A programme of astronomy at the University of Hertfordshire

Lead Research Organisation: University of Hertfordshire
Department Name: Science and Technology RI

Abstract

This application is to support the programme of research at The Centre for Astrophysics Research (CAR) at the University of Hertfordshire. The research includes: - conducting follow-up observations of gamma-ray bursts, the most violent events in the Universe, detected by the Swift space mission, so as to better understand the nature and origin of these remarkable events. We will also use the huge luminosity of GRBs to study the distant regions of the universe where we find them; - understanding the formation and evolution of massive galaxies and the role of submillimetre-luminous galaxies in the early universe; - investigating the nature of a new class of star clusters found in the Milky Way's near neighbour, the Andromeda Galaxy. Why no similar clusters exist in the Milky Way is a mystery, and may be telling us that the two galaxies evolved in different ways. We also plan to use our observations of these and other clusters to investigate the properties of so-called 'dark matter', which astronomers think makes up about 90% of the universe but which seems to be completely invisible; - to understand how the centres of active galaxies are fuelled, i.e. those where the energy produced is far more than can be produced by stars, and is most likely from accretion on to a massive black hole; - to determine the structure of active galactic nuclei and to understand why there is such a wide range of radio powers associated with active galaxies; - to determine what are the sufficient and necessary conditions for star formation to commence by studying the star formation process in nearby galaxies at scales of the local Jeans length, and to tie this in with star formation at large look-back times; - understand the energetics of the violent interstellar medium, notably the feedback cycle which links massive star formation to the surrounding medium, and it's impact on the disk-halo interface (ranging from setting up localised blow-out of gas to creating galactic winds, and the subsequent enrichment of the intergalactic medium); - to search for and identify all the massive star-forming regions in our Galaxy and from them learn how massive stars are formed; - to measure the energy distribution at optical and infrared wavelengths for extra-solar planets found close to their parent stars, these will give vital insights into the composition, formation and evolution of giant planets; - to understand the occurrence, formation history and properties of 'failed stars' known as brown dwarfs; - to understand the process of mass loss in evolved stars; this matter returns to the interstellar medium and eventually forms new stars; - using spectra to measure the composition of the oldest known stars in order to determine what types of stars were the first to form after the big bang; - a proposal to construct a new optical imaging camera to be used as a visitor instrument on the WHT, which will allow, among many other collaborative applications, a study of the morphology of massive star formation in galaxies; - the CAR has built a polarimeter (PlanetPol) with sufficiently high sensitivity to detect the polarization signature of the so-called hot-Jupiters (extrasolar planets with a size similar to that of Jupiter but in an orbit very close to the star).

Publications

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Trachternach C (2008) DYNAMICAL CENTERS AND NONCIRCULAR MOTIONS IN THINGS GALAXIES: IMPLICATIONS FOR DARK MATTER HALOS in The Astronomical Journal

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Walter F (2008) THINGS: THE H I NEARBY GALAXY SURVEY in The Astronomical Journal

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Bigiel F (2008) THE STAR FORMATION LAW IN NEARBY GALAXIES ON SUB-KPC SCALES in The Astronomical Journal

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Boquien M (2009) COLLISIONAL DEBRIS AS LABORATORIES TO STUDY STAR FORMATION in The Astronomical Journal

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Oh S (2008) HIGH-RESOLUTION DARK MATTER DENSITY PROFILES OF THINGS DWARF GALAXIES: CORRECTING FOR NONCIRCULAR MOTIONS in The Astronomical Journal

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Zwaan M (2008) ARE THE KINEMATICS OF DLAs IN AGREEMENT WITH THEIR ARISING IN THE GAS DISKS OF GALAXIES? in The Astronomical Journal

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Tamburro D (2009) WHAT IS DRIVING THE H I VELOCITY DISPERSION? in The Astronomical Journal

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Jorstad S (2007) Multiwaveband Polarimetric Observations of 15 Active Galactic Nuclei at High Frequencies: Correlated Polarization Behavior in The Astronomical Journal

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Kusakabe N (2008) NEAR-INFRARED IMAGING POLARIMETRY OF M42: APERTURE POLARIMETRY OF POINT-LIKE SOURCES in The Astronomical Journal

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Laurikainen E (2006) Morphology of 15 Southern Early?Type Disk Galaxies in The Astronomical Journal

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Rosenberg J (2006) The Nearby Damped Lya Absorber SBS 1543+593: A Large H i Envelope in a Gas-rich Galaxy Group in The Astronomical Journal

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Martinez-Valpuesta I (2007) A Morphological and Statistical Analysis of Ansae in Barred Galaxies in The Astronomical Journal

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Faria D (2007) Probing the Nature of the G1 Clump Stellar Overdensity in the Outskirts of M31 in The Astronomical Journal

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Tamburro D (2008) GEOMETRICALLY DERIVED TIMESCALES FOR STAR FORMATION IN SPIRAL GALAXIES in The Astronomical Journal

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Aoki W (2007) Carbon-enhanced Metal-poor Stars. I. Chemical Compositions of 26 Stars in The Astrophysical Journal

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Elmegreen D (2006) Spitzer Space Telescope IRAC and MIPS Observations of the Interacting Galaxies IC 2163 and NGC 2207: Clumpy Emission in The Astrophysical Journal

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Honda S (2006) Neutron-Capture Elements in the Very Metal Poor Star HD 122563 in The Astrophysical Journal

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Kormendy J (2006) Pseudobulges in the Disk Galaxies NGC 7690 and NGC 4593 in The Astrophysical Journal

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Durrell P (2007) The Resolved Stellar Populations of a Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy in the Virgo Cluster in The Astrophysical Journal

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Miao J (2009) AN INVESTIGATION ON THE MORPHOLOGICAL EVOLUTION OF BRIGHT-RIMMED CLOUDS in The Astrophysical Journal

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Nishiyama S (2009) MAGNETIC FIELD CONFIGURATION AT THE GALACTIC CENTER INVESTIGATED BY WIDE FIELD NEAR-INFRARED POLARIMETRY in The Astrophysical Journal

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Walter F (2007) Dust and Atomic Gas in Dwarf Irregular Galaxies of the M81 Group: The SINGS and THINGS View in The Astrophysical Journal

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Schinzel F (2009) SN 2001em: NOT SO FAST in The Astrophysical Journal

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Mackey A (2007) ACS Photometry of Newly Discovered Globular Clusters in the Outer Halo of M31 in The Astrophysical Journal

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Watson D (2006) A log N H i = 22.6 Damped Lya Absorber in a Dark Gamma-Ray Burst: The Environment of GRB 050401 in The Astrophysical Journal

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Williams B (2007) The Metallicity Distribution of Intracluster Stars in Virgo in The Astrophysical Journal

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Fukue T (2009) NEAR-INFRARED CIRCULAR POLARIMETRY AND CORRELATION DIAGRAMS IN THE ORION BECKLIN-NEUGEBAUER/KLEINMAN-LOW REGION: CONTRIBUTION OF DICHROIC EXTINCTION in The Astrophysical Journal

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McConnachie A (2006) The Stellar Halo and Outer Disk of M33 in The Astrophysical Journal

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Aoki W (2007) Spectroscopic Studies of Extremely Metal-poor Stars with the Subaru High-Dispersion Spectrograph. IV. The a-Element-Enhanced Metal-poor Star BS 16934-002 in The Astrophysical Journal

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Wilson C (2009) THE JAMES CLERK MAXWELL TELESCOPE NEARBY GALAXIES LEGACY SURVEY. I. STAR-FORMING MOLECULAR GAS IN VIRGO CLUSTER SPIRAL GALAXIES in The Astrophysical Journal

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Chapman S (2006) A Kinematically Selected, Metal-poor Stellar Halo in the Outskirts of M31 in The Astrophysical Journal

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Levan A (2006) The Faint Afterglow and Host Galaxy of the Short-Hard GRB 060121 in The Astrophysical Journal

