Astrophysics in St Andrews/SUPA
Lead Research Organisation:
University of St Andrews
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
The St Andrews astronomy group is interested in questions of origins: where do galaxies, stars and planets come from, and what fundamental physics explains their formation? We are world leaders in solving intricate mathematical problems in these areas, and we use novel methods such as observations at very high precision and simulations with super-computers. Recently we have joined with other groups across Scotland via the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA), and in particular broadened our studies of planet formation via theoretical and experimental work from new team members in Edinburgh and Strathclyde. We study a very wide spread of size scales, from discovering planetary systems around stars a few light years away out to measuring the force of gravity acting on the whole universe. We are especially known for comparing observations and theory of astronomical phenomena, so as to best understand the real universe. For example, we predict how protostars form in molecular clouds and grow and interact, and then observe real clouds to test that young stars have the predicted masses and positions. We have five major themes to our research programme. Theme A involves the search for planets beyond the Solar System and focuses on finding the first planets of mass as low as the Earth's. We use timing of transits, when a planet crosses the face of its star causing a brief darkening, and also gravitational lensing, which exploits Einstein's prediction that a planet drifting across the sightline to a distant background star will bend more of its light towards us. Theme B studies how these extrasolar planets form, in the brief time when a young star is orbited by a remnant disc of gases and rocks. We simulate how this material collects into planets, and check that the basic physics is correct using low-gravity plane flights to experimentally collide rocks in interstellar-like conditions of cold and vacuum. The results are tested by imaging real discs to track how planet systems form and then evolve over billions of years. Theme C examines how the young stars themselves form out of gas clouds, and we are working towards simulations with a billion interacting test particles, to study whether events like supernova explosions trigger the birth of new generations of stars. We also analyse if a star connects by magnetic fields to its disc, and if this affects how fast the star spins and what happens to the material that could form planets. Theme D expands this work to much bigger scales, and we will simulate a whole galaxy of stars, while a survey of 250,000 galaxies will study how their structure emerges. If we know how galaxies form into their characteristic shapes of flat discs, spiral arms and central bulges, we can then look at exotic phenomena such as mass flowing inwards to make a super-massive black hole. The intense light from these black holes has an echo effect as it travels to our telescopes that we also use to study the mass and expansion of the universe as a whole. Theme E wraps up this large-scale picture of the universe by testing Newton's law of gravity - some strange results on how galaxies move could be explained if the law is different on small and large scales. We explore this new idea mathematically and design astronomical observations to test it, ranging from the motion of spacecraft in the Solar System to fluctuations in radiation left over from the Big Bang. We address key questions in the Science Roadmap, especially: what are the laws of physics in extreme conditions? how do galaxies, stars and planets form and evolve? and are we alone in the universe? Our work uses many STFC-funded telescopes at a wide range of wavelengths from radio through visible to X-ray. Our new science projects are building up to use major international projects such as ALMA, eMERLIN, Herschel, JWST, SKA and the KEPLER and PLATO planet-detection missions.
Organisations
Publications
Covino S
(2010)
Challenging gamma-ray burst models through the broadband dataset of GRB 060908
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Driver S
(2010)
Quantifying cosmic variance Cosmic variance
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Dominik M
(2010)
Realisation of a fully-deterministic microlensing observing strategy for inferring planet populations
in Astronomische Nachrichten
Enoch B
(2010)
WASP-25b: a 0.6 MJ planet in the Southern hemisphere WASP-25b
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Saito R
(2010)
SPECTRAL MAPPING OF THE INTERMEDIATE POLAR DQ HERCULIS
in The Astronomical Journal
Vandenbussche B
(2010)
The ß Pictoris disk imaged by Herschel PACS and SPIRE
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Sinclair J
(2010)
The impact of stellar model spectra in disc detection
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Johnstone C
(2010)
Modelling stellar coronae from surface magnetograms: the role of missing magnetic flux
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bennett D
(2010)
MASSES AND ORBITAL CONSTRAINTS FOR THE OGLE-2006-BLG-109Lb,c JUPITER/SATURN ANALOG PLANETARY SYSTEM
in The Astrophysical Journal
Greaves J
(2010)
Have protoplanetary discs formed planets? Have protoplanetary discs formed planets?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Matthews B
(2010)
Resolving debris discs in the far-infrared: Early highlights from the DEBRIS survey
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Weidner C
(2010)
The relation between the most-massive star and its parental star cluster mass
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Phillips N
(2010)
Target selection for the SUNS and DEBRIS surveys for debris discs in the solar neighbourhood
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hwang K
(2010)
OGLE-2005-BLG-153: MICROLENSING DISCOVERY AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A VERY LOW MASS BINARY
in The Astrophysical Journal
Dye S
(2010)
Herschel -ATLAS: Evolution of the 250 µm luminosity function out to z = 0.5
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Graves S
(2010)
The JCMT Legacy Survey of the Gould Belt: a first look at Serpens with HARP GBS: first look at Serpens
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Butters O
(2010)
The first WASP public data release
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Gregory S
(2010)
The magnetic fields of forming solar-like stars
in Reports on Progress in Physics
Sheehan C
(2010)
Forming the first planetary systems: debris around Galactic thick disc stars
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Sumi T
(2010)
A COLD NEPTUNE-MASS PLANET OGLE-2007-BLG-368Lb: Cold neptunes are common
in The Astrophysical Journal
Negrello M
(2010)
The detection of a population of submillimeter-bright, strongly lensed galaxies.
in Science (New York, N.Y.)
