Astrophysics at Oxford
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Oxford Physics
Abstract
Astrophysicists at Oxford are trying to determine three basic things about the Universe. What is it made of? The Universe now appears to be begun a period of accelerated expansion driven by some rather mysterious stuff known as `dark energy'. Einstein had a theory for what this stuff is, he called it the Cosmological Constant, and we will be testing his theory by measuring precisely the positions of about a million galaxies, the distortions of more distant galaxies due to the bending of light by gravity, and the brightnesses of distant supernovae. How did the galaxies form? It now looks like the disks of galaxies like the Milky Way have had a rather boring past history, growing by gradual accretion of both normal and `dark' matter and forming their stars gradually. Most of the stars in the Universe, however, are in so-called spheroidal galaxies which appear to have had a much more exciting history. They seemed to have formed in dramatic bursts of star formation associated with the growth of supermassive black holes. We can see if this is true by doing two very different sorts of `experiment': we can look directly at very distant galaxies which, because of the finite speed of light, are seen at times when the Universe, and the galaxies within it, were young; or we can do `archaeology' on nearby galaxies looking for clues of an exciting youth, for example by finding fast-moving gas orbiting a dormant supermassive black hole. How do exotic objects like quasars influence the Universe? When spheroidal galaxies were young and their black holes were still growing they seemed to develop jets that squirted material into their environments. This process heated up large parts of the Universe. Jets are also seen in our own Galaxy associated with so-called microquasars, and since the output from these objects varies on human timescales, they are easier to study, and should provide clues as to how jets work and how important they were in the history of galaxy formation.
Organisations
Publications
Alatalo K
(2015)
Evidence of boosted 13CO/12CO ratio in early-type galaxies in dense environments
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Alatalo K
(2013)
NGC 1266 AS A LOCAL CANDIDATE FOR RAPID CESSATION OF STAR FORMATION
in The Astrophysical Journal
Alatalo K
(2013)
NGC1266 as a Local Candidate for Rapid Cessation of Star Formation
Alatalo K
(2024)
NGC 1266 as a local candidate for rapid cessation of star formation
Alatalo K
(2024)
NGC 1266 as a local candidate for rapid cessation of star formation
Bois M
(2011)
The ATLAS3D project - VI. Simulations of binary galaxy mergers and the link with fast rotators, slow rotators and kinematically distinct cores The ATLAS3D project - VI. Binary galaxy mergers
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bureau M
(2011)
The SAURON project - XVIII. The integrated UV-line-strength relations of early-type galaxies The SAURON project - XVIII
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cappellari M
(2013)
The ATLAS3D project - XV. Benchmark for early-type galaxies scaling relations from 260 dynamical models: mass-to-light ratio, dark matter, Fundamental Plane and Mass Plane
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cappellari M
(2013)
The ATLAS3D project - XX. Mass-size and mass-s distributions of early-type galaxies: bulge fraction drives kinematics, mass-to-light ratio, molecular gas fraction and stellar initial mass function
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cappellari M
(2011)
The ATLAS3D project - VII. A new look at the morphology of nearby galaxies: the kinematic morphology-density relation The ATLAS3D project - VII. Morphology-density
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cappellari M
(2011)
The ATLAS3D project - I. A volume-limited sample of 260 nearby early-type galaxies: science goals and selection criteria The ATLAS3D project - I. The sample
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Crocker A
(2012)
The ATLAS 3D project - XI. Dense molecular gas properties of CO-luminous early-type galaxies ? The ATLAS 3D project - XI. Dense molecular gas
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Davis T
(2011)
The ATLAS3D project - V. The CO Tully-Fisher relation of early-type galaxies The CO-TFR of early-type galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Davis T
(2014)
The ATLAS3D Project - XXVIII. Dynamically driven star formation suppression in early-type galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Davis T
(2016)
On the depletion and accretion time-scales of cold gas in local early-type galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Davis T
(2012)
Gemini GMOS and WHT SAURON integral-field spectrograph observations of the AGN-driven outflow in NGC 1266 IFU observations of the outflow in NGC 1266
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Davis T
(2013)
The ATLAS3D Project - XIV. The extent and kinematics of the molecular gas in early-type galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Davis T
(2011)
The ATLAS3D project - X. On the origin of the molecular and ionized gas in early-type galaxies On the origin of gas in early-type galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Den Heijer M
(2015)
The H I Tully-Fisher relation of early-type galaxies
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Duc P
(2014)
Identification of old tidal dwarfs near early-type galaxies from deep imaging and H i observations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Duc P
(2011)
The ATLAS3D project - IX. The merger origin of a fast- and a slow-rotating early-type galaxy revealed with deep optical imaging: first results The merger origin of NGC 680 and 5557
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Duc P
(2015)
The ATLAS3D project - XXIX. The new look of early-type galaxies and surrounding fields disclosed by extremely deep optical images
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Emsellem E
(2011)
The ATLAS3D project - III. A census of the stellar angular momentum within the effective radius of early-type galaxies: unveiling the distribution of fast and slow rotators Census of the stellar angular momentum in ETGs
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Heijer M
(2015)
The HI Tully-Fisher Relation of Early-Type Galaxies
Kaviraj S
(2012)
Galaxy Zoo: dust and molecular gas in early-type galaxies with prominent dust lanes? The interstellar media of early-type galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society