Goals and Roles

The Helmholtz research field Structure of Matter explores the constituent parts of matter and the forces acting between them over completely different orders of magnitude, from the smallest units, elementary particles, to the largest structures in the universe. The work not only focuses on individual particles, but also on complex phenomena in solids and liquids that form as a result of the interactions taking place between myriads of atoms. Basic research also helps to open up the path to insights that facilitate the development of novel materials with tailor-made electronic, mechanical or thermal properties.

A particular strength of Helmholtz research comes into play in this research field: the operation and utilisation of large-scale facilities and complex infrastructures for research purposes. Whether particle accelerators, synchrotron radiation, neutron or ion sources – the Helmholtz Association makes available big, sometimes globally unique scientific infrastructures used by numerous researchers from home and abroad. With the planned x-ray laser, European XFEL, being built at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY in European collaboration, an x-ray source is being created the maximum brilliance of which is ten billion times higher than that of all previously built facilities. Another large-scale research facility with international involvement is being created at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt. The “Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research” FAIR is an accelerator facility of the next generation, which will supply ion and antiproton beams of a previously unattained intensity and very high energies.

Research in the field Structure of Matter is embedded in national and international roadmaps scheduling the orientation of research activities in the individual programmes to time scales of 10 to 15 years. This basic research simultaneously delivers many different impulses for technological developments. With its alliances, the Helmholtz Association has created new structures in order to offer the very best research conditions through strong networking. In 2009, the two Helmholtz Alliances “Physics at the Terascale” and “Cosmic Matter in the Laboratory” were successfully continued in the research field Structure of Matter. The network “Physics at the Terascale” bundles German top-level research in the field of elementary particle physics, which is involved in the Large Hadron Collider in CERN (in operation since 2009) and researches there now.

For this, the particle physicists from two Helmholtz Centres, the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology as well as colleagues from a total of 18 universities and the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich have joined forces. By this alliance, particle physics in Germany has significantly improved its impact within an increasingly globalised research community, as was asserted by an international review committee in November 2009 during an intermediary review. With the second Alliance “Cosmic Matter in the Laboratory”, the new institute “ExtreMe Matter Institute” (EMMI) was founded on the grounds of the GSI, which, by networking with 13 leading research institutions (amongst them also international ones), will form a think tank for research at the FAIR facility. With its scientific results, EMMI with make an important contribution towards the planning of experiments at the new large-scale facilities, which are being built at the GSI, DESY and CERN.

At the turn of the year to 2009, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (HZB, formerly Hahn Meitner Institute) merged with the Research Centre BESSY to become the largest research institution in Berlin under the name of Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie.

The Programmes in the Funding Period 2010-2014

Six Helmholtz Centres work together in the research field Structure of Matter: Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht Centre for Materials and Coastal Research, GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie. In the first half of 2009, international experts reviewed the strategic focus of the research field and the programmes with excellent results. Since the beginning of the second programme period 2010, the scientists work in four programmes; the programme Condensed Matter was transferred to the research field Key Technologies.

• Elementary Particle Physics
• Astroparticle Physics
• Physics of Hadrons and Nuclei
• Research with Photons, Neutrons and Ions

All programmes build upon close interaction and cooperation between theory and experiment and several programmes are scientifically and technologically interlinked. The primary goal is to continually advance the research infrastructures, to exploit these most efficiently and to give users the best possible support and so strengthen the leading role of Helmholtz scientists in this field together with their national and international partners.

Involved Helmholtz Centres

Deutsche Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY

Forschungszentrum Jülich

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht Centre for Materials and Coastal Research

GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research

Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie

Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf