Astronomy at Durham 2020-2023

Lead Research Organisation: Durham University
Department Name: Physics

Abstract

Astronomy can capture the public imagination to a greater extent than almost any other branch of science. It is accessible to anyone who gazes up into the night sky to look at the Moon, the planets, stars, and nearby galaxies. Our understanding of the universe has developed rapidly over the past several decades. On the basis of the standard cosmological model we live in a universe where at least two thirds of the mass energy is in the form of dark energy which causes the Universe to expand at an ever increasing rate. About a quarter of the mass energy is in the form of dark matter, most probably a new weakly interacting elementary particle yet to be detected on Earth (and hence of great interest to particle physicists). The remaining five percent of the mass energy is in the form of ordinary, or baryonic, matter of which only about a tenth is in stars and planets such as the Earth, and the rest resides mostly as gas in between galaxies.

Our programme combines cutting-edge theoretical and observational research with innovative instrumentation development to understand the universe in which we inhabit. We blend theoretical research on the earliest phases of the Universe with theoretical and observational projects to determine the formation and evolution of black holes, galaxies, and the larger-scale structures in which they reside. We confront the predictions from our models with our latest observational results, while actively exploiting innovative instrumentation developments pursued in Durham. We will explore astrophysical clues to the identity of the dark matter and the nature of the dark energy, focus on the evolution of galaxies back to the earliest times in the Universe and the influence on which the larger-scale environment has had on their properties. We will investigate the formation and evolution of black holes and their role in determining the structure and properties of galaxies and their larger scale structures, using the latest instruments on ground-based observatories and Earth-orbiting satellites.

Planned Impact

We have a strong track record of public engagement. What started out as a Physics-centric outreach initiative over a decade ago has become a University wide activity. It has led to the creation of the highly successful Celebrate Science festival in Durham, which attracts ~7,000 people each year. This year we are aiming to quantify the impact of our outreach by sending out carefully designed questionnaires to the local schools attending the Durham University Schools' Science Festival, which attracts over 850 pupils annually. This will allow us to develop our outreach activities into an impact case study for the upcoming REF exercise, combining the six Royal Society Summer Science exhibitions that we have been involved in between 2002-2016. We aim to submit a new proposal for Summer Science 2020 or 2021 to refresh our outreach materials. Building on the Cosmic Architecture and Cosmoscope installations we built for Durham's Lumiere festival in 2017, we plan to include one or more of these in the "greatest hits" version of Lumiere in 2019, the tenth anniversary of the first event, after which we will develop new exhibits for Lumiere 2021.

Our Knowledge Exchange (KE) programme builds upon the strong industry links within all three of the astronomy groups at Durham, and has been expanded in recent years with the establishment of the Durham Data Intensive Science CDT. We will continue to exploit the opportunities afforded by the CDT for placements and team projects with local SMEs and wider UK industries. We will also use these opportunities to build the visibility of our wider research knowledge and skills to industry.

We are expanding our capabilities in precision diamond machining via infrastructure investments from the University and elsewhere, and will seek to develop their economic impact via applications into the STFC FOF and IPS programmes. Our expertise in adaptive optics is recognised worldwide and we will continue develop its international impact with joint programmes in China, Turkey & Thailand. Our work on novel detectors (MKIDs) will naturally support wider European initiatives such as the ATTRACT project.

Finally, our broader research programme underpins the research and development of a cohort of postgraduate students at Durham, providing them with training in specific and transferable skills which is being accelerated by our CDTs. Former students have taken jobs in a range of industries from computer gaming to finance and genetics. Physics students at Durham benefit through their participation in our research work via their 4th year MPhys projects. Our technical training of these post/undergraduate students provides a pool of talented, skilled candidates to the UK economy which will continue throughout the period of our Consolidated Grant proposal. We will continue to add industrial partners to the CDT in Data Intensive Science to offer new placement opportunities for PhD students and for students on our new MSc course in Scientific Computing and Data Analysis.

Publications

10 25 50

publication icon
Acharyya A (2021) Sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array to a dark matter signal from the Galactic centre in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

publication icon
Acharyya A (2021) Locating the gamma-ray emission region in the brightest Fermi -LAT flat-spectrum radio quasars in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

publication icon
Alarcon A (2021) The PAU Survey: an improved photo- z sample in the COSMOS field in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

publication icon
Algera H (2022) COLDz: Probing Cosmic Star Formation With Radio Free-Free Emission in The Astrophysical Journal

publication icon
Almaraz E (2020) Nonlinear structure formation in Bound Dark Energy in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

publication icon
Alston W (2021) Quasi-periodic dipping in the ultraluminous X-ray source, NGC 247 ULX-1 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

publication icon
Amorisco N (2022) Halo concentration strengthens dark matter constraints in galaxy-galaxy strong lensing analyses in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

 
Description Astronomy at Durham 2020-2023
Amount £4,751,735 (GBP)
Funding ID ST/T000244/1 
Organisation Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2020 
End 03/2024
 
Description Data Intensive Science Translation Fellow
Amount £276,889 (GBP)
Funding ID ST/R005516/1 
Organisation Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 06/2018 
End 06/2021
 
Description Dirac-3 Operations 2019-2022- Durham
Amount £7,358,945 (GBP)
Funding ID ST/V002376/1 
Organisation Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2019 
End 03/2023
 
Description Dirac-3 Operations 2019-2022- Durham
Amount £2,232,863 (GBP)
Funding ID ST/S003908/1 
Organisation Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2019 
End 03/2020
 
Description Durham Astronomy Consolidated Grant 2017-2020
Amount £5,911,198 (GBP)
Funding ID ST/P000541/1 
Organisation Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2017 
End 03/2021
 
Description STFC Durham Physics 2017 DTP
Amount £735,070 (GBP)
Funding ID ST/R504725/1 
Organisation Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2017 
End 09/2021
 
Description Using Cosmic Beasts to Uncover the Nature of Dark Matter
Amount £743,842 (GBP)
Funding ID MR/S017216/1 
Organisation Medical Research Council (MRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 04/2019 
End 04/2023
 
Description Your Place in the Universe
Amount £14,484 (GBP)
Funding ID ST/T00567X/1 
Organisation Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 07/2020 
End 03/2022
 
Description Zooming in on feedback in active galaxies: the first high-resolution radio survey
Amount £992,150 (GBP)
Funding ID MR/T042842/1 
Organisation Medical Research Council (MRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2020 
End 09/2024
 
Title Narrow Fe Ka emission within bright AGN 
Description VizieR online Data Catalogue associated with article published in journal Astronomy & Astrophysics with title 'Localizing narrow Fe Ka emission within bright AGN.' (bibcode: 2022A&A...664A..46A) 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2022 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Largest compilation of X-ray spectra for AGN. 
URL https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/664/A46
 
Title Properties of the AGN sample 
Description VizieR online Data Catalogue associated with article published in journal Astronomy & Astrophysics with title 'SUPER IV. CO(J=3-2) properties of active galactic nucleus hosts at cosmic noon revealed by ALMA.' (bibcode: 2021A&A...646A..96C) 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2021 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Largest compilation of CO observations of galaxies at this redshift. 
URL https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/646/A96
 
Title Quasar Feedback Survey - APEX CO Results Tables (M.E. Jarvis et al. 2020) 
Description These are machine readable versions of Tables 1, 3 and B1 from M.E. Jarvis et al. 2020, MNRAS, 498, 1560. "High molecular gas content and star formation rates in local galaxies that host quasars, outflows, and jets" This journal article is also available on the pre-print arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.10351. Table 1 contains the main properties of the 9 quasar host galaxies observed in the study, including redshifts, star formation rates and stellar masses. Table 3 contains the results of the APEX observations, which includes CO(2-1) emission-line properties for all 9 targets and CO(6-5) emission-line properties for a subset of 3 of the targets. Table B1 contains the derived molecular gas masses for all 9 targets using two different methods. All tables are in fits format and information about the units and column descriptions are included in the header. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact First dedicated search for molecular gas in quasars. 
URL https://data.ncl.ac.uk/articles/dataset/Quasar_Feedback_Survey_-_APEX_CO_Results_Tables_M_E_Jarvis_e...
 
