Joint Research at RUB
The BMBF (German Federal Ministry of Education and Research) offers joint research projects to support activities at national and international research institutions. The following projects at our faculty are supported by the BMBF:
Astro Particle Physics
IceCube: Astro Particle Physics with the IceCube Neutrino Telescope - Subproject 9
Prof. Dr. Julia Tjus and Prof. Dr. Anna Franckowiak
Several groundbreaking discoveries have been made since the IceCube neutrino telescope at the geographic South Pole was completed in late 2010. The most important finding is the first evidence of the existence of high-energy, extragalactic neutrinos. In the search for sources, the standard model for neutrino production in gamma-ray bursts could be ruled out and first indications are growing that active galaxies produce high-energy neutrinos. However, in order to be able to resolve individual sources, IceCube has to be expanded with the final goal of installing IceCube-Gen2 - a detector that is again a factor of 10 larger than IceCube. A first step here is the expansion of IceCube, the IceCube Upgrade. The Ruhr-University Bochum is involved in the expansion of IceCube, specifically with the IceAct surface array and is working on the calibration of the detector via the well-defined measurement of the moon's shadow at different energies.
Hadron Physics
Ultra-Fast Calorimeter (UFaCal)
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Wiedner
The project Ultra-Fast Calorimeter (“UFaCal” – Prof. Wiedner) is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). It is a collaboration together with groups from Giessen University and the “Universität der Bundeswehr München”. We try to develop an ultrafast calorimeter for γ particles, consisting of fast scintillators and newly-developed silicon photo multipliers. The goal is to achieve time-resolutions of ps for detectors by a suitable combination of both.
Astronomy / Astrophysics
LOFAR: D-LOFAR IV - A German Participation at the International LOFAR Telescope - Subproject 3
Prof. Dr. Ralf-Jürgen Dettmar
LOFAR (Low Frequency Array) is the world's biggest spread radio telescope in operation. Several German institutes of the German Long Wavelenght (GLOW) consortium run six LOFAR stations in Germany. They complement the Dutch stations and the local processing facilities as well as other international stations all over Europe.
Astronomy / Astrophysics
D-MeerKAT: A German Contribution to the Development of Radio Astronomy in the Centimetre Wavelength Regime - Subproject 3
Prof. Dr. Ralf-Jürgen Dettmar
The SKA (Square Kilometre Array) is the upcoming world project in radio astronomy. It will be the biggest astronomical facility ever built, with three different instruments in Australia and South Africa. The MeerKAT project with currently 64 antennas will be extended to the SKA within the next couple of years.
High-Energy and Hadron Physics
The PANDA Experiment at FAIR
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Wiedner
The PANDA Experiment shall become one of the most important experiments in the major project Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR). The focus of FAIR lies on a synchrotron complex that delivers intensive pulsed ion beams. Antiprotons that are created with the primary proton beam are led into the high-energy storage ring (HESR) and collide within the PANDA detector. The PANDA collaboration consisting of more than 500 scientists from 20 countries wants to conduct fundamental physical research on different subjects regarding the strong forces, exotic states of aggregation and the structure of hadrons. To collect all relevant information from the antiproton-proton collisions, a universal detector is built. It will enable us to precisely reconstruct particle trajectories, measure energy and momentum and efficiently identify charged and neutral particles.
Plasma Astroparticle Physics
CTA: The Cherenkov Telescope Array - Subproject 8
Prof. Dr. Julia Tjus and Prof. Dr. Anna Franckowiak
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next generation of gamma ray telescopes with two envisaged arrays - on ein the northern hemisphere on La Palma, the other in the Chilean Atacama desert. This project concentrates the world-wide activities to enhance the sensitivities of gamma telescopes by more than a factor of 10. This will increase the number of detected sources from more than 100 to more than 1000 while at the same time improving the resolution to a level that allows for an identification of the accelerators of cosmic radiation and for the search for dark matter. The Chair for Theoretical Physics is supported by the BMBF for the construction and expansion of the on-site analysis software of CTA.
Plasma Physics
Carbon2Chem
Prof. Dr. Achim von Keudell
The aim of the Carbon2Chem® initiative is to use gas from steel production as a starting material for chamical products – including the enclosed CO2. Excess power from renewable energy production shall serve as energy source. Physics participates with a project regarding plasma catalysis.