Physics Department News

On Wednesday 12th July, the university welcomed 100 primary school children, aged 4 to 11 years old to the final of the Primary Science fair. Local Coventry and Warwickshire schools had hosted their own heats, where the best science projects had been chosen by teachers, students and parents. A judging panel made up of real life scientists and educationalists judged the entries and Professor Andrew Levan awarded first, second and third prizes in categories of Upper Key Stage 2, Lower Key Stage 2, Key Stage 1 and Reception.

Congratulations on your success at A-level! We are looking forward to welcoming you to the Department in October.

Please read our pages for new students. There are links to information about matriculation and getting started, and to some excercises we would like you to look at before you get here.

The LHCb collaboration has announced the discovery of a new particle, the Ξ_cc⁺⁺ state. Just like the protons that circulate in the Large Hadron Collider, the new particle is a baryon, composed of three quarks bound together by the strong force. However, unlike the proton which is made from three light quarks (two up quarks and a down quark), the Ξ_cc⁺⁺ contains one up quark and two charm quarks. This discovery opens the door for novel investigations of the strong force that binds hadrons together.

The field of spintronics is rapidly developing from its roots in magnetic metal multilayers. In recent years, two-dimensional (2D) materials came to the forefront and advances in this field are expected to occur based on hybrid systems. A plethora of novel 2D materials offers fascinating fundamental properties for spin transport and controlled spin-light interaction. In this context, silicene is a particularly promising candidate for the design of spintronic devices. In the paper, we show how disorder, normally associated with reduced charge transport characteristics, can be used in silicence to enhance spin transport.