The Cockcroft Institute (CI) celebrates the award of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2013 and the discovery of the Higgs-boson. It congratulates Peter Higgs and François Englert on their achievement and the huge distinction which it brings. It is proud of its close collaboration with CERN, in particular its continuing contributions to the operation and to developments of the Large Hadron Collider.
CI scientists and engineers from all its stakeholders – the Universities of Liverpool, Manchester, and Lancaster, and the UK Science and Technologies Facilities Council – continue to contribute to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, in particular to its commissioning, its optimization, its operation and its future upgrades.
To date the CI has contributed to the successful functionality of the LHC through its expertise in accelerator science and engineering, in particular in beam dynamics, radiofrequency acceleration and deflection, beam diagnostics, luminosity monitoring, and collimation.
The commitment of the CI to the future of the LHC continues through substantial participation in the design of a high luminosity upgrade (HL-LHC) which will make possible new sensitivity for new physics in proton-proton interactions at the “Terascale” in the next decade. After CERN, the CI is now the largest European member of the EU-funded framework concerned with the essential R&D for HL-LHC. The launch of the EU collaboration for this upgrade will take place at the CI on November 11, 2013 with the participation of representatives of many of the collaborating institutes together with the CERN directorate.
The CI’s expertise also underpins its other programs of R&D, many of which are exploited in new applications of both mature and new technologies. Examples include discriminatory imaging using compact linacs for homeland security, and development of new applications in health care, in particular for cancer diagnosis and therapy. The CI works with the Clatterbridge Hospital on the Wirral and with the Christie Hospital, Manchester on new developments to develop more extensive proton oncology and therapy. Its research program on energy recovery in acceleration at the ALICE energy recovery linac has recently been extended to initiate a new program concerned with using “Terahertz radiation” for cancer diagnosis in collaboration with physicists and medical clinicians in Liverpool and Manchester.
For further comments from Cockcroft Institute stakeholders, see:http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/liverpool-scientists-delighted-higgs-bosun-6163811
