School of Physics and Astronomy

The Higgs Centre for Innovation will provide a dedicated forum to link scientific and engineering expertise with industry leaders.

The new facility will build on the legacy of the achievements of Prof. Peter Higgs, who this year was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physics for his contribution to the theoretical work which led to the prediction of the Higgs boson particle.

The Centre, which has received capital investment of £10.7million, will create a world-leading facility for inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers through providing start-up business support and opportunities for new partnerships.

It will be based at the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC), on the Royal Observatory Edinburgh campus.

Today’s announcement builds on the support already committed by the Scottish Government for a Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics based at the University of Edinburgh, announced in October. Two new MSc programmes in Theoretical Physics and Mathematical Physics were also established as part of the Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics.

This investment, along with the pledge of £100,000 from a highly-valued supporter of the University, Prof. Walter Nimmo, will help create a dedicated training environment for new generations of leading physicists.

“This support from the Treasury and the STFC will create an environment in which future generations of scientists from around the world can share and develop ideas in theoretical physics." Prof. Peter Higgs

The Principal of the University of Edinburgh said the support for two world-leading Centres will put the UK on the map as the focal point for training and research in the field of theoretical physics.

"This Centre for Innovation will focus on incubating new companies and on start-up business support. It will house up to 12 small, new companies, as well as providing accommodation for some academic staff and PhD students. Our aim is that these students will be able to obtain a richer experience by rubbing shoulders with industrialists, as well as academic researchers." Prof. Arthur Trew, Head of the School of Physics & Astronomy

ARCHER (Advanced Research Computing High End Resource) is the next national HPC service for academic research.

The service comprises a number of components: accommodation provided by the University of Edinburgh; hardware by Cray; systems support by EPCC and Daresbury Laboratory; and user and computational science and engineering support by EPCC.

In Autumn 2011, the Minister for Science announced a new capital investment in e-infrastructure, which included £43m for ARCHER, the next national HPC facility for academic research. After a brief overlap, ARCHER will take over from HECToR as the UK’s primary Academic research supercomputer. HECToR has been in Edinburgh since 2007.

ARCHER will also be used to provide high performance computing training, including the MSc in High Performance Computing offered by EPCC, to train the next generation of computational professionals. 

You can read more about ARCHER on the EPCC blog.

Europe’s billion-star surveyor will be launched into space on 19 December, when it will embark on its mission to create a highly accurate 3D map of our galaxy.

By repeatedly observing a billion stars with its billion-pixel video camera, the Gaia mission will allow astronomers to determine the origin and evolution of our galaxy whilst also testing gravity, mapping our inner solar system, and uncovering tens of thousands of previously unseen objects, including asteroids in our solar system, planets around nearby stars, and supernovae in other galaxies.

Gaia will map the stars from an orbit around the Sun, near a location some 1.5 million km beyond Earth’s orbit known as the L2 Lagrangian point. The spacecraft will spin slowly, sweeping its two telescopes across the entire sky and focusing their light simultaneously onto a single digital camera, the largest ever flown in space.

Edinburgh and Gaia

"Gaia is an ambitious mission employing a complex instrument orbiting in deep space. Accurate calibration of the instrument is required to make the precise angular measurements that astronomers wish to achieve in order to do the revolutionary science for which Gaia is designed.

"Within our small team of scientists and software engineers at the IfA we are pleased to be contributing calibration software in key areas of the on-ground processing systems for the Gaia data." Nigel Hambly, Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh

UK scientists and engineers played key roles in the design and build of Gaia, including astronomers and software developers in the School's Institute for Astronomy (IfA) who made a significant contribution to the ground data-processing system. The IfA team members are Ross Collins, Nick Cross, Michael Davidson, Nigel Hambly and Alex Ouzounis. Dr Hambly explains the team's involvement.

Gaia's imaging system

"At the heart of Gaia is an imaging system that employs charge-coupled devices (CCDs) consisting of arrays of optical light-sensitive elements. These CCDs are specially designed versions of the same kind of detector commonly found in digital cameras, but they operate in a particular mode and within the harsh environment of deep space. However, this results in anomalies in the measured signals, and the Edinburgh team is tasked with dealing with two specific aspects of this problem, along with associated calibration issues.

