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
Dariush A
(2007)
The mass assembly of fossil groups of galaxies in the Millennium simulation
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pacaud F
(2007)
The XMM -LSS survey: the Class 1 cluster sample over the initial 5 deg2 and its cosmological modelling
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Russell P
(2007)
Bayesian modelling of the cool core galaxy group NGC 4325
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
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
Abbott B
(2007)
Search for gravitational-wave bursts in LIGO data from the fourth science run
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Hild S
(2007)
A novel concept for increasing the peak sensitivity of LIGO by detuning the arm cavities
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Swinbank A
(2007)
Resolved spectroscopy of a gravitationally lensed L* Lyman-break galaxy at z~ 5
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Jetha N
(2007)
Erratum: Active galactic nuclei heating in the centres of galaxy groups: a statistical study
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Brassington N
(2007)
The Chandra view of galaxy mergers
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Freise A
(2007)
Phase and alignment noise in grating interferometers
in New Journal of Physics
Abbott B
(2007)
Upper limit map of a background of gravitational waves
in Physical Review D
Harms J
(2007)
Quantum-noise power spectrum of fields with discrete classical components
in Physical Review A
Salucci P
(2007)
The baryonic and dark matter properties of high-redshift gravitationally lensed disc galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bardeau S
(2007)
A CFH12k lensing survey of X-ray luminous galaxy clusters II. Weak lensing analysis and global correlations
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
George S
(2007)
Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope low-frequency observations of extrasolar planetary systems
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
Zhang Y
(2007)
Scaling relations and mass calibration of the X-ray luminous galaxy clusters at redshift ~0.2: XMM-Newton observations
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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
Khosroshahi H
(2007)
Scaling relations in fossil galaxy groups
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Winkler W
(2007)
The GEO 600 core optics
in Optics Communications
Acernese F
(2007)
The Virgo interferometric gravitational antenna
in Optics and Lasers in Engineering
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
Sumner T
(2007)
STEP (satellite test of the equivalence principle)
in Advances in Space Research
Pierre M
(2007)
The XMM-Large Scale Structure catalogue: X-ray sources and associated optical data. Version I
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
O'Sullivan E
(2007)
The dark haloes of early-type galaxies in low-density environments: XMM-Newton and Chandra observations of NGC 57, 7796 and IC 1531*
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Tarrant N
(2007)
Asteroseismology of red giants: photometric observations of Arcturus by SMEI
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Rasmussen J
(2007)
Temperature and abundance profiles of hot gas in galaxy groups - I. Results and statistical analysis
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
Abbott B
(2007)
First cross-correlation analysis of interferometric and resonant-bar gravitational-wave data for stochastic backgrounds
in Physical Review D
Van Der Sluys M
(2008)
Parameter estimation of spinning binary inspirals using Markov chain Monte Carlo
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Tarrant N
(2008)
Oscillations in ß Ursae Minoris Observations with SMEI
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Bergé J
(2008)
Combined analysis of weak lensing and X-ray blind surveys
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Abbott B
(2008)
Search for gravitational-wave bursts from soft gamma repeaters.
in Physical review letters
Jetha N
(2008)
The nature of the ghost cavity in the NGC 741 group
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
George S
(2008)
A deep 150 MHz Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope survey in Eridanus
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hammond GD
(2008)
Development of a second generation torsion balance based on a spherical superconducting suspension.
in The Review of scientific instruments
Babak S
(2008)
The Mock LISA Data Challenges: from Challenge 1B to Challenge 3
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Amelino-Camelia G
(2008)
GAUGE: the GrAnd Unification and Gravity Explorer
in Experimental Astronomy
Smith J
(2008)
Measurement and simulation of laser power noise in GEO 600
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Veitch J
(2008)
Assigning confidence to inspiral gravitational wave candidates with Bayesian model selection
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Sesana A
(2008)
Observing white dwarfs orbiting massive black holes in the gravitational wave and electro-magnetic window
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Veitch J
(2008)
Bayesian approach to the follow-up of candidate gravitational wave signals
in Physical Review D
Tarrant N
(2008)
SMEI observations of previously unseen pulsation frequencies in $\sf \gamma$ Doradus
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Babak S
(2008)
Report on the second Mock LISA data challenge
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2008)
First joint search for gravitational-wave bursts in LIGO and GEO 600 data
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Trias M
(2008)
Markov chain Monte Carlo searches for galactic binaries in Mock LISA Data Challenge 1B data sets
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Jetha N
(2008)
Shock heating in the group atmosphere of the radio galaxy B2 0838+32A
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
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