Astrophysics at Oxford: 2010-2015
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Oxford Physics
Abstract
Astrophysicists at Oxford are trying to determine six basic things about the Universe. (1) What is it made of? The Universe appears to be at the beginning of a period of accelerated expansion driven by some mysterious stuff known as 'dark energy'. Einstein had a theory for what this stuff is: he called it the Cosmological Constant. We will be testing his theory by measuring the apparent brightnesses of distant exploding stars (supernovae), by measuring the distortions of distant galaxies as light is bent by the gravity of more nearby galaxies, and by measuring the precise positions of about one million galaxies. (2) What is the history of Hydrogen in the Universe? Hydrogen - the most abundant element in the Universe - is the most important building material for making stars. Atoms of Hydrogen combine into molecules within dense clouds, and these clouds provide the nursery for the birth of new stars. We will be using giant new telescopes operating at millimetre and radio wavelengths to observe, and hence understand, this process throughout most of the history of the Universe. (3) What can we learn about how galaxies formed from galaxies observed at current times? We are involved in large observational programmes that can be viewed as 'archaeology' of nearby galaxies looking for clues of important events in their history, for example by finding fast-moving gas orbiting a dormant supermassive black hole. We also study the relation between stellar populations and dark matter by studying the orbits of stars within and beyond the optical light in a galaxy. (4) What can we learn about how galaxies formed from distant galaxies observed at earlier times? Because of the finite speed of light, distant galaxies are seen when the Universe, and the galaxies within it, were young, and often these galaxies are so dusty that they are only effectively studied using infrared and radio observations. We map out the large-scale distribution of galaxies in the distant Universe using a combination of wide-field imaging (taking pictures) and spectroscopy (spreading light out into its constituent colours). We study these systems as they form and evolve, sometimes in dramatic bursts of star formation associated with supermassive black holes. (5) When did the first galaxies form? The Hydrogen in the Universe formed atoms about 300,000 years after the Big Bang, but was largely re-ionized (converted back to protons and electrons) during the so-called Epoch of Reionization. We use giant ground-based telescopes and satellites (e.g. the Hubble Space Telescope) to study these first galaxies and determine whether it was radiation associated with the birth of these galaxies, or stars within them, that was responsible for the re-ionization. (6) How do black holes influence star and galaxy formation? Black holes grow by 'gobbling up' gas and stars in a process called accretion. This process seems commonly to yield outflows in the form of winds and jets, the latter capable of reaching speeds very close to the speed of light. We study these systems in our own galaxy and in distant galaxies to determine the physics of such 'feedback mechanisms' (growth of the black hole is halted, albeit temporarily, by outflows driven by processes associated with the black hole). Our aim is to understand the influence of (compact) black holes on the formation of stars, galaxies and clusters of galaxies on much large physical scales.
Organisations
- University of Oxford (Lead Research Organisation)
- UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH (Collaboration)
- Leiden University (Collaboration)
- California Institute of Technology (Collaboration)
- University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Collaboration)
- Paris Institute of Astrophysics (Collaboration)
Publications
Fitzpatrick B.
(2011)
Asymmetry in common envelope ejecta
in Asymmetric Planetary Nebulae 5 Conference
Brofos James
(2014)
Automated Attribution and Intertextual Analysis
in arXiv e-prints
Miller L
(2013)
Bayesian galaxy shape measurement for weak lensing surveys - III. Application to the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Podsiadlowski P
(2014)
Binary Effects on Supernovae
in Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
Lin Jinrong
(2011)
Binary Evolution Leading to the Radio Pulsar PSR J1614-2230
in American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #217
Podsiadlowski Philipp
(2010)
Binary Models for the Progenitors of "Peculiar" Supernovae
in Progenitors and Environments of Stellar Explosions
Podsiadlowski P.
(2012)
Binary Progenitors for Long-Duration Gamma-Ray Bursts
in Gamma-Ray Bursts 2012 Conference (GRB 2012)
Nobuta K
(2012)
BLACK HOLE MASS AND EDDINGTON RATIO DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS OF X-RAY-SELECTED BROAD-LINE AGNs AT z ~ 1.4 IN THE SUBARU XMM-NEWTON DEEP FIELD
in The Astrophysical Journal
Mould J
(2015)
Black holes in 4 nearby radio galaxies
in Astrophysics and Space Science
Richards J
(2011)
BLAZARS IN THE FERMI ERA: THE OVRO 40 m TELESCOPE MONITORING PROGRAM
in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Conti I
(2017)
Calibration of weak-lensing shear in the Kilo-Degree Survey
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Delahaye Timur
(2012)
Can
Planck constrain indirect detection of dark matter in our Galaxy?
in MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Albornoz Vásquez D
(2010)
Can neutralinos in the MSSM and NMSSM scenarios still be light?
