Extragalactic Astronomy at Durham 2008-2013
Lead Research Organisation:
Durham University
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
Over recent years observational astronomers at Durham have been at the forefront of many major advances in the study of galaxies and cosmology. We have a publication and citation record which we believe speaks for itself (see proposal introduction). Durham astronomers currently lead major international projects that exploit many of the the world's foremost ground and space observatories. We will capitalize on our proven track record in AGN studies, precision spectrophotometric analysis of stellar populations in nearby galaxies, multiwavelength studies of galaxy populations at high redshift and panoramic QSO and galaxy surveys, to answer open questions which lie at the core of modern astrophysics. In this proposal we present the case for support of a coherent and comprehensive programme that builds on our strengths and seizes new opportunities. Our programme addresses key questions in the STFC Roadmap, such as ``What are the laws of physics in extreme conditions?'', ``How do galaxies, stars and planets form and evolve?'' and ``What is the Universe made of and how does it evolve?''. This proposal is constructed around the four core themes of our research: Theme A: AGN: outflows from black holes their growth and environment Theme B: Galaxy evolution and archaeology and closely related to this; Theme C: feedback and the formation of galaxies Theme D: Survey cosmology, using galaxies and clusters as probes of large scale structure and evolution There is a well established deep rooted synergy between our work and the research of the ICC group, and the instrumentation group (CfAI).
Publications
Rawle T
(2010)
Stellar population gradients in early-type cluster galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Mountrichas G
(2009)
QSO-LRG two-point cross-correlation function and redshift-space distortions
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ibar E
(2008)
Exploring the infrared/radio correlation at high redshift
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hau G
(2008)
Is NGC 3108 transforming itself from an early- to late-type galaxy - an astronomical hermaphrodite?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gilbank D
(2011)
Erratum: The local star formation rate density: assessing calibrations using [O ii], Ha and UV luminosities Erratum
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Balogh M
(2009)
The colour of galaxies in distant groups
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hoyos C
(2011)
The HST/ACS Coma Cluster Survey - III. Structural parameters of galaxies using single Sérsic fits? Structural parameters of galaxies in Coma
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Danielson A
(2010)
The properties of the interstellar medium within a star-forming galaxy at z= 2.3 The ISM in a z= 2.3 star-forming galaxy
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Vignali C
(2010)
Discovery of Compton-thick quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Swinbank A
(2009)
A spatially resolved map of the kinematics, star formation and stellar mass assembly in a star-forming galaxy at z = 4.9
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Merluzzi P
(2010)
ACCESS: NIR luminosity function and stellar mass function of galaxies in the Shapley supercluster environment
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kim J
(2011)
Clustering properties of high-redshift red galaxies in SA22 from the UKIDSS Deep eXtragalactic Survey Clustering of EROs and DRGs in UKIDSS DXS SA22
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Wake D
(2008)
The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey: evolution of the clustering of luminous red galaxies since z = 0.6
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Poppett C
(2010)
The dependence of the properties of optical fibres on length
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Almeida C
(2008)
Luminous red galaxies in hierarchical cosmologies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Price J
(2011)
The stellar populations of bright coma cluster galaxies Stellar populations of bright Coma galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Sobral D
(2011)
The dependence of star formation activity on environment and stellar mass at z~ 1 from the HiZELS-Ha survey? Star formation, environment & mass at z~1
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Fine S
(2008)
Constraining the quasar population with the broad-line width distribution
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Casey C
(2009)
A search for neutral carbon towards two z = 4.05 submillimetre galaxies, GN???20 and GN???20.2
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Fanidakis N
(2011)
Grand unification of AGN activity in the ?CDM cosmology Grand unification of AGN activity
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
McGee S
(2009)
The accretion of galaxies into groups and clusters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lira P
(2008)
An infrared study of the double nucleus in NGC 3256
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Casey C
(2009)
Constraining star formation and AGN in z ~ 2 massive galaxies using high-resolution MERLIN radio observations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Okamoto T
(2008)
The impact of radio feedback from active galactic nuclei in cosmological simulations: formation of disc galaxies AGN feedback in cosmological simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gilbank D
(2010)
The Redshift One LDSS-3 Emission line Survey (ROLES): survey method and z~ 1 mass-dependent star formation rate density ROLES: method and SFRD
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Goulding A
(2011)
Searching for Compton-thick active galactic nuclei at z~ 0.1 Searching for Compton-thick AGNs at z~ 0.1
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ebeling H
(2009)
A spectacular giant arc in the massive cluster lens MACS J1206.2-0847
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ebeling H
(2010)
The X-ray brightest clusters of galaxies from the Massive Cluster Survey The X-ray brightest MACS clusters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Smail I
(2008)
A pilot survey for KX QSOs in the UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey Field
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Goulding A
(2010)
Towards a complete census of active galactic nuclei in nearby galaxies: the incidence of growing black holes The incidence of growing black holes
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Balogh M
(2008)
Testing cold dark matter with the hierarchical build-up of stellar light
