Dr Patrick Ryan Knights MSci, PhD

Dr Patrick Ryan Knights

School of Physics and Astronomy
Assistant Professor

Contact details

Email
p.r.knights@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
Physics West Building
School of Physics and Astronomy
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Patrick is an experimental particle physicist working towards the direct detection of dark matter. Patrick’s work spans a variety of different experimental approaches, with one focus area being the detection of light (sub-GeV) dark matter particle candidates.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Experimental Particle Physics, Université Paris-Saclay and University of Birmingham, 2021
  • MSci (Hons) in Physics, University of Birmingham, 2017

Biography

Patrick completed his PhD in 2021, jointly awarded by the Université Paris-Saclay and the University of Birmingham, for work as part of the NEWS-G direct dark matter search experiment. He has been the run coordinator for the NEWS-G experiment since 2022.

Since completing his PhD, Patrick’s work has continued to focus on direct dark matter detection and now spans several technologies including gaseous and liquid noble element particle detectors, and ultra-pure materials. He is involved in several different experimental and R&D efforts, including NEWS-G, the MIGDAL experiment, and the XLZD consortium. Much of his work is focussed on next-generation experiments, including proposed experiments to be hosted at the Boulby Underground Laboratory – the UK’s deep underground science facility. This includes the proposed DarkSPHERE and XLZD experiments.

Patrick was awarded the 2023 Institute of Physics Astroparticle Physics Group Early Career Award for ‘contributions to direct dark matter searches, including R&D on spherical proportional counters for the NEWS-G experiment and low-radioactivity techniques.’

Teaching

  • Year 2 Laboratories and Projects
  • Year 4 Projects
  • PhD supervision

Postgraduate supervision

Direct dark matter detection (and related) experiments (e.g. NEWS-G, MIGDAL, XLZD)

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Herd, D, Katsioulas, I, Knights, P, Manthos, I, Matthews, J, Millins, L, Neep, T, Nikolopoulos, K & Rogers, G 2024, 'First operation of an ACHINOS-equipped spherical proportional counter with individual anode read-out', Journal of Instrumentation, vol. 19, no. 1, P01018. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/19/01/P01018

Knights, P, Sekiya, H, Katsioulas, I, Nikolopoulos, K, Kanzawa, K & Giomataris, I 2024, 'Measurement of scintillation from proportional electron multiplication in liquid xenon using a needle', Journal of Instrumentation, vol. 19, no. 10, P10015. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/19/10/p10015

Giomataris, I, Katsioulas, I, Knights, P, Manthos, I, Neep, T, Nikolopoulos, K, Papaevangelou, T & Ward, R 2023, 'Neutron spectroscopy: The case of the spherical proportional counter', Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research. Section A. Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors, vol. 1045, 167590. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2022.167590

Katsioulas, I, Knights, P & Nikolopoulos, K 2022, 'Ionisation quenching factors from W-values in pure gases for rare event searches', Astroparticle Physics, vol. 141, 102707. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2022.102707

Giomataris, I, Gros, M, Katsioulas, I, Knights, P, Mols, J, Neep, T, Nikolopoulos, K, Savvidis, G, Savvidis, I, Shang, L, Ward, R & Zhou, Y 2020, 'A resistive ACHINOS multi-anode structure with DLC coating for spherical proportional counters', Journal of Instrumentation, vol. 15, no. 11, pp. P11023-P11023. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/15/11/P11023

Katsioulas, I, Knights, P, Matthews, J, Neep, T, Nikolopoulos, K, Owen, R & Ward, R 2020, 'Development of a simulation framework for spherical proportional counters', Journal of Instrumentation, vol. 15, no. 6, C06013. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/15/06/C06013

Nikolopoulos, K, Tungate, G & Knights, P 2018, 'An undergraduate laboratory study of the polarisation of annihilation photons using Compton scattering', European Journal of Physics. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6404/aab334

Nikolopoulos, K, Tungate, G & Knights, P 2018, 'Studying the effect of Polarisation in Compton scattering in the undergraduate laboratory', European Journal of Physics, vol. 39, no. 2, 025203. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6404/aa9c98

Preprint

Arora, MM, Balogh, L, Beaufort, C, Brossard, A, Chapellier, M, Clarke, J, Corcoran, EC, Coquillat, J-M, Dastgheibi-Fard, A, Deng, Y, Durnford, D, Garrah, C, Gerbier, G, Giomataris, I, Giroux, G, Gorel, P, Gros, M, Gros, P, Guillaudin, O, Hoppe, EW, Katsioulas, I, Kelly, F, Knights, P, Lautridou, P, Makowski, A, Manthos, I, Martin, RD, Matthews, J, McCallum, HM, Meaadows, H, Millins, L, Muraz, J-F, Neep, T, Nikolopoulos, K, Panchal, N, Piro, M-C, Rowe, N, Santos, D, Savvidis, G, Savvidis, I, Spathara, D, Fernandez, FVDS & Ward, R 2024 'Search for light dark matter with NEWS-G at the LSM using a methane target' arXiv, pp. 1-7. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2407.12769

View all publications in research portal