DiRAC invited researchers to submit aesthetically inspiring and scientifically interesting imagery generated using the DiRAC facility during the previous three years. With two categories: particle and nuclear physics images; and astronomy, cosmology and solar & planetary science images, the full range of submitted images and the theme winners can be found below.
The 2024 Research Image Competition was sponsored by Logicalis, who awarded each category winner a £250 prize.
A stunning visualization of shock fronts in interstellar gas driven by explosive supernovae and supermassive black holes, captured from a cosmological simulation. The vibrant colors represent the gas temperature, revealing the dynamic and extreme environments of the universe.
This image was produced using the DiRAC-supported SWIFT software.
A burst of axion radiation is emitted from the collision of two travelling waves propagating along an axion string. Axion strings inevitably form in high energy physics theories with a spontaneously broken global U(1) symmetry. This image shows that these strings radiate massless axions (Goldstone bosons) from regions of high string curvature. Such axions become a dark matter candidate when the symmetry is explicitly broken, for example due to QCD instanton effects, and the particle acquires a mass.
