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
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
Armano M
(2009)
LISA Pathfinder: the experiment and the route to LISA
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
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)
LIGO: the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
in Reports on Progress in Physics
Abbott B
(2009)
Einstein@Home search for periodic gravitational waves in early S5 LIGO data
in Physical Review D
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
Marrone D
(2009)
LoCuSS: A COMPARISON OF SUNYAEV-ZEL'DOVICH EFFECT AND GRAVITATIONAL-LENSING MEASUREMENTS OF GALAXY CLUSTERS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbott B
(2009)
Observation of a kilogram-scale oscillator near its quantum ground state
in New Journal of Physics
Hild S
(2009)
Using the etalon effect for in situ balancing of the Advanced Virgo arm cavities
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
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