University of Sussex Astronomy Consolidated Grant 2023-2026
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sussex
Department Name: Sch of Mathematical & Physical Sciences
Abstract
This proposal seeks support to continue an extensive programme of research into extragalactic astrophysics and cosmology, by addressing some of the most pressing astrophysical questions of our time, such as:
- What are the laws of physics operating in the early Universe?
- How did the initial structure in the universe form?
- How is the universe evolving and what roles do dark matter and dark energy play?
- When and how were the first stars, black holes and galaxies born?
- How do stars and galaxies evolve?
To achieve these aims we will combine cutting-edge observations, numerical simulations, and statistical techniques.
This proposal consists of 10 varied but interconnected projects, each involving one or more faculty members and researchers, that can be collected into three broad themes: Early and late universe cosmology; Galaxy simulation and modelling; Galaxy and cluster observations and analysis:
Early and late universe cosmology: a series of projects will address theoretical predictions and observational constraints on inflation, dark energy and large scale structure. Our work encompasses both the development of theoretical frameworks and the analysis of cutting edge observational data-sets.
Galaxy simulation and modelling: we will use Peta-scale computing facilities to carry out detailed studies of the formation and evolution of the first structures, and make statistical predictions that can be used in the exploitation of current and upcoming observational facilities such as James Webb Space Telescope, Euclid, LOFAR, and the Square Kilometre Array.
Galaxy and cluster observations: we will make use of multi-wavelength observations to answer a variety of questions concerning the formation and evolution of galaxies. We will continue to exploit our involvement in the Dark Energy Survey, Euclid, the James Webb Space Telescope, the 4m Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST) on VISTA, LOFAR, the Vera Rubin Observatory, and the XMM-Newton Cluster Survey.
We also request support for an outreach project attached to Project 10.
- What are the laws of physics operating in the early Universe?
- How did the initial structure in the universe form?
- How is the universe evolving and what roles do dark matter and dark energy play?
- When and how were the first stars, black holes and galaxies born?
- How do stars and galaxies evolve?
To achieve these aims we will combine cutting-edge observations, numerical simulations, and statistical techniques.
This proposal consists of 10 varied but interconnected projects, each involving one or more faculty members and researchers, that can be collected into three broad themes: Early and late universe cosmology; Galaxy simulation and modelling; Galaxy and cluster observations and analysis:
Early and late universe cosmology: a series of projects will address theoretical predictions and observational constraints on inflation, dark energy and large scale structure. Our work encompasses both the development of theoretical frameworks and the analysis of cutting edge observational data-sets.
Galaxy simulation and modelling: we will use Peta-scale computing facilities to carry out detailed studies of the formation and evolution of the first structures, and make statistical predictions that can be used in the exploitation of current and upcoming observational facilities such as James Webb Space Telescope, Euclid, LOFAR, and the Square Kilometre Array.
Galaxy and cluster observations: we will make use of multi-wavelength observations to answer a variety of questions concerning the formation and evolution of galaxies. We will continue to exploit our involvement in the Dark Energy Survey, Euclid, the James Webb Space Telescope, the 4m Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST) on VISTA, LOFAR, the Vera Rubin Observatory, and the XMM-Newton Cluster Survey.
We also request support for an outreach project attached to Project 10.
Publications
Hernández-Lang D
(2023)
The PSZ-MCMF catalogue of Planck clusters over the DES region
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Holwerda B
(2024)
Cosmic evolution early release science survey (CEERS): multiclassing galactic dwarf stars in the deep JWST/NIRCam
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hsiao T
(2024)
JWST NIRSpec Spectroscopy of the Triply Lensed z = 10.17 Galaxy MACS0647-JD
in The Astrophysical Journal
Hu W
(2024)
Characterizing the Average Interstellar Medium Conditions of Galaxies at z ~ 5.6-9 with Ultraviolet and Optical Nebular Lines
in The Astrophysical Journal
Iacconi L
(2024)
Loop corrections in the separate universe picture
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Iacconi L
(2023)
Loop corrections in the separate universe picture
Kartaltepe J
(2023)
CEERS Key Paper. III. The Diversity of Galaxy Structure and Morphology at z = 3-9 with JWST
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Kirkpatrick A
(2023)
