Academic Research

Although neutrinos are the most abundant known massive elementary particles in the universe, many of their fundamental properties are still unknown. Among those unknowns is the rest mass of neutrinos. Very recently, an increasingly improved upper limit on the neutrino mass from a direct kinematic method has been determined by the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino-Mass (KATRIN) collaboration [Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 221802 (2019); Nature Physics 18, 160 (2022); Science 388, 180 (2025)].

In this experiment, the energy distribution of the electrons emitted in the nuclear β decay of tritium molecules is measured in a gigantic spectrometer with a length of about 70 meters. The extraction of the neutrino mass from the measured data requires, however, input from theoretical molecular physics that is provided by our research group, which is thus one of the members of the KATRIN collaboration. Within this project, one of the molecular effects directly relevant to KATRIN should be studied theoretically in order to directly support the experiment and its analysis.

The student will be involved in an ongoing research project with a direct relation to the KATRIN experiment. For this purpose, the student will be introduced to the underlying physics and the use of computer codes developed in our research group that will be applied within the research project. Depending on qualifications and interest, the student may also write a small new code or extend an existing code.

The student should 

Some previous experience in computer coding is helpful, but not required.