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
Poppett C
(2009)
Strategies for spectroscopy on extremely large telescopes - III. Remapping switched fibre systems
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Murray G
(2009)
Strategies for spectroscopy on Extremely Large Telescopes - II. Diverse-field spectroscopy
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Rawle T
(2008)
Stellar population gradients in early-type cluster galaxies with VIMOS IFU? Stellar population gradients
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Rawle T
(2010)
Stellar population gradients in early-type cluster galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Evans C
(2011)
Stellar metallicities beyond the Local Group: the potential of J -band spectroscopy with extremely large telescopes
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Shao L
(2010)
Star formation in AGN hosts in GOODS-N
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Tanaka M
(2009)
Star formation activities of galaxies in the large-scale structures at z = 1.2
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Hopwood R
(2011)
SPITZER IMAGING OF HERSCHEL -ATLAS GRAVITATIONALLY LENSED SUBMILLIMETER SOURCES
in The Astrophysical Journal
Aharonian F
(2009)
Spectrum and variability of the Galactic center VHE ? -ray source HESS J1745-290
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lehnert MD
(2010)
Spectroscopic confirmation of a galaxy at redshift z = 8.6.
in Nature
Casey C
(2011)
Spectroscopic characterization of 250-µm-selected hyper-luminous star-forming galaxies 250-µm galaxies at z>1
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cimatti A
(2008)
SPACE: the spectroscopic all-sky cosmic explorer
in Experimental Astronomy
Aharonian F
(2009)
SIMULTANEOUS OBSERVATIONS OF PKS 2155-304 WITH HESS, FERMI , RXTE , AND ATOM: SPECTRAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTIONS AND VARIABILITY IN A LOW STATE
in The Astrophysical Journal
Aharonian F
(2009)
Simultaneous multiwavelength observations of the second exceptional ? -ray flare of PKS 2155-304 in July 2006
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Aharonian F
(2008)
Simultaneous HESS and Chandra observations of Sagitarius A$^{\star}$ during an X-ray flare
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Kovac A.
(2006)
Sharc-2 350 µm observations of distant submillimeter-selected galaxies
in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Lee Induk
(2008)
Seoul National University Bright Quasar Survey in Optical (SNUQSO). I. First phase observations and results
in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL SUPPLEMENT SERIES
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
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
Abramowski A
(2011)
Search for Lorentz Invariance breaking with a likelihood fit of the PKS 2155-304 flare data taken on MJD 53944
in Astroparticle Physics
Aharonian F
(2008)
Search for gamma rays from dark matter annihilations around intermediate mass black holes with the HESS experiment
in Physical Review D
Alexander David
(2007)
Saturation of nonthermal hard X-ray emission in solar flares
in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Takata Tadafumi
(2006)
Rest-frame optical spectroscopic classifications for submillimeter galaxies
in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Alexander D. M.
(2008)
RELIABLE IDENTIFICATION OF COMPTON-THICK QUASARS AT z ˜ 2:
SPITZER MID-INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY OF HDF-oMD49
in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Middleton M
(2009)
RE J1034+396: the origin of the soft X-ray excess and quasi-periodic oscillation
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
McCarthy I
(2008)
Ram pressure stripping the hot gaseous haloes of galaxies in groups and clusters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
VERITAS Collaboration
(2009)
Radio imaging of the very-high-energy gamma-ray emission region in the central engine of a radio galaxy.
in Science (New York, N.Y.)
Raimundo S
(2010)
Radiation pressure, absorption and AGN feedback in the Chandra Deep Fields Absorption in the Chandra Deep Fields
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
Aharonian F
(2009)
Probing the ATIC peak in the cosmic-ray electron spectrum with H.E.S.S.
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Appourchaux T
(2008)
POLAR investigation of the Sun-POLARIS
in Experimental Astronomy
Bielby R
(2010)
Photometric selection of emission-line galaxies, clustering analysis and a search for the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Andersen David R.
(2006)
Performance modeling of a wide-field ground-layer adaptive optics system
in PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF THE PACIFIC
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
Tian Lirong
(2008)
Origins of coronal energy and helicity in NOAA 10030
in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Mullaney J
(2008)
Optical emission-line properties of narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies and comparison active galactic nuclei Emission line properties of NLS1 AGN
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
Gargiulo A
(2009)
On the origin of the scatter around the Fundamental Plane: correlations with stellar population parameters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Fan Y
(2009)
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE ASYMMETRIC HELICITY INJECTION IN EMERGING ACTIVE REGIONS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Tian Lirong
(2008)
On the origin of magnetic helicity in the solar corona
in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Mitchell N
(2009)
On the origin of cores in simulated galaxy clusters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Campisi M
(2009)
On the nature of red galaxies: the Chandra perspective
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Geach J
(2011)
ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE MOLECULAR GAS FRACTION OF STAR-FORMING GALAXIES
in The Astrophysical Journal
Tian L
(2011)
ON ASYMMETRY OF MAGNETIC HELICITY IN EMERGING ACTIVE REGIONS: HIGH-RESOLUTION OBSERVATIONS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Hainline Laura J.
(2006)
Observing cold gas in submillimeter galaxies:: Detection of CO (1?0) emission in SMM J13120+4242 with the Green Bank Telescope
in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Aharonian F
(2008)
Observations of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy by the HESS experiment and search for a dark matter signal
in Astroparticle Physics
Salomé P
(2008)
Observations of CO in the eastern filaments of NGC 1275
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Gilbert Holly
(2007)
Observational evidence supporting cross-field diffusion of neutral material in solar filaments
in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Garn T
(2010)
Obscured star formation at z = 0.84 with HiZELS: the relationship between star formation rate and Ha or ultraviolet dust extinction
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
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 |