Astronomy and Astrophysics at Edinburgh
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Sch of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
An astonishing feature of modern astrophysical research is that we have in principle a chain of explanation that stretches from processes on cosmological scales of billions of light years, down to the creation of stars, planets around the stars and life on the planets. In a sense, this process is almost a closed loop: the early Universe was once of sub-nuclear scale, so that quantum mechanical uncertainty is bound to seed fluctuations in density, which eventually collapse under gravity to make astronomical structures. This is the same physics of the very small that governs the formation of the atoms out of which we are all made.
But unanswered questions abound at all stages of this process. Our theories of the early Universe and explanations of its current expansion rest on the concept that empty space can have weight: the so-called "dark energy". We need to study its properties and understand its origin. In so doing, we often assume that Einstein's relativity describes gravity correctly on all scales, but can we test this? If the standard theory is correct, dark matter is required, and we are driven to follow the processes by which it clumps, and by which the gas within these clumps evolves and eventually collapses to form stars and massive black holes. New large telescopes on the ground, together with observing platforms in space such as the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, allow us to see this process in action and compare the observations with detailed computer simulations. Nearer to home, we can dissect galaxies such as our own Milky Way into individual stars, for the most detail view of how they were assembled. And finally we can study how planets arise around these stars, both from new instruments that can detect the presence of "exo-planets" and by computer simulations of how they may be created within the discs of gas and dust left over from star formation. Ultimately, one can refine the search to planets potentially capable of supporting life, and ask how life might arise within these early planetary systems.
Research in astronomy at Edinburgh attacks all of these connected questions. Progress is rapid, driven by technological breakthroughs in observational facilities and computing power, and our understanding is evolving rapidly. Major progress, even if not final answers, can be expected within a few years. This is an exciting time for our understanding of the full history and structure of our Universe and our place within it.
But unanswered questions abound at all stages of this process. Our theories of the early Universe and explanations of its current expansion rest on the concept that empty space can have weight: the so-called "dark energy". We need to study its properties and understand its origin. In so doing, we often assume that Einstein's relativity describes gravity correctly on all scales, but can we test this? If the standard theory is correct, dark matter is required, and we are driven to follow the processes by which it clumps, and by which the gas within these clumps evolves and eventually collapses to form stars and massive black holes. New large telescopes on the ground, together with observing platforms in space such as the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, allow us to see this process in action and compare the observations with detailed computer simulations. Nearer to home, we can dissect galaxies such as our own Milky Way into individual stars, for the most detail view of how they were assembled. And finally we can study how planets arise around these stars, both from new instruments that can detect the presence of "exo-planets" and by computer simulations of how they may be created within the discs of gas and dust left over from star formation. Ultimately, one can refine the search to planets potentially capable of supporting life, and ask how life might arise within these early planetary systems.
Research in astronomy at Edinburgh attacks all of these connected questions. Progress is rapid, driven by technological breakthroughs in observational facilities and computing power, and our understanding is evolving rapidly. Major progress, even if not final answers, can be expected within a few years. This is an exciting time for our understanding of the full history and structure of our Universe and our place within it.
Planned Impact
Details of our Pathways to Impact are provided in the separate 2-page attachment. In brief, we carry out an extensive programme of public engagement and knowledge transfer, implemented in collaboration with the UK ATC, and our own Wide Field Astronomy Unit. Much stems directly from the research activities that are the subject of this application.
Our work in knowledge transfer and exploitation is exemplified by the case study of MOPED and the resulting spin-out company Blackford Analysis. MOPED (Massively Optimised Parameter Estimation and Data compression) is a unique process that employs a massive data compression step, enabling very rapid analysis without compromising accuracy. The MOPED algorithm was designed at the IfA by Prof. Alan Heavens and Dr Benjamin Panter to solve problems in cosmology, but has since been successfully applied to a number of medical applications, the most obvious being the ability of MOPED to speed up 3-D MRI image reconstruction to the point where it would no longer be necessary to immobilize children with a general anaesthetic for MRI scans. A spin-out company, Blackford Analysis Ltd, started trading in August 2010, has received significant investment, and now employs 9 people in the UK (sited at ROE, allowing continued academic interaction), developing very rapid image alignment tools for the medical imaging market. There has been direct user-engagement in the medical imaging field, through researchers, clinicians and industry luminaries, as well as MRI scanner manufacturers and PACS vendors. Recently Blackford Analysis has expanded its work into applications in other areas, securing a two-year consultancy contract with Rolls Royce worth £65,000, and identifying further commercial applications of MOPED in security imaging and in the oil and gas industries.
The case of Blackford Analysis exemplifies how novel techniques developed for astronomical research can be effectively applied to have a major impact in wider society. We plan to replicate this success through the University of Edinburgh's involvement in the new Higgs Centre for Innovation (to be completed at ROE by spring 2016). The Higgs Centre aims to ensure that further technologies, algorithms, and techniques from any of ATC instrumentation, IfA research, or WFAU data handling are effectively transferred to industry through close interactions between our academics/PDRAs and the public and private sectors (with the potential to create of further spinout companies from the STFC incubator). We are also taking the Big Data initiative, and interaction with the commercial sector, very seriously. (i) We have a long tradition of designing and developing new data centre facilities in active collaboration with local companies, who then use their experience with other commercial customers. (ii) As part of leading a proposal for UK participation in LSST, we are working with STFC to identify BIS infrastructure funding to work with industry. (iii) We are currently advertising for a new position specialising in novel data handling techniques.
We are also involved in a particularly vigorous programme of Public Outreach, Engagement & Education, under the auspices of the ROE Visitor Centre (www.roe.ac.uk/vc; jointly funded by the University and STFC) that draws directly on the cutting-edge research supported by our STFC Consolidated grant. Within the UK university sector, this programme is unusual in its breadth and scope, extending well beyond the normal expectation of public talks, press releases and media interviews. This is in part because university staff, PDRAs and students have the opportunity to work collaboratively with Visitor Centre Staff, but is also due to the unique advantages afforded by the ROE site, with its unusual combination of front-line astronomical research, world-leadiing instrument development, and astronomical history/heritage. Further details of activities and impact are provided in the Pathways to Impact attachment.
Our work in knowledge transfer and exploitation is exemplified by the case study of MOPED and the resulting spin-out company Blackford Analysis. MOPED (Massively Optimised Parameter Estimation and Data compression) is a unique process that employs a massive data compression step, enabling very rapid analysis without compromising accuracy. The MOPED algorithm was designed at the IfA by Prof. Alan Heavens and Dr Benjamin Panter to solve problems in cosmology, but has since been successfully applied to a number of medical applications, the most obvious being the ability of MOPED to speed up 3-D MRI image reconstruction to the point where it would no longer be necessary to immobilize children with a general anaesthetic for MRI scans. A spin-out company, Blackford Analysis Ltd, started trading in August 2010, has received significant investment, and now employs 9 people in the UK (sited at ROE, allowing continued academic interaction), developing very rapid image alignment tools for the medical imaging market. There has been direct user-engagement in the medical imaging field, through researchers, clinicians and industry luminaries, as well as MRI scanner manufacturers and PACS vendors. Recently Blackford Analysis has expanded its work into applications in other areas, securing a two-year consultancy contract with Rolls Royce worth £65,000, and identifying further commercial applications of MOPED in security imaging and in the oil and gas industries.
The case of Blackford Analysis exemplifies how novel techniques developed for astronomical research can be effectively applied to have a major impact in wider society. We plan to replicate this success through the University of Edinburgh's involvement in the new Higgs Centre for Innovation (to be completed at ROE by spring 2016). The Higgs Centre aims to ensure that further technologies, algorithms, and techniques from any of ATC instrumentation, IfA research, or WFAU data handling are effectively transferred to industry through close interactions between our academics/PDRAs and the public and private sectors (with the potential to create of further spinout companies from the STFC incubator). We are also taking the Big Data initiative, and interaction with the commercial sector, very seriously. (i) We have a long tradition of designing and developing new data centre facilities in active collaboration with local companies, who then use their experience with other commercial customers. (ii) As part of leading a proposal for UK participation in LSST, we are working with STFC to identify BIS infrastructure funding to work with industry. (iii) We are currently advertising for a new position specialising in novel data handling techniques.
We are also involved in a particularly vigorous programme of Public Outreach, Engagement & Education, under the auspices of the ROE Visitor Centre (www.roe.ac.uk/vc; jointly funded by the University and STFC) that draws directly on the cutting-edge research supported by our STFC Consolidated grant. Within the UK university sector, this programme is unusual in its breadth and scope, extending well beyond the normal expectation of public talks, press releases and media interviews. This is in part because university staff, PDRAs and students have the opportunity to work collaboratively with Visitor Centre Staff, but is also due to the unique advantages afforded by the ROE site, with its unusual combination of front-line astronomical research, world-leadiing instrument development, and astronomical history/heritage. Further details of activities and impact are provided in the Pathways to Impact attachment.
Organisations
Publications
Kakiichi K
(2017)
The concerted impact of galaxies and QSOs on the ionization and thermal state of the intergalactic medium
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kakiichi Koki
(2016)
The Concerted Impact of Galaxies and QSOs on the Ionization and Thermal State of the Intergalactic Medium
in ArXiv e-prints
Kankare E
(2017)
A population of highly energetic transient events in the centres of active galaxies
in Nature Astronomy
Katsianis A
(2021)
The specific star formation rate function at different mass scales and quenching: a comparison between cosmological models and SDSS
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Keihänen E
(2022)
Euclid : Fast two-point correlation function covariance through linear construction
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Kettula K
(2015)
CFHTLenS: weak lensing calibrated scaling relations for low-mass clusters of galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Khostovan A
(2018)
The clustering of H ß + [O iii] and [O ii] emitters since z ~ 5: dependencies with line luminosity and stellar mass
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Khostovan A
(2015)
Evolution of the H ß + [O iii] and [O ii] luminosity functions and the [O ii] star formation history of the Universe up to z ~ 5 from HiZELS
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kilbinger M
(2017)
Precision calculations of the cosmic shear power spectrum projection
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kilbinger Martin
(2017)
Precision calculations of the cosmic shear power spectrum projection
in ArXiv e-prints
Kilkenny D
(2015)
The Edinburgh-Cape Blue Object Survey - IV. Zone 3: Galactic latitudes -40° > b > -50°
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kilkenny D
(2016)
The Edinburgh-Cape Blue Object Survey - V. The end: Partial Zones 4-6; Galactic latitudes -50° > b > -90°
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kitching T
(2015)
Image analysis for cosmology: Shape measurement challenge review & results from the Mapping Dark Matter challenge
in Astronomy and Computing
Kitching T
(2015)
On scale-dependent cosmic shear systematic effects
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kitching T. D.
(2015)
RCSLenS: Cosmic Distances from Weak Lensing
in arXiv e-prints
Kobayashi T
(2015)
A separate universe view of the asymmetric sky
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Koekemoer A
(2020)
Timing the earliest quenching events with a robust sample of massive quiescent galaxies at 2 < z < 5
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kohn S
(2015)
Far-infrared observations of an unbiased sample of gamma-ray burst host galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kohno K
(2016)
SXDF-UDS-CANDELS-ALMA 1.5 arcmin 2 deep survey
in Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
Kohno K.
(2016)
SXDF-UDS-CANDELS-ALMA 1.5 arcmin$^2$ deep survey
in ArXiv e-prints
Kohno Kotaro
(2015)
SXDF-UDS-CANDELS-ALMA 1.5 arcmin
2 deep survey
in IAU General Assembly
Kondapally R
(2022)
Cosmic evolution of low-excitation radio galaxies in the LOFAR two-metre sky survey deep fields
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Koprowski M
(2016)
The SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey: galaxies in the deep 850 µm survey, and the star-forming 'main sequence'
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Koprowski M
(2020)
An ALMA survey of the SCUBA-2 cosmology legacy survey UKIDSS/UDS field: Dust attenuation in high-redshift Lyman-break galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Koprowski M
(2018)
A direct calibration of the IRX-ß relation in Lyman-break Galaxies at z = 3-5
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Koprowski M
(2017)
The evolving far-IR galaxy luminosity function and dust-obscured star formation rate density out to ?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Koprowski M.
(2015)
The SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey: galaxies in the deep 850-micron survey, and the star-forming `main sequence'
in ArXiv e-prints
Koprowski M. P.
(2015)
VizieR Online Data Catalog: Luminous (sub-)millimetre galaxies (Koprowski+, 2014)
in VizieR Online Data Catalog
Kosiarek M
(2019)
K2-291b: A Rocky Super-Earth in a 2.2 day Orbit
in The Astronomical Journal
Koukoufilippas N
(2020)
Tomographic measurement of the intergalactic gas pressure through galaxy-tSZ cross-correlations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kovács A
(2017)
Imprint of DES superstructures on the cosmic microwave background
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Krajnovic D
(2018)
A quartet of black holes and a missing duo: probing the low end of the MBH-s relation with the adaptive optics assisted integral-field spectroscopy
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kraljic K
(2020)
The impact of the connectivity of the cosmic web on the physical properties of galaxies at its nodes
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kuijken K
(2015)
Gravitational lensing analysis of the Kilo-Degree Survey
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Köhlinger F
(2017)
KiDS-450: the tomographic weak lensing power spectrum and constraints on cosmological parameters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lacedelli G
(2021)
An unusually low density ultra-short period super-Earth and three mini-Neptunes around the old star TOI-561
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lacour S
(2016)
An M-dwarf star in the transition disk of Herbig HD 142527 Physical parameters and orbital elements
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lacour S.
(2015)
An M-dwarf star in the transition disk of Herbig HD142527; Physical parameters and orbital elements
in ArXiv e-prints
Laevens B
(2015)
SAGITTARIUS II, DRACO II AND LAEVENS 3: THREE NEW MILKY WAY SATELLITES DISCOVERED IN THE PAN-STARRS 1 3 p SURVEY
in The Astrophysical Journal
Lagrange A
(2019)
Post-conjunction detection of ß Pictoris b with VLT/SPHERE
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Laigle C
(2016)
THE COSMOS2015 CATALOG: EXPLORING THE 1 < z < 6 UNIVERSE WITH HALF A MILLION GALAXIES
in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Lam M
(2019)
The white dwarf luminosity functions from the Pan-STARRS 1 3p Steradian Survey
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lam M
(2015)
A maximum volume density estimator generalized over a proper motion-limited sample
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lam M. C.
(2015)
Cool White Dwarfs Selection with Pan-STARRS Proper Motions
in 19th European Workshop on White Dwarfs
Lam Marco C.
(2015)
A maximum volume density estimator generalized over a proper motion-limited sample
in arXiv e-prints
Lanzafame A
(2015)
Gaia -ESO Survey: Analysis of pre-main sequence stellar spectra
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Laporte C
(2015)
Under the sword of Damocles: plausible regeneration of dark matter cusps at the smallest galactic scales
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Laporte Chervin Fabien Pierre
(2015)
Dark subhalo accretion onto dwarf galaxies in CDM
in IAU General Assembly
Laporte N
(2015)
ENVIRONMENT OF THE SUBMILLIMETER-BRIGHT MASSIVE STARBURST HFLS3 AT z ~ 6.34
in The Astrophysical Journal
Latif M
(2020)
Inception of a first quasar at cosmic dawn
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society