School of Physics and Astronomy

Congratulations to Dr Patrick Pietzonka who has received recognition for his work in stochastic thermodynamics.

Dr Patrick Pietzonka has been awarded the 2023 European Physical Society’s Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Division Early Career Researcher Prize for his work in stochastic thermodynamics. 

Patrick is a newly appointed lecturer in the Soft Matter, Statistical and Biological Physics Group of the School’s Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems. He was previously based at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden.

His research interests are in the statistical physics of systems driven far from equilibrium and subject to thermal noise. Patrick's goal is to find general physical laws that underlie living systems and more generally ‘active matter’.

The European Physical Society works to promote the advancement of physics and is organised through a number of divisions and groups. The Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Division represents and provides a forum for scientists interested in statistical and nonlinear physics, complex systems and interdisciplinary applications.

An art installation based on Edinburgh-led research is to feature in a major exhibition that challenges established ideals of beauty.

Renaissance cosmetics

Soft matter physicist, Prof Wilson Poon and art historian, Prof Jill Burke have been working together to learn about the history and science of Renaissance cosmetics.

Both researchers are interested in thinking about cosmetics as ‘goo’, or ‘liquids with bits’ – substances that are neither completely solid nor completely liquid.

Professor Burke said:

The way materials flow – for example how a skin cream might spread on the skin – affects how they are made, stored and dispensed.

Professor Poon added:

These flow properties are of key importance for the formulation of skin and hair care products now, just as it was in the Renaissance.

Multi-sensory installation

As a result of their collaboration, they have developed The Beauty Sensorium - a multi-sensory commission where visitors can enter the world of Renaissance cosmetics, hair and skincare. The exhibition shows how Renaissance cosmetic makers wrestled with many of the same technical challenges as modern soft matter scientists.

The Beauty Sensorium will include five cosmetic samples of varying textures and viscosities, made from ingredients including mutton fat, mastic gum and rose water. These will be presented in lit glass vessels that will highlight the life of the substance within, how it moves and transforms when animated by stirring or heat. Visitors will catch fragrances of each substance as they walk around the installation and hear the sounds made during their preparation. The substances demonstrate that much of our scientific knowledge is acquired through first-hand, sensory experiences.

Home scientists

Professor Burke and Professor Poon are trialling historical recipes that may provide insights for beauty products today. Both hope that the project will inspire people to recreate the recipes themselves and become scientists in their own kitchens.

A video featuring Professor Burke and Dr Andreia Fonseca da Silva, a research fellow from the Edinburgh Complex Fluids Partnership who formulated the cosmetic samples on show, will feature as part of the exhibition and highlight the commonalities – and differences – of inventiveness in the lab and at home.

The Cult of Beauty

The Beauty Sensorium commission has been created for The Cult of Beauty exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London which runs from 26 October to 28 April 2024. The show examines how morality, status and health have shaped ideas about beauty throughout history, and it encourages visitors to foster dialogue, reflection and more inclusive definitions of beauty.

The installation has been developed as part of the Renaissance Goo project, funded by an APEX grant from the Royal Society.

Congratulations to Dr Andreia Fonseca da Silva who has received an Industry Fellowship from the Royal Society.

Fellowship scheme

The Royal Society’s Industry Fellowship scheme enables the mobility of researchers across academia or industry; enhances knowledge exchange; stimulates longer-term collaborations; and establishes personal, scientific and corporate links.

The Industry Fellowship is part of the Royal Society's wider Science and Industry Programme which strives to promote the value and importance of science by connecting academia, industry and government.

Industry collaborations

Dr Fonseca da Silva’s work already involves collaborative projects with commercial contacts, however this Industry Fellowship will enable her to expend on this work and develop new collaborations with industrial partners.

During the Fellowship, she will be working with biomedical company Hyaltech Ltd., a subsidiary of Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, who are a leading manufacturer of Ophthalmic Viscosurgical Devices which are used in eye surgery. Her work will involve developing a solid scientific foundation of viscoelastic fluid flows in order to advance formulation design and facilitate product innovation.