in Physical Review D
Delahaye T
(2012)
Can Planck constrain indirect detection of dark matter in our Galaxy?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Prokhorov D
(2010)
CAN THE EXCESS IN THE Fe XXVI Ly? LINE FROM THE GALACTIC CENTER PROVIDE EVIDENCE FOR 17 keV STERILE NEUTRINOS?
in The Astrophysical Journal
Bœhm C
(2010)
Can the morphology of ?-ray emission distinguish annihilating from decaying dark matter?
in Physical review letters
Szczurek Antoni
(2011)
Central production of gluonic and quark-antiquark dijets and background to central production of Higgs boson
in arXiv e-prints
Heymans C
(2013)
CFHTLenS tomographic weak lensing cosmological parameter constraints: Mitigating the impact of intrinsic galaxy alignments
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Benjamin J
(2013)
CFHTLenS tomographic weak lensing: quantifying accurate redshift distributions
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Simon P
(2015)
CFHTLenS: a Gaussian likelihood is a sufficient approximation for a cosmological analysis of third-order cosmic shear statistics
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ford J
(2015)
CFHTLenS: a weak lensing shear analysis of the 3D-Matched-Filter galaxy clusters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hudson M
(2015)
CFHTLenS: co-evolution of galaxies and their dark matter haloes
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kilbinger M
(2013)
CFHTLenS: combined probe cosmological model comparison using 2D weak gravitational lensing
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Fu L
(2014)
CFHTLenS: cosmological constraints from a combination of cosmic shear two-point and three-point correlations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Simon P
(2013)
CFHTLenS: higher order galaxy-mass correlations probed by galaxy-galaxy-galaxy lensing
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hildebrandt H
(2012)
CFHTLenS: improving the quality of photometric redshifts with precision photometry? CFHTLenS: photometric redshifts
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Van Waerbeke L
(2013)
CFHTLenS: mapping the large-scale structure with gravitational lensing
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Simpson F
(2013)
CFHTLenS: testing the laws of gravity with tomographic weak lensing and redshift-space distortions
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Erben T
(2013)
CFHTLenS: the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey - imaging data and catalogue products
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Heymans C
(2012)
CFHTLenS: the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey CFHTLenS
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gillis B
(2013)
CFHTLenS: the environmental dependence of galaxy halo masses from weak lensing
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Velander M
(2014)
CFHTLenS: the relation between galaxy dark matter haloes and baryons from weak gravitational lensing
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kettula K
(2015)
CFHTLenS: weak lensing calibrated scaling relations for low-mass clusters of galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Schrabback T
(2015)
CFHTLenS: weak lensing constraints on the ellipticity of galaxy-scale matter haloes and the galaxy-halo misalignment
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Linford J
(2011)
CHARACTERISTICS OF GAMMA-RAY LOUD BLAZARS IN THE VLBA IMAGING AND POLARIMETRY SURVEY
in The Astrophysical Journal
De Franco A
(2017)
Cherenkov telescope array extragalactic survey discovery potential and the impact of axion-like particles and secondary gamma rays
in Astroparticle Physics
Jakob M
(2015)
Climate science: Unburnable fossil-fuel reserves.
in Nature
Cibirka N
(2017)
CODEX weak lensing: concentration of galaxy clusters at z ~ 0.5
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Rowan-Robinson M
(2010)
Cold dust and young starbursts: spectral energy distributions of Herschel SPIRE sources from the HerMES survey? Cold dust and young starbursts
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ivanova N
(2013)
Common envelope evolution: where we stand and how we can move forward
in The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review
Peirani S
(2010)
Composite star formation histories of early-type galaxies from minor mergers: prospects for WFC3 Composite star formation histories of ETGs
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Prokhorov D
(2010)
Comptonization of the cosmic microwave background by high energy particles residing in AGN cocoons
in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Patat F
(2011)
Connecting RS Ophiuchi to [some] type Ia supernovae
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
McDermid R
(2014)
CONNECTION BETWEEN DYNAMICALLY DERIVED INITIAL MASS FUNCTION NORMALIZATION AND STELLAR POPULATION PARAMETERS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Jönsson J
(2010)
Constraining dark matter halo properties using lensed Supernova Legacy Survey supernovae
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kimm T
(2012)
Constraining stellar assembly and active galactic nucleus feedback at the peak epoch of star formation Stellar assembly and AGN feedback at 1 = z = 2
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Hartmann M
(2011)
Constraining the role of star cluster mergers in nuclear cluster formation: simulations confront integral-field data Cluster mergers in nuclear cluster formation
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Meng X
(2013)
CONSTRAINING THE SPIN-DOWN TIMESCALE OF THE WHITE DWARF PROGENITORS OF TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE
in The Astrophysical Journal
Description | Canada France Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS) |
Organisation | Leiden University |
Department | Leiden Institute of Physics |
Country | Netherlands |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Miller was responsible for the shear measurements for this international collaboration, and took part in the cosmology analysis. |
Collaborator Contribution | Other aspects of the lensing analysis. |
