Astrophysics in St Andrews/SUPA
Lead Research Organisation:
University of St Andrews
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
The St Andrews astronomy group is interested in questions of origins: where do galaxies, stars and planets come from, and what fundamental physics explains their formation? We are world leaders in solving intricate mathematical problems in these areas, and we use novel methods such as observations at very high precision and simulations with super-computers. Recently we have joined with other groups across Scotland via the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA), and in particular broadened our studies of planet formation via theoretical and experimental work from new team members in Edinburgh and Strathclyde. We study a very wide spread of size scales, from discovering planetary systems around stars a few light years away out to measuring the force of gravity acting on the whole universe. We are especially known for comparing observations and theory of astronomical phenomena, so as to best understand the real universe. For example, we predict how protostars form in molecular clouds and grow and interact, and then observe real clouds to test that young stars have the predicted masses and positions. We have five major themes to our research programme. Theme A involves the search for planets beyond the Solar System and focuses on finding the first planets of mass as low as the Earth's. We use timing of transits, when a planet crosses the face of its star causing a brief darkening, and also gravitational lensing, which exploits Einstein's prediction that a planet drifting across the sightline to a distant background star will bend more of its light towards us. Theme B studies how these extrasolar planets form, in the brief time when a young star is orbited by a remnant disc of gases and rocks. We simulate how this material collects into planets, and check that the basic physics is correct using low-gravity plane flights to experimentally collide rocks in interstellar-like conditions of cold and vacuum. The results are tested by imaging real discs to track how planet systems form and then evolve over billions of years. Theme C examines how the young stars themselves form out of gas clouds, and we are working towards simulations with a billion interacting test particles, to study whether events like supernova explosions trigger the birth of new generations of stars. We also analyse if a star connects by magnetic fields to its disc, and if this affects how fast the star spins and what happens to the material that could form planets. Theme D expands this work to much bigger scales, and we will simulate a whole galaxy of stars, while a survey of 250,000 galaxies will study how their structure emerges. If we know how galaxies form into their characteristic shapes of flat discs, spiral arms and central bulges, we can then look at exotic phenomena such as mass flowing inwards to make a super-massive black hole. The intense light from these black holes has an echo effect as it travels to our telescopes that we also use to study the mass and expansion of the universe as a whole. Theme E wraps up this large-scale picture of the universe by testing Newton's law of gravity - some strange results on how galaxies move could be explained if the law is different on small and large scales. We explore this new idea mathematically and design astronomical observations to test it, ranging from the motion of spacecraft in the Solar System to fluctuations in radiation left over from the Big Bang. We address key questions in the Science Roadmap, especially: what are the laws of physics in extreme conditions? how do galaxies, stars and planets form and evolve? and are we alone in the universe? Our work uses many STFC-funded telescopes at a wide range of wavelengths from radio through visible to X-ray. Our new science projects are building up to use major international projects such as ALMA, eMERLIN, Herschel, JWST, SKA and the KEPLER and PLATO planet-detection missions.
Organisations
Publications
Smilgys R
(2016)
Star formation in Galactic flows
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bauer A
(2013)
Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): linking star formation histories and stellar mass growth
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Mohanty S
(2013)
PROTOPLANETARY DISK MASSES FROM STARS TO BROWN DWARFS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Choi J
(2013)
MICROLENSING DISCOVERY OF A POPULATION OF VERY TIGHT, VERY LOW MASS BINARY BROWN DWARFS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Rice K
(2013)
How fast do Jupiters grow? Signatures of the snowline and growth rate in the distribution of gas giant planets
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Broekhoven-Fiene H
(2013)
THE DEBRIS DISK AROUND ? DORADUS RESOLVED WITH HERSCHEL
in The Astrophysical Journal
Street R
(2013)
MOA-2010-BLG-073L: AN M-DWARF WITH A SUBSTELLAR COMPANION AT THE PLANET/BROWN DWARF BOUNDARY
in The Astrophysical Journal
Helling C
(2013)
IONIZATION IN ATMOSPHERES OF BROWN DWARFS AND EXTRASOLAR PLANETS. III. BREAKDOWN CONDITIONS FOR MINERAL CLOUDS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Kaviraj S
(2013)
A Herschel?-ATLAS study of dusty spheroids: probing the minor-merger process in the local Universe
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Llama J
(2013)
Exoplanet transit variability: bow shocks and winds around HD 189733b
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Doyle A
(2013)
Accurate spectroscopic parameters of WASP planet host stars?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Dale J
(2013)
Ionization-induced star formation - V. Triggering in partially unbound clusters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Sadavoy S
(2013)
THE HERSCHEL AND JCMT GOULD BELT SURVEYS: CONSTRAINING DUST PROPERTIES IN THE PERSEUS B1 CLUMP WITH PACS, SPIRE, AND SCUBA-2
in The Astrophysical Journal
Han C
(2013)
MICROLENSING DISCOVERY OF A TIGHT, LOW-MASS-RATIO PLANETARY-MASS OBJECT AROUND AN OLD FIELD BROWN DWARF
in The Astrophysical Journal
Ainsworth R
(2013)
Subarcsecond high-sensitivity measurements of the DG Tau jet with e-MERLIN
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Pepe F
(2013)
An Earth-sized planet with an Earth-like density.
in Nature
Blake C
(2013)
Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): improved cosmic growth measurements using multiple tracers of large-scale structure
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Schneider M
(2013)
Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): galaxy radial alignments in GAMA groups
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Dale J
(2013)
Ionization-induced star formation - IV. Triggering in bound clusters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Morin J
(2013)
Multiple views of magnetism in cool stars
in Astronomische Nachrichten
Dale J
(2013)
Ionizing feedback from massive stars in massive clusters - III. Disruption of partially unbound clouds
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lara-López M
(2013)
Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the connection between metals, specific SFR and H i gas in galaxies: the Z-SSFR relation
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Robotham A
(2013)
Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the life and times of L? galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Driver S
(2013)
Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the 0.013 < z < 0.1 cosmic spectral energy distribution from 0.1 m to 1 mm
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Yee J
(2013)
MOA-2010-BLG-311: A PLANETARY CANDIDATE BELOW THE THRESHOLD OF RELIABLE DETECTION
in The Astrophysical Journal
Vidotto A
(2013)
Effects of M dwarf magnetic fields on potentially habitable planets
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Grier C
(2013)
THE STRUCTURE OF THE BROAD-LINE REGION IN ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI. I. RECONSTRUCTED VELOCITY-DELAY MAPS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Smith R
(2013)
LINE PROFILES OF CORES WITHIN CLUSTERS. II. SIGNATURES OF DYNAMICAL COLLAPSE DURING HIGH-MASS STAR FORMATION
in The Astrophysical Journal
Hwang K
(2013)
INTERPRETATION OF A SHORT-TERM ANOMALY IN THE GRAVITATIONAL MICROLENSING EVENT MOA-2012-BLG-486
in The Astrophysical Journal
Park H
(2013)
GRAVITATIONAL BINARY-LENS EVENTS WITH PROMINENT EFFECTS OF LENS ORBITAL MOTION
in The Astrophysical Journal
Hopkins A
(2013)
Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): spectroscopic analysis
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gould A
(2013)
KEPLER -LIKE MULTI-PLEXING FOR MASS PRODUCTION OF MICROLENS PARALLAXES
in The Astrophysical Journal
Hardcastle M
(2013)
Herschel-ATLAS/GAMA: a difference between star formation rates in strong-line and weak-line radio galaxies?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gould A
(2013)
MOA-2010-BLG-523: "FAILED PLANET" = RS CVn STAR
in The Astrophysical Journal
Driver S
(2013)
Two-phase galaxy evolution: the cosmic star formation histories of spheroids and discs
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Grootes M
(2013)
GAMA/H-ATLAS: THE DUST OPACITY-STELLAR MASS SURFACE DENSITY RELATION FOR SPIRAL GALAXIES
in The Astrophysical Journal
Owers M
(2013)
GALAXY AND MASS ASSEMBLY (GAMA): WITNESSING THE ASSEMBLY OF THE CLUSTER ABELL 1882
in The Astrophysical Journal
Häußler B
(2013)
MegaMorph - multiwavelength measurement of galaxy structure: complete Sérsic profile information from modern surveys
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Scandariato G
(2013)
A coordinated optical and X-ray spectroscopic campaign on HD 179949: searching for planet-induced chromospheric and coronal activity
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Savorgnan G
(2013)
The supermassive black hole mass-Sérsic index relations for bulges and elliptical galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Helling C
(2013)
Dust cloud lightning in extraterrestrial atmospheres
in Planetary and Space Science
Dale J
(2013)
Massive stars in massive clusters - IV. Disruption of clouds by momentum-driven winds
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Panic O
(2013)
First results of the SONS survey: submillimetre detections of debris discs
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kains N
(2013)
A giant planet beyond the snow line in microlensing event OGLE-2011-BLG-0251
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lucas W
(2013)
Misaligned streamers around a Galactic Centre black hole from a single cloud's infall
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Walker-Smith S
(2013)
The structure and kinematics of dense gas in NGC 2068
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Galianni P
(2013)
A test of the failed disc wind scenario for the origin of the broad-line region in active galactic nuclei
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Agius N
(2013)
GAMA/H-ATLAS: linking the properties of submm detected and undetected early-type galaxies - I. z = 0.06 sample
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gunawardhana M
(2013)
Galaxy And Mass Assembly: evolution of the Ha luminosity function and star formation rate density up to z < 0.35
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bonnell I
(2013)
Shocks, cooling and the origin of star formation rates in spiral galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society