The Department of Astrophysics (DAp), UMR (Unité Mixte de Recherche) AIM (Astrophysique, Instrumentation, Modelisation Paris-Saclay), within the IRFU (Institut de Recherche sur les lois Fondamentales de l'Univers), is one of the major space laboratories in France, Europe, and internationally.
The Department of Astrophysics (DAp) is one of the departments within the Institute of Research into the Fundamental Laws of the Universe (Irfu) under the Directorate of Fundamental Research (DRF) of the CEA. It is located at the Paris-Saclay site, at l’Orme des Merisiers, 20 km south of Paris, and near several universities and other research centers on the Saclay plateau.
The DAp primarily encompasses the Joint Research Unit (UMR) AIM (Astrophysics, Instrumentation, Modeling), under the joint supervision of CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Cité, and Université Paris-Saclay. Research conducted at AIM is based on three pillars: space instrumentation (with upstream R&D), observations (using innovative data analysis techniques), and modeling (primarily based on multi-scale numerical simulations). These three activities mutually reinforce each other in a virtuous cycle, enabling a high visibility profile, making AIM a dynamic and highly active research environment that meets the highest international standards.
The UMR AIM comprises approximately 190 people, including 110 permanent and 80 non-permanent members (see Key Figures). The unit includes:
AIM has two main objectives:
To achieve these objectives, AIM is structured as follows:
Leadership Team
Given the objectives and the three supervisory institutions of AIM, the leadership team comprises:
Astrophysics Research Team
To develop astrophysics research programs at the highest international level, the research division of the Department of Astrophysics is organized into six teams:
Instrument Development Team
To develop the advanced instruments necessary for this research, along with the associated ground segments, the instrument division is organized into five teams based on the following competencies:
Astrophysics at the CEA began in the 1960s with pioneering high-energy sky observation work using detectors installed in rockets (see Figure 1). A crucial diversification towards the study of the cosmos with infrared radiation was undertaken in the 1980s under the visionary direction of C. Cesarsky.
Another significant milestone for the laboratory was its integration into the Institute of Research into the Fundamental Laws of the Universe (IRFU) in 1992, becoming one of the seven departments of IRFU. This integration provided AIM with the opportunity to develop instrumental projects with the technical departments of IRFU, mainly the Department of Systems Engineering and the Department of Electronics, Detectors, and Computing, and to develop scientific projects with the Department of Particle Physics and the Department of Nuclear Physics.
The UMR AIM was established on January 1, 2005, to strengthen the long-standing collaboration between researchers from the Department of Astrophysics (DAp) of CEA/IRFU, CNRS/INSU researchers, present since 1979 as an associated research unit, and professors and associate professors from Université Paris-Cité, present since 1997 as a research team named "γ-gravitation."
In 2020, the UMR AIM joined the Paris-Saclay Observatory of Sciences of the Universe (OSUPS).