News and Events
European Network 'Thermodynamics in the quantum regime' Launched
The kick-off of a large-scale European network
for research in 'Thermodynamics in the Quantum Regime' was celebrated
in Brussels on Tues 30 April 2013. The successful proposal for one of the prestigious COST
network grants, funded by the ESF, was led by UCL's researcher Dr Janet Anders.
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ESA selects instruments to be flown on its icy moons mission
The JUpiter ICy moons Explorer mission (JUICE) will study Jupiter and its large, ice/ocean-bearing moons. JUICE is planned to launch in 2022 and arrive in 2030. Dr Nick Achilleos (Astrophysics) is part of the J-MAG Consortium, an international team of investigators who have successfully proposed one of the 11 scientific experiments to be flown on board this mission. More...
Multiband optical absorption controlled by lattice strain in thin-film LaCrO3
The absorption of light by materials is one of the major steps
in converting light energy into electrical energy.
The Sun is abundant in visible light and being able
to convert sunlight into electricity leads to a free,
clean energy source that leaves no carbon footprint.
Such energy sources are essential to a safe,
secure, and environmentally friendly energy future.
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Investigating complex oxide films and multilayers for use in electronic device technology
Since the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates at the end of the last century, complex oxide films and multilayers have been of significant interest in condensed-matter physics and materials science, as well as electronic device technology, because of their wide range of physical properties. More...
Quantum Magic
In a recent STFC newsletter, UK news from CERN, Dr Stephen Hogan describes how he, and a team of international collaborators are investigating the properties of antimatter. The AEGIS experiment at the Antiproton Decelerator, in CERN has been designed to exploit techniques Stephen developed to accelerate antihydrogen atoms in excited states; to transport them and make beams suitable for measurements of the acceleration of antimatter in the Earth's gravitational field. More...
Evidence for a T-Shape Break-Up Pattern in the Triple Photoionization of Li
According to Wannier's law, when a single
photon is absorbed with energy just above the fragmentation threshold, the
electrons in a multi-electron atom break-up in the most symmetric way.
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UCL researchers win INCITE supercomputer award
UCL researchers investigating non-covalent
bonding in complex molecular systems have been awarded time on leading US
supercomputers worth an estimated £5.5m by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
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Betelgeuse braces for a collision
However you pronounce its name*, the star Betelgeuse is hard to miss on a clear winter's night. Representing the top left shoulder of Orion the Hunter it blazes a bright red colour. At over 600 light years away Betelgeuse is not particularly close, but it shines 100,000 times as brightly as our Sun. More...
Mathematical breakthrough sets out rules for more effective teleportation
New protocol advances solutions for more efficient teleportation - the transport of quantum information at the speed of light. More...
Magic-State Distillation in All Prime Dimensions Using Quantum Reed-Muller Codes
A quantum computer
exploits the nonclassical aspects of quantum mechanics, but its extreme
sensitivity to noise makes fault-tolerant techniques a must for it to operate
reliably. A key component in high-threshold fault-tolerance schemes is the
preparation of magic states, quantum states in a superposition of classical
states, that are required to exploit quantum effects. However, the slightest of
experimental imperfections results in the preparation of flawed magic states,
unsuitable for immediate use in quantum computers.
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Dust Factory in the Crab Nebula revealed by the Herschel Space Observatory
Herschel has produced an intricate view of the remains of a star that died in a stellar explosion a millennium ago. It has provided further proof that the interstellar dust which lies throughout our Galaxy is created when massive stars reach the end of their lives. More...
Quantum control of hybrid nuclear–electronic qubits
Members of the UCL AMO group and their collaborators
have demonstrated quantum control of a hybridised nuclear-electronic spin
system. The group has been investigating the magnetic resonance properties of
bismuth-doped silicon, and the potential of such a system as a platform for
quantum computing.
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A new artificial material approach for flat THz frequency lenses
UCL and Cardiff University collaborators have pioneered a prototype for a new microwave optical device. Designed, built and tested by the collaboration, this device could provide a practical solution for many manufacturing concepts which have previously been limited to theoretical speculation. More...
