GRK 2149:  Strong and Weak Interactions - from Hadrons to Dark Matter

• Subject Area: Particles, Nuclei and Fields
• Term: from 2015 to 2024
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 269952272

In the Research Training Group “Strong and Weak Interactions – from Hadrons to DarkMatter” theoretical and experimental nuclear, particle, and astroparticle physicists investigatetogether in a unique way highly topical aspects of particle physics. This cooperationhas already been visibly strengthened owing to the first funding period of the ResearchTraining Group. The strategy for the second funding period therefore builds stringentlyon the experience of the first phase both in the research and in the qualificationprogramme. In the area of strong interactions, the posed questions are characterisedby their high complexity, the methods through precision measurements and predictions.Examples of the close connection in this area are parton distributions in cold and densenuclear matter and the properties of the hot quark-gluon plasma and of mesons. Theyare now complemented by bound states of heavy quarks (quarkonia), analyses not onlyat and for the LHC, especially with ALICE, but also with BESIII, and statistical models aswell as even closer ties between perturbative and non-perturbative theoretical methods.In the field of weak interactions, the questions and models are more speculative, butselected for their motivation and high discovery potential. In the search for new physicsbeyond the Standard Model, dark matter, neutrinos and flavour violation are particularlyintertwined. New developments in this area concern the commissioning of the neutrinomass experiment KATRIN for measurements of the beta decay spectrum with previouslyunattained precision, the world’s leading direct search for dark matter with XENON1T/nT, the neutrino observatory IceCube, which is now strengthening the link to astrophysics,as well as the combination of perturbative and non-perturbative theoretical aspects alsoin this area. The investigated problems do already now and will certainly also in the futureattract excellent students, also because the motivations of these projects not onlycome from nuclear and particle physics, but also from astrophysics and cosmology. Forour portfolio of doctoral theses, the interfaces of different branches of physics and theclose cooperation among theorists and experimentalists are of crucial relevance.

• DFG Programme: Research Training Groups
• Applicant Institution: Universität Münster
• Participating Researchers: Professor Dr. Anton Andronic, from 4/2019 until 2/2020; Professor Dr. Jochen Heitger; Professor Dr. Alexander Kappes, from 4/2019 until 2/2020; Professor Dr. Alfons Khoukaz; Professor Dr. Christian Klein-Bösing; Privatdozent Dr. Karol Kovarik; Professorin Dr. Anna Kulesza; Professor Dr. Kai Schmitz, since 5/2022; Professor Dr. Christian Weinheimer; Professor Dr. Raimar Wulkenhaar
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Michael Klasen