Astrophysics and Cosmology Research at the JBCA 2020-2023
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
This grant supports the research of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester. Our research is a divided into 3 groups. There are too many specific proposals to describe in detail, do below we have given a brief layman's explanation of the work being carried out by the three groups.
Cosmology: This is the study of the Universe as a whole. The main aim is to understand the processes by which the large scale feature of the Universe formed and to constrain the various different kinds of matter that existed within it. These include dark matter and dark energy which are thought to constitute more than 95% of the total. We do this by comparison to observations of weak and strong gravitational lensing which is the distortion of light predicted to be caused by massive objects in Einstein' Theory of General Relativity, the cosmic microwave background which is the faint emission of radiation created at the time when protons and electrons come together to form hydrogen and the emission given off by neutral hydrogen atoms in galaxies. The research we propose here involves both theory and observation as well as the development of the technology necessary to make the observations possible.
Sun, Stars and Galaxies: The researchers in this group study a wide range of astrophysical processes that are reasonable for the formation and evolution of the objects in the name of the group. Specific key areas that the group is interested in are the formation of stars much larger than the Sun and the subsequent evolution, the properties of the so-called interstellar medium (ISM) which comprises molecules not bound to stars and the magnetic fields that permeate space.
Pulsars and Time Domain Astrophysics: The focus of this group is astrophysical signatures that are changing with time- things which come on and off, often with some kind of regularity. These include Pulsars which are a non-standard star type, known as a neutron star, which is a dead star supported by the quantum pressure of neutrons. The radio emission from these objects pulses on an off with extraordinary regularity allowing them to acts cosmic clocks. The constantly measuring these clocks as the neutron stars spin and move through space, often impacted on by a companion star, allows the most precise constraints on the nature of gravity outside the solar system. Other phenomena studied by this group include Nova explosions, other variable stars, and variability induced by the lensing effects of one star passing in front of another, called microlensing.
Cosmology: This is the study of the Universe as a whole. The main aim is to understand the processes by which the large scale feature of the Universe formed and to constrain the various different kinds of matter that existed within it. These include dark matter and dark energy which are thought to constitute more than 95% of the total. We do this by comparison to observations of weak and strong gravitational lensing which is the distortion of light predicted to be caused by massive objects in Einstein' Theory of General Relativity, the cosmic microwave background which is the faint emission of radiation created at the time when protons and electrons come together to form hydrogen and the emission given off by neutral hydrogen atoms in galaxies. The research we propose here involves both theory and observation as well as the development of the technology necessary to make the observations possible.
Sun, Stars and Galaxies: The researchers in this group study a wide range of astrophysical processes that are reasonable for the formation and evolution of the objects in the name of the group. Specific key areas that the group is interested in are the formation of stars much larger than the Sun and the subsequent evolution, the properties of the so-called interstellar medium (ISM) which comprises molecules not bound to stars and the magnetic fields that permeate space.
Pulsars and Time Domain Astrophysics: The focus of this group is astrophysical signatures that are changing with time- things which come on and off, often with some kind of regularity. These include Pulsars which are a non-standard star type, known as a neutron star, which is a dead star supported by the quantum pressure of neutrons. The radio emission from these objects pulses on an off with extraordinary regularity allowing them to acts cosmic clocks. The constantly measuring these clocks as the neutron stars spin and move through space, often impacted on by a companion star, allows the most precise constraints on the nature of gravity outside the solar system. Other phenomena studied by this group include Nova explosions, other variable stars, and variability induced by the lensing effects of one star passing in front of another, called microlensing.
Planned Impact
The range of research we undertake and the world-class facilities within and in close association with JBCA (the Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre, e-MERLIN, the Lovell Telescope, the ALMA ARC and the SKA HQ) will provide key pathways to increasing our already strong impact on UK and global industry, the next generation of scientists and engineers, and the general public. The University's investment in the Jodrell Bank site combined with significant external funding (e.g. from Heritage Lottery Fund) will enable us to expand its use as an iconic venue for public and industrial engagement. The programme described here formed a key part of the School's submission for REF2014, helping it to be ranked highest in the REF for physics impact with 83% at 4* and 17% at 3*. Our outreach \& public engagement programme is extremely strong and continues to grow, particularly through its work with the University's award-winning Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre and the BBC. With the recent decision on SKA HQ location and our strong research work in this area, there is also growing impact in both outreach and industrial engagement in this area.
Our "Pathways to Impact" statement in the case for support outlines things that we have done in recent times under the headings of "Outreach and Public Engagement" and "Industrial and economic impact". We list some highlights below.
- Jodcast: Podcast run by students with 7000 regular listeners.
- 215000 Twitter and 18000 Facebook followers
- Stargazing live, Pulsar Hunters, Science Programmes presented by Danielle George
- JB Discovery centre with 190000 visitors per year
- Award winning Bluedot Festivals
- Industry contracts for SKA work including CISCO, AASL, NPL, AEON, Critical Software, MMI, GEANT
- Newton programme for Radio Astronomy in Africa.
Our "Pathways to Impact" statement in the case for support outlines things that we have done in recent times under the headings of "Outreach and Public Engagement" and "Industrial and economic impact". We list some highlights below.
- Jodcast: Podcast run by students with 7000 regular listeners.
- 215000 Twitter and 18000 Facebook followers
- Stargazing live, Pulsar Hunters, Science Programmes presented by Danielle George
- JB Discovery centre with 190000 visitors per year
- Award winning Bluedot Festivals
- Industry contracts for SKA work including CISCO, AASL, NPL, AEON, Critical Software, MMI, GEANT
- Newton programme for Radio Astronomy in Africa.
Organisations
Publications
Deason A
(2021)
Stellar splashback: the edge of the intracluster light
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kay S
(2020)
The intracluster light as a tracer of the total matter density distribution: a view from simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gatti M
(2022)
Dark Energy Survey Year 3 Results: clustering redshifts - calibration of the weak lensing source redshift distributions with redMaGiC and BOSS/eBOSS
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Caleb M
(2022)
Radio and X-ray observations of giant pulses from XTE J1810 - 197
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Poidevin F
(2023)
QUIJOTE scientific results - VII. Galactic AME sources in the QUIJOTE-MFI northern hemisphere wide survey
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ding H
(2023)
The MSPSRp catalogue: VLBA astrometry of 18 millisecond pulsars
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Sormani M
(2020)
Simulations of the Milky Way's Central Molecular Zone - II. Star formation
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Zubeldia Í
(2025)
The Planck SZiFi catalogues: a new set of Planck catalogues of Sunyaev-Zeldovich-detected galaxy clusters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lee E
(2022)
A multisimulation study of relativistic SZ temperature scalings in galaxy clusters and groups
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Mata Sánchez D
(2023)
A black widow population dissection through HiPERCAM multiband light-curve modelling
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Tress R
(2020)
Simulations of the Milky Way's central molecular zone - I. Gas dynamics
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Vega-Ferrero J
(2021)
Pushing automated morphological classifications to their limits with the Dark Energy Survey
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cheng T
(2021)
Beyond the hubble sequence - exploring galaxy morphology with unsupervised machine learning
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Keith M
(2024)
The Thousand-Pulsar-Array programme on MeerKAT - XIII. Timing, flux density, rotation measure, and dispersion measure time series of 597 pulsars
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Stewart J
(2022)
Oscillatory reconnection and waves driven by merging magnetic flux ropes in solar flares
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Traficante A
(2023)
The SQUALO project (Star formation in QUiescent And Luminous Objects) I: clump-fed accretion mechanism in high-mass star-forming objects
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kennedy M
(2022)
Measuring the mass of the black widow PSR J1555-2908
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pereira M
(2020)
µ? masses: weak-lensing calibration of the Dark Energy Survey Year 1 redMaPPer clusters using stellar masses
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
McCallum N
(2022)
Fast map-based simulations of systematics in CMB surveys including effects of the scanning strategy
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Darwish M
(2020)
OH maser towards IRAS 06056+2131: polarization parameters and evolution status
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hart L
(2023)
Using the cosmological recombination radiation to probe early dark energy and fundamental constant variations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Smith C
(2022)
Pulsations of microwave emission from a solar flare in a twisted loop caused by intrinsic magnetohydrodynamic oscillations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Liu Y
(2024)
Measuring glitch recoveries and braking indices with Bayesian model selection
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Mawdsley B
(2020)
Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Results: Wide-field mass maps via forward fitting in harmonic space
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Anderson M
(2021)
An ALMA study of hub-filament systems - I. On the clump mass concentration within the most massive cores
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
MacCrann N
(2022)
Dark Energy Survey Y3 results: blending shear and redshift biases in image simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Morello V
(2022)
IQRM: real-time adaptive RFI masking for radio transient and pulsar searches
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Chung D
(2023)
The deconvolved distribution estimator: enhancing reionization-era CO line-intensity mapping analyses with a cross-correlation analogue for one-point statistics
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Tan S
(2023)
Morphologies and Central Stars of Planetary Nebulae in the Galactic bulge from VLT, HST and Pan-STARRS imaging
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Zürcher D
(2022)
Dark energy survey year 3 results: Cosmology with peaks using an emulator approach
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Singha J
(2021)
A real-time automated glitch detection pipeline at Ooty Radio Telescope
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bowler R
(2022)
The discovery of rest-frame UV colour gradients and a diversity of dust morphologies in bright z ? 7 Lyman-break galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Sabin L
(2020)
ALMA reveals the coherence of the magnetic field geometry in OH 231.8+4.2
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
McKee J
(2020)
A precise mass measurement of PSR J2045 + 3633
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bendo G
(2020)
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon excitation in nearby spiral galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Wesson R
(2024)
JWST observations of the Ring Nebula (NGC 6720): I. Imaging of the rings, globules, and arcs
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Song X
(2021)
The Thousand-Pulsar-Array programme on MeerKAT - II. Observing strategy for pulsar monitoring with subarrays
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Shimajiri Y
(2020)
The accretion history of high-mass stars: an ArTéMiS pilot study of infrared dark clouds
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Westcott J
(2020)
The curious activity in the nucleus of NGC 4151: jet interaction causing variability?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Donnan C
(2023)
The evolution of the galaxy UV luminosity function at redshifts z ? 8 - 15 from deep JWST and ground-based near-infrared imaging
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Leauthaud A
(2022)
Lensing without borders - I. A blind comparison of the amplitude of galaxy-galaxy lensing between independent imaging surveys
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Driessen L
(2022)
21 new long-term variables in the GX 339-4 field: two years of MeerKAT monitoring
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Chalumeau A
(2022)
Noise analysis in the European Pulsar Timing Array data release 2 and its implications on the gravitational-wave background search
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gao Y
(2023)
Precession of magnetars: dynamical evolutions and modulations on polarized electromagnetic waves
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Slijepcevic I
(2022)
Radio Galaxy Zoo: using semi-supervised learning to leverage large unlabelled data sets for radio galaxy classification under data set shift
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Falxa M
(2023)
Searching for continuous Gravitational Waves in the second data release of the International Pulsar Timing Array
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lee S
(2022)
Probing gravity with the DES-CMASS sample and BOSS spectroscopy
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Shaw B
(2021)
The slow rise and recovery of the 2019 Crab pulsar glitch
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Perrott Y
(2023)
Sub-kpc radio jets in the brightest central galaxy of the cool-core galaxy cluster RXJ1720.1+2638
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Casadio C
(2021)
SMILE: Search for MIlli-LEnses
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
| Title | Comparing recent PTA results on the nanohertz stochastic gravitational wave background - full noise and GWB parameter comparison plots |
