Recherche

Avec son infrastructure de recherche unique au monde, le PSI offre des possibilités exceptionnelles pour la recherche de pointe nationale et internationale. 

Forschen

Nos centres de recherche et de services mènent de la recherche de pointe reconnue au niveau international dans les sciences naturelles et les science de l’ingénierie et mettent à la disposition de la science ainsi que de l'industrie de grandes installations de recherche très complexes pour leurs propres projets de recherche. 

Teaser Highlight OpenSPACE

Not Rocket Science, just Nuclear Rocket Science

The PSI Laboratory for Reactor Physics and Thermal-Hydraulics (LRT) conducts computational and experimental research with focus on the safety of nuclear reactors and systems. In recent years, it established the EPSILON program to coordinate and consolidate its research activities on nuclear space applications. Among other things, developments were initiated towards an open-source European platform for high-fidelity simulations and experiments dedicated to space nuclear reactors. Referred to as the openSPACE platform, its underlying concepts are a) to include not only solvers but also reference simulation models as well as experimental validation data; b) to make all of these available to the broader and combined nuclear- and space communities for usage and/or further developments. Through this, the goal is thus not only to facilitate collaborative research in this area but also to enable effective support to the European Space Agency for thorough design, safety and performance evaluations of nuclear reactor systems for in-space propulsion and/or surface power. A first development phase focused on nuclear electric propulsion was proposed and retained among the two projects selected in 2023 by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for its MARVIS call (Multidisciplinary Advanced Research Ventures in Space) and funded by the Swiss Secretariat for Research and Innovation (SERI). This project, to be conducted via four inter-connected PhD theses, was launched in October 2024 and this marks thus a key milestone for the propulsion of PSI nuclear research towards space.

de Reotier et al

Origin of the Suppression of Magnetic Order in MnSi under Hydrostatic Pressure

We experimentally study the evolution of the magnetic moment 𝑚 and exchange interaction 𝐽 as a function of hydrostatic pressure in the zero-field helimagnetic phase of the strongly correlated electron system MnSi. The suppression of magnetic order at ≈1.5  GPa is shown to arise from the 𝐽 collapse and not from a quantum fluctuations induced reduction of 𝑚. Our work provides benchmarks ...