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Prize for electron-neutrino research
Photomultiplier tubes reflecting in the ultra-pure water that makes up the T2K detector
The Tokai to Kamioka (T2K) experiment in Japan, that involves Lancaster University particle physicists, has recently been awarded the prestigious "Le Prix La Recherche". The prize, awarded by the French journal "La Recherche", one of the top popular science journals in France, honours the top research in 2011 across all sciences based upon a criteria of scientific discovery and deepening understanding. T2K's 2011 paper on electron-neutrino appearance in a muon-neutrino beam was selected by a 10-member committee of experts from disparate science and technology fields including mathematics, archeology and physics. The prize follows an award by the journal "Physics World" at the end of last year, for which the same T2K research was listed as one of the top 10 breakthroughs in Physics in 2011.
T2K was built to measure the properties of neutrinos - fundamental particles which have the unusual property of being able to change from one type of neutrino to another as they travel almost unhindered through matter or space. T2K fired a beam of muon-neutrinos 300 km to a "far" detector, where some of the muon-neutrinos were found to have changed to electron-neutrinos. The beam first goes through a "near" detector in order to characterise the muon-neutrino beam, which allows for comparison with the beam detected by the far detector. Lancaster physicists played a large role in building, calibrating and monitoring the near detector and are now using the data to measure neutrino interaction cross-sections, or probabilities.
Tue 20 November 2012
Latest News
Unborn babies 'practise' facial expressions in the womb
Researchers from Durham and Lancaster Universities suggest that a foetus's ability to show a "pain" facial expression is a developmental process which could potentially give doctors another index of the health of a foetus.
Story supplied by LU Press Office
Mon 17 June 2013
Lancaster leads the way in cyber security bursary scheme
Lancaster is one of four UK universities selected to take part in an 'industry first' sponsorship initiative encouraging students to take up Masters-level cyber security degrees.
Story supplied by LU Press Office
Mon 10 June 2013
Physicists gain insight into the UK's biggest killer
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the UK, accounting for a third of all fatalities through illnesses such as stroke and heart disease.
Story supplied by LU Press Office
Wed 29 May 2013
Engineering students make finals of national start-up business competition
Engineering students Scott Nash, Daniel Richardson and Aaron Aboshio have won the northern heat of the Youth Entrepreneurs Scheme 'Engineering YES' competition for their spin-out renewable energy company Atlantis.
Thu 23 May 2013