ContactLandessternwarte Heidelberg [map]Königstuhl 12 69117 Heidelberg Germany
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Welcome to my website
On this website you will find some of the things I'm interested in. Here's a short overview.
Astrophysics: I've finished my Phd in astronomy in summer 2009 in the theory group around Prof. Max Camenzind at the Landessternwarte (State Observatory) in the beautiful town of Heidelberg. My subject is the simulation of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in accretion discs. Accretion discs form around compact objects, e.g. a neutron star or a black hole, when matter falls onto them. Matter loses angular momentum by means of turbulent motion and gets hotter and faster as it moves further inwards. Close to the central object, it reaches velocities close to the speed of light and temperatures up to 1012 K. As any matter is fully ionised at these temperatures, magnetic fields contribute strongly to the dynamics. Also close to the central object, so called jets are ejected. Jets are fast, well collimated beams of matter which extend into space. In order to investigate the accretion mechanism itself and the ejection of jets I simulate the very inner part of the accretion disc.
Recently I started giving lectures to a non-professional audience which I find a very interesting task to perform. So far I have given talks on black holes and accretion. I plan to expand my qoute by lectures on the solar system and simulations in astrophysics.
As I'm working in the fields of accretion physics and magnetohydrodynamic simulations, I keep track of the publications and sort some of them into a commented list which you can find on this website. It is mainly reviews there but also some very specialised papers.
→ simulations and scientific publications
→ lectures and articles for non-profesionals
→ annotated list of papers
Computer: Since the eighties I've been using and programming computers. I started with the C 128 and got to use parallel supercomputers to date. Some pieces of code might be interesting for other people so I'll put them on this page. Also there is a description of how to install Debian Linux on a Dell Latitude X1, for those of you who still have on of them.
→ curriculum informatica
→ pieces of code
→ debian on a laptop
World Wide Web: I'm administrating a website on astrophysical simulations: astro-sim.org.
It's an open community providing code information, weblinks, lists of useful software
and a forum to post questions and announcements.
Also once in a while I find myself writing articles for the german Wikipedia, a free online encyclopaedia supported by volunteers like me. You'll find me under the nick of "szs".
→ http://astro-sim.org
→ szs at wikipedia
Music: Another big part of my time I spend playing electric guitar and requinto, which is a small guitar used in Latin America, singing and writing songs. At least my children like it ;-) .
→ my music
Photography: Whenever I have sufficient time and money I like travelling, hiking and free-climbing. Whenever my photos are not systematically bad focused, I'll add them to a small gallery.