Watch: BBC FOUR- Order and Disorder
Dr Janet Anders talks to Professor Jim Al-Khalili on the BBC Four documentary "Order and Disorder". Their discussions focus on information theory and Maxwell's demon. More...
£4.3m awarded for experimental particle physics
The UCL High Energy Physics (HEP) research group in UCL Physics & Astronomy has been awarded £4,340,016 from the Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) for experimental particle physics research through to 2016. More...
Comet-like mineralogy of olivine crystals in an extrasolar proto-Kuiper belt
Some planetary systems harbour debris disks containing planetesimals such as asteroids and comets. Collisions between such bodies produce small dust particles, the spectral features of which reveal their composition and, hence, that of their parent bodies. More...
Physics & Astronomy awarded Royal Society University Research Fellowships
Dr Anna Holin, a current member of the High Energy Physics (HEP) group has been awarded one of the five Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships. Additionally Dr Andrew Pilkington has been awarded a University Research Fellowship and will join the HEP group in January 2013. Anna will be researching the properties of the neutrino and Andrew those of the Higgs boson. More...
Dr David Bowler: Recipient of the 2012 Departmental Teaching Prize
Congratulations to Dr David Bowler on recieving the 2012 Departmental Teaching Prize. Determined by student nominations, the Departmental Teaching Prize is awarded annually to a member of staff for their outstanding teaching. More...
A magnified young galaxy from about 500 million years after the Big Bang
An
international team of astronomers have discovered the possibly most distant
galaxy ever observed. The faint galaxy, found in deep observations taken with
the Hubble Space Telescope, could only be detected since it is magnified by the gravitational field of a massive galaxy cluster located between us and the galaxy.
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Dark energy camera records first images
Eight billion years ago, rays of light from
distant galaxies began their long journey to Earth. On 12 September, that
ancient starlight found its way to a mountaintop in Chile, where the
newly-constructed Dark Energy Camera, the most powerful sky-mapping machine
ever created, captured and recorded it for the first time.
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First visualisation of the DNA double helix in water
When Watson and Crick discovered the DNA double helix nearly sixty years ago, they based their structure on an averaged X-ray diffraction image of millions of DNA molecules. Though the double helix has become iconic for our molecular-scale understanding of life, thus far no-one has ever 'seen' the double helix of an individual double-stranded DNA in its natural environment, i.e, salty water. More...
Institute of Physics prize for Meera Parish
Congratulations to Dr Meera Parish
on being awarded the Maxwell Medal and Prize of the Institute of Physics "(f)or her pioneering work in the theory of cold fermionic matter and magnetotransport in highly disordered media.". Meera is a member of the Condensed Matter and Materials Physics (CMMP) group and the London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN).
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Higgs Boson Discovery
The scientific community is celebrating one of the most significant achievements for several decades. The search for the Higgs boson has been conducted at CERN's Large Hadron Collider by
the ATLAS and CMS experiments. Results were presented on the
4th July 2012, showing a clear 5 sigma observation of a new
particle decaying, as is predicted by the Standard Model Higgs boson.
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Using a X-ray free-electron laser to probe photo-isomerisation
An international team of scientists including UCL's Dr Jonathan Underwood report the first study of UV-induced photoisomerisation probed via core ionisation by the femtosecond LCLS x-ray free-electron laser at SLAC in Stanford, US. They investigated x-ray ionization and fragmentation of the cyclohexadiene-hexatriene system at 850 eV during the ring opening. The key finding is that the ion-fragmentation patterns evolve over a picosecond, reflecting a change in the state of excitation and the molecular geometry: the average kinetic energy per ion fragment and H+-ion count increase as the ring opens and the molecule elongates. More...
Events
Professor Jonathan Oppenheim Inaugural Lecture, 5 June 2013
Weds 5 June 2013
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Theory meets Experiment - Organic Molecules on Inorganic Surfaces, 24 June 2013
This focussed one-day workshop has invited talks from two leading
experimental and two leading theoretical scientists in the area of
organic molecules on insulator surfaces. The main theme is the
powerful role that close collaboration between theory and experiment can
have, and we welcome
contributed talks and posters that exemplify this idea. More...
Physics Colloquium, 09 October 2013
Weds 2 Oct 2013
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Science Lectures for Schools
Weekly event during term time More...
