Magnetism in materials is one of the oldest scientific discoveries, but is still far from being completely understood. I am proposing to use new and, as yet, completely unexploited experimental techniques to learn about materials where the magnetic interactions act to make the magnetic state stable; but only just stable! This means that small changes in the environment can cause dramatic changes in the magnetic properties. I propose to investigate these effects with muons. These are subatomic particles that may be implanted into materials where they act as microscopic magnetometers. In a solid, the atoms interact with each other through electrostatic forces between the electrons attached to the atoms. These forces are short range, so an atom is only on speaking terms with it neighbours. Electrons have a property known as spin, which is best thought of as an arrow attached to each electron. At high temperatures the spins on are randomly aligned, but as we reduce the temperature the electrostatic interactions cause the spins to line up with those of their neighbours. Amazingly, short range forces act to make all of the spins in the solid align. From local atoms speaking only to their neighbours, we have created collective action in the form of long-range order. Long-range order is seen throughout nature and the theory of such order explains the clustering of galaxies, the distribution of earthquakes, the spread of disease and even the very existence of the universe itself. A crucial factor in magnetism is the way in which interactions pass information (like line up spins this way'') between atoms. There may be situations where the interactions only act along a line of atoms (one-dimension) or in a plane of atoms (two-dimensions). This dimensionality is at the root of the behaviour of all long-range ordered systems. This is far from being a theoretical abstraction - it is possible to make 1D and 2D materials in the laboratory. Here, molecules are often employed as the building blocks of the materials rather than individual atoms. These molecular magnets are self assembled nanostructures, formed from networks of magnetic metal atoms which are linked together using organic molecules. The great number of organic molecules allow us to make small changes to the structure of magnets leading to tailor made materials with desired properties.Another important class of magnet results when messages sent to an atom conflict, a phenomenon known as frustration . If each atom is receiving conflicting instructions as to which direction is should align, it is not obvious which it will obey. It is therefore difficult to predict the ground state of the system (that is, the state adopted at very low temperatures). The investigation of such systems provide insights into why materials adopt the states that they do. Why should a certain material be a ferromagnet while another stays disordered down to low temperature? We can even gain an insight into why the solid state itself is stable.I propose to carry out research into frustrated and low-dimensional materials using muons. These are a subatomic particle that may be implanted in a material in order to measure the internal magnetic field. Investigations with muons reveal properties invisible to other, more conventional, experimental techniques. Both frustrated and low-dimensional materials tend to exist at the edges of stability, so that small changes in their external environment lead to dramatic changes in their behaviour. This means that experiments where small perturbations are applied to on of these magnets tend to yield much interesting information about their behaviour. New experimental techniques have recently been developed where perturbations may be applied and simultaneous measurements made with muons. These, as yet, have been completely unexploited in front line research and it is their first deployment that forms the basis of my work.

The Antarctic Ice Sheet is a mass of ice larger than Europe, in some places several kilometres from top to bottom. Fed by snowfall over its interior, it spreads out under its own weight, going afloat at its edge in the form of enormous ice shelves with areas ranging from that of Greater London to that of France. The ice shelves are then melted from below by waters from the Southern Ocean. The inputs and outputs of the system are so massive that even very small imbalances can have catastrophic effects on global sea level: the portion of Antarctica known as the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), suspected unstable due to the shape of its underlying bedrock, would contribute 3-5 m of sea level rise were it to collapse completely. Satellite observations have shown that some of the fast-flowing outlet glaciers that carry ice out of Antarctica have sped up dramatically. Pine Island Glacier, which drains a significant portion of WAIS, has nearly doubled its speed in the last several decades, creating a large negative imbalance for the ice sheet. The acceleration is thought to be connected to the high under-ice shelf melt rates observed in the region. This melting reduces the ability of the Pine Island Ice Shelf to hold back the glacier feeding it. Increased ice-shelf melt rates are possibly due to warming oceans; but recent studies suggest that melting could actually be strongly dependent on ice shelf and ice sheet behaviour as well. Additionally, a recent glaciological modelling study suggests a "tipping point" may have been crossed, and that ice retreat, though triggered by oceans, is now self-perpetuating regardless of melting. Determining whether the observed retreat is due to ongoing climate forcing, or to feedbacks of the coupled ice-ocean system, is of utmost importance to predicting (and if possible mitigating) future sea level contributions from WAIS. In the proposed work we will address this question through the development of a sophisticated computer model of interacting ice sheet and oceans, and by investigation of the processes involved in ice retreat through controlled modelling experiments. Idealized experiments of ice-ocean interactions will lead up to a realistic modelling study of Pine Island Glacier, designed to assess the relative importance of forcing and feedback in its observed retreat. This study will be unprecedented in terms of the tools developed, the experiments undertaken, and the knowledge gained. Presently no numerical model exists that can fully represent the close interaction between ice sheets, ice shelves, and the ocean circulating beneath them. Furthermore the ice and ocean codes, as well as being ideally suited for coupling together, share properties that will allow for in-depth investigation of model sensitivity and controls, and for the incorporation of ice-sheet observations in a physically consistent manner, vastly improving the reliability of results.

There are major challenges inherent in meeting the goals of the UK national energy policy, including, climate change mitigation and adaption, security of supply, asset renewal, supply infrastructure etc. Additionally, there is a recognized shortage of high quality scientists and engineers with energy-related training to tackle these challenges, and to support the UK's future research and development and innovation performance as evidenced by several recent reports;Doosan Babcock (Energy Brief, Issue 3, June 2007, Doosan Babcock); UK Energy Institute (conducted by Deloitte/Norman Broadbent, 'Skills Needs in the Energy Industry' 2008); The Institution of Engineering and Technology, (evidence to the House of Commons, Select Committee on Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Fifth Report (19th June 2008); The Energy Research Partnership (Investigation into High-level Skills Shortages in the Energy Sector, March 2007). Here we present a proposal to host a Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) focusing on the development of technologies for a low carbon future, providing a challenging, exciting and inspiring research environment for the development of tomorrow's research leaders. This DTC will bring together a cohort of postgraduate research students and their supervisors to develop innovative technologies for a low carbon future based around the key interlinking themes: [1] Low Carbon Enabling Technologies; [2] Transport & Energy; [3] Carbon Storage, underpinned by [4] Climate Change & Energy Systems Research. Thereby each student will develop high level expertise in a particular topic but with excitement of working in a multidisciplinary environment. The DTC will be integrated within a campus wide Interdisciplinary Institute which coordinates energy research to tackle the 'Grand Challenge' of developing technologies for a low carbon future, our DTC students therefore working in a transformational research environment. The DTC will be housed in a NEW 14.8M Energy Research Building and administered by the established (2005) cross campus Earth, Energy & Environment (EEE) University Interdisciplinary Institute

Multiferroics and magnetoelectrics are materials that develop a ferroelectric polarization in a magnetic state, either spontaneously or in a magnetic field. Because they can in principle convert electric into magnetic signals, it has been proposed that they could be used as key components in a new generation of information storage and processing devices, alternative and better than the familiar magnetic (e.g., hard disks) and ferroelectric (e.g., smart-card chips) storage media. A true renaissance in the field was triggered by the discovery of a new class of multiferroics, in which magnetism and ferroelectricity are tightly coupled. However, after almost a decade of research, no material has yet emerged as a viable candidate for applications, since the observed effects are weak and generally restricted to low temperatures. Here, we propose to explore at the fundamental level a number of novel concepts, which depart in a radical way from the thoroughly-explored `cycloidal magnetism' paradigm. In particular, we will attempt to unlock the potential of the strongest of the mageto-electric interactions, the so-called `exchange striction' effect. In contrast to the weaker effects mostly considered so far, obtaining electrical polarisation from exchange striction requires an exquisite control of the crystal symmetry and of the magnetic interactions at the atomic level. We propose to employ an innovative research methodology, which combines conventional measurements of electrical and magnetic properties, `imaging' of the spins and electric dipoles at different length-scales, from atomic to macroscopic, and state-of-the-art ab-initio theoretical calculations of the static and dynamic properties of these systems, both at low temperatures and at room temperature. The breakthrough we seek is a new microscopic "working principle" that can be deployed to perfect practical multiferroics and magnetoelectrics materials. Our new approach, which strongly emphasizes the interface between theory and experiments, will also pave the way for similar studies on related classes of materials, with applications in information storage, energy conversion and storage and many others.

United States of America