Southampton undergraduates were among more than 150 students, academics and employers who gathered at SEPnet’s 7th Annual Students’ Expo at the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Twenty four students from across Physics and Astronomy at the University of Southampton were at the event that celebrated the achievement of 84 students. The students had successfully carried out industry and research summer placements on a diverse range of topics from production engineering of a prototype electric motorcycle, to mapping of UK innovation clusters.

At the Expo Professor Martin Earwicker spoke about his varied and successful career as Vice-Chancellor of London South Bank University, Director of the Science Museum, and the first Chief Executive of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, while graduates gave inspiring talks about the benefits of their experiences and their current roles.

Former Southampton MPhys student Laura Benn spoke to delegates about how her SEPnet placement at Magnetic Shields, in Kent, led to her gaining industry experience and eventually securing a job with the company as a technical consultant.

Current students also gave one minute presentations and displayed posters about their projects, and three Southampton students were among six students selected by the Institute of Physics as having produced the best posters in the Expo.

The winning Southampton students were:

Ashley Morahan, MPhys Phsyics, who did his placement at Applied Nanodetectors, in Middlesex, for his poster on Printed sensor test and analysis - the internet of things.

David Elcock, MPhys Physics, who undertook his placement at the University of Portsmouth, for his poster on Theoretical prediction of the band gap structure of quantum dots.

Anna Laws, MPhys Physics with Astronomy, who did her placement at the Institution of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth, for her poster on Power spectra of non-circular motions in disk galaxies.

The winners were presented with their prizes by Professor Sir Bill Wakeham, Chair of SEPnet.

Jonathan Flynn, Head of Physics and Astronomy at Southampton, said: “Southampton students have benefitted hugely from the SEPnet Summer Placements. Depending on the placement, our students have an opportunity to experience the world of work beyond university or to get a taste of university-based research.

“Placements range from direct research or application of physics, to areas students may not have initially considered for a physicist. Afterwards we can see the boost in their self-confidence, enthusiasm and motivation. Many come back with the added security of a job offer after graduation.â€?

New research has revealed that the thick donut-shaped disks of gas and dust that surround most massive black holes in the universe are ‘clumpy’ rather than smooth as originally thought.

Until recently, telescopes weren't able to penetrate some of these donuts, also known as tori, which feed and nourish the growing black holes tucked inside.

The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society study, which was co-authored by Dr Poshak Gandhi of the University of Southampton, described results from NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton space observatory.

With its X-ray vision, NuSTAR recently peered inside one of the densest tori known around a supermassive black hole. This black hole lies at the centre of a well-studied spiral galaxy called NGC 1068, located 47 million light-years away in the Cetus constellation.

The observations revealed that the rotating material is not a simple, rounded donut but more like defective, lumpy donuts that a donut shop might throw away.

The new discovery is the first time that this clumpiness has been observed in an ultra-thick donut, and supports the idea that this phenomenon may be common. The research is important for understanding the growth and evolution of massive black holes and their host galaxies.

Donuts around supermassive black holes were first proposed in the mid-1980s to explain why some black holes are hidden behind gas and dust, while others are not. The idea is that the orientation of the donut relative to Earth affects the way we perceive a black hole and its intense radiation. If the donut is viewed edge-on, the black hole is blocked. If the donut is viewed face-on, the black hole and its surrounding, blazing materials can be detected. This idea is referred to as the unified model because it neatly joins together the different black hole types, based solely upon orientation.

“We don’t fully understand why some supermassive black holes are so heavily obscured, or why the surrounding material is clumpy,â€? said Dr Gandhi. “This is a subject of hot research.â€?

NGC 1068 is well known to astronomers as the first black hole to give birth to the unification idea. “But it is only with NuSTAR that we now have a direct glimpse of its black hole through such clouds, albeit fleeting, allowing a better test of the unification concept,â€? said Andrea Marinucci of the Roma Tre University in Italy and lead author of the study.

The team says that future research will address the question of what causes the unevenness in tori. It’s possible that a black hole generates turbulence as it chomps on nearby material. Or, the energy given off by young stars could also stir up turbulence, which would then percolate outward through the donut. Another possibility is that, the clumps may be from material that falls onto the donut from outside it. As galaxies form, material migrates toward the centre, where the density and gravity is greatest. The material tends to fall in clumps, almost like a falling stream of water condensing into droplets as it hits the ground.

“We’d like to figure out if the unevenness of the material is being generated from outside the donut, or within it,â€? said Professor Gandhi.

