Mainz-Frankfurt CosmoCoffee 2026
Tuesday, 21 April 2026 -
08:00
Monday, 20 April 2026
Tuesday, 21 April 2026
09:30
Coffee and Snacks
Coffee and Snacks
09:30 - 09:55
Room: FIAS
09:55
Welcome
-
Daniel Schmitt
(
Goethe University, Frankfurt
)
Welcome
Daniel Schmitt
(
Goethe University, Frankfurt
)
09:55 - 10:00
10:00
Proto-Neutron Stars with Color Superconductivity
-
Selina Kunkel
(
Goethe University Frankfurt
)
Proto-Neutron Stars with Color Superconductivity
Selina Kunkel
(
Goethe University Frankfurt
)
10:00 - 10:20
Room: Faculty Club
10:20
Neutron Stars in the Presence of Dark Matter
-
Sarah Louisa Pitz
(
Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
)
Neutron Stars in the Presence of Dark Matter
Sarah Louisa Pitz
(
Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
)
10:20 - 10:40
Room: Faculty Club
10:40
High-Frequency Gravitational Waves from Neutron Stars
-
Katarina Bleau
(
Queen's University
)
High-Frequency Gravitational Waves from Neutron Stars
Katarina Bleau
(
Queen's University
)
10:40 - 11:00
Room: Faculty Club
11:00
Break
Break
11:00 - 11:30
11:30
Scalar-Induced Gravitational Waves from Thermal Inflation in Supercooled Cosmic Phase Transitions
-
Tamara Caldas Cifuentes
(
Goethe University Frankfurt
)
Scalar-Induced Gravitational Waves from Thermal Inflation in Supercooled Cosmic Phase Transitions
Tamara Caldas Cifuentes
(
Goethe University Frankfurt
)
11:30 - 11:50
Room: Faculty Club
11:50
First-Order Phase Transitions in a Dark Higgs Model with Fermions
-
Judit Rodríguez
(
JGU Mainz
)
First-Order Phase Transitions in a Dark Higgs Model with Fermions
Judit Rodríguez
(
JGU Mainz
)
11:50 - 12:05
Room: Faculty Club
12:05
Environmental Imprints of Supermassive Black Hole Binaries on the Nanohertz Gravitational-Wave Background
-
Matthias Daniel
(
Goethe University Frankfurt
)
Environmental Imprints of Supermassive Black Hole Binaries on the Nanohertz Gravitational-Wave Background
Matthias Daniel
(
Goethe University Frankfurt
)
12:05 - 12:25
Room: Faculty Club
12:30
Lunch Break
Lunch Break
12:30 - 13:30
13:30
Coffee
Coffee
13:30 - 14:00
14:00
The strong force could have heated the Universe’s first moment
-
Kim Berghaus
The strong force could have heated the Universe’s first moment
Kim Berghaus
14:00 - 15:00
In a recent breakthrough we showed that the strong nuclear force of the Standard Model may have generated the heat of the hot Big Bang itself. It is widely believed that cosmic inflation, the era of accelerated expansion in the infant universe, occurred while the cosmos was cold and empty, requiring some unknown process to subsequently generate the hot plasma we observe. Our work demonstrates that the early universe may have instead been immersed in a hot bath of known elementary particles during inflation. The proposed mechanism couples gluons, which mediate the strong force in atomic nuclei, with an axion-like particle that drives inflation. This coupling induces friction that provides the energy to heat the inflating universe. In this talk, I will show that “warm inflation” (a hypothesis first proposed in 1995) is viable using Standard Model particles and yields testable predictions for upcoming observations. Implications for strong CP and dark matter will be discussed.
15:00
Break
Break
15:00 - 15:30
15:30
Bubble velocities in local equilibrium from a Pseudopotential
-
Martin Münzenberg
Bubble velocities in local equilibrium from a Pseudopotential
Martin Münzenberg
15:30 - 15:45
Room: Faculty Club
15:45
Cosmic Footprints of Secluded Dark Matter
-
Sabrina Saul
(
JGU Mainz
)
Cosmic Footprints of Secluded Dark Matter
Sabrina Saul
(
JGU Mainz
)
15:45 - 16:00
Room: Faculty Club
16:00
Exclusion of Domain Wall Network Scenarios due to the Incompatibility of the Generated Baryon–Photon Isocurvature with Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
-
Diego Fortini
(
JGU Mainz
)
Exclusion of Domain Wall Network Scenarios due to the Incompatibility of the Generated Baryon–Photon Isocurvature with Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
Diego Fortini
(
JGU Mainz
)
16:00 - 16:15
Room: Faculty Club
16:15
Short Buffer Break
Short Buffer Break
16:15 - 16:25
Room: Faculty Club
16:25
Low-Scale Leptogenesis
-
Laura Lünenbürger
(
JGU Mainz
)
Low-Scale Leptogenesis
Laura Lünenbürger
(
JGU Mainz
)
16:25 - 16:40
Room: Faculty Club
16:40
Feebly Interacting Massive Particles in non-standard cosmology
-
Dylan Deraed
Feebly Interacting Massive Particles in non-standard cosmology
Dylan Deraed
16:40 - 16:55
Room: Faculty Club
18:00
Common dinner
Common dinner
18:00 - 20:00