Astrophysics and Cosmology Research within the JBCA 2017-2020
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
This grant supports the research of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester. Our research is a divided into 3 groups. There are too many specific proposals to describe in detail, do below we have given a brief layman's explanation of the work being carried out by the three groups.
Cosmology: This is the study of the Universe as a whole. The main aim is to understand the processes by which the large scale feature of the Universe formed and to constrain the various different kinds of matter that existed within it. These include dark matter and dark energy which are thought to constitute more than 95% of the total. We do this by comparison to observations of weak and strong gravitational lensing which is the distortion of light predicted to be caused by massive objects in Einstein' Theory of General Relativity, the cosmic microwave background which is the faint emission of radiation created at the time when protons and electrons come together to form hydrogen and the emission given off by neutral hydrogen atoms in galaxies. The research we propose here involves both theory and observation as well as the development of the technology necessary to make the observations possible.
Sun, Stars and Galaxies: The researchers in this group study a wide range of astrophysical processes that are reasonable for the formation and evolution of the objects in the name of the group. Specific key areas that the group is interested in are the formation of stars much larger than the Sun and the subsequent evolution, the properties of the so-called interstellar medium (ISM) which comprises molecules not bound to stars and the magnetic fields that permeate space.
Pulsars and Time Domain Astrophysics: The focus of this group is astrophysical signatures that are change with time: things which come on and off, often with some kind of regularity. These include Pulsars which are non-standard star time, known as a neutron star, which is a dead star supported by the quantum pressure of neutrons. The radio emission from these objects pulses on an off with extraordinary regularity allowing them to acts cosmic clocks. The constantly measuring these clocks as the neutron stars spin and move through space, often impacted on by a companion star, allows the most precise constraints on the nature of gravity outside the solar system. Other phenomena studied by this group include Nova explosions, other variable stars, and variability induced by the lensing effects of one star passing in front of another, called microlensing.
Cosmology: This is the study of the Universe as a whole. The main aim is to understand the processes by which the large scale feature of the Universe formed and to constrain the various different kinds of matter that existed within it. These include dark matter and dark energy which are thought to constitute more than 95% of the total. We do this by comparison to observations of weak and strong gravitational lensing which is the distortion of light predicted to be caused by massive objects in Einstein' Theory of General Relativity, the cosmic microwave background which is the faint emission of radiation created at the time when protons and electrons come together to form hydrogen and the emission given off by neutral hydrogen atoms in galaxies. The research we propose here involves both theory and observation as well as the development of the technology necessary to make the observations possible.
Sun, Stars and Galaxies: The researchers in this group study a wide range of astrophysical processes that are reasonable for the formation and evolution of the objects in the name of the group. Specific key areas that the group is interested in are the formation of stars much larger than the Sun and the subsequent evolution, the properties of the so-called interstellar medium (ISM) which comprises molecules not bound to stars and the magnetic fields that permeate space.
Pulsars and Time Domain Astrophysics: The focus of this group is astrophysical signatures that are change with time: things which come on and off, often with some kind of regularity. These include Pulsars which are non-standard star time, known as a neutron star, which is a dead star supported by the quantum pressure of neutrons. The radio emission from these objects pulses on an off with extraordinary regularity allowing them to acts cosmic clocks. The constantly measuring these clocks as the neutron stars spin and move through space, often impacted on by a companion star, allows the most precise constraints on the nature of gravity outside the solar system. Other phenomena studied by this group include Nova explosions, other variable stars, and variability induced by the lensing effects of one star passing in front of another, called microlensing.
Planned Impact
The range of research we undertake and the world-class facilities within and in close association with JBCA (the Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre, e-MERLIN, the Lovell Telescope, the ALMA ARC and the SKA HQ) will provide key pathways to increasing our already strong impact on UK and global industry, the next generation of scientists and engineers, and the general public. The University's investment in the Jodrell Bank site combined with significant external funding (e.g. from Heritage Lottery Fund) will enable us to expand its use as an iconic venue for public and industrial engagement. The programme described here formed a key part of the School's submission for REF2014, helping it to be ranked highest in the REF for physics impact with 83% at 4* and 17% at 3*. Our outreach \& public engagement programme is extremely strong and continues to grow, particularly through its work with the University's award-winning Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre and the BBC. With the recent decision on SKA HQ location and our strong research work in this area, there is also growing impact in both outreach and industrial engagement in this area.
Our "Pathways to Impact" statement in the case for support outlines things that we have done in recent times under the headings of "Outreach and Public Engagement" and "Industrial and economic impact". We list some highlights below.
- Jodcast: Podcast run by students with 7000 regular listeners.
- 230000 Twitter followers
- Stargazing live
- JB Discovery centre with 150000 visitors per year
- Award winning "Live from Jodrell Bank" rock concerts
- Industry contracts for SKA work including CISCO, AASL, NPL, GEANT
- Newton programme for Radio Astronomy in Africa.
Our "Pathways to Impact" statement in the case for support outlines things that we have done in recent times under the headings of "Outreach and Public Engagement" and "Industrial and economic impact". We list some highlights below.
- Jodcast: Podcast run by students with 7000 regular listeners.
- 230000 Twitter followers
- Stargazing live
- JB Discovery centre with 150000 visitors per year
- Award winning "Live from Jodrell Bank" rock concerts
- Industry contracts for SKA work including CISCO, AASL, NPL, GEANT
- Newton programme for Radio Astronomy in Africa.
Organisations
Publications
Westcott J
(2018)
A spatially resolved radio spectral index study of the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 1569
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Liu X
(2019)
Correlated timing noise and high-precision pulsar timing: measuring frequency second derivatives as an example
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Camacho H
(2019)
Dark Energy Survey Year 1 results: measurement of the galaxy angular power spectrum
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lykou F
(2018)
The curious case of II Lup: a complex morphology revealed with SAM/NACO and ALMA
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hosenie Z
(2019)
Comparing Multiclass, Binary, and Hierarchical Machine Learning Classification schemes for variable stars
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
McDonald I
(2020)
Circumstellar CO J = 3?2 detected around the evolving metal-poor ([Fe/H] ˜ -1.15 dex) AGB star RU Vulpeculae
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Etoka S
(2017)
Recurring OH Flares towards o Ceti: I. location and structure of the 1990s' and 2010s' events
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gray M
(2022)
Collisional and radiative pumping in 22-GHz water masers
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Melchior P
(2017)
Weak-lensing mass calibration of redMaPPer galaxy clusters in Dark Energy Survey Science Verification data
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Reischke R
(2018)
Shear and vorticity in the spherical collapse of dark matter haloes
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Radcliffe J
(2019)
An insight into the extragalactic transient and variable microJy radio sky across multiple decades
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
McDonald I
(2017)
Fundamental parameters and infrared excesses of Tycho-Gaia stars
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Eden D
(2017)
The JCMT Plane Survey: first complete data release - emission maps and compact source catalogue
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Dharmawardena T
(2019)
The nearby evolved stars survey - I. JCMT/SCUBA-2 submillimetre detection of the detached shell of U Antliae
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
McCallum N
(2021)
Spin-based removal of instrumental systematics in 21 cm intensity mapping surveys
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pimpanuwat B
(2020)
Maser flares driven by variations in pumping and background radiation
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Morello V
(2020)
The SUrvey for Pulsars and Extragalactic Radio Bursts - IV. Discovery and polarimetry of a 12.1-s radio pulsar
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Petroff E
(2018)
A fast radio burst with a low dispersion measure
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
McKee J
(2018)
Temporal variations in scattering and dispersion measure in the Crab Pulsar and their effect on timing precision
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Caleb M
(2019)
Are all fast radio bursts repeating sources?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bhattacharyya B
(2018)
A long-term study of three rotating radio transients
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Fernández-Torreiro M
(2023)
QUIJOTE scientific results - X. Spatial variations of Anomalous Microwave Emission along the Galactic plane
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Polzin E
(2018)
The low-frequency radio eclipses of the black widow pulsar J1810+1744
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Paoletti D
(2019)
Improved CMB anisotropy constraints on primordial magnetic fields from the post-recombination ionization history
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Jin Y
(2019)
Evaluating the ability of triaxial Schwarzschild modelling to estimate properties of galaxies from the Illustris simulation
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hartley P
(2017)
Support vector machine classification of strong gravitational lenses
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Biggs A
(2018)
A revised lens time delay for JVAS B0218+357 from a reanalysis of VLA monitoring data
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Farahi A
(2018)
Localized massive halo properties in bahamas and MACSIS simulations: scalings, lognormality, and covariance
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Heesen V
(2018)
Exploring the making of a galactic wind in the starbursting dwarf irregular galaxy IC 10 with LOFAR
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Remazeilles M
(2019)
Can we neglect relativistic temperature corrections in the Planck thermal SZ analysis?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Traficante A
(2018)
Testing the Larson relations in massive clumps
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Erler J
(2018)
Planck's view on the spectrum of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Parthasarathy A
(2019)
Timing of young radio pulsars - I. Timing noise, periodic modulation, and proper motion
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bendo G
(2017)
Tests of star formation metrics in the low-metallicity galaxy NGC 5253 using ALMA observations of H30a line emission
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Dexter J
(2017)
A transient, flat spectrum radio pulsar near the Galactic Centre
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Stacey H
(2018)
Gravitational lensing reveals extreme dust-obscured star formation in quasar host galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Caballero R
(2018)
Studying the Solar system with the International Pulsar Timing Array
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Michilli D
(2018)
Low-frequency pulse profile variation in PSR B2217+47: evidence for echoes from the interstellar medium
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Chluba J
(2017)
Rethinking CMB foregrounds: systematic extension of foreground parametrizations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Stern C
(2019)
Weak-lensing analysis of SPT-selected galaxy clusters using Dark Energy Survey Science Verification data
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hervías-Caimapo C
(2017)
Impact of modelling foreground uncertainties on future CMB polarization satellite experiments
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pearce F
(2020)
Hydrostatic mass estimates of massive galaxy clusters: a study with varying hydrodynamics flavours and non-thermal pressure support
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Espinoza C
(2017)
New long-term braking index measurements for glitching pulsars using a glitch-template method
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Farah W
(2019)
Five new real-time detections of fast radio bursts with UTMOST
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Demetroullas C
(2018)
Galaxy-galaxy and galaxy-cluster lensing with the SDSS and FIRST surveys
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Purser S
(2018)
Constraining the nature of DG Tau A's thermal and non-thermal radio emission
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Michilli D
(2018)
Single-pulse classifier for the LOFAR Tied-Array All-sky Survey
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
MacCrann N
(2018)
DES Y1 Results: validating cosmological parameter estimation using simulated Dark Energy Surveys
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Caleb M
(2019)
Polarization studies of rotating radio transients
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Poidevin F
(2019)
QUIJOTE scientific results - III. Microwave spectrum of intensity and polarization in the Taurus Molecular Cloud complex and L1527
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
| Description | The consolidated grant supported a wide range of activities in astrophysics and cosmology at the JBCA. This was based around three areas: cosmology - the study of the Universe as a single entity, pulsars - spinning neutron stars which emit pulse of radio waves at regular intervals, astrophysical processes - the study of galaxy and star formation in the universe. Progress was made in all these areas. |
| Exploitation Route | The wide range of work produce by the grant has been published in journals. These papers have received significant citations indicating that all the areas have had an impact within the academic research community. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Education Other |
| Description | The research has been used extensively in the outreach program of the Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre, which attracts 160,000 visitors per annum and focusses on hard-to-reach audiences. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
| Sector | Education |
| Impact Types | Cultural Societal |
| Title | MKT J170456.2-482100: the first transient discovered byMeerKAT |
