Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz > Faculty 08 > Physics > Physics Research > Coordinated Research Programs

The Mainz-based particle physicists working in the PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence are among the world’s leading researchers in their field. PRISMA+ addresses basic questions about the nature of the fundamental building blocks of matter and their importance for the physics of the universe. The Cluster is made up of renowned research groups that work primarily in the areas of astroparticle, high energy, and hadron physics, nuclear chemistry, and precision physics with ultra-cold neutrons and ion traps. One of the main initiatives of the Cluster concerns the conduction of various new key experiments to study the fundamental forces and limits of the Standard Model.

The German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) funds various outstanding research projects. DFG-funded projects at JGU Mainz include Collaborative Research Centers, Research Units, and Priority Programs.

Collaborative Research Centers (CRC) are university research institutions established on a long-term basis, in which academics collaborate within the framework of an interdisciplinary research program. The different variants of the Collaborative Research Centers – Cultural Studies Research Centers and Transregional Collaborative Research Centers – as well as the program supplements Junior Research Groups and Transfer Units are all funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). In all variants, international cooperation agreements are funded.

Multiscale modeling is a central topic in theoretical condensed matter physics and materials science. One prominent class of materials whose properties can rarely be understood on one length scale and one time scale alone is soft matter. The properties of soft materials are determined by an intricate interplay of energy and entropy, and minute changes of molecular interactions may lead to massive changes in the system’s macroscopic properties.

The Transregional Collaborative Research Center 173 Spin+X investigates spin properties from various perspectives and by connecting several scientific disciplines. Its research encompasses the whole range of spin research including microscopic properties, emergent spin phenomena, and the coupling to the macroscopic world. This constitutes a new discipline that we refer to as Advanced Spin Engineering, which seeks to create new functionalities based on spin physics.

The ELASTO-Q-MAT initiative, embodied by this CRC/TRR 288, aims to understand, advance, and exploit new physical phenomena emerging from a particularly strong coupling between a material’s elasticity and its electronic quantum phases. To this end, we will study the effects of elastic tuning and the elastic response of various types of electronic order in representative classes of quantum materials that share a high sensitivity to intrinsic strain or externally applied stress fields.

Projections of climate change rely on an adequate representation of complex processes in the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UTLS). In the Collaborative Research Centre TPChange, this is being addressed by a combination of field measurements, laboratory studies, theoretical approaches, and by multiscale modelling. Based on an improved understanding of relevant processes at different scales, we will develop parameterizations for improving state-of-the-art climate models. Our goal is to specify the impact of UTLS processes on composition, dynamics, and ultimately on future climate and climate variability.

QuCoLiMa (Quantum Cooperativity of Light and Matter) intends to explore the distinctive traits of quantum cooperativity within a large variety of quantum platforms at the intersection of quantum optics and condensed matter. We aim to understand the interplay of quantum interference and entanglement in the collective response of how many-body quantum systems interact with light. In particular, we will explore the role of quantum properties of radiation in establishing and mediating quantum cooperative phenomena in a variety of complex matter systems, entering the realm of many-body physics of quantum cooperative light-matter.

The CRC 1245 “Nuclei: From Fundamental Interactions to Structure and Stars” investigates the strong and electroweak interaction physics from nuclei to stars. The strong interaction described by quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is responsible for binding neutrons and protons into nuclei and for the many facets of nuclear structure physics. Combined with electroweak interactions, it determines the structure of all nuclei in the nuclear chart similar to how quantum electrodynamics shapes the periodic table of elements. While the latter is well understood, how the nuclear chart emerges from the underlying forces is still unclear. The CRC builds on the exciting connections between the experimental and theoretical nuclear structure frontiers based on EFTs of the strong interaction.

Essential biological processes such as transcription from DNA to RNA and the translation to proteins are governed by and depend on the interplay of multiple biomolecules in a complex environment. The interactions of the biomolecules cover a wide spectrum of interaction types, ranging from dimeric interactions to large complexes and to the hierarchy of genome packing and unpacking. In this Collaborative Research Center, life scientists and polymer scientists jointly study biomolecules as biopolymers with a focus on their polymeric nature. As shown in recent research, the polymeric nature of biopolymers gives rise to phenomena like phase separation, phase transitions, and complex organelle architectures in cells, whose implications for cellular functions are yet to be fully understood. By applying theoretical and experimental concepts from polymer science, this initiative will allow scientists to gain new perspectives on biological phenomena, thereby paving new ways for understanding the molecular basis of cellular dysfunction in aging and age-associated diseases, such as neurodegenerative disorders and cancer.

Defect engineering is an established approach in hard-matter science, focusing on tailoring the properties of inorganic semiconductors and organic molecular materials. However, the potential of defect control in soft matter remains underexplored. This Collaborative Research Center aims to shift this paradigm by understanding and controlling defects in polymeric, colloidal, and amphiphilic systems. We seek to establish the fundamental interplay between defects and the adaptivity and resilience of dynamic soft matter systems, enabling the development of functional units where defects control matter or charge transport.

The CRC 1660 “Hadrons and Nuclei as Discovery Tools” aims to understand the strong interaction that leads to processes involving hadrons, nuclei, and atoms. The goal is to answer fundamental questions: What physical phenomena occur beyond the Standard Model of particle physics (SM) and how can we measure and describe them? 

A Research Unit is made up of a team of researchers working together on a research project which, in terms of thematic focus, duration, and financing, extends beyond the funding options available under the Individual Grants Program or Priority Program. Research Units provide the staff and material resources required for carrying out intensive, medium-term cooperative projects (generally for a period of eight years). Research Units often contribute to establishing new research directions. Funding opportunities for Research Units are subject to the same principles as research grants.