Complex fluids and new formulations

Dr Fonseca da Silva’s research focuses on using physical, chemical and mechanical techniques to understand both the macroscopic and microscopic behaviour of complex fluids, and the contribution of isolated components with the aim of developing new formulations.

She works at the Edinburgh Complex Fluids Partnership (ECFP), a knowledge exchange group based within the School of Physics and Astronomy, where she has developed and delivered collaborative research projects with commercial partners, and assisted industrial clients to formulate new products, technologies, and materials in complex fluids and soft matter.

The crystal structure of the exotic solid molecular nitrogen phase ζ-N2 has finally been solved and sheds light onto nitrogen’s unique progressive molecular-to-polymeric transformation.

In a ground-breaking study led by University of Edinburgh researchers, the enigmatic world of nitrogen’s solid phases was unravelled, shedding light on its complex behaviour. Their findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, provide unprecedented insights into the gradual molecular-to-polymeric transformation of nitrogen and the formation of amorphous nitrogen. Colleagues from the Universities of Bayreuth and Linköping were also involved in this study.

Phases of Nitrogen under pressure

At ambient pressure and temperature, nitrogen is gas and is found in the form of an N₂ molecule (N≡N) composed of an extremely strong triple-bond. When extreme pressures are applied to molecular gaseous nitrogen, it first becomes liquid and then a solid at 2.54 gigapascal (GPa; 25,400 times the atmospheric pressure). And for over a century, scientists have delved into these solid phases of molecular nitrogen, and although a seemingly simple diatomic element, it features an astonishingly intricate phase diagram boasting 16 different solid phases. Of particular interest is nitrogen’s behaviour from 80 GPa, as previous work revealed the onset of molecular nitrogen’s most unique transformation: the gradual rupture of its triple-bond, which culminates at about 160 GPa into a polymeric amorphous form composed of a three-dimensional network of single-bonded nitrogen atoms. As far as we know, nitrogen is the only diatomic solid that undergoes a progressive polymerisation. Knowledge of the chemico-physical mechanisms underpinning this transformation is vital in testing and refining theories of solid-state sciences.

Crystal structure of ζ-N₂

The ζ-N₂ phase of nitrogen, existing between 60 and 115 GPa, is a critical piece of the puzzle for understanding nitrogen’s molecular to polymeric transition. However, despite a large number of investigations, its crystal structure (i.e.the nitrogen molecules’ arrangement) was yet unknown—and key to deciphering nitrogen’s odd behaviour. The research team led by Dominique Laniel and co-authors employed a newly developed experimental methodological approach to successfully determine the crystal structure of ζ-N₂.

To accomplish this feat, molecular nitrogen was squeezed to extreme pressures between 60 and 85 GPa within diamond anvil cells. By applying laser heating, they were able to recrystallize high-quality submicrometer ζ-N₂ crystallites. From these crystallites, a complete structure model (see figure below) was derived using synchrotron single-crystal X-ray diffraction data.

Further insights

With these experimental findings in hand, density functional theory calculations were performed by the University of Linköping (Sweden), providing further insights into nitrogen’s unique polymerization process. The calculations revealed a remarkable gradual shift of electron density from the molecules’ triple-bond to intermolecular spaces. At 130 GPa, electronic density bridges formed, connecting three-molecule-long units. This phenomenon progressed to a 1D percolation at 150 GPa, offering a compelling explanation for the formation of the single-bonded amorphous phase of nitrogen.

The implications of this research extend beyond nitrogen itself, offering a deeper understanding of molecular transformations under extreme conditions. The findings pave the way for advancements in materials science and high-pressure physics.

Congratulations to Robin Burton who received first prize for her poster created for the Edwards Symposium in soft matter and statistical physics.

Robin Burton, who is based in the School’s Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems has just started year 2 of her PhD. Her research is on the behaviour of rotating intruders in granular media, with a particular focus on locomotion through cereal grains stored in bulk.

16 PhD students and postdoctoral researchers submitted posters at the 3-day Edwards Symposium held in Cambridge in September.

