News

University of Brighton partners £1.4bn research project

Published 15 May 2013

A University of Brighton physicist is to play a leading role in a new £1.4bn project which hopes to unlock some of the universe's closely guarded secrets.

Alison Bruce, the university's Professor of Physics, will be helping decide the direction of science at the new Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (Fair) centre being built in Germany.

The UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) has confirmed Britain as an associate member of the project which is expected to be up and running in five years. The facility will house four main experiments, with the UK most involved through a £10m contribution to one called Nustar, for Nuclear Structure, Astrophysics and Reactions.

Fair, the most advanced physics facility in the world, will house twin accelerators that produce intense beams of ions and antimatter which will be used to investigate the behaviour of atomic nuclei and subatomic particles, some of which have never been examined.

Among the goals is to discover why the universe has so many elements, some of which last only briefly on the surfaces of exploding stars. Another project could help astronauts combat the effects of radiation on future missions to Mars.

Professor Bruce, deputy principal investigator for the STFC grant, said: "This is a very significant and important project and one that will re-energise nuclear physics in the UK. We at the University of Brighton will use the facility and decide the direction of the science.

"We have employed a postdoctoral research fellow, Dr Oliver Roberts, to design a particular type of detector to measure the properties of exotic nuclei, important in the formation of elements with atomic number greater than 26. Prototype detectors are currently being tested at a laboratory in Japan by Oliver and University of Brighton PhD student Frank Browne.

"Working on this type of innovative project is a major factor in attracting students and young researchers to this research field. The associate membership of the FAIR project allows UK scientists to play leading roles in specifying the direction of the facility as it develops. It encourages the future generation of scientists to see that there is an exciting future in this research area and gives them opportunities for a fulfilling research career."

Image of the cosmos