The Birmingham nuclear physicist colleagues are the only UK group which is involved in the LHC programme of heavy ion collisions, studied with the ALICE experiment. ALICE is expected to observe and study the quark-gluon plasma, a state of matter that is thought to have existed in the very early universe in which particles such as protons and neutrons 'dissolve' into their constituent quarks and gluons.

Beside LHC experiments, we are also searching for new physics in very rare strange particle decays and for processes that violate Lepton Flavour Universality through our work on the fixed target NA62 (formerly NA48) experiment using the CERN SPS accelerator. Rare processes are sensitive to contributions of virtual new particles (in a mass range of up to 100 TeV) entering the respective Feynman diagrams, and thus provide stringent tests of new theories and an important testing ground for the Standard Model.

Career

Preparation for your career should be one of the first things you think about as you start university. Whether you have a clear idea of where your future aspirations lie or want to consider the broad range of opportunities available once you have a Physics and Astronomy (Particle Physics Specialism) from University of Birmingham, the Careers Network can help you achieve your goal.