Research at the Faculty of Sciences

Physicists at FAU have for the first time been able to prove a long-predicted but as yet unconfirmed fundamental effect. In Faraday chiral anisotropy, the propagation characteristics of light waves are changed simultaneously by the natural and magnetic-field induced material properties of the medium through which the light travels. The...

The acidity of molecules can be easily determined, but until now it was not possible to measure this important property for atoms on a surface. By combining a new microscopy technique and quantum chemical calculations, this has now been achieved. The degree of acidity or alkalinity of a substance is...

Chemists at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg publish a breakthrough in magnesium chemistry in the highly renowned journal Nature. Magnesium (Mg) is an earth abundant early main group metal of low electronegativity that easily loses it’s both valence electrons. In combination with other elements it occurs naturally only in its most stable...

The Open Research Challenge 2020, organised by Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), invited young researchers from around the world to submit innovative and creative ideas to remove incorrect and outdated entries in the largest database used in the field of paleontology. The winning submission, code developed by a paleontologist from Bristol in...

A triangular structure in the largest satellite galaxy surrounding the Milky Way has left astrophysicists around the world puzzled due to its unusually energetic X-ray emissions. FAU researchers have now investigated this phenomenon using the ESA XMM-Newton X-ray observatory and can reveal that it is caused by the collision of...