Max-Planck-Institut für Physik

✴️ Follow your own path: thirty girls visited the MPP for Girls’ Day 2026 Our director, Giulia Zanderighi, welcomed them before they joined our scientists and technicians for a range of hands-on workshops. The girls built their own dark matter detector, worked with copper and circuit boards, and detected a single light particle — made visible to the human eye. 🔭 These first steps at the MPP might inspire them and shape a new generation for the future of physics. 👏 A huge thank you to our colleagues for making this day possible and sharing their passion with the girls! #GirlsDay2026 #WomenInSTEM #MINT #InspiringTheNextGeneration WomenInPhysics

Full House: The Career Day 2026 at the MPP saw an impressive number of participants: Close to 200 young scientists gathered for this year’s event to discuss their career options in and outside academia. We were also very happy to welcome some of our alumni, who are now pursuing successful careers in both research and industry.

One of the highlights was the keynote talk by Prof. Johannes Zeiher from the MPQ - “Quantum computers: About hype, hope, and reality”, covering both the fundaments of and the prospects for quantum computing. 

During their education, physicists acquire competences that are of high interest for companies in multiple fields: Solving of abstract and complex problems, programming skills, big data analyses, AI experience, among others. 

This networking event was organized by PhD students from the @mpi_physik and @maxplanckquantum for PhD students and postdocs from all MPIs on the Garching Campus. 

The Career Day 2026 was made possible by generous third-party funding: A big and special thank you goes to our main sponsors @dfine.consulting and @europeanspaceagency ! We would also like to extend our gratitude to @Allianz_Deutschland , Jane Street, Mathys & Squire LLP, TNG Technology Consulting, QuiX Quantum, @peakquantum , Menlo Systems, and Max-Planck-Innovation GmbH for their financial support. 

🏅 Congratulations to all organizers for their great teamwork:
MPP: Leonardo Bersigotti, Eleonora Cipelli, Dimitri Corradini, Elia Schmidt, Jonathan Schubert
MPQ: Suchita Agrawal, Maya Bük, Florian Egli, Lea Gigou, Jordi Arnau Montana-Lopez, Yale Yauk
 #MaxPlanck #PhysicsCareers #ScienceCareers AcademicNetworking
Photos: Barbara Wankerl

👉Jonathan Schubert shows the key formula behind this work on the whiteboard in the picture. The PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Physics presented a new analysis at the conference Rencontres de Moriond 2026 as part of the #NA62 experiment at @CERN . 📊The results belong to the first wave of analyses, a second round is already underway, with further results expected by the end of this year. Why are heavy neutrinos important? ❗️Heavy neutrinos could extend the Standard Model of particle physics and help explain some of its biggest open questions. Remarkably, they could simultaneously account for the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe and the origin of neutrino masses and, under certain assumptions, may even be connected to dark matter – by introducing just one additional set of particles. These new analyses from the current NA62 dataset are the first to probe the relevant parameter space in nearly 30 years. #particlephysics #neutrino #standardmodel #fundamentalphysics

Diesen März war es wieder soweit: Die Belle II International Masterclass hat am MPP stattgefunden🌟 Rund 70 Schülerinnen und Schüler kamen zusammen, um einen Einblick in die faszinierende Welt der Teilchenphysik zu bekommen. Wir wollten wissen: Was hat euch an der Masterclass am besten gefallen? 👉 Swipe nach links für die Antworten! Was wir sie übrigens auch gefragt haben: Was interessiert euch an der Physik am meisten? Und ihre Antworten ähnelten sich: Mit der Physik wollen sie die Welt verstehen. Und dafür seid ihr hier am MPP genau richtig. 🌍💫 #BelleII #Masterclass #Physik #Teilchenphysik #MPP