Impact | Research publications |
Start Year | 2008 |
Description | Canada France Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS) |
Organisation | University of British Columbia |
Country | Canada |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Miller was responsible for the shear measurements for this international collaboration, and took part in the cosmology analysis. |
Collaborator Contribution | Other aspects of the lensing analysis. |
Impact | Research publications |
Start Year | 2008 |
Description | Canada France Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS) |
Organisation | University of Edinburgh |
Department | School of Physics and Astronomy |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Miller was responsible for the shear measurements for this international collaboration, and took part in the cosmology analysis. |
Collaborator Contribution | Other aspects of the lensing analysis. |
Impact | Research publications |
Start Year | 2008 |
Description | EarLy unIverse Exploration with nIRspec (ELIXIR) |
Organisation | Paris Institute of Astrophysics |
Country | France |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | The Oxford network node has been analysing data from Hubble Space Telescope deep imaging fields (including those from the new WFC3 infrared camera) to determine observing strategies for JWST, and also to provide an initial target list for spectroscopy with NIRSpec on JWST. |
Collaborator Contribution | This is an EU FP7 network associated with the NIRSpec instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope. The Instrument Science Team comprises: Stephane Charlot (IAP, Paris - lead network); Andrew Bunker (Oxford); Marijn Franx (Leiden); Santiago Arribas (Madrid); Roberto Maiolino (Rome); Hans-Walter Rix (MPIA Heidelberg) and Peter Jakobsen (ESA), with out industrial partner (Astrium, Germany). We are responsible for the NIRSpec near-infrared spectrograph, which is being built and tested, and we will execute a 900-hour GTO programme to investigate galaxies at high redshift. The EU FP7 ELIXIR Network is intended to plan the science for this large programme. |
Impact | The Network funds several PhD students and Early Stage Researchers at the nodes across Europe, including two graduate students at Oxford (Joseph Caruana and Silvio Lorenzoni). These researchers have participated in many of the papers from our group, and Lorenzoni has a first-author paper accepted. |
Start Year | 2008 |
Description | Galaxies in the Reionization Epoch |
Organisation | California Institute of Technology |
Department | Caltech Astronomy |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Oxford has been responsible for reducing the Hubble Space Telescope images and identifying potential high-redshift candidates through colour selection. |
Collaborator Contribution | Oxford has lead this project, in collaboration with Prof Richard Ellis at Caltech, using archival Hubble Space Telescope images with WFC3 to identify Lyman-break galaxies at z=7 and beyond. Caltech has mainly been involved in the spectroscopic follow-up. |
Impact | Five refereed accepted papers so far (Bunker et al. 2010; Wilkins et al. 2010; Lorenzoni et al. 2011; Wilkins et al. 2011, Wilkins et al. 2012). A press release in December 2009, resulting in extensive coverage. Several invited talks at conferences. |
Start Year | 2009 |
Description | Kilo Degree Survey weak lensing collaboration |
Organisation | Leiden University |
Department | Leiden Institute of Physics |
Country | Netherlands |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Responsible for the Point Spread Function modelling and weak lensing shear measurement, employed by the survey. Jointly responsible for cosmology analysis and paper writing. |
Collaborator Contribution | All other aspects of data collection, survey analysis and paper writing |
Impact | Research papers |
Start Year | 2011 |
Description | Kilo Degree Survey weak lensing collaboration |
Organisation | University of Edinburgh |
Department | School of Physics and Astronomy |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Responsible for the Point Spread Function modelling and weak lensing shear measurement, employed by the survey. Jointly responsible for cosmology analysis and paper writing. |
Collaborator Contribution | All other aspects of data collection, survey analysis and paper writing |
Impact | Research papers |
Start Year | 2011 |
Description | The WFC3 Spectroscopic Parallel (WISP) Survey |
Organisation | University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) |
Department | Physics and Astronomy |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Oxford is responsible for studying the star formation rates of these galaxies from their H-alpha line luminosities, and for constructing the line luminosity function at redshifts around one. |
Collaborator Contribution | The WISP collaboration, based at UCLA and also the Spitzer Science Center (in Caltech) and with collaborators elsewhere in the USA and Germany, is responsible for reducing the Hubble Space Telescope slitless grism spectroscopy to search for emission line objects at high redshift. Most of this reduction and cataloging occurs in Los Angeles. |
Impact | One refereed paper on the initial work - Atek et al. (2010) - and several more in preparation. Various presentations by the team at American Astronomical Society meetings. |
Start Year | 2008 |
Description | Press release on the first Hubble WFC3 Deep Infrared Images |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | We issued a press release on our work on 8 December 2009 entitled "Reinvigorated Hubble Space Telescope Reveals Most Distant Galaxies Yet". Our press release results in extensive coverage in the scientific media and the international press including: Nature Blog http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2009/12/ hubble_revisits_distant_haunt.html BBC News (online) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8401374.stm We also appeared in The Times (print version) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2009 |