Research of Physics and Astronomy

The University of Turku -led EU/H2020 project SERPENTINE investigates the origin of solar energetic particle events and provides an advanced platform for the analysis and visualization of high-level datasets to benefit the wider heliophysics community. The key data comes from the most recent European and US missions, i.e., Solar Orbiter, Parker Solar Probe and BepiColombo, which have opened completely new avenues to investigate solar eruptions.

The EU/H2020 project EUHFORIA 2.0 addresses geoeffectiveness, impacts and mitigation related to solar eruptions, solar wind streams and solar energetic particles. In Turku, the research group focuses on the modelling of acceleration of particles to high energies in the corona.

 

The Centre (TCQP) was founded in September 2009 and currently it consists of five research groups at the Department of Physics and Astronomy. It coordinates the shared activities of the participating groups and provides a unified background for teaching of quantum mechanics. TCQP is a joint activity between Laboratory of Quantum Optics, Laboratory of Theoretical Physics and Wihuri Physical Laboratory.

This Academy of Finland centre of excellence (https://qtf.fi) aims to introduce novel approaches for control of quantum systems in order to develop technologies within quantum sensing, simulation, communication and computation. Quantum Technologies group, led by Prof. Sabrina Maniscalco, provides its theoretical expertise and collaborates with research groups from Aalto University and VTT.

Theory of open quantum systems is an important and active area of modern quantum physics. Adjunct professor Jyrki Piilo with this group is studying how decoherence - the loss of quantum properties and information within small physical systems - happens when open system interacts with their environments. We are interested in how to characterize different dynamical features, e.g. non-Markovian memory effects,  and how to control and exploit these in fundamental tests of quantum physics and in applications to quantum technologies. Going from quantum optical to complex systems, we are interest in the realization of complex quantum networks, how quantum dynamics occurs within these networks, and how they can be used in the open system context. Having a more cross-disciplinary nature, we also work on developing statistical tools for the general field of network theory and use these methods and concepts in a data driven research on complex socio-economic systems. 

In the research project of the Academy of Finland, led by Prof. Edwin Kukk, we follow, in the femto and picosecond timescales, the dynamic response of organic molecules to the x-ray or UV radiation. The purpose is to understand the nature of these omnipresent processes at a fundamental level, and at the same time to obtain insight into their practical consequences, such as the deterioration of materials under the influence of radiation (light).

In Prof. Edwin Kukk's project we study what kind of molecular-level mechanisms are at play when the so-called radiosensitizer-molecules are used in cancer therapy. One of the goals here is to find new, more efficient molecular compounds.

Docent Pekka Laukkanen studies and modifies surfaces of solids such as semiconductor crystals experimentally in order to decrease surface-related losses in the material applications.

Professor Kalevi Kokko studies properties of matter using quantum mechanical simulations. The result is, for example, computational models that can be used to tune the properties of materials to fit better to the extreme conditions.

FORESAIL is a consortium of four research groups led by the University of Helsinki, which concentrates on the research of space radiation and its effects on technology, and develops novel de-orbiting technologies suitable for small satellites to counter the ever increasing amount of space debris in near-Earth space. Professor Rami Vainio acts as the vice-director of FORESAIL and leads the Instruments team of the unit.

Space Radiation Expert Service Centre is a project under the Space Situational Awareness programme of the European Space Agency, where we develop empirical data-driven models for predicting space radiation conditions. The project is led in Turku by Prof. Rami Vainio.

We develop numerical models for particle acceleration and transport processes in the FORESAIL Centre of Excellence and in the Academy project "Towards Electron-scale Modelling of space Plasmas". The models are applied especially in investigations of solar eruptions and near-Earth space environment. The projects are led by professor Rami Vainio and senior researcher Alexandr Afanasiev.

The main research interests of the group focus on observational work on extragalactic astrophysical transients. Supernovae are among the most energetic phenomena in the Universe marking the end-point in the evolution of certain stars, producing neutron stars and in more exceptional cases stellar mass black holes. These explosions play a vital role in our understanding of stellar evolution, the synthesis of heavy elements, and through feedback processes also in galaxy evolution. Furthermore, they can also be used as probes of the cosmic star formation history which is one of the most fundamental observables in astrophysical cosmology. While thousands of supernovae are discovered each year, luminous transients occurring within the nuclei of galaxies have been largely missed or overlooked by the surveys. Such events may arise when a star passing too close to a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy is disrupted by tidal forces caused by the gravity of the black hole. Tidal disruption events provide a means of probing central black holes in galaxies and testing scenarios of accretion onto supermassive black holes important for our understanding of galaxy evolution. https://sites.utu.fi/sne/

Docent Sergey Vasiliev pursues studies of quantum properties of atomic hydrogen in a gas phase at lowest possible temperatures and atomic velocities. Other research directions of the group include quantum behavior of atomic hydrogen in solid molecular crystals of hydrogen and its isotopes, and magnetic resonance of shallow donors in semiconductors. Further details can be found in the group's web site.