CEERS Key Paper. VII. JWST/MIRI Reveals a Faint Population of Galaxies at Cosmic Noon Unseen by Spitzer
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Kocevski D
(2023)
Hidden Little Monsters: Spectroscopic Identification of Low-mass, Broad-line AGNs at z > 5 with CEERS
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Kocevski D
(2023)
CEERS Key Paper. II. A First Look at the Resolved Host Properties of AGN at 3 < z < 5 with JWST
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Kou R
(2025)
A flexible parameterization to test early physics solutions to the Hubble tension with future CMB data
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Larson R
(2023)
A CEERS Discovery of an Accreting Supermassive Black Hole 570 Myr after the Big Bang: Identifying a Progenitor of Massive z > 6 Quasars
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Larson R
(2023)
Spectral Templates Optimal for Selecting Galaxies at z > 8 with the JWST
in The Astrophysical Journal
Le Bail A
(2024)
JWST/CEERS sheds light on dusty star-forming galaxies: Forming bulges, lopsidedness, and outside-in quenching at cosmic noon
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lemos P
(2023)
CMB constraints on the early Universe independent of late-time cosmology
in Physical Review D
Leung G
(2023)
NGDEEP Epoch 1: The Faint End of the Luminosity Function at z ~ 9-12 from Ultradeep JWST Imaging
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Llerena M
(2024)
Physical properties of extreme emission-line galaxies at z ~ 4-9 from the JWST CEERS survey
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Long A
(2024)
Efficient NIRCam Selection of Quiescent Galaxies at 3 < z < 6 in CEERS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Lovell C
(2023)
First light and reionisation epoch simulations (FLARES) - VIII. The emergence of passive galaxies at z = 5
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lovell C
(2023)
Extreme value statistics of the halo and stellar mass distributions at high redshift: are JWST results in tension with ?CDM?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Mascia S
(2024)
New insight on the nature of cosmic reionizers from the CEERS survey
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Merlin E
(2024)
ASTRODEEP-JWST: NIRCam-HST multi-band photometry and redshifts for half a million sources in six extragalactic deep fields
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Mingozzi M
(2024)
CLASSY. VIII. Exploring the Source of Ionization with UV Interstellar Medium Diagnostics in Local High-z Analogs*
in The Astrophysical Journal
Morales A
(2024)
Rest-frame UV Colors for Faint Galaxies at z ~ 9-16 with the JWST NGDEEP Survey
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Napolitano L
(2024)
Peering into cosmic reionization: Ly a visibility evolution from galaxies at z = 4.5-8.5 with JWST
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Palmese A.
(2023)
VizieR Online Data Catalog: Stellar mass as a galaxy cluster mass proxy (Palmese+, 2020)
in VizieR Online Data Catalog
Pandya V
(2024)
Galaxies Going Bananas: Inferring the 3D Geometry of High-redshift Galaxies with JWST-CEERS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Papovich C
(2023)
CEERS Key Paper. V. Galaxies at 4 < z < 9 Are Bluer than They Appear-Characterizing Galaxy Stellar Populations from Rest-frame ~1 µm Imaging
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Pirzkal N
(2024)
The Next Generation Deep Extragalactic Exploratory Public Near-infrared Slitless Survey Epoch 1 (NGDEEP-NISS1): Extragalactic Star-formation and Active Galactic Nuclei at 0.5 < z < 3.6
in The Astrophysical Journal
Porth L
(2023)
The information content of projected galaxy fields
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pritchard X
(2025)
Constraining the impact of standard model phase transitions on primordial black holes
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Pérez-González P
(2023)
CEERS Key Paper. IV. A Triality in the Nature of HST-dark Galaxies
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Robertson M
(2023)
How to detect lensing rotation
Robertson M
(2023)
How to detect lensing rotation
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Roper W
(2023)
First light and reionization epoch simulations (FLARES) IX: the physical mechanisms driving compact galaxy formation and evolution
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Rose C
(2024)
CEERS Key Paper. IX. Identifying Galaxy Mergers in CEERS NIRCam Images Using Random Forests and Convolutional Neural Networks
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Schaller M
(2024)
Swift : a modern highly parallel gravity and smoothed particle hydrodynamics solver for astrophysical and cosmological applications
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Seeyave L
(2023)
First light and reionization epoch simulations (FLARES) X iii : the lyman-continuum emission of high-redshift galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Sharma D
(2024)
Spectral distortions from acoustic dissipation with non-Gaussian (or not) perturbations
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Smith M.
(2023)
VizieR Online Data Catalog: Effect of host galaxies on SN luminosity (Smith+, 2020)
in VizieR Online Data Catalog
Thomas P
(2023)
First light and reionization epoch simulations ( Flares ) X: environmental galaxy bias and survey variance at high redshift
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Toy M
(2023)
Rates and properties of Type Ia supernovae in galaxy clusters within the dark energy survey
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Trump J
(2023)
The Physical Conditions of Emission-line Galaxies at Cosmic Dawn from JWST/NIRSpec Spectroscopy in the SMACS 0723 Early Release Observations
in The Astrophysical Journal
Trussler J
(2024)
EPOCHS IX. When cosmic dawn breaks: evidence for evolved stellar populations in 7 < z < 12 galaxies from PEARLS GTO and public NIRCam imaging
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Trussler J
(2025)
Like a candle in the wind: The embers of once aflame, now smouldering galaxies at 5 < z < 8
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
| Title | Data for 'Overcoming Confusion Noise with Hyperspectral Imaging from PRIMAger' (2024) |
| Description | Data for paper published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 532, Issue 2, August 2024, Pages 1966-1979Description of data:The simulated PRIMAger maps generated via the SIDES simulation on which the analysis of the article was conducted are stored within the PRIMA_data_availability/PRIMAger_simulated_maps_w_instrumental_noise folder. There are 16 maps in total; 6 representing the PHI1 channels (PHI1_1 - PHI1_6), 6 representing the PHI2 channels (PHI2_1 - PHI2_6) and 4 representing the PPI channels (PPI1 - PPI4). These maps contain both realistic confusion and instrumental noise. The generation of these maps are discussed in details in Section 2 of the article.The full catalogue of all sources and their true physical parameters generated from the SIDES simulation is stored as PRIMA_data_availability/pySIDES_PRIMA.fits. The simulated maps are generated from this simulation catalogue, which also contains the true fluxes of each source in all 16 of the PRIMAger channels.The Wiener-filtered prior source catalogue which is described in Section 3.2 is stored as joined_full_w_first_detected_centroid.fits.The catalogue of fluxes extracted from XID+ across all 16 PRIMAger channels using the Wiener-filtered prior source catalogue is stored as PRIMA_data_availability/XID_plus_output/wiener_filtered_prior_cat_results_catalogue.fits. The results from this catalogue are discussed in Section 5.1 of the article.The full posteriors outputted from XID+ across all 16 PRIMAger channels using the Deep prior source catalogue with some prior flux knowledge are stored within PRIMA_data_availability/XID_plus_output/deep_prior_catalogue_posteriors. Within this folder there are subfolders for each of the 16 PRIMAger channels which contain .pkl files for 4 HEALpix tiles, each of which contain the full XID+ flux posteriors for a subset of the simulated sources. The median value of these flux posteriors form the results from Section 5.2 of the article.In order to reproduce the above results from the simulated PRIMAger maps, the software package XID+ must be employed, as detailed in Section 4.1 of the article and is available here. Article Abstract:The PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA) concept aims to perform mapping with spectral coverage and sensitivities inaccessible to previous FIR space telescopes. PRIMA's imaging instrument, PRIMAger, provides unique hyperspectral imaging simultaneously covering 25-235 µm. We synthesise images representing a deep, 1500 hr deg-2 PRIMAger survey, with realistic instrumental and confusion noise. We demonstrate that we can construct catalogues of galaxies with a high purity (> 95 per cent) at a source density of 42k deg-2 using PRIMAger data alone. Using the XID+ deblending tool we show that we measure fluxes with an accuracy better than 20 per cent to flux levels of 0.16, 0.80, 9.7 and 15 mJy at 47.4, 79.7, 172, 235 µm respectively. These are a factor of ~2 and ~3 fainter than the classical confusion limits for 72-96 µm and 126-235 µm, respectively. At 1.5 ? ? 2, we detect and accurately measure fluxes in 8-10 of the 10 channels covering 47-235 µm for sources with 2 ? log(SFR) ? 2.5, a 0.5 dex improvement on what might be expected from the classical confusion limit. Recognising that PRIMager will operate in a context where high quality data will be available at other wavelengths, we investigate the benefits of introducing additional prior information. We show that by introducing even weak prior flux information when employing a higher source density catalogue (more than one source per beam) we can obtain accurate fluxes an order of magnitude below the classical confusion limit for 96-235 µm. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://sussex.figshare.com/articles/dataset/Data_for_Overcoming_Confusion_Noise_with_Hyperspectral_... |
| Title | Data for 'Overcoming Confusion Noise with Hyperspectral Imaging from PRIMAger' (2024) |
| Description | Data for paper published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 532, Issue 2, August 2024, Pages 1966-1979Description of data:The simulated PRIMAger maps generated via the SIDES simulation on which the analysis of the article was conducted are stored within the PRIMA_data_availability/PRIMAger_simulated_maps_w_instrumental_noise folder. There are 16 maps in total; 6 representing the PHI1 channels (PHI1_1 - PHI1_6), 6 representing the PHI2 channels (PHI2_1 - PHI2_6) and 4 representing the PPI channels (PPI1 - PPI4). These maps contain both realistic confusion and instrumental noise. The generation of these maps are discussed in details in Section 2 of the article.The full catalogue of all sources and their true physical parameters generated from the SIDES simulation is stored as PRIMA_data_availability/pySIDES_PRIMA.fits. The simulated maps are generated from this simulation catalogue, which also contains the true fluxes