The University of Glasgow is playing a leading role in the biggest nuclear physics experiment in the world.

The PANDA (anti-proton annihilation at Damstadt) experiment will explore the structure of matter – the particles that make up everything in the universe – at a £1.2 billion Facility for Anti-proton and Ion Research (FAIR) currently under construction in Damstadt, Germany.

The Glasgow Nuclear Physics Group is one of the founding members of the FAIR project and is leading two research projects within the PANDA collaboration, receiving a £3.2m grant – the biggest to date.

PANDA is the flagship experiment at FAIR, and will investigate the strong force that keeps quarks bound together. Quarks are the building blocks of protons and neutrons which together form the nucleus of an atom.

The ‘strong force’ is one of the four fundamental forces which holds the entire universe together, and is the most powerful, though has the shortest range. The other forces are: weak, electromagnetic and gravity.

Professor Guenther Rosner, who is the Glasgow Nuclear Physics Group leader and Chair of the PANDA Collaboration Board, said: “This will be the largest nuclear physics experiment in the world and the University of Glasgow is playing a major role in its development. We hope our investigations will enable us to understand this extremely strong force, how elements are formed by exploding stars, and also to synthesise new elements.

“Essentially, you and I are made of tiny, very light particles held together by this strong force. In other words, the human body is 98 percent confined energy rather than actual mass.

“Ultimately, what we are trying to do at FAIR and with PANDA is to shine a light into the unknown to gain greater knowledge of how the universe works which will help us to develop new technologies in the decades and centuries to come.”

The PANDA experiment will be conducted in a large machine which will fire a high-energy beam of anti-protons at a hydrogen atom, smashing it to pieces – a process called annihilation – to produce a variety of composite particles containing quarks. These composite particles are called hadrons; for example a proton is a hadron.

As well as producing “up” quarks and “down” quarks – the type that make up protons and neutrons – other kinds of quark, especially “charm” quarks, will appear. These quarks are only ever seen very briefly after particle collisions or in cosmic rays.

When they do appear these quarks can form exotic hadrons and it is these exotic hadrons that scientists are interested in so they can study how they interact and the role the strong force plays in gluing nuclei together.

Two core components of the detector which will conduct the experiments – the dipole magnet and the focusing disc DIRC detector – will be constructed by Glasgow University.

The funding has come from EU Frameworks 6 and 7, and the Science & Technologies Facilities Council (STFC). In addition to this, the STFC has awarded the Nuclear Physics Group a rolling grant of £1.85m.

Prof Ralf Kaiser, of Physics & Astronomy, at the University, said: “The focussing disc DIRC, manufactured from fused silica, will be the most expensive window in the world, and will enable us to identify particles which fly through it.”

The University intends to commission Scottish firms where possible on helping to develop the dipole magnet and DIRC. The FAIR facility is expected to be fully up and running by 2015.

For more information, contact Stuart Forsyth in the University of Glasgow Media Relations Office on 0141 330 4831 or email s.forsyth@admin.gla.ac.uk

Notes to editors
Everything in the universe is made of atoms (matter). An atom comprises a nucleus of neutrons and protons with electrons orbiting around them. Protons and neutrons themselves are made of elementary particles called quarks - specifically “up” quarks and “down” quarks. All particles comprised of quarks are called hadrons.

Quarks are tightly bound together by the ‘strong force’ and are never seen in isolation. There are other types of quark, too – “charm”, “strange”,” top” and “bottom” which are only ever seen very briefly after particle collisions or in cosmic rays.

These six types of quark can form exotic hadrons and it is these exotic hadrons that scientists are interested in so they can study how they interact and the role the strong force plays. They are interested in one hadron in particular – charmonium – which comprises a charm quark and charm antiquark.

The PANDA detector will consist of an array of detectors to track the paths and measure the energies of particles produced by the anti-proton beam collisions.

Click here for a further explanation of the science behind FAIR and PANDA.

Facility for Anti-proton and Ion Research

PANDA

Physics & Astronomy, University of Glasgow

First published: 11 March 2009

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