Organisation: JGU > Faculty 08 > Institute of Nuclear Physics > AG Berger
Research: JGU > Faculty 08 > Physics > Hadron and Particle Physics > AG Berger
What are the fundamental constituents of matter, how do they interact? Are there new particles and forces? We try to answer these questions by building and operating precision experiments exploiting very high particle rates. This requires the development and use of cutting edge technology such as fast, ultra-thin pixel sensors, high speed data acquisition systems based on FPGAs and advanced particle reconstruction algorithms running on GPUs.
The P2 Experiment at the new electron accelerator MESA will measure the weak mixing angle with unprecedented precision. Our group is building a very low material budget pixel tracking detector and the associated readout electronics. We are also contributing to the electron beam polarimetry.
The Mu3e Experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute is searching for lepton flavour violaition. Our groups is building and operating the high-speed data acqusistion system, the GPU based event filter and the detector powering.
Using spectroscopy of muonic atoms with novel techniques, we study nuclei and fundamental interactions.
We are continously pushing the boundaries of detector and data acquisition technology to enable improved experiments.
High-Voltage Monolithic active pixel sensors are a new detector technology allowing for ultra-thin layers with high spatial and temporal resolution.
We develop firmware for data transmission and event selection on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs): Acquiring, sorting, transmitting and processing Gbits to Tbits of data per second using custom firmware on state of the art programmable electronics and connected multi-GBit/s optical links.
Massively parallel computing on graphics cards (GPUs) can help solve the computational challenges of fast track and vertex reconstruction and thus allows for online event selection.
Reconstruction of charged particle tracks is a formidable pattern recognition task in modern high rate detectors. We develop and apply algorithms for fast and accurate track finding, track fitting and detector alignment, both on- and off-line.
Modern detector ASIC typically require a supply of a few Volts at high currents. We develop both converters for stepping down the voltage inside the detector (and its magnetic field) and custom low-impedance cables allowing for remote powering.
- Arbeitsgruppenseminar zu Präzisionsexperimenten bei hohen Teilchenraten (N. Berger)
- Journal Club on precision experiments in particle physics (F. Wauters)
- Physik- und Kompetenzseminar (J. Walz, N. Berger)
- Tutorium Experimentalphysik 2 (F. Maas, U. Oberlack, N. Berger)
For general inquiries regarding open research positions please contact niberger@uni-mainz.de
Please check the Mainz Physics Academy page for current openings