Astrophysics and Cosmology Research at the JBCA 2020-2023
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
This grant supports the research of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester. Our research is a divided into 3 groups. There are too many specific proposals to describe in detail, do below we have given a brief layman's explanation of the work being carried out by the three groups.
Cosmology: This is the study of the Universe as a whole. The main aim is to understand the processes by which the large scale feature of the Universe formed and to constrain the various different kinds of matter that existed within it. These include dark matter and dark energy which are thought to constitute more than 95% of the total. We do this by comparison to observations of weak and strong gravitational lensing which is the distortion of light predicted to be caused by massive objects in Einstein' Theory of General Relativity, the cosmic microwave background which is the faint emission of radiation created at the time when protons and electrons come together to form hydrogen and the emission given off by neutral hydrogen atoms in galaxies. The research we propose here involves both theory and observation as well as the development of the technology necessary to make the observations possible.
Sun, Stars and Galaxies: The researchers in this group study a wide range of astrophysical processes that are reasonable for the formation and evolution of the objects in the name of the group. Specific key areas that the group is interested in are the formation of stars much larger than the Sun and the subsequent evolution, the properties of the so-called interstellar medium (ISM) which comprises molecules not bound to stars and the magnetic fields that permeate space.
Pulsars and Time Domain Astrophysics: The focus of this group is astrophysical signatures that are changing with time- things which come on and off, often with some kind of regularity. These include Pulsars which are a non-standard star type, known as a neutron star, which is a dead star supported by the quantum pressure of neutrons. The radio emission from these objects pulses on an off with extraordinary regularity allowing them to acts cosmic clocks. The constantly measuring these clocks as the neutron stars spin and move through space, often impacted on by a companion star, allows the most precise constraints on the nature of gravity outside the solar system. Other phenomena studied by this group include Nova explosions, other variable stars, and variability induced by the lensing effects of one star passing in front of another, called microlensing.
Cosmology: This is the study of the Universe as a whole. The main aim is to understand the processes by which the large scale feature of the Universe formed and to constrain the various different kinds of matter that existed within it. These include dark matter and dark energy which are thought to constitute more than 95% of the total. We do this by comparison to observations of weak and strong gravitational lensing which is the distortion of light predicted to be caused by massive objects in Einstein' Theory of General Relativity, the cosmic microwave background which is the faint emission of radiation created at the time when protons and electrons come together to form hydrogen and the emission given off by neutral hydrogen atoms in galaxies. The research we propose here involves both theory and observation as well as the development of the technology necessary to make the observations possible.
Sun, Stars and Galaxies: The researchers in this group study a wide range of astrophysical processes that are reasonable for the formation and evolution of the objects in the name of the group. Specific key areas that the group is interested in are the formation of stars much larger than the Sun and the subsequent evolution, the properties of the so-called interstellar medium (ISM) which comprises molecules not bound to stars and the magnetic fields that permeate space.
Pulsars and Time Domain Astrophysics: The focus of this group is astrophysical signatures that are changing with time- things which come on and off, often with some kind of regularity. These include Pulsars which are a non-standard star type, known as a neutron star, which is a dead star supported by the quantum pressure of neutrons. The radio emission from these objects pulses on an off with extraordinary regularity allowing them to acts cosmic clocks. The constantly measuring these clocks as the neutron stars spin and move through space, often impacted on by a companion star, allows the most precise constraints on the nature of gravity outside the solar system. Other phenomena studied by this group include Nova explosions, other variable stars, and variability induced by the lensing effects of one star passing in front of another, called microlensing.
Planned Impact
The range of research we undertake and the world-class facilities within and in close association with JBCA (the Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre, e-MERLIN, the Lovell Telescope, the ALMA ARC and the SKA HQ) will provide key pathways to increasing our already strong impact on UK and global industry, the next generation of scientists and engineers, and the general public. The University's investment in the Jodrell Bank site combined with significant external funding (e.g. from Heritage Lottery Fund) will enable us to expand its use as an iconic venue for public and industrial engagement. The programme described here formed a key part of the School's submission for REF2014, helping it to be ranked highest in the REF for physics impact with 83% at 4* and 17% at 3*. Our outreach \& public engagement programme is extremely strong and continues to grow, particularly through its work with the University's award-winning Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre and the BBC. With the recent decision on SKA HQ location and our strong research work in this area, there is also growing impact in both outreach and industrial engagement in this area.
Our "Pathways to Impact" statement in the case for support outlines things that we have done in recent times under the headings of "Outreach and Public Engagement" and "Industrial and economic impact". We list some highlights below.
- Jodcast: Podcast run by students with 7000 regular listeners.
- 215000 Twitter and 18000 Facebook followers
- Stargazing live, Pulsar Hunters, Science Programmes presented by Danielle George
- JB Discovery centre with 190000 visitors per year
- Award winning Bluedot Festivals
- Industry contracts for SKA work including CISCO, AASL, NPL, AEON, Critical Software, MMI, GEANT
- Newton programme for Radio Astronomy in Africa.
Our "Pathways to Impact" statement in the case for support outlines things that we have done in recent times under the headings of "Outreach and Public Engagement" and "Industrial and economic impact". We list some highlights below.
