simplified form of spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP) with homeostatic plasticity mechanisms ensuring network stability, namely intrinsic plasticity (IP) and synaptic normalization (SN). When trained on sequence learning tasks modeled after recent experiments we find that it reproduces the full range of interference, facilitation, and transfer effects. We show how these effects are rooted in the network’s changing internal representation of the different sequences across learning and how they depend on an interaction of training schedule and task similarity. Furthermore, since learning in the model is based on fundamental neuronal plasticity mechanisms, the model reveals how these plasticity mechanisms are ultimately responsible for the network’s sequence learning abilities. In particular, we find that all three plasticity mechanisms are essential for the network to learn effective internal models of the different training sequences. This ability to form effective internal models is also the basis for the observed interference and facilitation effects. This suggests that STDP, IP, and SN may be the driving forces behind our ability to learn complex action sequences.