The DFG Research Unit FOR 2724 is dedicated to quantum thermodynamics and aims to realize and explore thermal machines in the quantum world.

Due to increasing concerns with respect to global warming through greenhouse gases, renewable energy resources are becoming more and more important. Electricity is one of the primary forms in which renewable energy is harvested. With a stronger penetration of renewable energy in the electricity market, additional load to level electrical energy will likely be required. One way to store electrical energy is through the generation of hydrogen via electrolysis.

The Mu3e experiment searches for the charged lepton flavor violating decay μ→eee, in its first phase aiming for a single event sensitivity (SES) of BR(μ→eee) ≈ 2-3 ∙1015, corresponding to a factor 200 improvement compared to the existing bound. A novel detector concept using ultra-thin high-voltage monolithic active pixel sensors, scintillating fibers and tiles for accurate timing measurements, and triggerless data acquisition, combined with online reconstruction using graphics cards, allows the Research Unit to reach this sensitivity goal.

Photon-photon physics may hold the key to many discoveries, whether these are new exotic mesons, ALPs, or precision effects beyond the Standard Model. Assessing and efficiently exploiting the discovery potential of γγ collisions at the existing and newly-built experimental facilities (MAMI, MESA, BESIII, LHC), along with the theoretical work on quantifying the QCD contribution, is a key part of this Research Unit.

A particular feature of the Priority Program is the nationwide collaboration between its participating researchers.
The DFG Senate may establish a Priority Program when the coordinated support given to the area in question promises to produce particular scientific gain. The Senate convenes once a year to discuss initiatives for establishing Priority Programs proposed by researchers.

This Priority Program is devoted to the development of graphene for electronic applications. To that end, 38 individual projects are researching the following goals:

  • Optimization of existing routes and exploration of novel approaches for the synthesis of high-quality graphene
  • Understanding and control of the electronic, structural, mechanical, and chemical properties of graphene
  • Understanding and control of the interaction of graphene with substrates, gate materials, and contacts
  • Fundamental understanding of the transport properties of graphene
  • Development of graphene-based electronic device concepts and demonstrators

In the past, advancements in electronic devices have mainly concerned the improvement of performance and the lowering of power consumption and costs. A further interesting property of future electronics is mechanical flexibility, which can come together with advantageous features such as bendability, stretchability, lighter weight, ultra thinness, transparency, large area integration, and easy recyclability. These properties can be achieved by modern TOLAE (thin film organic and large area electronics) technologies.

We plan to join two unique features that exist only for trapped Rydberg ions and have no counterpart in the systems of neutral Rydberg atoms or only exist at low electronic levels in trapped ions: the combination of electric charge and large electric polarizability. The charge of the trapped ions provides an ideal means to control their position by applying time-dependent electric fields acting via the strong Coulomb interaction. Additionally, Rydberg ions exhibit a large polarizability in electric fields, thus experiencing a different force.

These projects are funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (Bundesministerium für ­Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt, BMFTR).

The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for the funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union.

ERC Advanced Grants

ERC Synergy Grants (with JGU involvement)

ERC Consolidator Grants

JGU’s Top-Level Research Areas bring together internationally established working groups that have already produced excellent results. The Ministry of Science and Health of Rhineland-Palatinate currently funds the following Top-Level Research Areas:

The Institute for Quantitative and Computational Biosciences (IQCB) is an interdisciplinary research institute at the interface between the life sciences and neighboring disciplines including mathematics, computer science, physics, chemistry, and engineering.

CECAM (Centre Européen de Calcul Atomique et Moléculaire) is an organization devoted to the promotion of fundamental research on advanced computational methods and to their application to important problems in frontier areas of science and technology. The node Soft Matter and Statistical Mechanics views itself as particularly strong in various aspects of Computational Soft Matter Science.

This Research Training Group (RTG) takes the form of a graduate school and aims to balance individual research projects with a training and lecture program. The training concept includes the construction of a new experiment at the MAMI accelerator, a specialized workshop program on modern detector technologies, a summer-school with special theory lectures for experimental physicists, as well as a long-term research stay at a foreign research institution. This concept is shaping a new generation of experimental hadron, particle, and astroparticle physicists who are not only specialists in their own field of research, but also generalists who possess basic skills in several aspects of modern detector technologies.

The Max Planck Graduate Center (MPGC) is the joint graduate school of two Max Planck Institutes and Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, created specifically for interdisciplinary projects. Are you seeking to complete your PhD thesis in a highly interdisciplinary research environment on a subject that supersedes traditional categories like biology, chemistry, physics, or medicine? The MPGC offers an advanced, interdisciplinary PhD program for outstanding students from all over the world. Uniquely, the MPGC has its own, tailored doctoral degree regulations.

Due to their high beam power, energy recovery LINACs (ERLs) are a promising class of particle accelerators that have not yet been the subject of much study. The AccelencE Graduate School aims to train young scientists in the interdisciplinary field of accelerator physics within the framework of a structured PhD program and with a special focus on ERLs. Therefore, the training will take place both at the first German ERL accelerator S-DALINAC in Darmstadt and at the high-current ERL MESA, which is presently under construction at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.

Soft matter is already ubiquitous in our daily life. New developments in medical technology, energy storage, and information technology also exploit soft materials characterized by complex, often nanoscale hierarchical structures. The scientific goal of this Research Training Group is to harvest the potential of interfaces as agents to control the assembly process, pathways, and the final properties of these materials.