School of Physics and Astronomy

Congratulations to Prof Sinead Farrington who is named 2021 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the United Kingdom Laureate in Physical Sciences & Engineering

The Blavatnik Awards recognize and support outstanding young scientists and engineers. Talented young academic staff across the UK are nominated by their university or research institution, or by members of the Blavatnik Awards UK Scientific Advisory Council.

The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the United Kingdom celebrate the past accomplishments and future potential of the UK’s most innovative young faculty-rank (academic staff) scientists and engineers working in the three disciplinary categories of Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Chemistry.  The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the UK are generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation and independently administered by the New York Academy of Sciences. 

Prof Farrington is based in the School’s Particle Physics Experiment research group and she works on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. She received the Blavatnik Award in recognition of her leadership of an international working group at CERN that has improved our understanding of the properties of the Higgs boson, and the development of key trigger and analysis techniques for the exploitation of Large Hadron Collider data and searches for new physics beyond the Standard Model.

Prof Farrington commented:

High energy physics is a collaborative endeavour involving very talented individuals from around the world, working together to build machines on a grand scale, and to analyse the data they generate to help us understand how the universe works at its deepest levels. I am privileged to have been able to contribute to this endeavour and to help provide some pieces of nature’s great puzzle, and am honoured to have received this Blavatnik Award.

The 2021 Blavatnik Awards in the UK Laureates and Finalists will be honoured at an awards ceremony in London in June 2021 and a symposium at the New York Academy of Sciences in July 2021.

Congratulations to Prof Murray Campbell who has been presented with a lifetime achievement award from the European Acoustics Association.

Prof Murray Campbell is a Senior Professorial Fellow and Professor Emeritus at the School of Physics and Astronomy.  He is also a founding member of the University’s Acoustics and Audio Group.

The European Acoustics Association (EAA) works to promote the development and progress of acoustics in its different aspects, its technologies and applications.  The EAA award for lifetime achievements in acoustics is issued every 3 years to someone who has demonstrated outstanding scientific and/or industrial achievements in the field of acoustics.

The medal was due to be presented at the opening ceremony of the triennial EAA Forum Acusticum congress in France in April 2020, but this was postponed to a virtual event this December.

Prof Campbell works on the physics and acoustics of musical instruments.

Congratulations to three researchers: Dr Adam Carnall, Dr Catherine Hale and Dr Tilman Troester, who have been awarded Early Career Fellowships.

The Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowships are intended to assist those at a relatively early stage of their academic careers to undertake a significant piece of publishable work.

All three researchers are based in the School’s Institute for Astronomy.

Galaxy evolution

Adam will be investigating the metal contents of very distant massive galaxies, observed as they were 9 billion years ago (4 billion years after the Big Bang). This information will provide critical insights into the most important processes driving their evolution. He will use data from his recent 8-night observing programme, using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope at Paranal Observatory, Chile.

Dark matter influence

Catherine will be using the properties and clustering of galaxies from state-of-the-art, deep observational surveys at radio frequencies to investigate how the evolution of galaxies is influenced by their dark matter environments. Radio surveys are particularly useful for her work as they can observe galaxies across large periods of the history of the Universe without obscuration from intervening dust. Extragalactic radio surveys also observe two interesting galaxy populations which may evolve differently: those which are forming stars and those which host powerful accreting supermassive black holes.

Universe expansion

What is the origin of the accelerated expansion of the Universe? The coming decade will see the advent of a new generation of galaxy surveys that will measure the positions and shapes of billions of galaxies and help us answer this. The full exploitation of these data sets is however restricted by our limited understanding of the non-linear processes that contribute to the formation of galaxies, as well as the insufficient sophistication of our statistical inference methodologies. Tilman will pursue a multidisciplinary research programme at the interface of cosmology, machine learning, and statistics. In order to extract the full non-linear information contained within galaxy surveys he will analyse the clustering of galaxies using novel deep learning (DL) techniques. These techniques will then be adapted to efficiently account for galaxy formation in dark matter-only simulations. To enable robust statistical inference on these massive data sets, he will develop methods to efficiently estimate posteriors in high-dimensional parameter spaces.

Congratulations to Dr Elton Santos who has been awarded the Charles Hatchett Award from the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.

The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) presents a range of awards, medals and prizes to recognise personal achievement, for published work and for contributions to the profession.  The Charles Hatchett Award is in recognition for the best paper on the science and technology of niobium and its alloys.

Dr Santos is based in the School’s Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems. His research focus on the theory and computational modelling of the chemical and physical properties of energy materials, such as organic-inorganic perovskites, two-dimensional layered compounds, and advanced functional solids for catalysis. His research in novel catalysts predicting the existence of a new type of Niobium(Nb)-based compound (i.e. Nb_1+xS₂) as well as the explanation of its outstanding catalytic properties for hydrogen evolution (HER) has been recognised with the 2020 Charles Hatchett Award.

Such catalysts can revolutionize the way HER can be performed in real applications, e.g. production of high purity hydrogen for fuel cells. Nb_1+xS₂ is inexpensive to be fabricated but is as efficient as platinum (Pt), presently the best catalyst for HER but the most expensive. This is a step forward: a non-metal-based catalyst which can be used for different chemical processes involving low-cost materials, which is precisely the holy grail of catalysis. In particular, the findings report large current densities, comparable to those attained in the production of hydrogen using very expensive (£50/g) and scarce catalysts like platinum. With prices going down to a few pennies per gram, this could be a game-changing approach.

Dr Santos’s prize will be awarded at the online 2020 IOM3 Premier Awards ceremony on 3 December 2020.

Charles Hatchett (1765 – 1847) was a wealthy London coachbuilder, amateur scientist, distinguished chemist and the discoverer of niobium in 1801. Niobium (element 41) is used in steels, superalloys, intermetallic materials and Nb alloys, as well as in composites, coatings, nanomaterials, optoelectronic devices and catalysts.

The long-held belief that the Milky Way, the galaxy containing Earth and the solar system, is relatively static has been ruptured by fresh cosmic insight.

Studies have found that the spiral-shaped disc of stars and planets is being pulled, twisted and deformed with extreme violence by the gravitational force of a smaller galaxy – the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Scientists believe the LMC crossed Milky Way’s boundary around 700 million years ago – recent by cosmological standards – and due to its large dark matter content it strongly upset our galaxy’s fabric and motion as it fell in. The effects are still being witnessed today and should force a revision of how our galaxy evolved, astronomers say.

The LMC, now a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, is visible as a faint cloud in the southern hemisphere’s night skies – as observed by its namesake, the 16^th century Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. Previous research has revealed that the LMC, like the Milky Way, is surrounded by a halo of dark matter – elusive particles which surround galaxies and do not absorb or emit light but have dramatic gravitational effects on the movement of stars and gas in the universe.

Using a sophisticated statistical model that calculated the speed of the Milky Way’s most distant stars, the University of Edinburgh team discovered how the LMC warped our galaxy’s motion. They found that the enormous attraction of the LMC’s dark matter halo is pulling and twisting the Milky Way disc at 32 km/s or 115,200 kilometers per hour towards the constellation Pegasus.

To their surprise they also found that the Milky Way was not moving towards the LMC’s current location, as previously thought, but towards a point in its past trajectory. They believe this is because the LMC, powered by its massive gravitational force, is moving away from the Milky Way at the even faster speed of 370 km/s, around 1.3 million kilometres per hour. Astronomers say it is as if the Milky Way is trying hard to hit a fast moving target, but not aiming very well. This discovery will help scientists develop new modelling techniques that capture the strong dynamic interplay between the two galaxies.

