An Astrophysics Consolidated Grant for the Jeremiah Horrocks Institute
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Lancashire
Department Name: Jeremiah Horrocks Institute
Abstract
The astrophysics group at the University of Central Lancashire carries out research in many different areas, including, solar physics, stellar variability, and galaxy formation.
This grant requests resources to support our core activities, including the exploitation of data from the latest ground- and space-based observatories, and to carry out state-of-the-art simulations of the formation of star clusters and galaxies.
The key areas covered by the grant are:
Solar physics - where space-based observatories such as the Solar Dynamics Observatory, STEREO, and Hinode will be exploited to investigate solar activity and the effect of the Sun on the solar system. This traces the development of magnetic features in the solar atmosphere, their eruption as flares and coronal mass ejections, and the propagation of material as it flows into space. This will be complemented by computer modelling of the magnetic processes that drive solar activity and its impact in the heliosphere.
Stellar variability - where international observatories such as Kepler, SALT, ALMA, and SOFIA will be used to study different types of variable and eruptive stars. Different variable stars will be investigated using asteroseismology, where the pulsations of stars over time are used to probe the dynamics and structure. Ejecta from evolved eruptive variable stars will be probed in the micron to millimetre range to determine the ejecta composition and understand dust formation.
Formation of star clusters and galaxies - where large supercomputers will be used to simulate the formation and evolution of star clusters and galaxies, including the Milky Way, using suites of numerical codes developed in-house and with close collaborators.
Structure and dynamics of galaxies - where observational and theoretical tools are combined to probe the behaviour of galaxies and phenomena that occur within them. This ranges from measurement of the star formation rate and its relation to dark matter content, to simulations of astrophysical jets, and the structure of large quasar groups.
Exploiting the varied expertise of the astrophysics group is an extensive outreach programme which utilises our purpose-built observatory. The observatory is already extensively used for visiting groups from schools and the general public, and the site will be developed to enhance its potential for public engagement. This programme will be developed to promote engagement with new audiences.
This grant requests resources to support our core activities, including the exploitation of data from the latest ground- and space-based observatories, and to carry out state-of-the-art simulations of the formation of star clusters and galaxies.
The key areas covered by the grant are:
Solar physics - where space-based observatories such as the Solar Dynamics Observatory, STEREO, and Hinode will be exploited to investigate solar activity and the effect of the Sun on the solar system. This traces the development of magnetic features in the solar atmosphere, their eruption as flares and coronal mass ejections, and the propagation of material as it flows into space. This will be complemented by computer modelling of the magnetic processes that drive solar activity and its impact in the heliosphere.
Stellar variability - where international observatories such as Kepler, SALT, ALMA, and SOFIA will be used to study different types of variable and eruptive stars. Different variable stars will be investigated using asteroseismology, where the pulsations of stars over time are used to probe the dynamics and structure. Ejecta from evolved eruptive variable stars will be probed in the micron to millimetre range to determine the ejecta composition and understand dust formation.
Formation of star clusters and galaxies - where large supercomputers will be used to simulate the formation and evolution of star clusters and galaxies, including the Milky Way, using suites of numerical codes developed in-house and with close collaborators.
Structure and dynamics of galaxies - where observational and theoretical tools are combined to probe the behaviour of galaxies and phenomena that occur within them. This ranges from measurement of the star formation rate and its relation to dark matter content, to simulations of astrophysical jets, and the structure of large quasar groups.
Exploiting the varied expertise of the astrophysics group is an extensive outreach programme which utilises our purpose-built observatory. The observatory is already extensively used for visiting groups from schools and the general public, and the site will be developed to enhance its potential for public engagement. This programme will be developed to promote engagement with new audiences.
Planned Impact
Our research impact outside the discipline has two legs - public engagement with people of all ages through a multi-level programme of activities, and knowledge exchange in collaboration with other academic disciplines and via that with industry. Our public engagement activities reach people of all ages, from young children to the oldest members of our community. In addition we engage at a number of levels, from public talks to large audiences, through long-term collaborations with local schools and colleges, bespoke activities at the University to curriculum enhancement events with teachers. Our knowledge exchange benefits from the research group being within the School of Computing, Engineering & Physical Sciences enabling easy collaboration with a range of disciplines; we are developing links with those elsewhere in the University, including within academic schools and support services. We highlight the novel aspects of our offering here, which will develop during the grant.
Alston Observatory is a key element of our public engagement activities. Over the last two years we have replaced the planetarium facility with a £15,000 investment, and refurbished the existing teaching room. This has enabled us to support a range of new activities, including educational visits from primary and secondary schools, observing events for the general public and astronomy outreach for community groups. We have piloted curriculum enhancement events for teachers. We are currently planning to expand the capacity, breadth of the astronomy covered and added science activities around biology and chemistry. Theme C in our application gives more detail on this, and requests staff support for the development, which will be matched in funding from UCLan and appropriate sponsorship.
We support direct engagement with school students via a number of routes. Each year 5-10 students take part in a variety of activities embedded within the research group, varying from work experience to Nuffield bursary projects. We work in local schools and colleges, and have an ongoing collaboration with the Ogden Trust, primarily working with them to support their Preston Science Partnership and the West Lakes Science Consortium. This provides some enabling funds and facilitation to work on collaborative projects in improving students' progression to Higher Education, focusing in the physics subject area in particular. This provides us with a unique understanding of the needs of the student communities, which we also apply more widely in other schools and colleges, for example with the University-sponsored West Lakes Academy. As well as these activities at secondary level, we engage with primary schools, for example working with Beauty in the Universe, a not-for-profit enterprise in East Lancashire. This enterprise was established by a UCLan graduate with support from our business incubation unit and astronomy staff, and we seek to support their expansion as it is clear that they could have a significant impact on a number of under-privileged communities in a way that is self-sustaining.
Knowledge exchange is always a little more challenging for astrophysics groups. Prime amongst our activities is an FP7 EU funded project Coronal Mass Ejections and Solar Energetic Particles: Forecasting the Space Weather Impact. This will produce a European Space Weather alert system to forecast energetic particle radiation storms and geomagnetic storms, which can affect satellites, GPS, power lines and communications, and is a direct result of our solar physics research. We are working within a unique NASA Space Act agreement to provide instrument software, utilising relevant skills amongst the engineering and computing staff within the School. This is funded by the University, anticipating broader knowledge exchange opportunities in the future. Other actives are currently at a smaller scale but span a range from computer games to mass data analysis.
Alston Observatory is a key element of our public engagement activities. Over the last two years we have replaced the planetarium facility with a £15,000 investment, and refurbished the existing teaching room. This has enabled us to support a range of new activities, including educational visits from primary and secondary schools, observing events for the general public and astronomy outreach for community groups. We have piloted curriculum enhancement events for teachers. We are currently planning to expand the capacity, breadth of the astronomy covered and added science activities around biology and chemistry. Theme C in our application gives more detail on this, and requests staff support for the development, which will be matched in funding from UCLan and appropriate sponsorship.
We support direct engagement with school students via a number of routes. Each year 5-10 students take part in a variety of activities embedded within the research group, varying from work experience to Nuffield bursary projects. We work in local schools and colleges, and have an ongoing collaboration with the Ogden Trust, primarily working with them to support their Preston Science Partnership and the West Lakes Science Consortium. This provides some enabling funds and facilitation to work on collaborative projects in improving students' progression to Higher Education, focusing in the physics subject area in particular. This provides us with a unique understanding of the needs of the student communities, which we also apply more widely in other schools and colleges, for example with the University-sponsored West Lakes Academy. As well as these activities at secondary level, we engage with primary schools, for example working with Beauty in the Universe, a not-for-profit enterprise in East Lancashire. This enterprise was established by a UCLan graduate with support from our business incubation unit and astronomy staff, and we seek to support their expansion as it is clear that they could have a significant impact on a number of under-privileged communities in a way that is self-sustaining.
Knowledge exchange is always a little more challenging for astrophysics groups. Prime amongst our activities is an FP7 EU funded project Coronal Mass Ejections and Solar Energetic Particles: Forecasting the Space Weather Impact. This will produce a European Space Weather alert system to forecast energetic particle radiation storms and geomagnetic storms, which can affect satellites, GPS, power lines and communications, and is a direct result of our solar physics research. We are working within a unique NASA Space Act agreement to provide instrument software, utilising relevant skills amongst the engineering and computing staff within the School. This is funded by the University, anticipating broader knowledge exchange opportunities in the future. Other actives are currently at a smaller scale but span a range from computer games to mass data analysis.
Organisations
Publications
Du Min
(2016)
Kinematic properties of double-barred galaxies: simulations vs. integral-field observations
in ArXiv e-prints
Vásquez S
(2013)
3D kinematics through the X-shaped Milky Way bulge
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Schöller M
(2012)
Multiplicity of rapidly oscillating Ap stars
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Miranda M
(2016)
Origin of the metallicity distribution in the thick disc
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Acharova I
(2013)
Galactic constraints on supernova progenitor models
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Méndez-Abreu J
(2014)
Secular- and merger-built bulges in barred galaxies
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Valenti E
(2013)
Stellar ages through the corners of the boxy bulge
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lange S
(2013)
Particle scattering in turbulent plasmas with amplified wave modes
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Stanier A
(2012)
Solar particle acceleration at reconnecting 3D null points
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Gonzalez O
(2015)
Reinforcing the link between the double red clump and the X-shaped bulge of the Milky Way
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Battarbee M
(2013)
Injection of thermal and suprathermal seed particles into coronal shocks of varying obliquity
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Debosscher J
(2013)
KIC 11285625: A double-lined spectroscopic binary with a ? Doradus pulsator discovered from Kepler space photometry
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Pilkington K
(2012)
Metallicity gradients in disks Do galaxies form inside-out?
