Cosmology, Gravitation and Astrophysics at Portsmouth

This consolidated grant will support research in cosmology, gravitation and astrophysics at the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation (ICG) in the University of Portsmouth. The ICG was formed in 2002 through a strategic investment from the university, and now hosts more than 60 researchers making it one of the largest extragalactic astronomy groups in the UK. Portsmouth was ranked 8th in terms of quality of physics research outputs in the Research Excellence Framework 2014.

Cosmology and astrophysics are experiencing a golden age of discovery driven by new astronomical surveys and theoretical advances, and the recent detection of gravitational waves from inspiralling black holes and neutron stars. However, we still face three fundamental challenges before a more complete model of the Universe can be achieved: i) What are the properties of the "dark matter" and "dark energy" that make up 96% of the Universe? ii) How do galaxies form and evolve? iii) What is the origin, and statistical nature, of structures in the Universe? This grant will address these fundamental problems through pioneering theoretical work and the use of new surveys of the sky to map billions of distant galaxies. Galaxies are the "building blocks" of the Universe and as well as studying how they form, we will use the galaxies to improve our understanding of cosmology. We will exploit current and forthcoming galaxy surveys like DES, LSST, 4MOST, SDSS, DESI and Euclid to quantify the Universe using complementary probes such as the clustering of galaxies, supernovae and weak gravitational lensing. These data will be complemented with new gravitational wave observations from the LIGO and VIRGO experiments. Precise cosmological models will be constructed and analysed, and simulated with Portsmouth's SCIAMA supercomputer. These models will be compared to data to reveal the true nature of the Universe.

Our work will help us understand and measure the evolution of the Universe throughout its entire history. We will use standard candles, such as supernovae, and standard rulers, such as baryon acoustic oscillations in the galaxy correlation functions, to chart the cosmic expansion over time. We will study how quantum fluctuations in the very early universe may be stretched by cosmic inflation to astronomical scales, leaving their imprint in the distribution of light and matter in the universe today. We will also explore the characteristic imprint of Einstein's general relativity or alternative gravity theories in shaping the evolution of structure in our Universe. Additionally, our analyses will shed light on the properties of dark matter, which we can "see" via gravity but which does not interact like normal matter. We will obtain a fuller understanding of the characteristics of galaxies throughout cosmic time. We will study the origin of the supermassive black holes at the centre of primeval galaxies and the first quasars, and trace their merger history through the detection of gravitational waves. We will use astronomical surveys to understand how galaxies form by studying their stellar contents in ever greater detail.

ICG staff are committed to engaging the public in their research, e.g., "Entropy", which is an immersive art performance based on cosmology, and online citizen science projects like Supernova Hunter and Gravity Spy. In addition, our staff visit many local schools and colleges, and run an annual Stargazing event at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard for hundreds of participants. We also seek innovation from our research, using our skills and experiences to develop novel solutions to everyday problems, e.g. detecting faulty smart meters, improving emergency room care, and training the next generation of data scientists.

The ICG is committed to obtaining impact from our research. As part of the South-East Physics Network (SEPnet; www.sepnet.ac.uk), we have access to a regional network of outreach and employer engagement officers in addition to the SEPnet Outreach and Employability Directors. We also have three full-time staff to support the delivery of impact: Jen Gupta (SEPnet/Ogden Trust Public Engagement and Outreach Manager), Nic Bonne (Isaac Physics Widening Participation Fellow and Tactile Universe Outreach Officer) and Gill Prosser (SEPnet IPS Fellow).

Our impact strategy is:

Engagement with School Children: Our new schools outreach programme works with partner schools to engage with the same school pupils throughout their school career (ages 9-18). We will deliver workshops and other activities through this programme, using our research to inspire pupils and encourage them to study physics at a higher level.

Engagement with Visually Impaired (VI) Children: Tactile Universe enables people with VI to engage with our astrophysics research. Working with children in primary and secondary schools we will demonstrate that astrophysics is accessible to them. Over the grant period we will nationally launch this project, with international connections in South America (funded by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Development). The importance of the project has been recognised by SEPnet, who awarded the Tactile Universe its Public Engagement Innovation Project award in 2017.

Engagement through Citizen Science: The ICG has a decade of experience with online citizen science projects like GalaxyZoo and the Zooniverse. Zooniverse engages millions of people across the world in 70 active projects, we are one of only two UK universities with institutional membership. ICG provides dedicate support and development to the Zooniverse (Krawczyk) and plan to continue our involvement

Engagement through Large Events: ICG runs an annual Stargazing Live event in the Portsmouth Dockyard, attended by 800 people in Jan 2018. We will hold at least one large-scale public event each year during this grant and support ICG members to create new activities and demos of their research for use at such events. We also support Entropy, an immersive art performance which has reached over 2000 people since 2017. Staff also provide numerous public talks to interested groups (astronomy societies) and in public venues (e.g. Astronomy on Tap)

Student Industrial Engagement: To address the shortage of STEM graduates, identified by the government's Industrial Strategy, we will enhance our training through industry placements for all our PhD students and some PDRAs. Placements will be sourced through our "Data Intensive Science Centre in SEPNet" (DISCNet, discnet.org.uk), an STFC-funded doctoral training centre. We recently received GCRF funding (from STFC) to extending DISCnet training to South African (SA-DISCnet), including industrial placements for both UK and African students. ICG will also host regular "Deep Data Dives" (D3) events where PhD students and PDRAs will apply their knowledge and codes to an organisation's data intensive problems. The first D3 will be with Portsmouth City Council in 2018.

Staff Industrial Engagement: ICG is developing a portfolio of strategic innovation activities with key external sectors. This programme will use data-intensive skills developed through STFC-funded research and DISCnet to address the "Grand Challenges of Growing AI and Data-Driven Economy" identified in the government's Industrial Strategy. Initial projects are in smart meters, cardiovascular data, and risk analysis of environmental hazards.

See our Pathways to Impact for the full details.