MPIfR
Short profile of the Max Planck Institut für Radioastronomie [MPIfR]
Max Planck Institut für Radioastronomie
MPI für Radioastronomie
The Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie (MPIfR), Bonn, is one of 84 independent research institutes of the Max Planck Society (MPS) that perform basic research in the natural sciences, life sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. The MPIfR is the leading radio astronomical institute in Germany and is, as the largest of its kind in Europe, a key institution on the international stage. The MPIfR operates the 100-m radio telescope at Effelsberg,
Effelsberg 100-m radio telescope
which is the backbone of the European VLBI Network (EVN). With extensive expertise in technological development in radio astronomy, the MPIfR led the construction of the 12-m Heinrich Hertz Telescope on Mt. Graham, USA, the 12-m sub-millimeter telescope APEX in Chile (2005), and the 30-m radio telescope in Pico Veleta, Spain. The first international LOFAR station, built at the Effelsberg site, has been operational since 2006. The institute includes large technical divisions developing astronomical instruments for its own telescopes but also for facilities around the world. The Institute’s main research areas are “Fundamental Physics in Radio Astronomy”, “Millimeter and Submillimeter Astronomy”, “Infrared Astronomy” and “Radio Astronomy and Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI)”.
MPIfR contributions to CASCADE:
experimental radio astronomical data, including data for pulsar timing and searching;
constraints on fundamental physics including equation-of-state of super-dense matter;
precision tests of general relativity;
expertise in analysing large amount of data, high performance computing, machine learning, visualisation;
theoretical foundation for tests of theories of gravity.
