Astronomy Observation and Theory Consolidated Grant 2016-2019
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Institute of Astronomy
Abstract
This proposal is for a single Consolidated Grant to support the majority of research in Theoretical and Observational Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Institute of Astronomy (IoA) in Cambridge.
The theoretical research profile includes work to understand the origin of the Universe itself. Members of the IoA play a leading role in the European Space Agency Planck mission, and will lead a definitive determination of the parameters that both define the geometry of the Universe and quantify the age, size, dark matter, dark energy and baryonic content. The research links to one of the key goals in astrophysics: constraining the properties of the dark matter and dark energy content of the Universe.
The Universe today is filled with galaxies, of which our own Milky Way is a not atypical example. A full understanding of galaxy formation and evolution requires multiple lines of attack. Observations of the resolved stellar populations in the Milky Way and its Local Group companions provide a detailed fossil record of the dynamical assemblies of the galaxies, the formation of stars, and the buildup of heavy elements over a wide range of mass scales and initial conditions. At the other end of the scale, observations of distant galaxies spanning lookback times of up to 12 Gyr provide direct measurements of the evolution of galaxy populations and the buildup of stars and metals with cosmic time. Finally, measurements of the large-scale star formation and abundance properties of nearby galaxies form a vital astrophysical bridge between the studies of nearby resolved stellar populations and the distant high-redshift investigations, by allowing us to characterise the evolutionary properties of the Hubble sequence and the complex "gastrophysical" processes that regulate the accretion of gas and the formation of stars in galaxies.
It is now recognised that there is an intimate link between the evolution of galaxies and the origin and properties of super-massive black holes, which reside at the centre of the Milky Way and other galaxies. The regions close to black holes allow the exploration of physics at the extremes. The formation and properties of super-massive black holes and their relation to the galaxies in which they reside is a research theme that involves theory, X-ray astrophysics and observational programmes in the grant.
Within galaxies, the grant focuses on star formation, from the giant molecular clouds which give birth to stars, down to the more detailed investigations of the processes that lead to the formation of stars and star clusters within these molecular clouds. The investigations will combine state-of-the-art numerical simulations with analytical theories. The quest to study planetary systems around stars and their formation is another key goal. Research activity in the grant covers theoretical work that concentrates on the properties of exoplanets atmospheres, debris discs, discs of asteroids, cometary objects, and dust surrounding stars.
The theoretical research profile includes work to understand the origin of the Universe itself. Members of the IoA play a leading role in the European Space Agency Planck mission, and will lead a definitive determination of the parameters that both define the geometry of the Universe and quantify the age, size, dark matter, dark energy and baryonic content. The research links to one of the key goals in astrophysics: constraining the properties of the dark matter and dark energy content of the Universe.
The Universe today is filled with galaxies, of which our own Milky Way is a not atypical example. A full understanding of galaxy formation and evolution requires multiple lines of attack. Observations of the resolved stellar populations in the Milky Way and its Local Group companions provide a detailed fossil record of the dynamical assemblies of the galaxies, the formation of stars, and the buildup of heavy elements over a wide range of mass scales and initial conditions. At the other end of the scale, observations of distant galaxies spanning lookback times of up to 12 Gyr provide direct measurements of the evolution of galaxy populations and the buildup of stars and metals with cosmic time. Finally, measurements of the large-scale star formation and abundance properties of nearby galaxies form a vital astrophysical bridge between the studies of nearby resolved stellar populations and the distant high-redshift investigations, by allowing us to characterise the evolutionary properties of the Hubble sequence and the complex "gastrophysical" processes that regulate the accretion of gas and the formation of stars in galaxies.
It is now recognised that there is an intimate link between the evolution of galaxies and the origin and properties of super-massive black holes, which reside at the centre of the Milky Way and other galaxies. The regions close to black holes allow the exploration of physics at the extremes. The formation and properties of super-massive black holes and their relation to the galaxies in which they reside is a research theme that involves theory, X-ray astrophysics and observational programmes in the grant.
Within galaxies, the grant focuses on star formation, from the giant molecular clouds which give birth to stars, down to the more detailed investigations of the processes that lead to the formation of stars and star clusters within these molecular clouds. The investigations will combine state-of-the-art numerical simulations with analytical theories. The quest to study planetary systems around stars and their formation is another key goal. Research activity in the grant covers theoretical work that concentrates on the properties of exoplanets atmospheres, debris discs, discs of asteroids, cometary objects, and dust surrounding stars.
Planned Impact
The Institute of Astronomy ensures all students, postdocs and staff are actively involved both in delivering high value science, and also engaging and stimulating a variety of additional knowledge creation activities, focussing on public awareness, and on applications of research developments in medical, space-industry and commercial spheres.
The University of Cambridge has one of the most successful programmes for nurturing knowledge transfer and resulting economic and societal impact between University departments and industry both in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. The extraordinarily successful Cambridge Science Park is well known, with expertise and ideas from Cambridge Astrophysics being involved in the establishment of several businesses in the Cambridge area.
The IoA's approach to the search for impact opportunities is embedded in the mechanisms that the University has in place to facilitate this. The University's Research Office provides the primary point of contact for corporate liaison, and is actively involved in pursuing impact and knowledge exchange activities and opportunities throughout the University. Cambridge Enterprise, the University's technology transfer and entrepreneurship arm, exists to enhance the University of Cambridge's contribution to society through knowledge transfer from the University to the community. The Institute of Astronomy members interact with these organisations regularly. Engagement with the wider economic community is supported
by a Collaborative Research Facilitator, based in the Cavendish Laboratory, who is able to provide advice on relevant networking and funding opportunities.
In summary, the research carried out at the IoA supported through this will lead to a wide range of impacts across a broad range of areas. From direct and specific impact in the application of analysis techniques to problems in the medical field, in the gaming industry, to inspirational outreach programmes engaging with those teaching the next generation of scientists.
The University of Cambridge has one of the most successful programmes for nurturing knowledge transfer and resulting economic and societal impact between University departments and industry both in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. The extraordinarily successful Cambridge Science Park is well known, with expertise and ideas from Cambridge Astrophysics being involved in the establishment of several businesses in the Cambridge area.
The IoA's approach to the search for impact opportunities is embedded in the mechanisms that the University has in place to facilitate this. The University's Research Office provides the primary point of contact for corporate liaison, and is actively involved in pursuing impact and knowledge exchange activities and opportunities throughout the University. Cambridge Enterprise, the University's technology transfer and entrepreneurship arm, exists to enhance the University of Cambridge's contribution to society through knowledge transfer from the University to the community. The Institute of Astronomy members interact with these organisations regularly. Engagement with the wider economic community is supported
by a Collaborative Research Facilitator, based in the Cavendish Laboratory, who is able to provide advice on relevant networking and funding opportunities.
In summary, the research carried out at the IoA supported through this will lead to a wide range of impacts across a broad range of areas. From direct and specific impact in the application of analysis techniques to problems in the medical field, in the gaming industry, to inspirational outreach programmes engaging with those teaching the next generation of scientists.
Organisations
Publications
Deason A
(2017)
The slight spin of the old stellar halo
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
MacDonald R
(2017)
Signatures of Nitrogen Chemistry in Hot Jupiter Atmospheres
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Minniti D
(2017)
FSR 1716: A New Milky Way Globular Cluster Confirmed Using VVV RR Lyrae Stars
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Matijevic G
(2017)
Very metal-poor stars observed by the RAVE survey
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Abdullah A
(2017)
The Origin of [C ii] 157 µm Emission in a Five-component Interstellar Medium: The Case of NGC 3184 and NGC 628
in The Astrophysical Journal
James B
(2018)
Mapping UV properties throughout the Cosmic Horseshoe: lessons from VLT-MUSE
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Jiang (???) J
(2018)
The ultrafast outflow of WKK 4438: Suzaku and NuSTAR X-ray spectral analysis
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Boneberg D
(2018)
The extremely truncated circumstellar disc of V410 X-ray 1: a precursor to TRAPPIST-1?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Stevens A
(2018)
A NICER Discovery of a Low-frequency Quasi-periodic Oscillation in the Soft-intermediate State of MAXI J1535-571
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Harrison J
(2018)
Polluted white dwarfs: constraints on the origin and geology of exoplanetary material
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Rosdahl J
(2018)
The SPHINX Cosmological Simulations of the First Billion Years: the Impact of Binary Stars on Reionization?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Dye S
(2018)
The UKIRT Hemisphere Survey: definition and J-band data release
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Clarke C
(2018)
High-resolution Millimeter Imaging of the CI Tau Protoplanetary Disk: A Massive Ensemble of Protoplanets from 0.1 to 100 au
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
The Simons Observatory Collaboration
(2018)
The Simons Observatory: Science goals and forecasts
A. Challinor
(2018)
Exploring cosmic origins with CORE: Gravitational lensing of the CMB
Harrison J
(2018)
Polluted white dwarfs: constraints on the origin and geology of exoplanetary material
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Xu(???) S
(2018)
A dearth of small particles in the transiting material around the white dwarf WD 1145+017
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Koribalski B
(2018)
The Local Volume H i Survey (LVHIS)
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kumari N
(2018)
O/H-N/O: The curious case of NGC 4670
Smith M
(2018)
Supernova feedback in numerical simulations of galaxy formation: separating physics from numerics
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Katz H
(2018)
A Census of the LyC photons that form the UV background during reionization
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Parker M
(2018)
Using principal component analysis to understand the variability of PDS 456
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Xu Y
(2018)
Reflection Spectra of the Black Hole Binary Candidate MAXI J1535-571 in the Hard State Observed by NuSTAR
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Weinberger L
(2018)
Lyman-a emitters gone missing: the different evolution of the bright and faint populations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Aharonian H
(2018)
Search for thermal X-ray features from the Crab nebula with the Hitomi soft X-ray spectrometer
in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan
Miller J
(2018)
A NICER Spectrum of MAXI J1535-571: Near-maximal Black Hole Spin and Potential Disk Warping
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Wethers C
(2018)
UV-luminous, star-forming hosts of z ~ 2 reddened quasars in the Dark Energy Survey
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Sevilla-Noarbe I
(2018)
Star-galaxy classification in the Dark Energy Survey Y1 dataset
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Sibthorpe B
(2018)
Analysis of the Herschel DEBRIS Sun-like star sample
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Anguita T
(2018)
The STRong lensing Insights into the Dark Energy Survey (STRIDES) 2016 follow-up campaign. II. New quasar lenses from double component fitting.
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Matrà L
(2018)
Molecular Reconnaissance of the ß Pictoris Gas Disk with the SMA: A Low HCN/(CO+CO 2 ) Outgassing Ratio and Predictions for Future Surveys
in The Astrophysical Journal
Winter A
(2018)
Evidence of a past disc-disc encounter: HV and DO Tau
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Wheatley P
(2018)
The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS)
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Finelli F
(2018)
Exploring cosmic origins with CORE: Inflation
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Fiacconi D
(2018)
Galactic nuclei evolution with spinning black holes: method and implementation
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Walton D
(2018)
A Potential Cyclotron Resonant Scattering Feature in the Ultraluminous X-Ray Source Pulsar NGC 300 ULX1 Seen by NuSTAR and XMM-Newton
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
O'Hare C
(2018)
Dark matter hurricane: Measuring the S1 stream with dark matter detectors
in Physical Review D
Abbott T
(2018)
Dark Energy Survey year 1 results: Cosmological constraints from galaxy clustering and weak lensing
in Physical Review D
Kahre L
(2018)
Extinction Maps and Dust-to-gas Ratios in Nearby Galaxies with LEGUS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Kennedy G
(2018)
ALMA observations of the narrow HR 4796A debris ring
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Henden N
(2018)
The FABLE simulations: a feedback model for galaxies, groups, and clusters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kosec P
(2018)
A stratified ultrafast outflow in 1H0707-495?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Deason A
(2018)
To the Galactic Virial Radius with Hyper Suprime-Cam
in The Astrophysical Journal
Hunter D
(2018)
A Study of Two Dwarf Irregular Galaxies with AsymmetricalStar Formation Distributions
in The Astrophysical Journal
Marino S
(2018)
Scattering of exocomets by a planet chain: exozodi levels and the delivery of cometary material to inner planets
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Audcent-Ross F
(2018)
Near-identical star formation rate densities from Ha and FUVat redshift zero
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
| Title | VLT/X-SHOOTER & Keck/ESI spectra of z~5 QSOs |
| Description | VizieR online Data Catalogue associated with article published in journal Astronomical Journal (AAS) with title 'Chasing the tail of cosmic reionization with dark gap statistics in the Ly{alpha} forest over 5 |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/923/223 |