Support of the astronomical research of the Cavendish Astrophysics Group
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
The Cavendish Astrophysics group's proposed research programme addresses many of the key science questions in contemporary astrophysics. Observational, instrumental, data analysis and theoretical work are all being pursued under the roof of the new Battcock Centre for Experimental Astrophysics, adjacent to the Institute of Astronomy and the Kavli Institute for Cosmology. Significant new areas of research have recently been brought in by the appointments of new senior staff, Profs. Roberto Maiolino, Didier Queloz and Chris Carilli, who are developing their research areas alongside and in collaboration with existing staff members. The growing area of exoplanet detection and characterisation is being pursued as part of the new Centre for Extra-Solar Planetary Science: this work includes the detection of new exo-planets using their radial velocity Doppler shift technique, measuring exoplanet atmosphere properties, and measuring the structure of protoplanetary discs to understand the formation and evolution mechanisms of exo-planet systems. This work will involve ALMA observations of the dust structures in protoplanetary discs around newly-formed stars. This work leads naturally into the problem of how stars themselves form in their protostellar discs: using their extensive expertise in submillimetre interferometry, the work will use ALMA to image the chemical and dynamical state of the gas deep in the potential wells of protostars where active accretion on to the star/disc system and jet generation is expected to occur. These high-resolution studies will be made possible for the first time by the commissioning on long baselines in ALMA during the course of this grant. In addition, the recent commissioning of e-MERLIN will allow the high-resolution measurement of the thermal radio emission from protostars, revealing the ionised accretion and outflow components close to the protostars. Together we expect these studies to help us understand the detailed physics of star formation and feedback on small physical scales. Beyond the Galaxy, the scientific focus is on the evolution of galaxies in the Universe through studies of their metallicity evolution; in particular we will prepare the ground for the use of guaranteed time on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) which is due for launch in this grant period. We will also continue work on the physics of galaxy clusters and how they evolve, and start an active involvement in an experiment aimed to detect the epoch of reionisation, the epoch when the Universe rapidly transitioned from neutral to ionised form. In parallel with these astrophysical studies, researchers will be pursuing blue-sky technical studies aimed at delivering new detection capabilities at optical, infrared and radio wavelengths.
Planned Impact
As well as our immediate scientific colleagues, our research will benefit a much wider community, spanning the commercial sector, policy makers in science and technology, and the wider public through our participation in specific educational outreach projects as well as more general engagement activities with the interested public.
Our experience in developing advanced experimental techniques to address the most pressing astrophysical problems has frequently led to much wider benefits than might have been anticipated. For example, our expertise in Bayesian data analysis which we have exploited in much of our cosmological work is now being utilised in the Oil and Gas exploration sector for geophysical inversion. Similarly, our proposed work on electromagnetic modeling of advanced radio astronomy receivers will likely benefit a much wider community of radio-frequency engineers than those focused on astronomy alone. The later stages of that work will be targeted towards utilising the newly developed modeling tool to explore the possible applications of Graphene and other new materials. While our focus will be on astronomy and space applications, the potential this work has to support new initiatives and possible commerical applications is likely to be large.
Our on-going work on low-noise detector characterization is a good example of a synergy between our astronomical research (as part of a wider UK collaboration) and the commerical interests of Selex, who fabricate the devices. Our aim is to guide their product development so that it both supports the UK's astrophysical goals, but also to provide a unique market advantage to Selex in the field of low-noise fast-readout infrared detectors. These have potential applications in many other arenas, for example in biological imaging studies, where the relative high transparency of tissue to infrared wavelenghts provides an important advantage.
Our proposed work on the Epoch of Reionization provides another example where our technical work will have wider societal contributions. The SKA-precursors we are participating in will clearly lead to major impacts on the local technical, economic and social climate, all benefiting the community in South Africa. Furthermore, there is likely to be significant technology transfer between SKA development activities and these nearer-term experiments, with implications for both significant UK and South African knowledge exchange.
In parallel with our technical activities, we will continue to support a wide range of outreach activities. Our staff and students regularly contribute to the very extensive programme of outreach activities organized at the Cavendish. In addition, our students and post-docs participate in regular tours of our observatory site. A key goal here is to inform the general public on both what we do, but also to explain the value of skilled research scientists in the non-academic environment as key players in the UKs knowledge base and innovation community.
Our experience in developing advanced experimental techniques to address the most pressing astrophysical problems has frequently led to much wider benefits than might have been anticipated. For example, our expertise in Bayesian data analysis which we have exploited in much of our cosmological work is now being utilised in the Oil and Gas exploration sector for geophysical inversion. Similarly, our proposed work on electromagnetic modeling of advanced radio astronomy receivers will likely benefit a much wider community of radio-frequency engineers than those focused on astronomy alone. The later stages of that work will be targeted towards utilising the newly developed modeling tool to explore the possible applications of Graphene and other new materials. While our focus will be on astronomy and space applications, the potential this work has to support new initiatives and possible commerical applications is likely to be large.
Our on-going work on low-noise detector characterization is a good example of a synergy between our astronomical research (as part of a wider UK collaboration) and the commerical interests of Selex, who fabricate the devices. Our aim is to guide their product development so that it both supports the UK's astrophysical goals, but also to provide a unique market advantage to Selex in the field of low-noise fast-readout infrared detectors. These have potential applications in many other arenas, for example in biological imaging studies, where the relative high transparency of tissue to infrared wavelenghts provides an important advantage.
Our proposed work on the Epoch of Reionization provides another example where our technical work will have wider societal contributions. The SKA-precursors we are participating in will clearly lead to major impacts on the local technical, economic and social climate, all benefiting the community in South Africa. Furthermore, there is likely to be significant technology transfer between SKA development activities and these nearer-term experiments, with implications for both significant UK and South African knowledge exchange.
In parallel with our technical activities, we will continue to support a wide range of outreach activities. Our staff and students regularly contribute to the very extensive programme of outreach activities organized at the Cavendish. In addition, our students and post-docs participate in regular tours of our observatory site. A key goal here is to inform the general public on both what we do, but also to explain the value of skilled research scientists in the non-academic environment as key players in the UKs knowledge base and innovation community.
Organisations
- University of Cambridge (Lead Research Organisation)
- European Southern Observatory (ESO) (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD (Collaboration)
- Max Planck Society (Collaboration)
- National Research Council Canada (Collaboration)
- Leiden University (Collaboration)
- National Institute for Astrophysics (Collaboration)
- Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) (Collaboration)
- European Space Agency (Collaboration)
- Paris Institute of Astrophysics (Collaboration)
Publications
Wittkowski M.
(2017)
Aperture synthesis imaging of the carbon AGB star R Sculptoris: Detection of a complex structure and a dominating spot on the stellar disk
in ArXiv e-prints
Bluck A
(2020)
Are galactic star formation and quenching governed by local, global, or environmental phenomena?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Witstok J
(2021)
Assessing the sources of reionization: a spectroscopic case study of a 30× lensed galaxy at z ~ 5 with Lya, C iv , Mg ii , and [Ne iii ]
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Handley W
(2019)
Bayesian inflationary reconstructions from Planck 2018 data
in Physical Review D
Sims P
(2019)
Bayesian power spectrum estimation at the Epoch of Reionization
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Higson E
(2018)
Bayesian sparse reconstruction: a brute-force approach to astronomical imaging and machine learning
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Description | P5: We have investigated the metallicity scaling relations (i.e. the relation between abundance of chemical elements and other galaxy properties, such as stellar and gas mass, and star formation rate) in local galaxies and as a function of redshift. These have been investigated both for what concerns the integrated properties and spatially resolved properties. We have found that the chemical enrichment of galaxies can be described with relatively simple models of gas flows from/to the intergalactic medium. The scaling relation have been extended to the gas content of galaxies and to the environment in which galaxies live. We have investigated the spatial variation of metallicities (metallicity gradients) both in local and distant galaxies by using extensive multi-IFU surveys. We have further investigated the differential metallicity between passive galaxies and their star forming progenitors (and green valley galaxies) to constrain the star formation quenching mechanism and timescale. The physical properties of galactic outflows have been investigated in detail by exploiting multi-band observations. Evidence for star formation in galactic outflows has been observationally characterised in detail. The physical properties of the interstellar medium and kinematics/dynamics of galaxies close to the reionization have been investigated, revealing interesting similarities with mature galaxies at lower redshifts, providing important constraints on the early formation mechanisms of galaxies. P7: Detailed simulation have been developed for the observations of the James Webb Space Telescope and its spectrograph NIRSpec, by also exploiting (as a guideline) observational results obtained us and collaborating teams. We have contributed to the optimisation of the NIRSpec proposal tool (including the optimisation of the target allocations through the Micro Shutter Array) and to the optimisation of the pipeline. Observing programmes of distant galaxies have been used to refine the planning of the GTO. The GTO programme has been finalised and the latest version of the APTs. A first version of the GTO has been submitted in January 2018 an updated version has been resubmitted in January 2019 to take into account the new timing constraints of JWST. We have led (or co-led) the plan of two major sub-programmes (integral field spectroscopy of distant galaxy and medium-deep multi-object observations). Update March 2024: Multiple results on galaxy and black hole formation, and chemical enrichment in the early Universe, have been obtained through the NIRSpec GTO programmes, many of which already published. These results have greatly benefited of the simulations and preparatory work obtained through the projects developed in this programme. P8: We have run the detector (photon counting IR array) in cryogenic environment and characterised its read noise. We have identified gain issues in the existing detector. New tests on Mk13 Saphira arrays (in collaboration with Gert Finger, ESO) have shown strong evidence for photon-counting performance, the main goal of the grant-funded programme. These data are being analaysed for publication. A new Saphira array is on order from Leonardo (formerly Selex). P9 We have identified close-to-optimal fringe-tracking topologies for next generation optical/IR interferometer arrays We have identified the optimal beam relay and delay line architectures for next generation optical/IR interferometer arrays. We have continued to investigate the best designs for the fringe-tracking beam combiners for the next generation of optical/IR interferometer arrays with large (10-20) numbers of telescopes. P11: We have developed an analysis pipeline using a physically based model and a fully Bayesian statistical frame work to analyse a large sample of 200 clusters of galaxies data sets in different wave-bands and to constrain their physical properties particularly, their total masses for the first time. We have developed a 'free-form' model for the radial profiles of physical properties, based on the 'nodal method' outlined above. This method has now been described in Olamaie et al. (2018, MNRAS, 481, 3853) |
Exploitation Route | P5 The results obtained through our various observing programmes are providing important constraints to models of galaxy formation and evolution. P7 Observations with JWST are currently ongoing and obtaining extensive results on the formation and evolution of galaxies, and data from the GTO have also been publicly released; many groups in the UK and worldwide are using the results obtained through these observations and also taking advantage of the publicly released data, including the high level products released by the team. P9 We anticipate that our work on optimal array and sub-system designs for high sensitivity optical/IR imaging interferometers will advise the design of both the astronomical and defense sectors, as they move to assess the feasibility/efficacy of these telescopes for their activies over the next 5 years. P11 Our single Bayesian tool for the physically-based, joint analysis of multi-waveband cluster observations can be and is being used by Astronomy community to constrain clusters physical parameters. Bayes_X, our Bayesian inference tool for the analysis of X-ray observations of galaxy clusters is also publically available at http://ccpforge.cse.rl.ac.uk/gf/project/bayesx/. |
Sectors | Other |
Description | P8: Findings are being used to inform design choices for Selex for their continued commercial development of their Saphira detectors. This is of economic use for all the markets they sell their detectors for. P9: The optimium array designs for interferometers to be used for Space Surveillance (in particular the imaging of GEO satellites) has been explored. This is of interest to the Aerospace, Defence and Marine sector. |
First Year Of Impact | 2015 |
Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Other |
Impact Types | Economic Policy & public services |
Description | QUENCH |
Amount | € 2,484,531 (EUR) |
Funding ID | 340442 |
Organisation | European Commission H2020 |
Sector | Public |
Country | Belgium |
Start | 09/2016 |
End | 09/2021 |
Description | UKRI Frontier Research Guarantee |
Amount | £2,142,017 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/X038262/1 |
Organisation | University of Cambridge |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2023 |
End | 03/2028 |
Description | JWST-NIRSpec Instrument Science Team |
Organisation | European Space Agency |
Department | European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) |
Country | Netherlands |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Contribution to the design and observing strategies of the instrument Coordination and planning of the NIRSpec GTO survey trough simulations and tradeoff analysis Identification of the primary science cases and of their requirements Coordinator of the JADES and WIDE Multi-Object surveys Co-leadership of the IFS survey Development of tools for the processing and analysis of the data Membership of the JWST Science Working Group Contribution to the laboratory testing |
Collaborator Contribution | Contribution to the design and observing strategies of the instrument Simulations and development of tools for the processing and analysis of the data Development of the commissioning plans, tools for data processing, simulations Definition of science readiness criteria Laboratory testing and performance verification of the instrument |
Impact | NIRSpec instrument design and definition of its observing modes Characterisation of the instrument and laboratory tests GTO surveys plan and submission for scheduling End-to-end simulations of the various observing modes and various observing strategies Tools for the data processing and data analysis |
Description | JWST-NIRSpec Instrument Science Team |
Organisation | Leiden University |
Department | Leiden Observatory |
Country | Netherlands |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Contribution to the design and observing strategies of the instrument Coordination and planning of the NIRSpec GTO survey trough simulations and tradeoff analysis Identification of the primary science cases and of their requirements Coordinator of the JADES and WIDE Multi-Object surveys Co-leadership of the IFS survey Development of tools for the processing and analysis of the data Membership of the JWST Science Working Group Contribution to the laboratory testing |
Collaborator Contribution | Contribution to the design and observing strategies of the instrument Simulations and development of tools for the processing and analysis of the data Development of the commissioning plans, tools for data processing, simulations Definition of science readiness criteria Laboratory testing and performance verification of the instrument |
Impact | NIRSpec instrument design and definition of its observing modes Characterisation of the instrument and laboratory tests GTO surveys plan and submission for scheduling End-to-end simulations of the various observing modes and various observing strategies Tools for the data processing and data analysis |
Description | JWST-NIRSpec Instrument Science Team |
Organisation | Max Planck Society |
Department | Max Planck Institute for Astronomy |
Country | Germany |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Contribution to the design and observing strategies of the instrument Coordination and planning of the NIRSpec GTO survey trough simulations and tradeoff analysis Identification of the primary science cases and of their requirements Coordinator of the JADES and WIDE Multi-Object surveys Co-leadership of the IFS survey Development of tools for the processing and analysis of the data Membership of the JWST Science Working Group Contribution to the laboratory testing |
Collaborator Contribution | Contribution to the design and observing strategies of the instrument Simulations and development of tools for the processing and analysis of the data Development of the commissioning plans, tools for data processing, simulations Definition of science readiness criteria Laboratory testing and performance verification of the instrument |
Impact | NIRSpec instrument design and definition of its observing modes Characterisation of the instrument and laboratory tests GTO surveys plan and submission for scheduling End-to-end simulations of the various observing modes and various observing strategies Tools for the data processing and data analysis |
Description | JWST-NIRSpec Instrument Science Team |
Organisation | National Research Council of Canada |
Country | Canada |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Contribution to the design and observing strategies of the instrument Coordination and planning of the NIRSpec GTO survey trough simulations and tradeoff analysis Identification of the primary science cases and of their requirements Coordinator of the JADES and WIDE Multi-Object surveys Co-leadership of the IFS survey Development of tools for the processing and analysis of the data Membership of the JWST Science Working Group Contribution to the laboratory testing |
Collaborator Contribution | Contribution to the design and observing strategies of the instrument Simulations and development of tools for the processing and analysis of the data Development of the commissioning plans, tools for data processing, simulations Definition of science readiness criteria Laboratory testing and performance verification of the instrument |
Impact | NIRSpec instrument design and definition of its observing modes Characterisation of the instrument and laboratory tests GTO surveys plan and submission for scheduling End-to-end simulations of the various observing modes and various observing strategies Tools for the data processing and data analysis |
Description | JWST-NIRSpec Instrument Science Team |
Organisation | Paris Institute of Astrophysics |
Country | France |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Contribution to the design and observing strategies of the instrument Coordination and planning of the NIRSpec GTO survey trough simulations and tradeoff analysis Identification of the primary science cases and of their requirements Coordinator of the JADES and WIDE Multi-Object surveys Co-leadership of the IFS survey Development of tools for the processing and analysis of the data Membership of the JWST Science Working Group Contribution to the laboratory testing |
Collaborator Contribution | Contribution to the design and observing strategies of the instrument Simulations and development of tools for the processing and analysis of the data Development of the commissioning plans, tools for data processing, simulations Definition of science readiness criteria Laboratory testing and performance verification of the instrument |
Impact | NIRSpec instrument design and definition of its observing modes Characterisation of the instrument and laboratory tests GTO surveys plan and submission for scheduling End-to-end simulations of the various observing modes and various observing strategies Tools for the data processing and data analysis |
Description | JWST-NIRSpec Instrument Science Team |
Organisation | Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) |
Country | Spain |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Contribution to the design and observing strategies of the instrument Coordination and planning of the NIRSpec GTO survey trough simulations and tradeoff analysis Identification of the primary science cases and of their requirements Coordinator of the JADES and WIDE Multi-Object surveys Co-leadership of the IFS survey Development of tools for the processing and analysis of the data Membership of the JWST Science Working Group Contribution to the laboratory testing |
Collaborator Contribution | Contribution to the design and observing strategies of the instrument Simulations and development of tools for the processing and analysis of the data Development of the commissioning plans, tools for data processing, simulations Definition of science readiness criteria Laboratory testing and performance verification of the instrument |
Impact | NIRSpec instrument design and definition of its observing modes Characterisation of the instrument and laboratory tests GTO surveys plan and submission for scheduling End-to-end simulations of the various observing modes and various observing strategies Tools for the data processing and data analysis |
Description | JWST-NIRSpec Instrument Science Team |
Organisation | University of Oxford |
Department | Department of Physics |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Contribution to the design and observing strategies of the instrument Coordination and planning of the NIRSpec GTO survey trough simulations and tradeoff analysis Identification of the primary science cases and of their requirements Coordinator of the JADES and WIDE Multi-Object surveys Co-leadership of the IFS survey Development of tools for the processing and analysis of the data Membership of the JWST Science Working Group Contribution to the laboratory testing |
Collaborator Contribution | Contribution to the design and observing strategies of the instrument Simulations and development of tools for the processing and analysis of the data Development of the commissioning plans, tools for data processing, simulations Definition of science readiness criteria Laboratory testing and performance verification of the instrument |
Impact | NIRSpec instrument design and definition of its observing modes Characterisation of the instrument and laboratory tests GTO surveys plan and submission for scheduling End-to-end simulations of the various observing modes and various observing strategies Tools for the data processing and data analysis |
Description | KLEVER collaboration |
Organisation | European Southern Observatory (ESO) |
Country | Germany |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | This collaboration is associated with a Large Programme awarded by the European Southern Observatory exploiting 120 hours of observation with the KMOS instrument at the Very Large Telescope to obtain spatially resolved metallicity gradients, excitation diagram and kinematics in a sample of 150 galaxies (lensed and unlicensed) at z~1-2. Roberto Maiolino is the Co-PI of this programme. He has been in charge of co-leading the programme, planning the strategy and, together with his team, he has been processing, analysing and interpreting the results. |
Collaborator Contribution | The partners have been contributing in preparing the observations and processing the data. |
Impact | The first papers resulting from the analysis of the first set of data are being finalised and will be submitted for publication in the coming few months. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | KLEVER collaboration |
Organisation | National Institute for Astrophysics |
Country | Italy |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | This collaboration is associated with a Large Programme awarded by the European Southern Observatory exploiting 120 hours of observation with the KMOS instrument at the Very Large Telescope to obtain spatially resolved metallicity gradients, excitation diagram and kinematics in a sample of 150 galaxies (lensed and unlicensed) at z~1-2. Roberto Maiolino is the Co-PI of this programme. He has been in charge of co-leading the programme, planning the strategy and, together with his team, he has been processing, analysing and interpreting the results. |
Collaborator Contribution | The partners have been contributing in preparing the observations and processing the data. |
Impact | The first papers resulting from the analysis of the first set of data are being finalised and will be submitted for publication in the coming few months. |
Start Year | 2016 |