The Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council has this week
approved a GBP21 million programme of Accelerator Research and
Development for future facilities in particle physics, including a
Linear Collider and a possible Neutrino Factory. This will develop the
UK academic base in these areas, supporting PPARC’s strategic aim of
positioning UK academic groups to win major shares in the construction
of these facilities.

The Linear Collider has been accepted by the international particle
physics community as the next large facility needed and construction
could start as early as 2009. It will collide electrons and positrons
at high energy, shedding light on the physics that takes place beyond
this frontier. UK scientists are focussing on developing the beam
delivery system, which will take the accelerated particles to the
collision point.

PPARC’s investment, in partnership with the CCLRC, which was also
allocated funds for this joint programme in Spending Review 2002, will
fund a research programme and create two University centres to build on
existing UK academic expertise and develop a strong research base in
accelerator R&D to enhance the UK’s world-leading position in
experimental particle physics.

PPARC’s Chief Executive, Professor Ian Halliday said “The UK particle
physics community must position itself to play a leading role in the
global linear collider project if we are to remain in the forefront of
scientific discovery and the resulting technology returns. To achieve
this, we are creating centres of expertise in accelerator physics and
funding a major research effort.”

The two centres being created are: the Cockcroft Institute: National
Centre for Accelerator Science with GPB7.03 million from PPARC, in
partnership with the Northwest Development Agency, the Universities of
Liverpool, Lancaster and Manchester, and the Oxford / Royal Holloway
Centre with GPB2.0 million from PPARC, in partnership with the
University of Oxford and Royal Holloway, University of London. The
partner Universities will expand their expertise in this field,
creating 18 new academic posts in total. These centres will work
closely with CCLRC’s Accelerator Science and Technology Centre (ASTeC)
based at both the Daresbury and Rutherford-Appleton sites to create a
world-leading accelerator science capability in the UK.

The Neutrino Factory is a proposed international experiment to study
artificially produced neutrinos (most experiments at present study
neutrinos created in the Sun or in the Earth’s atmosphere). According
to the Standard Model of particle physics, neutrinos have zero mass,
but recent observations have shown that neutrinos can oscillate between
three types – which is only possible if they have a non-zero mass. A
Neutrino Factory will rely on a beam of muons that decay to create to
the neutrinos. A new mechanism has been proposed for cooling the muons
to achieve this and the Muon Ionisation Cooling Experiment (MICE) is
designed to test this principle.

Professor Halliday added “The UK’s substantial expertise and existing
infrastructure in this area could give it the opportunity to host such
a facility by the end of the next decade. Our investment now will
position the UK to be a leading partner in the development of this
facility.”

Notes for Editors

Breakdown of Funding announced

The total programme announced is worth GBP21.28 million, of which
GBP18.29 million is new funds and the balance is made of existing
grants. The funding for MICE is provisional on the project passing
through further review procedures.

Linear Collider Accelerator Beam Delivery (LC-ABD) GBP9.11 million
(April 2004 to March 2007)

The Cockcroft Institute : National Centre for Accelerator Science GBP
7.03 million (April 2004 to March 2012)

Oxford / Royal Holloway Centre GBP 2 million (April 2007 to March 2012)

UK Neutrino Factory GBP 1.92 million (April 2004 to March 2007)

Muon Ionisation Cooling Experiment (MICE) GBP 1.22 million
(provisional) (April 2004 to March 2007)

Basic Particle Physics

Particle Physicists probe the nature of the Universe around us,
studying what the world around us is made of and the forces that
influence it. To do this they use high energy machines that accelerate
particles to near the speed of light and then collide them, recreating
the first moments after the Big Bang when the Universe formed. In this
way, they examine the fundamental building blocks and can try to
develop a ‘Theory of Everything’ that explains the characteristics of
energy and matter.

Particle physics has over the last century discovered many different
subatomic particles and has put much effort into explaining how they
interact, the result is known as the Standard Model. There are,
however, gaps in the Standard Model that require further study. The
Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Europe’s Particle Physics Laboratory
will begin operation in 2007 and hopes to discover the Higgs Boson, a
particle needed to explain how particles acquire mass.

Linear Collider Accelerator Beam Delivery (LC-ABD)

The international particle physics community is agreed that to
complement the Large Hadron Collider, being constructed at CERN and to
extend the opportunity for new discoveries, a linear electron-positron
collider is required. UK researchers have been involved in planning for
a number of components of such a machine, but a particular focus is
being placed on the Beam Delivery System, an area utilising UK
expertise.

The Beam Delivery System takes the accelerated particles and focuses
them down to the nanometre scales required for collisions in the
detector. The LC-ABD collaboration will encompass research and
development on the Beam Delivery System and related areas and will be
integrated into the international design when the final technology for
the Linear Collider is selected. The collaboration consists of CCLRC
and 9 Universities: Abertay, Cambridge, Lancaster, Liverpool,
Manchester, Oxford, QMUL, RHUL, and UCL.

Accelerator Centres

PPARC wishes to increase the UK academic base in accelerator physics.
To this end, it is funding two Accelerator Centres, with partner
Universities creating 18 new academic posts between them.

Cockcroft Institute : National Centre for Accelerator Science
The Cockcroft Institute will be established by the Universities of
Liverpool, Lancaster and Manchester at Daresbury in Cheshire, on land
owned by the Northwest Development Agency. An eight year grant
totalling GBP 7.03 million has been awarded to the University of
Liverpool as lead institution. In addition, twelve new academic posts
will be created at the centre by the three Universities.

Oxford / Royal Holloway, University of London Centre
The Oxford / RHUL centre will be split between the two partner
Universities and a five year grant of GBP 2 million has been awarded to
the University of Oxford as lead institution. The partner Universities
will create six new academic posts at the centre.

The UK Neutrino Factory and MICE

One of the most exciting results in particle physics in the past decade
is the observation of neutrino ‘oscillations’. Neutrinos are elementary
particles that exist in three forms called electron, muon and tau
neutrinos, and results from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in Canada
have demonstrated that they oscillate from one kind to another as they
travel over large distances. This discovery is extremely significant
because oscillations can occur only if neutrinos have mass. Since the
accepted description of particle physics – the Standard Model – assumes
that neutrinos are massless, this is the first observed breakdown of
that model.

So far, oscillations have primarily been observed and studied using
‘natural’ neutrinos from two sources: the Sun and from the interaction
of cosmic rays in the upper atmosphere. However, to make precise
measurements of the detailed characteristics of the oscillations will
require a new facility, a Neutrino Factory, which can produce very
intense beams of neutrinos with well-known characteristics.

Ionization cooling is a key concept in the design of a neutrino
factory, and MICE (the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment) aims to
demonstrate this cooling technology. The collaboration of more than 150
physicists and engineers from the UK, continental Europe, the US and
Japan propose to design, build and test a section of a realistic
cooling channel on a beam line, which could be constructed on the ISIS
accelerator at the CCLRC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in
Oxfordshire.