“Neutrinos are my fascination – those ghostly particles that penetrate our Earth billions of times over, yet are very difficult to detect and understand. With new planned experiments – such as the DUNE experiment in the USA – scientists aim to investigate some fundamental neutrino properties more closely: for example, the phenomenon that the three types of neutrinos constantly transform into one another – in technical jargon, neutrino oscillation. For this, they need important information from theoretical calculations: And this is where I come in.”

I specifically address the question of how neutrinos interact with atomic nuclei. Here, so to speak, two research areas of PRISMA+⁺ converge: high-energy physics and nuclear physics. My goal is to calculate very precisely, from the ground up – starting from the fundamental theories we have – what happens when a neutrino hits an atomic nucleus.

From this, we can develop models and simulate processes that, in turn, are indispensable for experimental co-workers in carrying out and interpreting their experiments. In Mainz, within Sonia Bacca’s group, I find ideal conditions for my theoretical research: The group is highly successful in predicting properties of the atomic nucleus that can be derived from the forces between its constituents – the nucleons – and their interactions.

Specifically, I aim to calculate the interaction of neutrinos with atomic nuclei of the elements oxygen (¹⁶O) and argon (⁴⁰Ar) – both of which will play an important role in future neutrino experiments. A fine example of the indispensable interplay between theory and experiment.”

Dr. Joanna Sobczyk has been a postdoctoral researcher in Mainz since January 2020. She was initially funded by the Irène Joliot-Curie Program initiated by PRISMA⁺ with a fellowship for transitional phases. She has since been awarded a Humboldt research scholarship and a Marie Curie Fellowship.