Membership of the UK to the European Magnetic Field Laboratory

磁场是研究物质性质的有力工具，对现代科学至关重要。它们对于产生了20项诺贝尔物理学、化学和医学奖的开创性研究至关重要，最近的两项研究是磁共振成像(MRI-P.Mansfield，2003年诺贝尔医学奖)和石墨烯研究(A.Geim和K.S.Novoselov，2010年诺贝尔物理学奖)，并将继续通过提供理解和操纵物质的强大手段来支持未来的科学和技术发展。随着新系统的发现，这项研究不断更新，需要的磁场强度超过大学实验室通常提供的磁场强度。由于与磁场相关的长度尺度与磁场强度的平方根成反比，因此需要大约100特斯拉的大磁场来探测纳米长度尺度、电子-电子相互作用、限制和磁能，并促进物质的新状态的发现。尖端材料涉及的物理复杂性也要求使用先进的表征技术，在低至毫秒的温度范围内或在高压等复杂环境中执行具有高空间和能量分辨率的高场实验，以及将强磁场与大型仪器如中子源、同步加速器和自由电子激光相关联。英国成为欧洲磁场实验室(EMFL)的成员将使英国社区能够使用成熟的中程强磁场研究设施，开发新的能力，并确保英国直接参与需要国际合作的长期、大规模项目，例如通过将强磁场与中子和同步加速器源相结合，英国有大量用户社区。EMFL与其他大型国际设施的协同作用是史无前例的，有可能将英国带入重要科学技术发展的前沿。

Magnetic fields are powerful tools for studying the properties of matter and are essential for modern science. They were crucial for the ground-breaking research that led to 20 Nobel prizes in Physics, Chemistry and Medicine, most recently for the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI - P. Mansfield, 2003 Nobel Prize for Medicine) and for research on graphene (A. Geim and K.S. Novoselov, 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics), and will continue to underpin future scientific and technological developments by providing a powerful means of understanding and manipulating matter. This research is constantly refreshed by the discovery of new systems and requires magnetic field strengths that exceed those commonly available in University laboratories. Since the length scale associated with a magnetic field is inversely proportional to the square root of the field strength, large magnetic fields, on the order of 100 Tesla, are needed to probe nanometre length scales, electron-electron interactions, confinement and magnetic energies, and facilitating the discovery of new states of matter. The complexity of the physics involved in cutting-edge materials also necessitates the use of advanced characterization techniques, the execution of high-field experiments with high spatial and energy resolution over a wide range of temperatures down to millikelvin, or in complex environments, such as high-pressure, and the association of high magnetic fields with large instruments, such as neutron sources, synchrotrons, and free electron lasers. The membership of the UK to the European Magnetic Field Laboratory (EMFL) will enable the UK community to access a well-established mid-range facility for research with high magnetic fields, to develop new capabilities and to secure the direct involvement of the UK in long-term, large scale projects that require international cooperation, for example by integrating high magnetic fields with neutron and synchrotron sources for which a large user community exists in the UK. The synergy of the EMFL with other large-scale international facilities is unprecedented and has the potential to bring the UK to the forefront of important scientific and technological developments.