New £2.67 million investment to keep Cambridge at the forefront of particle physics research

The Cavendish’s High Energy Physics group in the University of Cambridge is to receive £2.67 million funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). The group is one of the 18 beneficiaries of the £60 million investment announced by STFC today (9th March 2022) as part of its continued support to the particle physics research community in the UK.

This funding helps to keep the UK at the forefront of answering some of the biggest and most complex questions in science and supports the next generation of UK particle physicists.

The latest particle physics experiment grants from STFC will enable the University of Cambridge to carry out world-leading particle physics research over the next three years.

Particle physics studies the world at the smallest possible distance scales and the highest achievable energies, seeking answers to fundamental questions about the structure of matter and the composition of the Universe.

Ten years after the UK researchers’ contribution to the Nobel Prize winning detection of the Higgs boson, some of the questions that the community is working to answer are:

• What is the Universe made of and why?
• What is the underlying nature of neutrinos?
• Why is there an imbalance between matter and antimatter in the Universe?
• How can we detect dark matter?
• Are there any new particles or particle interactions we can find?

Professor Valerie Gibson OBE, head of the High Energy Physics group at the Cavendish Laboratory said:

“The particle physics group in the University of Cambridge is striving to discover more about physics beyond our current understanding, including dark matter, observations of flavour anomalies in the quark sector and the underlying nature of neutrinos.

“This grant will enable our Cambridge team to continue to make significant contributions to current and future experimental programmes of the ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC Apparatus) and LHCb (Large Hadron Collider beauty) in CERN, and the neutrino programme in Fermilab.

“This front-line research would not be possible without the dedication of our researchers, engineers and technical staff who are supported by the funding and whose contributions are invaluable.”

Professor Grahame Blair, STFC Executive Director for Programmes, said:

“STFC continues to support the experimental particle physics community in the UK in answering fundamental questions about our Universe.

“The grants are vital in supporting technicians, engineers and academics in their skills and expertise in the field, all while encouraging career development in fundamental research with both universities and international collaborators.

“This investment underpins the UK physics community and enables continued UK leadership in the field of experimental particle physics.”

 

Adapted from a press release from STFC

Image:

ATLAS Experiment at CERN © CERN – Maximilien Brice