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
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
Rasmussen J
(2009)
Temperature and abundance profiles of hot gas in galaxy groups - II. Implications for feedback and ICM enrichment
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
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
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
Abbott B
(2009)
Observation of a kilogram-scale oscillator near its quantum ground state
in New Journal of Physics
Freise A
(2007)
Phase and alignment noise in grating interferometers
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
Acernese F
(2007)
The Virgo interferometric gravitational antenna
in Optics and Lasers in Engineering
Winkler W
(2007)
The GEO 600 core optics
in Optics Communications
Cuevas-Tello J
(2010)
Uncovering delayed patterns in noisy and irregularly sampled time series: An astronomy application
in Pattern Recognition
Harms J
(2007)
Quantum-noise power spectrum of fields with discrete classical components
in Physical Review A
Sesana A
(2010)
Measuring the parameters of massive black hole binary systems with pulsar timing array observations of gravitational waves
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
Veitch J
(2008)
Bayesian approach to the follow-up of candidate gravitational wave signals
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2008)
Publisher's Note: Upper limit map of a background of gravitational waves [Phys. Rev. D 76 , 082003 (2007)]
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
(2008)
Search for gravitational waves from binary inspirals in S3 and S4 LIGO data
in Physical Review D
Abadie J
(2010)
Search for gravitational waves from compact binary coalescence in LIGO and Virgo data from S5 and VSR1
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2008)
Publisher's Note: Upper limits on gravitational wave emission from 78 radio pulsars [Phys. Rev. D 76 , 042001 (2007)]
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2007)
Upper limit map of a background of gravitational waves
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
Veitch J
(2010)
Bayesian coherent analysis of in-spiral gravitational wave signals with a detector network
in Physical Review D
Abadie J
(2010)
All-sky search for gravitational-wave bursts in the first joint LIGO-GEO-Virgo run
in Physical Review D
Fulda P
(2010)
Experimental demonstration of higher-order Laguerre-Gauss mode interferometry
in Physical Review D
Hammond G
(2008)
New spin source to search for scalar-pseudoscalar couplings at short range
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2007)
Search for gravitational wave radiation associated with the pulsating tail of the SGR 1806 - 20 hyperflare of 27 December 2004 using LIGO
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2009)
Einstein@Home search for periodic gravitational waves in early S5 LIGO data
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2008)
All-sky search for periodic gravitational waves in LIGO S4 data
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2008)
Search of S3 LIGO data for gravitational wave signals from spinning black hole and neutron star binary inspirals
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2007)
Upper limits on gravitational wave emission from 78 radio pulsars
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
(2009)
Search for gravitational wave ringdowns from perturbed black holes in LIGO S4 data
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2009)
Search for gravitational-wave bursts in the first year of the fifth LIGO science run
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 binary coalescences in the first year of LIGO's S5 data
in Physical Review D
Chelkowski S
(2009)
Prospects of higher-order Laguerre-Gauss modes in future gravitational wave detectors
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2007)
First cross-correlation analysis of interferometric and resonant-bar gravitational-wave data for stochastic backgrounds
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2009)
Einstein@Home search for periodic gravitational waves in LIGO S4 data
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2009)
First LIGO search for gravitational wave bursts from cosmic (super)strings
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2008)
Search for gravitational-wave bursts from soft gamma repeaters.
in Physical review letters
Abbott BP
(2009)
All-sky LIGO search for periodic gravitational waves in the early fifth-science-run data.
in Physical review letters
Willems B
(2008)
Erratum: Probing White Dwarf Interiors with LISA: Periastron Precession In Eccentric Double White Dwarfs [Phys. Rev. Lett. 100 , 041102 (2008)]
in Physical Review Letters
Willems B
(2008)
Probing white dwarf interiors with LISA: periastron precession in eccentric double white dwarfs.
in Physical review letters
Abbott B
(2009)
LIGO: the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
in Reports on Progress in Physics
Chakrabarty D
(2008)
THE DISTRIBUTION OF DARK MATTER IN THE HALO OF THE EARLY-TYPE GALAXY NGC 4636
in The Astronomical Journal
Abadie J
(2010)
FIRST SEARCH FOR GRAVITATIONAL WAVES FROM THE YOUNGEST KNOWN NEUTRON STAR
in The Astrophysical Journal