Research
Belle II
The Belle II experiment (see picture) is an upgrade of the B factory experiment Belle at the KEK laboratory in Tsukuba, Japan. The physicists of the Belle II Collaboration at over 100 institues around the globe are analysing this data set to find answers to questions such as, why the universe today consists only of matter and no anti-matter and about the nature of Dark Matter.
We focus on flavour physics in B-meson decays and on searches for feebly interacting particles. This includes searches for dark photons decaying into light dark matter, searches for axion-like particles (ALPs), and searches for long-lived particles (LLPs). My team is responsible for the reconstruction software of the Belle II electromagnetic calorimeter and we are developing (real-time) algorithms including machine learning for tracking detectors and calorimeters. More information: belle2.de.
(Image: © S. Takahashi)
Machine Learning
My group works on track finding (see picture) and calorimeter clustering using machine learning. Our activities include developing and testing real-time algorithms that can identify and reconstruct particle tracks and clusters in high-energy physics experiments in less than 1 microsecond. We also work on improving the accuracy and efficiency of existing algorithms, exploring new machine learning techniques, and evaluating the performance of different models on large datasets. We collaborate with other research groups and institutions to share knowledge and resources. The ultimate goal of our group is to enable high-precision real-time track reconstruction and clustering for upgrades of the Belle II detector and the next generation of particle physics experiments.
LUXE
LUXE (Laser Und XFEL Experiment) is a new experiment proposed at DESY and the European XFEL (see picture) to study Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) in the strong-field regime where QED becomes non-perturbative.
In the collisions of electrons and an optical laser, a beam of high energy photons is produced. We will use advanced detectors to measure the scattered particles in the search for axion-like particles (ALPs) in a subsystem called LUXE-NPOD ("New Physics at an Optical Dump"). More information: luxe.desy.de.
(Image: © D. Nölle/DESY)
DELight
To reach ultra-low detection thresholds necessary to probe unprecedentedly low Dark Matter masses, target material alternatives and novel detector designs are essential. One such target material is superfluid He-4 which has the potential to probe so far uncharted light Dark Matter parameter space at sub-GeV masses. The new "Direct search Experiment for Light dark matter", DELight, will be using superfluid helium as active target, instrumented with magnetic micro-calorimeters. It is being designed to reach sensitivity to masses well below 100 MeV in Dark Matter-nucleus scattering interactions. More information: Proceedings of the 14th IDM conference (2022).