An annual prize honouring the work of Peter Higgs is to be announced by the Scottish First Minister, launching a week showcasing Scottish science.
The new Higgs Prize, which offers the chance to win a trip to CERN, will be open to Scottish school pupils who excel in physics. It will be formally launched by the First Minister and Professor Higgs on Tuesday 5th February.
The science showcase at the Scottish Parliament includes a full-size replica of a section of the LHC tunnel, with students and staff from the School of Physics & Astronomy on hand to explain its work.
Read the full news release below or on The Scottish Government's website.
"As a student at my old school in Bristol, I was inspired by seeing the name of Paul Dirac appear several times on the Honours board. Dirac was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1933 for his work of inventing anti-matter and in particular the positron. I am pleased to have my name associated with this prize and hope that this will inspire young students of today just as I was myself in the past.
"I know very well how exciting and amazing visits to CERN can be. Rewarding those who have excelled in physics in this way and supporting the next generation of scientists is to be warmly welcomed." Professor Peter Higgs
Higgs Prize kicks off FM science showcase
An annual prize to honour the world-renowned Edinburgh University scientist who has given his name to the Higgs boson is to be announced by the First Minister, launching a week showcasing Scottish science.
The annual Higgs Prize will be open to Scottish school students who excel in physics. It will be formally launched by the First Minister and Professor Peter Higgs at a reception at the First Minister’s official residence on Tuesday.
The Higgs Prize is one of the highlights of a week showcasing Scotland’s scientific excellence, when the First Minister will be promoting the global reputation of Scottish science and the enormous progress being made by Scottish scientists in research and development.
Announcements expected during the week include:
- The Higgs Prize, offering outstanding young school physicists the chance to win a trip to the CERN facility in Switzerland, where work continues on researching the Higgs particle, named after Professor Higgs
- The appointment of 33 new government-funded health fellows, supporting scientific research into conditions such as motor neurone disease
- An official reception to honour the work of the Scottish Science Advisory Council, attended by Professor Higgs.
The First Minister is also expected to make a significant announcement about Scottish life sciences and mark a landmark in Scottish space science.
Mr Salmond said:
“Scottish science in all its forms is going from strength to strength, building on our proud history of scientific discovery – the achievements of Lister, Kelvin, Macadam and many, many others whom every Scot knows of and is proud of.
“Today, Professor Peter Higgs is a household name who is known the world over. His work is celebrated internationally and Scotland is very proud of him.
“The Higgs Prize will be an opportunity for some of Scotland’s brightest young school physicists to see for themselves the cutting-edge of international physics at CERN. I’m delighted that Professor Higgs’ achievements will inspire future generations of Scots.”
Professor Peter Higgs said:
"As a student at my old school in Bristol, I was inspired by seeing the name of Paul Dirac appear several times on the Honours board. Dirac was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1933 for his work of inventing anti-matter and in particular the positron.
“I am pleased to have my name associated with this prize and hope that this will inspire young students of today just as I was myself in the past. I know very well how exciting and amazing visits to CERN can be.
"Rewarding those who have excelled in physics in this way and supporting the next generation of scientists is to be warmly welcomed."
Professor Sir Peter Knight, President of the Institute of Physics, said,
“We’re delighted that the Government intends to introduce this prize. We will be working with them to establish the best way to identify Scotland’s most promising young physicists.
“With £8.5 billion of the Scottish economy created by physics-based businesses, this prize is recognition of the vital importance of the subject.”
Looking ahead to the week, Mr Salmond added:
“Our scientific expertise earns Scotland billions of pounds in exports from around the world, supports around 170,000 jobs and has scientists from Germany to Japan, India to Australia clamouring to work with our experts in fields such as particle physics, animal health, drug discovery, computer science and biomedical and health informatics.