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Elmegreen B (2007) Variation of Galactic Bar Length with Amplitude and Density as Evidence for Bar Growth over a Hubble Time in The Astrophysical Journal

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Aoki W (2006) Carbon-enhanced Metal-poor Stars: Osmium and Iridium Abundances in the Neutron-Capture-enhanced Subgiants CS 31062-050 and LP 625-44 in The Astrophysical Journal

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York B (2006) Detection of Diffuse Interstellar Bands in the z = 0.5 Damped Lya System toward AO 0235+164 in The Astrophysical Journal

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Irwin J (2009) ?CDM SATELLITES AND H I COMPANIONS-THE ARECIBO ALFA SURVEY OF NGC 2903 in The Astrophysical Journal

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Weisz D (2009) TRIGGERED STAR FORMATION AND THE CREATION OF THE SUPERGIANT H I SHELL IN IC 2574 in The Astrophysical Journal

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Mazzuca L (2006) Minor Merger Origin for the Circumnuclear Starburst in NGC 7742 in The Astrophysical Journal

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Granot J (2008) Opacity Buildup in Impulsive Relativistic Sources in The Astrophysical Journal

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Aoki W (2008) Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor Stars. III. Main-Sequence Turnoff Stars from the SDSS SEGUE Sample1 in The Astrophysical Journal

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Mackey A (2006) ACS Photometry of Extended, Luminous Globular Clusters in the Outskirts of M31 in The Astrophysical Journal

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Mazzuca L (2008) A Connection between Star Formation in Nuclear Rings and Their Host Galaxies in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series

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{Hill}, T. And {Thompson}, M.~A. And {Burton}, M.~G. And {Walsh}, A.~J. And {Minier}, V. And {Cunningham}, M.~R. And {Pierce-Price}, D. (2006) SCUBA observations of cold cores (Hill+, 2006) in VizieR Online Data Catalog

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{Hill}, T. And {Burton}, M.~G. And {Minier}, V. And {Thompson}, M.~A. And {Walsh}, A.~J. And {Hunt-Cunningham}, M. And {Garay}, G. (2006) SIMBA observations of cold cores (Hill+, 2005) in VizieR Online Data Catalog

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{Thompson}, M.~A. And {Hatchell}, J. And {Walsh}, A.~J. And {MacDonald}, G.~H. And {Millar}, T.~J. (2007) SCUBA ultracompact HII regions (Thompson+, 2006) in VizieR Online Data Catalog

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{Morgan}, L. And {Urquhart}, J. And {Thompson}, M. And {White}, G. And {Figura}, C. (2007) Varied Mechanisms for Star Formation in Bright-Rimmed Clouds

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{Urquhart}, J.~S. And {Thompson}, M.~A. And {Morgan}, L.~K. And {White}, G.~J. (2007) Triggered star formation within the bright-rimmed cloud SFO 75

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{Cohen}, R.~J. And {Caswell}, J.~L. And {Brooks}, K. And {Burton}, M.~G. And {Chrysostomou}, A. And {Cox}, J. And {Diamond}, P.~J. And {Ellingsen}, S. And {Fuller}, G.~A. And {Gray}, M.~D. And {Green}, J.~A. And {Hoare}, M.~G. And {Masheder}, M.~R.~W. And {McClure-Griffiths}, N. And {Pestalozzi}, M. And {Phillips}, C. And {Thompson}, M. And {Voronkov}, M. And {Walsh}, A. And {Ward-Thompson}, D. And {Wong-McSweeney}, D. And {Yates}, J.~A. (2007) The Parkes methanol multibeam survey

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{Morgan}, L.~K. And {Urquhart}, J.~S. And {Thompson}, M.~A. And {White}, G.~J. (2007) Triggered star formation in bright-rimmed clouds

