Prof Philip Harris

Biography

• Professorship (2007), Readership (2003), Senior Lectureship (2000) at Sussex
• Full time at Sussex since 1998
• Lectureship at Sussex and postdoc at Rutherford Lab, joint appointment (1994)
• Postdoc (1990) and Visiting Research Assistant Professor (1992), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• PhD, Observation of High-Lying Resonances in the H- Ion, University of New Mexico (1990)
• Teacher, Gaynes School, Upminster (1983-84)
• PGCE, University of Oxford (1983)
• BA Hons, University of Oxford (1982)

Role

Professor of Physics 

Head of Department

I am a member of the Experimental Particle Physics group.  My research is focused upon the measurement of the neutron electric dipole moment (e.d.m.), a small asymmetry in the structure of the neutron that is strongly related to the question of why the universe contains so much more matter than antimatter. The experiment, which was recently ranked by the Science and Technology Facilities Council as being one of the UK's three top-priority particle-physics experiments, uses magnetic resonance to measure the dependence upon the applied electric field of the precession frequency of stored ultracold neutrons.  This is one of the most precise measurements that it is possible to make: If the charge separation to which we are sensitive could be expanded to the size of a football, then a football would correspondingly expand to the size of the visible Universe.  It has been said in the literature that this experiment has probably disproved more theories than any other experiment in the history of physics.

Until recently, I was also involved in the MINOS long-baseline neutrino oscillation search. This experiment sends a beam of muon neutrinos from Fermilab, near Chicago, towards a 5,000 ton detector in a mine in northern Minnesota, 735 km away, where the resulting interactions are studied closely to look for signs that the muon neutrinos have turned into electron or tau neutrinos en route: it is now making the world's most precise measurements of the relevant mixing parameters. My primary responsibility was towards the calibration of the more than 200,000 optical readout channels.

I teach Foundation Year lab.  Other courses that I have taught recently include:

• Data Acquisition and Analysis

• Applications of Mechanics
• Nuclear and Particle Physics II

In addition:

• DPhil student supervision
• Undergraduate final-year project student supervision
• Research-placement and Nuffield bursary student supervision

Student Consultation

Tuesday 1-2

Harris, P G, Pendlebury, J M and Devenish, N E (2013) Gravitationally enhanced depolarization of ultracold neutrons in magnetic field gradients, and implications for neutron electric dipole moment measurements. Physical Review D. ISSN 1550-7998 (In Press)

Altarev, I, Harris, P G, Pendlebury, J M, Shiers, D, Smith, K F and et al, (2011) New constraints on Lorentz invariance violation from the neutron electric dipole moment. Europhysics Letters, 92 (5). p. 51001. ISSN 0295-5075

Adamson, P, Andreopoulos, C, Arms, K.E, Armstrong, R, Auty, D J, Ayres, D.S, Baller, B, Barr, G, Barrett, W L, Becker, B.R, Falk, E, Harris, P G and Hartnell, J (2008) Testing Lorentz Invariance and CPT Conservation with NuMI Neutrinos in the MINOS Near Detector. Physical Review Letters, 101 (15). p. 151601. ISSN 0031-9007

Raidal, M., Harris, P G and et al, . (2008) Flavor physics of leptons and dipole moments. European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields, 57 (1-2). pp. 13-182. ISSN 1434-6044

Baker, C A, Doyle, D D, Geltenbort, P, Green, K, van der Grinten, M G D, Harris, P G, Iaydjiev, P, Ivanov, S N, May, D J R, Pendlebury, J M, Richardson, J D, Shiers, D and Smith, K F (2006) An improved experimental limit on the electric dipole moment of the neutron. Physical Review Letters, 97 (13). p. 131801.

Baker, C A, Balashov, S N, Butterworth, J, Geltenbort, P, Green, K, Harris, P G, van der Grinten, M G D, Iaydjiev, P S, Ivanov, S N, Pendlebury, J M, Shiers, D B, Tucker, M A H and Yoshiki, H (2003) Experimental measurement of ultracold neutron production in superfluid 4He. Physics Letters A, 308 (1). pp. 67-74.