The School currently has a writer in residence, Pippa Goldschmidt. Pippa was formerly a professional astronomer but is now a fiction writer, interested in how scientists live and work. Here she explains her work.
I'm a writer of short stories, poetry and novels. My writing is influenced by science and my first novel 'The Falling Sky', about an astronomer who thinks she's found evidence contradicting the Big Bang theory, has just been published.
I used to be an astronomer myself, I did my PhD here at the Observatory and worked as a post-doc at Imperial College for several years before moving to the Civil Service and working in science policy. I've also been a writer in residence at the ESRC Genomics Research and Policy Forum (in this university) where I learnt a lot about genetics and its social impact, wrote short stories and poetry inspired by genetics and carried out public-facing activities such as running short story and poetry competitions aimed at encouraging other writers and readers to learn more about life sciences. This great experience made me think that perhaps I could do something similar in the School of Physics & Astronomy.
So whilst I imagine that the main purpose of my stay in the School is to sit quietly in a corner and learn about the research, I'm also keen to see if people here think that public outreach could usefully be done through the medium of fiction. For example, last year I took part in an event about astronomy and poetry at the Observatory to mark National Poetry Day. The audience seemed to enjoy it a lot.
Get in touch
I'm very keen to find out more about people's work, so please get in touch if you'd like to meet me for a chat about your research. You can find out more about me and my work at www.pippagoldschmidt.co.uk or email me at pippa.goldschmidt [at] ed.ac.uk
One of the School's industry-supported graduate students, Flaviu Cipcigan, was awarded the prize for best talk at the conference "Water at interfaces: new developments in physics, chemistry and biology" at the Le Houches summer school in France. Flaviu's talk describes the applications of a Quantum Drude Oscillator model of water at surfaces.
Flaviu works with The National Physical Laboratory and IBM Research in the US.
The LHCb experiment has observed a matter-antimatter difference in the neutral Bs meson system. This effect is important to our understanding of the absence of antimatter in the Universe.
The universe we live in consists of matter, but scientists assume that in the beginning, the big bang created equal amounts of matter and anti-matter. The absence of anti-matter in the Universe requires that there are differences in the behaviour of matter and anti-matter (CP violation). A new discovery by the LHCb experiment means scientists have taken a further in understanding the difference between matter and anti-matter.
The Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment is designed to look for the small differences between matter and antimatter in the particles produced in collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Geneva. At the LHC we are colliding protons onto protons head on, thereby recreating the conditions as they existed 10-12 seconds after the Big Bang. Differences between matter and anti-matter are probed by studying the properties of particles called mesons that contain two bound quarks. Four neutral meson systems are possible in nature, named the K0, D0, B0 and Bs. CP Violation is already well known in two of these: the first observation of CP violation was made in 1964 in the neutral kaon (K0) system, a discovery that led to the 1980 Nobel prize. The later discovery of CP violation in the B0 system confirmed the theoretical description of the phenomenon and led to the 2008 Nobel prize. Now this behaviour has also been observed in Bs mesons, states made from beauty and strange quarks and antiquarks.
In this measurement of CP violation effects, scientists look at two variants of a decay of the Bs meson, namely the decay to the final state K-π+ (a negatively charged kaon and a positively charged pion) and its “mirror image” final state K+π- where all particles are replaced by their antiparticles (a positively charged kaon and a negatively charged pion). A small difference in the rates at which these two decay modes happen, indicates CP violation, a difference in the behaviour of matter and antimatter.
LHCb first found a hint for CP violation in the decay of Bs mesons in March 2012 with the analysis of a third of the data sample collected in 2011. Now the full sample from 2011 has been scrutinised and the analysis refined. The confirmation of the previous measurement and discovery of CP violation in the Bs is based on analysis of 70 trillion proton-proton collisions. The data contains approximately one thousand Bs → π K decays in which a difference between the rate of decays to the final state K-π+ and its CP mirror image K+π- is observed with a significance exceeding 5 sigma, the standard criterion for discovery. The measurement relies on the ability of the experiment to accurately distinguish between pions and kaons using photodetectors that were tested and qualified at the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow.
"This is an important measurement and step forward in our understanding of the puzzle of the missing anti-matter in our Universe.", says Prof. Franz Muheim, University of Edinburgh, who led the photodetector test programme, "The performance of the detector so far has already exceeded our expectations. This is testament to the work that went into the design, testing, commissioning and monitoring of these photon detectors by a team of physicists, PhD students, engineers and technicians at the University of Edinburgh and partner institutes in the LHCb collaboration". The measurements made by LHCb are in agreement with the Standard Model of particle physics which allows CP violation to occur but not at the level needed to explain the matter and antimatter difference of the Universe. Prof. Muheim added "The fact the Standard Model fails so spectacularly in explaining the absence of antimatter remains an unsolved puzzle and hints at new physics. That is what LHCb was designed to find and we are making important steps on that road thanks to the good performance of both the LHC and our detector."
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Duncan Forgan and Tiffany Wood have joined the Royal Society's Young Academy of Scotland, a body of individuals who have demonstrated outstanding ability in their work.
Duncan Forgan, Institute for Astronomy, is among the youngest members. He said: "The Academy boasts an impressive membership of talented people from across all disciplines, and I am honoured to be counted amongst them. I'm looking forward to meeting my fellow members, and to contributing to the Academy's influential voice on issues that affect us all."
Tiffany Wood, Edinburgh Complex Fluids Partnership, said: "I feel excited and honoured to be joining the talented and dynamic individuals at the Young Academy and working together to seek solutions to civic challenges."
The induction event will be held at the RSE on April 29th.
About the Young Academy of Scotland
The RSE Young Academy of Scotland fosters interdisciplinary activities among emerging leaders from the disciplines of science and humanities, the professions, the arts, business and civil society. It is part of a growing international movement in which national academies are establishing young academies across Europe and beyond.
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New financial support is available for MSc students in Theoretical Physics, Mathematical Physics and High Performance Computing.
Applicants for the School’s MSc programmes are eligible for a variety of funding schemes and scholarships.
Highly Skilled Workforce Scholarships
The University of Edinburgh offers 10 Master’s scholarships for Scottish and EU nationals studying one of the School’s taught masters’ programmes, including the MSc Mathematical Physics, MSc Theoretical Physics and the MSc High Performance Computing.
These ‘Highly Skilled Workforce’ scholarships are supported by the Scottish Funding Council. Places are awarded to taught masters programmes with clear links to industry and relevance to Scottish Government priority development sectors. Students will have the opportunity to undertake research projects which apply their skills to real-world problems drawn from the Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics, EPCC, or industry. In the latter case, students will have the opportunity to undertake part of their research in a company affiliated to the Higgs Centre, or to EPCC. Bursaries will be provided to cover any additional costs incurred by students taking industry projects.
Applying
You must have applied for admission to the University of Edinburgh and have full EASE authentication. You should submit an online scholarship application form by the deadline of 1st May 2013. Please tick the box to apply for the "UK/EU Master's Scholarships".
Higgs Centre Scholarships
The Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics offers 5 prestigious Higgs Centre Scholarships, each valued at £5,000, for students enrolled on the MSc programmes in Mathematical Physics and Theoretical Physics. These scholarships will be tenable for one academic year and will be deducted from tuition fees.
The scholarship will be awarded on the basis of academic merit to students of any nationality. Candidates must have, or expect to obtain, a UK first-class honours degree or its overseas equivalent.
Applying
You should submit your application for either the MSc in Theoretical Physics or the MSc in Mathematical Physics by 1st May 2013. You will automatically be considered for a Higgs Centre scholarship.
Masters’ Scholarships in High Performance Computing
The School offers two Masters’ Scholarships in High Performance Computing. Each scholarship covers tuition fees and additional programme costs and is tenable for one academic year. UK/EU students who have been accepted for admission to the MSc in High Performance Computing are eligible to be considered.
Applying
You should submit your application for the MSc in High Performance Computing by 1st May 2013. You will automatically be considered for a Masters Scholarships for HPC.
New MSc programmes in Theoretical Physics and Mathematical Physics
Following the establishment of the Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics, the School has launched two new MSc programmes in Theoretical Physics and Mathematical Physics. Both programmes are now open for applications for September 2013 entry.
As a core part of the Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics, these two MSc programmes are designed to prepare students for a research career in academia or industry by introducing advanced ideas and techniques that are applicable in a wide range of research areas, while emphasising the underlying physics concepts. Both MScs build upon our integrated Masters (MPhys) programmes and our graduate-level courses.
MSc in High Performance Computing
The MSc in High Performance Computing is taught by EPCC. EPCC is a Research Institute within the School and one of the leading supercomputing centres in Europe, managing an extensive collection of HPC systems including HECToR, the UK’s £115 million national supercomputing service. Students taking the MSc learn the fundamental techniques required to program these large machines, and have access to leading-edge HPC platforms and technologies for their research projects.
High performance computing (HPC) is widely used in science, engineering and industry. This MSc will equip participants with the multidisciplinary skills and knowledge to lead the way in the field of HPC.
Find out more
Further details on the programmes and how to apply are available on the programme websites:
• MSc in High Performance Computing
• MSc in Theoretical Physics & Mathematical Physics
Contact us
If you have any questions regarding the MSc programmes, scholarships, applying or pre-arrival information, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Crystal Lei
PGT Programme Administrator
Email: Yuhua.Lei [at] ed.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0) 131 651 7067
Thomas Targett and Duncan Forgan, research fellows at the Institute for Astronomy, have used the Starcraft game to show how statistical models can predict change in highly complicated systems. They explain their methods below.
Our understanding of the Universe has grown at an incredible rate over the past century. Recent technological marvels like the Hubble Space Telescope, and popular science programmes such as “Stargazing Live” have raised public interest and understanding of astronomy to an all-time high.
However, while cutting-edge discoveries in astrophysics often attract widespread press coverage, a gap in public knowledge often remains when it comes to the complex processes behind the scenes. These progress from an initial idea, to data-gathering, through analysis and testing, and finally to discovery – steps commonly known as the scientific method.
As part of a public outreach project to increase understanding of the scientific method, we used the outcomes of online player vs. player matches in the Blizzard Entertainment computer game StarCraft 2 to develop models of interstellar colonisation. While this project certainly does not represent any real development in our understanding of possible extra-terrestrial life, it does link the more familiar world of interstellar video games with applied science methodology.
We hope that translating parameters from StarCraft 2 into a numerical simulation, which is then explored in a setting based on real-world physics, will open up the processes and concepts of academic paper-writing to a broader audience.
Within the StarCraft 2 universe, three alien civilisations compete for a region of space known as the Koprulu Sector, supposedly situated on the galactic fringe of the Milky Way. These civilisations comprise a human penal colony offshoot group known as the “Terran Dominion”, the insect-like hive-minded “Zerg”, and the technologically advanced telepathic “Protoss”. We transplanted these fictitious civilisations into a model region of space whose properties we set using actual observational data from our own Milky Way.
Our model region has a stellar density, star-formation rate, and other characteristics based on the average values found in our own galaxy. Real-world constraints have been placed on their speed of movement (ie they can’t travel faster than light) before the characters are released into the numerical model. Their subsequent encounters and conflicts are then resolved based upon the “data” collected from outcomes achieved in the online gaming community. It is hoped that this application of combined real and fictional data will illustrate the core properties involved in producing research papers and provide broader understanding of how data are collected and analysed in scientific research.
This is not a peer reviewed scientific research paper, nor has it been submitted to a scientific journal. All work was conducted outside of office hours on personal time.
Further information
Article in Wired: Study Predicts Which StarCraft Race Will Conquer Space
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Latest results from CERN further reinforce that the particle discovered last year is a Higgs boson.
Having analysed more data, the CMS and ATLAS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) today presented their latest findings at the Moriond Conference in Italy. They find that the particle is looking more and more like a Higgs boson, the particle long-thought to give other particles mass.
"These latest findings reinforce what the ATLAS and CMS teams were reporting in 2012 with regard to the Higgs-like particle and show that we are closer than ever before to completing the Standard Model of particle physics." Dr Victoria Martin, University of Edinburgh ATLAS team.
UK particle physicist and ATLAS spokesperson Professor Dave Charlton from the University of Birmingham said: "The latest results mark a significant step in the measurements of the new boson, and use the full data sample collected so far by the LHC. It has been a great challenge for the experiments to produce such detailed analyses so quickly - it is a testament to the dedication of very many people that we could show them this week. With these results we see both that the decays, and the spin quantum number, of the new particle look like a Higgs boson."
ATLAS at Edinburgh
A team of 20 at the School of Physics & Astronomy is involved with the ATLAS project, and their work contributed to today's announcement. Among them are Chiara Debenedetti, a third-year PhD student in the Edinburgh Particle Physics Experiment group who is currently stationed at CERN for part of her PhD.
"The latest results are the outcome of hard and productive group work. These are amazing times to be a young experimental particle physicist, and I am very honoured to be one! We have the privilege of analysing data containing information that particle physicists have been seeking for a long time, and these data seem to confirm even more that we have seen the Higgs particle. A lot of measurements can be made now, to prove the nature of the particle we have found.
"The Edinburgh ATLAS group, which I am part of, is consistently participating in Higgs searches, and the excitement can be felt even more. Peter Higgs, Professor Emeritus at the University of Edinburgh, postulated his theory and the Edinburgh team is contributing towards proving it! It can be tiring sometimes to have tight deadlines and a lot of pressure, but the results ATLAS has been obtaining pay for all this hard work!" Chiara Debenedetti, third-year PhD student, Edinburgh Particle Physics Experiment group
Further questions raised
The key properties that allow us to say whether or not it is a Higgs particle are the strength with which it decays to other particles and its spin (intrinsic angular momentum) quantum number. Taken with the results on the decays of the particle, if it has spin-zero, as suggested in these latest results, then it is a Higgs particle.
Even then though, the work will be far from over. If the new particle is a Higgs, it could be the Higgs as predicted in the 1960s, which would complete the Standard Model of particle physics, or it could be a more exotic particle that would lead us beyond the Standard Model. The stakes are high. The Standard Model accounts for all the visible matter in the Universe, including the stuff that we are made of, but it does not account for the 96% of the Universe that is invisible to us - the dark universe. Finding out what kind of Higgs it is will rely on carefully measuring the particle's interactions with other particles, and that may take several years to resolve.
STFC pays the UK contribution to the CERN budget as well as supporting UK participation in the four LHC experimental detector projects, including the Higgs boson detectors ATLAS and CMS, and supports the University of Edinburgh Particle Physics Experiment group.
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The largest project ever undertaken to map the Universe in three dimensions using ESO telescopes has reached the halfway stage.
An international team of astronomers, including members of the University of Edinburgh, has used the VIMOS instrument on the ESO Very Large Telescope to measure the distances to 55,000 galaxies [1] as part of the VIPERS survey [2]. This has already allowed them to create a remarkable three-dimensional view of how galaxies were distributed in space in the younger Universe. This reveals the complex web of the large-scale structure of the Universe in great detail.
By studying the cosmic web, astronomers can test theories of how the Universe formed and evolved and help to track down the properties of the mysterious dark energy that is making the expansion of the Universe speed up. Mapping how large-scale structure grows with time they can also check whether Einstein’s theory of General Relativity holds precisely, or whether it may need to be revised.
The initial measurement of this growth rate has been led by Dr Sylvain de la Torre and Prof. John Peacock at the University of Edinburgh's Institute for Astronomy, sited at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh. The results show that the strength of gravity had the same value when the Universe was half its present age as it does today; any changes over this period must be less than about 10%, which is the best current limit of its kind.
VIPERS survey
The VIPERS survey is the most detailed map yet of galaxies seen at the epoch when we believe the Universe became dominated by dark energy (as it is today). This happened between five and nine billion years ago — about half its current age of 13.7 billion years. Although it is not yet complete, VIPERS is already delivering exciting science results including a first estimate of the growth rate of large-scale structure at redshifts close to unity and the best census ever of the average number of massive galaxies at this time of the Universe’s evolution.
To mark this milestone the team is submitting this week the first set of papers to be published in scientific journals that describe the survey and the initial results. The results from VIPERS are made public for use by astronomers around the world. The current catalogue of galaxy distances will be released in September 2013.
Notes
[1] The light of each galaxy is spread out into its component colours within VIMOS. Subsequent careful analysis then allows the astronomers to work out how fast the galaxy appears to move away from us — its redshift. This in turn reveals its distance and, when combined with its position on the sky, its three-dimensional location in the Universe.
[2] VIPERS stands for the VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey.
Further information about VIPERS, including survey press release images.
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The School of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh offers an MSc in High Performance Computing (HPC). This well-established programme provides an excellent grounding in HPC technologies and their practical application.
Virtual Open Days
The MSc in HPC team are organising three virtual Open Days this year:
- Monday 18 March 12:00-13:00 GMT
- Thursday 11 April 10:00-11:00 BST
- Thursday 9 May 12:00-13:00 BST
These live sessions in the chat room will allow you to talk to staff and current students about applying for the MSc in HPC, studying in the University, living in Edinburgh and any other aspect of studying with us.
If you are interested in applying for the MSc in HPC, these virtual open days are a good opportunity to:
- Talk to staff from the MSc in HPC
- Discuss career opportunities and financial support
- Meet current students
Scholarships
We are offering two UK/EU Masters scholarships in High Performance Computing for the 2013/14 academic year.
