Antihydrogen was the first, and so far the only, atom made entirely of antimatter to be produced. In 2002 two teams of scientists independently produced the first cold antimatter atoms at the European centre for nuclear physics, CERN. Antihydrogen is neutral, and is therefore relatively unperturbed by electric and magnetic fields. Measurements on antihydrogen can therefore, in principle, reach the highest level of precision of any man-made measurements via spectroscopic comparison with its normal matter counterpart hydrogen. This comparison is intended to help explain the antimatter/matter asymmetry in the Universe. The current standard model of particle physics, and the underlying quantum theories, imply that there is perfect symmetry between matter and antimatter. This symmetry means that when energy is transformed into matter (following Einstein's famous equation E=mc^2) / exactly equal amounts of matter and antimatter will be formed. However, the Universe of today seems not to contain significant amounts of antimatter, in particular is there no evidence of antimatter stars or planets, nor that the so-called dark-matter should be antimatter. Thus, to put it popularly, we currently miss 50% of the Universe. The research into antimatter, which this project is all about, aims to help resolve this mystery.An important step towards precision comparison of antihydrogen and hydrogen, is to trap the neutral antihydrogen. (Anti)hydrogen can only be trapped in a magnetic trap, which is very shallow, only allowing trapping of atoms with temperatures below about one degree above absolute zero. This means that it is not enough to just make the antihydrogen cold, it has to be very cold. The aim of this project is exactly that; make very cold antihydrogen and trap it. Antihydrogen is normally made by merging plasmas of its constituents: antielectrons (positrons) and antiprotons. In earlier work by the principal investigator and others it was found that up until now, the somewhat brute-force approach used makes antihydrogen which is significantly warmer than the surroundings. So, even with cryogenic surroundings at four degrees above absolute zero, very few trappable antiatoms would be produced. In this project a range of plasma physics techniques will be implemented. These techniques offer detailed control over the shape and density of the plasmas, as well as diagnostics for these parameters. Although the techniques have been applied elsewhere, the challenge here is to make them into work horses in the complex experimental setup that is used for antihydrogen formation. Furthermore, the techniques have not been applied to the extent proposed here in multi-species plasmas. Using these techniques, it is expected that detailed control of the antihydrogen internal states and their temperature can be obtained. These two parameters are both crucial for the success of magnetic trapping, and the future goal of antihydrogen spectroscopy.

Understanding and explaining the origin and evolution of our Universe has been at the heart of scientific endeavour for centuries. Recent decades have seen spectacular advances, as particle physics and cosmology have combined to provide the beginnings of a coherent picture. Our Universe seems to have been born in a cataclysmic event called the Big Bang, and has continuously evolved over the 13-14 billion years since then. Though much of the visible Universe can be explained, there are still many very profound mysteries, and none more so than that posed by the existence of antimatter.Simply put, antimatter remains a mystery to Physics. Whilst the symmetry of the laws of nature, and in particular quantum mechanics, demands its existence, the Universe appears to be composed entirely of matter. Addressing this conundrum is one of the great challenges of basic science. As the hot Universe cooled shortly after the Big Bang it appears that all of the antimatter vanished, leaving a tiny excess of matter. At one part in a billion, this doesn't sound much, but the entire material Universe is created from it. The problem is we don't understand how this came to be. There are asymmetries in the behaviour of matter and antimatter, but they are too small by many orders of magnitude to account for the existence of the Universe. One way to address this problem, and the way we have chosen, is to study the antihydrogen atom - the building block of antimatter, and an atom that the Universe never got the chance to make. Recent years have seen great progress in our capabilities with low energy antiparticles (antiprotons and positrons). We can routinely collect many of them in vacuum and store them until we are ready to gently mix them to form antihydrogen under very controlled conditions.Although this capability has opened up great opportunities, there is still much work to be done before the properties of antihydrogen can be compared to those of hydrogen. In this project we will begin along this road by performing a series of experiments on antihydrogen atoms which we have manufactured and trapped in a special device. The apparatus has several parts, but the most important is a trap which can hold neutral species, such as antihydrogen. The trap is formed by magnetic fields from a complicated coil arrangement that forms a magnetic field minimum in the centre of the antihydrogen production region. Antihydrogen, like hydrogen, has a tiny magnetic moment - think of the orbiting positron as a minute current loop - which means that the energy levels shift in an applied magnetic field. Those atoms whose potential energy increases in the field will prefer to sit at the magnetic field minimum, and will be trapped.The depth of the trap is very shallow, just below the equivalent of one degree Kelvin, so we have to make our anti-atoms under very controlled conditions. Once they are trapped we will shine photons on them to interrogate their internal structure. First experiments are likely to be with microwaves, which will help us to compare with the famous 21 cm line of hydrogen. Eventually we will be able to shine laser light onto the antihydrogen.If any differences between the properties of hydrogen and antihydrogen are found, we will have discovered new physics, and perhaps come some way along the road to discovering what happened to antimatter in the early Universe.

