Particle Physics

Course description

This course covers the complex theories and experimental techniques that particle physicists use to explain the nature of the universe. It will develop your understanding of the Standard Model by going into even greater depth on topics you might have covered in your undergraduate degree, such as quantum mechanics, electrodynamics and dark matter.

You’ll learn about the methods particle physicists use to study the universe, the experiments that led to the discoveries of neutrons, positrons and neutrinos, and the experimental evidence for quarks and gluons. You can examine the possible explanations for dark matter with scientists who are leading searches for it, and take modules led by researchers who were involved in the Higgs boson and gravitational wave discoveries.

The biggest part of your degree is your research project, which you might be able to work on at a research facility such as CERN. Possible topics include:

• background events in the LUX-Zeplin dark matter experiment
• characterising ultra-fast imaging photon sensors for neutrino experiments
• design a masterclass for high-school students using ATLAS open data
• searching for supersymmetry with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider
• the WATCHMAN Project: Using anti-neutrinos for nuclear threat reduction
• using tau leptons in collider experiments to search for new physics

You will also complete a research training programme, and there are optional modules to choose from including general relativity, particle astrophysics, semiconductor physics and statistical physics.

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Modules

Explore core and optional modules

Teaching

You will be taught through a series of lectures, seminars, tutorials and your research project.

Assessment

You'll be assessed by examinations, coursework, essays and other written work, presentations and a dissertation and viva.

Duration

1 year full-time

Your career

The advanced topics covered and the extensive research training make this course great preparation for a PhD. Physics graduates also develop numerical, problem solving and data analysis skills that are useful in many careers, including computer programming, software engineering, data science, and research and development into new products and services.

Entry requirements

We usually ask for a first-class degree, or equivalent, in physics.

Overall IELTS score of 6.5 with a minimum of 6.0 in each component, or equivalent.