A group of Lancaster’s Low Temperature Physicists spent three days bringing “A quantum view of the invisible universe” to school children and the general public as a part of Cheltenham’s annual Science Festival.

The team were invited to attend by the Royal Society, which had hosted their interactive display – which delves into the way low temperature physics can be used to unravel the mysteries of dark matter - at their Summer Science Exhibition in summer of last year. The exhibit showcases the work of two low temperature experiments (QUEST-DMC, based at Lancaster and QSHS, based at the University of Sheffield) in a manner accessible to the general public, exploring two theories on what the “dark matter” in our universe might be made out of, and how we can try and detect it using low temperature techniques.

The exhibit proved incredibly popular at the Royal Society’s event, and was subsequently converted into a more easily-transportable version for Cheltenham this June. The Cheltenham Science Festival was first hosted in 2002, and has since become one of the most significant festivals of its type in the UK, hosting a variety of science-related stalls, interactive exhibits, and talks from renowned scientists from across the globe, including big names such as astrophysicist Brian Cox, YouTuber Steve Mould, and comedian and mathematician Matt Parker.

The Low Temperature Physics team from Lancaster attended the festival from Wednesday 4^th-Friday 6^th June in the Arcade tent as a part of the free offerings of the Festival, and played host to some 1800 guests – predominantly classes of primary-aged school children and their teachers. The team was led by Dr Michael Thompson and was supported by a contingent of PhD students and academic staff eager to share their expertise in the field through fun activities such as an axion-finding computer game and a demonstration of “the universe in a suitcase”. In addition to the day-time visits from school children, the exhibition was also open to the public in an over 18s evening on the Friday, which invited the scientifically-curious to come and engage with academics and professionals from across a broad range of scientific disciplines.

The event was a huge success for the team, who saw an endless stream of curious school children and adults alike queueing at the exhibit for a chance to learn more about the physics behind the search for dark matter. On their success, organiser Dr Thompson said: “Exhibiting at the Cheltenham Science Festival was a great opportunity to share our research with a young audience. It was a busy three days, with 130 school children being shuttled in every hour, but thanks to our amazing volunteers, it went smoothly and the visitors seemed to enjoy it! I’m very grateful to the Royal Society for inviting us as a part of their Summer Science Exhibits on Tour programme and for providing financial support.”

Volunteer at the event and Physics PhD student Scott Henderson also added: “It was wonderful to see how many students and members of the public are excited by physics. Our stand was full every day with people asking great questions, searching for dark matter themselves and learning more about this mysterious topic.”