Annonce

Café & Kosmos 11 September 2012

Ultra-cold neutrons to solve the mystery of antimatter

7 septembre 2012

with Prof. Dr. Peter Fierlinger (Excellence Cluster Universe)

Our world owes its existence to a surprising breach of symmetry in the laws of nature: for each hundred million antimatter particles that were created during the first picoseconds after the Big Bang, there were one hundred million and one particles of matter, leaving a tiny surplus of matter after all the matter and antimatter particles annihilated, releasing energy.

How can one explain this asymmetry? A possible answer is found in the neutron. The neutron is electrically neutral, but could display a very small separation of electric charge within the neutron itself, called its electric dipole moment. The existence of this dipole has remained hypothetical until very recently.

At the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Research Neutron Source (Forschungs-Neutronenquelle Heinz Maier-Leibnitz, FRM II), the Technische Universität München has built one of the world's most powerful sources of ultra-cold neutrons. Using it, physicists are now studying, with the highest possible precision, whether the neutron possesses an electric dipole moment.

At the Café & Kosmos, on 11 September 2012, Professor Peter Fierlinger (Excellence Cluster Universe) will discuss with visitors why antimatter has remained a mystery so far, and how the discovery of an electric dipole moment of the neutron would help to solve it.

Please note that the Café & Kosmos events take place in German.

What: Ultra-cold neutrons to solve the mystery of antimatter
When: 11 September 2012, 19:00 until approximately 20:30
Where: Vereinsheim, Occamstr. 8, 80802 München, near Münchener Freiheit

Admission is free.

Liens

Contacts

Olivier Hainaut
ESO
Karl Schwarzschildstr. 2
85748 Garching bei München
Tel: +49 89 3200 6752
Email: ohainaut@eso.org

Dr. Hannelore Hämmerle
MPI für extraterrestrische Physik
MPI für Astrophysik
Giessenbachstraße
85748 Garching
Tel: +49 (89) 30 000 3980
Email: hannelore.haemmerle@mpe.mpg.de

À propos de l'annonce

Identification:ann12059

Images

Poster of Café & Kosmos 11 Sept 2012
Poster of Café & Kosmos 11 Sept 2012