| Description | A full collection of plots comparing the noise properties of individual pulsars and gravitational wave background parameters discussed in the companion paper Comparing recent PTA results on the nanohertz stochastic gravitational wave background (IPTA 2024). Section4_GWB_comparison.zip supplements and expands section 4.1, "Comparing the published GWB measurements," of IPTA (2024). It contains parameter difference distributions for GWB model parameters. There are four different models included. The HD correlated powerlaw (PL) model make up the basis for Figure 2. Additionally, there are three comparisons not included in IPTA (2024). First, comparisons the common uncorrelated red noise (CURN) PL model are included. Finally, comparisons of two free spectral (FS) models (HD and CURN) are included. These comparisons fit the HD and CURN FS posteriors using the ceffyl software package, and then compare the parameters of the resulting powerlaw fits. Section5_Noise_comparison.zip supplements section 5, "Comparing Pulsar Noice Properties," of IPTA (2024). It contains plots for 27 pulsars timed by more than one PTA collaboration, including the plots for PSR J1012+5307, which are presented in Figure 7. The plots include noise parameter posteriors, time domain GP realizations, TOA residuals, and TOA radio frequency. |
| Type Of Art | Image |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| URL | https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.10809659 |
| Title | Comparing recent PTA results on the nanohertz stochastic gravitational wave background - full noise and GWB parameter comparison plots |
| Description | A full collection of plots comparing the noise properties of individual pulsars and gravitational wave background parameters discussed in the companion paper Comparing recent PTA results on the nanohertz stochastic gravitational wave background (IPTA 2024). Section4_GWB_comparison.zip supplements and expands section 4.1, "Comparing the published GWB measurements," of IPTA (2024). It contains parameter difference distributions for GWB model parameters. There are four different models included. The HD correlated powerlaw (PL) model make up the basis for Figure 2. Additionally, there are three comparisons not included in IPTA (2024). First, comparisons the common uncorrelated red noise (CURN) PL model are included. Finally, comparisons of two free spectral (FS) models (HD and CURN) are included. These comparisons fit the HD and CURN FS posteriors using the ceffyl software package, and then compare the parameters of the resulting powerlaw fits. Section5_Noise_comparison.zip supplements section 5, "Comparing Pulsar Noice Properties," of IPTA (2024). It contains plots for 27 pulsars timed by more than one PTA collaboration, including the plots for PSR J1012+5307, which are presented in Figure 7. The plots include noise parameter posteriors, time domain GP realizations, TOA residuals, and TOA radio frequency. |
| Type Of Art | Image |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| URL | https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.10809660 |
| Title | IPTA DR2 - GWB analysis MCMC output |
| Description | IPTA DR2 common red noise, MCMC output These files are the primary output from a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling process. They are samples from the posterior probability distribution for a particular model described in the companion paper. Each zipped tarball contains four files. The "chain" file has several tab-separated columns, each of which corresponds to a model parameter, except the last four which are metadata. The parameter names (including metadata) are listed in the companion "params" file. The frequencies used in the common red noise models are listed in the "crn_frequencies" file. Additional information is provided in a README file. Each row of the chain file is one sample from the model posterior. The first samples at the beginning of the MCMC are the "burn-in" phase, before the chain has converged to the posterior. We recommend discarding the first ~25% of samples before using them to make inferences. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://zenodo.org/record/5787556 |
| Title | IPTA DR2 - GWB analysis MCMC output |
| Description | IPTA DR2 common red noise, MCMC output These files are the primary output from a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling process. They are samples from the posterior probability distribution for a particular model described in the companion paper. Each zipped tarball contains four files. The "chain" file has several tab-separated columns, each of which corresponds to a model parameter, except the last four which are metadata. The parameter names (including metadata) are listed in the companion "params" file. The frequencies used in the common red noise models are listed in the "crn_frequencies" file. Additional information is provided in a README file. Each row of the chain file is one sample from the model posterior. The first samples at the beginning of the MCMC are the "burn-in" phase, before the chain has converged to the posterior. We recommend discarding the first ~25% of samples before using them to make inferences. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://zenodo.org/record/5787557 |
| Title | PN chemical abundances in Galactic Bulge |
| Description | VizieR online Data Catalogue associated with article published in journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society with title ' A catalogue of planetary nebulae chemical abundances in the Galactic bulge.' (bibcode: 2024MNRAS.527.6363T) |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/MNRAS/527/6363 |