Steve Padden successfully passed his viva
A big congratulations to QUASAR Steve Padden for successfully completing his PhD thesis on ‘Complete end-to-end simulations of antiproton transport, degrading and early trapping’.
Steve's work focussed on the transport and delivery of antiprotons into catching traps, taking novel approaches to accelerator physics using minimisation routines for transfer lines, coupled with density functional theory and molecular dynamics for degrader foil simulations.
The work undertaken represents a realistic simulation of antiproton transport and degradation from point of decelerator ejection until experimental capture, with the simulated transfer line exhibiting minimal losses throughout transport, resulting from the minimisation routine.
Collaborating with physicists and experts from Liverpool University, Daresbury Laboratory and of course the Quasar Group, the work was applied to transfer lines located at CERN within the AD-ELENA complex, carrying antiprotons from ELENA to experimental handover.
Steve worked closely with supervisors Prof. Carsten Welsh, Dr. Petteri Pusa and Dr. Egidijus Kukstas during his PhD, approaching the work under study via a number of diverse methods.
After a short break, Steve intends to continue using the data science and research techniques garnered over the past four years, applying them to either research, industry or teaching.
Congrats!