Timmermans' research focuses on developing low-power instrumentation for experimental research on the highest-energy particles known, as well as for particles yet to be discovered at extreme energies. Since 2005, Timmermans has been working on the detection and analysis of atmospheric particle avalanches created by cosmic rays. Measurements of these allow the energy and direction of the cosmic rays to be determined. By looking more closely, the average mass of the cosmic rays was determined. The current set-ups are too small to gather many statistics, so a larger detector will be needed in the future.
“I am working on the design for a detector that will eventually cover an area of 200,000 km2. I am further developing the detection technique using radio antennas and associated low-power readout,” says Timmermans. “The complementary knowledge within IMAPP makes Nijmegen the ideal base to further develop experimental astroparticle physics and interpret the results even better.”
About Charles Timmermans
Charles Timmermans (Nijmegen, 1965) studied Physics at Radboud University Nijmegen. In 1992, he received his PhD for his thesis “Measurement of muon pair production around the Z-resonance using the L3 detector at LEP”, the result of which provided insight into the number of families of elementary particles. Timmermans then worked at the University of Michigan (USA), where as a postdoc he designed a data acquisition system. Timmermans used this knowledge at the University of Minnesota (US) for the design of the readout of E821, a precision experiment measuring the magnetic moment of the muon.
As a Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) fellow, Timmermans investigated the atmospheric muon spectrum, the introduction of experimental astroparticle physics at Nijmegen. Since 2003, Timmermans has been a researcher at Nikhef, where he has developed new measurement techniques during the Auger experiment.