John Womersley
The Science and Technology Facilities Council and
Nuclear Physics
John WomersleyDirector, Science Programmes
October 2008
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ClimateEnergyEnvironment
Health, Security,the Economy, Education
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Particle physic
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Astronomy
Searching fo
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FacilitiesCompetenciesS&I Campuses
STFC in
partnersh
ipSTFC leads
Nuclear Physics
The UK has an active research community despite hosting no accelerator facility
Top 16 research themes from 2007 grants round:
JYFL
Theory
Isolde
JLAB
Future direction
A new generation of accelerators able to make beams of unstable nuclei are now becoming available
Opens an important new window to explore why atomic nuclei exist, how the forces that hold them together behave, and how the chemical elements on which life depends were made in stars.
We will focus our investment in nuclear physics on the highest priority programmes at international accelerator facilities - notably we will participate in the new Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) at GSI in Germany– Shifts emphasis from exploitation to construction
AGATA
£4.1M approved over 4 years contribution to the construction of the first 1pi of the 4
pi detector Formal grant announcements soon Liverpool, Manchester, Daresbury, UWS, Surrey, York 11 academics, 3 PDRAs (new positions), ~4 FTE
technical effort, 3 students.
NuSTAR
£9.5M approved over 6 years Expecting to fund R3B and HISPEC (some flexibility to
swap WPs with other countries to allow UK to maintain presence in DESPEC or LaSPEC)
Negotiations ongoing. Will involve at least 6 institutions.
PANDA
£2.7M approved over 6 years Magnet construction; Disc DIRC decision pending. Involves Glasgow + potentially Edinburgh
FAIR
Launch event November 2007 Contributing through NuSTAR, PANDA (and work on
AIDA which was funded through an EPSRC grant). FAIR GmbH to be set up by early 2009?
John Womersley
LHC
Our highest priority in particlephysics is the Large Hadron Collider at CERN - its results will be transformative.
The UK plays a strong and central role: two of the LHC experiments are UK-led.
The UK research community has been a major player in constructing the LHC and the advanced computing infrastructure to handle the data; we will support its exploitation of the exciting results
LHC start-up
The first beam circulated in the LHC on September 10th, to enormous media interest
However, magnet problems mean the programme won’t get underway properly until 2009
ALICE
Relativisitic heavy ion collisions at LHC
Boulby Underground Laboratory
NP groups involved in dark matter searches Interest in using Boulby for a nuclear astrophysics
experiment
Neutrinos
The recent discovery that neutrinos have mass and mix with each other may ultimately account for the very existence of our universe.
We are taking this area of science forward with a programme of– accelerator neutrino experiments including a
significant role in the T2K experiment in Japan, which is due to come on-line in 2009;
– non-accelerator experiments including R&D towards the SuperNEMO experiment, which will test whether neutrinos and anti-neutrinos are actually the same thing.
Accelerator Research
Accelerator technology is a key enabler across a large fraction of our research– Particle and nuclear physics– Synchrotrons and free electron light sources– Neutron sources
In this area we support– Design studies for New Light Source project and for a
future Neutrino Factory– Operation of test facilities - ERLP/ALICE, EMMA, MICE– Work on high power proton accelerators– Work on novel techniques (FFAG…) and underlying
technologies (SCRF…)– The Cockcroft and Adams Institutes, ASTeC, and
university groups
John Womersley
Understanding our place in the universe
Wakeham Review of Physics
Concerns about training and skills in nuclear disciplines
The Panel recommends that RCUK develop a review of the priorities in nuclear physics research to ensure they best match the needs of the UK.
RCUK accepts this recommendation, and over the next year STFC and EPSRC will jointly review the research portfolio in nuclear physics, engineering and related areas to assess how they can best support the skills needs of the UK.
John Womersley
Interdisciplinary research facilities
Opening the door to Science and
Innovation
Harwell
Daresbury
Science and Innovation Campuses
Develop the Science and Innovation Campuses at Harwell and Daresbury as focal points for collaboration and knowledge exchange with industry and academic researchers,
Should also be gateways to our in-house expertise and that of the communities we support
We will increasingly try to focus our technology competencies on an outward facing collaborative role
Gateway Centres
Funding for three new centres has been earmarked from the large facilities capital fund
Detector Systems Centre - advanced detector technology
Hartree Centre – a step-change in modelling and simulation
Imaging Solutions Centre – transforming “facilities access” into “solutions access”
To follow: Space Centre – a new space centre for the UK Joint Institute for Materials Design – integrating
materials innovation with advanced characterization
AdvisoryPanels
AGP PPRP
PPGP
NPGP
ASTAB
Accelerator Science and Technology Advisory Board
GrantsPanels
Projects Review Panels
Science Board
PPAN PALSScience
Committees
ExecutiveInternational
Science Advisory
Committee
CouncilISAC
FDRP
AdvisoryPanels Advisory
Panels
AdvisoryPanels
John Womersley
STFC facilities in the roadmap:
The Daresbury and Harwell Science and innovation campusesDiamond Beamlines Phase IIIISIS - TS2 instrumentation (Phase III)ESRF upgrade XFELDiode Pumped Optical Laser for Experiments (DIPOLE) Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) European Extremely Large TelescopeFAIRSKANew Light Source projectEuropean 3rd Generation Gravitational Wave Observatory Neutrino Factory Future Particle Physics CollidersUnderground Science InitiativesHiPER Next generation neutron sources
