The Fingerprint of Matter

Every ion and every molecule bears a unique fingerprint. Their mass and motion reveal how matter is structured, what fundamental forces hold it together at its core—and, by extension, our universe. Those who can decipher these traces gain insights into some of the most fundamental questions in physics: Why does matter exist? How is it formed, and how does it behave under extreme conditions?

To find answers, researchers are studying some of nature’s most unusual particles: short-lived radionuclides, antimatter, highly charged ions, and simple molecular ions. They trap these particles and measure them with the highest precision, for example in Penning traps or in the cryogenic storage ring CSR. Conditions there resemble the icy, nearly perfect vacuum of space.

The results enable rigorous tests of the laws of nature and open up new perspectives on the origin and evolution of our universe. Prof. Dr. Klaus Blaum takes his audience to the frontiers of our knowledge and shows how state-of-the-art precision measurements unlock the secrets of the building blocks of matter and provide new answers to some of nature’s greatest questions.

Klaus Blaum is an experimental physicist known for developing high-precision Penning trap methods for studying exotic nuclei. His experiments enable rigorous tests of the Standard Model and expand our understanding of nuclear structure and astrophysical processes. Klaus Blaum studied physics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and received his Ph.D. in 2000.

In collaboration with the ORIGINS Cluster of Excellence and the physics departments at LMU and TU Munich