"The first problem concerns the way the CCDs “see” the star field being scanned. In a domestic digital camera, we point at the scene of interest and then click the shutter to get an exposure of usually some fraction of a second. The CCD is then very quickly read out to capture an image of the scene as a stream of data numbers that reflect the electronic charge in each pixel produced by incident light from the scene. A clue to the way in which a CCD is read out is in the name: each pixel is “charge-coupled” to its neighbours such that once exposed, the array of charge measurements can be moved across the pixel array and into a line of light-insensitive, but similarly charge-coupled pixels known as the read-out register which is itself clocked to shift charge to produce a sequence of data numbers. Hence the CCD is read by shuffling each line of pixels in turn into this serial register.

"However in Gaia, rather than using the familiar point-and-shoot mode we commonly employ when using a digital camera, the CCD is continually clocked in what is known as time-delay integration (TDI) mode. As the satellite scans the sky, the CCD is continually clocked such that the scene shuffles across the device at a rate that exactly counteracts the scan. So, rather than observing individual pointed frames, a long image strip is imaged by each CCD.

Simulation of Gaia imaging

"A (very) short simulated example of such a strip image can be seen on the European Space Agency's website (picture credit: Dr Michael Davidson, IfA Edinburgh). This simulation shows several interesting features of Gaia imaging.

"For orientation, Gaia is scanning from right to left, while the CCDs are clocked to shuffle charge from left to right in order to compensate for the image motion. Ignoring the vertical stripes for the moment, we can see star images on a flat background with the familiar diffraction spikes introduced by Gaia’s imaging system of mirrors.

"However if we look closely on the left hand (trailing) side of each image, we can see that charge has been smeared away from the centre. This effect is known as charge-transfer inefficiency (CTI) and is the result of radiation damage to the CCD pixels. Incident radiation (primarily solar protons in this case) damages the crystalline structure of the CCD pixels, inducing traps that grab charge from passing signals as they are shuffled along the columns of pixels. This trapped charge is then released a short time later, but after the signal has passed. In this way, the image of each star is distorted a small but significant amount, and this distortion will get worse as the radiation dose received by Gaia increases throughout its mission.

"Note that the bright vertical lines in the images are periodic, artificial “charge injections” that will be employed in the Gaia CCDs to fill up charge traps as much as possible so that passing images are distorted less. The dark vertical lines correspond to transient reduced exposure times triggered by the transit of very bright stars to avoid CCD pixels becoming unusably soaked with charge in those images. While primarily beneficial, these phenomena create additional complications in the processing of Gaia data.

"The second problem concerns the way Gaia data is acquired on board the satellite as a result of practical limitations in the volume of data being handled and transmitted back to Earth. In the image example above, most of the pixels see just sky rather than astrophysically interesting objects like stars. During read-out, the Gaia CCDs are configured to “window” the useful data such that most of the sky is excluded, save a small amount around each object. Scientifically interesting pixels within defined windows are digitised relatively slowly for accurate measurement of incident light intensity, while sky pixels are relatively quickly flushed and discarded in the read-out process. This quick-slow-quick read-out induces a rather complex pattern of systematic errors in the digitised data that have to be mimicked on-ground by reconstructing the read-out process and modelling the size of the effects.

"Working with scientists and engineers within ESA and the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium, a small team of scientists and software engineers based at the IfA in the School of Physics & Astronomy at Edinburgh is designing and implementing solutions in software to these challenging problems. The software will run in data processing pipelines running at various Gaia Data Processing Centres across Europe including Cambridge, Madrid, Barcelona and Paris."

UK participation in the mission is funded by the UK Space Agency. The UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) funded the early development of the project, including the set-up of the data applications centre. STFC’s current support involves the UK exploitation of the scientific data to be yielded from the mission.

Congratulations to students who received Medals and Certificates at the School of Physics & Astronomy awards ceremony held on 4 November 2013 in the Playfair Library.

The awards, presented by Head of School Arthur Trew, gave recognition to students who achieved outstanding marks during academic year 2012/13.

A total of 55 students from years 1 and 2 received Certificates of Merit to recognise their achievement in Physics and Maths courses. Class Medals were awarded to the Honours students with the highest overall mark for their degree programme, and to the Pre-Honours students with the highest marks achieved in core courses.

In addition, recognition was given to the top achieving students who received prizes and scholarships, including student Sabin Roman, who achieved the Tait Medal and Robert Schlapp Prize for the highest marks in Mathematical Physics.

Scientists at Edinburgh have helped create the most sensitive dark matter detector in the world, new results show.

Researchers have taken part in the first run of an underground detector known as Large Underground Xenon (LUX), situated a mile underground in a mine in South Dakota, US.

The detector is searching for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) – tiny, sub-atomic particles that indicate the existence of dark matter. Dark matter and dark energy are thought to account for about 95% of the Universe, but remain unseen. Initial results demonstrate that the LUX detector is working well, which fuels hope of detection of dark matter in the near future.

These first results, which reveal data from a run of more than 85 days, also rule out some existing theories of what comprises dark matter. 

“Understanding dark matter may well be the key to unlocking a much deeper understanding of the universe, and it is very fitting that Edinburgh should be part of the team making this progress now." Dr Alex Murphy, School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Edinburgh

Dark matter has so far been observed only by its gravitational effects on galaxies and clusters of galaxies, despite being the predominant form of matter in the Universe. According to physics theory, WIMPs are the most likely particles to explain the dark matter. WIMPS are difficult to spot because they collide with normal matter only rarely, and their faint signals are drowned out by cosmic radiation from space.

The LUX detector

LUX has been designed to be the world's premier instrument in this area of physics and astronomy. It is housed deep underground where few cosmic ray particles can penetrate, and is held in a tank of purified water which further protects from background radiation given off by surrounding rock. 

The tank contains cooled liquid xenon, whose atoms, if struck by a WIMP, will recoil and give off light and a small electric charge. These electrons are drawn upward by an electrical field and interact with a thin layer of xenon gas at the top of the tank, releasing more photons. Light detectors in the top and bottom of the tank can spot any light emitted and measure the energy of the interaction, giving valuable information on the behaviour of the WIMP.

The LUX collaboration includes 17 research universities and national laboratories in the United States and Europe. Taking part from the United Kingdom are the University of Edinburgh, Imperial College London and University College London.

First known Earth-sized exoplanet with an Earth-like density challenges current theories of planet formation.

Astronomers have for the first time weighed an Earth-sized planet orbiting another star. Although measuring the radius of exoplanets is relatively straightforward, measuring the planet's mass - and therefore its density, a clue to its composition - is more difficult. The results from two independent teams published in Nature (30 October 2013), one of which included a number of UK astronomers, confirm Kepler-78b as the first known Earth-sized exoplanet with an Earth-like density.

The results are baffling astronomers because Kepler-78b is a planet that shouldn’t exist. This scorching world circles its star every eight and a half hours at a distance of less than one million miles – one of the tightest known orbits. According to current theories of planet formation, it couldn’t have formed so close to its star, nor could it have moved there.

Kepler-78b is about 20 per cent larger than the Earth, with a diameter of 9,200 miles, and weighs almost twice as much. As a result it has a density similar to Earth’s, which suggests an Earth-like composition of iron and rock.

In terms of mass, radius and mean density, Kepler -78b is the planet most similar to the Earth of the exoplanets for which these quantities have been determined. However, Kepler-78b does differ from Earth, notably in its very short orbital period and correspondingly high temperature.

Smallest exoplanet

The planet, which tightly orbits a Sun-like star called Kepler 78, is now the smallest exoplanet for which both the mass and radius are known accurately. The tight orbit of Kepler-78b poses a challenge to theorists. When this planetary system was forming, the young star was larger than it is now. As a result, the current orbit of Kepler-78b would have been inside the swollen star. A planet cannot form inside a star and it couldn’t have formed further away and moved to where it is today as it would have migrated all the way into the star.

Kepler-78b is a doomed world. Gravitational tides will continue to draw Kepler-78b even closer to its star. Eventually it will move so close that the star’s gravity will rip the world apart. Theorists predict that the planet will vanish within three billion years. Interestingly, our solar system could have held a planet like Kepler-78b. If it had, the planet would have been destroyed long ago leaving no signs for astronomers today.

“Although this planet is clearly too hot to support life, it is still very exciting to now be discovering planets that are not only similar in mass to the Earth, but also similar in composition.” Dr Ken Rice, Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh

“This result showcases the tremendous progress in this field, both in terms of advancing technology and developing innovative techniques. Just 5 years ago this work would have been impossible, and as we probe deeper and deeper what we are finding is that science fact is weirder than science fiction – the planet Kepler-78b certainly fits this bill.” Dr Chris Watson, Queen’s University Belfast 

HARPS-North project

The HARPS-North (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher for the Northern hemisphere) spectrograph is a high-precision radial-velocity instrument. HIRES is a High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer.

 "The detection of Kepler-78b is a tremendous achievement for the HARPS-N spectrograph. Not only is it one of the few confirmed planets with an Earth-like radius and density, but the accuracy of the measurements are close to the best ever achieved from the ground." Prof Don Pollacco, University of Warwick

The University of Geneva is the lead institution in the HARPS-North project, with the Universities of St Andrews, Edinburgh and Queen’s University Belfast, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the Italian host Telescopio Nazionale Galileo as partners.

