Glimmers of antimatter to explain the "dark" part of the universe

New research by recent OKC member Pedro de la Torre Luque and current OKC member Tim Linden shows how the AMS-02 experiment on the International Space Station can shed light on the nature of dark matter.

Matthew Hayes writes about black holes in The Conversation

Matthew Hayes from the Astronomy Department at Stockholm University has recently published an article in The Conversation describing a new result concerning the population of supermassive black holes in the early Universe.

NASA’s Hubble finds more black holes than expected in the early universe

With the help of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, an international team of researchers led by scientists in the Department of Astronomy at Stockholm University has found more black holes in the early universe than has previously been reported. The new result can help scientists understand how supermassive black holes were created.

ANDES gets go-ahead to be installed at the Extremely Large Telescope

An agreement on the installation of ANDES, the ArmazoNes high Dispersion Echelle Spectrograph, at ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) has been signed. Sweden is directly involved in ANDES through SELTIC (Swedish ELT Instrument Consortium) which consist of scientists and engineers from Stockholm University, Uppsala University, and Lund University.

Astronomy art at Liljevalchs

Göran Östlin, Professor at the Department of Astronomy at Stockholm University, is collaborating with artist Cecilia Ömalm in the exhibition “The Stockholm Cosmology” at the Liljevalchs Art Exhibition Centre this summer.

Ragnhild Lunnan new member of the Young Academy of Sweden

Shedding new light on dark matter

No one has yet managed to show what dark matter is made of, even though it appears to make up over 80 percent of the mass in the universe. At Stockholm University a new kind of sensor is being built to study hypothetical particles called axions. If these invisible particles do in fact exist, they may provide a solution to the mystery of dark matter.

New experiment aims to turn the ghostly substance into actual light

A ghost is haunting our universe. This has been known in astronomy and cosmology for decades. Observations suggest that about 85% of all the matter in the universe is mysterious and invisible. These two qualities are reflected in its name: dark matter. Published by Andrea Gallo in The Conversation.

Sara Strandberg on Wallenberg Scholar and the Higgs particle

The Wallenberg Scholars program supports and stimulates some of the most successful senior researchers at Swedish universities. The grant is for five years with the possibility of a five-year extension. There are currently 88 active Wallenberg Scholars and Emil Bergholtz was recently appointed. Sara Strandberg received a five-year extension. On April 12, Sara participated in the Swedish Radio program Vetenskapsradion on the topic of the Higgs particle.

Exploding star made the Hubble telescope turn

In the latest issue of the journal Nature, researchers from Stockholm University participate in a study of a supernova explosion where the astronomers made the Hubble telescope turn and look in a different direction than planned. The ultraviolet light from the explosion shows that the exploding red giant star was embedded in gas that puffed out in the years before the final bang.

Three particle physics positions available at KTH and the OKC

Three particle physics positions available at KTH and the OKC

We create a digital twin of the universe to understand the Big Bang

I try to gain a full understanding of how the universe was created 13.8 billion years ago. As a cosmologist, I have the luxury of travelling out into the universe in my mind every day and see life on Earth from a different perspective. This makes it clear how precious our little planet is.

David Marsh is Vice Director of EuCAPT

EuCAPT is a European consortium for astroparticle theory. It aims to bring together European researchers in theoretical astroparticle physics and cosmology. In early February, David Marsh took over as Vice Director of the consortium. At Fysikum he is a researcher in astroparticle physics and teaches the course Quantum Phenomena and Radiation Physics.

A scientific train journey to CERN with Sara Strandberg

On 15 April, the train departs from Stockholm to Geneva and cicerones are particle physicist Professor Sara Strandberg from Fysikum and science journalist Anna Davour from Forskning & Framsteg. Participants will learn more about the smallest components of our matter with quarks, leptons and other elementary particles. CERN is the world's largest particle physics laboratory and home to the Large Hadron Collider - the world's largest particle accelerator.

James Webb telescope detects traces of neutron star in iconic supernova

Scientists can finally show that a neutron star formed from our most well-studied supernova, SN 1987A. The breakthrough was made possible thanks to the James Webb telescope.

Observations of Dramatic Galactic Collision Unlock Clues to the Reionization of the Universe

An international team, led by Dr. Alexandra Le Reste from Stockholm University and the Oskar Klein Centre, used the MeerKAT radio telescope to investigate processes at the origin of the Epoch of Reionization, a crucial period occurring a billion years after the Big Bang. The study, made possible by MeerKAT's increased sensitivity relative to older telescopes, reveals how galaxy mergers might have influenced the transformation of the Universe during this epoch.

Exploding star makes a black hole and eats companion

A supernova explosion powered by a black hole consuming its binary companion. This is an interpretation forwarded in the latest issue of the journal Nature, where astronomers from Stockholm University participate in a study of a recent cosmic explosion.

