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
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
Alexander D. M.
(2008)
RELIABLE IDENTIFICATION OF COMPTON-THICK QUASARS AT z ˜ 2:
SPITZER MID-INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY OF HDF-oMD49
in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Takata Tadafumi
(2006)
Rest-frame optical spectroscopic classifications for submillimeter galaxies
in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Alexander David
(2007)
Saturation of nonthermal hard X-ray emission in solar flares
in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Aharonian F
(2008)
Search for gamma rays from dark matter annihilations around intermediate mass black holes with the HESS experiment
in Physical Review D
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
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
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
Lee Induk
(2008)
Seoul National University Bright Quasar Survey in Optical (SNUQSO). I. First phase observations and results
in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL SUPPLEMENT SERIES
Kovac A.
(2006)
Sharc-2 350 µm observations of distant submillimeter-selected galaxies
in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Aharonian F
(2008)
Simultaneous HESS and Chandra observations of Sagitarius A$^{\star}$ during an X-ray flare
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Aharonian F
(2009)
Simultaneous multiwavelength observations of the second exceptional ? -ray flare of PKS 2155-304 in July 2006
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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
Cimatti A
(2008)
SPACE: the spectroscopic all-sky cosmic explorer
in Experimental Astronomy
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
Lehnert M
(2010)
Spectroscopic confirmation of a galaxy at redshift z = 8.6
in Nature
Aharonian F
(2009)
Spectrum and variability of the Galactic center VHE ? -ray source HESS J1745-290
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Hopwood R
(2011)
SPITZER IMAGING OF HERSCHEL -ATLAS GRAVITATIONALLY LENSED SUBMILLIMETER SOURCES
in The Astrophysical Journal
Tanaka M
(2009)
Star formation activities of galaxies in the large-scale structures at z = 1.2
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Shao L
(2010)
Star formation in AGN hosts in GOODS-N
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Evans C
(2011)
Stellar metallicities beyond the Local Group: the potential of J -band spectroscopy with extremely large telescopes
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Rawle T
(2010)
Stellar population gradients in early-type cluster galaxies
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
Murray G
(2009)
Strategies for spectroscopy on Extremely Large Telescopes - II. Diverse-field spectroscopy
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Poppett C
(2009)
Strategies for spectroscopy on extremely large telescopes - III. Remapping switched fibre systems
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Morris S
(2009)
String-like Lagrangians from a generalized geometry
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Tamura Y
(2010)
SUBMILLIMETER ARRAY IDENTIFICATION OF THE MILLIMETER-SELECTED GALAXY SSA22-AzTEC1: A PROTOQUASAR IN A PROTOCLUSTER?
in The Astrophysical Journal
Tacconi L. J.
(2008)
Submillimeter galaxies at
z~2:: Evidence for major mergers and constraints on lifetimes, IMF, and CO-H
2 conversion factor
in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
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
Alexander D
(2006)
Temporal and spatial relationships between ultraviolet and hard X-ray emission in solar flares
in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Balogh M
(2008)
Testing cold dark matter with the hierarchical build-up of stellar light
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Coppin K
(2008)
Testing the evolutionary link between submillimetre galaxies and quasars: CO observations of QSOs at z ~ 2
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Luo B.
(2008)
THE
CHANDRA DEEP FIELD-SOUTH SURVEY: 2 Ms SOURCE CATALOGS
in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL SUPPLEMENT SERIES
Carter David
(2008)
The
Hubble Space Telescope advanced camera for surveys coma cluster survey.: I.: Survey objectives and design
in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL SUPPLEMENT SERIES
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
Croom S
(2009)
The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey: the spectroscopic QSO catalogue
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Croom S
(2009)
The 2dF???SDSS LRG and QSO survey: the QSO luminosity function at 0.4 < z < 2.6
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Jones D
(2009)
The 6dF Galaxy Survey: final redshift release (DR3) and southern large-scale structures
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
Donley J
(2010)
THE AGN, STAR-FORMING, AND MORPHOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF LUMINOUS IR-BRIGHT/OPTICALLY-FAINT GALAXIES
in The Astrophysical Journal
Davis M.
(2007)
The All-Wavelength Extended Groth Strip International Survey (AEGIS) data sets
in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Shone A
(2010)
The association between gas and galaxies - III. The cross-correlation of galaxies and Lya absorbers at
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Dunlop J
(2010)
The BLAST 250 µm-selected galaxy population in GOODS-South BLAST 250 µm galaxies in GOODS-South
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Fine S
(2010)
The C iv linewidth distribution for quasars and its implications for broad-line region dynamics and virial mass estimation The C iv linewidth distribution
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
McCarthy I
(2010)
The case for AGN feedback in galaxy groups AGN feedback in galaxy groups
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lehmer B
(2009)
THE CHANDRA DEEP PROTOCLUSTER SURVEY: EVIDENCE FOR AN ENHANCEMENT OF AGN ACTIVITY IN THE SSA22 PROTOCLUSTER AT z = 3.09
in The Astrophysical Journal
Geach J
(2009)
THE CHANDRA DEEP PROTOCLUSTER SURVEY: Lya BLOBS ARE POWERED BY HEATING, NOT COOLING
in The Astrophysical Journal
Lehmer B
(2009)
The Chandra Deep Protocluster Survey: point-source catalogues for a 400-ks observation of the z = 3.09 protocluster in SSA22
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
Sobral D
(2010)
The clustering and evolution of Ha emitters at z ~ 1 from HiZELS
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 |