“These coordinated observations with NuSTAR and XMM-Newton show yet again the exciting science possible when these satellites work together,â€? said Daniel Stern, the project scientist for NuSTAR at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

On Wednesday 13 January from 5.30 to 9pm, members of the public are invited to see the stars either from the comfort of the two Soton Astrodomes – the University’s inflatable mobile planetariums – or from the rooftop observatories.

The Astrodome will be running planetarium shows during the evening and there will be a number of tours for the public to view the stars through the roof telescopes. There will be three talks from astronomy academics on the ‘Aurora’, ‘Accreting White Dwarfs’ and ‘Galaxy Evolution’, plus a Galaxy Zoo workshop and a ‘Little Astronomers Room’.

The roof tours, planetarium shows, workshop and talks are free but require tickets, which can be booked online using the link opposite.

Other free activities include access to University Astrosoc and the Southampton Astronomical Society (SAS) telescopes, Supernova science demos, ‘Ask the Astronomer’ stand and a video showcasing the adventures of Astronomy PhD students currently observing supernovae in Chile.

Dr Sadie Jones, Outreach Leader in Astronomy at the University of Southampton, says: “I am very excited to once again organise our Stargazing evening on campus and I hope lots of members of the public come along and take part. These evenings are a great way to encourage children, families and individuals to ponder the big questions of the universe and explore the night sky.â€?

Physics and Astronomy Emeritus Professor Betty Lanchester has received a prestigious Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) award.

Betty has been awarded the 2016 James Dungey Lectureship for her research into the magnificent phenomena of the aurora.

The RAS citation recognises Betty’s devotion to tackling many challenging questions including her pioneering investigations into the fine-scale auroral structure, and the relationship between these structures and the wider electrodynamics of the ionosphere-magnetosphere system.

The citation states: “Some of Betty’s most important results include observational evidence that dynamic auroral structures are associated with short-lived, intense and local electric fields. Her research has also demonstrated that most of the energy density in a bright auroral arc may lie within an extremely narrow filament formed by monoenergetic electron beams.â€?

The RAS praises Betty for her strong commitment to communicating her science to wider audiences, a commitment reflected when she was awarded the Southampton University Students’ Union Excellence in Teaching Award for best feedback provision.

The James Dungey Lectureship is awarded annually to a distinguished and eloquent speaker who will give the lecture on a topic in solar physics, solar-terrestrial physics or planetary sciences.

Betty said: “It is indeed a great honour to receive this award which bears the name of one of the most respected scientists in the field of solar-terrestrial relations.

“Jim Dungey, who died last year, was a pioneer with extraordinary insight into the physics of the processes occurring in the magnetic field surrounding the Earth. His work has had, and continues to have, enormous importance in my research into the aurora and its effects. I have also had the great good fortune and privilege to have worked with a team of very gifted scientists in this field, both colleagues and students, who have all contributed towards this award.â€?

Betty has had a long academic career at the University of Southampton. She joined in 1969 and spent a large part of her working life studying the effects in the upper atmosphere from particles that cause the aurora.

Since retiring from teaching she maintains an active research role as Emeritus Professor supporting the growing group of Space Environment Physics.

She said: “The aurora is a spectacle of great beauty but it is also an indicator of energy being transferred through the Earth’s magnetic field into the upper atmosphere. This ‘space weather’ can potentially cause major disruption to electric power transmission, damage to satellite instrumentation, and the heating up of the upper atmosphere that can affect satellite orbits.

“Our research in the Space Environment Physics group aims to understand many of these complex processes.â€?

A Physics & Astronomy researcher from the University of Southampton will explore the structure and evolution of the Universe, as part of the ASTRO-H X-ray space telescope mission that launched in Japan this morning (17 February).

Dr Poshak Gandhi, Associate Professor and STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellow in the University’s Astronomy Group, is one of over 200 astronomers from over 60 contributing institutions in Japan, the US, Canada and Europe involved in the major international collaboration. It is led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and also includes NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).

The aim of the new satellite is to study hot and extremely dense objects in the universe, such as black holes and clusters of galaxies. Most of the largest, growing black holes are hidden behind thick interstellar gas and dust clouds and using X-ray observations is the only way researchers can directly study many of them. ASTRO-H will enable better X-ray spectroscopy of black holes than ever before.

Dr Gandhi says: “This new space telescope represents the culmination of decades of research and development into space X-ray detector technologies led by Japan, but the scientific challenges that ASTRO-H will tackle require the combined expertise of astronomers the world over. I am very excited to be part of this international collaborative effort, and look forward to solving mysteries that have long puzzled us.â€?

