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Tel.: +49 6221 516-851
Fax: +49 6221 516-852
Scientific Coordinator

Postal Address
Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics
P.O. Box 10 39 80
69029 Heidelberg
Visitor Address
Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics
Saupfercheckweg 1
Building: Gentner lab,
room 134
69117 Heidelberg

 

Max Planck-RIKEN-PTB Center for

Time, Constants and Fundamental Symmetries

Recent News

12.02.25: Cross-disciplinary work on high-precision measurements pushes bounds on dark forces

When world-leading teams join forces, new findings are bound to be made. This is what happened when quantum physicists from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK) and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Braunschweig combined atomic and nuclear physics with unprecedented accuracy using two different methods of measurement. Together with new calculations of the structure of atomic nuclei, theoretical physicists from the Technical University of Darmstadt and Leibniz University Hannover were able to show that measurements on the electron shell of an atom can provide information about the deformation of the atomic nucleus. At the same time, the precision measurements have set new limits regarding the strength of a potential dark force between neutrons and electrons. The results have been published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Please read more in the Physical Review Letters article ... >

Further information also in the press releases of the MPIK external Link and the press release of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB).

19.12.24: Recognition for Ekkehard Peik by Nature
Ekkehard Peik is part of Nature’s 10
Ekkehard Peik is part of Nature’s 10. (Foto: PTB)

The scientific journal Nature has listed PD Dr. Ekkehard Peik among the 10 people who have shaped science in 2024.
"Father time: the physicist on a mission to build the world’s first nuclear clock" is the headline in the prestigious Nature magazine’s December issue, honoring him as one of the ten individuals who have influenced science in 2024: Ekkehard Peik, a physicist at the PTB (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt) in Germany and our center co-director.
Earlier this year, he and his team achieved what had only been theorized for many years: the laser excitation of a thorium-229 nucleus, causing it to undergo a quantum leap from one energy level to another. This scientific breakthrough could make possible so-called nuclear clocks with unprecedented precision.

We cordially congratulate Ekkehard Peik on receiving this high scientific recognition.

Please read more in the following press releases:


15.11.24: Stern-Gerlach Medal for Klaus Blaum
Klaus Blaum, award winner of the Stern-Gerlach Medal 2025
Klaus Blaum, award winner of the Stern-Gerlach Medal 2025.
© Stefanie Aumiller / Max Planck Society

Our center co-director Prof. Dr. Klaus Blaum is honored with the Stern-Gerlach Medal 2025 by the German Physical Society (DPG) “In recognition of his pioneering developments of Penning ion traps into spectroscopic precision measuring instruments and their applications for tests of the four fundamental interactions, their symmetries, the fundamental constants and thus the standard model of particle physics”.
This is the DPG’s most prestigious honor for outstanding achievements in experimental physics, and it is awarded for work covering the whole field of physics.

The award will be presented in March 2025 during the 88th Annual Meeting of the DPG in Bonn, Germany.

We cordially congratulate Klaus Blaum on receiving the DPG’s most prestigious award in the field of experimental physics.

Please read more in the following press releases: