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
Buckle J
(2010)
The JCMT Legacy Survey of the Gould Belt: a first look at Orion B with HARP
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Graves S
(2010)
The JCMT Legacy Survey of the Gould Belt: a first look at Serpens with HARP GBS: first look at Serpens
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Davis C
(2010)
The JCMT Legacy Survey of the Gould Belt: a first look at Taurus with HARP
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Buckle J
(2012)
The JCMT Legacy Survey of the Gould Belt: mapping 13CO and C18O in Orion A GBS HARP survey: Orion A
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bentz M
(2010)
THE LICK AGN MONITORING PROJECT: VELOCITY-DELAY MAPS FROM THE MAXIMUM-ENTROPY METHOD FOR Arp 151
in The Astrophysical Journal
West R
(2009)
THE LOW DENSITY TRANSITING EXOPLANET WASP-15b
in The Astronomical Journal
Gregory S
(2010)
The magnetic fields of forming solar-like stars
in Reports on Progress in Physics
Collier Cameron A
(2009)
The main-sequence rotation???colour relation in the Coma Berenices open cluster
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cameron E
(2009)
THE MILLENNIUM GALAXY CATALOGUE: EXPLORING THE COLOR-CONCENTRATION BIMODALITY VIA BULGE-DISK DECOMPOSITION
in The Astrophysical Journal
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
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
Moeckel N
(2012)
The rapid dispersal of low-mass virialized clusters The rapid dispersal of low-mass clusters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Weidner C
(2010)
The relation between the most-massive star and its parental star cluster mass
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Christian D
(2011)
THE SEARCH FOR SUPER-SATURATION IN CHROMOSPHERIC EMISSION
in The Astrophysical Journal
Llama J
(2011)
The shocking transit of WASP-12b: modelling the observed early ingress in the near-ultraviolet The shocking transit of WASP-12b
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Smith R
(2009)
The simultaneous formation of massive stars and stellar clusters The formation of massive stars and clusters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Simpson E
(2011)
The spin-orbit angles of the transiting exoplanets WASP-1b, WASP-24b, WASP-38b and HAT-P-8b from Rossiter-McLaughlin observations? The spin-orbit alignment of 4 exoplanets
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
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
Walker-Smith S
(2013)
The structure and kinematics of dense gas in NGC 2068
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Grier C
(2013)
THE STRUCTURE OF THE BROAD-LINE REGION IN ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI. I. RECONSTRUCTED VELOCITY-DELAY MAPS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Savorgnan G
(2013)
The supermassive black hole mass-Sérsic index relations for bulges and elliptical galaxies
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
Sibthorpe B
(2010)
The Vega debris disc: A view from Herschel
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Vandenbussche B
(2010)
The ß Pictoris disk imaged by Herschel PACS and SPIRE
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Vidotto A
(2011)
Transit variability in bow shock-hosting planets Transit variability in shock-hosting planets
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Driver S
(2013)
Two-phase galaxy evolution: the cosmic star formation histories of spheroids and discs
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Llama J
(2012)
Using Kepler transit observations to measure stellar spot belt migration rates Measuring spot latitude drift rates with transits
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Christian D
(2009)
WASP-10b: a 3M J , gas-giant planet transiting a late-type K star
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hebb L
(2009)
WASP-12b: THE HOTTEST TRANSITING EXTRASOLAR PLANET YET DISCOVERED
in The Astrophysical Journal
Joshi Y
(2009)
WASP-14b: 7.3 M J transiting planet in an eccentric orbit
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lister T
(2009)
WASP-16b: A NEW JUPITER-LIKE PLANET TRANSITING A SOUTHERN SOLAR ANALOG
in The Astrophysical Journal
Anderson D
(2010)
WASP-17b: AN ULTRA-LOW DENSITY PLANET IN A PROBABLE RETROGRADE ORBIT
in The Astrophysical Journal
Hebb L
(2010)
WASP-19b: THE SHORTEST PERIOD TRANSITING EXOPLANET YET DISCOVERED
in The Astrophysical Journal
Maxted P
(2010)
WASP-22 b: A TRANSITING "HOT JUPITER" PLANET IN A HIERARCHICAL TRIPLE SYSTEM
in The Astronomical Journal
Enoch B
(2010)
WASP-25b: a 0.6 MJ planet in the Southern hemisphere WASP-25b
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Simpson E
(2011)
WASP-37b: A 1.8 M J EXOPLANET TRANSITING A METAL-POOR STAR
in The Astronomical Journal
Hellier C
(2009)
WASP-7: A BRIGHT TRANSITING-EXOPLANET SYSTEM IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
in The Astrophysical Journal
Guo Q
(2011)
Which haloes host Herschel-ATLAS galaxies in the local Universe? Clustering of Herschel-ATLAS galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hussain G
(2010)
X-ray coronae and stellar magnetospheres