Oldenburg. The dreaded and mysterious phenomenon of monster waves is the subject of a public lecture at the University of Oldenburg. "Monster waves on the ocean - from sailor's yarn to the non-linear Schrödinger equation and back": this is the title of a lecture by physicist Prof. Dr Norbert Hoffmann from the Institute of Mechanics and Marine Technology at Hamburg University of Technology on Monday, 15 December.

Waves on water surfaces are important for a number of engineering disciplines such as shipbuilding and offshore engineering. Reports of very rare, exceptionally high waves have existed for a long time, but it is only in the last few decades that our understanding of this phenomenon has gradually improved. Hoffmann and his colleagues have succeeded in generating and analysing so-called monster waves in the laboratory.

The experimental procedure and the main results will be described in the lecture. The lecture will begin at 4.15 p.m. on the Wechloy campus (Building W2, Room 1-148). Hoffmann is giving the lecture as part of the Physics Colloquium at the invitation of Prof Dr Andreas Engel, head of the Statistical Physics working group at the University of Oldenburg.

[10.12.14]