The Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics celebrates its anniversary
30 years of cutting-edge research on Einstein’s general theory of relativity
The Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute, AEI) is celebrating its 30th anniversary today. An extensive program of welcome addresses, presentations, and panel discussions will highlight the history, present, and future of the institute. The anniversary lecture will be given by Nobel Prize laureate Kip Thorne from the California Institute of Technology.
Former staff members and colleagues from around the world are expected to attend the all-day event in the Potsdam Science Park. Manja Schüle, Brandenburg’s Minister of Science, Research, and Culture, will give a welcome address at the ceremony. “For 30 years, the Albert Einstein Institute has been a destination for those who want to explore the unknown, expand their knowledge, and stimulate their imagination,” says the minister. “The Potsdam research center has literally developed into a center of gravity for global scientific exchange in gravitational physics. The AEI is researching the really big questions about the origin of our universe – questions that enrich Brandenburg as a center of science. Congratulations on your anniversary!”
Additional welcome addresses will be given by Craig Hogan, the former chair of the Scientific Advisory Board, and Wilhelm Krull, the chair of the institute’s Board of Trustees.
The complete program, including all speeches, talks, and discussions, can be found here.
Research Milestones
The institute, with locations in Potsdam and Hannover, is a world-leading research center specializing in general relativity and beyond. Its research spectrum includes developing a theory that unifies quantum field theory and general relativity, research on gravitational waves, neutron stars, and black holes, finding analytical and numerical solutions to Einstein’s equations, analyzing data from gravitational-wave detectors using highly efficient methods, and developing and operating gravitational-wave detectors on Earth and in space.
Throughout its 30-year history, the AEI’s international researchers have contributed to several significant milestones that have had a lasting impact on the global scientific community.
In the search for a mathematically consistent description of quantum gravity, the institute’s scientists have contributed to all major current research directions and developed novel ideas to overcome difficulties in existing approaches.
AEI researchers have explored the fundamental principles of Einstein’s theory to improve the mathematical description of gravity, the understanding of the geometry of space-time, of cosmological models, and of numerical methods.
The first detection of gravitational waves from a binary black-hole merger on September 14, 2015, marked the beginning of a new era of astronomy, fundamentally changing our view of the universe. AEI researchers made significant contributions to this Nobel Prize–winning breakthrough by developing highly accurate waveform models to detect the signal and extract astrophysical information from it, building extremely sensitive detectors, and developing innovative and efficient data analysis methods. By joining the citizen science project Einstein@Home, the public can also participate in the search for astronomical signals. AEI scientists are shaping the present and future of the field by making key contributions to the observation and interpretation of hundreds of gravitational-wave signals that continue to be detected by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration, planned European Einstein Telescope and US Cosmic Exolorer, the LISA space mission, and several pulsar timing arrays.
The success of the LISA Pathfinder satellite test mission paved the way for LISA, a gravitational-wave observatory in space. Scheduled to launch in the mid-2030s as an ESA mission with a large contribution from NASA, LISA will observe low-frequency gravitational waves that are undetectable on Earth. The institute’s researchers have always played a leading role in the development of experimental and theoretical aspects of this mission and its science.
Another strong AEI research focus is complex numerical simulations of extreme astrophysical events to make predictions for multi-messenger astronomy, i.e., the observation of different signals from the same source.
AEI scientists are also engaged in fundamental physics. Using methods from theoretical and experimental physics, they search for new explanations for the nature of still mysterious dark matter.
History of the Institute
After the reunification of Germany, the Max Planck Society expanded its network of institutes to include the new federal states. Max Planck Institutes were also founded in Brandenburg. Jürgen Ehlers (1929 – 2008), then a director at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching near Munich, initiated the founding of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) in Potsdam. The institute began its work on April 1, 1995, with two founding directors – Jürgen Ehlers (Mathematical Relativity department) and Bernard Schutz (Astrophysical Relativity department) – and a handful of staff members. In 1997, Hermann Nicolai joined as director of the Quantum Gravity and Unified Theories department. After spending its first few years in the Haus der Wirtschaft in Potsdam-Babelsberg, the institute moved to a newly constructed building in the Golm Science Park (now Potsdam Science Park) in 1999.
In 2002, Gerhard Huisken joined the institute as a new director. He headed the Geometric Analysis and Gravitation department until his appointment to the Mathematical Research Institute in Oberwolfach in 2013. Following Bernard Schutz’s retirement, Alessandra Buonanno was appointed director in 2014. She leads the Astrophysical and Cosmological Relativity department. Masaru Shibata founded the Computational Relativistic Astrophysics department in 2018. Negotiations are currently underway to appoint a new director, since Hermann Nicolai retired in 2020.
Since 2002, a branch institute in Hannover has been part of the AEI, working closely with the Institute for Gravitational Physics at Leibniz University Hannover since its foundation. Karsten Danzmann, at the time director of the Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics, took over as head of the Laser Interferometry and Gravitational Wave Astronomy department at the Max Planck Institute in 2002. Bruce Allen joined the Hannover branch in 2007 as director of the Observational Relativity and Cosmology department. In 2022, Guido Müller became the third director there. He leads the Precision Interferometry and Fundamental Interactions department.
In addition to the departments led by directors, there are independent research groups at both branches of the institute. The permanent independent research group Continuous Gravitational Waves, led by M. Alessandra Papa, and the Max Planck Research Group Binary Merger Observations and Numerical Relativity, led by Frank Ohme, are currently conducting research at the AEI in Hannover. The Max Planck Fellow Group Multi-Messenger Astrophysics of Compact Binary Systems, led by Tim Dietrich, is located at the AEI in Potsdam.