Professor Tadayuki Takahashi, from the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science and ASTRO-H Project Director, says: “Black holes were first identified in space over 40 years ago, but we are still far from understanding how they grow and evolve. The high precision ‘X-ray colour vision’ of ASTRO-H will be a huge step forward for such studies, and for understanding other hot and extreme objects in the universe.â€?

Dr Gandhi has been a member of the ASTRO-H mission since 2010. He will participate in two ‘science task forces’, focused on understanding how black holes accrete matter from their surroundings and grow, and to study the interaction between black holes and the galaxies in which they live.

Dr Gandhi adds: “One part of research focus at Southampton is the study of growing supermassive black holes at the centres of nearby galaxies. As Superman’s X-ray vision allows him to peer through walls, so ASTRO-H’s X-ray vision will be able to penetrate the veiling clouds surrounding black holes and will also be sensitive to any light reflected and scattered by these clouds.

“This, in turn, will allow us to determine all kinds of important properties of the interstellar clouds and the black holes that are hidden within them, including how powerful the black holes are, how much matter there is in the veiling clouds, and what kind of motion the clouds have. This will give us important insight into the growth of these black holes and their interaction with the large scale galaxy.â€?

ASTRO-H is equipped with four state-of-the-art instruments:

• Hard X-ray imaging system - consists of a Hard X-ray Telescope (HXT) and Hard X-ray Imager (HXI)
• Soft X-ray imaging system – consists of an imaging mirror, Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT-I) and Soft X-ray Imager (SXI)
• Soft X-ray Spectroscopy System - consists of the Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT-S), the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) and the cooling system
• Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD)

These technologies will allow ASTRO-H to split X-ray light into its component colours, similar to a prism with sunlight. This will be achieved by detecting miniscule heat changes generated by individual incoming X-ray photons. This will enable measurement of the energies of X-ray photons to better precision (at least six times better) than any other satellite and allow researchers to distinguish many more ‘shades’ of X-ray colours than has been possible before. By analysing the X-ray energies, researchers will be able to determine the elemental composition, dynamical state and temperature of matter in these extreme and hot objects.

ASTRO-H was launched into low-Earth orbit from the Tanegashima Space Center, Japan, by a JAXA H-IIA rocket on 17 February 2016 at 08:45 GMT/15:45 JST. This is a rescheduled launch following the postponement of the first launch on 12 February.

The mission will last for three years and ASTRO-H observing time will be available for any scientist across the world through a competitive, peer-reviewed proposal process.

It is the sixth satellite in a series of highly successful X-ray astronomy missions initiated by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) of JAXA.

Passengers travelling from Southampton Airport can learn about one of the most powerful astronomical events in the Universe during half-term this week.

From Monday 15 to Thursday 18 February, researchers from the University of Southampton's Astronomy Group will engage passengers waiting in the departure lounge with their world-leading research on supernova stars.

The scientists will hand out compressed hand towels with supernova printed on them and use hands-on demos to explain what a supernova is and why their research is so important and exciting. The astronomers hope to talk with at least 1,500 passengers across the four days of activity.

Dr Sadie Jones, Outreach Leader in Astronomy and the activity leader, says: “I’ve given out a few towels already and people of all ages really seem to love them. The hope is that when passengers arrive at their destination they will ‘expand’ their towel and this will remind them of the conversation they had at the airport about ‘expanding’ supernova in space.â€?

Passengers will be encouraged to tweet a before and after picture of themselves using the hashtag #AstroAirport.

The activity is funded by a Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) public engagement award to see how members of the public, who wouldn’t normally choose to attend science events, respond to discussion about astronomy research in an environment where they would not be expecting it. This is also one of the first attempts to communicate science in an airport departure lounge, beyond the security gates.

More information about the members of the University of Southampton Supernova Group and their astronomy research can be found at supernova.soton.ac.uk

Dr John Coxon from Physics and Astronomy at University of Southampton will be attending Parliament today (Monday 7 March) to present his research to a range of politicians and a panel of expert judges, as part of SET for Britain.

John is based in the Space Environment Physics Group and his poster will cover his research into the Earth’s reaction to solar wind, through studying how it affects the planet’s electric currents and magnetic fields.

His poster will be judged against hundreds of other scientists’ research in the only national competition of its kind, after beating thousands more in getting his poster shortlisted to present in Parliament.

