Institute for Nuclear Physics

History

Since it foundation more than 60 years ago, the IKP has been on of the main institutes for nuclear physics worldwide. It has shaped itself continously to define the forefront of the field.

1956 Peter Brix becomes the first director of the IKP.
1957 Foundation of the IKP
1964 First electron beam at the “Darmstadt Linear Electron Accelerator” (DALINAC)
1965 The main building is awarded the title “Exemplary Achievement” by the State of Hesse
1971 Discovery of the “Giant Quadrupole Resonance” (GQR) by Rainer Pitthan and Thomas Walcher
1974 Achim Richter becomes director of the IKP
1984 Discovery of the “Scissors Mode” in deformed nuclei by Achim Richter
1987 Decommissioning of the DALINAC to prepare for the construction of a superconducting, recirculating, continuous-wave electron accelerator according to the design of Achim Richter
1991 Beginning of full operation of the “Superconducting-Darmstadt Linear electron Accelerator” (S-DALINAC) with two recirculations as the third superconducting electron LINAC worldwide.
1997 First observation of the fine structure of the “Pygmy dipole resonance” (PDR) by R.-D. Herzberg et al.
2003-2015 Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 634 “Nuclear structure, nuclear astrophysics and fundamental experiments with low-momentum transfer at the superconducting Darmstadt Linear electron Accelerator (S-DALINAC)”
2007 Norbert Pietralla becomes director of the IKP
2013 Establishment of the Theory Center in the building S2|11
2015 Discovery of the competing double-gamma decay of nuclei by C. Walz et al.
2015/2016 Addition of a third recirculation to the accelerator to have the option of running an energy-recovery mode, first “multi-turn SRF-ERL” worldwide
since 2016 Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1245 “Atomic nuclei: From fundamental interactions to structure and stars”
since 2016 Graduate school (GRK) 2128 “AccelencE: accelerator physics and technology for particle accelerators with energy recovery” in collaboration with Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
since 2017 Collaborative Research Center/Transregio (CRC-TR) 211 “Strongly interacting matter at extreme conditions” in collaboration with Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Universität Bielefeld and Justus Liebig-Universität Gießen
2018 Alexandre Obertelle receives the first Humboldt professorship at TU Darmstadt
2019 Establishment of the “International Center for Nuclear Photonics” within the framework of the LOEWE program of the state of Hesse
2019 Opening of the new lecture hall in the main building
2022 Prof. Gabriel Martinez-Pinedo receives a Leibniz price from DFG
2022 Discovery of an interacting four-neutron system by Meytal Duer, Thomas Aumann et al.
2025 Alexandre Obertelli becomes director of the IKP
2025 Prof. em. Achim Richter receives the Lise Meitner Prize of the European Physical Society (EPS)