The St Andrews and Edinburgh contributions were part-funded by the Scottish Funding Council through the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance. Together with funds from Queen’s University Belfast, these contributions funded construction of the telescope interface and instrument control systems at the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh.

The UK Astronomy Technology Centre instrument team were responsible for delivering the HARPS-North instrument Front End Unit, Calibration Unit, Instrument control electronics and software, Detector control system and Sequencer software. In addition they helped to install and commission the instrument on the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) in partnership with colleagues from the University of Geneva and the TNG.

For the first time, astronomers and global change researchers are collaborating to measure changes at a global scale on our own planet, beginning with tropical forests.

"The ASTROTROP project will help global change scientists to start observing changes on planet Earth with the same rigour as astronomers observe stars," said Dr Alan Grainger from the School of Geography at the University of Leeds, who co-leads the project.

In the project, a network of European astronomers, coordinated by the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, will collaborate with a network of UK tropical forest researchers, coordinated by the University of Leeds. ASTROTROP will be launched in Edinburgh on 30-31 October at the Measuring the Planet 2013 conference.

Pan-Tropical Forest Observatory

Although earth observation satellites have collected global data for over 40 years, there is still no mechanism to convert these data into accurate global information on key aspects of planetary change, such as how quickly tropical forest areas are changing. Scientists need this information to produce reliable estimates of the resulting rates of carbon emissions and species loss.

The ASTROTROP project is intended to pave the way for a Pan-Tropical Forest Observatory that can fill this gap. It tackles the two main constraints on planetary measurement: lack of collaboration between different scientific disciplines, and technological difficulties that arise when handling 'big data'.

"The key remaining technological challenge that we need to overcome to make a Pan-Tropical Forest Observatory operational is to combine numerous spatial databases on changes in forest area, carbon and species content in different regions. Our first thought was to combine them in just one big computer database, from which scientists could download the digital maps they needed. Then we learned that astronomers had successfully tackled a similar problem in a different way." Dr Alan Grainger, School of Geography, University of Leeds

Digital maps

Astronomers needed to combine multiple digital maps showing the visible, infrared, X-ray and other features of the Universe. To meet this challenge, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) funded the development of AstroGrid virtual observatory software between 2001 and 2009. This software enables astronomers to combine multiple digital maps from different locations across the world using the web. The data is standardised so that astronomers can use a ‘mix and match’ approach from various datasets.

STFC is now funding ASTROTROP project to test the feasibility of using AstroGrid software to monitor changes in the world's tropical forests. Running the software on a powerful central computer would allow data on forest areas collected by satellites, and processed by teams of scientists across the world, to be combined with data on the distribution of species and carbon within forests, measured by hundreds of other researchers.

"It's very satisfying to be able to share experiences from very different areas. The similarities are closer than we thought. For example, the number of stars in the Milky Way is very similar to the number of trees in tropical forests on Earth." Prof. Andy Lawrence, Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, who coordinates the astronomical side of the project. 

Dr Grainger concludes: “The astronomers and tropical forest researchers participating in the project are excited about how much they can learn from each other, and we are inviting other scientists to join us. The STFC's Challenge Led Applied Systems Programme (CLASP) also enables us to involve corporate partners, so that UK plc can gain a world lead in global environmental observatory technology."

Anne Pawsey, a PhD student in the School's Soft Matter Physics group, has been awarded the 2013 Shell and Institute of Physics Very Early Career Women in Physics Award.

The award for excellence in physics as well outreach was presented at a ceremony at the Institute of Physics in London in October. Head of School Prof. Arthur Trew and Anne's supervisor Dr Paul Clegg also attended the ceremony.

 “I'm delighted to receive this award and I'd like to thank my supervisor who has supported me scientifically and all the DTC students who joined in so enthusiastically with the outreach.” Anne Pawsey

Prior to the prize being awarded, Anne and the other short-listed candidates each gave a presentation about their work to an audience of the Women in Physics group committee, colleagues and friends. Anne spoke about her PhD research into colloidal particles at liquid crystal interfaces and about her role in setting up the outreach programme for the Scottish Doctoral Training Centre in Condensed Matter Physics (CM-DTC). The CM-DTC outreach programme includes a wide range of activities, from working with school science clubs to events at the National Museum of Scotland. Anne has also performed stand-up comedy about her research at the Edinburgh Fringe as part of Bright Club.

About the Award

The award is given for excellence in scientific work as well as in outreach to a woman who has gained her first degree in physics within the last five years and is an inspirational role model for women in physics. It is organised by the IOP’s Women in Physics Group (WPG) and the £1,000 prize is sponsored by Shell.

