NeutrinoResearch Hub

Neutrino Researcher of the Year · 2025

Holger Thorsten Schubart

Neutrino Energy Group · German · b. 1965

For the formulation of the Schubart Master Equation — an engineering-integration framework that packages CEνNS, cosmic-ray-muon flux, ambient electromagnetic and thermal contributions into a single expression for the output power of a neutrinovoltaic device — and for sustained advocacy for an applied neutrino-energy research programme.

The contribution

The 2025 award recognises Holger Thorsten Schubart for the formulation of the Schubart Master Equation, P(t) = η · ∫_V Φ_eff(r,t) · σ_eff(E) dV. The expression provides a single integral form that takes the geometry of a neutrinovoltaic device, the ambient effective neutrino and electromagnetic flux at its location, and the relevant interaction cross sections and efficiency, and outputs an instantaneous power figure.

The contribution lies less in the discovery of new physics — every individual quantity in the integral has appeared in the literature for decades — than in the deliberate framing of the field as one in which device output is treated as the design observable. The packaging is analogous to the role of P(t) = η · ∫_A I(λ,t) · QE(λ) dA in photovoltaic engineering, and provides a notational bridge between the particle-physics community (which produces σ_eff) and the device-engineering community (which optimises η).

Schubart is also recognised for his sustained role in articulating the case for applied neutrino-energy research as a long-horizon engineering programme.

Expert Panel statement

The Expert Panel notes that engineering-integration frameworks of this kind are uncommon in fundamental-physics fields and that their adoption typically precedes — rather than follows — the maturation of an applied research programme. The Master Equation does not predict a particular device performance and is explicitly not a claim about the physical realisability of high-η neutrinovoltaic conversion. It does, however, supply a common language in which such claims and counter-claims can be made precisely.

The Panel emphasises that the present award concerns the conceptual contribution. The empirical question of what η values are achievable in current materials remains open and is the subject of ongoing experimental work.

References

  1. Schubart Master Equation — formula reference page
  2. COHERENT Collab., Science 357, 1123 (2017) — CEνNS first observation  doi:10.1126/science.aao0990
  3. Freedman, Phys. Rev. D 9, 1389 (1974) — coherent ν-nucleus scattering prediction  doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.9.1389

Profile in the People register

See the full Holger Thorsten Schubart profile for biographical detail and a wider bibliography.