Astronomers now intend to find out the direction from which the LMC first fell in to the Milky Way and the exact time it happened. This will reveal the amount and distribution of dark matter in the Milky Way and the LMC with unprecedented detail.

Dr Michael Petersen, lead author and Postdoctoral Research Associate, School of Physics and Astronomy, said:

Our findings beg for a new generation of Milky Way models, to describe the evolution of our galaxy. We were able to show that stars at incredibly large distances, up to 300,000 light-years away, retain a memory of the Milky Way structure before the LMC fell in, and form a backdrop against which we measured the stellar disc flying through space, pulled by the gravitational force of the LMC.

Professor Jorge Peñarrubia, Personal Chair of Gravitational Dynamics, School of Physics and Astronomy, said:

This discovery definitely breaks the spell that our galaxy is in some sort of equilibrium state. Actually, the recent infall of the LMC is causing violent perturbations onto the Milky Way. Understanding these may give us an unparalleled view on the distribution of dark matter in both galaxies.

The study, published in Nature Astronomy was funded by UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Consolidated Grant and support from Martin Weinberg for usage of the EXP code. 

Congratulations to Davide Michieletto who has been awarded a 2020 Chancellor’s Rising Star Award from the University.

Chancellor’s Awards

The Chancellor’s Awards are one of the most important ways in which the University recognises current members of the University community who have made outstanding contributions to teaching or research, and achieved national and international recognition for their work.

The Rising Star Award honours an early career colleague who has made a significant contribution in their field. Dr Davide Michieletto is a recipient of this award in recognition of his impact in the research in the field of topological control of soft materials.

Biophysics and soft matter

In his short time as a researcher, Davide has already built an international reputation in understanding how the topology of biological and synthetic polymers affect the macroscopic properties of complex fluids and soft materials, and has an impressive publication record. This is an area which is seeing a tremendous interest especially from the younger generations of physicists. Davide’s infectious passion for science and his highly interdisciplinary research projects are attracting numerous and strong students (from BSc to PhD) keen to work in this new exhilarating field at the interface of soft matter and molecular biology. Davide is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, based in the School of Physics and Astronomy and the Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine.

Precise deep-underground measurement of a key nuclear reaction reveals properties of the universe in its infancy.

There is a key process – in the sequence of reactions known as Big Bang Nucleosynthesis – responsible for the destruction of deuterium soon after it has been created: it is a reaction in which a proton and a nucleus of deuterium fuse together to form a stable isotope of helium.

This reaction has now been studied with unprecedented precision at LUNA (Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Astrophysics), at the Gran Sasso National Laboratories of the INFN (National Institute for Nuclear Physics). Thanks to this study, it has been possible to refine theoretical calculations of primordial nucleosynthesis and to obtain an accurate determination of the density of ordinary (or 'baryonic') matter, which makes up everything we know of, including living species.

The results of the measurement conducted by the LUNA Collaboration, and their cosmological impact, were published in the journal Nature.

Gianluca Imbriani, spokesperson for the LUNA collaboration explains:

In this particular study, in addition to our longstanding expertise in the field of experimental nuclear astrophysics, we have benefited from the precious contribution of the theoretical group of astroparticle physics and theoretical cosmology of the Federico II University of Naples, to arrive at an accurate determination of the baryon density using the Parthenope code for primordial nucleosynthesis calculations. An important contribution to the description of nuclear interaction was also provided by the theoretical nuclear physics group of the University of Pisa.

About 3 minutes after the Big Bang, the temperature of the universe dropped to one billion degrees and deuterium could finally be produced by the fusion of protons and neutrons. The abundance of deuterium left over after the Big Bang carries precious information about the amount of ordinary matter and radiation permeating the Universe in its infancy. Based on experimental data of unprecedented precision obtained at LUNA (Italy), we inferred a value of matter density now in much better agreement with that derived from the relic Cosmic Microwave Background radiation still observed today. When combined with other astrophysical inputs, our results further place constraints on the amount of dark radiation not foreseen by the standard cosmological model.

In the cosmic silence of the underground Laboratories of Gran Sasso, where 1400 m of rock protect the experimental halls from external radiation, the LUNA experiment is able to recreate the processes that occurred during primordial nucleosynthesis and to bring the clock back in time to a few minutes after the birth of our Universe.

Professor Marialuisa Aliotta , from the School of Physics and Astronomy, who worked on the project said:

The fact that the theoretical primordial deuterium abundance inferred in our study is now in excellent agreement with astronomical observations provides further evidence for the validity of the standard cosmological model. This work marks the culmination of many years of intense experimental activity and represents an outstanding achievement for the entire collaboration.

LUNA is an international collaboration of about 50 scientists from Italy, Germany, Hungary and the United Kingdom. The list of collaborating institutions includes: the National Laboratories of Gran Sasso, the INFN sections and the Universities of Bari, Genoa, Milano Statale, Naples Federico II, Padua, Rome La Sapienza, Turin, and the INAF Observatory of Teramo (Italy); the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (Germany), the MTA-ATOMKI in Debrecen and the Konkoli Observatory of Budapest (Hungary); and the School of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom).

The first mining experiments conducted in space could pave the way for new technologies to help humans explore and establish settlements on distant worlds, a study suggests.

Tests performed by astronauts on the International Space Station suggest that bacteria can extract useful materials from rocks on Mars and the Moon. The findings could aid efforts to develop ways of sourcing metals and minerals – such as iron and magnesium – essential for survival in space. Bacteria could one day be used to break rocks down into soil for growing crops, or to provide minerals for life support systems that produce air and water, researchers say.

Matchbox-sized mining devices – called biomining reactors – were developed by scientists at the UK Centre for Astrobiology at the University of Edinburgh over a 10-year period. Eighteen of the devices were transported to the space station – which orbits the Earth at an altitude of around 250 miles – aboard a SpaceX rocket launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, US, in July 2019. Small pieces of basalt – a common rock on the Moon and Mars – were loaded into each device and submerged in bacterial solution. The three-week experiment was conducted under space gravity conditions to simulate environments on Mars and the Moon.

The team’s findings suggest bacteria could enhance the removal of rare earth elements from basalt in lunar and Martian landscapes by up to around 400 per cent. Rare earth elements are widely used in high technology industries including mobile phones, computers and magnets.

Microbes are also routinely used on Earth in the process of so-called biomining to extract economically useful elements such as copper and gold from rocks. The new experiments have also provided new data on how gravity influences the growth of communities of microbes here on Earth, researchers say.

The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, received funding from the UK Space Agency and the European Space Agency. The research was supported by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, part of UK Research and Innovation. The miniature mining reactors used in the experiment were built by engineering company Kayser Italia.

Professor Charles Cockell, of the School of Physics and Astronomy, who led the project, said:

Our experiments lend support to the scientific and technical feasibility of biologically enhanced elemental mining across the Solar System. While it is not economically viable to mine these elements in space and bring them to Earth, space biomining could potentially support a self-sustaining human presence in space. For example, our results suggest that the construction of robotic and human-tended mines in the Oceanus Procellarum region of the Moon, which has rocks with enriched concentrations of rare earth elements, could be one fruitful direction of human scientific and economic development beyond Earth.

Dr Rosa Santomartino, a postdoctoral scientist at the School of Physics and Astronomy, who worked on the project, said:

Microorganisms are very versatile and as we move into space, they can be used to accomplish a diversity of processes. Elemental mining is potentially one of them.

Libby Jackson, Human Exploration Programme Manager at the UK Space Agency, reported:

It is wonderful to see the scientific findings of BioRock published. Experiments like this is show how the UK, through the UK Space Agency, is playing a pivotal role in the European Space Agency's exploration programme. Findings from experiments like BioRock will not only help develop technology that will allow humans to explore our Solar System further, but also helps scientists from a wide range of disciplines gain knowledge that can benefit all of us on Earth.