“As well as the Higgs Prize and a number of other announcements, this week the government will be announcing the appointment of 33 new health fellows to conduct research into medical challenges like treating motor neurone disease, how to use technology to help people with diabetes and how to control internal bleeding. The results of our scientific expertise could benefit millions of people all over the world and potentially translate into market-ready innovations.
“Scotland’s scientists and innovators have made hundreds of discoveries and developments, from penicillin to ultrasound and in fields as diverse as electromagnetism and cloning. Today this tradition of invention is in good hands and I am very much looking forward to a week of showcasing Scottish scientific excellence.”
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The Higgs Symposium brought together 128 physicists from around the world to hear a series of talks given by a distinguished list of speakers including two recipients of the Milner prize, Nima Arkani-Hamed and Joe Incandela, and a Fields medallist, Sir Michael Atiyah.
The varied topics of the talks underlined the impact of Peter Higgs' work, with leaders in the field describing the developments which are currently pushing the boundaries of our theoretical understanding of particle physics. Other highlights included updates on the current Higgs Boson searches by the CMS and ATLAS experiments, applications in condensed matter and a fascinating historical account by Chris Llewellyn Smith, former Director General of CERN, of the journey from Peter Higgs' original paper to the construction of the LHC.
The Symposium closed with a panel discussion of what the future may hold for particle physics, and the many PhD students who attended were particularly encouraged to take part.
Unfortunately, Peter Higgs was unable to give his scheduled talk on the final day due to ill health. However, he attended and participated in an earlier session.
"We were very fortunate that some of the most distinguished physicists in the world were able to come to Edinburgh to discuss fundamental questions at such a decisive moment in the history of physics." Richard Ball, Higgs Centre Director
The symposium was organised by the Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics and incorporated the Centre's launch event. It took place in Edinburgh from 9-11 Janury 2013.
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Two members of the School of Physics & Astronomy have been recognised in the 2013 New Year’s Honours List. Peter Higgs, Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics, and Honorary Fellow Alan Walker both received honours for their outstanding work.
"My congratulations to Peter and Alan on receiving these great honours. I am delighted by this recognition of their commitment and exceptional contribution to the understanding of physics."
Arthur Trew
Head of the School of Physics & Astronomy
Scientific pioneer
Peter Higgs, Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics, has been made a Companion Of Honour in recognition of his services to physics.
The recognition confers no title but is restricted to a select group of 65 for achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry, or religion.
While teaching at the University in the 1960s, Professor Higgs proposed a mechanism to explain why the most basic building blocks of the Universe have mass, predicting the existence of a particle known as the Higgs boson. Last year scientists working with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN announced the discovery of a Higgs-like boson.
Bringing science to all
Alan Walker, honorary fellow in the School of Physics & Astronomy, has been awarded an MBE for services to science engagement and science education in Scotland.
Mr Walker officially retired in 2009 but has continued working in public engagement activities. His current project is PP4SS, Particle Physics for Scottish Schools, which takes an understanding of particle physics to the general public as well as schools.
He is part of the University’s Particle Physics Experiment group, which seeks an understanding of the fundamental particles of nature and the forces governing their behaviour. In recent years he has received or shared multiple awards for public outreach totalling in excess of £150,000.
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Karoline Selbach is a PhD student in the Particle Physics Experiment group of the Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics. Here she writes about researching the Higgs boson and explaining the mystery of music.
My particle physics work involves research into the Higgs boson at CERN, the major international research institution close to Geneva in Switzerland. I am part of the ATLAS experiment, which is the largest detector operating underground at the LHC accelerator.
The discovery of a new particle consistent with the Higgs boson (see previous article) was a fundamental breakthrough and marks the start of a new era in particle physics. My aim is to determine the characteristics (eg the mass) of the Higgs boson as precisely as possible. In particular, I’m looking for two Z bosons as the decay products of the Higgs boson. These fundamental neutral particles decay into electrons and muons which our detector can measure extremely well.
