The Evolution of Mass and Light
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Nottingham
Department Name: Sch of Physics & Astronomy
Abstract
The fellowship programme is centred upon the Herschel Satellite's two largest imaging surveys. Using these, the programme will investigate two fundamental but poorly understood aspects of galaxy evolution. Herschel operates in an unexplored region of the electromagnetic spectrum (0.1-0.5 mm) where an incredible 50% of the Universe's radiation is emitted. The sources that dominate at these wavelengths are young dust enshrouded star forming galaxies that typically evade detection in the optical. A tantalisingly small fraction of these galaxies have been seen at other wavelengths from the ground comprising only a very bright distant subset. These rare galaxies are merely the tip of the iceberg, not representative of the whole population. Frustratingly, little is known about the evolution of these distant systems and their relationship with local galaxies because the underlying population bridging the huge void has not been detected. This is a vital missing piece of the galaxy formation puzzle that has proven a significant obstacle. Herschel is satisfying a long awaited demand for a sensitive, high resolution facility to rapidly survey the sky in the sub-millimetre and finally detect a significant proportion of this elusive population.
The first part of the programme exploits the fact that the sub-millimetre is extraordinarily well suited to detecting gravitational lenses. The Herschel survey data will contain around 500 new strong lens systems out to a distance looking back over two thirds of the Universe's age. The first milestone is to identify and characterise galaxies acting as lenses to produce the largest and most distant sample to date. Secondly, applying a powerful reconstruction technique developed by the author to the lenses to measure mass profiles, the morphology of the baryons and the dark matter will be measured (in some cases separately) to investigate their evolution over the last 70% of the Universe's history. This is an exceptional opportunity to constrain models of structure formation in a way that has not been feasible until now.
Lensing also magnifies the flux of background objects above the detection threshold. Therefore, in addition to studying the evolution of the lenses themselves, the sample will be used to probe the population of dusty sources fainter than the survey sensitivity. Furthermore, using the aforementioned reconstruction technique, highly magnified undistorted surface brightness maps of each source will be computed to analyse in detail the morphology of the faint (and therefore generally more distant) dusty sources. Finally, the lens sample will place the most restrictive lensing limits on the cosmological model to date in a way that is complementary to other methods.
The second part of the fellowship programme will apply a new method for optimally measuring the evolution in luminosity of the hundreds of thousands of new Herschel sources detected. This will be combined with the framework established over several years by the author to finally provide a definitive study of the link between local systems and the dusty star forming galaxies that prevailed when the Universe was only 40% of its current age. Specifically, this involves measuring the growth of stellar mass and evolution of star formation in sub-millimetre galaxies (using another new method developed for reconstructing star formation histories) and measuring their transformation into other galaxy types as they evolve.
In terms of scale and viability of the programme, the Herschel data account for an impressive 1500 hours of observations over 700 square degrees of sky. This reflects a large investment from the UK astronomical community and one which must be justified by maximising scientific exploitation and impact.
The first part of the programme exploits the fact that the sub-millimetre is extraordinarily well suited to detecting gravitational lenses. The Herschel survey data will contain around 500 new strong lens systems out to a distance looking back over two thirds of the Universe's age. The first milestone is to identify and characterise galaxies acting as lenses to produce the largest and most distant sample to date. Secondly, applying a powerful reconstruction technique developed by the author to the lenses to measure mass profiles, the morphology of the baryons and the dark matter will be measured (in some cases separately) to investigate their evolution over the last 70% of the Universe's history. This is an exceptional opportunity to constrain models of structure formation in a way that has not been feasible until now.
Lensing also magnifies the flux of background objects above the detection threshold. Therefore, in addition to studying the evolution of the lenses themselves, the sample will be used to probe the population of dusty sources fainter than the survey sensitivity. Furthermore, using the aforementioned reconstruction technique, highly magnified undistorted surface brightness maps of each source will be computed to analyse in detail the morphology of the faint (and therefore generally more distant) dusty sources. Finally, the lens sample will place the most restrictive lensing limits on the cosmological model to date in a way that is complementary to other methods.
The second part of the fellowship programme will apply a new method for optimally measuring the evolution in luminosity of the hundreds of thousands of new Herschel sources detected. This will be combined with the framework established over several years by the author to finally provide a definitive study of the link between local systems and the dusty star forming galaxies that prevailed when the Universe was only 40% of its current age. Specifically, this involves measuring the growth of stellar mass and evolution of star formation in sub-millimetre galaxies (using another new method developed for reconstructing star formation histories) and measuring their transformation into other galaxy types as they evolve.
In terms of scale and viability of the programme, the Herschel data account for an impressive 1500 hours of observations over 700 square degrees of sky. This reflects a large investment from the UK astronomical community and one which must be justified by maximising scientific exploitation and impact.
Organisations
- University of Nottingham (Fellow, Lead Research Organisation)
- UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD (Collaboration)
- University of Arizona (Collaboration)
- University of Sussex (Collaboration)
- Cardiff University (Collaboration)
- University of Hawaii (Collaboration)
- University of Hertfordshire (Collaboration)
- Stanford University (Collaboration)
- Royal Observatory Edinburgh (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE (Collaboration)
People |
ORCID iD |
Simon Dye (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |
Publications
Agius N
(2015)
H-ATLAS/GAMA and HeViCS - dusty early-type galaxies in different environments
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Amvrosiadis A
(2018)
ALMA observations of lensed Herschel sources: testing the dark matter halo paradigm
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bakx T
(2018)
The Herschel Bright Sources (HerBS): sample definition and SCUBA-2 observations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Berta S
(2021)
Close-up view of a luminous star-forming galaxy at z = 2.95
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Bianchini F
(2015)
CROSS-CORRELATION BETWEEN THE CMB LENSING POTENTIAL MEASURED BY PLANCK AND HIGH- z SUBMILLIMETER GALAXIES DETECTED BY THE HERSCHEL -ATLAS SURVEY
in The Astrophysical Journal
Bourne N
(2016)
The Herschel -ATLAS Data Release 1 - II. Multi-wavelength counterparts to submillimetre sources
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Clark C
(2015)
Herschel -ATLAS: the surprising diversity of dust-selected galaxies in the local submillimetre Universe
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
De Geyter G
(2015)
Dust energy balance study of two edge-on spiral galaxies in the Herschel-ATLAS survey
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
De Vis P
(2017)
Herschel -ATLAS: revealing dust build-up and decline across gas, dust and stellar mass selected samples - I. Scaling relations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Doherty M
(2020)
[N ii] Fine-structure Emission at 122 and 205 µm in a Galaxy at z = 2.6: A Globally Dense Star-forming Interstellar Medium
in The Astrophysical Journal
Dye S
(2022)
A high-resolution investigation of the multiphase ISM in a galaxy during the first two billion years
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Dye S
(2018)
The UKIRT Hemisphere Survey: definition and J-band data release
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Dye S
(2015)
Revealing the complex nature of the strong gravitationally lensed system H-ATLAS J090311.6+003906 using ALMA
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Dye S
(2018)
Modelling high-resolution ALMA observations of strongly lensed highly star-forming galaxies detected by Herschel?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Eales S
(2018)
The causes of the red sequence, the blue cloud, the green valley, and the green mountain
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Eales S
(2015)
H-ATLAS/GAMA: quantifying the morphological evolution of the galaxy population using cosmic calorimetry
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Eales S
(2018)
The new galaxy evolution paradigm revealed by the Herschel surveys
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Fuller C
(2016)
H-ATLAS: the far-infrared properties of galaxies in and around the Coma cluster
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Geach J
(2018)
A Magnified View of Circumnuclear Star Formation and Feedback around an Active Galactic Nucleus at z = 2.6
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
González-Nuevo J
(2017)
H-ATLAS/GAMA: magnification bias tomography. Astrophysical constraints above ~1 arcmin
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Greenslade J
(2018)
Candidate high-z protoclusters among the Planck compact sources, as revealed by Herschel-SPIRE
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hughes T
(2017)
VALES - III. The calibration between the dust continuum and interstellar gas content of star-forming galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Hughes T
(2017)
VALES II. The physical conditions of interstellar gas in normal star-forming galaxies up to z = 0.2 revealed by ALMA
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Hughes T. M.
(2016)
VALES: II. The physical conditions of interstellar gas in normal star-forming galaxies up to z=0.2 revealed by ALMA
in ArXiv e-prints
Ibar E
(2018)
The second Herschel-ATLAS Data Release - III. Optical and near-infrared counterparts in the North Galactic Plane field
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Description | To date, there are three key outcomes that result from the fellowship. First, a new technique for reconstructing interferometric data of gravitationally lensed sources has been developed. This is aimed specifically at the analysis of large forthcoming dataset produced by the ALMA interferometric array. This method has now been applied successfully to a new sample of strong gravitational lenses imaged with ALMA. The results are published (Dye et al., 2018, MNRAS, 476, 4383) and shed new light on the star formation processes in galaxies in the early universe. Secondly, the fellowship has resulted in the first release of data acquired by the UKIRT Hemisphere Survey (UHS), a multi-national collaboration to survey almost all of the northern hemisphere in the near-infrared (J and K band). As project scientist, I have managed survey operations since its beginning in 2011. During late 2017 and early 2018, I prepared the full set of 13,000 square degrees of J-band survey data, including images and catalogues, for their first release to the world-wide astronomical community in August 2018. The UHS is the largest near-infrared database to exist at present. See the UHS DR1 paper for further details: Dye et al., 2018, MNRAS, 473, 5113. Thirdly, my PhD students and I have incorporated machine learning into the strong gravitational lens modelling process, combining it with traditional parametric methods to improve both reliability and efficiency. This is of great importance to enable the analysis of forthcoming extremely large datasets expected from LSST and Euclid. |
Exploitation Route | Publication of the new lens modelling method has allowed many other groups around the world to fully exploit strong lens interferometric data. The UHS data release provides a large legacy database for years to come for galactic and extra-galactic astronomers alike. The new hybrid machine learning strong lens modelling method solves the problem of how to reliably cope with a huge new dataset of lenses from LSST and Euclid and should be taken up by researchers in the field accordingly. |
Sectors | Other |
Description | The lensed image reconstruction algorithm used in the fellowship turns out to be immediately applicable to the reconstruction of MRI images. This has therefore motivated collaboration with the MRI group here at the University of Nottingham to better explore potential gains in MRI imaging. This work is ongoing. Similarly, the machine learning methods used in the strong lens modelling developed during the fellowship find application in many different sectors. I co-ordinated a project between two of our master students and an external company that specialises in wind turbine diagnostics. The project developed a new machine learning algorithm that can detect faults in vibrational data acquired from sensors installed in wind turbines before they become a major problem. The project reached its conclusion but the company are continuing to look into the use of machine learning for many of the other diagnostic services it provides. |
First Year Of Impact | 2019 |
Sector | Energy,Healthcare |
Impact Types | Societal |
Description | 3 year post-doctoral research associate funding |
Amount | £90,159 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ST/P000614/1 |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 07/2017 |
End | 05/2020 |
Description | PhD Studentship |
Amount | £66,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ST/S505602/1 |
Organisation | University of Nottingham |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2018 |
End | 04/2022 |
Title | Herschel ATLAS 1st data release |
Description | This is the data release made by the Herschel ATLAS consotium. The data have undergone extensive processing, testing, and characterisation. The specific contribution to this dataset made in this award is the assignment of optical counterparts to the sub-millimetre sources detected in the H-ATLAS survey 1st data release. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2016 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | This is a large and unique dataset which has been made publically available. The legacy value of the dataset is very high and as such it will be used in many different areas of astronomy. |
URL | http://www.h-atlas.org |
Title | Herschel ATLAS 2nd data release |
Description | This is the second data release made by the 300-person strong international Herschel ATLAS consotium. My specific contribution to this dataset made in this award is the assignment of optical counterparts to the sub-millimetre sources detected in H-ATLAS. This has led to a publication (Furlanetto, Dye, et al. 2018) |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | These data constitute one of the largest area surveys conducted at sub-millimetre wavelengths. The data release includes images and source catalogues. Data have been released globally and are already having a major impact in studies of high redshift galaxies. See Eales et al, 2010, PASP, 122, 499 for an indication of the impact of the H-ATLAS dataset (at the time of writing, there were 330 citations to this paper which largely stem from DR1). |
URL | http://www.h-atlas.org |
Title | The UKIRT Hemisphere Survey public data release |
Description | The UKIRT Hemisphere Survey (UHS) is a survey of most of the northern hemisphere in the near-infrared (J and K band). I am the project scientist. The UHS has been surveying the sky for seven years and made its first data release of J band imaging and source catalogues in August 2017. This is the largest near-infrared database to exist at present. The data were released to an international consortium including all UK institutes, The University of Hawaii, The University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin. The data were made publicly available in a world-wide release in August 2018. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The UHS, like its optical equivalent, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, will provide a large legacy database for years to come for galactic and extra-galactic astronomers alike. |
URL | http://wsa.roe.ac.uk/uhsDR1.html |
Title | UKIRT Hemisphere Survey |
Description | The UKIRT Hemisphere Survey (UHS) is a survey of most of the northern hemisphere in the near-infrared (J and K band). I am the project scientist. The UHS has been surveying the sky for six years and made its first data release of J band imaging and source catalogues in August 2017. This is the largest near-infrared database to exist at present. The data are presently released to an international consortium including all UK institutes, The University of Hawaii, The University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin. The data will become public in August 2018. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The UHS, like its optical equivalent, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, will provide a large legacy database for years to come for galactic and extra-galactic astronomers alike. |
URL | http://wsa.roe.ac.uk/uhsDR1.html |
Description | HerMES - Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey |
Organisation | University of Sussex |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Head of optical and near-IR working group. Contributions to strong gravitational working group and associated publications. |
Collaborator Contribution | This is a multi-national collaboration with Sussex as the PI institute. |
Impact | Tens of research papers have been produced by the HerMES collaboration. |
Start Year | 2012 |
Description | Herschel ATLAS - Cardiff |
Organisation | Cardiff University |
Department | School of Physics and Astronomy |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Scientific Research Collaboration |
Collaborator Contribution | Scientific Research Collaboration |
Impact | Scientific Research Collaboration |
Start Year | 2009 |
Description | LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration |
Organisation | Stanford University |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | This is a new collaboration. I have been granted 'LSST Affiliate PI status' for three years until 2020, coinciding with the end of this fellowship. The collaboration has been initiated on the understanding that I will bring new techniques to solve the problem of finding strong gravitational lens systems in the vast image data that the new LSST telescope will produce. I also plan to help work towards an automated pipeline for modelling these new systems, to vastly increase our knowledge of galaxy structure, dark matter content in galaxies and how these evolve as the Universe ages. |
Collaborator Contribution | This is a collaboration involving hundreds of partners spread across the world. The LSST is a new telescope which will produce optical imaging of large areas of the sky. The images will be analysed by many different 'science collaborations' with many different aims, each falling under the umbrella of the LSST consortium. |
Impact | None yet - collaboration has just started. |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration |
Organisation | University of Oxford |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | This is a new collaboration. I have been granted 'LSST Affiliate PI status' for three years until 2020, coinciding with the end of this fellowship. The collaboration has been initiated on the understanding that I will bring new techniques to solve the problem of finding strong gravitational lens systems in the vast image data that the new LSST telescope will produce. I also plan to help work towards an automated pipeline for modelling these new systems, to vastly increase our knowledge of galaxy structure, dark matter content in galaxies and how these evolve as the Universe ages. |
Collaborator Contribution | This is a collaboration involving hundreds of partners spread across the world. The LSST is a new telescope which will produce optical imaging of large areas of the sky. The images will be analysed by many different 'science collaborations' with many different aims, each falling under the umbrella of the LSST consortium. |
Impact | None yet - collaboration has just started. |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | UKIRT Hemisphere Survey |
Organisation | Royal Observatory Edinburgh |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | I am the project scientist. |
Collaborator Contribution | Data reduction, data processing, online archiving, data quality control. |
Impact | Data release 1 made in August 2017 to consortium members (UK, University of Hawaii, University of Arizona and Lockheed martin). World-wide release in August 2018. |
Start Year | 2011 |
Description | UKIRT Hemisphere Survey |
Organisation | University of Arizona |
Department | Department of Physics |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | I am the project scientist. |
Collaborator Contribution | Data reduction, data processing, online archiving, data quality control. |
Impact | Data release 1 made in August 2017 to consortium members (UK, University of Hawaii, University of Arizona and Lockheed martin). World-wide release in August 2018. |
Start Year | 2011 |
Description | UKIRT Hemisphere Survey |
Organisation | University of Cambridge |
Department | Institute of Astronomy |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | I am the project scientist. |
Collaborator Contribution | Data reduction, data processing, online archiving, data quality control. |
Impact | Data release 1 made in August 2017 to consortium members (UK, University of Hawaii, University of Arizona and Lockheed martin). World-wide release in August 2018. |
Start Year | 2011 |
Description | UKIRT Hemisphere Survey |
Organisation | University of Hawaii |
Department | Institute for Astronomy |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | I am the project scientist. |
Collaborator Contribution | Data reduction, data processing, online archiving, data quality control. |
Impact | Data release 1 made in August 2017 to consortium members (UK, University of Hawaii, University of Arizona and Lockheed martin). World-wide release in August 2018. |
Start Year | 2011 |
Description | UKIRT Hemisphere Survey |
Organisation | University of Hertfordshire |
Department | School of Physics and Astronomy |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | I am the project scientist. |
Collaborator Contribution | Data reduction, data processing, online archiving, data quality control. |
Impact | Data release 1 made in August 2017 to consortium members (UK, University of Hawaii, University of Arizona and Lockheed martin). World-wide release in August 2018. |
Start Year | 2011 |
Title | Adaptive semi-linear inversion |
Description | This is a new algorithm, now published, which is used to reconstructed the gravitationally lensed image of a background source. The agorithm supercedes older methodolgies which have associated problems and biases. |
Type Of Technology | New/Improved Technique/Technology |
Year Produced | 2015 |
Impact | We are aware that several research groups around the world have adopted our new algorithm. |
Title | Adaptive semi-linear modelling in the uv-plane |
Description | This is a new technique to directly model strong gravitational lens interferometric data. New code allows modelling of uv-plane data without the need to first transform to the image plane. This alleviates many potential biases which can result from having to transform to the image plane. The method has been described in Dye et al. 2018, arXiv:170505413, MNRAS in press (at the time off writing). |
Type Of Technology | New/Improved Technique/Technology |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Impact | This new technique is being used by several strong lensing groups around the world. |
Title | AutoLens |
Description | AutoLens is a new piece of strong gravitational lensing code to be made publically available in 2018. AutoLens is the result of three years of development with my PhD student, James Nightingale at Nottingham University. The code is designed to automate the modelling of a new sample of thousands of strong gravitational lens images, a task that is impossible to complete manually. James now works at Durham University but our collaboration is continuing as new features are added to the software. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Impact | We are aware of several groups around the world now using the software to carry out their research. Expectations are that AutoLens will reach an increasingly wide scientific audience and be the standard tool of choice in the future of lens modelling for forthcoming surveys such as those produced by LSST and Euclid. |
URL | https://github.com/Jammy2211/PyAutoLens |
Description | Astronomical society talks |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Type Of Presentation | Keynote/Invited Speaker |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Multiple talks to Astronomical Societies in and around Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Public Engagement |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022,2023,2024 |
Description | Public talks |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | This entry represents multiple talks given to the general public on astronomical themes. These include events held during university open days, specific outreach events like 'Pint of Science' and 'Skeptics in the pub' and the Nottingham public lecture series. All members of staff participate in such events. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022,2023,2024 |
Description | School visits |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | This single entry represents several tens of duplicated events across local schools in the Nottingham region by members of staff and PDRAs supported on the grant. Events usually entail giving a powerpoint presentation. Inspiring the younger generation of potential scientists |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022,2023,2024 |