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{Green}, J.~A. And {Caswell}, J.~L. And {Fuller}, G.~A. And {Avison}, A. And {Breen}, S.~L. And {Brooks}, K. And {Burton}, M.~G. And {Chrysostomou}, A. And {Cox}, J. And {Diamond}, P.~J. And {Ellingsen}, S.~P. And {Gray}, M.~D. And {Hoare}, M.~G. And {Masheder}, M.~R.~W. And {McClure-Griffiths}, N.~M. And {Pestalozzi}, M. And {Phillips}, C. And {Quinn}, L. And {Thompson}, M.~A. And {Voronkov}, M.~A. And {Walsh}, A. And {Ward-Thompson}, D. And {Wong-McSweeney}, D. And {Yates}, J.~A. And {Cohen}, (2009) Star-formation masers in the Magellanic Clouds: A multibeam survey with new detections and maser abundance estimates

 
Description JCMT Nearby Galaxies Legacy Survey 
Organisation Leiden University
Department Leiden Observatory
Country Netherlands 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution participated in drafting the proposal; participated in the observations; participated in drafting the science papers
Collaborator Contribution participated in drafting the proposal; participated in the observations; participated in drafting the science papers
Impact See Wilson et al. MNRAS (2012) 424 (4): 3050-3080. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.21453.x and references therein.
 
Description JCMT Nearby Galaxies Legacy Survey 
Organisation McMaster University
Department Department of Physics & Astronomy
Country Canada 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution participated in drafting the proposal; participated in the observations; participated in drafting the science papers
Collaborator Contribution participated in drafting the proposal; participated in the observations; participated in drafting the science papers
Impact See Wilson et al. MNRAS (2012) 424 (4): 3050-3080. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.21453.x and references therein.
 
Description JCMT Nearby Galaxies Legacy Survey 
Organisation Open University
Department School of Physical Sciences
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution participated in drafting the proposal; participated in the observations; participated in drafting the science papers
Collaborator Contribution participated in drafting the proposal; participated in the observations; participated in drafting the science papers
Impact See Wilson et al. MNRAS (2012) 424 (4): 3050-3080. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.21453.x and references therein.
 
Description Polarimetry for CanariCam 
Organisation University of Florida
Department Department of Physics
Country United States 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Design and scientific justification for adding polarimetry to CanariCam, a mid-IR imager for GranTecan.
Collaborator Contribution Provided the imager/spectrometer
Impact Guaranteed time on GranTecan telescope, resulting in publications
 
Description SHADES 
Organisation University of Edinburgh
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Active SHADES member - observing and scientific input
Collaborator Contribution led from Edinburgh
Impact about 5 refereed papers
 
Description THINGS, The HI Nearby Galaxy Survey 
Organisation Max Planck Society
Department Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
Country Germany 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Co-wrote and co-led the collaboration; responsible for the observations and 33% of the calibration and reduction; involved in all science papers
Collaborator Contribution Co-wrote and co-led the collaboration; responsible for the observations of the other 66% of the calibration and reduction; involved in all science papers
Impact See The Astronomical Journal Article Compilations: http://iopscience.iop.org/1538-3881/page/THINGS
 
Description THINGS, The HI Nearby Galaxy Survey 
Organisation University of Cape Town
Department Department of Astronomy
Country South Africa 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Co-wrote and co-led the collaboration; responsible for the observations and 33% of the calibration and reduction; involved in all science papers
Collaborator Contribution Co-wrote and co-led the collaboration; responsible for the observations of the other 66% of the calibration and reduction; involved in all science papers
Impact See The Astronomical Journal Article Compilations: http://iopscience.iop.org/1538-3881/page/THINGS
 
Description UH-Japanese polarization survey 
Organisation National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Country Japan 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Provided the polarization modules for the near-IR survey and scientific input
Collaborator Contribution Provided the survey telescope and three-channel camera near-IR camera
Impact 2013ApJ...765L...6K 2012AAS...22052308K 2011ApJ...741...35K 2010ApJ...722L..23N 2010OLEB...40..335F 2009ApJ...692L..88F 2008AJ....136..621K 2008ApJ...677L..39H 2007PASJ...59..519N 2007PASJ...59..507S 2007PASJ...59..487K