The annual Edwards Symposium Series works to foster collaboration and discussions between academic disciplines and industrial sectors on the latest developments in soft matter and statistical physics. A focus of the event is on how research can inform industrial processes, materials, and design, and how it can help address societal priorities and problems. The Edwards Symposia is organised jointly by the Newton Gateway to Mathematics and the University of Cambridge Edwards Centre for Soft Matter.

Congratulations to Dr Adam Carnall who has received a European Research Council starting grant.

The European Research Council (ERC) has announced recipients of its Starting Grants for early-career researchers. The grants are worth up to €1.5 million over a period of 5 years and will help ambitious researchers launch their own projects, form their teams of postdoctoral researchers and PhD students, and pursue their research ideas.

Dr Carnall's research focuses on the origins of the most massive galaxies in the Universe, studying their formation and evolution during the first few billion years of cosmic history. These massive galaxies follow an extreme evolutionary pathway, forming the majority of their stars very early in cosmic history, then shutting down (or quenching) star-formation activity, with the reasons for this still poorly understood. The ERC Starting Grant will enable Dr Carnall to fully exploit his recently awarded observing programmes on the James Webb Space Telescope.

Congratulations to the postgraduate research students who received a Winton Award in recognition for their thesis.

The Winton Award is given annually to postgraduate research students who have produced the best thesis in either Astronomy or Particle and Nuclear Physics.  We are pleased to announce that the Winton Award for 2023 is being awarded to the following PhD students who submitted their thesis in 2022:

Winton Award recipients

Astronomy

• Minas Karamanis

Particle and Nuclear Physics

• Emmet Byrne (Particle Physics Theory)
• Sara Mitchell (Particle Physics Experimental)

The School sends its warmest congratulations to all three worthy winners.

A European mission to explore how dark energy and dark matter shaped the evolution of our Universe has soared into space.

Edinburgh astronomers have played a key role in preparing the satellite – known as Euclid – for its six-year space exploration that could revolutionise scientists’ understanding of the cosmos.

From its final position one million miles from earth, Euclid’s powerful two-tonne telescope will examine around 1.5 billion galaxies, across one third of the sky – creating the largest and most accurate 3D map of the Universe ever produced.

The mission will also gather specific scientific data that researchers will use in attempts to solve two of the biggest mysteries in the Universe: dark matter and dark energy.

Dark forces

Unlike normal matter, dark matter does not reflect or emit light. However, it is thought to make up around 80 per cent of all the mass in the Universe and binds galaxies together.

Dark energy is a mysterious new phenomenon that is pushing galaxies away from each other and causing the expansion of the Universe to accelerate. It appears to drive cosmic objects apart at an increasingly rapid rate rather than drawing them together as gravity does, experts say.

International mission

Led by the European Space Agency and a consortium of 2,000 scientists from 16 countries, Euclid will use two scientific instruments to carry out its research.

A UK-built optical imager (VIS), one of the largest cameras sent into space and capable of measuring gravitational lensing distortions, and a near infrared spectrometer and camera, developed in France.  

Research focus

Astronomers from the Institute for Astronomy at the School of Physics and Astronomy will lead on two key research areas including Euclid’s gravitational lensing data analysis. Gravitational lensing produces minute changes in the images of galaxies which can be used to map out the distribution of dark matter in space and how it has evolved over cosmic time.

Edinburgh is also hosting Euclid’s UK Science Data Centre, which will process huge amounts of data gathered throughout the mission for teams of scientists worldwide.

Rocket launch

Euclid took off on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 4.12pm (BST) on 1 July.

As well as aiming to answer some of science's most fundamental questions about the nature of the Universe, Euclid is set to revolutionise studies across all astronomy – providing a lasting legacy and database for professional astronomers and the public to explore.

Professor Andy Taylor from the School’s Institute for Astronomy, who leads the gravitational lensing data analysis for Euclid, said:

This is a very exciting time for astronomy, and cosmology in particular. Euclid is designed to answer some of the biggest questions we have about the Universe. It has been a lot of hard work by many scientists to get here, but the results could change how we understand Nature.

