Partner facilities

The Large Hadron Collider
The Large Hadron Collider

Particle physics

Our researchers are involved in the ATLAS project at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Here they have contributed to the discovery of the Higgs Boson. Our particle physicists are carrying out award-winning experiments on neutrinos at JPARC and Fermilab. This was awarded the 2016 Breakthrough Prize for the discovery of neutrino oscillations.

We are also a member of the Cockcroft Institute for Accelerator Science and Technology. This is based at Daresbury and is headed by a Lancaster physicist.

The James Webb Telescope

Astrophysics

Our astrophysicists have access to the world's most powerful telescopes such as:

  • The Hubble Space Telescope
  • The European Southern Observatory, including ALMA and VLT
  • The James Webb Telescope

We are also involved in the scientific planning for several new telescopes and instruments. These will come online in the next 5-10 years, and will revolutionise research in astrophysics. These include:

  • 4MOST spectrograph
  • Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
  • European Extremely Large Telescope
  • ESA's Euclid mission
  • ESA's FLARE mission
  • James Webb Space Telescope

Our space and planetary physicists exploit measurements state-of-the-art experimental faculties, such as the European Incoherent Scatter (EISCAT) radars, and from spacecraft currently orbiting the Earth, Mars and Jupiter, including:

Computer servers

Theoretical physics

Underpinning these activities is the research of our theoretical and mathematical physicists. They have made major contributions to quantum transport in electronics including:

  • Graphene
  • Molecular electronics
  • Photonic structures
  • General relativity and electromagnetism

Extensive numerical work is carried out at large-scale computing facilities, including Lancaster's High-End Computing Cluster.