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 (and soon the James Webb Space Telescope), 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 detailed 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 (and soon the James Webb Space Telescope), 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 detailed 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.
Organisations
Publications
Errani R
(2020)
Can tides disrupt cold dark matter subhaloes?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Errani R
(2022)
Structure and kinematics of tidally limited satellite galaxies in LCDM
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Errani R
(2023)
Dark matter halo cores and the tidal survival of Milky Way satellites
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Evans C
(2019)
First stellar spectroscopy in Leo P
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Ferguson H
(2020)
Semi-analytic forecasts for JWST - IV. Implications for cosmic reionization and LyC escape fraction
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Finkelstein S
(2022)
A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: A Candidate z ~ 12 Galaxy in Early JWST CEERS Imaging
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Finlator K
(2018)
Reionization in Technicolor
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Florez J
(2021)
AGN and star formation at cosmic noon: comparison of data to theoretical models
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Foidl H
(2020)
Lyman a absorption beyond the disc of simulated spiral galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Fontanive C
(2018)
Constraining the multiplicity statistics of the coolest brown dwarfs: binary fraction continues to decrease with spectral type
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Fontanive C
(2020)
A Wide Planetary-mass Companion to a Young Low-mass Brown Dwarf in Ophiuchus
in The Astrophysical Journal
Forbes DA
(2018)
Globular cluster formation and evolution in the context of cosmological galaxy assembly: open questions.
in Proceedings. Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences
Forgan D
(2018)
Towards a population synthesis model of self-gravitating disc fragmentation and tidal downsizing II: the effect of fragment-fragment interactions
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Frustagli G
(2020)
An ultra-short period rocky super-Earth orbiting the G2-star HD 80653
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Fujimoto S
(2018)
ALMA 26 Arcmin 2 Survey of GOODS-S at One Millimeter (ASAGAO): Average Morphology of High- z Dusty Star-forming Galaxies in an Exponential Disk ( n ? 1)
in The Astrophysical Journal
Fujita A
(2021)
Origin of Weak Mg ii and Higher-ionization Absorption Lines in Outflows from Intermediate-redshift Dwarf Galaxies
in The Astrophysical Journal
Fumagalli A
(2021)
Euclid : Effects of sample covariance on the number counts of galaxy clusters
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Furnell K
(2021)
The growth of intracluster light in XCS-HSC galaxy clusters from 0.1 < z < 0.5
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Galicher R
(2018)
Astrometric and photometric accuracies in high contrast imaging: The SPHERE speckle calibration tool (SpeCal)
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Gao F
(2021)
The Nature of Hyperluminous Infrared Galaxies
Gao F
(2021)
The nature of hyperluminous infrared galaxies
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Garg P
(2022)
The BPT Diagram in Cosmological Galaxy Formation Simulations: Understanding the Physics Driving Offsets at High Redshift
in The Astrophysical Journal
Garilli B
(2021)
The VANDELS ESO public spectroscopic survey Final data release of 2087 spectra and spectroscopic measurements
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Gatti M
(2021)
Dark energy survey year 3 results: weak lensing shape catalogue
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gatti M
(2020)
Dark Energy Survey Year 3 results: cosmology with moments of weak lensing mass maps - validation on simulations
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
Gieles M
(2021)
A supra-massive population of stellar-mass black holes in the globular cluster Palomar 5
in Nature Astronomy
Giles P
(2022)
The XMM Cluster Survey analysis of the SDSS DR8 redMaPPer catalogue: implications for scatter, selection bias, and isotropy in cluster scaling relations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gillis B
(2019)
The effects of calibration on the bias of shear measurements
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gillman S
(2019)
The dynamics and distribution of angular momentum in HiZELS star-forming galaxies at z = 0.8-3.3
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gilmore G
(2022)
The Gaia -ESO Public Spectroscopic Survey: Motivation, implementation, GIRAFFE data processing, analysis, and final data products
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Gloudemans A
(2022)
Discovery of 24 radio-bright quasars at 4.9 = z = 6.6 using low-frequency radio observations
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Gloudemans A
(2021)
LOFAR properties of SILVERRUSH Ly a emitter candidates in the ELAIS-N1 field
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Gloudemans A
(2021)
Low frequency radio properties of the z > 5 quasar population
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Glowacki M
(2020)
The baryonic Tully-Fisher relation in the simba simulation
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Glowacki M
(2021)
The redshift evolution of the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation in SIMBA
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gow A
(2020)
Primordial black hole merger rates: distributions for multiple LIGO observables
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Gratton R
(2021)
Investigating three Sirius-like systems with SPHERE
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Gruen D
(2018)
Density split statistics: Cosmological constraints from counts and lensing in cells in DES Y1 and SDSS data
in Physical Review D
Gullberg B
(2018)
The Dust and [C ii] Morphologies of Redshift ~4.5 Sub-millimeter Galaxies at ~200 pc Resolution: The Absence of Large Clumps in the Interstellar Medium at High-redshift
in The Astrophysical Journal
Gürkan G
(2019)
LoTSS/HETDEX: Optical quasars I. Low-frequency radio properties of optically selected quasars
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Habouzit M
(2022)
Supermassive black holes in cosmological simulations - II: the AGN population and predictions for upcoming X-ray missions
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Habouzit M
(2021)
Supermassive black holes in cosmological simulations I: M BH - M ? relation and black hole mass function
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Habouzit M
(2022)
Co-evolution of massive black holes and their host galaxies at high redshift: discrepancies from six cosmological simulations and the key role of JWST
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Habouzit M
(2021)
Supermassive black holes in cosmological simulations I: M BH - M ? relation and black hole mass function
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hahn C
(2022)
IQ Collaboratory. III. The Empirical Dust Attenuation Framework-Taking Hydrodynamical Simulations with a Grain of Dust
in The Astrophysical Journal
Hahn C
(2019)
IQ-Collaboratory 1.1: The Star-forming Sequence of Simulated Central Galaxies
in The Astrophysical Journal
Hale C
(2019)
LOFAR observations of the XMM-LSS field
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Hale C
(2023)
MIGHTEE: deep 1.4 GHz source counts and the sky temperature contribution of star-forming galaxies and active galactic nuclei
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society