Last Thursday, on March 12th, it was once again time for the Belle II International Masterclass at our institute - a thrilling day filled with curiosity and discovery! 🌟 Around 70 students from different schools joined us to dive into the fascinating world of particle physics. They explored the Standard Model, the principles of particle acceleration, and how detectors work. But the real fun was the hands-on experience! 🚀 From a virtual tour through the Belle II detector to analyzing real Belle II data themselves - the students got a taste of what it’s like to be a real physicist. 💡🔬 Thank you @lmu.muenchen and @netzwerkteilchenwelt for making this day possible! Photo: MPP #BelleII #Masterclass #ParticlePhysics #FutureScientists

This International Women’s Day, we spotlight some of the women from our institute. They are doing exciting science—and they have been where many women might find themselves today. Our question to them: “What’s your take-home message for young women who would like to pursue a career in science?” Check out their answers—they have inspiring things to share 👍. #InternationalWomensDay #Weltfrauentag #WomenInScience #physics #rolemodel

📍 The 18th Terascale Detector Workshop took place at the MPP - Feb 23–27th! More than 60 researchers from different universities and institutes came together to discuss future challenges in particle detector technology. On Monday, the event started with „The Detector School on Gaseous Ionization Detectors“. Under the guidance of Giorgia Proto, who leads the MPP’s RPC program, PhD Students built their own RPC chambers in hands-on sessions. In ATLAS, Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) have a very specific and crucial role in the muon spectrometer, mainly tied to fast triggering on muons thanks to their excellent timing perfomance. For Tom Troska, one of the participants and PhD Student at @tu_dortmund , building such chambers by themselves was a unique experience. 💡 “The combination of practical detector construction and interesting technical presentations makes the workshop a valuable oppurtunity to learn new things and exchange ideas with other scientists.“ #HighEnergyPhysics#ParticlePhysics#HandsOnScience#DetectorTechnology#ATLAS

🧳✨Beim gestrigen Café & Kosmos-Abend nahm Sebastian Zell das Publikum mit auf eine Reise von rund 13,8 Milliarden Jahren – in die Geschichte unseres Universums. Gemeinsam näherten wir uns dem Ursprung von allem: jenem Moment, in dem sich das Universum in unvorstellbarer Geschwindigkeit auszudehnen begann – ein Ereignis, das den Urknall auslöste, so die Vermutung der Wissenschaft. 💫Es ging um Raum und Krümmung, um Temperatur und Zeitintervalle, um das Einmaleins der Physik, angewandt auf den gesamten Kosmos – und das Publikum war mittendrin. Fast eine Stunde lang beantwortete Sebastian Zell Fragen, veranschaulichte komplexe Zusammenhänge – und griff dafür sogar zum Luftballon. Denn genau darin liegt der Kern unserer Forschung: Wer das Kleinste versteht, kann auch das Größte begreifen. Danke schön an das zahlreich erschienene Publikum sowie dem @wirtshaus_zum_isartal in München als unser neuer Veranstaltungsort. Foto: Stefan Waldemaier #CaféUndKosmos #Urknall #TeilchenPhysik #Wissenschaftskommunikation #FaszinationUniversum

As sweet as science can be 🍬🔬 The CRESST experiment group led by Federica Petricca at the MPP has taken an unconventional path in the search for dark matter - one of the most mysterious components of our universe. Their focus is on very light dark matter particles, which require highly specialized detectors. “We are always looking for new suitable detector materials,” says Federica Petricca. The detection principle is similar to a game of billiards: when a dark matter particle collides with an atomic nucleus in the detector, it rebounds. This interaction can be measured as a tiny increase in temperature and a faint flash of light. “A very light dark matter particle cannot significantly disturb a heavy atomic nucleus - just as a marble cannot move a bowling ball when it collides with it,” Petricca explains. This is where their research took an unexpectedly sweet turn. Inspired by the components of ordinary sugar, the scientists tested sucrose as a detector material - and were surprised by the outcome. “For the first time, we have shown that sugar is fundamentally suitable as a material for detecting dark matter.” Before anyone rushes to the supermarket, there’s an important caveat: “Only after many more tests and comparisons with other materials will it become clear whether a sucrose detector can actually be realized.” For now, sugar still has to prove itself. Photo: Beatrice Mauri #darkmatter #cresst #detector #experiment #sugar

