Government investment in fundamental physics will generate a new age of discovery

Following the increased funding for science announced by the government
today, the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) has
received a major uplift of 25m in its baseline budget. In addition PPARC
will receive continued investment in its e-science programme, and specific
allocations to increase its investment in accelerator R&D, gravitational
waves, and planetary exploration. PPARC will also receive funding to
implement the recommendations of the Roberts report and to upgrade the
infrastructure of its institutes.

Overall PPARC’s budget will rise from 255.77M in 2003/04 to 290.89M in
2005/06.

Commenting on the funding announcement, Professor Ian Halliday, PPARC’s
Chief Executive, said, “The government is to be congratulated. This much
needed investment in fundamental physics will enable our physicists and
astronomers to build on their high international standing, and engage in new
collaborative international programmes, for example, Advanced LIGO, and the
Linear Collider – ensuring the UK is in the global van of discoveries that
push back the frontiers of knowledge”.

Halliday added “Research in fundamental physics inevitable spawns new, key
technologies that will underpin other areas of scientific research whilst
benefiting the UK economy through the provision of highly trained people and
the resulting advances in IT and technology transfer.”

PPARC’s allocations in the major cross-Council research programmes are as
follows:

E-science

PPARC will receive a further 31.6M to continue its E-science programme
throughout the period of this Spending Review. The programme will focus on
establishing a UK High Energy Physics [HEP] Grid and the computing
infrastructure required for the Large Hadron Collider [LHC] experiment at
CERN when it becomes operational in 2007. In addition it will deliver a
working virtual observatory based on key UK astronomical data sets; placing
the UK in a leadership position in the international development of Virtual
Observatories and in the development of an EU Grid infrastructure.

Accelerator Science

Over the next few years decisions will be made on the funding and
construction of several international large accelerator-based facilities.
They will include electron linear colliders, re-circulating linear colliders
for synchrotron radiation studies and free electron lasers operating across
a spectrum of wavelengths. High power proton accelerators will be developed
as drivers for pulsed neutron spallation sources, muon derived neutrino
beams, and muon colliders, and will have the potential to transmute and even
derive energy from nuclear waste.

There is now international consensus within the particle physics community
that the next particle physics accelerator should be a Linear Collider. A
Linear Collider will not only deliver new opportunities for particle physics
to explore beyond the Standard Model, but the associated technology will be
key to the future development of synchrotron facilities for other science
areas.

PPARC will receive 5.4M as part of a joint programme with the Council for
the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils [CLRC]. The new investment
will position CLRC, universities and industry to win major shares in the
construction, and possibly hosting, of major global facilities, a Linear
Collider and Neutrino Factory, which are of strategic importance to the
whole of the UK science base.

Gravity and Planetary Exploration

PPARC has been allocated an additional 9M to invest in these two areas.

Gravitational Waves will be detected in the next decade. Their detection
will enable us to confirm one of the more exotic predictions of Einstein’s
theory of General Relativity. It will open up a new era in astronomy. The
UK, through seminal work in universities at Glasgow, Cardiff, Birmingham,
and Imperial College, is a world-leader in gravitational physics. The
additional investment will position the UK to exploit its technological
leadership in the design and deployment of the next generation of
large-scale ground-based detectors and the first detector in space through
Advanced LIGO and SMART2, and to lead on data analysis.

There is renewed and growing scientific interest globally in planetary
exploration. In Europe, the European Space Agency [ESA] has proposed the
AURORA programme with the strategy over the next thirty years for Europe’s
robotic and human exploration of Mars, the Moon, and even beyond to the
asteroids. The broad science goals are to understand how planets form and
evolve, their environments, and the search for life elsewhere in our solar
system. The UK has a strong tradition and proven expertise in planetary
science, and in the design and implementation of space-borne technologies
for missions for planetary exploration. Through the Beagle 2 Lander on
ESA’s Mars Express mission, the UK has achieved a significant international
lead in the design of miniaturised instrumentation for robotic missions.
Through this new investment the UK has the opportunity to capitalise on its
world-leading expertise, and to lead in the definition of both the ESA and
NASA programmes, in the development of the technologies needed for planetary
landers and miniaturised instrumentation for missions to other planets.

