10 Years of the Ruhr Astroparticle and Plasma Center

This year, the Ruhr Astroparticle and Plasma Center (RAPP) celebrates its tenth anniversary. Since its founding in the fall of 2015, the center has become a key hub for research in plasma, particle, and astroparticle physics in the Ruhr area.

The RAPP is a collaborative project among Ruhr University Bochum, the Technical University of Dortmund, and the University of Duisburg-Essen. Each university contributes researchers who organise and guide the center’s work. At TU Dortmund, Prof. Rhode from our chair and Prof. Spaan have both played important roles in shaping the work of the RAPP.

The research at RAPP addresses some of the biggest open questions in astroparticle physics. Where do cosmic rays originate? What is the nature of neutrinos and dark matter? How do cosmic rays interact with the interstellar medium? And how are magnetic fields in the universe formed? By collaborating across different fields, the researchers at RAPP combine their knowledge to develop new answers to these questions.

The RAPP held a conference this week to celebrate its tenth anniversary. It began with an opening reception on Wednesday evening, featuring a planetarium show organised by the SFB 1491. The show visualised experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), cosmic rays, stellar explosions, and active galactic nuclei. On Thursday and Friday mornings, scientists gathered at the German Mining Museum in Bochum to present results from the past decade and to discuss current and future research. The event celebrated ten years of successful collaboration in the Ruhr area.