A team from the Astronomy and Astrophysics group led by Dr Lauren Doyle attended the Big Bang Fair in Birmingham in June and were one of the most popular stands with students returning again and again to engage with their stall.

Congratulations to Dr Matthew Pearce who has been awarded the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine Thesis Award. Matthew was awarded this for his thesis titled “Applied-magnetic-field studies of f-electron materials."

Matthew did his undergraduate degree at Warwick, before continuing to do his PhD in the Superconductivity and Magnetism Group under the supervision of Paul Goddard. During his PhD he used a variety of experimental techniques including magnetometry (torque, SQUID, VSM and pulsed-field compensated coil), electrical transport (traditional 4-wire and PDO), heat capacity and x-ray scattering. Matthew performed measurements at low temperatures and high magnetic fields, utilising both the in-house facilities in the laboratories at Warwick, as well as international high-field user facilities – where materials can be studied in some of the highest magnetic fields on earth.

Matthew's research focussed in part on Ho₂Ir₂O₇, which belongs to a class of highly frustrated magnetic systems known as spin-ices, which are famous for hosting magnetic monopole quasiparticles. Matthew and his collaborators found that not only do measurements of the electrical resistance in these systems act as an indicator for the density of magnetic monopoles, but also that, mediated by the monopoles on the Ho sublattice, an applied magnetic field is able to manipulate the antiferromagnetic Ir domains, with potential applications to areas such as spintronics. He also studied the compound CeOs₄Sb₁₂, which had previously been found to undergo a valence transition. This is a transition where f electrons undergo a transformation from quasi-localised to itinerant with perhaps the most dramatic example being that of elemental Ce, which is accompanied by a volume collapse often quoted to be as large as 15 %. Matthew and his collaborators mapped out the phase boundary of this transition which exhibited an extremely unusual shape, owing to the influence of locally varying strain within the sample and quantum fluctuations.

Since completing his PhD he has been working at the University of Oxford with Radu Coldea studying quantum magnetism.

STEM for Britain is a major scientific poster competition and exhibition with an aim to give members of both Houses of Parliament an insight into the outstanding research work being undertaken in UK universities by early career researchers and was held at the House of Commons on Monday 6th March, 2023. Dr Lauren DoyleLink opens in a new window was selected as a finalist within the Physics category, to represent her research on stellar flares from solar-type and low mass stars where she found these events don’t correlate with starspots like they do on the Sun. Overall, this suggests other stars have much more complex surfaces compared to the Sun which posses questions when thinking about the habitability of other planets. The event was attended by people from across the UK with representation from many institutions and organisations including The Institute of Physics and Warwick. During the event, Lauren got the opportunity to chat to lots of researchers across Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry about their research, with lots of interest from the judges about her own research. Although Lauren didn't place in the competition she told us:

"Despite this, I am really glad I went as it was an amazing experience where I was one of 20 finalists selected to represent Physics research in the UK. I was extremely proud to represent the Physics department at Warwick University and hope that others from the department will apply to attend next year."

Congratulations to Lauren for representing the department and her research at the event.

Find out more about STEM for Britain.Link opens in a new window

Dr Xianguo Lu and Dr John Back have received funding from Science Technology and Facilities Council (STFC) for two PhD studentships for 3.5 years with top up funding provided by the University. The studentships will allow the students access to the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), one of Europe’s largest multidisciplinary scientific research laboratories and the UK’s national centre for experimental particle physics.

The Particle Physics Department at RAL recruit 5-11 graduates every year, and each student is registered for a degree at a partner University.

Dr Back's project is titled "Physics studies for the Muon Collider target system" and the student will study and optimise the pion-to-muon production yields and radiation dose (energy deposition rates) for the target system that is being designed for the Muon Collider, which has great potential to be a future facility for high-energy physics research. The student would spend time both at Warwick and at RAL, working in partnership with Dr. Chris Densham's High Power Targets Group that is at the leading edge of target engineering, with the possibility of visits to CERN.

Dr Lu’s project is titled ‘Next-generation neutrino experiments in nuStorm’ and will evaluate and optimise the nuSTORM neutrino physics capabilities for processes in and beyond the Standard Model. The student would spend time both at Warwick and at the RAL with the possibility of long-term visits to CERN and working alongside physicists in the CERN neutrino group.

The positions will start in Autumn 2023. Applications are now open, with a deadline of 2^nd February. Find out more.