Objectives

PPARC’s main strategic objectives in the next five years will be to:

* deliver its commitment to the construction of the general purpose detectors for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, and the computing infrastructure needed to exploit the data from the LHC using grid technologies;

* exploit its membership of the European Space Agency (ESA) by winning scientific leadership in selective space science missions aligned with the UK’s scientific priorities, and in the provision of international data centres;

* exploit its recent membership of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and its investment in the Gemini telescopes;

* invest in smaller scale international particle astrophysics experiments, for example, in gravitation wave and neutrino detection, dark matter, and cosmic microwave background radiation;

* strengthen the UK’s capability in accelerator science and R&D to position it to participate in the next generation of global accelerators, and, in particular, a Linear Collider and Neutrino Factory;

* invest in blue skies technology R&D, which will underpin longer-term facility development, and, through partnerships with industry, increase the potential for technology transfer;

* increase provision through grants for infrastructure and exploitation in universities;

* increase the number of research students to enhance the vibrancy of the research base and the throughput of high quality physicists and engineers into industry.

Notes for editors

Background information

E-science

PPARC’s E-science programme in the period 2003/4 – 2005/6 will be targeted
on the implementation of the international computing grid for the Large
Hadron Collider (LHC) detector currently being built at CERN. The LHC will
be operational in 2007. The programme will include the development and
implementation of an International Virtual Observatory (IVO), which it is
envisaged will be fully operational by 2010. Investment is also proposed
to develop enhanced technologies and tools for a wide range of astronomical
datasets and applications, and will enable the inclusion of automated
real-time observation and theoretical modelling within a Virtual Observatory
environment.

The technologies, which will be developed and tested on a production scale
during the period, will have wider generic applicability for other sciences
and industrial and commercial use in distributed real-time data intensive
computing and the integration of large volume heterogeneous datasets.

Gravitational Waves – a new window on our Universe

One of the foundation stones of modern physics, predicted by Einstein in his
theory of General Relativity, is the existence of gravitational waves –
those weak blips from the far edges of the universe passing through our
bodies every second. The detection of gravitational waves is fundamental to
our understanding of the Universe and the world in which we live, and yet no
one has detected them, simply because they are so weak. Yet their detection
would enable us to see back to the beginning of time itself – the Big Bang –
by detecting the resulting ripples, or waves of gravity, in space.

Our present understanding of the cosmos is based on observations of
electromagnetic radiation emitted by individual electrons, atoms, or
molecules, which are easily absorbed, scattered and dispersed, as they
travel through space. Conversely Gravitational Waves, produced by the bulk
motion of matter in the universe, travel nearly unscathed through space and
time, carrying with them the fingerprint information of the regions in which
they were originally created, be it the birth of a black hole or the
universe as a whole.

The importance of their detection can not be overstated. Indeed, their
discovery will initiate a new era in astronomy, greater in its impact to the
advent of radio and x-ray astronomy. It will enable us to study for the
first time, and in unexpected ways, phenomena in the most extreme
astrophysical environments.

The hunt is on

A number of ground-based detectors are currently operating with sufficient
sensitivity to detect these minute gravitational waves. Current
collaborative projects involve research groups in the UK/Germany (GEO 600),
France/ Italy (VIRGO), the US (LIGO) and Japan (TAMA).

GEO 600, funded in the UK by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research
Council [PPARC], has unique design and advanced technologies developed by
scientists from several British universities. It was built as a small, low
cost detector, but its degree of sensitivity is comparable to the US and
French/Italian detectors. Such is the international regard for Britain’s
expertise in this detector technology that it is considered central to the
development of larger, next generation ground-based detectors Advanced LIGO
and ultimately to a space-based detector, LISA.

Placing a gravitational wave detector in space will allow us to observe and
study the ripples in space-time in their purest form. A joint European
Space Agency /NASA mission called LISA is planned at the end of this decade.
LISA will use advanced technology lasers mounted on three identical
drag-free spacecraft to detect gravitational waves. The three spacecraft
will be positioned at the corners of an equilateral triangle with sides 5
million kilometres long!

The engineering and technology required to constantly measure the laser
beams and control the satellites to micron accuracy across distances of 5
million kilometres are almost unimaginable – yet achievable. British
scientists have the capacity to develop these leading-edge technologies, and
in transferring the technology to wider applications and markets for the
benefit of UK plc.

Planetary Exploration – Are we alone?

Our solar system began 4.6 million years ago when a dense knot in a vast
cloud of gas, dust and
ice began to collapse under its own weight. As gravitational forces pulled
the clump inwards, its
density and pressure increased. It started to spin faster and spread out to
form a central core, which became the Sun, and a disc that coalesced into
the planets, moons, asteroids, and comets – the Solar System that we know
today.