A new understanding of the cosmos, as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey’s fifth generation collects its first observations.

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey’s fifth generation (SDSS-V) collected its very first observations of the cosmos on 24th October 2020. As the world’s first all-sky time-domain spectroscopic survey, SDSS-V will provide ground-breaking insight into the formation and evolution of galaxies—like our own Milky Way—and of the supermassive black holes that lurk at their centres.

The newly-launched SDSS-V will continue the path-breaking tradition set by the survey’s previous generations, with a focus on the ever-changing night sky and the physical processes that drive these changes, from flickers and flares of supermassive black holes to the back-and-forth shifts of stars being orbited by distant worlds.  SDSS-V will provide the spectroscopic backbone needed to achieve the full science potential of satellites like NASA’s TESS, ESA’s Gaia, and the latest all-sky X-ray mission, eROSITA.

SDSS-V is funded primarily by member institutions, along with grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the U.S. National Science Foundation, and the Heising-Simons Foundation. The University of Edinburgh is an Associate Member Institute in SDSS-V, funded by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship that was recently awarded to Dr James Aird who is based at the Institute for Astronomy.

Dr James Aird reported:

I’m extremely excited by the opportunity to be involved in the SDSS-V survey, building on the University of Edinburgh’s involvement in previous generations of this important survey. 

Dr Aird is particularly looking forward to the data from the Black Hole Mapper programme. This programme will measure the masses and growth over cosmic time of the supermassive black holes that reside in the hearts of galaxies and will provide the first large-scale follow-up of X-ray sources identified with the eROSITA telescope, which launched just last year.

Reflecting on the Black Hole Mapper programme, Dr Aird added:

The SDSS-V programme will help reveal how these massive black holes are changing over a very broad range of timescales. This data will be vital to support my fellowship research on the impact of these black holes on the much longer lifecycles of the galaxies they lie in.

SDSS-V will operate out of both Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, home of the survey’s original 2.5-meter telescope, and Carnegie’s Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, where it uses the 2.5-meter du Pont telescope. SDSS-V’s first observations were taken in New Mexico with existing SDSS instruments, in a necessary change of plans due to the pandemic. As laboratories and workshops around the world navigate safe reopening, SDSS-V’s own suite of new innovative hardware is on the horizon—in particular, systems of automated robots to aim the fibre optic cables used to collect the light from the night sky. These robots will be installed at both observatories over the next year.

The UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships have been instigated to ensure the strong supply of talented individuals needed for a vibrant environment for research and innovation in the UK.  In this fourth round of the Fellowships, we are pleased that Dr Peña-Alvarez has been awarded a fellowship.

Planetary original diagnostics at extreme conditions with Raman spectroscopy

Dr Miriam Peña-Alvarez is a condensed matter chemist with interests in extreme conditions.

In 2017 she joined the School of Physics and Astronomy as Postdoctoral Research Associate. Her work is based at the University's Centre for Science at Extreme Conditions. During her work here, she has mastered the skills to explore the effects of pressures and temperatures rivalling those found in the centre of the Earth and the Jovian planets’ outer layers.

There is a strong need to expand experimental laboratory science to support on-going and future investments in spacecraft missions and advanced telescopes. Dr Peña-Alvarez’s research intends to recreate planetary interiors in the laboratory and decipher how extreme pressure and temperature affect the physico-chemical properties of planetary systems. The Future Leaders Fellowship will allow her to tackle some of the main challenges in the field of condensed matter.

UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship

The scheme will help the next generation of researchers, tech entrepreneurs, business leaders and innovators across different sectors and disciplines to get the support they need to develop their careers. 

School of Physics and Astronomy researchers Anna Lisa Varri, Franz Herzog, James Aird and Max Hansen were successful in the earlier rounds of the award.