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news release:
UK Particle Physics Steps on the Accelerator
Pedal
Swindon, UK, September 19: Two major research centres opened today (19th
September), bringing the UK to the forefront of international efforts in
Accelerator Science and Technology. The
Cockcroft
Institute and the
John Adams Institute
will both be national focal points for UK scientists and companies to
develop cutting-edge accelerator technologies for major new projects such
as the International Linear Collider and a Neutrino Factory.
Professor Keith Mason, CEO of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research
Council (PPARC) which funds the Institutes said "UK physicists carry the
responsibility for key detector components and often hold leadership positions
in most major experiments around the world. The establishment of these two
centres of excellence will consolidate that position and ensure that the UK
continues to make significant scientific and technological contributions
to the next generation of frontline accelerators worldwide". Commenting on the
technology transfer prospects Prof. Mason added, "The new Accelerator Institutes
will build strong links between the research community and high technology
industry to ensure that knowledge transfer takes place between the two and that
UK companies are well positioned to win future contracts for work in this
sector."
Professor John Wood, CEO of the Council for the Central Laboratory of the
Research Councils (CCLRC)said, "CCLRC's Accelerator Science and Technology
Centre designed and commissioned the most advanced accelerators in the country
and has led UK involvement with many other projects around the world. Our
in-depth collaborations with both these new institutes will help give the UK's
scientists and companies a competitive advantage in this demanding but
strategically important area."
Accelerator science underpins a wide range of scientific disciplines, from
medical imaging, photon and neutron sources for studying materials and
biological structures to particle colliders that recreate the conditions shortly
after the Big Bang. Some of these projects are constructed on a global scale -
the next machine to be built in particle physics is so large that there will
only be one in the world - the International Linear Collider (ILC).
Professor John Dainton, Director of the Cockcroft Institute said "The
International Linear Collider is currently under design in a co-ordinated global
effort. It will collide electrons with their antimatter partner, positrons,
creating interactions which will reveal how the evolution of the Universe began
in its earliest moments It will provide answers to the most basic questions
about the laws which govern this evolution." He added "UK researchers are deeply
involved in the development of a number of new technologies, all of which
address the critical issue of how to produce beams of sufficient intensity, and
how to make them collide head-on."
The two Institutes are also heavily involved in the research and development
needed to study neutrinos -mysterious particles that easily pass through most
solid objects (even the whole planet Earth!) and which seem to change their
nature between production and detection. This is only possible if neutrinos have
mass but in the Standard Model of particle physics (the basic description of
modern particle physics) they are strictly massless. Scientists need more
information about the properties of the neutrinos in order to develop more
fundamental theories about their role in the Universe, including the possibility
that this odd behaviour of neutrinos could explain why the Universe contains
only matter and not equal amounts of matter and antimatter.
Professor Ken Peach, Director of the John Adams Institute said "Developing new
ways of creating intense beams of neutrinos is very challenging, and will lead
to new accelerator technologies that could have a big impact in other branches
of science, industry and medicine. If these developments are successful, a
Neutrino Factory capable of directing very intense beams of neutrinos towards
detectors on the other side of the Earth could be built, perhaps here in the
UK."
The Cockcroft Institute was officially opened by Lord Sainsbury, Minister for
Science and Innovation, in the presence of the children of Sir John Cockcroft,
the Nobel prize-winner who is regarded as the founder of modern accelerator
research. The John Adams Institute was opened by Christopher Adams, son of the
accelerator designer and engineer Sir John Adams after whom the Institute is
named.
The Cockcroft Institute and the John Adams Institute were set up by the Particle
Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) in partnership with the Council
for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils (CCLRC). The Cockcroft
Institute is located on the newly opened Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus
and is a joint venture of the two research councils with the Universities of
Liverpool, Lancaster and Manchester and the Northwest Regional Development
Agency (NWDA). The John Adams Institute is located at both the University of
Oxford and Royal Holloway University London and is a partnership between those
two Universities and the two research councils.
Websites
The Cockcroft Institute
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/cockcroft-institute/
John Adams Institute
http://www.adams-institute.ac.uk/
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