Research at CERN
For this rapidly developing work, I am currently fully immersed in the research on-site at CERN (funded by the School of Physics & Astronomy), maximising my contribution to the analysis by writing publications and presenting the results. I won the 2nd year prize for a poster summarising my research.
The current ATLAS detector is performing very well, providing unprecedented insights into our subatomic world. However, to increase the density of particle collisions even further beyond the previous limits, the detector will need to undergo adjustments. To realise this as efficiently as possible, I have also worked on simulating possible detector upgrades of the ATLAS detector. It is a great honour to represent the University in a high-profile international project, discussing and interacting intensely to push back scientific boundaries.
Musical Acoustics
Besides this high-profile research, I also teach undergraduate students at the University of Edinburgh. In my final school years, I studied music in Cologne and worked as a choirmaster and organist for five years. I now deliver a lecture series in Musical Acoustics and run frequency spectrum analysis projects with Music and Physics students. This separate career activity is supported by a Principal’s Career Development PhD Scholarship, which is designed to support research students by integrating research, training and career development.
My teaching brings together a variety of different students who are hooked into Musical Acoustics. Working with students is very inspiring and I enjoy explaining concepts to them. It is very fulfilling to see them evolve by mastering their assignments. In recognition of my teaching work, I was recently made an associate fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
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The symposium is an important step in developing links between Edinburgh and India in the physical sciences. Speakers from Edinburgh, CERN and various Indian institutes will discuss exciting developments in particle physics, and it will also act as a wider forum for discussing future collaborations between the University and Indian institutes.
About the event
The purported discovery of a Higgs boson candidate by both ATLAS and CMS possibly completes the Standard Model, but several questions still remain. This is an opportune moment to contemplate High Energy Physics in the Higgs era.
With their diverse (and complementary) expertise in various aspects of High Energy Physics (both experimental and theoretical), groups in India, Edinburgh and colleagues from CERN have initiated a discussion on the implications of the recent Large Hadron Collider measurements and physics beyond the Standard Model. The speakers will include leading particle physicists from the University of Edinburgh, CERN, and various Indian institutions.
Emeritus Professor Peter Higgs, University of Edinburgh will be part of this symposium, further details on this will be available later.
University links with India
The University is involved in several initiatives with Indian universities, research institutes and some government agencies to deepen ties in many areas of science, medicine and humanities.
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University of Edinburgh astronomers have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to reveal a population of primitive galaxies that formed more than 13 billion years ago, when the Universe was less than 4% of its present age. One of these is probably the most distant galaxy found to date (at redshift 12). These new observations shed new light on the earliest years of cosmic history.
A team of scientists, led by Edinburgh astronomers Ross McLure and Jim Dunlop in collaboration with Richard Ellis at Caltech, have used the Hubble Space Telescope to make new observations of a tiny patch of sky called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), as part of a project to improve our understanding of the early years of the Universe. The resulting images offer the deepest ever view of the Universe. Although taken at near-infrared wavelengths, the images capture ultraviolet light emitted by the most distant galaxies, which has been “redshifted” to infrared wavelengths by the expansion of the Universe. Because light takes so long to travel from these remote objects, the astronomers are effectively looking back in time, and see these young galaxies as they appeared less than 600 million years after the Big Bang.
Previously unknown galaxies
The new data have allowed the team to uncover six previously unknown galaxies in this era and to rule out a number of tentative identifications of distant galaxies made by other scientists in previous research. This is the first reliable census of galaxies at such an early time in cosmic history, and shows that the number of galaxies steadily increased with time. This supports the idea that the first galaxies did not form in a sudden burst, but gradually assembled their stars, causing the Universe to slowly emerge from darkness into “cosmic dawn”.
One previously-claimed extreme redshift galaxy in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field has survived the scrutiny of the Edinburgh-USA team. This is UDFj-39546284, for a while claimed to be the most distant known galaxy, at redshift 10. However, the improved and extended dataset has allowed the scientists to show that it either lies at an even greater distance than previously thought (at a redshift of 12), or must be a hitherto undiscovered type of extreme emission-line galaxy at much lower redshift.
