Astrophysics and Cosmology Research within the JBCA 2017-2020
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
This grant supports the research of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester. Our research is a divided into 3 groups. There are too many specific proposals to describe in detail, do below we have given a brief layman's explanation of the work being carried out by the three groups.
Cosmology: This is the study of the Universe as a whole. The main aim is to understand the processes by which the large scale feature of the Universe formed and to constrain the various different kinds of matter that existed within it. These include dark matter and dark energy which are thought to constitute more than 95% of the total. We do this by comparison to observations of weak and strong gravitational lensing which is the distortion of light predicted to be caused by massive objects in Einstein' Theory of General Relativity, the cosmic microwave background which is the faint emission of radiation created at the time when protons and electrons come together to form hydrogen and the emission given off by neutral hydrogen atoms in galaxies. The research we propose here involves both theory and observation as well as the development of the technology necessary to make the observations possible.
Sun, Stars and Galaxies: The researchers in this group study a wide range of astrophysical processes that are reasonable for the formation and evolution of the objects in the name of the group. Specific key areas that the group is interested in are the formation of stars much larger than the Sun and the subsequent evolution, the properties of the so-called interstellar medium (ISM) which comprises molecules not bound to stars and the magnetic fields that permeate space.
Pulsars and Time Domain Astrophysics: The focus of this group is astrophysical signatures that are change with time: things which come on and off, often with some kind of regularity. These include Pulsars which are non-standard star time, known as a neutron star, which is a dead star supported by the quantum pressure of neutrons. The radio emission from these objects pulses on an off with extraordinary regularity allowing them to acts cosmic clocks. The constantly measuring these clocks as the neutron stars spin and move through space, often impacted on by a companion star, allows the most precise constraints on the nature of gravity outside the solar system. Other phenomena studied by this group include Nova explosions, other variable stars, and variability induced by the lensing effects of one star passing in front of another, called microlensing.
Cosmology: This is the study of the Universe as a whole. The main aim is to understand the processes by which the large scale feature of the Universe formed and to constrain the various different kinds of matter that existed within it. These include dark matter and dark energy which are thought to constitute more than 95% of the total. We do this by comparison to observations of weak and strong gravitational lensing which is the distortion of light predicted to be caused by massive objects in Einstein' Theory of General Relativity, the cosmic microwave background which is the faint emission of radiation created at the time when protons and electrons come together to form hydrogen and the emission given off by neutral hydrogen atoms in galaxies. The research we propose here involves both theory and observation as well as the development of the technology necessary to make the observations possible.
Sun, Stars and Galaxies: The researchers in this group study a wide range of astrophysical processes that are reasonable for the formation and evolution of the objects in the name of the group. Specific key areas that the group is interested in are the formation of stars much larger than the Sun and the subsequent evolution, the properties of the so-called interstellar medium (ISM) which comprises molecules not bound to stars and the magnetic fields that permeate space.
Pulsars and Time Domain Astrophysics: The focus of this group is astrophysical signatures that are change with time: things which come on and off, often with some kind of regularity. These include Pulsars which are non-standard star time, known as a neutron star, which is a dead star supported by the quantum pressure of neutrons. The radio emission from these objects pulses on an off with extraordinary regularity allowing them to acts cosmic clocks. The constantly measuring these clocks as the neutron stars spin and move through space, often impacted on by a companion star, allows the most precise constraints on the nature of gravity outside the solar system. Other phenomena studied by this group include Nova explosions, other variable stars, and variability induced by the lensing effects of one star passing in front of another, called microlensing.
Planned Impact
The range of research we undertake and the world-class facilities within and in close association with JBCA (the Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre, e-MERLIN, the Lovell Telescope, the ALMA ARC and the SKA HQ) will provide key pathways to increasing our already strong impact on UK and global industry, the next generation of scientists and engineers, and the general public. The University's investment in the Jodrell Bank site combined with significant external funding (e.g. from Heritage Lottery Fund) will enable us to expand its use as an iconic venue for public and industrial engagement. The programme described here formed a key part of the School's submission for REF2014, helping it to be ranked highest in the REF for physics impact with 83% at 4* and 17% at 3*. Our outreach \& public engagement programme is extremely strong and continues to grow, particularly through its work with the University's award-winning Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre and the BBC. With the recent decision on SKA HQ location and our strong research work in this area, there is also growing impact in both outreach and industrial engagement in this area.
