11.03.2025
On March 1, 2025, our spokesperson Prof. Julia Tjus became affiliated professor at the Department of Space, Earth and Environment at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. This honor recognizes her long-standing connection to the Swedish university.
The collaboration is particularly fruitful as Julia’s expertise in high-energy astrophysics perfectly complements the extensive experience of researchers at Chalmers University in measuring and analyzing low-energy radiation.
This synergy allows for deeper insights into extreme cosmic events such as supernova explosions and active galactic nuclei and thus for a better understanding of the origins and properties of cosmic rays.
The aim of the affiliated professorship is to intensify existing collaborations and initiate new projects, especially in connection with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory.
Read more
here and
here
Image: Prof. Susanne Aalto, Professor of Astronomy and Plasma Physics, Deputy President and Deputy CEO of Chalmers University of Technology and Prof. Julia Tjus (right) at Chalmers Campus.
10.03.2025
We are excited to announce that Dr. Christopher Riseley has been appointed as a new PI at our CRC.
Chris is a Junior Professor of Radio Astronomy at the Astronomical Institute of Ruhr-University Bochum (AIRUB). His research focuses on using radio telescopes worldwide to study clusters of galaxies. He aims to answer key scientific questions related to diffuse radio sources in galaxy clusters, including canonical relics, haloes, and mini-haloes. Chris is also exploring the unique sources discovered by the precursor instruments for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
Specializing in long-wavelength radio astronomy, Chris works extensively with data from the LOw-Frequency ARray (LOFAR), the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), and the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa.
In the coming years Chris will use these instruments to explore galaxy groups, understanding the interplay between galaxies and their environments. Within the CRC, Chris will apply his radio astronomy expertise to studying the rich physics of dwarf galaxies and nearby galaxies in these environments, answering questions related to dark matter, Cosmic Rays, galaxy evolution, and feedback mechanisms.
21.02.2025
For two days in February, all SFB1491 researchers came together at TU Dortmund to discuss the latest results, covering a wide range of topics including the search for dark matter, investigating (cosmic) magnetic fields, the modeling of accretion and ejection phenomena in astrophysics, and the exploration of cosmic rays and neutrinos in astrophysical as well as collider experiments.
A special highlight were the keynote talks by Dr. Imre Bartos (University of Florida) on "The Expanding Gravitational Wave Horizon: Emerging Opportunities for
Multimessenger Discovery" and Dr. Daniel Verscharen (Mullard Space Science Laboratory) on "Electron heat flux in structured plasmas: collisions, trapping, and
wave-particle interactions".
More information on our meeting, in particular the program, can be found here
13.12.2024
Congratulations to Julien Dörner who has been awarded the SFB1491 Paper of the Year 2024 Award for his crucial contribution to the understanding of cosmic-ray propagation in the Galactic Center region!
The Galactic Center is one of the most fascinating yet complex areas in our Galaxy.
For the first time, Julien combined a 3D model of both the magnetic field configuration and the gas distribution with state-of-the-art cosmic-ray propagation modeling. He tested different anisotropic diffusion and cosmic-ray population models and compared their predictions to very-high-energy gamma-ray data. His model lays the foundation for future observations of the Galactic Center with the upcoming CTAO.
This research was published under the title "Impact of Anisotropic Cosmic-Ray Transport on the Gamma-Ray Signatures in the
Galactic Center” in the Astrophysical Journal, with Julien as the lead author.
09.12.2024
We are happy to announce that Dr. Felix Riehn (TU Dortmund, AG Albrecht ) has joined our CRC as a new PI!
Felix studies interactions of particles at the highest energies. He mostly focuses on building theoretical models and studying extensive air showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory.
Extensive air showers are formed when ultra-high energy cosmic rays that originate somewhere outside the solar system, interact with the nuclei in the Earth's atmosphere. As it turns out, none of the models we have for particle interactions are able to describe accurately what we observe in extensive air showers. This is part of the reason why we do not know exactly where the cosmic rays were originally accelerated.
In his research within the CRC, he wants to combine cosmic ray data on particle interactions from the Auger observatory with the observations of accelerator experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider to improve our understanding of particle interactions.
