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)
- Paris Institute of Astrophysics (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Collaboration)
Publications
Dilday B
(2012)
PTF 11kx: a type Ia supernova with a symbiotic nova progenitor.
in Science (New York, N.Y.)
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
Davies R
(2012)
Telescopes of the future
in Astronomy & Geophysics
McDermid R
(2012)
The star-formation histories of early-type galaxies from ATLAS 3D
in Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
Onodera M
(2012)
DEEP NEAR-INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY OF PASSIVELY EVOLVING GALAXIES AT z ? 1.4
in The Astrophysical Journal
Russell H
(2012)
The X-ray luminous cluster underlying the z = 1.04 quasar PKS 1229-021 The X-ray luminous cluster underlying PKS 1229-021
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Heymans C
(2012)
The impact of high spatial frequency atmospheric distortions on weak-lensing measurements Atmospheric distortions
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Förster F
(2013)
Hydrostatic 12 C Burning in CO WDs: the Simmering Phase of SNe Ia Progenitors
in Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
Yuan F
(2013)
Locations of peculiar supernovae as a diagnostic of their origins
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pareschi G.
(2013)
The Dual-mirror Small Size Telescope for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
in International Cosmic Ray Conference
Scott N
(2013)
The ATLAS3D project - XXI. Correlations between gradients of local escape velocity and stellar populations in early-type galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Podsiadlowski P
(2013)
Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems
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
Casaponsa B
(2013)
Size magnification as a complement to cosmic shear
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cappellari M
(2013)
Dynamical masses of early-type galaxies at z ~ 2
in Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
Serra P
(2013)
Discovery of a giant H i tail in the galaxy group HCG 44
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
Davis TA
(2013)
A black-hole mass measurement from molecular gas kinematics in NGC4526.
in Nature
Pastorello N
(2013)
The planetary nebulae population in the nuclear regions of M31: the SAURON view
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
CTA Consortium The
(2013)
CTA contributions to the 33rd International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2013)
in arXiv e-prints
Ciardullo R
(2013)
THE HETDEX PILOT SURVEY. IV. THE EVOLUTION OF [O II] EMITTING GALAXIES FROM z ~ 0.5 TO z ~ 0
in The Astrophysical Journal
Ferber Asaf
(2013)
A construction of almost Steiner systems
in arXiv e-prints
Gofford J
(2013)
The Suzaku view of highly ionized outflows in AGN - I. Statistical detection and global absorber properties
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bunker A
(2013)
VLT/XSHOOTER and Subaru/MOIRCS spectroscopy of HUDF.YD3: no evidence for Lyman a emission at z = 8.55?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ajello M
(2013)
THE COSMIC EVOLUTION OF FERMI BL LACERTAE OBJECTS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Ivanova N
(2013)
Common envelope evolution: where we stand and how we can move forward
in The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review
Jarvis M
(2013)
The VISTA Deep Extragalactic Observations (VIDEO) survey?
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
Caruana J
(2013)
No evidence for Lyman emission in spectroscopy of z > 7 candidate galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Johnston E
(2013)
Disentangling the stellar populations in the counter-rotating disc galaxy NGC 4550
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Sarzi M
(2013)
The ATLAS3D project - XIX. The hot gas content of early-type galaxies: fast versus slow rotators
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Matsumoto Jiro
(2013)
The Casimir effect as a candidate of dark energy
in arXiv e-prints
Potter W
(2013)
Uncovering the physics behind the blazar sequence using a realistic model for jet emission
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Martig M
(2013)
The ATLAS3D project - XXII. Low-efficiency star formation in early-type galaxies: hydrodynamic models and observations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bauermeister A
(2013)
THE EGNoG SURVEY: GAS EXCITATION IN NORMAL GALAXIES AT z ˜ 0.3
in The Astrophysical Journal
Cappellari M
(2013)
The ATLAS3D project - XX. Mass-size and mass-s distributions of early-type galaxies: bulge fraction drives kinematics, mass-to-light ratio, molecular gas fraction and stellar initial mass function
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Reeves J
(2013)
VARIABILITY OF THE HIGH-VELOCITY OUTFLOW IN THE QUASAR PDS 456
in The Astrophysical Journal
Daniel M. K.
(2013)
A Compact High Energy Camera for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
in International Cosmic Ray Conference
Tauris T
(2013)
ULTRA-STRIPPED TYPE Ic SUPERNOVAE FROM CLOSE BINARY EVOLUTION
in The Astrophysical Journal
Gillis B
(2013)
CFHTLenS: the environmental dependence of galaxy halo masses from weak lensing
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Campbell HM
(2013)
Pressure-broadening of water transitions near 7180 cm(-1) by helium isotopes.
in Spectrochimica acta. Part A, Molecular and biomolecular spectroscopy
Miller L
(2013)
THE HARD X-RAY SPECTRUM OF NGC 1365: SCATTERED LIGHT, NOT BLACK HOLE SPIN
in The Astrophysical Journal
Bayet E
(2013)
The ATLAS3D project - XVI. Physical parameters and spectral line energy distributions of the molecular gas in gas-rich early-type galaxies
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
Duc P
(2013)
Probing the mass assembly of massive nearby galaxies with deep imaging
in Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
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 |