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On April 8, 2019, the inauguration of the
Max Planck-RIKEN-PTB Center 
for Time, Constants and Fundamental Symmetries, took place at RIKEN, Tokyo, Japan.
For this event, a symposium was organized with invited speakers Marianna Safronova
(Univ. Delaware) and Yoshiro Takahashi (Kyoto University), and center speakers Klaus Blaum (MPG), Ekkehard Peik (PTB),
and Stefan Ulmer (RIKEN). Guests like Prof. M. Stratmann (President MPG), Prof. J. Ullrich (President PTB), Prof. S. Koyasu
and Prof. M. Kotani (RIKEN Executive Directors), and Dr. H. von Werthern, the ambassador of Germany in Japan, joined the event.
Please read also the news of RIKEN ,
PTB
and BASE .
Information of the Max Planck Society on the new Max Planck-RIKEN-PTB Center:
- Interview with Klaus Blaum, co-director of the new Center (in German)
- Three new Max Planck Center (in German)
The four fundamental interactions and their symmetries, the fundamental constants and the properties of elementary particles, e.g. their masses, define the fundamental structure of the universe and form the basis of the well-established Standard Model of physics.
In 2011, Klaus Blaum already received an ERC Advanced Grant for the determination of fundamental constants ("MEFUCO",
see our press release of 31.10.11). In his
2nd ERC Advanced Grant
named "FunI", he focuses on the fundamental interactions. FunI will be supported with € 2.5 million for a period of 5 years.
Klaus Blaum's group will e.g. perform experiments with stored highly charged ions for stringent tests of quantum electrodynamics
and special relativity. The latter will be tested by an improved examination of the mass-energy equivalence (E=mc2).
In order to significantly improve present accuracy limits, technical innovations, e.g. the sympathetic laser cooling of single ions, are also planned within FunI.
Please read more in the press releases of the
MPIK ,
the MPG
and the ERC .
Our division director Prof. Klaus Blaum received a great honor: on January 16th, he was elected as foreign member of the
Physics Class of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, together with Richard Brenner, Uppsala University and the
two new Swedish members Tünde Fülöp, Chalmers University of Technology and Stefan Kröll, Lund University.
We cordially congratulate Klaus Blaum on receiving this great honor!
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was founded in 1739 and is an independent non-governmental organisation, whose
overall objective is to promote the sciences, in particular the natural sciences and mathematics, and strengthen their
influence in society. Today it has about 470 Swedish and 175 foreign members which are divided into ten "classes",
representing ten various scientific disciplines.
Every year the academy awards the Nobel Prizes in Physics and in Chemistry as well as other prestigious awards.
Please read more in the press releases
of the MPIK
(idw )
and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences .
The Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK),
the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ),
the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB)
and Japan's largest comprehensive research institution RIKEN
have proposed a new research center to intensify their successful collaboration in the domain of
"Time, Constants and Fundamental Symmetries".
The application of this Max Planck-RIKEN-PTB Center for Time, Constants and Fundamental Symmetries has been approved in October 2018 for five years. The new initiative started on January 1, 2019, the official opening ceremony will be on April 8, 2019 at RIKEN in Tokyo, Japan. The total financial budget will be about 1.5 M€ per year, shared equally between MPG, PTB and RIKEN. The research center will be operated by three Co-Directors: Klaus Blaum (MPG), Ekkehard Peik (PTB), and Stefan Ulmer (RIKEN).
The MPIK participates with two divisions in the "Center for Time, Constants and Fundamental Symmetries", our division on “Physics with Stored and Cooled Ions” leaded by Klaus Blaum and the division of Thomas Pfeifer on "Quantum Dynamics and Control".
The new Max Planck-RIKEN-PTB Center will provide a synergetic and close collaboration, especially on the students'
level, between experimental groups in atomic physics, antimatter physics, nuclear physics, quantum optics and
metrology to tackle fore-front topics in precision measurements of time and constants of nature, to test
fundamental symmetries and contribute to ultra-high precision searches for physics beyond the Standard Model
of particle physics.
The leaders of the Max Planck-RIKEN-PTB Center expect that the intensified collaboration will lead to the development of
novel experimental techniques which will outperform the state-of-the-art of contemporary experiments.
Please read more in the press releases of the MPIK
(idw ),
the MPQ , the
PTB
and the CERN Courier .