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
Cockell CS
(2009)
Darwin--a mission to detect and search for life on extrasolar planets.
in Astrobiology
O'Malley-James JT
(2012)
Life and light: exotic photosynthesis in binary and multiple-star systems.
in Astrobiology
Morin J
(2013)
Multiple views of magnetism in cool stars
in Astronomische Nachrichten
Vidotto A
(2011)
Shock formation around planets orbiting M-dwarf stars
in Astronomische Nachrichten
Dominik M
(2010)
Realisation of a fully-deterministic microlensing observing strategy for inferring planet populations
in Astronomische Nachrichten
Tsapras Y
(2009)
RoboNet-II: Follow-up observations of microlensing events with a robotic network of telescopes
in Astronomische Nachrichten
Ertel S
(2012)
A peculiar class of debris disks from Herschel /DUNES A steep fall off in the far infrared
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Smalley B
(2011)
SuperWASP observations of pulsating Am stars
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Cameron E
(2008)
Galaxy evolution by color-log( n ) type since redshift unity in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Foster C
(2012)
Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the mass-metallicity relationship
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lestrade J
(2012)
A DEBRIS disk around the planet hosting M-star GJ 581 spatially resolved with Herschel
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Schwope A
(2011)
Dissecting the donor star in the eclipsing polar HU Aquarii
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Vidotto A
(2013)
Effects of M dwarf magnetic fields on potentially habitable planets
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Skillen I
(2009)
The 0.5 M J transiting exoplanet WASP-13b
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Enoch B
(2012)
Factors affecting the radii of close-in transiting exoplanets
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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
Batista V
(2011)
MOA-2009-BLG-387Lb: a massive planet orbiting an M dwarf
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Kains N
(2013)
A giant planet beyond the snow line in microlensing event OGLE-2011-BLG-0251
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Bachelet E
(2012)
A brown dwarf orbiting an M-dwarf: MOA 2009-BLG-411L
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Batista V
(2009)
Mass measurement of a single unseen star and planetary detection efficiency for OGLE 2007-BLG-050
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Gillon M
(2009)
Discovery and characterization of WASP-6b, an inflated sub-Jupiter mass planet transiting a solar-type star
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Zub M
(2010)
Limb-darkening measurements for a cool red giant in microlensing event OGLE 2004-BLG-482
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Norton A
(2011)
Short period eclipsing binary candidates identified using SuperWASP
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Acke B
(2012)
Herschel images of Fomalhaut An extrasolar Kuiper belt at the height of its dynamical activity
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Weidner C
(2010)
Limits on the orbits and masses of moons around currently-known transiting exoplanets
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Butters O
(2010)
The first WASP public data release
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Fouqué P
(2010)
OGLE 2008-BLG-290: an accurate measurement of the limb darkening of a galactic bulge K Giant spatially resolved by microlensing
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Matthews B
(2010)
Resolving debris discs in the far-infrared: Early highlights from the DEBRIS survey
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Vandenbussche B
(2010)
The ß Pictoris disk imaged by Herschel PACS and SPIRE
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Covino S
(2010)
Challenging gamma-ray burst models through the broadband dataset of GRB 060908
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Amblard A
(2010)
Herschel -ATLAS: Dust temperature and redshift distribution of SPIRE and PACS detected sources using submillimetre colours
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Dye S
(2010)
Herschel -ATLAS: Evolution of the 250 µm luminosity function out to z = 0.5
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Cassan A
(2010)
Bayesian analysis of caustic-crossing microlensing events
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Sibthorpe B
(2010)
The Vega debris disc: A view from Herschel
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
O'Malley-James J
(2012)
Swansong biospheres: refuges for life and novel microbial biospheres on terrestrial planets near the end of their habitable lifetimes
in International Journal of Astrobiology
Vidotto A
(2012)
The stellar wind cycles and planetary radio emission of the t Boo system Stellar wind of t Boo and planetary emission
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kains N
(2011)
Steady-state evolution of debris discs around solar-type stars Evolution of discs around solar-type stars
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
Vika M
(2009)
The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue: the M bh â?? L spheroid derived supermassive black hole mass function
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Wijesinghe D
(2011)
Galaxy and mass assembly (GAMA): dust obscuration in galaxies and their recent star formation histories Obscuration in galaxies and SFHs
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Smith R
(2009)
Fragmentation in molecular clouds and its connection to the IMF
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Johnstone C
(2010)
Modelling stellar coronae from surface magnetograms: the role of missing magnetic flux
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Dale J
(2011)
Ionizing feedback from massive stars in massive clusters: fake bubbles and untriggered star formation Ionizing feedback from massive stars
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hill D
(2010)
The ugrizYJHK luminosity distributions and densities from the combined MGC, SDSS and UKIDSS LAS data sets
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
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
Wijesinghe D
(2011)
GAMA/H-ATLAS: the ultraviolet spectral slope and obscuration in galaxies UV spectral slope and obscuration
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Vika M
(2012)
The near-IR Mbh-L and Mbh-n relations Mbh-L and Mbh-n relations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Christodoulou L
(2012)
Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): colour- and luminosity-dependent clustering from calibrated photometric redshifts GAMA clustering using photometric redshifts
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Enoch B
(2010)
WASP-25b: a 0.6 MJ planet in the Southern hemisphere WASP-25b
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Maschberger T
(2010)
Properties of hierarchically forming star clusters Hierarchically forming star clusters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society