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
Alshino A
(2010)
Luminosity functions of XMMâ??LSS C1 galaxy clusters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Limousin M
(2010)
MACS J1423.8+2404: gravitational lensing by a massive, relaxed cluster of galaxies at z = 0.54
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Trias M
(2008)
Markov chain Monte Carlo searches for galactic binaries in Mock LISA Data Challenge 1B data sets
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Smith J
(2008)
Measurement and simulation of laser power noise in GEO 600
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Acernese F
(2010)
Measurements of Superattenuator seismic isolation by Virgo interferometer
in Astroparticle Physics
Sesana A
(2010)
Measuring the parameters of massive black hole binary systems with pulsar timing array observations of gravitational waves
in Physical Review D
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
Hammond G
(2008)
New spin source to search for scalar-pseudoscalar couplings at short range
in Physical Review D
Hammond G
(2008)
Noise analysis of a Howland current source
in International Journal of Electronics
Accadia T
(2010)
Noise from scattered light in Virgo's second science run data
in Classical and Quantum Gravity