Title Quasar Feedback Survey - APEX CO Results Tables (M.E. Jarvis et al. 2020) 
Description These are machine readable versions of Tables 1, 3 and B1 from M.E. Jarvis et al. 2020, MNRAS, 498, 1560. "High molecular gas content and star formation rates in local galaxies that host quasars, outflows, and jets" This journal article is also available on the pre-print arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.10351. Table 1 contains the main properties of the 9 quasar host galaxies observed in the study, including redshifts, star formation rates and stellar masses. Table 3 contains the results of the APEX observations, which includes CO(2-1) emission-line properties for all 9 targets and CO(6-5) emission-line properties for a subset of 3 of the targets. Table B1 contains the derived molecular gas masses for all 9 targets using two different methods. All tables are in fits format and information about the units and column descriptions are included in the header. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact First dedicated search for molecular gas in quasars. 
URL https://data.ncl.ac.uk/articles/dataset/Quasar_Feedback_Survey_-_APEX_CO_Results_Tables_M_E_Jarvis_e...
 
Title Quasar Feedback Survey - APEX Pilot Data (M.E. Jarvis et al. 2020) 
Description This is the reduced APEX data covering the CO(2-1) and CO(6-5) emission lines for the 9 quasars as described in in M.E. Jarvis et al. 2020, MNRAS, 498, 1560 (DOI: 10.1903/mnras/staa2196). The pre-print article is also available on the public arXiv: arxiv.org/abs/2007.10351. As explained in the paper 9 of the quasars have CO(2-1) emission-line data and three of the quasars, additionally, have CO(6-5) data. All details of data acquisition and data reduction are explained in the journal article. The tar file contains 12 .fits files, clearly named to correspond to each quasar and indicating which CO line is in the data. Comprehensive meta data is attached as headers to each fits file following the astronomy standards. A python code is also provided in the tar file to plot the data for each source. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact First dedicated search for molecular gas in quasars. 
URL https://data.ncl.ac.uk/articles/dataset/Quasar_Feedback_Survey_-_APEX_Pilot_Data_M_E_Jarvis_et_al_20...
 
Title SCUBA-2 850um survey of the JWST-TDF & 3GHz VLA obs. 
Description VizieR online Data Catalogue associated with article published in journal Astronomical Journal (AAS) with title 'The JCMT SCUBA-2 Survey of the James Webb Space Telescope North Ecliptic Pole Time-Domain Field.' (bibcode: 2023ApJS..264...19H) 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Deepest radio survey of the highest quality sub-mm survey field. 
URL https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJS/264/19
 
Title SUPER. V. ALMA continuum observations of z~2 AGN and the elusive evidence of outflows influencing star formation 
Description This is a data release to the publication: Lamperti et al. (2021), SUPER. V. ALMA continuum observations of z ~ 2 AGN and the elusive evidence of outflows influencing star formation, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Volumbe 654, page 90. This data release contains: 1. The ALMA Band 7 continuum maps, that are first presented in Figure 2 of the publication. These are packaged in a zip file. 2. The emission-line images produced from the SINFONI data cubes (H-alpha and [O III]). These are presented in Figures 3 and 10 of the publication. These are packaged in a zip file. 3. A README containing more detailed information. The images are released in fits format, including world coordinate system information in the header. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://data.ncl.ac.uk/articles/dataset/SUPER_V_ALMA_continuum_observations_of_z_2_AGN_and_the_elusi...
 
