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
Pribulla T
(2011)
The nearby eclipsing stellar system d Velorum II. First reliable orbit for the eclipsing pair???
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Zhang Y
(2008)
LoCuSS: comparison of observed X-ray and lensing galaxy cluster scaling relations with simulations
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Rex M
(2010)
The far-infrared/submillimeter properties of galaxies located behind the Bullet cluster
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Egami E
(2010)
The Herschel Lensing Survey (HLS): Overview
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Pereira M
(2010)
LoCuSS: A Herschel view of obscured star formation in Abell 1835
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Smith G
(2010)
LoCuSS: Probing galaxy transformation physics with Herschel
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Zemcov M
(2010)
First detection of the Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect increment at ? < 650 µ m
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Pratt G
(2010)
Gas entropy in a representative sample of nearby X-ray galaxy clusters (REXCESS): relationship to gas mass fraction
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Pérez-González P
(2010)
Improving the identification of high- z Herschel sources with position priors and optical/NIR and FIR/mm photometric redshifts
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Böhringer H
(2010)
Substructure of the galaxy clusters in the REXCESS sample: observed statistics and comparison to numerical simulations
in Astronomy and Astrophysics