As we gaze at the starry sky and recognise our place in the firmament, we
cannot help but ask some very fundamental questions.

Is there life, or was there life, once existing on other bodies in the Solar
System? How did they evolve to be the way we see them today and could this
knowledge influence our understanding of Earth’s evolution and ultimate
fate?

Studying other objects in the Solar System provides us with information that
can help us find the answers and UK scientists, funded through the Particle
Physics and Astronomy Research Council, are at the forefront of planetary
research.

Considering the range of missions in which the UK is involved then to say
‘The UK goes to the Planets’ is no understatement.

The Red Planet

Mars, and the possibility that there was once life on it, captures all our
imaginations. In December 2003 the European Space Agency’s Mars Express
spacecraft will enter the Martian atmosphere and detach Beagle 2, a UK
designed and built Lander, which will parachute onto the planets surface to
carry out in-situ analysis of the soil and atmosphere. The results should
offer final proof as to whether life ever existed on the Red Planet. The
technology employed in this UK Lander is a quarter the size and one tenth of
the cost of similar landers planned by the US. This achievement clearly
demonstrates how universities can co-operate with large and small industrial
companies to create world-leading technology.

Mars is but one target. The UK is involved in similar science missions to
unravel the mysteries of our Solar System.

Rosetta – Comet chaser

In January 2003 ESA’s Rosetta mission will blast off from Kourou in French
Guyana on its 8 year mission to the comet Wirtanen – a kilometre sized lump
of ice and dust that could uncover clues about the formation of the Solar
System. Such bodies are pristine fossils of the primal material that
congealed into the bodies of our Solar System, and may even provide clues to
the conditions that produced life on Earth.

Rosetta is the first space mission ever to attempt to land on a comet and UK
scientists play a key role in the sensitive onboard instruments that will
measure the composition of the comet’s icy nucleus.

Our Moon – a new view

SMART – 1 is taking a trip to the Moon to test new technologies for the
European Space Agency. After launch in spring 2003, an innovative ion
thruster will propel the spacecraft in a spiral out towards the Moon,
arriving in summer 2004. Once in lunar orbit SMART-1’s miniature instruments
will send back new information about the Moon’s surface and plasma
environment. A UK built instrument will take X-ray images of the Moon and
investigate the chemical make-up of the lunar surface.

Cassini Huygens

ESA’s Huygens Probe is now on its seven-year journey to Saturn’s moon Titan,
aboard NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. The joint NASA/ESA mission was
successfully launched by a Titan IVB/Centaur launch vehicle on 15 October
1997 09:43 UT. It will reach Saturn in 2004.

While the Cassini Orbiter continues to explore Saturn and its rings, the
Huygens probe will be released to parachute through the atmosphere of Titan.
Shrouded in an orange haze that hides its surface, Titan is one of the most
mysterious objects in our solar system. It is the second largest moon (only
Jupiter’s Ganymede is bigger), and the only one with a thick atmosphere. It
is this atmosphere that excites scientific interest, since it is thought to
resemble that of a very young Earth.

Huygens’ six instruments, of which the UK has made significant
contributions, will take measurements throughout its spectacular descent,
providing details on the chemical composition of Titan’s atmosphere, its
weather and clouds, and then the surface itself. Spectacular data and images
are already expected from the descent itself and, if the Huygens Probe
survives the impact with the mysterious surface, it will continue to send
unique information back to the mother ship until its batteries expire or the
Cassini Orbiter is out of range.

Preserved in the deep freeze of Titan’s atmosphere are chemical compounds
thought to be similar to those of Earth’s primeval soup. The in-situ results
from Huygens, combined with Cassini’s global observations from repeated
flybys of Titan, will provide vital information towards the great mystery of
how life began on Earth.

The Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) is the UK’s
strategic science investment agency. It funds research, education and public
understanding in four areas of science – particle physics, astronomy,
cosmology and space science.

PPARC is government funded and provides research grants and studentships to
scientists in British universities, gives researchers access to world-class
facilities and funds the UK membership of international bodies such as the
European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN), and the European Space
Agency. It also contributes money for the UK telescopes overseas on La
Palma, Hawaii, Australia and in Chile, the UK Astronomy Technology Centre at
the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh and the MERLIN/VLBI National Facility,
which includes the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank observatory.

PPARC’s Public Understanding of Science and Technology Awards Scheme funds
both small local projects and national initiatives aimed at improving public
understanding of its areas of science.