Current news

TALENT School comes to Mainz

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!

Dissertation at the Institute of Nuclear Physics on Higher Order Corrections to Processes in the Standard Model

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.

Dissertation at the Institute of Nuclear Physics on Exotic Mesons and Dispersive Formalism

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.

After three years: start of first particle collisions at unprecedented energies at LHC

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. ...

35 years of Erasmus+: Mainz University records consistently high levels of student, teacher, and staff mobility

24 June 2022

New record: Mainz University can spend EUR 3 million in the Erasmus+ student mobility program in the 2022/2023 academic year / Bilateral agreements with more than 400 partner universities throughout Europe

The European Erasmus+ program is celebrating its 35th anniversary. Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has been involved with the European Union's best-known education program and its unique success story from the very beginning in 1987: Erasmus+ has supported around 12 million European citizens in experiencing Erasmus mobility so far, including almost one million Germans in the field of higher education. Mainz University is deeply committed to the Erasmus+ program. In 2019, JGU was among the first universities to succeed in the European Universities Initiative established by Erasmus. Together with its partners in now eight European countries, Mainz University is building the European University FORTHEM Alliance. Measured in terms of the total number of placements, JGU is also one of the most active German universities in the field of Erasmus+ mobility. In fact, Mainz University has even received a number of awards for its outstanding involvement, including the Erasmus E-Quality seal of approval...

Excellent scores for Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in the 2022 U-Multirank

21 June 2022

Top rankings in the dimensions of Teaching & Learning, Research, Knowledge Transfer, and International Orientation

Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has achieved excellent marks in several areas in the 2022 U-Multirank assessment. This applies to the university’s ranking as a whole as well as to the individual subjects under review.

This year's ranking positions JGU among the top group of universities in ten key indicators in the dimensions of Teaching & Learning, Research, Knowledge Transfer, and International Orientation. Two of these indicators relate to research publications and four of them to patents. In terms of international orientation, JGU is also positioned among the front-runners with regard to the numbers of international academic staff and international joint publications. ...

New technology for generating high-energy gamma radiation

17 June 2022

On 1 June 2022, the EU-funded project TECHNO-CLS started with the participation of the X1 collaboration of the Institute of Nuclear Physics. Eleven partners from Germany, Italy, Great Britain, France, Greece and Belgium are researching how to generate high-energy gamma radiation by exposure so-called oriented crystals with ultra-relativistic charged particles. The aim is to achieve photon energies of up to GeV, which is equivalent to radiation wavelengths of up to a few femtometres. So far, it has not been possible to generate such extremely short-wave radiation with existing radiation sources. From an experimental point of view, however, it promises access to unprecedentedly small structures and is thus of particular importance for research and applications in the field of nuclear and solid-state physics as well as the life sciences.

The TECHNO-CLS consortium combines theoretical, computational, experimental and technological contributions. The central task, which is being worked on at the Institute of Nuclear Physics, is the provision of a relativistic high-quality positron beam of low emittance. Such positrons can be guided over longer distances in crystals, whereby the intensity of the radiation produced there can be significantly increased by coherent effects, similar to a magnetic undulator. In addition, a case study will investigate whether positrons can also be accelerated from the source with the existing MAMI accelerator facility. This would open up the possibility of generating positron beams with the intensity and quality of the electron beam used so far in MAMI.

Photon-photon interactions in the Standard Model and beyond: New research unit at JGU granted DFG funding

11 April 2022

A pure quantum effect as the key to a better understanding of the subatomic world / New research program in Mainz bundles a wide range of expertise

In classical physics, the superposition of light waves resulting in interference is a well-known phenomenon. An interaction of light rays in the sense of a scattering is, however, classically impossible. Conversely, in the subatomic world, which is described by quantum effects, the quantum particles of light – known as photons – do indeed interact with each other. ...

International Physics School on Muon Dipole Moments and Hadronic Effects — in Memoriam Simon Eidelman – with more than 70 participants organized by JGU Mainz

18 September 2021

The concept of this school was to bring together young researchers involved in the global effort of investigating the large excess of the measured value of the muon anomalous magnetic moment over the Standard Model prediction. Earlier this year, the Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab released their long-awaited result which, to everyone's excitement, showed a strengthening of the discrepancy with the Standard Model (in total 4.2 standard deviations). This result fortified both the possibility of New Physics and the strong interest in this school. ...

Particle physics projects for teenagers

9 October 2019

Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) becomes a hub within the framework of the initiative „Netzwerk Teilchenwelt“

„Netzwerk Teilchenwelt“ gets immediate support in terms of personnel and content: 30 research institutes, which reach out to schools throughout the nation on research into the physics of the smallest elements, can now rely on so-called hubs at the universities of Bonn, Mainz and Münster, which will develop new programmes and activities for youngsters from the area of hadron and nuclear physics as well as coordinate regional programmes. More (in German) ...