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
Sanderson A
(2009)
A statistically selected Chandra sample of 20 galaxy clusters - II. Gas properties and cool core/non-cool core bimodality
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Johnson R
(2009)
A statistical analysis of the Two-Dimensional XMM - Newton Group Survey: the impact of feedback on group properties
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
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
Oguri M
(2010)
Direct measurement of dark matter halo ellipticity from two-dimensional lensing shear maps of 25 massive clusters? Measurement of dark matter halo ellipticity
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Muno M
(2007)
Exciting the magnetosphere of the magnetar CXOU J164710.2-455216 in Westerlund 1
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Tarrant N
(2007)
Asteroseismology of red giants: photometric observations of Arcturus by SMEI
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
LIGO Scientific Collaboration & Virgo Collaboration
(2009)
An upper limit on the stochastic gravitational-wave background of cosmological origin.
in Nature
Freise A
(2007)
Phase and alignment noise in grating interferometers
in New Journal of Physics
Abbott B
(2009)
Observation of a kilogram-scale oscillator near its quantum ground state
in New Journal of Physics
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