Measurement of the Migdal effect in neutron scattering and application to dark matter searches

This studentship will support the design, construction, operation and analysis of data from a new experiment aiming to produce a first measurement of the atomic Migdal effect from nuclear scattering. The experiment will be located at the ISIS facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and is supported by a new international collaboration. The MIGDAL detector will be a low-pressure Optical Time Projection Chamber exposed to very intense neutron beams, and able to resolve particle tracks that can identify the Migdal effect: a nuclear recoil track with a low-energy electron sharing a common vertex. The student will be involved in all aspects of the planning and execution of the experiment and analysis of data from its various sub-detectors, through to publication of the first set of Migdal measurements.