On presenting his research in Parliament, John said: “I am hugely excited to be selected to present my research in the SET for Britain 2016 competition. It is always fantastic to be able to engage people with my research, but I am really looking forward to the chance to engage MPs and Lords.

“It is hugely important that we develop our understanding of Earth’s reaction to the solar wind, since the processes involved can have direct effects on infrastructure, both in the United Kingdom and throughout the rest of the world.

“I am looking forward to meeting my local MP and giving them an insight into the sort of work which is occurring in their constituency.â€?

Dr Coxon’s research has been entered into the Physics session of the competition which will end in a gold, silver and bronze prize-giving ceremony. Judged by leading academics, the gold medalist receives £3,000, while silver and bronze receive £2,000 and £1,000 respectively.

Joining John in the competition are four other researchers from the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering. Dr Taihai Chen and Dr Jerry Zhenhua Luo are from Electronics and Computer Science (ECS), and Dr Katrina Morgan and Dr Qiongyue Kang are from the Faculty’s Optoelectronics Research Centre.

Taihai’s research is on the world’s first error correction accelerator, enabling the next generation of wireless communications.

Jerry is undertaking research into a battery-free indoor tracking system powered by energy harvesting footwear.

Katrina’s research explores new types of ultra-fast computer memory, that is also highly tolerable to extreme doses of ionizing radiation.

Qiongyue’s is presenting a poster on optical fibre amplifiers, which are being researched for use in the next generation of telecommunications networks. Stephen Metcalfe MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, said:

“This annual competition is an important date in the parliamentary calendar because it gives MPs an opportunity to speak to a wide range of the country’s best young researchers. “These early career engineers, mathematicians and scientists are the architects of our future and SET for Britain is politicians’ best opportunity to meet them and understand their work.â€?

The Parliamentary and Scientific Committee runs the event in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Biology, The Physiological Society and the Council for Mathematical Sciences, with financial support from Essar, the Clay Mathematics Institute, Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), the Institute of Biomedical Science, the Bank of England and the Society of Chemical Industry.

Violent red flashes, lasting just fractions of a second, have been observed during one of the brightest black hole outbursts in recent years.

In June 2015, a black hole called V404 Cygni underwent dramatic brightening for about two weeks, as it devoured material that it had stripped off an orbiting companion star.

V404 Cygni, which is about 7,800 light years from Earth, was the first definitive black hole to be identified in our Galaxy and can appear extremely bright when it is actively devouring material.

In a new study, published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, an international team of astronomers, led by the University of Southampton, report that the black hole emitted dazzling red flashes lasting just fractions of a second, as it blasted out material that it could not swallow.

The astronomers associated the red colour with fast-moving jets of matter that were ejected from close to the black hole. These observations provide new insights into the formation of such jets and extreme black hole phenomena.

Lead author of the study Dr Poshak Gandhi, Associate Professor and STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellow in the University of Southampton’s Astronomy Group, comments: “The very high speed tells us that the region where this red light is being emitted must be very compact. Piecing together clues about the colour, speed, and the power of these flashes, we conclude that this light is being emitted from the base of the black hole jet. The origin of these jets is still unknown, although strong magnetic fields are suspected to play a role.

“Furthermore, these red flashes were found to be strongest at the peak of the black hole's feeding frenzy. We speculate that when the black hole was being rapidly force-fed by its companion orbiting star, it reacted violently by spewing out some of the material as a fast-moving jet. The duration of these flashing episodes could be related to the switching on and off of the jet, seen for the first time in detail.â€?

Due to the unpredictable nature and rarity of these bright black hole ‘outbursts’, astronomers have very little time to react. For example, V404 Cygni last erupted back in 1989. V404 Cygni was exceptionally bright in June 2015 and provided an excellent opportunity for such work. In fact, this was one of the brightest black hole outbursts in recent years. But most outbursts are far dimmer, making them difficult to study.

Each flash was blindingly intense, equivalent to the power output of about 1,000 suns. And some of the flashes were shorter than 1/40th of a second — about ten times faster than the duration of a typical blink of an eye. Such observations require novel technology, so astronomers used the ULTRACAM fast imaging camera mounted on the William Herschel Telescope in La Palma, on the Canary Islands.

Professor Vik Dhillon, of the University of Sheffield and co-creator of ULTRACAM, said: “ULTRACAM is unique in that it can operate at very high speed, capturing high frame-rate ‘movies’ of astronomical targets, in three colours simultaneously. This allowed us to ascertain the red colour of these flashes of light from V404 Cygni.â€?