Our "Pathways to Impact" statement in the case for support outlines things that we have done in recent times under the headings of "Outreach and Public Engagement" and "Industrial and economic impact". We list some highlights below.
- Jodcast: Podcast run by students with 7000 regular listeners.
- 230000 Twitter followers
- Stargazing live
- JB Discovery centre with 150000 visitors per year
- Award winning "Live from Jodrell Bank" rock concerts
- Industry contracts for SKA work including CISCO, AASL, NPL, GEANT
- Newton programme for Radio Astronomy in Africa.
Our "Pathways to Impact" statement in the case for support outlines things that we have done in recent times under the headings of "Outreach and Public Engagement" and "Industrial and economic impact". We list some highlights below.
- Jodcast: Podcast run by students with 7000 regular listeners.
- 230000 Twitter followers
- Stargazing live
- JB Discovery centre with 150000 visitors per year
- Award winning "Live from Jodrell Bank" rock concerts
- Industry contracts for SKA work including CISCO, AASL, NPL, GEANT
- Newton programme for Radio Astronomy in Africa.
Organisations
Publications
Perera B
(2018)
Improving timing sensitivity in the microhertz frequency regime: limits from PSR J1713+0747 on gravitational waves produced by supermassive black hole binaries
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Perera B
(2017)
Erratum: Evidence for an intermediate-mass black hole in the globular cluster NGC 6624
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Perera B
(2019)
The International Pulsar Timing Array: second data release
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Perera B
(2019)
The dynamics of Galactic centre pulsars: constraining pulsar distances and intrinsic spin-down
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Perera B
(2017)
Evidence for an intermediate-mass black hole in the globular cluster NGC 6624
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Perger K
(2018)
Constraining the radio jet proper motion of the high-redshift quasar J2134-0419 at z = 4.3
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Perrott Y
(2018)
AMI-CL J0300+2613: a Galactic anomalous-microwave-emission ring masquerading as a galaxy cluster
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Peters A
(2018)
Supercluster simulations: impact of baryons on the matter power spectrum and weak lensing forecasts for Super-CLASS
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Petroff E
(2018)
A fast radio burst with a low dispersion measure
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Petroff E
(2017)
A polarized fast radio burst at low Galactic latitude
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pimpanuwat B
(2020)
Maser flares driven by variations in pumping and background radiation
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pineda J
(2018)
A SOFIA Survey of [C ii] in the Galaxy M51. I. [C ii] as a Tracer of Star Formation
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Pleunis Z
(2017)
A Millisecond Pulsar Discovery in a Survey of Unidentified Fermi ? -Ray Sources with LOFAR
in The Astrophysical Journal
Plotkin R
(2017)
Up and Down the Black Hole Radio/X-Ray Correlation: The 2017 Mini-outbursts from Swift J1753.5-0127
in The Astrophysical Journal
Pol N
(2018)
A Direct Measurement of Sense of Rotation of PSR J0737-3039A
in The Astrophysical Journal
Polzin E
(2018)
The low-frequency radio eclipses of the black widow pulsar J1810+1744
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Polzin E
(2019)
Long-term variability of a black widow's eclipses - A decade of PSR J2051$-$0827
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Porayko N
(2019)
Testing the accuracy of the ionospheric Faraday rotation corrections through LOFAR observations of bright northern pulsars
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Potter M
(2019)
Forced magnetic reconnection and plasmoid coalescence I. Magnetohydrodynamic simulations
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Power C
(2019)
nIFTy galaxy cluster simulations VI: the dynamical imprint of substructure on gaseous cluster outskirts.
