A Programme of Technology, Astrophysics and Cosmology in Cardiff, 2022-2025
Lead Research Organisation:
CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
Department Name: School of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Astronomers try to answer a wide range of questions, from fundamental ones, such as how stars and galaxies are formed and questions about the structure and evolution of the universe itself, to more detailed questions about the physical and chemical processes occurring in astronomical objects. A powerful way of trying to answer some of the most important ones is to make observations in the submillimetre waveband, one of the newest branches of astronomy. The births of stars and galaxies, for example, occur in huge clouds of gas and dust, and the dust - tiny solid fragments in interstellar space - hides the births from traditional optical telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope. With submillimetre telescopes, however, it is possible to observe radiation from the dust itself, allowing astronomers to observe the very earliest stages in the lives of stars and galaxies. Submillimetre astronomy is one of our specialities in Cardiff, with our group containing both astronomers that use submillimetre telescopes but also scientists that build novel cameras and other devices that work in this waveband - technology that also has many uses outside astronomy. In this proposal we ask for funds from the UK taxpayer to support our research. Much of this research involves using or building submillimetre instruments, but some of the projects we propose will use telescopes in other wavebands or use powerful computers to simulate the processes involved in the birth of a star or the formation of a galaxy. The questions we will try to answer include many of the most important ones. One of the surprising things about planets like ours is that they exist at all, because centimetre-sized solid chunks around a star are likely to be destroyed before they coalesce to form bigger chunks and eventually planets. We will use radio observations to search for chunks of this size in the disks of dust around newly formed stars, with the aim of understanding how small rocky planets like our own were formed, and in another project we will use a new balloon observatory to study the other end of the planetary spectrum - the giant 'hot Jupiters' that have been discovered around nearby stars. We propose several projects to investigate the formation of stars, both the stars that are forming around us today and a special population of stars with very few heavy elements that astronomers think formed just after the Big Bang, using a mixture of observations and computer simulations. We propose two project that will study supernovae, the titanic explosions that occur when a massive star collapses at the end of its life. One project will investigate the formation of dust grains and molecular gas within a supernova explosion, the other the recently discovered superluminous supernovae, up to 100 times more luminous than the standard kind. Again using a mixture of observations and computer simulations, we propose several projects to study galaxies, including a study of the Andromeda Galaxy, the nearest big galaxy, an investigation of the super-massive black holes at the centres of nearby galaxies, a computer simulation of the gas flows around a galaxy, and a project to find more examples of very distant galaxies, which we are seeing only shortly after the Big Bang and that are being highly magnified by the gravity of close galaxies. More examples of these highly magnified galaxies is important because the magnification means that we can study the way galaxies are formed in great detail. We also propose two technical projects, one to develop kinetic inductance detectors, a kind of detector that our group largely discovered and which makes possible revolutionary new instruments, and one to develop further 'meta-materials', a kind of material that makes possible novel components for instruments, such as flat lenses, and which our group has used to make the filters for all submillimetre telescopes, on the ground and in space, over the last 30 years.
Organisations
Publications
Bing L
(2023)
NIKA2 Cosmological Legacy Survey Survey description and galaxy number counts
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Colombo D
(2022)
The SEDIGISM survey: The influence of spiral arms on the molecular gas distribution of the inner Milky Way
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
GĂłmez-Llanos V
(2024)
MUSE spectroscopy of the high abundance discrepancy planetary nebula NGC 6153
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Jiménez-Donaire M
(2023)
VERTICO III. The Kennicutt-Schmidt relation in Virgo cluster galaxies
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Fuskeland U
(2023)
Tensor-to-scalar ratio forecasts for extended LiteBIRD frequency configurations
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Neralwar K
(2022)
The SEDIGISM survey: Molecular cloud morphology I. Classification and star formation
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lestrade J
(2022)
Candidate cosmic filament in the GJ526 field, mapped with the NIKA2 camera
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Atkins Zachary
(2023)
mnms: Map-based Noise ModelS
in Astrophysics Source Code Library
Cuenca J
(2023)
Superconducting boron doped nanocrystalline diamond microwave coplanar resonator
in Carbon
Priestley Felix
(2024)
Understanding complex organic molecules in the earliest phases of star formation
in EAS2024, European Astronomical Society Annual Meeting
Matsuura Mikako
(2024)
Planetary nebula NGC 6302 as a test-bed of physics & chemistry in strong UV radiation fields
in EAS2024, European Astronomical Society Annual Meeting
Matsuura Mikako
(2024)
Synchrotron radiation in SN 1987A
in EAS2024, European Astronomical Society Annual Meeting
Wesson Roger
(2024)
The jets of the extreme bipolar planetary nebula NGC 6302
in EAS2024, European Astronomical Society Annual Meeting
Bron E
(2022)
Learning from model grids: Tracers of the ionization fraction in the ISM
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Adam R
(2024)
NIKA2 observations of 3 low-mass galaxy clusters at z ~ 1: Pressure profile and Y SZ - M relation
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Ejlali G
(2022)
Dust Emission in Galaxies at Millimeter Wavelengths: Cooling of star forming regions in NGC6946
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Perotto L
(2022)
The NIKA2 Sunyaev-Zeldovich Large Program: Precise galaxy cluster physics for an accurate cluster-based cosmology
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Katsioli S
(2022)
Exploring the millimetre emission in nearby galaxies: Analysis of the edge-on galaxy NGC 891
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Muñoz-EcheverrĂa M
(2022)
The LPSZ-CLASH galaxy cluster sample: Combining lensing and hydrostatic mass estimates
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Nguyen-Luong Q
(2024)
NIKA2 observations of dust grain evolution from star-forming filament to T-Tauri disk: Preliminary results from NIKA2 observations of the Taurus B211/B213 filament
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Kramer C
(2024)
NIKA2 observations of starless cores in Taurus and Perseus
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Ejlali G
(2024)
Constraining millimeter dust emission in nearby galaxies with NIKA2: The case of NGC2146 and NGC2976
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Rigby A
(2022)
Galactic Star Formation with NIKA2 (GASTON): Evidence of mass accretion onto dense clumps
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Ritacco A
(2022)
Crab nebula at 260 GHz with the NIKA2 polarimeter: Implications for the polarization angle calibration of future CMB experiments
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Bing L
(2022)
Searching for high-z DSFGs with NIKA2 and NOEMA
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Traficante A
(2022)
Multi-scale dynamics in star-forming regions: The interplay between gravity and turbulence
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Muñoz-EcheverrĂa M
(2022)
Multi-probe analysis of the galaxy cluster CL J1226.9+3332: Hydrostatic mass and hydrostatic-to-lensing bias
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Peretto N
(2022)
Galactic star formation with NIKA2 (GASTON): Filament convergence and its link to star formation
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Ajeddig H
(2022)
Probing the role of magnetic fields in star-forming filaments: NIKA2-Pol commissioning results toward OMC-1
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Perotto L
(2024)
The NIKA2 Sunyaev-Zeldovich Large Program Sample and upcoming product public release
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Lestrade J
(2022)
Overdensity of SubMillimiter Galaxies in the GJ526 Field mapped with the NIKA2 Camera
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Artis E
(2022)
PSZ2 G091: A massive double cluster at z ~ 0.822 observed by the NIKA2 camera
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Greaves J. S.
(2022)
Venus as a Benchmark for Searching for Biosignatures on Extrasolar Planets
in Exoplanets in Our Backyard 2
Santander-GarcĂa M
(2022)
Lessons from the Ionised and Molecular Mass of Post-CE PNe
in Galaxies
Sloan G
(2024)
Temporal Changes in the Infrared Spectra of Magellanic Carbon Stars
in Galaxies
Ruffa I
(2024)
Molecular Gas Kinematics in Local Early-Type Galaxies with ALMA
in Galaxies
Larsson Josefin
(2024)
Expanding shocks and the emergence of the compact object in Supernova 1987A
in HST Proposal
Larsson Josefin
(2023)
Expanding shocks and the emergence of the compact object in Supernova 1987A
in HST Proposal
Tapia M
(2024)
Mexico-UK Submillimeter Camera for AsTronomy focal plane performance at the Large Millimeter Telescope
in Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems
Atkins Z
(2023)
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: map-based noise simulations for DR6
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Marques G
(2024)
Cosmological constraints from the tomography of DES-Y3 galaxies with CMB lensing from ACT DR4
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Li Z
(2023)
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: limits on dark matter-baryon interactions from DR4 power spectra
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Li Z.
(2023)
The Simons Observatory: a new open-source power spectrum pipeline applied to the Planck legacy data
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Rowe S
(2022)
The MUSCAT Readout Electronics Backend: Design and Pre-deployment Performance
in Journal of Low Temperature Physics
Robson G
(2022)
The Simulation and Design of an On-Chip Superconducting Millimetre Filter-Bank Spectrometer
in Journal of Low Temperature Physics
Hubmayr J
(2022)
Optical Characterization of OMT-Coupled TES Bolometers for LiteBIRD
in Journal of Low Temperature Physics
Hasebe T
(2022)
Sensitivity Modeling for LiteBIRD
in Journal of Low Temperature Physics
Nightingale J
(2023)
PyAutoGalaxy: Open-Source Multiwavelength Galaxy Structure & Morphology
in Journal of Open Source Software
Peretto N.
(2022)
Meeting contribution: The earliest stages of star cluster formation
in Journal of the British Astronomical Association