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Few C
(2012)
Properties of simulated Milky Way-mass galaxies in loose group and field environments
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Ruiz-Lara T
(2016)
The imprint of satellite accretion on the chemical and dynamical properties of disc galaxies
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Gibson B
(2013)
Constraining sub-grid physics with high-redshift spatially-resolved metallicity distributions
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Beck P
(2014)
Pulsating red giant stars in eccentric binary systems discovered from Kepler space-based photometry A sample study and the analysis of KIC 5006817
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Laitinen T
(2016)
Solar energetic particle access to distant longitudes through turbulent field-line meandering
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Gonzalez O
(2016)
Comparing the properties of the X-shaped bulges of NGC 4710 and the Milky Way with MUSE
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Berti E
(2015)
Testing general relativity with present and future astrophysical observations
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Hambleton K
(2015)
Heartbeat Stars and the Ringing of Tidal Pulsations
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Bowman D
(2015)
Amplitude Modulation in the d Sct star KIC 7106205
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Murphy S
(2015)
Finding non-eclipsing binaries through pulsational phase modulation
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Derekas A
(2015)
HD183648: a Kepler eclipsing binary with anomalous ellipsoidal variations and a pulsating component
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Nemec J
(2015)
Metal-Rich SX Phe Stars in the Kepler Field
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Holdsworth D
(2015)
KIC 7582608: a new Kepler roAp star with frequency variability
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Kurtz D
(2015)
Asteroseismic measurement of surface-to-core rotation in a main-sequence star
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Bedding T
(2015)
Échelle diagrams and period spacings of g modes in ? Doradus stars from four years of Kepler observations
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Matthews S
(2011)
Solar Particle Acceleration Radiation and Kinetics (SPARK) A mission to understand the nature of particle acceleration
in Experimental Astronomy
Dalla S
(2013)
Solar energetic particle drifts in the Parker spiral
in Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
Laitinen T
(2018)
The effect of turbulence strength on meandering field lines and Solar Energetic Particle event extents
in Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate
Vainio R
(2014)
A semi-analytical foreshock model for energetic storm particle events inside 1 AU
in Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate
Brook C
(2012)
Hierarchical formation of bulgeless galaxies - II. Redistribution of angular momentum via galactic fountains Bulgeless discs II
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lokas E
(2014)
Adventures of a tidally induced bar
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Laitinen T
(2017)
Early propagation of energetic particles across the mean field in turbulent plasmas
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Murphy S
(2014)
Finding binaries among Kepler pulsating stars from phase modulation of their pulsations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kurtz D
(2013)
Hot DAVs: a probable new class of pulsating white dwarf stars
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kawata D
(2014)
Numerical simulations of bubble-induced star formation in dwarf irregular galaxies with a novel stellar feedback scheme
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Calura F
(2012)
The stellar metallicity distribution of disc galaxies and bulges in cosmological simulations The stellar MDF in galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Few C
(2014)
Chemodynamics of a simulated disc galaxy: initial mass functions and Type Ia supernova progenitors
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bowman D
(2014)
Pulsational frequency and amplitude modulation in the d Sct star KIC 7106205
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Valluri M
(2012)
Probing the shape and history of the Milky Way halo with orbital spectral analysis Frequency mapping of the stellar halo
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Di Cintio A
(2014)
The dependence of dark matter profiles on the stellar-to-halo mass ratio: a prediction for cusps versus cores
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Shibahashi H
(2012)
FM stars: a Fourier view of pulsating binary stars, a new technique for measuring radial velocities photometrically FM stars
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Natale G
(2014)
dart-ray: a 3D ray-tracing radiative transfer code for calculating the propagation of light in dusty galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Mishenina T
(2017)
Observing the metal-poor solar neighbourhood: a comparison of galactic chemical evolution predictions*â€
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Marasco A
(2015)
The effect of stellar feedback on a Milky Way-like galaxy and its gaseous halo
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Debattista V
(2015)
Internal alignments of red versus blue discs in dark matter haloes
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cunnama D
(2014)
The environmental dependence of neutral hydrogen in the gimic simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bowman D
(2018)
Characterizing the observational properties of d Sct stars in the era of space photometry from the Kepler mission
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society