Dr Gandhi concluded: “The 2015 event has greatly motivated astronomers to coordinate worldwide efforts to observe future outbursts. Their short durations, and strong emissions across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, require close communication, sharing of data, and collaborative efforts amongst astronomers. These observations can be a real challenge, especially when attempting simultaneous observations from ground-based telescopes and space satellites.â€?

This research was a collaboration between the universities of Southampton, Sheffield and Warwick, together with international partners in Europe, USA, India and the UAE.

The research was supported by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, the UK-India UKIERI-UGC Thematic Partnerships, the Royal Society, the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), CONACyT (Mexico), and Spanish Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte, a Marie Curie FP7-Reintegration-Grant and the University of Southampton.

According to the latest QS World Rankings, the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering at the University of Southampton has several highly ranked subjects placed amongst the top 10 in the UK. Physics & Astronomy, Computer Science & Information Systems and Electrical Engineering also received the distinction of ranking in the world’s top 100 subjects.

Driven by the University’s continually improving academic reputation, this year’s results reflect Southampton’s best ever performance in the QS subject rankings.

Professor Bashir M. Al-Hashimi, Dean of Physical Sciences and Engineering, said “these results go to confirm our world leading research, and the dedication of our outstanding staff. Internationally recognised for our impact on society, our teaching is research led, which means our students are learning from the best in their fields.â€?

The QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) rankings reflect internationally-recognised indicators of excellence to rate and rank the world’s leading universities. In addition to providing global rankings at institutional level, QS ranks universities in 42 individual subject areas using data compiled from global surveys of academics and employers to assess international reputation plus further indicators to recognise research impact.

“The QS World Rankings by Subject recognise Southampton’s excellence across a wide range of areas where the University has established an international reputation,â€? said Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Christopher Snowden. “Perhaps most importantly, these rankings reflect our impact as a University in the eyes of our peers in industry and academia which substantiates and reinforces our reputation around the world.â€?

Last September, the University of Southampton rose 13 places to 81 in the QS World University Rankings to consolidate its position amongst the world’s leading institutions. Amongst UK universities in the table, Southampton ranked 17.

Researchers from the University of Southampton (UK), and the Institut d’Optique in Bordeaux (France) have devised a new approach for controlling light in a silicon chip by bringing the concept of spatial light modulation to integrated optics.

Silicon photonics are forming the backbone of next-generation on-chip technologies and optical telecommunication, which are aimed at a wide range of emerging applications including optical interconnects, microwave photonic circuits, and integrated optical sensors.

Photonic chip functionality is usually hard-wired by design, however reconfigurable optical elements would allow light to be routed flexibly, opening up new applications in programmable photonic circuits.

Traditional spatial light modulators are based on liquid crystals or micromirrors and provide many independently controllable pixels. This technology has revolutionised optics in recent years, with many applications in imaging and holography, adaptive optics and wavefront shaping of light through opaque media.

In their new work, presented in the April issue of the journal Optica, the team makes use of multimode interference (MMI) devices, which form a versatile class of integrated optical elements routinely used for splitting and recombining different signals on a chip. The geometry of the MMI predefines its characteristics at the fabrication stage.

The team shows that the intricate interplay between many modes travelling through the MMI can be dynamically controlled. A pattern of local perturbations, induced by femtosecond laser, acts in concert to effectively shape the transmitted light. Related to wavefront shaping in free-space optics, this allows to freely route light in a static silicon element, thus transforming the device into a much needed building block for field-programmable photonics.

Lead author Dr Roman Bruck, a postdoctoral researcher within Physics and Astronomy, says: “We have demonstrated a very general approach to beam shaping on a chip that provides a wide range of useful functionalities to integrated circuits. The integrated spatial light modulator turns conventional silicon photonics components into versatile reconfigurable elements.â€?

Practical applications of this technology will include all-optical reconfigurable routers, ultrafast optical modulators and switches for optical networks and microwave photonic circuits as well as wafer-scale optical testing of photonic chips. More work is needed to develop these ideas into practical applications.

Principal investigator Professor Otto Muskens, from Physics and Astronomy at the University of Southampton, says: “There are many new directions to explore, from gaining a deeper understanding to application of the new concepts into real-world devices. This is a potentially disruptive new approach toward field-programmable chips which can enhance and complement existing strategies, or even partially replace current technology.â€?

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The image above shows an artistic rendering of a silicon-on-insulator 1x2 multimode interference splitter with a projected pattern of perturbations induced by femtosecond laser. The perturbation pattern achieves routing of light to a single output port with 97 per cent efficiency.