The group of prof. Petriina Paturi studies magnetic flux pinning in high temperature superconductor thin films. The research is done both experimentally and by computational modelling of the systems. The main aim is to enable design-based pinning structures for applications of superconductivity. More information can be found from the group web page.

Memristors are seen to enable neuromorphic computing, which mimic the brain in their working. In the group lead by prof Petriina Paturi, we develop and model memristors made from low band width manganites such as Gd_1-xCa_xMnO_3. More information can be found from the group web page.

The high-energy astrophysics group works on accreting black holes and neutron stars. The group uses both ground-based ESO VLT and the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) as well as space telescopes (XMM-Newton, Chandra, RXTE, INTEGRAL, Fermi, Swift, NuSTAR, SRG). We are also involved in preparation for the new X-ray missions being science group members of the NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimeter Explorer (IXPE) and of the Chinese enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry (eXTP) missions. We are also doing optical polarimetric studies with the in-house built high-precision DIPol-2 and DIPol-Ultra Fast (UF) polarimeters.  On the theory side, we develop atmosphere models for rapidly rotating neutron stars with the aim to determine the equation of state (EoS) of cold dense matter of neutron stars and to understand the physics of accretion in these objects. We work on hydrodynamical models of boundary/spreading layers on weakly magnetized neutron stars to understand the nature of kHz quasi-periodic oscillations. We also study X-ray pulsars and ultra-luminous X-ray pulsars, both observationally and theoretically. We construct models for the accretion column and for the accretion disc around magnetized neutron stars as well as monitor the sources to study the transition to the propeller regime to measure the neutron stars magnetic field. We model broadband spectra and timing properties of accreting black holes both in the optical/infrared and the X-rays. See more in the link https://sites.utu.fi/hea

The laboratory focuses on space physics at high energies. We investigate the generation of energetic particle radiation in particle acceleration processes at the Sun as well as its effects on spacecraft and satellites in orbit. We employ both computational and experimental methods in our studies, developing spacecraft instruments for detecting energetic particles and numerical models for simulating their acceleration and transport. The laboratory belongs to the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Research of Sustainable Space funded by the Academy of Finland (2018-2025) and to the Space Radiation Expert Service Centre of the Space Situational Awareness programme of the European Space Agency.

Main research topics of the laboratory are physics of laser cooled atoms and Bose-Einstein condensate, and quantum information, open quantum systems and complex networks. Research is mainly theoretical but it is closely related to experimental work on this field.

In the Materials Research Lab, we use the latest spectroscopic and imaging methods for investigating the key properties, behaviour and suitability for practical purposes of a large variety of materials.  We study single molecules, clusters, nanoparticles, surfaces and multilayers and we perform experiments at the home laboratory as well as at large international accelerator facilities – synchrotrons and free electron lasers. We also offer materials characterization services to  companies, helping them in troubleshooting and in developing better materials.

There are two research groups in our laboratory:
In Femto group we focus on the behaviour of small quantum systems and on their interaction with radiation.
At Prof. Kalevi Kokko’s group, we conduct international materials research with cutting-edge methods. Interesting new material's phenomena found help us to aim to safer environment and better future.

The research of the laboratory is focused on porous nanostructured materials, electrostatics and pharmaceutical physics. The laboratory has also over 30-years history of collaboration with national and international companies. We have studied all kind of things from fishing lure to novel pharmaceutical formulations.

The Laboratory of Theoretical Physics tackles fundamental questions within the fields of quantum technologies, quantum foundations, quantum field theory and cosmology. It is part of the Turku Centre for Quantum Physics.

The research at the Tuorla Observatory is carried out using ground-based telescopes of the European Southern Observary (ESO), the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) and space telescopes of ESA and NASA, and includes theoretical astrophysics and numerical methods. The largest groups at the Tuorla Observatory are the High-Energy Astrophysics group (https://sites.utu.fi/hea) and Astrophysical Transients group (https://sites.utu.fi/sne/). In addition, research is done on active galaxies, solar system, astrobiology and simulations of large scale structures in the Universe. Research on solar physics is done in collaboration with the Space Research Laboratory (SRL) and on astronomical instrumentation in collaboration with the Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO (FINCA).

The Wihuri Physical Laboratory has two research groups: Superconductivity and magnetism and Atomic Hydrogen. Common theme on all research is working at low temperature, which continues the over 60 year old traditions of the laboratory.

The superconductivity and magnetism group concentrates in high temperature superconductors and magnetic perovskites and their applications. It is lead by prof. Petriina Paturi.

The atomic hydrogen group studies physics of hydrogen atoms at very low temperatures. It is lead by docent Sergey Vasiliev.