“Our study has taken the subject forward in two ways,” says Ellis. “First, we have used Hubble to make longer exposures than before. The added depth is essential to reliably probe the early period of cosmic history. Second, we have used Hubble’s available colour filters very effectively to measure galaxy distances more precisely.”
Studying galaxies in the early years of the Universe is fraught with difficulties. Scientists are working at the very limits of Hubble’s capabilities, and some previous claims of very distant galaxies have had to be revised in the light of improved observations. The scientists thus placed special emphasis on obtaining data of the quality necessary to provide robust identifications of galaxies at redshifts greater than 8. Part of this involves taking additional data through filters which have already been used to take deep images of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, but the team has also added new imaging through previously unexploited filters. “We added an additional filter, and undertook much deeper exposures in some filters than in earlier work in order to convincingly reject the possibility that some of our galaxies might be foreground objects,” said James Dunlop of the Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh.
UDF12 project
The observations, part of a project called UDF12, were made over a period of six weeks during August and September 2012, and the first results are now appearing in a series of scientific papers.The UDF12 team has now released the final images for public use, after preparing them for ease of exploitation by other research groups.
A major goal of the new program was to determine how rapidly the number of galaxies increased over time in the early Universe. This measure is the key evidence for how quickly galaxies build up their constituent stars.
“This discovery of a significant population of galaxies at redshifts greater than 8, coupled with our new analysis of the number and properties of galaxies at redshift 7 and 8, support the idea that galaxies assembled progressively over time,” said the project co-PI Dr. Ross McLure from the Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh.
The results from the UDF12 campaign suggest there will be many undiscovered galaxies even deeper in space waiting to be revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope, which will be launched in 2018.
The team’s new distant galaxy census, including the new candidate for the most distant object ever seen, has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The paper is entitled: The abundance of star-forming galaxies in the redshift range 8.5 to 12: new results from the 2012 Hubble Ultra Deep Field campaign.
Images
Figure 1: A new robust sample of the most distant galaxies
This new image of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) reveals seven newly discovered distant galaxies, which are seen as they appeared in a period 350 million to 600 million years after the Big Bang. The galaxy census, the result of a program called `HUDF 2012’, provides the most robust sample of galaxies ever found at these early epochs. One of the galaxies may be a distance record breaker, observed only 380 million years after the birth of our universe. All were detected in near-infrared light using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3.
The coloured squares in the main image indicate the locations of these most distant galaxies within the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, while the boxes at the top show zoomed-in black-and-white images centred on each object. The “redshift” of each galaxy is indicated beside each box, denoted by the symbol “z”. Redshift measures how much a galaxy’s ultraviolet and visible light has been stretched to infrared wavelengths by the expansion of the Universe. The larger the redshift, the more distant the galaxy, and hence (due to the finite speed of light) the further we are seeing back in time. The most distant galaxy of these seven is the most remote object discovered to date, at redshift 11.9. This means we view it only 380 million years after the Big Bang, when the Universe was less than 3% of its present age.
The HUDF12 observations were taken in August and September 2012.
Credit: NASA, ESA, R. Ellis (California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.), J. Dunlop and Ross McLure (Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh), B. Robertson (University of Arizona, Tucson), and A. Koekemoer (Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.).
Figure 2: UDF 12 Cosmic History
A schematic representation of the history of the Universe, highlighting the key epoch of "cosmic dawn" probed by the new 2012 Hubble Space Telescope observations. The Big Bang is on the left, with the present day on the right. Lookback time is indicated on the bottom, with redshift on the top. The space observatories shown in the picture are the Hubble Space Telescope on the right, and its successor the James Webb Space Telescope on the left, which is expected to launched in 2018 and will open up the study of galaxies beyond a redshift of 12.
