In particle physics, researchers study the fundamental constituents of our universe and the forces acting between them. Particle accelerators and detectors, such as CERN in Switzerland, FAIR in Germany and SuperKEKB in Japan, play a central role in this field. They enable us to replicate the moments immediately after the Big Bang. Fundamental particles are accelerated almost to the speed of light and forced to collide. In turn, these collisions generate new particles which are recorded and analysed by highly sensitive detectors.
Data gained in this way provides information about what we and our world are made of. They can explain what holds the very core of our world together. These findings are so fundamental that they open up entirely new opportunities to industry and society. For example, this is how the Higgs boson, which gives every matter its mass, was discovered.
Now, researchers are studying the nature of dark matter. They are also looking for indications that other particles and forces exist. Particle accelerators are also common tools for conducting medical research, for example in cancer therapy where high-energy particle beams are used to destroy tumours in a targeted way.
Optimized future
Besides investigating the fundamental building blocks of our nature, accelerators also allow us to study everyday materials and their characteristics. We use their extremely bright X-ray beams to study the material of aircraft turbines, semiconductors for microchips or even essential proteins. Scientists thus gather knowledge on the make-up and composition of different materials, their structure, function and interaction.
We can practically watch biomolecules or catalysts at work thanks to innovative measuring methods. These measuring methods are used not only in physics but also in numerous other disciplines: from chemistry, geosciences and material science to the life sciences, from medicine to archaeology and the history of art.
In the pharmaceutical industry, these methods help, for example, in the systematic search for new drugs. In materials research, the inside of technical objects, such as batteries or hard disks, can be studied while they are in operation.
In addition to high‑energy X‑ray beams at accelerators, researchers also use neutron sources and sources of charged particles to study matter. Photons and neutrons are used in particular to analyse materials and surfaces. However, radiation from electrically charged particles is often used if materials are to be changed or refined.
Extreme conditions promote innovative methods
Large facilities for studying particles and matter, also called research infrastructures, are highly complex and unique facilities which are designed for very specific scientific questions or methods. That is why no two large facilities are alike and why they each provide unique scientific insights.
Innovations that originate from the development, construction and operation of such large facilities can then be transferred to many other areas. The new findings change, for example, information processing or medicine – and eventually even have an impact on our daily life. An impressive example of the significance of these innovations is the development of the World Wide Web at CERN.
Value creation and competitiveness
By continually investing in large facilities, the BMBF ensures the lasting competitiveness and technological sovereignty of Germany and Europe and at the same time increases the value added. Research infrastructures are places of scientific exchange, they are incubators of new ideas and strengthen international cooperation. Finally, the study of particles and matter provides many exciting and future-oriented career prospects.
The Federal Ministry of Research creates the conditions for first-class basic scientific research and, together with national and international partners, develops the landscape of large facilities. This ensures that researchers in Germany have access to the world's leading large facilities. The BMBF’s ErUM framework programme ("Exploration of the Universe and Matter") provides the thematic and strategic context for this.
With targeted project funding, the BMBF enables young scientists in particular to develop innovative experiments and equipment for large facilities. This makes it possible to uphold the international competitiveness of these facilities, gain fundamental new insight and thus make an important contribution to efforts to provide for the future. Project funding covers a broad range of subjects, from advanced academic training for young people to Nobel Prize-worthy research work.