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.

Zeroing in on the tau lepton

2018-12-19 – A new research group will be launched at the Max Planck Institute for Physics (MPP) in early January 2019. Its main focus will be on the analysis of decay of the tau lepton, an elementary particle related to the electron. The “Tautology Project” will be led by Max-Planck Fellow Stephan Paul, Professor of Hadron Structure and Fundamental Symmetries at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and co-coordinator of the recently approved Cluster of Excellence “Origins”.

Fast storage material in neutron light

2018-12-07 – Novel phase change memory (PCM) materials can work a thousand times faster than current flash memory chips, while being significantly more durable. Using the research neutron source of the Technical University of Munich (TUM), German and American researchers have gained important insights into this promising domain.

Neutrons explain higher efficiency of solar cells with additives

2018-11-19 – Organic solar cells are cheaper to produce than conventional photovoltaic systems and can even be sprayed as thin layers on any surfaces. They have been the subject of intensive research since the Nobel price was awarded for conducting polymers in 2000. Physicists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have now been able to clarify why additives increase the efficiency of solar cells from a morphological point of view with the use of neutrons at the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ).

Munich student team develops new production method for viruses that attack bacteria

2018-11-15 – Bacteria that become resistant to known antibiotics are on rise. A team of students from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) have developed a new method to produce bacteriophages, the natural enemies of bacteria, which can be used as alternative treatments for bacterial infections. The team took second place among over 350 teams in the renowned global iGEM competition.

Winfried Petry becomes "Emeritus of Excellence"

2018-10-29 – Prof. i.R. Dr. Winfried Petry has been awarded with the honorary title of Emeritus of Excellence of the Technical University of Munich (TUM). TUM-President Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Wolfgang A. Herrmann bestowed the certificate appreciating his academic achievements on 9 October.

First complete assessment of the Sun's fusion processes

2018-10-25 – The most comprehensive analysis of neutrinos from core processes inside the Sun has been published by the researchers of the Borexino experiment. For the first time, the scientists have presented a complete assessment of the Sun’s full neutrino spectrum. In a further novelty, they detected neutrinos from a rare fusion process that had previously only been conjectured.

TUM successfully gets four research Clusters of Excellence

2018-09-27 – The Technical University of Munich (TUM) has got off to another successful start in the extremely competitive Excellence Initiative organized by Germany’s government and federal states. Over the next seven years, four research clusters run by TUM and its cooperation partners will each receive up to 70 million euros in funding. Three have substantial contributions from TUM’s physics department. The clusters will focus on research into energy conversion, quantum technology, the origin of the universe and neurological diseases. TUM is now also preparing to submit its application for the next round of funding as a University of Excellence. It is the only technical university in Germany to have held this title consecutively since 2006.

What even Einstein didn't know

2018-09-19 – It provides the basis for solar energy and global communications: the photoelectric effect. Albert Einstein described it over a century ago. For the first time, scientists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ), and the TU Wien have now measured the absolute duration of the light absorption and of the resulting photoelectron which is released from a solid body.

Tiny technologies with enormous impact

2018-09-14 – The TEDx conference stands for short presentations that are attended online by millions of people worldwide. Since 2014, this format is also offered at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). TedxTUM is organized on a voluntary basis by students. The first presentations of this year’s event on “Tiny Superpowers” on 24 July are now available online. One of them is by Prof. Hendrik Dietz from our Physics Department.

Ausbau der Neutronenforschung

2018-09-04 – Die Technische Universität München (TUM) und das Helmholtz-Zentrum Jülich erweitern zusammen die Forschungskapazitäten der weltweit vielseitigsten Neutronen-Quelle FRM II in Garching. Als gemeinsames Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ) errichten sie zwei Erweiterungsbauten mit insgesamt 4550 Quadratmetern Nutzfläche für Labors, Büros und Werkstätten, für das jetzt Richtfest gefeiert wurde.

Three-axis spectrometer KOMPASS sees first neutrons

2018-08-31 – The new instrument KOMPASS was born on May 29, 2018, at exactly 15:16h. At that time, it detected the first neutrons, which were scattered from a sample. It has been developed and constructed as a collaboration between the Chairs of Prof. Markus Braden at University of Cologne and Prof. Peter Böni at Technical University of Munich.

Peter Ring honored by European Physical Society

2018-08-16 – Peter Ring, Professor emeritus at the Physics Department of Technical University of Munich (TUM) has been awarded with an outstanding international physics prize in the field of nuclear physics. He and Peter Schuck from Grenoble jointly get the 2018 “Lise Meitner Prize for Nuclear Science” of the European Physical Society (EPS).

European success for Karl Duderstadt

2018-08-09 – Karl Duderstadt, Professor at the Physics Department through the “MaxPlanck@TUM” program recieves funding from the European Research Council (ERC). This year he is already the fourth member of the Physics Department at Technical University of Munich (TUM) to obtain an ERC grant. “MaxPlanck@TUM” is a program for young professors run by the Max Planck Society and TUM.

Blazar accelerates cosmic neutrinos to highest energies

2018-07-12 – For the first time ever, scientists have determined the cosmic origin of highest-energy neutrinos. A research group led by IceCube scientist Elisa Resconi, spokesperson of the Collaborative Research Center SFB1258 at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), provides an important piece of evidence that the particles detected by the IceCube neutrino telescope at the South Pole originate from a galaxy four billion light-years away from Earth.

Magnetic vortices: twice as interesting

2018-07-11 – For the first time a team of researchers have discovered two different phases of magnetic skyrmions in a single material. Physicists of the Technical Universities of Munich and Dresden and the University of Cologne can now better study and understand the properties of these magnetic structures, which are important for both basic research and applications.

How to start a nanomotor?

2018-07-05 – Most people have never heard of them, and yet every living being needs them to survive: fine protrusions of cells known as cilia. They allow sperm to move, form fine protective hairs in the lungs and play a crucial role in the differentiation of organs in embryos. A research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now reconstructed the protein complex responsible for transport within cilia, which plays a decisive role in their functioning.

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