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
Babak S
(2008)
The Mock LISA Data Challenges: from Challenge 1B to Challenge 3
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Babak S
(2008)
Report on the second Mock LISA data challenge
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Babak S
(2010)
The Mock LISA Data Challenges: from challenge 3 to challenge 4
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Baggio L
(2008)
A joint search for gravitational wave bursts with AURIGA and LIGO
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Bai L
(2010)
THE FIRST MID-INFRARED VIEW OF THE STAR-FORMING PROPERTIES OF NEARBY GALAXY GROUPS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Bardeau S
(2007)
A CFH12k lensing survey of X-ray luminous galaxy clusters II. Weak lensing analysis and global correlations
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Bedding T
(2010)
SOLAR-LIKE OSCILLATIONS IN LOW-LUMINOSITY RED GIANTS: FIRST RESULTS FROM KEPLER
in The Astrophysical Journal
Bergé J
(2008)
Combined analysis of weak lensing and X-ray blind surveys
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Blomme J
(2010)
AUTOMATED CLASSIFICATION OF VARIABLE STARS IN THE ASTEROSEISMOLOGY PROGRAM OF THE KEPLER SPACE MISSION
in The Astrophysical Journal
Brassington N
(2007)
The Chandra view of galaxy mergers
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Böhringer H
(2007)
The representative XMM-Newton cluster structure survey (REXCESS) of an X-ray luminosity selected galaxy cluster sample
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Böhringer H
(2010)
Substructure of the galaxy clusters in the REXCESS sample: observed statistics and comparison to numerical simulations
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Cadonati L
(2009)
Status of NINJA: the Numerical INJection Analysis project
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Carbone L
(2009)
Design of high-density electron spin-polarized test masses
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Chakrabarty D
(2008)
THE DISTRIBUTION OF DARK MATTER IN THE HALO OF THE EARLY-TYPE GALAXY NGC 4636
in The Astronomical Journal
Chaplin W
(2010)
THE ASTEROSEISMIC POTENTIAL OF KEPLER : FIRST RESULTS FOR SOLAR-TYPE STARS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Chelkowski S
(2009)
Prospects of higher-order Laguerre-Gauss modes in future gravitational wave detectors
in Physical Review D
Croston J
(2009)
High-energy particle acceleration at the radio-lobe shock of Centaurus A
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Croston J
(2008)
Galaxy-cluster gas-density distributions of the representative XMM-Newton cluster structure survey (REXCESS)
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Cuevas-Tello J
(2010)
Uncovering delayed patterns in noisy and irregularly sampled time series: An astronomy application
in Pattern Recognition
Dariush A
(2007)
The mass assembly of fossil groups of galaxies in the Millennium simulation
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Dariush A
(2010)
The mass assembly of galaxy groups and the evolution of the magnitude gap
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
David L
(2009)
ISOTROPIC ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS HEATING WITH SMALL RADIO-QUIET BUBBLES IN THE NGC 5044 GROUP
in The Astrophysical Journal
De Becker M
(2007)
INTEGRAL-ISGRI observations of the Cygnus OB2 region Searching for hard X-ray point sources in a region containing several non-thermal emitting massive stars
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Egami E
(2010)
The Herschel Lensing Survey (HLS): Overview
in Astronomy and Astrophysics