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
Jetha N
(2008)
Shock heating in the group atmosphere of the radio galaxy B2 0838+32A
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hammond G
(2008)
Noise analysis of a Howland current source
in International Journal of Electronics
Abbott B
(2008)
Publisher's Note: Upper limit map of a background of gravitational waves [Phys. Rev. D 76 , 082003 (2007)]
in Physical Review D
Croston J
(2008)
Galaxy-cluster gas-density distributions of the representative XMM-Newton cluster structure survey (REXCESS)
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Spreckley S
(2008)
The period and amplitude changes of Polaris ( UMi) from 2003 to 2007 measured with SMEI
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Willems B
(2008)
Probing white dwarf interiors with LISA: periastron precession in eccentric double white dwarfs.
in Physical review letters
Abbott B
(2008)
Search of S3 LIGO data for gravitational wave signals from spinning black hole and neutron star binary inspirals
in Physical Review D
Babak S
(2008)
The Mock LISA Data Challenges: from Challenge 1B to Challenge 3
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Jetha N
(2008)
The nature of the ghost cavity in the NGC 741 group
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Tarrant N
(2008)
SMEI observations of previously unseen pulsation frequencies in $\sf \gamma$ Doradus
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Smith J
(2008)
Measurement and simulation of laser power noise in GEO 600
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2008)
Search for gravitational waves associated with 39 gamma-ray bursts using data from the second, third, and fourth LIGO runs
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2008)
All-sky search for periodic gravitational waves in LIGO S4 data
in Physical Review D
Willems B
(2008)
Erratum: Probing White Dwarf Interiors with LISA: Periastron Precession In Eccentric Double White Dwarfs [Phys. Rev. Lett. 100 , 041102 (2008)]
in Physical Review Letters
Baggio L
(2008)
A joint search for gravitational wave bursts with AURIGA and LIGO
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2008)
First joint search for gravitational-wave bursts in LIGO and GEO 600 data
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Robinson E
(2008)
Search for a stochastic gravitational-wave signal in the second round of the Mock LISA Data Challenges
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2008)
Astrophysically triggered searches for gravitational waves: status and prospects
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Chakrabarty D
(2008)
THE DISTRIBUTION OF DARK MATTER IN THE HALO OF THE EARLY-TYPE GALAXY NGC 4636
in The Astronomical Journal
Abbott B
(2008)
Search for gravitational waves from binary inspirals in S3 and S4 LIGO data
in Physical Review D
Veitch J
(2008)
Bayesian approach to the follow-up of candidate gravitational wave signals
in Physical Review D
Maughan B
(2008)
Testing the galaxy cluster mass-observable relations at z =1 with XMM-Newton and Chandra observations of XLSSJ022403.9-041328
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Sanderson A
(2009)
LoCuSS: the connection between brightest cluster galaxy activity, gas cooling and dynamical disturbance of X-ray cluster cores
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Trias M
(2009)
Studying stellar binary systems with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna using delayed rejection Markov chain Monte Carlo methods
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Marrone D
(2009)
LoCuSS: A COMPARISON OF SUNYAEV-ZEL'DOVICH EFFECT AND GRAVITATIONAL-LENSING MEASUREMENTS OF GALAXY CLUSTERS
in The Astrophysical Journal