The Science and Technology Facilities Council nuclear physics programme supports research in four broad areas, nuclear structure, nuclear astrophysics, hadronic physics and theory.
Research in this field comprises the design and research and development of detector systems, experimental work which is carried out at specific overseas facilities, data analysis, and a complementary theoretical programme.
The nuclear physics programme can be divided into four broad areas of research:
- nuclear structure
- nuclear astrophysics
- hadronic physics
- theory.
These projects aim to achieve STFC’s science challenges.
FRIB Accelerated-beams for Understanding Science and Technology (FAUST)
The main technological goal of this project is to lead the development and construction of an advanced silicon detection system.
The system will be used with fast radioactive beams (approximately 30 to 200 megaelectron volt atomic mass unit) at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) in the US.
The technological advances of combing the FAUST array with the FRIB beam enables access to range of science otherwise that cannot be performed elsewhere.
γRIBF-UK: scintillator-based high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometer at RIBF
This project leads the construction of a new-generation scintillator-based high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometer, HYPATIA (HYbrid Photon detector Array To Investigate Atomic nuclei).
It will be used at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory (RIBF) at RIKEN Nishina Centre (RNC), Japan.
The developments within this project can have extensions to space-based gamma-ray telescopes and other research areas such as neutrino physics and particle physics experiments, in which position reconstruction in large scintillating volumes is of importance.
FAIR R3B silicon tracker: target recoil tracking (TRT) detector for the R3B experiment at FAIR
R3B is part of the NUSTAR (Nuclear Structure, Astrophysics and Reactions) scientific pillar of FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability).
The R3B TRT device will offer unprecedented capabilities of position resolution, low material budget and high-rate multi-hit capability for radioactive-ion beam experiments.
The device is planned to be operational for the first FAIR physics experiments (2027 to 2028) using the R3B setup and the Super-FRagment Separator (Super-FRS).
Electron Ion Collider (EIC) preliminary
Funded through the UKRI Infrastructure Fund.
The EIC will be the world’s first collider of polarised electrons, with nuclei or polarised protons or light ions.
The aim of this phase is to develop some of the technologies needed for a future detector at the EIC and establish UK leadership in those areas, advancing the design and technological readiness of three key detector subsystems.
This project positions the UK to lead the development of cutting-edge detector technologies that will be needed to address fundamental questions in science on the nature of matter.