Heinz Maier Leibniz Zentrum

The research neutron source FRM II is operated by the Technische Universität München (TUM), and, due to its compact fuel element, provides the world’s best ratio of neutron flux per thermal reactor power. It usually operates 4 reactor cycles of 60 days each per year. Thermal, as well as cold and hot neutron beams are available, being an ultra-cold source under construction. In addition, a converter facility provides a unique fast neutron beam. The FRM II is located at one of the leading scientific areas in Europe i.e. the campus in Garching, with the science and engineering faculties of the TUM, institutes from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, 4 Max-Planck-Institutes, the ESO, and institutes from the Bavarian Academy of Science as well as one of the largest computing facilities in Germany at the Leibnitz computing centre LRZ. The exploitation of the scientific use of the FRM II is organized in a close collaboration between the Technische Universität München (TUM), the Jülich Centre of Neutron Science (JCNS) of the Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ), and the German Engineering Materials Science Center (GEMS) of the Helmholtz Zentrum Geesthacht (HZG), within the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ). The complementary expertise of the three MLZ partners, together with that one of other ten associated university groups and Max Planck Society institutes, form a powerful frame to provide an optimized and versatile facility for the benefit of scientists from the European Research Area. The FRM II is member of the association of European Research facilities (ERF-AISBL) and engaged in research policies on national and European level. In the year 2018 the MLZ received in total 706 submitted proposals, with 17 ones in the heritage science field (2.4%). Out of the 15 accepted proposals in this area, 12 experiments were performed on 4 selected instruments, using 50 beam days of measurements. The average duration of the experiments related to cultural heritage is 4.2 days. The total number of publications registered in the MLZ database (since 2005) related to heritage science is 134.