The British Science Festival took place in Liverpool between 10-14 September, and five events were organised or co-organised by colleagues from the Department of Physics.
Universal secrets: Unpacking particle physics & Particle Detectors
Researchers and students involved with the Particle Physics frontier participated in a wide range of fascinating events at the British Science Festival earlier this month.
A panel event chaired by Professor Anthony Hollander featuring Frontier co-lead Graziano Venanzoni and Saskia Charity, alongside the incoming Director of CERN, Professor Mark Thompson and the University of Oxford’s Professor Jocelyn Monroe, delved into the mysteries of dark matter. ‘Universal Secrets: unpacking particle physics’ was an opportunity to hear from some of the world’s leading physicists who talked about the upcoming experiments at CERN and Fermilab, as well as the people and ideas that inspired them to embark on an academic career in Physics.
A wide-ranging display of particle detectors were also on show in the Fröhlich café in the Yoko Ono Lennon Centre. Research staff were on hand to explain how these complex instruments are made to very precise specifications on the University campus, and then shipped to CERN in Geneva to form part of large-scale experiments to measure some of the smallest building blocks of the universe. Exhibits included: a Dark Matter detector demonstration led by Sergey Burdin and Sean Hughes; a showcase of silicon detectors for the ATLAS experiment led by Helen Hayward, Sven Wonsak, Carl Gwilliam, Connor McPartland and Nikos Rompotis; the g-2 experiment straw tracking detector by Joe Price, Estifa’a Zaid and Dominika Vasilkova; the LHCb VELO by David Hutchcroft and a cloud chamber demonstration led by Charlie Devlin. We were also privileged to be joined by representatives from the STFC Boulby Lab in Yorkshire, who led live tours of the underground mine and efforts to search for Dark Matter.
Liverpool in Space
Monica D’Onofrio and John Anders coordinated the Dept of Physics events at the Liverpool in Space event. Under the coordination of by Stefania Soldini from School of Engineering, scientists from the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University delved into fascinating subjects including microgravity, astrophysics, dark matter and planetary defence with satellites! One of the highlights was the interesting discussions of the complementary ways that we can investigate dark matter here on earth, from direct and indirect detection to the production of dark matter in particle colliders. Andy Carroll discussed with visitors the micro-gravity environment of space is an ideal place to search for gravitational waves and ultralight dark matter with atom interferometry.
Art forgery to astrophysics: A data science showcase
Naomi Smith coordinated the Dept of Physics contributions to this showcase of how data science is used, from spotting art forgeries and studying street art to modelling galaxy evolution and uncovering fundamental particles. Jon Tinsley and Andy Carroll contributed an interactive experiment showcasing how the interference of light has been used to open a whole new telescope onto the universe via gravitational wave detection. Visitors also learned how the Particle Physics group is working towards interferometers based on exploiting the wave properties of atoms to complement light-based gravitational wave detection, search for dark matter, and perform fundamental tests of quantum mechanics. Archie Hanlon and Saransh Malhotra spoke to visitors about how AI is used in detecting eye disease, and how they use data science to develop sensors for particle physics and accelerators. Archie and Saransh used a game of dice to highlight the different diagnosis outcomes and how they retain an element of chance. The well-attended event saw also many people interested in the various other demonstrations including quantum computing from the UoL Department of Maths, and astrophysics from colleagues at John Moore.
Electrons in wonderland
Visitors stepped into the realm of the electron! After being shrunk down to the tiniest of scales, guests discovered how these tiny particles shape our universe through immersive projections and hands-on activities. They learned how electrons create nanoscale images, accelerate to near-light speeds, and help target cancer - revealing the building blocks behind major scientific breakthroughs. The activities were coordinated by Chris Edmonds and Sam Coates, with contributions from Ellie Weightman, Ellen Oldershaw, and Faye Wearing, while delivery was supported by Nerys Davies and Henry Hilton.