Funded PhD studentships
We are currently accepting applications for STFC and University-funded studentships in our group for a September 2026 start. Interviews for shortlisted candidates are expected to be held in March initially and will continue until the positions are filled. Please apply using the online application form.
Some examples of projects are below. Please check back for updates to this list:
Top-Antitop BSM Searches in ATLAS
The Sussex ATLAS group has had a long-standing and significant involvement in the final state top-antitop plus X to search for new physics beyond the Standard Model utilising and developing new Machine Learning techniques, and effective field theory (EFT) interpretations. The focus of the PhD project will be to significantly contribute to these efforts using ATLAS Run-3 data. The student will also spend their time on technical tasks that are well-aligned with Sussex’s institutional responsibility on the ATLAS trigger. There will also be opportunities for training and involvement in particle physics outreach and communication projects or working with ATLAS Open Data for research and for education. (Supervisor: Dr Kate Shaw).
Novel Opaque Scintillator Detector R&D and Neutrino Physics
You’ll have the opportunity to work on the exciting and counter-intuitive idea of using opaque scintillators as particle detectors. Traditionally, light travels through a transparent scintillator to a photosensor. Our approach, called LiquidO, embeds a lattice of optical fibres in an opaque scintillator with a short scattering length. The scintillation photons are stochastically confined close to the point of production via scattering and extracted by the fibres, removing the need for manual segmentation to create high-resolution imaging detectors. There are many applications in particle physics and beyond.
You’ll join one of the largest groups developing this technology world-wide. Professor Jeff Hartnell co-leads the CLOUD neutrino experiment, which will deploy a 10-ton LiquidO detector 35 metres from Europe’s most powerful nuclear reactor cores at Chooz in France on the timescale of this studentship. The Sussex group also has a strong programme of in-house prototype development, construction, operation and analysis as well as characterisation of different scintillators and fibres. (Supervisor: Prof Jeff Hartnell).
Heavy Neutral Lepton Searches in ATLAS
The main topic of the studentship is to search for physics Beyond the Standard Model in ATLAS by searching for Heavy Neutral Leptons, HNLs, in final states containing tau leptons. The existence of right-handed neutrinos with Majorana masses below the electroweak scale could provide a way to solve the problem of neutrino masses, matter-anti-matter asymmetry and dark matter. Final states with tau leptons have not been explored so far in ATLAS and are known to have a significant impact in improving the sensitivity of the ATLAS searches in the discovery of these new particles.
The ATLAS-Sussex group has, over the years, made world-leading contributions to BSM physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), and the candidate will profit from the vast BSM experience within the group to make a leading impact in this crucial area of LHC physics. In addition to the analysis project, the candidate will contribute to the technical work of the ATLAS-Sussex group in the ATLAS Trigger. Over the years, the ATLAS-Sussex group has made leading contributions to several areas of the ATLAS Trigger (e.g. Inner Detector tracking trigger, tracking trigger for the future upgrade of the ATLAS experiment), with several people holding convenorship positions in the ATLAS Trigger.
The candidate will be spending a fraction of their time in one of the areas of the trigger with Sussex leadership. There will be opportunities to travel to CERN to work with international partners who are based in the Geneva area. (Supervisor: Prof Fabrizio Salvatore).
SBND Neutrino Experiment Analysis and Development towards DUNE
A number of experiments have shown anomalies in neutrino oscillation results, hinting at a possible additional neutrino state beyond the three present in the Standard Model. The Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) programme at Fermilab aims to settle the question of whether or not the anomalies are real or not, with a set of three large liquid argon TPC neutrino detectors: ICARUS, MicroBooNE, and the Short Baseline Near Detector (SBND). SBND began taking physics data recently and is poised to publish first results imminently.
In this project, you’ll have the opportunity to analyse new SBND data towards searches for Beyond the Standard Model signatures. The liquid argon detection technology used in SBND is also the basis for the DUNE experiment currently under construction. DUNE will make use of the world’s most intense neutrino beam generated at Fermilab, which will travel to a far detector 1300 km away in the Sanford Lab in South Dakota, which will use tens of kilotons of liquid argon as the detector medium. The analysis techniques used in SBND will also be applicable to DUNE and the project will also involve studying the physics reach of DUNE and contributing to the installation of this next generation experiment. (Supervisor: Dr Clark Griffith).
PhD projects available for self-funded students
These projects are available for students that are able to self-fund their PhD studies, or have an externally funded scholarship. Applications for these studentships are welcome at any time of year. Self funded students may also apply for any of the project topics listed in the previous section.
Searching for new sources of CP violation with the n2EDM experiment
Searches for a neutron Electric Dipole Moment (nEDM) provide an extremely sensitive probe for new physics that violates combined charge and parity symmetries (CP). Additional CP violation is required to explain why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe, and the measurement of a nonzero EDM could be the key to this important puzzle, and would have profound implications for particle physics and cosmology.
The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland hosts the collaboration that holds the world record in sensitivity in nEDM measurement, and is currently commissioning a new experimental apparatus (n2EDM) which should improve the nEDM sensitivity by more than an order of magnitude. An interested self-funded student would be welcome to join the Sussex group working on the n2EDM experiment, where they would have the opportunity to analyse new data from the n2EDM apparatus, with a focus on analysing and optimising signals from the optical atomic magnetometry subsystems (Hg and Cs), which are crucial for studying and understanding systematic effects. (Supervisor: Dr W Clark Griffith).