Birmingham Astrophysics - Rolling Grant 2007-2012
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Birmingham
Department Name: School of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
The work of the Birmingham Astrophysics & Space Research group aims to improve our understanding of the Universe, and the force of gravity which governs its structure and growth. Our extragalactic studies aim to discover the way in which galaxies, such as our own Milky Way galaxy, have developed from the small fluctuations present in the primordial gas which filled the Universe after the Big Bang, as well as probing the mysterious 'dark matter' which appears to account for over 90% of the matter in the Universe at large. Our knowledge of the cosmos to date is gleaned almost entirely from study of the electromagnetic radiation (from radio waves to gamma rays) which reaches the Earth from space. However, a whole new astronomical 'window' is about to open, based on the propagating ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves. Detection of these signals is hugely demanding, but large laser-interferometers are now very close to detecting them for the first time, and the Birmingham group is fully involved in these experiments, and in the plans to move these techniques into space within the next decade. This will ultimately allow us to study the gravitational signals from giant black holes, and from the Big Bang itself. We are working towards the first detection of gravitational waves, but also exploring the new techniques which will be required to turn the study of gravitational waves into a true branch of astronomy.
Organisations
Publications
Abadie J
(2010)
Predictions for the rates of compact binary coalescences observable by ground-based gravitational-wave detectors
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abadie J
(2010)
Search for gravitational waves from compact binary coalescence in LIGO and Virgo data from S5 and VSR1
in Physical Review D
Abadie J
(2010)
Calibration of the LIGO gravitational wave detectors in the fifth science run
in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Abadie J
(2010)
All-sky search for gravitational-wave bursts in the first joint LIGO-GEO-Virgo run
in Physical Review D
Abadie J
(2010)
SEARCH FOR GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE INSPIRAL SIGNALS ASSOCIATED WITH SHORT GAMMA-RAY BURSTS DURING LIGO'S FIFTH AND VIRGO'S FIRST SCIENCE RUN
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abadie J
(2010)
FIRST SEARCH FOR GRAVITATIONAL WAVES FROM THE YOUNGEST KNOWN NEUTRON STAR
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbott B
(2008)
First joint search for gravitational-wave bursts in LIGO and GEO 600 data
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2008)
Search of S3 LIGO data for gravitational wave signals from spinning black hole and neutron star binary inspirals
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2007)
Searches for periodic gravitational waves from unknown isolated sources and Scorpius X-1: Results from the second LIGO science run
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2009)
Observation of a kilogram-scale oscillator near its quantum ground state
in New Journal of Physics