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
Abadie J
(2010)
Search for gravitational waves from compact binary coalescence in LIGO and Virgo data from S5 and VSR1
in Physical Review D
Abadie J
(2010)
SEARCH FOR GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE INSPIRAL SIGNALS ASSOCIATED WITH SHORT GAMMA-RAY BURSTS DURING LIGO'S FIFTH AND VIRGO'S FIRST SCIENCE RUN
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abadie J
(2010)
All-sky search for gravitational-wave bursts in the first joint LIGO-GEO-Virgo run
in Physical Review D
Abadie J
(2010)
FIRST SEARCH FOR GRAVITATIONAL WAVES FROM THE YOUNGEST KNOWN NEUTRON STAR
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abadie J
(2010)
Predictions for the rates of compact binary coalescences observable by ground-based gravitational-wave detectors
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abadie J
(2010)
Calibration of the LIGO gravitational wave detectors in the fifth science run
in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Abbott B
(2007)
Upper limits on gravitational wave emission from 78 radio pulsars
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2009)
Search for gravitational wave ringdowns from perturbed black holes in LIGO S4 data
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2010)
SEARCHES FOR GRAVITATIONAL WAVES FROM KNOWN PULSARS WITH SCIENCE RUN 5 LIGO DATA
in The Astrophysical Journal
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
Abbott B
(2009)
Search for gravitational waves from low mass binary coalescences in the first year of LIGO's S5 data
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2009)
Search for high frequency gravitational-wave bursts in the first calendar year of LIGO's fifth science run
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2009)
Search for gravitational waves from low mass compact binary coalescence in 186 days of LIGO's fifth science run
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2007)
Search for gravitational-wave bursts in LIGO data from the fourth science run
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2009)
Einstein@Home search for periodic gravitational waves in early S5 LIGO data
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2008)
First joint search for gravitational-wave bursts in LIGO and GEO 600 data
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2009)
Erratum: All-sky search for periodic gravitational waves in LIGO S4 data [Phys. Rev. D 77 , 022001 (2008)]
in Physical Review D
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
(2007)
Searches for periodic gravitational waves from unknown isolated sources and Scorpius X-1: Results from the second LIGO science run
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2008)
Search for gravitational waves from binary inspirals in S3 and S4 LIGO data
in Physical Review D
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
(2008)
Astrophysically triggered searches for gravitational waves: status and prospects
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2009)
Observation of a kilogram-scale oscillator near its quantum ground state
in New Journal of Physics
Abbott B
(2009)
STACKED SEARCH FOR GRAVITATIONAL WAVES FROM THE 2006 SGR 1900+14 STORM
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbott B
(2008)
Search for gravitational-wave bursts from soft gamma repeaters.
in Physical review letters