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Britain Signs Up to World’s Hottest Nuclear Physics Project
Saturday, May 4, 2013 3:45
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Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (Fair) will study elements that exist fleetingly on the surface of exploding stars
British physicists will have access to the most advanced nuclear physics facility in the world after UK funders agreed to join the project.
The £1.4bn research centre, which will try to solve some of the most perplexing mysteries of matter, is being built in Darmstadt, Germany, and will switch on in five years’ time.
Elements heavier than iron are forged in supernovae and blasted into space, where they come together in objects as varied as planets and people. Illustration: Nasa/EPA
At its heart will be twin accelerators, each more than a kilometre in circumference, that produce intense beams of ions and antimatter. The beams will be used to probe the behaviour of atomic nuclei and subatomic particles, many so exotic they have never been studied before.
Through experiments at the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (Fair), scientists hope to learn why we have the diversity and abundance of elements that make up the periodic table. Along the way, they will study elements that exist only fleetingly on the surfaces of exploding stars.
Physicists’ models show that elements heavier than iron are forged in supernovae and blasted into space, where they come together in objects as varied as planets and people. But stable atoms are only the end product of reactions that involve scores of short-lived radioactive particles.
IMAGE news.softpedia.com
“We don’t know exactly what happens,” said Paddy Regan, professor of nuclear physics at Surrey University. “With this facility, we can look at the signatures of the 7000 or so radioactive species that nature allows. What they decay into tracks back to what becomes everyday matter.”
The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) is due to sign an official agreement that confirms Britain as an associate member of the project. The facility will house four main experiments, with the UK most involved through a £10m contribution to one called Nustar, for Nuclear Structure, Astrophysics and Reactions.
bY Ian Sample, science correspondent
READ MORE:
The Guardian, Friday 3 May 2013
switch on in five years’ time.
will we all be here in 5 years time