Visionary research into atomic nuclei

The DFG has approved a third funding period for the Collaborative Research Centre 1245 “Atomic Nuclei: From Fundamental Interactions to Structure and Stars”. The CRC 1245 is developing a systematic understanding of atomic nuclei on the basis of effective field theories of the strong interaction. Effective field theories enable a consistent description of the nuclear forces and the electroweak interaction in atomic nuclei and nuclear matter. This theoretical understanding is tested with key experiments at international research facilities in Japan and the USA and at S-DALINAC in Darmstadt. In nuclear astrophysics, the focus is on nuclear collapse supernovae and neutron star mergers, nucleosynthesis and associated kilonovae and gravitational wave signals.

The third funding period will focus on high-precision measurements of nuclear radii and nuclear transitions, research into multi-neutron systems and spectroscopy of neutron-rich nuclei. Novel many-body methods are being developed to understand how the nuclide map emerges from the effective field theory. In nuclear astrophysics, calculations of the nuclear equation of state from low to high densities and finite temperatures provide input for astrophysical simulations.

In astrophysics, the CRC programme is being expanded to include the observation of the oldest stars in order to compare them with nucleosynthesis predictions. A new outreach programme has been developed for the third funding period to bring enthusiasm for CRC research to schools and the general public. More than 100 scientists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics and the Department of Physics at TU Darmstadt, the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research and the University of Mainz are working together in the SFB 1245. The spokesperson is Professor Achim Schwenk from the Department of Physics at TU Darmstadt.

TU Darmstadt is regarded as the strongest university centre in Germany in experimental and theoretical nuclear structure physics and nuclear astrophysics. The SFB, which has now been extended, combines these strengths in the “Matter and Materials (M+M)” research field at TU Darmstadt.