After surgery, radiation treatments are the most widely used and successful way to cure cancers. However, modern radiotherapy plans often cause severe side-effects to the patient and the overall success rate is still only moderate. Therefore there is a need to research new ways of delivering radiotherapies in order to inform and improve new treatments in the future.Radiotherapy works by killing cancer cells - usually by breaking the DNA in those cells. If the damage is so severe that the cells cannot repair it, the cells die. A lot of the research into radiotherapy is aimed at understanding how cells respond to radiations of different types and doses.One reason why radiotherapy results in side-effects is because healthy cells are damaged, or killed, as well as cancerous ones. Therefore considerable efforts have been made to minimize these effects and to focus the destructive power of radiation on tumour cells. This has been achieved, to some extent, with X-rays by irradiating the patient from multiple external sites. An alternative, and very promising, approach is the use of ion beams in place of x-rays. There are already numerous proton treatment facilities worldwide (including one in the UK) and centres using heavier ions (eg carbon) are now being brought into operation.The big advantage of ion beams is due to the way they deposit their energy in tissue. When an X-ray beam enters a person, energy is deposited immediately upon entry, thus causing damage. In contrast, ion beams can pass several centimeters through tissue before depositing the bulk of their energy. By manipulation of the physical properties of the ion beam, the depth at which ion beams deposit their energy can be controlled and made to correspond to the site of the tumour. Thus the bulk of this type of radiation's destructive power is concentrated in the cells which we wish to destroy. The results from ion beam irradiation are impressive, with improved clear-up rates and decreased side-effects.A further improvement on ion beams, may be to use antiprotons. Antiprotons will be familiar to any reader of science fiction - usually as the means of propulsion of interstellar starships or in a fearsome and destructive weapons systems. However, antiprotons can be produced here on earth, contained, controlled and used in experiments. Like their regular matter counterparts, protons, they can pass through material for several centimeters before depositing their energy. Their potential advantage arises from the fact that when an antiproton meets a proton, the two particles annihilate each other (according to Einstein's famous equation E=mc2) releasing lots of energy.A group of scientists at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland have begun experiments to see if antiprotons can be used in cancer therapies. This group (the ACE collaboration) have shown that antiprotons kill cells approximately four time better than protons. However, before antiprotons can be considered a viable possibility in cancer radiotherapy, considerable extra scientific work is required.In 2008, the applicants joined the ACE collaboration and carried out an experiment at CERN to investigate the effects of antiprotons on cultured human cells. They showed that antiprotons cause damage to the DNA in these cells and that the more antiprotons the cells are exposed to, the more DNA damage is caused. In addition, they demonstrated that media from irradiated cells can cause DNA damage responses in non-irradiated cells. This phenomenon, the so-called bystander effect, is well documented with other types of radiation, but has not previously been shown with antiproton irradiation.The applicants now seek funding to return to CERN in autumn 2009, in order to continue these experiments. This year they hope to learn more about the bystander effect resulting from antiproton irradiation, including quantifying the magnitude of these effects.

This proposal forms part of an initiative to design a linear electron accelerator for radiotherapy where all subsystems will be optimised to ensure it is robust, reliable, cost effective and appropriate for use in challenging environments including developing countries. This project aims to design a beam delivery system (magnetic focusing and steering) which uses modern capabilities in permanent magnets to ensure that a high-quality electron beam can be taken from the source to the x-ray generating target with minimal losses. Replacing some or all of the existing electromagnets with permanent magnets should enable a maintenance-free focusing system which requires very little electricity, which has been highlighted as a barrier to providing this technology in ODA countries. (A few smaller, cheaper and replaceable adjustable electromagnets will be included for fine tuning, which would have minimal power requirements.)

In the UK one in two people are diagnosed with cancer during their lifetimes and of those who survive 41% can attribute their cure to a treatment including radiotherapy. Proton beam therapy (PBT) is a radical new type of radiotherapy, capable of delivering a targeted tumour dose with minimal damage to the surrounding healthy tissue. The NHS is investing £250m in two new "state of the art" PBT centres in London and Manchester. In addition, Oxford has attracted £110m (from HEFCE and business partners) for its new Centre for Precision Cancer Medicine, incorporating PBT. This EPSRC Network+ proposal seeks to bring the EPS community together with clinical, consumer and industrial partners and develop a national research infrastructure and roadmap in proton therapy. It capitalises on ~£300m of government investment and affords an opportunity for those not directly involved in the new proton centres to be actively involved in the national research effort in this area. This project has the backing of NCRI Clinical and Translational Radiotherapy Working Group and NHS England and will work with the national Proton Physics Research and Implementation Group of the National Physical Laboratory. It also involves industrial stakeholders, consumer groups and international partners (including PBT centres in Europe and USA and CERN). While PBT offers patients many advantages it also presents a wealth of technical challenges and opportunities where there is an unmet research and training need. This is where there the involvement of the EPS community is vital since this challenge in Healthcare Technologies requires expertise from across the EPS spectrum and maps on to themes in ICT, Digital Economy, Engineering, Mathematics, Manufacturing the Future, and the Physical Sciences and also finds synergies within quantum technologies. It directly maps onto the cross cutting capabilities identified in the Healthcare Technologies Grand Challenges. This is a highly multi-disciplinary area at the frontiers of physical intervention, which achieves high precision treatment with minimal invasiveness. This Network+ is particularly timely; it will afford the UK the opportunity to develop a world-leading research capability to inform the national agenda, capitalising on existing research excellence and the synergies that can be developed by bringing the clinical and EPS areas together. It will also collaborate with existing doctoral training provision to train the next generation of leaders where a national need has been identified. This proposed Network+ will create a national infrastructure to meet a national research and training need and will allow the UK community to work together in the multi-disciplinary field of proton research. This proposed Network+ will create a sustainable national proton beam infrastructure by drawing together sites where proton beams are already available (albeit at lower energies) and providing a route for the research community to access these facilities. As the new proton centres come on line they will add to this national resource and the centres will work together to provide a virtual national infrastructure for the UK, which by the end of the Network+ will be fully sustainable. The Network+ will also provide a route for those interested in the field but not requiring proton experiments to become involved. In addition, the Network+ will offer secondments ("Discipline Hops") into the clinical environment in both the UK and in PBT centres overseas. Working with NHS England the Network+ will develop a PBT training scheme. This will link the existing NHS provision with EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training and allow equivalencies to be established and so provide a "fast track" to a skilled workforce and the next generation of leaders. The Network+ will also seek to engage with industry through joint research and secondments and with consumer groups, policy makers and the general public.