The early 1960s witnessed a wealth of elementary particles described in terms of simple combinations of a few more elementary units, dubbed quarks. The known mesons and baryons could all be described as states of quark-antiquark or three quarks. However, it was not understood why certain more elaborate combinations, such as (two quarks + two antiquarks) or (four quarks + one antiquark) had not been observed. It has taken nearly half a century, but these "exotic" particles are now beginning to be seen and understood.

The gamma-ray band of the electromagnetic spectrum probes some of the most extreme environments in the Universe. Photons of these very-high energies can only be produced by the interactions of subatomic particles that have been accelerated to almost the speed of light. This acceleration occurs in a surprisingly wide variety of astrophysical sources: close to black holes and neutron stars, in the blast waves of supernova explosions, and in the relativistic jets of active galaxies.

From the earliest commercial production of electronic image sensors for television in the 1950s, to the diverse application of specialist silicon image sensors for the Hubble space Telescope to digital dentistry this talk will outline the manufacturing technology and changes through 60 years at e2v. Somewhat surprisingly, there are today lessons to be learned, and technologies to be applied from this to the emerging new platform technology of ultra-cold atom sensing and metrology.

Janus particles are micro- or nano-scale particles whose surfaces have two or more distinct physical properties. Such asymmetry results in interesting self-assembly properties, but homogeneous Janus particles can be difficult to synthesize. The protein BslA (Bacterial Surface Layer A) is a small (~4 nm) protein produced by the bacterium Bacillus subtilis that has a hydrophilic ‘body’ to which is appended a surface-exposed hydrophobic ‘cap’.

Everything around us, everything each of us has ever experienced, and virtually everything underpinning our technological society and economy is governed by quantum mechanics. Yet this most fundamental physical theory of nature often feels as if it is a set of somewhat eerie and counterintuitive ideas of no direct relevance to our lives. Why is this?

On September 14 2015, the two LIGO gravitational wave detectors in Hanford, Washington and Livingston, Louisiana registered a nearly simultaneous signal with time-frequency properties consistent with gravitational-wave emission by the merger of two massive compact objects. Further analysis of the signals by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration revealed that the gravitational waves detected by LIGO came from the merger of a binary black hole system. This observation, followed by another one in December 2015, marked the beginning of gravitational wave astronomy.

Michael Kosterlitz, who carried out his DPhil at Brasenose College between 1966 and 1969, was today named a Nobel Laureate for his pioneering work to help reveal the secrets of exotic phases of matter that were hitherto unknown.
Professor Kosterlitz, now of Brown University in the US, shared half the prize with Professor Duncan Haldane of Princeton University, USA, with the other half going to Professor David Thouless of the University of Washington, USA.

The following lectures will be given at 3.30pm on Fridays in the Martin Wood Lecture Theatre, Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Road (unless otherwise stated). Tea will be served in the Physics Common Room at 4.30 pm.

The aim of the colloquia series is to share with members of the department the latest information on physics research and developments. Undergraduates, graduates, postdocs, faculty members and support staff are all encouraged to attend these lectures.

First year Oxford graduate student Jesse Liu has just released a paper showing how the increase in LHC energy from 8 to 13 TeV has squeezed the permissible models of the theory of supersymmetry.

Supersymmetric theories predicts particles that could help explain the mysterious dark matter in our universe, and which can be produced at the LHC, so they are well worth pursuing.