topic Research

Astroparticle physics

In recent years, astronomy and particle physics have increasingly moved closer together. The exciting question of the evolution of our universe leads back to its origins - the Big Bang. Studying the generation and structure of matter with methods and findings from elementary particle physics is to provide an insight into how the very big is related to the very small. "If the whole is ever to gladden thee, that whole in the smallest thing thou must see.", as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said.

Astro-particle Physics

Astroparticle physics is still a young interdisciplinary field of physics, open for "astrophysical phenomena which provide insight into fundamental physics, and fundamental physics which is relevant for our understanding of astrophysical phenomena as well as the structure and development of the universe" (A. Ringwald, DESY).

Scientists are dealing with the following questions in astroparticle physics:

• Did Albert Einstein have the last word on gravity?
• Are there further dimensions beyond time and space?
• What is the nature of dark matter and dark energy?
• In what dimensions do our known laws of nature apply?
• How are the elements heavier than iron and up to uranium produced?
• Are there unknown forms of matter with a highest density and at highest temperatures?
• What processes generate highly-energetic light of cosmic radiation sources and up to what highest energies does the range of cosmic radiation go?
• Can relict particles from the Big Bang and antimatter be found in the cosmos?
• What do cosmic neutrinos reveal on processes in the universe?

Research Institutions (with BMBF funding)