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
Goss K
(2011)
Variations of the amplitudes of oscillation of the Be star Achernar Variations in the oscillations of Achernar
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pribulla T
(2011)
The nearby eclipsing stellar system d Velorum II. First reliable orbit for the eclipsing pair???
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Cuevas-Tello J
(2010)
Uncovering delayed patterns in noisy and irregularly sampled time series: An astronomy application
in Pattern Recognition
Abbott B
(2010)
SEARCHES FOR GRAVITATIONAL WAVES FROM KNOWN PULSARS WITH SCIENCE RUN 5 LIGO DATA
in The Astrophysical Journal
Okabe N
(2010)
LoCuSS: CALIBRATING MASS-OBSERVABLE SCALING RELATIONS FOR CLUSTER COSMOLOGY WITH SUBARU WEAK-LENSING OBSERVATIONS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Acernese F
(2010)
Measurements of Superattenuator seismic isolation by Virgo interferometer
in Astroparticle Physics
Bedding T
(2010)
SOLAR-LIKE OSCILLATIONS IN LOW-LUMINOSITY RED GIANTS: FIRST RESULTS FROM KEPLER
in The Astrophysical Journal
Punturo M
(2010)
The Einstein Telescope: a third-generation gravitational wave observatory
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Babak S
(2010)
The Mock LISA Data Challenges: from challenge 3 to challenge 4
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Rawle T
(2010)
Deep Herschel view of obscured star formation in the Bullet cluster
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Fulda P
(2010)
Experimental demonstration of higher-order Laguerre-Gauss mode interferometry
in Physical Review D
Adami C
(2010)
The XMM-LSS survey: optical assessment and properties of different X-ray selected cluster classes
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Hekker S
(2010)
DISCOVERY OF A RED GIANT WITH SOLAR-LIKE OSCILLATIONS IN AN ECLIPSING BINARY SYSTEM FROM KEPLER SPACE-BASED PHOTOMETRY
in The Astrophysical Journal
Haines C
(2010)
LoCuSS: Shedding new light on the massive lensing cluster Abell 1689 - the view from Herschel
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Mapelli M
(2010)
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES FROM INTERMEDIATE-MASS BLACK HOLES IN YOUNG CLUSTERS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Sesana A
(2010)
Measuring the parameters of massive black hole binary systems with pulsar timing array observations of gravitational waves
in Physical Review D
O'Sullivan E
(2010)
A deep Chandra observation of the poor cluster AWM 4 - I. Properties of the central radio galaxy and its effects on the intracluster medium A deep Chandra observation of AWM 4
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hild S
(2010)
A xylophone configuration for a third-generation gravitational wave detector
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Accadia T
(2010)
Commissioning status of the Virgo interferometer
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2010)
SEARCH FOR GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE BURSTS ASSOCIATED WITH GAMMA-RAY BURSTS USING DATA FROM LIGO SCIENCE RUN 5 AND VIRGO SCIENCE RUN 1
in The Astrophysical Journal
Veitch J
(2010)
Bayesian coherent analysis of in-spiral gravitational wave signals with a detector network
in Physical Review D
Sanderson A
(2010)
X-ray modelling of galaxy cluster gas and mass profiles Modelling cluster gas and mass profiles
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pratt G
(2010)
Gas entropy in a representative sample of nearby X-ray galaxy clusters (REXCESS): relationship to gas mass fraction
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Blomme J
(2010)
AUTOMATED CLASSIFICATION OF VARIABLE STARS IN THE ASTEROSEISMOLOGY PROGRAM OF THE KEPLER SPACE MISSION
in The Astrophysical Journal