News from the Physics Department

Science is exciting! These pages keep you up to date on what is happening at the Physics Department: scientists report on research and campus life.

Encryption system for a secure contact tracing app

2020-04-27 – In the fight against Covid-19, an interdisciplinary research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has developed a model for a contact tracing app that protects personal data. The concept is based on an encryption process that prevents the temporary contact numbers (TCNs) of infected individuals from ending up on the phones of their contacts. A prototype is now undergoing testing in cooperation with the ITO Open Source Consortium. The app has also successfully completed the Bluetooth Special Interest Group qualification process.

A new lightsource for the chip industry

2020-04-09 – For the past 50 years, researchers around the globe have been looking for a way to make lasers with silicon or germanium. A team from the Technical University of Eindhoven (TU/e) and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now succeeded in developing a light-emitting, silicon-germanium alloy. As a result, the development of a silicon laser capable of integration into today's chips is within reach for the first time.

Vortex around frozen magnets

2020-03-19 – Water freezes at sub-zero temperatures, by forming small islands of ice germs first. Magnetic structures, so-called skyrmions, behave very similarly, as scientists have discovered with the help of neutrons for the first time at the Physics Department and the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ).

Ranking by subject: TUM among the world's best universities in physics

2020-03-04 – The Technical University of Munich (TUM) ranks among the world’s best 50 universities in 11 subjects and in five subjects is among the top 25. The physics department pushes TUM as best German university to global rank 17 in “Physics & Astronomy”. These are some of the results of the latest “QS World University Rankings by Subject”.

Lane change in the cytoskeleton

2020-02-18 – Many amphibians and fish are able to change their color in order to better adapt to their environment. Munich-based scientists have now investigated the molecular mechanisms in the cytoskeleton necessary for this and revealed potential evolutionary paths.

Precise monitoring of the lung

2020-01-31 – Scientists at the Helmholtz Zentrum München and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have presented a combination of imaging techniques that allow real-time monitoring of the delivery of inhaled drugs within the lungs of mice and their absorption in the lung tissue. The results are intended to guide the development of high-efficacy drugs with fewer side effects for treating human lung diseases. The Munich Compact Light Source (MuCLS), a unique, compact particle accelerator that generates high-brilliance X-rays, was used to make the measurements. The researchers reported their results in the journal SMALL.

Pretty with a twist

2020-01-16 – Nanoscience can arrange minute molecular entities into nanometric patterns in an orderly manner using self-assembly protocols. Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have functionalized a simple rod-like building block with hydroxamic acids at both ends. They form molecular networks that not only display the complexity and beauty of mono-component self-assembly on surfaces; they also exhibit exceptional properties.

New Hubble constant measurement using cosmic lenses

2020-01-08 – Using cosmic lenses an international team of astrophysicists determined the universe's expansion rate, completely independent of any previous method. The researchers' result further strengthens a troubling discrepancy between the expansion rate calculated from measurements of the local universe and the rate as predicted from background radiation of the early universe. The new study adds evidence to the idea that new theories may be needed to explain the underlying physics.

Ian Sharp receives ERC Consolidator Grant

2019-12-11 – A further research project from the Physics Department of Technical University of Munich (TUM) is to receive funding in the form of Consolidator Grants from the European Research Council (ERC). Prof. Ian Sharp will work on developing new materials for solar cells.

Changjiang Scholar Award for Peter Fierlinger

2019-12-03 – Für seine Arbeiten zur Erzeugung niedrigster Magnetfelder hat Prof. Dr. Peter Fierlinger vom Physik-Department der TUM den Changjiang Scholar Award verliehen bekommen, die höchste offizielle akademische Auszeichnung in China. Peter Fierlinger leitet die internationale PanEDM-Kooperation, an der neben der TUM auch das Institut Laue-Langevin und chinesische Wissenschaftler beteilligt sind.

High award for physicist of the TUM

2019-11-21 – For his outstanding contributions to applied quantum field theory of fundamental interactions, especially in the field of flavor physics and quantum chromodynamics, Prof. Dr. Andrzej J. Buras, theoretical physicist and emeritus of excellence of the Technical University of Munich (TUM), receives the Max Planck Medal awarded by the German Physical Society (DPG).

An interdisciplinary curriculum and excellent career perspectives

2019-11-19 – The first students in the new TUM Master’s degree program “Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics” will begin in summer semester 2020. In this interview, Julia Herzen, professor of Biomedical Imaging and Speaker of the Study Program, explains why interdisciplinarity is decisive in biomedical technology, what is needed to successfully complete the curriculum and why the degree offers excellent career perspectives.

The quantum internet is within reach

2019-10-24 – An international team headed by physicists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has, for the first time ever, experimentally implemented secure quantum communication in the microwave band in a local quantum network. The new architecture represents a crucial step on the road to distributed quantum computing.

Perfectly suited: New ways in battery research

2019-10-17 – In the last years, lithium ion batteries have spread widely, in particular in mobile applications and in the electromobility sector. New concepts and materials emerge rapidly. These need to be characterized and their interplay needs to be understood in order to increase the efficiency and the lifespan of batteries built upon them. A collaboration of the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum together with the Technical University of Munich is implementing a new method at the FRM II in Garching which is perfectly tailored to research on lithium-ion batteries: Neutron Depth Profiling.

More accurate than expected

2019-09-16 – Because of their extremely small mass, neutrinos play a key role in cosmology and particle physics. After evaluation of the first measurement results in the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino Experiment (KATRIN), it is now clear: The previously unknown mass of the neutrinos must be less than 1 electron volt. This result is more accurate than previous measurements and raises hopes of discovering new neutrino properties.

How fast is our Universe expanding?

2019-09-12 – The expansion rate of the Universe today is described by the so-called Hubble constant and different techniques have come to inconsistent results about how fast our Universe actually does expand. An international team including Max Planck@TUM professor Sherry Suyu has now used two gravitational lenses as tools to calibrate the distances to hundreds of observed supernovae and thus measure a fairly high value for the Hubble constant. While the uncertainty is still relatively large, this is higher than that inferred from the cosmic microwave background.

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