Gould A
(2010)
FREQUENCY OF SOLAR-LIKE SYSTEMS AND OF ICE AND GAS GIANTS BEYOND THE SNOW LINE FROM HIGH-MAGNIFICATION MICROLENSING EVENTS IN 2005-2008
in The Astrophysical Journal
Weidner C
(2010)
SUPER STAR CLUSTERS VERSUS OB ASSOCIATIONS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Greaves J
(2010)
Predicting the incidence of planet and debris discs as a function of stellar mass
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Hebb L
(2010)
WASP-19b: THE SHORTEST PERIOD TRANSITING EXOPLANET YET DISCOVERED
in The Astrophysical Journal
Ignace R
(2010)
A MULTIPHASE SUZAKU STUDY OF X-RAYS FROM t Sco
in The Astrophysical Journal
Vidotto A
(2010)
EARLY UV INGRESS IN WASP-12b: MEASURING PLANETARY MAGNETIC FIELDS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Cassan A
(2010)
Bayesian analysis of caustic-crossing microlensing events
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Weidner C
(2010)
Limits on the orbits and masses of moons around currently-known transiting exoplanets
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Llama J
(2011)
The shocking transit of WASP-12b: modelling the observed early ingress in the near-ultraviolet
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Dariush A
(2011)
The environment and characteristics of low-redshift galaxies detected by the Herschel-ATLAS Low redshift galaxies in H-ATLAS
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Taylor E
(2011)
Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): stellar mass estimates GAMA: stellar mass estimates
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Windhorst R
(2011)
THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE WIDE FIELD CAMERA 3 EARLY RELEASE SCIENCE DATA: PANCHROMATIC FAINT OBJECT COUNTS FOR 0.2-2 µm WAVELENGTH
in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Weidner C
(2011)
The formation of super-star clusters in disk and dwarf galaxies
in Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
Skowron J
(2011)
BINARY MICROLENSING EVENT OGLE-2009-BLG-020 GIVES VERIFIABLE MASS, DISTANCE, AND ORBIT PREDICTIONS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Robotham A
(2011)
The GALEX-SDSS NUV and FUV flux density and local star formation rate The GALEX-SDSS and local star formation rate
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Miyake N
(2011)
A SUB-SATURN MASS PLANET, MOA-2009-BLG-319Lb
in The Astrophysical Journal
Smith R
(2011)
A quantification of the non-spherical geometry and accretion of collapsing cores The non-spherical nature of collapsing cores
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Robotham A
(2011)
Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): the GAMA galaxy group catalogue (G3Cv1) GAMA: the GAMA galaxy group catalogue (G3Cv1)
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Simpson E
(2011)
INDEPENDENT DISCOVERY OF THE TRANSITING EXOPLANET HAT-P-14b
in The Astronomical Journal
Brough S
(2011)
Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): galaxies at the faint end of the Ha luminosity function GAMA: low-Ha-luminosity galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Helling C
(2011)
IONIZATION IN ATMOSPHERES OF BROWN DWARFS AND EXTRASOLAR PLANETS. I. THE ROLE OF ELECTRON AVALANCHE
in The Astrophysical Journal
Ward-Thompson D
(2011)
The immediate environment of the Class 0 protostar VLA 1623, on scales of ~50-100 au, observed at millimetre and centimetre wavelengths VLA 1623 on scales of ~50-100 au
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Wijesinghe D
(2011)
Galaxy and mass assembly (GAMA): dust obscuration in galaxies and their recent star formation histories Obscuration in galaxies and SFHs
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Alsubai K
(2011)
Qatar-1b: a hot Jupiter orbiting a metal-rich K dwarf star Qatar-1b: a planet transiting a K dwarf star
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Vidotto A
(2011)
Powerful winds from low-mass stars: V374 Peg Powerful winds from low-mass stars: V374 Peg
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Schwope A
(2011)
Dissecting the donor star in the eclipsing polar HU Aquarii
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Norton A
(2011)
Short period eclipsing binary candidates identified using SuperWASP
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Vidotto A
(2011)
Transit variability in bow shock-hosting planets Transit variability in shock-hosting planets
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Driver S
(2011)
Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): survey diagnostics and core data release GAMA
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society