Figure 3: Discovering the most distant galaxies with Hubble
This graphic illustrates the technique used by astronomers to discover the most distant galaxies with Hubble. The coloured shapes indicate the different wavebands of light that are detected in the images taken by Hubble through different filters. The blue-green filters on the left allow regions of normal optical light to pass through to Hubble’s optical camera (the Advanced Camera for Surveys; ACS), while the redder filters to the right allow infrared light through to be detected by the newer infrared-sensitive camera Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) which was installed in Hubble during the last shuttle servicing mission in 2009. By imaging the same patch of sky through these different filters, astronomers can establish the spectral shape of the light from different objects in the field-of-view.
The white curve then shows the distinctive shape anticipated from a very high-redshift galaxy, which shows a sharp step at ultraviolet wavelengths due to foreground absorption by neutral hydrogen gas in the young Universe. This sharp step is redshifted all the way from the ultraviolet to infrared wavelengths by redshifts greater than 7, and here its progressive movement to ever redder wavelengths is shown at redshifts of z = 8, 10 and 12. Objects like this are therefore detected in the red bands but disappear when imaged through the bluer filters. The lowest plot shows why Hubble cannot see objects at all much beyond z ~ 12.
Credit: NASA, ESA.
Papers
Ellis et al. 2012: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012arXiv1211.6804E
Dunlop et al. 2012: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012arXiv1212.0860D
Koekemoer et al 2012: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012arXiv1212.1448K
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Congratulations to all our students who received medals and certificates in recognition of outstanding marks achieved during the 2011/12 academic year.
University awards
- Certificates of Merit were given to 44 students from years 1 and 2 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 in core and programme-related courses.
- The Tait Medal and Robert Schlapp Prize is awarded to the student with the highest marks in Mathematical Physics. This year, it was decided to give this award to two equally exceptional students: Alastair Heffernan and Vladimir Prochazka.
The awards ceremony took place at the University's Playfair Library on 14 November 2012.
Anglo Thai-Society Academic Excellence Award
Wanaruk Chaimayo received the Anglo Thai-Society Academic Excellence Award 2012. He was presented with an engraved plaque and a cheque by the Ambassador of Thailand at a ceremony in the Oriental Club, London.
The Annual Awards are for Thai students in the final stages of their PHD research in the UK who have a record of outstanding performance during their time of study here. Wanaruk's PhD thesis is entitled 'Synthesis and high pressure structural studies of bismuth nanoparticles'.
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The short-lived isotope 18F is of particular interest because its decay - if observed by satellite missions - could provide important clues to nucleosynthesis (the process of creating new atomic nuclei from pre-existing nucleons) taking place in novae explosions. A study published in Physical Review Letters puts firmer constraints on the amount of 18F that can be produced in classical novae, the class of novae which have been seen to erupt only once.
Classical novae occur frequently within our galaxy and have been proposed as a key source of certain rare isotopes such as 18F and also 13C, 15N, 17,18O and19F. The 17O(p,γ)18F reaction governs the production of 18F, so an accurate determination of its rate in the energy region relevant for classical novae is crucial.
The reaction has been studied at the Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Astrophysics (LUNA), located under the Gran Sasso massif in Italy. Here, a team of international scientists, including members of the Edinburgh Nuclear Physics group, has measured the reaction cross section to the lowest energies to date. The unique underground location provides an extremely quiet environment almost void of cosmic background, and allows for an improved signal-to-noise ratio and unprecedented sensitivity.
The reaction rate has been determined with a four-fold improved precision. This puts firmer constraints on current models of novae explosions and provides a better understating of the role played by this important reaction.
The study [1] forms part of the PhD work of the paper’s first author, Mr David Scott (supervisors: Dr Marialuisa Aliotta and Dr Thomas Davinson). It appears in the Editors’ Suggestions of the latest issue of Physical Review Letters.
