Saturday Morning Physics on 10/21/2023: Hunting for ghost particles - neutrino astronomy at the South Pole

On October 21, 2023, the faculty invites you to Saturday Morning Physics. Speaker is Prof. Dr. Anna Franckowiak with a lecture on "Hunting for Ghost Particles - Neutrino Astronomy at the South Pole".

Whether it's the smallest particles or great discoveries - Saturday Morning Physics offers exciting physics topics for everyone. The lecturers of the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy present topics from different fields of physics in an understandable way. On October 21, 2023, Anna Franckowiak, astrophysicist at the Astronomical Institute, will give a lecture on "Hunting for Ghost Particles - Neutrino Astronomy at the South Pole":

Neutrinos are the most extraordinary particles among the elementary particles known to us. They have a tiny mass (a few millionths of the electron mass) and no electric charge. The small particles are produced, for example, in nuclear fission and nuclear fusion.

These properties allow neutrinos to escape even from places where matter is so dense that light is absorbed - for example, from the interior of the Sun. Thus, neutrinos can provide unique information that remains hidden from classical astronomy. Unfortunately, these same properties also make neutrinos enormously difficult to detect. Gigantic detectors are required to detect the extremely rare occasions when a neutrino hits an atomic nucleus and leaves a visible trail. Therefore, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory was built in the crystal clear ice of the South Pole. With an instrumented volume of one cubic kilometer (equivalent to about 400000 Olympic swimming pools), it is the largest particle detector in the world.

Of particular interest are high-energy neutrinos generated in the most energetic processes in the universe, for example by exploding stars or by super-massive black holes. Thanks to their unique properties, neutrinos can provide us with an insight into processes in the universe that were previously not understood.

Prof. Dr Anna Franckowiak

The faculty cordially invites all interested parties to attend the lectures at the St. Paul's Church Bochum during the winter semester. As in previous years, there will be fresh waffles and coffee before the lecture. Here you can find all information about the start and location of the lectures: