Support of the Astronomical Research of the Cavendish Astrophysics Group

The Cavendish Astrophysics (CA) group has a strong emphasis on experimental and observational astrophysics, backed by fundamental theoretical work and substantial expertise in data analysis. This consolidated grant application focuses on scientific exploitation, particularly of those instruments and facilities in which we have played a major role in their development. We also propose an exciting new blue-skies instrumentation programme.

Our scientific programme in this consolidated grant application is built around the following four areas:

(1) Star formation and evolution in our own and nearby galaxies, exploiting ground-breaking new facilities in ALMA and SCUBA-2, and developments in visible and near-infrared interferometry. Our research will cover multiple spatial scales, from AU scales characterising the processes and products of star formation, through parsec scales investigating clouds and filaments where star formation occurs, to the largest scales of star formation in nearby galaxies.

(2) The development of a test-bed for a new generation of near-infrared array detectors that promise both read-noise and read-rate improvements of factors of 5-10 over existing devices. This will allow us to test the characteristics of these arrays that are critical to their performance in interferometric applications, and place us in an unrivalled position to propose new high-sensitivity instrumentation based on these arrays for ELTs and long-baseline infrared interferometers.

(3) An ambitious and timely programme of experimental cosmology that will address themes of structure formation, the evolution of baryonic gas during galaxy assembly, the tensor-to-scalar ratio during inflation, and the interplay of magnetic field and gas in the intra-cluster medium. We are superbly placed to exploit data from ALMA, AMI, EVLA, Planck and SKA pathfinders to achieve our science aims in these areas. This will capitalise on our expertise in radio and CMB observations, theoretical modelling and data analysis; in addition we have collaborations in place which will give us access to complementary data sets in other wavebands.

(4) Modelling the generation, propagation and detection of gravitational waves (GW) through the proper general-relativistic description of the energy and momentum carried by GW, and the development and application to real data of Bayesian methods for detecting GW signatures in laser-interferometer experiments such as LIGO and LISA.

The beneficiaries of this research will be broad and fall into several distinct categories.

1. Beneficiaries of the direct output of the astronomical research
All of the results of the astronomical research programme will be published in the scientific literature. Beyond the immediate impact of the dissemination of knowledge to the professional community, the output of this research will have wider impact. Many of the expected results have implications for fundamental questions such as the origin of galaxies, stars and planets, and the origin of the Universe itself. These are questions which are of significant interest to the wide public evidenced by the enthusiastic popular response to TV programmes which address these specific aspects. We will work to ensure the output of the research reaches the widest possible audience by: (1) dissemination via press releases and continued engagement with the media; (2) continuing our outreach work at our Lords Bridge observatory and through the many initiatives of the Department of Physics and with the Institute of Astronomy; (3) Supporting the requests from the media to input to and comment on science issues in for which we have expertise.

2. Training
Astronomy plays a key role in attracting undergraduate students into the physical sciences, although only a small fraction continue to specialise in astronomy. Building the skill base of numerate physical science graduates is an important output to the economy. The outputs of this research will continue to support this work. Research students will be trained as a direct result of this research programme: averaged over the past ten years we find that approximately 50% of our Ph.D. students take a first job in industry making direct use of the analytical and numerical skills acquired as a consequence of the research programme.

3. Beneficiaries of the technology developed
Within this programme there will be technologies developed which we expect to have wider interest to industry. The strong underlying these of development of sophisticated, robust data analysis techniques and fast numerical methods will have wide applicability. We have an excellent track record of spinning out technologies of this type as independent startups. Examples include Geomerics Ltd, now part owned by nVidia, specialising in high-performance rendering engines for computer games; Metropolis data consultants providing direct data analysis techniques to industry (Customers include GlaxoSmithKline, Unilever, Broadcom, Illumina, and Daresbury Laboratory), and Cambridge Positioning Systems Ltd. (now acquired by CSR) providing software navigation solutions for the mobile phone market. The eAPD development programme we hope will be done in conjunction with SELEX-GALILEO with whom we have an existing interaction via the SKA programme.

The SKA programme has major interest from UK industry and the technologies being developed will have direct impact on the ICT industry. Our technical development work in the SKA area is supported by other STFC awards. Here our programme includes astronomical developments of the science case driving the extreme technical requirements of the SKA and therefore provides the underpinning for the technology development we are doing in this area.