Physics Department News
First data for LHCb and T2K
The LHCb and T2K experiments at the CERN and J-PARC laboratories have recorded their first events last week representing a major milestone for both experiments, to which the Warwick Particle Physics Group are making significant contributions. Graduate student Mark Whitehead was "on shift" at CERN over the weekend of 20-22 November and as such was in charge of LHCb while the first events were recorded. Gary Barker is leading the construction here at Warwick of large calorimeter modules for T2K, and the group are preparing for the first data analysis. Further details are available in the CERN and J-PARC press releases:
Astrophysical Discovery

Astrophysicists find two Earth-sized bodies with oxygen rich atmospheres - only snag is they’re stars not planets. For more information please see the link to the Warwick press release below
Nature Paper
Andrew Levan has contributed to a Nature paper which has been published this week, reporting the most distant object ever seen in the Universe.
There is a free access podcast trailer which features both Nial Tanvir and Andrew Levan, see link
The original article can be found here
Article by Prof Tom Marsh and Dr Danny Steeghs
Professor Tom Marsh and Dr Danny Steeghs have just had a paper accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal entitled 'The expanding bipolar shell of the helium nova V445 Puppis'. This article concerns an explosive event caused by fusion of helium on the surface of a white dwarf in a binary star system. State of the art adaptive optics imaging was used to resolve the outflow from this event as it expands. The scale of the image covers less than a thousandths of a degree.
