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.

Obituary: Professor Dr. Georg Michael Kalvius

2022-01-31 – Am 5. November 2021 starb Professor G. Michael Kalvius, emeritierter Ordinarius für Experimentalphysik der TUM, im Alter von 88 Jahren in seiner Wahlheimat Luzern.

Borexino team receives prestigious Cocconi award

2021-06-01 – For their groundbreaking observations of solar neutrinos, with which the fusion reactions inside the sun could be experimentally proofed for the first time, the team of the Borexino collaboration receives the prestigious Giuseppe and Vanna Cocconi Prize. Every two years, the European Physical Society awards it to an outstanding discovery in astro-particle physics and cosmology of the past 15 years.

Sun model completely confirmed for the first time

2020-11-26 – The Borexino experiment research team has succeeded in detecting neutrinos from the sun's second fusion process, the Carbon Nitrogen Oxygen cycle (CNO cycle) for the first time. This means that all of the theoretical predictions on how energy is generated within the sun have now also been experimentally verified. The findings are the result of years of efforts devoted to bringing the background sources in the energy range of the CNO neutrinos under control.

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.

Stardust in the Antarctic snow

2019-08-22 – The rare isotope iron-60 is created in massive stellar explosions. Only a very small amount of this isotope reaches the earth from distant stars. Now, a research team with significant involvement from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has discovered iron-60 in Antarctic snow for the first time. The scientists suggest that the iron isotope comes from the interstellar neighborhood.

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.

Invisibles18 School

2018-05-18 – An international summer school on neutrino and dark matter research is organised by Professor Stefan Schönert and Professor Georg Raffelt from the Max-Planck-Institut für Physik. Applications are open until 28th May 2018.

EU funding for pioneering projects

2018-04-19 – The properties of quantum matter and an as yet unproven form of decay that atomic nuclei undergo: this are the topics of two projects at TUM’s Physics Department that receive highly endowed Advanced Grants from the European Research Council (ERC). Another project about biological nanodevices is supported by an “Proof of Concept Grant”.

GERDA experiment ready to discover rarest radioactive decay

2017-04-06 – An international team of scientists have set a new limit on the most elusive form of radioactive decay, called \(0\nu\beta\beta\) decay. A present paper in Nature sets the half life of this decay to larger than \(5\cdot10^{25}\) years – much longer than the age of the universe, which is about \(1.38\cdot10^{10}\) (or 13.8 billion) years old.

Excellent PhD theses 2016 at the Universe Cluster

2017-01-01 – The PhD Awards 2016 of the Excellence Cluster Universe go to the experimental work of Alexander Neumeier and the theoretical thesis of Simone Biondini. Both accomplished their scientific work at the Physics Department of Technical University Munich.

Confirmation of supernova explosion in the neighborhood of our solar system

2016-04-14 – Approximately two million years ago a star exploded in a supernova close to our solar system: Its traces can still be found today in the form of an iron isotope found on the ocean floor. Now scientists at the Physics Department of TUM, together with colleagues from the USA, have found increased concentrations of this supernova-iron in lunar samples as well. They believe both discoveries to originate from the same stellar explosion.

Neutrons help to save the cultural heritage from the Iron Age

2016-04-08 – An interdisciplinary collaboration of scientists studies ways to prevent the rapid corrosion of archeological iron finds.

Stefan Schönert elected as a Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Physics

2016-02-01 – Stefan Schönert, Professor for Experimental Astroparticle Physics at the physics department of Technical University of Munich (TUM), has been named a Max Planck Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Physics (MPP), where he will do research in the area of dark matter and neutrino physics. The Fellow Program of the Max Planck Society (MPG) has the goal of deepening the collaboration of the institutes with outstanding university professors.

Physics student obtains DAAD award for outstanding academic performance

2015-11-16 – This year’s DAAD award for international students at TUM is awarded to Elizabeth Mondragón, who is carrying out her Master studies at our Physics Department

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