New tenure track position as assistant professor at the OKC

A new tenure track position as assistant professor in data-intensive methods in fundamental physics, astrophysics and cosmology has opened at the Department of Physics and the Oskar Klein Centre.

A Plasma Haloscope for the Post-Inflation Axion

In Fall 2022, a consortium of the Simons Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation published a solicitation seeking to make profound advancements in physics by means of Small-Experiments of “table-top” size. The proposal “A Plasma Haloscope for the Post-Inflation Axion”, lead by the Berkely group has been announced as one of the 11 awardees among hundreds of initial proposals, for which a total of $30M over five years has been pledged by the foundations. “With this funding and also the earlier funding by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation we’re ready to start developing and building this detector that has the potential to discover axions”, says Jón Gudmundsson, senior researcher at Stockholm and current spokesperson of the ALPHA collaboration.

Stockholm Researchers Provide clues to solve cosmic conundrum

Why is the vast supergalactic plane teeing with only one type of galaxies? This old cosmic puzzle may now have been solved. Jens Jasche, associate professor at Fysikum, is a member of the research group of these results.

OKC15 - an anniversary for physics research that lasted for three days

The Oskar Klein Centre is celebrating 15 years with an anniversary that took place on October 17-19 2023. OKC is a hub and network for physics research in Stockholm. The scientific conference covered topics in cosmology, astrophysics and particle physics. "It has been great to celebrate our successes with all our colleagues both in Sweden and the Nordic countries as well as our alumni", says Professor Ariel Goobar, Director.

Welcome to the 15-year anniversary conference!

The Oskar Klein Centre is celebrating 15 years as a hub for physics research in Stockholm. To recognize this achievement, and also look towards the future, we are organizing a lively scientific conference covering topics in cosmology, astrophysics and particle physics.

The first neutrino image of our galaxy

For the first time, researchers have produced an image of the Milky Way using neutrinos, which were observed with the IceCube telescope in the Antarctic ice. The neutrino image suggests that cosmic ray interactions are more intense in the center of our galaxy than once thought. The results are published in the journal Science.

Stockholm University Granted Two Centres of Excellence

Studies of dark matter and of global governance are the focus of the two centres of excellence that Stockholm University is granted by the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet). Language researchers at the university are also part of a new centre at Uppsala University.

Rare gravitational lens splits light of distant supernova into four images

A team of physicists and astronomers led by researchers from the Oskar Klein Centre at Stockholm University has made an intriguing breakthrough in our ability to explore how galaxies warp the surrounding space with the discovery of a multiply-imaged lensed Type Ia supernova, dubbed “SN Zwicky”. The results are published in Nature Astronomy.

Radio signal reveals supernova origin

In the latest issue of the journal Nature, astronomers from Stockholm University reveal the origin of a thermonuclear supernova explosion. Strong emission lines of helium and the first detection of such a supernova in radio waves show that the exploding white dwarf star had a helium-rich companion.

Jonas Enander is researching on the societal role of science

Jonas Enander studied at Fysikum around 2005 and earned his doctorate in 2015 "I did both my master's thesis and my doctoral work at the Division of Cosmology, Astroparticle Physics and String Theory." He now writes popular science and has a podcast featuring Senior Lecturer Sören Holst.

Star formation in distant galaxies by the James Webb Space Telescope

Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope’s first images of galaxy clusters, researchers have, for the very first time, been able to examine very compact structures of star clusters inside galaxies, so-called clumps. In a paper published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, researchers from Stockholm University have studied the first phase of star formation in distant galaxies.

Creative research environment attracts physicists and astronomers to Stockholm

In 2008, the Oskar Klein Centre in Stockholm was founded to tackle the greatest problems in astrophysics and particle physics in an interdisciplinary manner. It is now celebrated as a rich and rewarding research environment that attracts internationally leading researchers, including Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek.

VR consolidator grant to Tim Linden

The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) has awarded a consolidator grant of 10 million SEK to Tim Linden, assistant professor in Fysikum at Stockholm University.

Rare sighting of a luminous jet from a star-eating supermassive black hole

Over 8 billion years ago, a star was torn apart as it got too close to a supermassive black hole. Jets of gas directed towards Earth recently made the fate of the star visible to a telescope looking for new sources of light in the night sky. The observation has led to two independent publications including researchers at Stockholm University in Nature and Nature Astronomy.

IceCube neutrinos provide new view of a nearby galaxy

For the first time, an international team of scientists has found evidence of high-energy neutrino emission from a nearby galaxy. The galaxy, NGC 1068 (also known as Messier 77) is an active galaxy in the constellation Cetus and one of the most familiar and well-studied active galaxies. The results are published in Science.

New simulation recreates the entire evolution of the Near Universe

An international research team, including a researcher of Stockholm University, has carried out the most extensive simulation of the Near Universe, covering distances of up to 600 million lightyears from Earth.