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
De Lucia G
(2009)
On the role of the post-starburst phase in the buildup of the red sequence of intermediate-redshift clusters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Alexander D
(2010)
Searching for evidence of energetic feedback in distant galaxies: a galaxy wide outflow in a z ˜ 2 ultraluminous infrared galaxy
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
De Almeida U
(2010)
Particle acceleration and magnetic field structure in PKS 2155-304: optical polarimetric observations Optical polarimetry of PKS 2155-304
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hudson M
(2010)
Colours of bulges and discs within galaxy clusters and the signature of disc fading on infall Colours of bulges and discs
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Sobral D
(2010)
The clustering and evolution of Ha emitters at z ~ 1 from HiZELS
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Balogh M
(2010)
The stellar and hot gas content of low-mass galaxy clusters Stars and hot gas in low-mass galaxy clusters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Dariush A
(2010)
The mass assembly of galaxy groups and the evolution of the magnitude gap
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Balogh M
(2011)
Direct observational evidence for a large transient galaxy population in groups at 0.85 < z < 1 Transient galaxies in groups at z= 1
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Li I
(2011)
Dependence of star formation activity on stellar mass and environment from the Redshift One LDSS-3 Emission line Survey SFR at z~ 1
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Rawle T
(2008)
Near ultraviolet-infrared colours of red-sequence galaxies in local clusters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Braglia F
(2010)
Submillimetre observations of galaxy clusters with the BLAST: the star formation activity in Abell 3112 BLAST observations of Abell 3112
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Croom S
(2009)
The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey: the spectroscopic QSO catalogue
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Younger J
(2008)
Clarifying the nature of the brightest submillimetre sources: interferometric imaging of LH 850.02
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hartley W
(2008)
The clustering and abundance of star-forming and passive galaxies at z ~ 2
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bower R
(2010)
The parameter space of galaxy formation The parameter space of galaxy formation
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Smith R
(2009)
Ages and metallicities for quiescent galaxies in the Shapley supercluster: driving parameters of the stellar populations Driving parameters of stellar populations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Stott J
(2008)
Near-infrared evolution of brightest cluster galaxies in the most X-ray luminous clusters since z = 1
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Allington-Smith J
(2010)
Astrophotonic spectroscopy: defining the potential advantage
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Serjeant S
(2008)
The SCUBA Half Degree Extragalactic Survey (SHADES) - IX. The environment, mass and redshift dependence of star formation
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
| Description | The programme funded by this grant produce a number of observational insights into fundamental features of galaxies, black holes and large-scale structure. To give just one example, using the newly-completed Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) we undertook the first survey of extreme starburst galaxies in the distant Universe, demonstrating that these galaxies are very likely to be the progenitors of the most massive galaxies seen today in the local Universe, but seen in an early and very active phase of formation. |
| Exploitation Route | Further academic research or through the development of new facilities (e.g. ELT and SKA) or observational programmes. |
| Sectors | Education |
| URL | http://www.astro.dur.ac.uk/Cosmology |
| Description | 6dFGS survey |
| Organisation | Australian Astronomical Observatory |
| Country | Australia |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Data analysis and construction of the FP catalogue, i.e. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014MNRAS.443.1231C |
| Collaborator Contribution | Many other science contributions, e.g. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014MNRAS.444.3926J http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014MNRAS.445.2677S http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016MNRAS.455..386S |
| Impact | now focused on mostly exclusively on 6dF++, i.e. TAIPAN http://www.taipan-survey.org/ Map the southern cosmography with ~110 k redshifts. First detailed map of the southern hemisphere peculiar velocities. |
| Description | 6dFGS survey |
| Organisation | Australian National University (ANU) |
| Country | Australia |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Data analysis and construction of the FP catalogue, i.e. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014MNRAS.443.1231C |
| Collaborator Contribution | Many other science contributions, e.g. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014MNRAS.444.3926J http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014MNRAS.445.2677S http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016MNRAS.455..386S |
| Impact | now focused on mostly exclusively on 6dF++, i.e. TAIPAN http://www.taipan-survey.org/ Map the southern cosmography with ~110 k redshifts. First detailed map of the southern hemisphere peculiar velocities. |
| Description | Wide field astronomical surveys |
| Organisation | University of Hawaii |
| Department | Institute for Astronomy |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Durham an offical partnet in the Pan-STARRS consortium, which operate a telescope in Hawaii. |
| Collaborator Contribution | They provide the telscope and operations support. |
| Impact | The principle output is research papers published in refereed journals. |
| Start Year | 2007 |
| Description | Seminars and invited talks |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Type Of Presentation | Paper Presentation |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | All of the co-applicants on this grants have given numberous seminars and invited talks at universities and international meetings and conferences. These activities help to enhance the wider knowledge of our research, and foster new collaborations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2008,2009,2010,2011,2012 |