Birmingham Astrophysics - Rolling Grant 2007-2012
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Birmingham
Department Name: School of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
The work of the Birmingham Astrophysics & Space Research group aims to improve our understanding of the Universe, and the force of gravity which governs its structure and growth. Our extragalactic studies aim to discover the way in which galaxies, such as our own Milky Way galaxy, have developed from the small fluctuations present in the primordial gas which filled the Universe after the Big Bang, as well as probing the mysterious 'dark matter' which appears to account for over 90% of the matter in the Universe at large. Our knowledge of the cosmos to date is gleaned almost entirely from study of the electromagnetic radiation (from radio waves to gamma rays) which reaches the Earth from space. However, a whole new astronomical 'window' is about to open, based on the propagating ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves. Detection of these signals is hugely demanding, but large laser-interferometers are now very close to detecting them for the first time, and the Birmingham group is fully involved in these experiments, and in the plans to move these techniques into space within the next decade. This will ultimately allow us to study the gravitational signals from giant black holes, and from the Big Bang itself. We are working towards the first detection of gravitational waves, but also exploring the new techniques which will be required to turn the study of gravitational waves into a true branch of astronomy.
Organisations
Publications
Abbott B
(2009)
LIGO: the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
in Reports on Progress in Physics
Van Weeren R
(2009)
Radio observations of ZwCl 2341.1+0000: a double radio relic cluster
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Abbott B
(2009)
ERRATUM: "BEATING THE SPIN-DOWN LIMIT ON GRAVITATIONAL WAVE EMISSION FROM THE CRAB PULSAR" (2008, ApJ, 683, L45)
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbott B
(2009)
Einstein@Home search for periodic gravitational waves in early S5 LIGO data
in Physical Review D
Haines C
(2009)
LoCuSS: luminous infrared galaxies in the merging cluster Abell 1758 at z = 0.28
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Aylott B
(2009)
Testing gravitational-wave searches with numerical relativity waveforms: results from the first Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Freise A
(2009)
Triple Michelson interferometer for a third-generation gravitational wave detector
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Sesana A
(2009)
OBSERVING GRAVITATIONAL WAVES FROM THE FIRST GENERATION OF BLACK HOLES
in The Astrophysical Journal
Croston J
(2009)
High-energy particle acceleration at the radio-lobe shock of Centaurus A
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Posson-Brown J
(2009)
CHANDRA OBSERVATIONS OF THE X-RAY POINT SOURCE POPULATION IN NGC 4636
in The Astrophysical Journal