RESEARCH GROUP SCHMITZ: Particle Cosmology Münster

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Overview

Welcome! This is the page of the Particle Cosmology Münster research group at the Institute for Theoretical Physics. The research group was established in May 2022 and is headed by Kai Schmitz, a newly appointed junior professor in the Physics Department at the University of Münster. The group deals with research topics at the interface of particle physics and cosmology, notably gravitational waves from the early Universe, and is involved in the activities of the NANOGrav Pulsar Timing Array Collaboration. On this page, you will find more information on the following topics ...

Members

Current group members and guests more

Kai Schmitz Group leader
Oleksandr Sobol Postdoc (Philipp Schwartz fellow)
Richard von Eckardstein PhD student
Tobias Schröder PhD student
David Esmyol MSc student
Jan-Christopher Knetsch MSc student
Dominik Wilken MSc student
Nina Cordes BSc student
Falk Ludwig BSc student
Kim Wassner BSc student
Levin Wissing BSc student
Msab Zamout BSc student

Former group members and guests

Alice Albouy Guest (MSc student at ENS Lyon, France; thesis: "NANOGrav constraints on an axion spectator field during cosmic inflation") 03/2024–06/2024
Jonah Fabian BSc student (Thesis: "General relativity and the Kerr metric: Mathematical foundations and equatorial geodesics") 06/2023–01/2024
Peer Kuhlbrodt BSc student (Thesis: "Estimating the fraction of active galactic nuclei hosting a black-hole binary with cosmological simulations") 03/2023–01/2024
Finn Kohl Guest (PhD student in the Wulkenhaar research group at the University of Münster) 04/2023–05/2023
Adeela Afzal Guest (PhD student at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan) 11/2022–05/2023
Peter Stratmann Guest (PhD student in the Andronic / Klein-Bösing research group at the University of Münster) 11/2022–12/2022
Rafael R. Lino dos Santos Guest (PhD student at Syddansk Universitet in Odense, Denmark) 08/2022–02/2023

 

Research

New physics at the PTA frontier more
Topics: Exotic sources in the nHz band

Primordial gravitational waves more
Topics: Cosmic strings, cosmological phase transitions

Axion cosmology more
Topics: Dark matter, magnetic fields, black holes, hierarchy problem

Early Universe more
Topics: Inflation, reheating, baryogenesis, leptogenesis

Teaching

Courses

Seminars

Publications

Names of group members are printed in boldface.

2024

  • [MS-TP-24-13] Nina Cordes, Andrea Mitridate, Kai Schmitz, Tobias Schröder, Kim Wassner
    On the overlap reduction function of pulsar timing array searches for gravitational waves in modified gravity
  • [MS-TP-24-11] Kai Schmitz, Tobias Schröder
    Gravitational waves from low-scale cosmic strings
    arXiv:2405.10937 YouTube video abstract
  • [MS-TP-24-10] Ruth Durrer, Richard von Eckardstein, Deepen Garg, Kai Schmitz, Oleksandr Sobol, Stanislav Vilchinskii
    Scalar perturbations from inflation in the presence of gauge fields
    arXiv:2404.19694
  • [MS-TP-24-07] Tobias Schröder, Robert Brandenberger
    Embedded domain walls and electroweak baryogenesis
    arXiv:2404.13035 YouTube video abstract

2023

2022