of each source in all 16 of the PRIMAger channels.The Wiener-filtered prior source catalogue which is described in Section 3.2 is stored as joined_full_w_first_detected_centroid.fits.The catalogue of fluxes extracted from XID+ across all 16 PRIMAger channels using the Wiener-filtered prior source catalogue is stored as PRIMA_data_availability/XID_plus_output/wiener_filtered_prior_cat_results_catalogue.fits. The results from this catalogue are discussed in Section 5.1 of the article.The full posteriors outputted from XID+ across all 16 PRIMAger channels using the Deep prior source catalogue with some prior flux knowledge are stored within PRIMA_data_availability/XID_plus_output/deep_prior_catalogue_posteriors. Within this folder there are subfolders for each of the 16 PRIMAger channels which contain .pkl files for 4 HEALpix tiles, each of which contain the full XID+ flux posteriors for a subset of the simulated sources. The median value of these flux posteriors form the results from Section 5.2 of the article.In order to reproduce the above results from the simulated PRIMAger maps, the software package XID+ must be employed, as detailed in Section 4.1 of the article and is available here. Article Abstract:The PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA) concept aims to perform mapping with spectral coverage and sensitivities inaccessible to previous FIR space telescopes. PRIMA's imaging instrument, PRIMAger, provides unique hyperspectral imaging simultaneously covering 25-235 µm. We synthesise images representing a deep, 1500 hr deg-2 PRIMAger survey, with realistic instrumental and confusion noise. We demonstrate that we can construct catalogues of galaxies with a high purity (> 95 per cent) at a source density of 42k deg-2 using PRIMAger data alone. Using the XID+ deblending tool we show that we measure fluxes with an accuracy better than 20 per cent to flux levels of 0.16, 0.80, 9.7 and 15 mJy at 47.4, 79.7, 172, 235 µm respectively. These are a factor of ~2 and ~3 fainter than the classical confusion limits for 72-96 µm and 126-235 µm, respectively. At 1.5 ? ? 2, we detect and accurately measure fluxes in 8-10 of the 10 channels covering 47-235 µm for sources with 2 ? log(SFR) ? 2.5, a 0.5 dex improvement on what might be expected from the classical confusion limit. Recognising that PRIMager will operate in a context where high quality data will be available at other wavelengths, we investigate the benefits of introducing additional prior information. We show that by introducing even weak prior flux information when employing a higher source density catalogue (more than one source per beam) we can obtain accurate fluxes an order of magnitude below the classical confusion limit for 96-235 µm. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://sussex.figshare.com/articles/dataset/Data_for_Overcoming_Confusion_Noise_with_Hyperspectral_... |
| Description | 4MOST |
| Organisation | European Southern Observatory (ESO) |
| Country | Germany |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | to be added later |
| Collaborator Contribution | to be added later |
| Impact | to be added later |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Euclid |
| Organisation | European Space Agency |
| Department | ESA Laboratories |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | to be added later |
| Collaborator Contribution | to be added later |
| Impact | to be added later |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Exhibit @ Future Lab @ Goodwood Festival of Speed |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Developed and staffed an exhibit at the Future Lab, a part of the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Exhibit was open for 3 full days and engaged with around 2000 people conservatively. Included significant media presence. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.goodwood.com/motorsport/festival-of-speed/explore-festival-of-speed/fos-future-lab/ |
| Description | Lewes STEM Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The Lewes STEM Festival STEM fair is a one day celebration of STEM activity in Sussex. The 2023 event featured around 30 exhibitors from local universities, businesses, and charitable organisations and welcomed ~1200 visitors over 4 hours. The event was entirely free to attend. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Media work with the Observer |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Media work with Robin McKie of the Observer/Guardian. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/dec/23/how-the-james-webb-telescope-is-set-to-find-strange-... |
| Description | Remote Talk @ The STEM Hub for Space Week |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Remote talk organised by the STEM Hub and delivered to a group of schools. 2580 students reached. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://thestemhub.org.uk/career-talks/talk/a-tale-of-two-telescopes-jwst-and-euclid |
| Description | Talk @ National Astronomy Meeting about JWST and Euclid |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | An invited public talk about JWST and Euclid at the National Astronomy Meeting hosted by the University of Cardiff |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Talk @ Observatory Science Centre Astronomy Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Talk at the Observatory Science Centre Astronomy Festival |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.the-observatory.org/astronomy-festival |
| Description | Talk @ Royal Society Lates |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A public talk at the Royal Society Lates event |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Talk @ Sussex Astronomy Christmas Lecture |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The inaugural Sussex Astronomy Christmas Lecture given by Prof. Stephen Wilkins. The event consisted of two evening lectures aimed at a general public audience and held in the Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |