Research Center Astro- and Particle Physics
https://www.uibk.ac.at/astro/index.html.en
Head
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Norbert Przybilla (Department of Astro- and Particle Physics)
Research Objectives
The research fields of Astro- and Particle Physics experience a golden age currently. Numerous large telescopes and experiments are involved in addressing fundamental questions. At the same time, both fields approach each other with regard to topics and methods, giving rise to the new discipline of Astroparticle Physics. The research center was established in reaction to these international developments, facilitating to profit from the many synergies among the involved disciplines.
The research center Astro- and Particle Physics concentrates basic research at the Uni-versity of Innsbruck in the fields of observational/interpretative galactic and extragalactic astrophysics, astroparticle physics and high-energy particle physics. A focus lies in using large infrastructure like the ESO telescopes in Chile, HESS and Fermi-LAT (ground- and space-based gamma-ray observatories, respectively), and the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Further research topics comprise numerical astrophysics and the study of Earth’s atmosphere using large telescopes. Preparatory work regarding upcoming large infrastructure, like for the instrumentation for the 39m Extremely Large Telescope of ESO and for the Cherenkov Telescope Array, is also pursuied. The intense international collaboration gave rise to amost 500 refereed publications in the years 2015-2017. Teaching at the research center is closely related to the research topics. The research center is coordinating the international AstroMundus Master program and it is participating in the BMWFW-funded Austrian Doctoral Student Program at CERN.
Affiliated Organisational Units