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
Parkin E
(2009)
3D modelling of the colliding winds in ? Carinae - evidence for radiative inhibition
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Abbott B
(2009)
Search for gravitational waves from low mass binary coalescences in the first year of LIGO's S5 data
in Physical Review D
Hild S
(2009)
Using the etalon effect for in situ balancing of the Advanced Virgo arm cavities
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2009)
Search for gravitational wave ringdowns from perturbed black holes in LIGO S4 data
in Physical Review D
Smith G
(2009)
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE OBSERVATIONS OF A SPECTACULAR NEW STRONG-LENSING GALAXY CLUSTER: MACS J1149.5+2223 AT z = 0.544
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbott B
(2009)
Search for gravitational-wave bursts in the first year of the fifth LIGO science run
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2009)
First LIGO search for gravitational wave bursts from cosmic (super)strings
in Physical Review D
LIGO Scientific Collaboration & Virgo Collaboration
(2009)
An upper limit on the stochastic gravitational-wave background of cosmological origin.
in Nature
Haines C
(2009)
LoCuSS: luminous infrared galaxies in the merging cluster Abell 1758 at z = 0.28
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Sesana A
(2009)
OBSERVING GRAVITATIONAL WAVES FROM THE FIRST GENERATION OF BLACK HOLES
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbott BP
(2009)
All-sky LIGO search for periodic gravitational waves in the early fifth-science-run data.
in Physical review letters
Johnson R
(2009)
COMPARING X-RAY AND DYNAMICAL MASS PROFILES IN THE EARLY-TYPE GALAXY NGC 4636
in The Astrophysical Journal
Acernese F
(2009)
Cleaning the Virgo sampled data for the search of periodic sources of gravitational waves
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Aylott B
(2009)
Bayesian inference on the Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) data set using a nested sampling algorithm
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Croston J
(2009)
High-energy particle acceleration at the radio-lobe shock of Centaurus A
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Abbott B
(2009)
Search for gravitational waves from low mass compact binary coalescence in 186 days of LIGO's fifth science run
in Physical Review D
Sanderson A
(2009)
LoCuSS: the connection between brightest cluster galaxy activity, gas cooling and dynamical disturbance of X-ray cluster cores
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Abbott B
(2009)
LIGO: the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
in Reports on Progress in Physics
Chelkowski S
(2009)
Prospects of higher-order Laguerre-Gauss modes in future gravitational wave detectors
in Physical Review D
Cadonati L
(2009)
Status of NINJA: the Numerical INJection Analysis project
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2009)
Search for high frequency gravitational-wave bursts in the first calendar year of LIGO's fifth science run
in Physical Review D
Mahajan S
(2009)
Red star-forming and blue passive galaxies in clusters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Haines C
(2009)
LOCUSS: THE MID-INFRARED BUTCHER-OEMLER EFFECT
in The Astrophysical Journal
Rasmussen J
(2009)
Temperature and abundance profiles of hot gas in galaxy groups - II. Implications for feedback and ICM enrichment
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Aylott B
(2009)
Testing gravitational-wave searches with numerical relativity waveforms: results from the first Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project
in Classical and Quantum Gravity