Introduction

The Universe and Particules Laboratory of Montpellier (Laboratoire Univers et Particules de Montpellier), created on 1 January 2011, is the result of the fusion of two laboratories. It brings together all the members of the Research Group in Astronomy and Astrophysics of Languedoc (GRAAL) and some of the members of the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics and Astroparticles (LPTA). The LUPM is composed of about 60 people.

The laboratory is organized into three research teams:

– Stellar Astrophysics (AS),

– Astroparticle Experiments and Modelling (EMA),

– Fundamental Interactions, Astroparticles and Cosmology (IFAC).

Three research support services complement its organization : Administration, IT department and Scientific instrumentation.

The LUPM is the UMR 5299, a Joint Research Unit of the CNRS and the University of Montpellier. Within the CNRS, our laboratory is attached mainly to the National Institute of Nuclear Physics and Physics of Particles (Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules IN2P3), as well as to the National Institute of the Universe Sciences (Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers INSU) and the Physics Institute (Institut de Physique INP) in secondary connection.

The LUPM and the Charles Coulomb Laboratory (Laboratoire Charles Coulomb L2C) constitute the Physics institute of Montpellier (Institut de Physique de Montpellier IPM), the CNRS Research Federation created in 2005 to group all physics in Montpellier.

The LUPM is an UMR of the MIPS Training and Research centre (Mathematics, IT, Physics and System), one the five major disciplinary centres created bu the University of Montpellier. The laboratory is also a welcoming team of the I2S (Information, Structures and System) doctoral school.

The LUPM is dedicated to the exploration of the Universe, from its most basic constituents to its largest and oldest structures.

Its researchers are studying the very young Universe and the primordial nucleosynthesis, elementary particles, dark matter, objects at the origin the high-energy cosmic rays, the structure of stars, their evolution and their interaction with the interstellar medium.

The LUPM synergizes several approaches in astrophysics, particle physics, astroparticle, as well as in cosmology : theory, simulation and modeling, observation, data analysis, instrument design and implementation.

It hots a node of the NGI-France calculation grid and contributes to the INSU’s Virtual Observatory (National Institute of the Universe Sciences) , via the POLLUX database.