The wide range of research topics we study enables us to teach to a high standard in all these subject areas. Our main research areas are described below, but you can also find more details on our Department's research pages . See also the Astrophysics and Solar Terrestrial Physics research group pages. Our high energy and elementary particle physicists study the basic interactions of the subnuclear constituents of matter.
Theoretical research is concerned with the standard models of particle physics and cosmology.
Other quantum field theories are also being studied to gain insight into the nature of quark confinement. Finally there is research into what lies beyond the standard model, including the ideas of supersymmetry, grand unification and multi dimensional theories such as superstrings, and more recently branes and M-theory. The liquid crystal group is the only one of its kind in the country and its work covers the spectrum of liquid crystal physics from fundamental through to device physics. The group has expertise in a wide variety of experimental techniques and research interests including fast switching ferroelectric liquid crystals and optical nonlinearities in liquid crystal polymers. The group has a high level of international collaboration, maintaining links with European, Japanese and US research groups and is strongly supported by industrial funding.