ERC Advanced Grant

Christian Weinheimer is involved with his team in the Department of Physics in research on two large-scale international projects which represent two of the greatest puzzles in physics: the determination of neutrino mass, and the search for dark matter. Weinheimer and his group are not only involved in the measurements and in data analysis, the Münster team are also internationally renowned for developing essential components that enable the sensitive measurements to be carried out. In the search for dark matter involving the XENONnT experiment - which is located underground in the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS) below the Gran Sasso mountain range in Abruzzo, in Italy - scientists are searching for so-called "WIMPs" (weakly interacting massive particles). These particles, although still hypothetical, are very promising candidates for what may constitute dark matter. The international XENON collaboration investigates collisions between WIMPs and atoms of the noble gas xenon. To make these measurements possible, the Münster team have developed special equipment which removes disturbing traces of radioactive isotopes of the noble gases crypton and radon. Now, for the planned follow-up experiments in "DARWING/G3" supported by the ERC Advanced Grant, the team aims at significantly improving the reduction of contaminants in the noble gas isotopes and, at the same time, developing new diagnostic methods for detecting any remaining, extremely small traces of radioactive isotopes in the noble gases. The planned research also includes work in the field of neutrino physics.