Dr Alex Hall, from the School’s Institute for Astronomy, and deputy lead of the Gravitational Lensing Science Working Group, said:

With the launch of Euclid begins an astronomical observing campaign that is amongst the most ambitious ever attempted. By imaging over a billion galaxies, Euclid will allow us to make a map of dark matter with unprecedented precision that will answer fundamental questions about our Universe. The next few years are going to be very exciting, and it is a privilege to be part of this incredible project.

Professor Alkistis Pourtsidou from the School’s Institute for Astronomy, who leads the team for Euclid’s nonlinear modelling, said:

Euclid is going to provide a very large and very detailed 3D map of the Universe- across the sky and along time. This map in itself is a remarkable achievement combining state-of-the-art science and engineering. We want to extract the maximum amount of information from it, and use it to figure out how Nature works at the most fundamental level.

The School of Physics and Astronomy has had both its Juno Champion and Athena SWAN Silver status renewed in recognition of the work undertaken and continuing efforts in addressing gender equality and fostering a more inclusive working environment.

Award schemes 

Project Juno is the Institute of Physics’ flagship gender equality award for university physics departments and schools of physics, and other related organisations. 

The Athena SWAN Charter, managed by Advance HE, is a framework which is used across the globe to support and transform gender equality within higher education and research. 

The School of Physics  and Astronomy has been re-awarded both Juno Champion and Athena SWAN Silver status for a further four years.  Our status for both awards is valid until 31 January 2027. 

Juno Champion is the currently the highest level of the Juno award. An agreement between the Institute of Physics (IOP) and Advance HE allowed us to obtain our Athena SWAN award from our Juno award. 

School commitment  

As part of the submission to the IOP, the School created an Action Plan aimed at addressing some systematic inequalities faced by underrepresented groups in the School and on making the School more inclusive.  These actions include: 

• annual monitoring of gender balance of our students and staff 
• student focus groups to understand the needs of students in underrepresented groups 
• creating the Carers’ Fund - to cover caring costs associated with attendance at conferences, meetings & research visits  
• improved support for neurodiverse staff and students - through our Neurodiversity Network 
• updating staff recruitment procedures and providing improved induction for new staff starting at the School 
• improved workload monitoring for academic staff 
• mentoring provision for postdoctoral staff
• continuing conversations around decolonising aspects of the taught physics curriculum. 

Much of the work is done by member of the School’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, but many other colleagues have made a contribution and commitment to this work. 

Prof Jim Dunlop, Head of School, reflected: 

These awards reflect the widespread desire within the School to ensure that in our pursuit of excellence, we enable all to flourish. I am really pleased with the work we have done and the commitment demonstrated by colleagues. Such work continues however, and we aim to improve our ways of working further over the coming years. 

Prof Victoria Martin, Director of Equality, Diversity & Inclusion for the School said: 

I am proud with the work we have done to make the School a fairer place, and the recognition of this by the renewal of these awards. I would like to thank members of the School’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, as well as wider colleagues, for their continuing support and involvement. 

Congratulations to Gary Robertson who has been awarded a prestigious LHCb Early Career Scientist award for the successful delivery of a major upgrade of the RICH detector.

Gary Robertson has been awarded a LHCb Early Career Scientist award by the LHCb (Large Hadron Collider beauty) experiment in a prize ceremony held at CERN. 

Gary, a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Physics and Astronomy, was recognised for his contributions to the successful delivery of a major upgrade of the RICH (Ring-imaging Cherenkov) detector at the experiment. The LHCb experiment is one of four major experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, and is designed to study the decays of ‘heavy flavour’ particles, addressing fundamental questions such as why the universe is made out of matter, rather than anti-matter. The RICH detector at the experiment is used to distinguish between different types of particles produced in proton-proton collisions. The recent upgrade enables the experiment to increase the number of collisions studied per second by more than a factor of five, allowing the collaboration to continue making exciting studies of fundamental physics over the coming years. Gary was a key member of the team responsible for the commissioning and installation of the upgraded RICH detector. 

The LHCb Early Career Scientist award is made annually at CERN in a prize ceremony, and is awarded by the experimental collaboration who operate the LHCb detector. The LHCb collaboration consists of over 1500 scientists from over 20 countries. Gary was one of 10 scientists who received the award this year.