| Description | These are the data files required to make Figures 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, and 12 of the manuscript: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz3027 or Open-Access on ArXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.07713 The code that uses these files to make the plots can be found here (DOI). Please make sure to cite these data correctly! The required citations for these data are: ASAS_data.tsv is ASAS data from their catalogue and therefore are not covered by our licence. If you make use of these data please cite ASAS appropriately according to their guidelines. KELT_S36_lc_027056_V01_west_tfa.dat and KELT_S36_lc_027057_V01_east_tfa.dat are data sets from KELT and therefore are not covered by our licence. If you make use of these data please cite KELT by citing Pepper et al. 2007. ASASSN.csv is ASAS-SN data from their catalogue and therefore are not covered by our licence. If you make use of these data please cite ASAS-SN appropriately according to their guidelines (when using ASAS-SN light curves in publications cite: Shappee et al. (2014) and Kochanek et al. (2017)). TYC_optical_semesters.npy, TYC_optical_binned.npy, and TYC_optical_binned_noOutliers.npy also make use of the above ASAS, KELT, and ASAS-SN. If you use these data please cite ASAS, KELT, and ASAS-SN as above, as well as our work. TYC_MeerKAT_fluxes.npy and TYC_local_RMS.npy are the data as presented in Table A1 in our manuscript. Therefore, please cite our work if you make use of these data. TYC_SED_datapoints.txt and TYC_SED_model.txt are the data and model used to make the SED of TYC 8332-2529-1. Please cite our work and the references therein for the datapoints, and our work and McDonald et al. 2012 and McDonald et al. 2017 if you make use of the model. TYC_MeerKAT_ScaledFlux.npy is presented in Figures 2 and 10 of our manuscript, please cite our work if you make use of these data SALT_radial_velocities.npy and LCO_radial_velocities.npy are presented in Table 2 of our manuscript, please cite our work if you make use of these data TYC_LS_periods.npy and TYC_LS_periodErrors.npy are the results of the Lomb-Scargle analysis of the optical observations and are presented in Figure 4 of our manuscript, please cite our work if you make use of these data More information about the format of these data and how to use them can be found in the GitHub repo (DOI). |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://zenodo.org/record/3548868 |
| Title | MKT J170456.2-482100: the first transient discovered byMeerKAT |
| Description | These are the data files required to make Figures 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, and 12 of the manuscript: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz3027 or Open-Access on ArXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.07713 The code that uses these files to make the plots can be found here (DOI). Please make sure to cite these data correctly! The required citations for these data are: ASAS_data.tsv is ASAS data from their catalogue and therefore are not covered by our licence. If you make use of these data please cite ASAS appropriately according to their guidelines. KELT_S36_lc_027056_V01_west_tfa.dat and KELT_S36_lc_027057_V01_east_tfa.dat are data sets from KELT and therefore are not covered by our licence. If you make use of these data please cite KELT by citing Pepper et al. 2007. ASASSN.csv is ASAS-SN data from their catalogue and therefore are not covered by our licence. If you make use of these data please cite ASAS-SN appropriately according to their guidelines (when using ASAS-SN light curves in publications cite: Shappee et al. (2014) and Kochanek et al. (2017)). TYC_optical_semesters.npy, TYC_optical_binned.npy, and TYC_optical_binned_noOutliers.npy also make use of the above ASAS, KELT, and ASAS-SN. If you use these data please cite ASAS, KELT, and ASAS-SN as above, as well as our work. TYC_MeerKAT_fluxes.npy and TYC_local_RMS.npy are the data as presented in Table A1 in our manuscript. Therefore, please cite our work if you make use of these data. TYC_SED_datapoints.txt and TYC_SED_model.txt are the data and model used to make the SED of TYC 8332-2529-1. Please cite our work and the references therein for the datapoints, and our work and McDonald et al. 2012 and McDonald et al. 2017 if you make use of the model. TYC_MeerKAT_ScaledFlux.npy is presented in Figures 2 and 10 of our manuscript, please cite our work if you make use of these data SALT_radial_velocities.npy and LCO_radial_velocities.npy are presented in Table 2 of our manuscript, please cite our work if you make use of these data TYC_LS_periods.npy and TYC_LS_periodErrors.npy are the results of the Lomb-Scargle analysis of the optical observations and are presented in Figure 4 of our manuscript, please cite our work if you make use of these data More information about the format of these data and how to use them can be found in the GitHub repo (DOI). |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://zenodo.org/record/3548867 |