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Prandoni I
(2018)
The Lockman Hole Project: new constraints on the sub-mJy source counts from a wide-area 1.4 GHz mosaic
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Prat J
(2018)
Galaxy bias from galaxy-galaxy lensing in the DES science verification data
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Purser S
(2018)
Constraining the nature of DG Tau A's thermal and non-thermal radio emission
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Purser S
(2019)
Erratum: Constraining the nature of DG Tau A's thermal and non-thermal radio emission
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Radcliffe J
(2019)
An insight into the extragalactic transient and variable microJy radio sky across multiple decades
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Radcliffe J
(2019)
Nowhere to Hide: Radio-faint AGN in GOODS-N field I. Initial catalogue and radio properties (Corrigendum)
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Rampadarath H
(2018)
Jets, arcs, and shocks: NGC 5195 at radio wavelengths
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Rattenbury N
(2017)
Faint-source-star planetary microlensing: the discovery of the cold gas-giant planet OGLE-2014-BLG-0676Lb
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Reid J
(2020)
Determining whether the squashing factor, Q , would be a good indicator of reconnection in a resistive MHD experiment devoid of null points
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Reid J
(2018)
Coronal energy release by MHD avalanches: continuous driving
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Reischke R
(2018)
Shear and vorticity in the spherical collapse of dark matter haloes
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Remazeilles M
(2018)
Joint Bayesian estimation of tensor and lensing B modes in the power spectrum of CMB polarization data
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Remazeilles M
(2018)
Extracting foreground-obscured µ-distortion anisotropies to constrain primordial non-Gaussianity
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Remazeilles M
(2019)
Can we neglect relativistic temperature corrections in the Planck thermal SZ analysis?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Remazeilles M
(2018)
Exploring cosmic origins with CORE: B -mode component separation
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Rennie T
(2022)
COMAP Early Science. VI. A First Look at the COMAP Galactic Plane Survey
in The Astrophysical Journal
Riseley C
(2018)
AMI-LA observations of the SuperCLASS supercluster
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Robertson A
(2018)
The diverse density profiles of galaxy clusters with self-interacting dark matter plus baryons
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Robitaille J
(2018)
Interstellar magnetic cannon targeting the Galactic halo A young bubble at the origin of the Ophiuchus and Lupus molecular complexes
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Robitaille J
(2017)
A new perspective on turbulent Galactic magnetic fields through comparison of linear polarization decomposition techniques
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Roychowdhury S
(2019)
A first quantification of the effects of absorption for H I intensity mapping experiments
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Rubiño-Martín J
(2023)
QUIJOTE scientific results - IV. A northern sky survey in intensity and polarization at 10-20 GHz with the multifrequency instrument
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Rugel M
(2018)
OH absorption in the first quadrant of the Milky Way as seen by THOR
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Rumsey C
(2017)
AMI SZ observation of galaxy-cluster merger CIZA J2242+5301: perpendicular flows of gas and dark matter
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ryu Y
(2017)
OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb: The First Spitzer Bulge Planet Lies Near the Planet/Brown-dwarf Boundary
in The Astronomical Journal
Saikia P
(2018)
15-GHz radio emission from nearby low-luminosity active galactic nuclei
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Samuroff S
(2018)
Dark Energy Survey Year 1 results: the impact of galaxy neighbours on weak lensing cosmology with im3shape
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Description | The consolidated grant supported a wide range of activities in astrophysics and cosmology at the JBCA. This was based around three areas: cosmology - the study of the Universe as a single entity, pulsars - spinning neutron stars which emit pulse of radio waves at regular intervals, astrophysical processes - the study of galaxy and star formation in the universe. Progress was made in all these areas. |
Exploitation Route | The wide range of work produce by the grant has been published in journals. These papers have received significant citations indicating that all the areas have had an impact within the academic research community. |
Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Other |
Description | The research has been used extensively in the outreach program of the Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre, which attracts 160,000 visitors per annum and focusses on hard-to-reach audiences. |
First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
Sector | Education |
Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |