Physics of Highly Charged Ions

As captured by its name, the biennial international HCI (Highly Charged Ions) conference series is the international platform to present and discuss advancements in the field HCI physics, with topics ranging from fundamental structure, via interactions with photons, electrons, ions, atoms, molecules and solids to applications in astrophysical, fusion and industrial plasma. The conference series started in 1982 with Anders Bárány as its initiator and first chair.

Highly charged ions present a cornerstone of contemporary atomic and plasma physics research. Advances in this field have had (and will continue to have) far-reaching consequences for numerous fundamental and applied scientific disciplines. Their unique structures serve as a testbed for today’s most advanced bound-state quantum electrodynamics (QED) calculations, and may be exploited in the future as frequency standards for future atomic clocks as well as searches for variations of fundamental constants and physics beyond the standard model. Moreover, HCIs are encountered in practically every high-temperature plasma environment, from stellar objects and black-hole accretion disks, to terrestrial plasmas developed for fusion and semiconductor manufacturing purposes. The diagnosis of these extreme environments requires extensive knowledge of the structures, collisional and radiative properties of HCIs, information which is largely lacking.

The generation of fundamental atomic data, both structural and collisional, is a core component of HCI physics involving the close interplay of theory and experiment. On the theoretical front, HCI research extends from the development of many-body effects in QED calculations, to the accurate modeling of energy transfer in strongly radiating, HCI-dominated plasmas. The development of experimental facilities and advanced instrumentation for HCI production (accelerators, electron-cyclotron resonance sources, free-electron lasers) as well as the development of methods to interrogate the structures and dynamics of HCIs in complex environments (clusters, surfaces), is key for future developments in HCI physics.

The 21st HCI conference, will be held in Egmond aan Zee from 2nd – 6th September 2024, and after Groningen in 1986 (HCI-3), it is the second time that the HCI conference visits the Netherlands. The local organizing committee consists of:

• Ronnie Hoekstra (chair, University of Groningen and ARCNL)
• Oscar Versolato (co-chair, ARCNL and VU Amsterdam)
• John Sheil (co-chair, ARCNL and VU Amsterdam)
• Anastasia Borschevsky (University of Groningen)
• Sadia Bari (DESY Hamburg and University of Groningen)
• Hiroki Akamatsu (SRON Leiden)
• Marjan Fretz (ARCNL)

The local organizing committee of HCI-21 is advised by the HCI International Advisory Board of which the members are:

Fritz Aumayr (Austria), Toshiyuki Azuma (Japan), Peter Beiersdorfer (USA), Manolis Benis (Greece), Julian Berengut (Australia),  Amine Cassimi (France), James Colgan (USA), José Crespo Lopez-Urrutia (Germany), (Ronnie Hoekstra (the Netherlands), Joanna Hoszowska (Switzerland), Clara Illescas (Spain), Xinwen Ma (China), Nobuyuki Nakamura (Japan), Sebastian Otranto (Argentina), Marek Pajek (Poland), Roberto Rivarola (Argentina), Nina Rohringer (Germany), Marianna Safronova (USA), José Paulo Santos (Portugal), Reinhold Schuch (Sweden), Emma Sokell (Ireland), Thomas Stöhlker (Germany), Hajime Tanuma (Japan), Károly Tőkési (Hungary), Martino Trassinelli (France), Lokesh Tribedi (India), Ke Yao (China),  Henning Zettergren (Sweden).

Previous HCI Conferences

1. Matsue City, Japan | 2022, August 29 – September 3
   Hajime Tanuma and Nobuyuki Nakamura
   Atoms 2023 11
2. Lisboa, Portugal | 2018, September 3 – 7
   José Paulo Santos, Luisa Carvalho, and José Pires Marques
   X-Ray Spectroscopy 2020 49
3. Kielce, Poland | 2016, September 11 – 16
   Dariusz Banaś and Marek Pajek
   NIMB 2017 408
4. San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina | 2014, August 31 – September 5
   Raúl Barrachina, Flavio Colavecchie, and Roberto Rivarola
   J. Phys. Conf. Series 2015 583
5. Heidelberg, Germany | 2012, September 2 – 7
   Thomas Stöhlker and Joachim Ullrich
   Physica Scripta 2013 T156
6. Shanghai, China | 2010, August 29 – September 3
   Yaming Zou and Roger Hutton
   Physica Scripta 2011 T144
7. Chofu – Tokyo, Japan | 2008, September 1 – 5
   Toshiyuki Azuma, Nobuyuki Nakamura, and Chikashi Yamada
   J. Phys. Conf. Series 2009 163
8. Belfast, Northern-Ireland UK | 2006, August 28 – September 1
   Bob McCullough and Fred Currell
   J. Phys. Conf. Series 2007 58
9. Vilnius, Lithuania | 2004, September 6 – 11
   Z. Rudzikas
   NIMB 2005 235
10. Caen, France | 2002, September 1 – 6
    Dominique Vernhet
    NIMB 2003 205
11. Berkeley – CA, USA | 2000, July 30 – August 2
    Alex Hamza
    Physica Scripta 2001 T92
12. Bensheim, Germany | 1998, September 9 -14
    Paul Mokler
    Physica Scripta 1999 T80A and T80B
13. Omiya – Saitama, Japan | 1996, September 23 – 26
    Yohko Awaya and Tadashi Kambara
    Physica Scripta 1997 T73
14. Vienna, Austria | 1994, September 19 – 23
    Friedrich Aumayr
    NIMB 1995 98
15. Manhattan – KS, USA | 1992, September 29 – October 2
    Pat Richard and Martin Stöckli
    AIP. Conf. Proc. 1993 274
16. Giessen, Germany | 1990, September 10 – 14
    Erhard Salzborn
    Z. Phys. D. 1991 21
17. Grenoble, France | 1988, September 12 – 16
    Samuel Bliman
    J. de Physique 1989 50-C1
18. Groningen, the Netherlands | 1986, September 17 – 19
    Reinhard Morgenstern, Frits de Heer, and Ahrend Niehaus
    NIMB 1987 23
19. Oxford, UK | 1984, July 2 – 4
    J. D. Silver and N.J. Peacock
    NIMB 1985 9
20. Stockholm, Sweden | 1982, June 1 – 5
    Anders Bárány
    Physica Scripta 1983 T3