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.

Publications

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Winkler W (2007) The GEO 600 core optics in Optics Communications

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Van Weeren R (2009) Radio observations of ZwCl 2341.1+0000: a double radio relic cluster in Astronomy & Astrophysics

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Van Der Sluys M (2008) Parameter estimation of spinning binary inspirals using Markov chain Monte Carlo in Classical and Quantum Gravity

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Tarrant N (2008) Oscillations in ß Ursae Minoris Observations with SMEI in Astronomy & Astrophysics

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Tarrant N (2007) Asteroseismology of red giants: photometric observations of Arcturus by SMEI in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters

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Swinbank A (2007) Resolved spectroscopy of a gravitationally lensed L* Lyman-break galaxy at z~ 5 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Swinbank A (2007) The discovery of a massive supercluster at z = 0.9 in the UKIDSS Deep eXtragalactic Survey in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Sumner T (2007) STEP (satellite test of the equivalence principle) in Advances in Space Research

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Stott J (2009) The evolution of the red sequence slope in massive galaxy clusters in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Stott J (2008) Near-infrared evolution of brightest cluster galaxies in the most X-ray luminous clusters since z = 1 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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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