Title The DESI Survey Validation: Results from Visual Inspection of the Quasar Survey Spectra 
Description Data files to reproduce the published figures from Alexander et al. (2022), AJ, in press (arXiv:2208.08517), titled "The DESI Survey Validation: Results from Visual Inspection of the Quasar Survey Spectra". The figure number is encoded in the file name to make it easy to relate the published figures to the corresponding data file. Please see the published paper for detailed information on what is plotted for each figure. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2022 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact First large sample of AGN from the DESI surveys. 
URL https://zenodo.org/record/7316968
 
Title The PHLEK survey: oxygen & helium abundances 
Description VizieR online Data Catalogue associated with article published in journal Astronomical Journal (AAS) with title 'The PHLEK survey: a new determination of the primordial helium abundance.' (bibcode: 2020ApJ...896...77H) 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2021 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/896/77
 
Title X-shooter spectra of AGN and inactive galaxies 
Description VizieR online Data Catalogue associated with article published in journal Astronomy & Astrophysics with title 'LLAMA: Stellar populations in the nuclei of ultra-hard X-ray-selected AGN and matched inactive galaxies.' (bibcode: 2021A&A...654A.132B) 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2021 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Largest comparison of highly obscured AGN and a control sample of similar hosts. 
URL https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/654/A132
 
Title XMM-SERVS survey: X-ray sources for W-CDF-S & ELAIS-S1 
Description VizieR online Data Catalogue associated with article published in journal Astronomical Journal (AAS) with title 'The XMM-SERVS survey: XMM-Newton point-source catalogs for the W-CDF-S and ELAIS-S1 fields.' (bibcode: 2021ApJS..256...21N) 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2022 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Largest sample of X-ray sources in the widest deep X-ray survey field. 
URL https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJS/256/21
 
Description LOFAR radio telescope 
Organisation LOFAR
Country Netherlands 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Development of the processing and reduction of international long-baseline array data
Collaborator Contribution Priority access to the LOFAR radio data
Impact Publications on the long-baseline LOFAR results will be coming out very soon
Start Year 2019
 
Description SKA radio telescope 
Organisation SKA Square Kilometre Array
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Scientific and technical development through membership of the SKA science committee and member of very long baseline interferometry and extragalactic continuum working groups.
Collaborator Contribution Scientific planning and development.
Impact none
Start Year 2019
 
Description Astronomical society talks (~5/year) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Giving presentations on specialist topics to astronomical societies: typically about 5/year.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022
 
Description Celebrate Science Festival 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Celebrate Science is an annual Durham University science festival. It runs for approximately 3 days and attracts about 7000 visitors, many of them school children and their parents: it is scheduled for a half-term week. Each year ~30 members of the astronomy group participate to the Celebrate Science festival. They engage with visitors through exhibits including many created in the astronomy group such as our "Galaxy Maker" and "Gravitational Lens" simulators. Unfortunately, Celebrate Science was cancelled in 2020 due to the covid pandemic and was on line in 2021.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017,2018,2019,2022
URL https://www.dur.ac.uk/celebrate.science/
 
Description General public talks including Pint of Science 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Presenting and discussing ideas in astronomy and cosmology to the general public including the popular "Pint of Science" series of talks organised in a local pubs. Typically about 10 talks/year.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022
 
Description Numerous schools visits, science fairs and open days 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact The outreach activity in Durham is too wide and frequent to make filling in boxes like this feasible. If any group can they they aren't doing enough of it.

The public appreciation of astronomy in the North East is higher than it would be without our work.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity Pre-2006,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022,2023,2024
 
Description Numerous schools visits, science fairs and open days 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact The outreach activity in Durham is too wide and frequent to make filling in boxes like this feasible. If any group can they they are\
n't doing enough of it.

The public appreciation of astronomy in the North East is higher than it would be without our work.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity Pre-2006,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022,2023,2024
 
Description Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2020 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The Summer Science Exhibition is run by the Royal Society and is held in London. Over 14,000 members of the public including 2000 school children visit the Summer Science Exhibition each year. Many more are engaged through media coverage on TV and online. Exhibiting at the Royal Society not only engages the school children and the general public in STEM subjects, it also has the potential to influence policy makers and to engage potential funders. We estimate we had direct contact with over 3000 visitors for our astronomy and cosmology exhibits.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020,2022
 
Description School visits to enthuse students about STEM subjects (~10/year) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact School visits to discuss astronomy to enthuse them in STEM-related subjects. Typically ~10 visits per year.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022