February 11: International Day of Women and Girls in Science 🧬 👩‍🔬 How did you come in touch with physics? This is one of a few questions we asked Giulia Zanderighi, MPP’s Managing Director. The MPP is actively striving to raise the number of female scientists. “Diversity is key to successful projects in particle physics”, says Giulia. “Our research is characterized by team work. People from different genders and backgrounds bring in their skills and experience – and open up new perspectives.” The MPP engages in a variety of activities as Girls’ Days, Masterclasses, Open Days. We foster female scientists in their early careers. For all academic levels, we aim to increase the number applications by women. We know of the importance of role models and actively encourage female scientists to apply for research positions - be it as PhD students, postdocs group leaders. Our commitment is paying off: 30 percent of our group leaders are women, their share among PhD students has risen to more than 26 percent. “There is of course room for improvement”, Giulia adds, “but there is progress: As for this year, I hired more female than male postdocs for my group. I’m happy, this a very promising development!” #IDWGS #WomenInScience #Physics #STEM #GenderEquality #Diversity #Gleichstellung #Physik #MINT

Tracing one of the most energetic particles ever observed in the Universe 🌌⚡ Francesca Capel and Nadine Bourriche from the Max Planck Institute for Physics have taken a closer look at the mysterious Amaterasu particle, the second-highest-energy cosmic ray ever observed. Named after the Japanese sun goddess, the astroparticle is as mysterious as its namesake. First detected in 2021 by the Telescope Array experiment in the United States, it carries around 40 million times more energy than particles accelerated at the Large Hadron Collider. And since its discovery, one central question has remained: where does it come from? Initially, the particle’s arrival direction appeared to point toward the Local Void, a region of space considered too empty to produce such high-energy particles, posing a challenge for scientists. Using a newly developed, data-driven method, researchers at the MPP now show that this interpretation may not be the case. Their results instead suggest that the Amaterasu particle is more likely to have originated in a nearby star-forming galaxy such as M82. The framework developed in this study lays important groundwork for future research. It provides a powerful tool to guide observations and sharpen the search for the cosmic sources capable of accelerating particles to such extreme energies. 🚀✨ Image: NASA #ParticlePhysics #Universe #Amaterasu #Astroparticle #CosmicRay #CosmicMessenger

🇬🇧 Particle physics and astronomy may not seem to have much in common at first glance. But when you look at the organisations that carry out world-leading research in these fields - namely @esoastronomy and @cern - the picture changes quite a bit. In my view, these organisations share something truly important: they are more than the sum of their people. That might sound a little odd at first, but it became very clear this Monday when we talked about “building bridges”: between younger and older generations, between collaborations, or even between intergovernmental organisations like these. We have our communities. We have our mission. And that comes with many challenges. There is still so much we haven’t figured out, or haven’t even begun to discuss. Much of it may not even be written in the stars yet. But no matter how you look at it, we learn from one another. Together. On Monday, I had the honour of being part of a panel on “building bridges.” It will probably come as no surprise that my “most important bridge” is the one to my fellow first-gens. How do we inspire the next generation of astronomers, engineers, and science communicators to become part of our mission? You tell me! It was a truly wonderful experience to discuss these questions with Giulia Zanderighi (first female (!!) director of the @mpi_physik ), Jarle Brinchmann (our director of Science at ESO), Dolores García from CERN, and Guy Wilkinson from the @oxford_uni , all of it moderated by my dear friend @o0sanjefenkart0o , and while we may not have laid the foundations of these bridges just yet, we certainly started building them. 🇨🇭 in den Kommentaren! 📸 Barbara @mpi_physik #BuildingBridges #FCC #ELT #particlephysics #astronomy