Research at the Institute for Nuclear Physics centers on the structure and the interaction of elementary particles, especially on the understanding of the so-called strong force and its implications on nuclear and particle physics.
The Mainzer Microtron MAMI, an electron accelerator for energies of up to 1,6 GeV, is the core of experimental investigations. Additionally, scientists at the Institute of Nuclear Physics are working on the theoretical description and interpretation of the experimental results and of external experiments in, for example, Beijing (IHEP), Darmstadt (GSI) and Geneva (CERN).
Current news – FB 08 – Kernphysik (eng)
Two master's theses appeared in the 2022 announcement of Springer Spektrum's "BestMasters"-Program
Both theses in the Master's of Education Program in Physics were completed under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Stefan Scherer. Lukas Scharfe's thesis was supervised in cooperation with Dr. Moritz Rahn at the Institute of Mathematics at JGU and was simultaneously accepted as a thesis for a B.Sc. in Mathematics.
February 11 is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science: A good occasion to introduce our new junior research group leader Dr. Franziska Hagelstein and her research. Franziska Hagelstein studied physics at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and received her PhD in theoretical nuclear physics there in 2017 under the supervision of Prof. Marc Vanderhaeghen and Dr. Vladimir Pascalutsa. After several years of research at the University of Bern and the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, she returned to JGU in 2022 and has since been leading the Emmy Noether Young Investigator Group "Hadronic Contributions to Precision Observables and the Search for New Physics" at the Institute of Nuclear Physics. She currently supervises two PhD students and is supported in her research by a postdoc - Dr. Vadim Lensky.
According to her own statement, JGU is an almost optimal place for her research, because on the one hand she finds here an inspiring exchange with the colleagues in the large theory group and at the same time has the proximity to collaborations from experimental nuclear and atomic physics, such as in the experiments for proton form factor (A1 collaboration , JGU) and proton polarizability measurements (A2 collaboration , JGU) at the electron accelerator MAMI, or the spectroscopy experiments on normal and muonic atoms (group around Prof. Randolf Pohl , JGU). Particularly exciting is that these experiments play a central role in the so-called "proton radius puzzle".
27 September 2022
We congratulate Ms. Bianca Savino on completing her dissertation titled
"Development of Λ baryons reconstruction and its application to the search for a stable hexaquark at Belle II"
This thesis focuses on the search for a hypothetical particle composed of six quarks in the context of the particle physics experiment Belle II in Japan. The possible existence of such a state would help us to better understand the behaviour of matter under extreme circumstances.
The work can be divided into two main parts: the optimization of the Belle II software deployed in the reconstruction of tracks originating far from the main interaction point; and the subsequent sensitivity study for the search for the six-quark state, heavily relying on such tracks.
19.09.22
Last Friday afternoon, the guests of the Mainz Science Tram experienced an entertaining and informative ride. Various scientists from Mainz introduced them to very different fields of research on the tour through Mainz. Professor Achim Denig from the Institute of Nuclear Physics was also on board with his lecture "Quarks & Co - The fabulous world of the smallest particles". With a wink, he pointed out to the audience at the beginning that the lecture was of course not about (food) quark, but about the building blocks of which all matter, whether humans, galaxies or food quark, is composed. In the past decades, nuclear and particle physics have succeeded in identifying the basic building blocks of matter - the so-called elementary particles - and in describing their interaction with each other in the Standard Model of particle physics. These elementary particles include quarks, which exist in six types and form the basis for protons and neutrons.
08.09.22
The Institute of Nuclear Physics is taking part in the Mainz Science Week! During a guided tour on 17.09.22 you will have the opportunity to experience the Mainz Microtron MAMI, an electron accelerator, on the JGU campus. We will show you the path the electrons take through the accelerator from their generation to the various experiments, explain the principle of a racetrack microtron and give you an insight into the experiments we use for our research.
Join us 11m deep underground and experience impressive technology and exciting physics!
Information on registration and organisational details can be found on the Mainz Science Week website. The number of participants is limited.
24 August 2022
To perform research at the frontier of knowledge, it is necessary to have excellent scientists and an extensive technical infrastructure with well-trained specialists. For this reason, the Institute for Nuclear Physics has, for many years, provided training for young people in technical and mechanical professions, such as IT specialists.
This year, Jonas Bissantz and Jonas Steiner successfully completed their training as IT specialists, focusing on system integration at the Institute for Nuclear Physics. Mr. Bissantz’s project topic concerned the "Integration of an IP-KVM Solution for Remote Maintenance of Servers and Workstation Computers", an inexpensive "Keyboard-Video-Mouse" hardware based on RaspberryPis. In his project, Mr. Steiner dealt with the "Re-implementation of a Self-Hosted Warehouse Management System (WMS) on Existing Hardware".
We congratulate them both on the successful completion of their training and wish them all the best for their future careers!
17 August 2022
From July 25th to August 12th, 2022, the TALENT School on “Effective Field Theories in Light Nuclei: From Structure to Reactions” took place in Mainz. Sponsored by MITP, this event was organized by Prof. Pierre Capel and Prof. Sonia Bacca from the Institute of Nuclear Physics. Lectures were held in the conference room at the Helmholtz Institute Mainz.
32 students from 10 different countries (Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Iran, Israel, Italy, Spain, and USA) came together to learn the most modern techniques for tackling few-body sys-tems in nuclear physics. Students also had the opportunity to visit the MAMI facility and see the MESA construction site. After being galvanized by this experience, they are going back to their home institutions with more knowledge, more professional connections and new friends.
We wish them all the best and hope to see them again in Mainz in the near future!
20 July 2022
We congratulate Dr. Matthias Heller on completing his dissertation titled
"Radiative corrections to Compton processes on the proton and to the Drell-Yan process"
In this thesis, Matthias Heller calculated radiative corrections to two fundamental processes of the Standard Model: the Compton process on the proton and the Drell-Yan process. Experimentally, the Compton process is the most important tool to study structure functions and other intrinsic properties of the proton. The Drell-Yan process on the other hand, is one of the most basic processes measured at the LHC at CERN and has a long history for probing the theory of strong interactions.
20 July 2022
We congratulate Dr. Daniel Alberto Stanischesk Molnar on completing his dissertation titled
"The Role of Exotic Mesons and Final State Interactions in e+e− Collisions"
In recent years, a plethora of new resonances has been discovered in the charmonium region, which cannot be interpreted in a simple quark model picture as states consisting of a charm quark and an anti-charm quark. A study of the reaction dynamics through which such states are produced is crucial to understanding the intrinsic properties of these exotic resonances and for shedding light on their nature. Daniel Molnar used a state-of-the-art approach to investigate three reactions in which charged exotic states were observed by the BESIII Collaboration in electron-positron collisions, achieved a physical description of the current experimental data, and furthermore made predictions to be tested in future experiments.
04 July 2022
The ATLAS detector more powerful than ever – with major contributions from Mainz University
On July 5th, protons are expected once again colliding with each other at speeds close to that of light in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, also giving physicists of the PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) something to celebrate. Over the last three years, they have made important contributions to the upgrade of the ATLAS detector, ensuring that it can cope with even greater volumes of data during Run 3 of the largest particle accelerator in the world. As a result the researchers hope to gain new and more extensive insights into the universe of the very smallest particles. ...