The Physics Department has a strong international reputation for its research in the fields of Theoretical Physics, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, Medical Physics and Fusion and Plasma Physics. Our Astronomy & Astrophysics and Elementary Particle Physics groups participate in international collaborations such as LHCb in CERN and the WASP exoplanet search.
We have around 125 research students and 50 post-doctoral research fellows, 61 academic staff and 22 technicians in the Department and related research centres. The size and reputation of our research activity attract many visitors from overseas and the UK. Strong funding from the research councils, regional development agency and industry ensure state-of-the-art equipment and high-end computational facilities, with excellent technical support. A new Materials and Analytical Sciences building is due for completion in 2011.
Our close links with the Centre for Scientific Computing, Molecular Organisation of Cells (MOAC) and Complexity Doctoral Training Centres enable exciting cross-disciplinary research projects. Together with the Universities of Birmingham and Nottingham, the Department is a member of the Midlands Physics Alliance, enabling co-ordinated research projects and supporting a Midlands Physics Alliance Graduate School (MPAGS).
The Department is also involved with the Science City research initiative, an £80 million programme funded by Advantage West Midlands between the universities of Birmingham and Warwick, stimulating research and business engagement in Advanced Materials, Translational Medicine and Energy. This investment has enabled us to expand our suite of experimental equipment, e.g. in high resolution X-ray diffraction, surface science and crystal growth.
Research Groups
Experimental Condensed Matter Physics is the largest research area in the Department and covers a wide range of materials and techniques. Groups covered by this area include:
- Microscopy
- Ferroelectrics and Crystallography
- Surface, Interface & Thin Film
- Nano-Silicon
- Analytical Science Projects
- Solid State NMR
- EPR and Diamond
- Ultrasonics
- Superconductivity and Magnetism
- Magnetic X-ray Scattering
- Glass and Glass-ceramics
These groups work jointly on many projects, sharing equipment and expertise. Postgraduate researchers often interact with several groups during their studies, using a variety of facilities to tackle their project.
Theoretical and Computational Physics
The Group offers projects in a wide variety of areas, including electronic structure theory, disordered quantum systems, soft condensed matter and biophysics. It has close links to Experimental Condensed Matter research groups in physics, as well as Complexity, Systems Biology and MOAC. This is the first port of call for theoretical projects in Physics.
Computationally-based MSc projects are also available in many experimental groups in Physics. See
www.warwick.ac.uk/go/surfsci
Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics
The Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics (CFSA) offers a broad range of research projects in laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. Research focuses on plasma physics applied to the grand challenges of fusion power, space physics, solar physics, and astrophysics. Work spans fundamental theory, observation, and the analysis of experimental data, combined with high performance computing. The CFSA also specialises in complex systems approaches to astrophysical and fusion plasmas, with active collaborations through the Complexity Doctoral Training Centre. Intermittent plasma turbulence is studied in the solar wind through missions such as Cluster, WIND, ULYSSES and ACE, and also in the context of turbulent transport in fusion experiments, with data from JET and MAST at UKAEA Culham.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
The group works in areas of both galactic and extragalactic astrophysics, conducting research into accreting compact objects (white dwarfs, neutron stars, black-holes) in binary stars and the evolution of these systems, extra-solar planetary systems and gamma-ray bursts and the high-redshift Universe. A common theme is variability and time-resolved observations and research involves instrumentation developments to push the boundaries of high-speed astronomical observations.
Medical and Biological Physics
Research in medical and biological physics spans several groups within the Physics Department, often involving one of the interdisciplinary centres. Medical Physics Research focuses on modelling the behaviour and imaging of tissues. The Solid State NMR Group also studies biological materials such as membrane proteins. See www.warwick.ac.uk/go/physics/ research/medphys/
Within the Theoretical Physics Research Group, several projects are available on a biological theme: see http://www.warwick.ac.uk/go/physics/research/theory
Elementary Particle Physics
The group is currently pursuing collaborative experimental research. The LHCb experiment, at the CERN laboratory in Geneva is studying the delicate asymmetry between matter and antimatter, known as CP violation. By making precision measurements of the phenomenon in different ways and comparing them, it is hoped that hints of new physics might be discovered. Together with our international collaborators, we have recently built the T2K experiment in Japan, which directs a beam of neutrinos (underground) from one side of Japan to the other. We hope to detect for the first time, the very rare spontaneous change of muon neutrinos to electron neutrinos via an effect known neutrino oscillations. We are also involved in other projects looking at generating more intense neutrino beams, in what is called a ‘neutrino factory’, and for detecting the neutrinos produced at very long distances, after neutrino oscillations have taken place.
Research Degrees
MSc by Research
Duration: 1 year full-time
This degree emphasises training and original research on a specialised project. These are in similar areas to PhD projects, but must be completed in 12 months and so are more focused.
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Duration: 3 – 3.5 years full-time
This degree emphasises research training and original research. There is also a component of advanced tuition via the Midlands Physics Alliance (MPAGS) as well as transferable skills development throughout.
Podcast
Extreme Events: Analysis and Prediction
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Holger Kantz, Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems. |