[1] D.A. Scott et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 202501 (2012) - Published Tue Nov 13, 2012
The School of Physics & Astronomy offers up to two Master's scholarships in High Performance Computing (HPC) for the 2013-2014 academic session. Each scholarship covers tuition fees and additional programme costs and is tenable for one academic year. These scholarships are awarded competitively.
MSc in High Performance Computing
The MSc in HPC is taught by EPCC, a research institute within the School. EPCC is one of the leading supercomputing centres in Europe, and manages an extensive collection of HPC systems including HECToR, the UK’s £115 million national supercomputing service. HECToR, a 44,000-processor Cray XE6 system, is one of the UK's largest, fastest and most powerful supercomputers. Students taking the MSc learn the fundamental techniques required to program such large machines, and have access to leading-edge HPC platforms and technologies for their research projects.
Eligibility
UK/EU students who have been accepted for admission to the MSc in High Performance Computing at the University of Edinburgh are eligible to apply.
Applicants must have, or expect to obtain, a UK first class or 2:1 Honours degree or its equivalent from outside the UK.
Applying
Please indicate whether you would like to be considered for a School of Physics & Astronomy UK/EU Master's Scholarship in High Performance Computing in your online application form.
The closing date for applications is Monday April 1st 2013.
Successful applicants will be notified by Friday May 3rd 2013.
Further information
For more information, please msc [at] epcc.ed.ac.uk (contact the Programme Administrator)
Come to the Open Day to find out more!
Why not visit us on the next Post-Graduate Open Day on November 23rd? You'll meet staff and current students and find out what the MSc in HPC can offer you. Register here.
While parts of the world experience economic hardship, a team of astronomers co-led by Professsor Philip Best at the Institute for Astronomy in Edinburgh has found an even bigger slump happening on a cosmic scale.
In the largest ever study of its kind, the international team has established that the rate of formation of new stars in the Universe is now only 1/30th of its peak and that this decline is only set to continue. The results were published today in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Recycling stars
The accepted model for the evolution of the Universe suggests that stars began to form about 13.4 billion years ago, or around three hundred million years after the Big Bang. Many of these first stars are thought to have been monsters by today's standards, and were probably hundreds of times more massive than our Sun. Such beasts aged very quickly, exhausted their fuel, and exploded as supernovae within a million years or so. Lower mass stars in contrast have much longer lives and last for billions of years.
Much of the dust and gas from stellar explosions was (and is still) recycled to form newer and newer generations of stars. Our Sun, for example, is thought to be a third generation star, and has a very typical mass by today's standards. But regardless of their mass and properties, stars are key ingredients of galaxies like our own Milky Way. Unveiling the history of star formation across cosmic time is fundamental to understanding how galaxies form and evolve.
In the new study, the scientists used the UK Infrared Telescope (UKIRT), the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the Subaru telescope to carry out the most complete survey ever made of star-forming galaxies at different distances, with around ten times the data of any previous effort. With the range of distances, the time taken for the light to reach us means that we see identically-selected galaxies at different periods in the history of the universe, so we can really understand how conditions change over time.
"You might say that the Universe has been suffering from a long, serious 'crisis': cosmic GDP output is now only 3% of what it used to be at the peak in star production! The future may seem rather dark, but we're actually quite lucky to be living in a healthy, star-forming galaxy which is going to be a strong contributor to the new stars that will form." David Sobral, former PhD student at the Institute for Astronomy, who led the paper.
By looking at the light from clouds of gas and dust in these galaxies where stars are forming, the team were able to assess the rate at which stars are being born. They find that the production of stars in the Universe as a whole has been continuously declining over the last 11 billion years. Half of the stars in the Universe were born in the 'boom' that took place between 11 and 9 billion years ago and it took more than five times as long to produce the rest. If the measured decline continues, then no more than 5% more stars will form over the remaining history of the cosmos, even if we wait forever.
Professor Best added "While these measurements provide a sharp picture of the decline of star-formation in the Universe, they also provide ideal samples to unveil the even more fundamental mystery which we are continuing to work to solve: why?"