Support from the Scottish Government will help create a dedicated home for the recently established Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics.

The Centre was created last year in Professor Higgs’ name, following the discovery of the Higgs boson, the particle that was first posited by the Professor in the early 1960s. Its researchers will create an environment in which scientists and industry players from around the world can share and develop ideas about how to use novel mathematics and computation to tackle some of the 21st Century’s great challenges.

The Higgs Centre will nurture new generations of leading physicists, whose ideas will transform fundamental physics and speed the translation of theoretical insights for commercial benefit. 

In this second phase of its development, a new building will be created to house the Centre. This will be adjacent to the School of Physics & Astronomy’s base on the University’s science campus, King’s Buildings, where the Higgs Centre currently operates.

"We are delighted that the University and the Scottish Government have agreed to support us so wholeheartedly, and in particular made a commitment to create a new building to house the Centre. We see this as the second phase of a sequence of steps to secure Peter's legacy for generations to come." Prof. Richard Ball, Director of the Higgs Centre

Lasting legacy

The University of Edinburgh's Principal and Vice Chancellor, Professor Sir Timothy O'Shea, talks about how the Scottish and Westminster governments will support the project.

"Mike Russell, the Cabinet Secretary for Education, has shown a huge commitment to the University and its research and has offered warm congratulations to Professor Higgs and the University, not just on the Nobel Prize, but on these plans to create a lasting legacy from the prize." Professor Sir Timothy O'Shea, Principal, University of Edinburgh

"The Nobel Prize awarded to Peter Higgs earlier this week is a further reflection of the excellent research at Edinburgh and I have invited the University to bid to the Science & Technology Facilities Council for support for the Higgs Centre." David Willetts, UK Minister for Universities and Science

The University of Edinburgh has welcomed the award of a Nobel Prize in Physics to Peter Higgs, Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics.

The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded jointly to Professor Higgs and Professor Francois Englert for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass subatomic particles and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences’ award to Professor Higgs recognises his outstanding contribution to the theoretical work that led to the prediction of the Higgs boson particle.

Scientists at CERN recently confirmed the existence of the particle, which was first postulated by Professor Higgs in 1964, when he was a young lecturer at Edinburgh.

The Higgs boson enables other fundamental particles to acquire their mass. Its discovery represents a major step in our understanding of the physical Universe.

“I am overwhelmed to receive this award and thank the Royal Swedish Academy. I would also like to congratulate all those who have contributed to the discovery of this new particle and to thank my family, friends and colleagues for their support. I hope this recognition of fundamental science will help raise awareness of the value of blue-sky research.” Prof. Peter Higgs, Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics, University of Edinburgh

“We are delighted at the news of this Nobel Prize award and congratulate Professor Peter Higgs on his achievement. The discovery of the Higgs particle will underpin the next generation of physics research, and this accolade is worthy recognition of its significance. Professor Higgs’ work will continue to inspire scientists at Edinburgh and beyond.” Prof. Sir Timothy O’Shea, Principal of the University of Edinburgh

"I would like to congratulate Peter and note how excited everyone in the School of Physics & Astronomy has been by him winning the Nobel Prize in Physics.

"His seminal work has not only given us deep insights into the workings of the Universe but it has also attracted a generation of young people to fundamental science. The search for the Higgs boson has created a worldwide interest in science not seen since the Moon landings - and that can only be good for civilisation." Prof. Arthur Trew, Head of the School of Physics & Astronomy

"On behalf of the Higgs Centre I would like to be among the first to congratulate Peter on receiving the ultimate accolade. While many theorists attempt to predict new physics, only a very few see their predictions actually come true! Peter’s prediction of the scalar boson discovered recently at CERN must rank among the most spectacular of all time, with profound implications for our understanding of the fundamental origin of mass." Prof. Richard Ball, Director of the Higgs Centre                                                                      

"The awarding of the Nobel Prize for Physics to Peter Higgs and Francois Englert is fantastic news and thoroughly deserved for their fundamental contribution to particle physics. The Atlas team at Edinburgh, who contributed to the discovery of the Higgs boson last year, offer their congratulations and will no doubt offer a toast to the winners later in the day!" Dr Victoria Martin, Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics, School of Physics & Astronomy

"On behalf of the College of Science and Engineering, I would like to congratulate Peter on his outstanding achievement and hope that it will serve as an inspiration to all our up and coming young scientists - both faculty and students alike." Prof. Lesley Yellowlees, Head of College of Science & Engineering