About the MSc
The MSc is taught by experts from EPCC, a supercomputing centre based in the School. EPCC is one of the leading centres of supercomputing expertise in Europe, and it manages an extensive collection of HPC systems including the UK’s national supercomputer HECToR, a Cray XE system with more than 90,000 CPU cores. All our MSc students are given accounts on HECToR and use it extensively for practical exercises and project work.
High performance computing is widely used in science, engineering and industry. Many branches of modern science, such as climate research and nanotechnology, rely on complex computer models, which can only be run on parallel supercomputers. Companies involved in areas such as aerospace and automotive engineering, oil exploration, drug design and genetic sequencing all run computer models on HPC systems.
Furthermore, the parallel programming techniques that were once only applicable to specialist machines are now essential for any software developer who wants to take full advantage of modern multicore processors, graphics processors and computing clusters.
This MSc will equip participants with the multidisciplinary skills and knowledge to lead the way in the field of HPC.
Registration
Find out more
Visit the MSc in HPC website.
msc [at] epcc.ed.ac.uk (Contact us by email).
Max Nolte, an MPhys Computational Physics student, is spending his Fourth Year of studies at the University of Washington.
Being a rather ambitious student, I first had trouble finding equivalent courses to what I would have to study in Edinburgh. University of Washington (UW) students only need to declare their major in their third year and so some of the Fourth Year Physics courses seemed too simple for me and I did not want to waste any time on too-easy courses. Thus I decided to take two First Year graduate (PhD) classes.
The first year of Physics graduate school in the US is extremely hard and students get inundated with homework. I managed to pass both classes and learned more than I have ever learned in any course, but this quarter I was wise enough to only take one graduate class. There is a lot more continuous work during the term in American universities than in Britain and the homework counts more. This means more stress during the semester, but also less stress in finals week. In my classes the finals were only worth between 20% and 40%, while the homework accounted for as much as 45% of the grade.
It can be very difficult to get into certain courses (not Physics though), since they fill up quickly or have major-specific restrictions. But there is a wide range of other courses offered and you have the unique chance to take classes you cannot take in Edinburgh. I attended a seminar on Computational Neuroscience and will take a full class in it in my final quarter. And in the Physics department it is possible to conduct undergraduate research (for credits) with some of the professors, which I recommend. I am working on the theoretical X-ray absorption of water this quarter.
Life in Seattle
The University of Washington is a large public university in Seattle and supposedly has America’s most beautiful campus (on sunny days). I love Seattle because it is a big city surrounded by some of the greatest outdoors America has to offer. For an outdoor enthusiast the Pacific Northwest is a paradise. I brought my kayak all the way from Europe and on quiet days it takes me only thirty minutes to drive from my house to the closest whitewater river (that was the reason I applied to the UW in the first place). Mt Rainier (14,411ft), the highest mountain in the State of Washington, is visible from campus on most days. There is plenty of skiing and hiking all year round (I met a guy who went skiing on Mt Rainier in the middle of summer).
The best part of my stay so far has been my Christmas break. I bought a cheap car and went on a 4,400-mile road trip down south. We visited San Francisco, Yosemite, the Redwoods, Las Vegas, Tijuana, Los Angeles, Death Valley and many, many more places.
A few other random, but awesome facts... There is a wide variety of good food in the U-District (University District). Vietnamese Pho is one of my favourites. The gym is bigger than the one in Edinburgh, it is free, the pool is always open and there are cheap classes. There are many sports clubs and societies. Make sure you quickly learn American Football rules to support the UW Huskies (who play to more than 60,000 people at a home game). Seattle is very liberal (they legalised gay marriage and marijuana in Washington) and it is very cycle-friendly.
I can only recommend spending your year abroad at the University of Washington. If you have any doubt, listen to what a wise man once said: ‘Don’t think about it, just do it.’ (Or send me an email).
Study abroad
If you would like to gain experience of studying abroad, the University of Edinburgh can offer you several options. Most students choose to go abroad on their Third or Fourth year of study.
You can apply for a year abroad either through an ERASMUS or an International Exchange programme. More information, including a list of available destinations, can be found on the University International Office's Exchanges page. Or you can contact kristel.torokoff [at] ed.ac.uk (Kristel Torokoff), who coordinates all types of student exchanges in the School of Physics & Astronomy.
