Fully assembled Time Projection Chamber (TPC) for the LZ dark matter detector, based at the Sanford Underground Facility in South Dakota. It is the central component of LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) – the largest direct-detection dark matter experiment in the US.
The Mu3e tracker assembly

Award supports fundamental Physics Research

Mar 23 2022

Following a £4.34 million award from the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), particle physicists from UCL will help to further their work examining the nature of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and preparing for new, higher-intensity collisions that may reveal evidence of physics beyond the so-called "Standard Model".

Group leader Professor David Waters (UCL Physics & Astronomy), said: “This support from STFC and UKRI enables the UCL High Energy Physics group to continue to lead world-class projects addressing pressing questions in collider physics, neutrino physics, precision muon physics, the search for dark matter and much else besides.”

Professor Andreas Korn (UCL Physics & Astronomy), the primary investigator, said: “We particularly appreciate the continued support for our highly skilled engineers and technicians who make our experiments a reality and enable us to do cutting-edge science. The grant also provides the background and infrastructure to develop our PhD students into the highly skilled scientists and employees of the future."

The UCL High Energy Physics Group leads a number of experiments probing the properties of the most abundant matter particle in the universe - the neutrino, which will measure the asymmetry between matter and antimatter in the neutrino sector and may cast light on the mechanism that has generated the cosmological matter-antimatter asymmetry; the group also leads UK efforts to measure the flux of the highest-energy cosmic-ray neutrinos.

UCL physicists also play a leading role in international efforts to directly detect the interaction of elusive dark-matter particles, which also may be created directly in the laboratory at the LHC and the group has begun exploring innovative quantum technologies that may open up new opportunities for ultra-precise measurements.

Work also continues on a programme of detector and accelerator R&D focused on medical applications, building on a strong, recent UCL track record in this area. For instance, a team co-led by Professor Simon Jolly (UCL Physics & Astronomy) working with the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg demonstrated how a mixed particle beam could enable simultaneous cancer therapy and treatment monitoring.

More information online