- Jodcast: Podcast run by students with 7000 regular listeners.
- 215000 Twitter and 18000 Facebook followers
- Stargazing live, Pulsar Hunters, Science Programmes presented by Danielle George
- JB Discovery centre with 190000 visitors per year
- Award winning Bluedot Festivals
- Industry contracts for SKA work including CISCO, AASL, NPL, AEON, Critical Software, MMI, GEANT
- Newton programme for Radio Astronomy in Africa.
Organisations
Publications
Main R
(2023)
The Thousand Pulsar Array programme on MeerKAT - X. Scintillation arcs of 107 pulsars
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Adams N
(2023)
Discovery and properties of ultra-high redshift galaxies (9 < z < 12) in the JWST ERO SMACS 0723 Field
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Tang H
(2022)
Radio Galaxy Zoo: giant radio galaxy classification using multidomain deep learning
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Tan S
(2023)
Morphologies and Central Stars of Planetary Nebulae in the Galactic bulge from VLT, HST and Pan-STARRS imaging
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pagano M
(2023)
Characterization of inpaint residuals in interferometric measurements of the epoch of reionization
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kovács A
(2022)
The DES view of the Eridanus supervoid and the CMB cold spot
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Rajwade K
(2020)
Possible periodic activity in the repeating FRB 121102
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Agar C
(2021)
A broad-band radio study of PSR J0250+5854: the slowest spinning radio pulsar known
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hartley W
(2022)
Dark Energy Survey Year 3 Results: Deep Field optical + near-infrared images and catalogue
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Venkatraman Krishnan V
(2020)
The SUrvey for pulsars and extragalactic radio bursts V: recent discoveries and full timing solutions
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Walmsley M
(2022)
Practical galaxy morphology tools from deep supervised representation learning
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Purver M
(2022)
Removal and replacement of interference in tied-array radio pulsar observations using the spectral kurtosis estimator
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Sobey C
(2021)
A polarization census of bright pulsars using the ultrawideband receiver on the Parkes radio telescope
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Simpson C
(2023)
How cosmic rays mediate the evolution of the interstellar medium
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Westcott J
(2020)
The curious activity in the nucleus of NGC 4151: jet interaction causing variability?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Li Y
(2021)
H i intensity mapping with MeerKAT: 1/f noise analysis
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lee S
(2022)
Galaxy-galaxy lensing with the DES-CMASS catalogue: measurement and constraints on the galaxy-matter cross-correlation
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Posselt B
(2021)
The Thousand-Pulsar-Array programme on MeerKAT - VI. Pulse widths of a large and diverse sample of radio pulsars
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Samajdar A
(2022)
Robust parameter estimation from pulsar timing data
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Griffiths A
(2021)
Emission line galaxies in the SHARDS Frontier Fields - I. Candidate selection and the discovery of bursty Ha emitters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ding H
(2023)
The MSPSRp catalogue: VLBA astrometry of 18 millisecond pulsars
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hartley P
(2021)
Using strong lensing to understand the microJy radio emission in two radio quiet quasars at redshift 1.7
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kumamoto H
(2021)
Flux density variability of 286 radio pulsars from a decade of monitoring
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Tudorache M
(2022)
MIGHTEE - H i . The relation between the H i gas in galaxies and the cosmic web
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Mong Y
(2021)
Searching for Fermi GRB optical counterparts with the prototype Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO)
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Barnes D
(2021)
Characterizing hydrostatic mass bias with mock-X
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Platts E
(2021)
An analysis of the time-frequency structure of several bursts from FRB 121102 detected with MeerKAT
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Zürcher D
(2022)
Dark energy survey year 3 results: Cosmology with peaks using an emulator approach
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ridolfi A
(2021)
Eight new millisecond pulsars from the first MeerKAT globular cluster census
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cheng T
(2023)
Lessons learned from the two largest Galaxy morphological classification catalogues built by convolutional neural networks
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Baldi R
(2021)
LeMMINGs - II. The e -MERLIN legacy survey of nearby galaxies. The deepest radio view of the Palomar sample on parsec scale
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Grylls P
(2020)
The significant effects of stellar mass estimation on galaxy pair fractions.
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Miles M
(2023)
The MeerKAT Pulsar Timing Array: first data release
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Tress R
(2020)
Simulations of the Milky Way's central molecular zone - I. Gas dynamics
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Traficante A
(2023)
The SQUALO project (Star formation in QUiescent And Luminous Objects) I: clump-fed accretion mechanism in high-mass star-forming objects
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Oswald L
(2023)
Pulsar polarization: a broad-band population view with the Parkes Ultra-Wideband receiver
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Chen W
(2023)
MeerKAT discovery of 13 new pulsars in Omega Centauri
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Shamohammadi M
(2023)
Searches for Shapiro delay in seven binary pulsars using the MeerKAT telescope
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Antoniadis J
(2022)
The International Pulsar Timing Array second data release: Search for an isotropic gravitational wave background
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Acharya S
(2022)
CMB spectral distortions from continuous large energy release
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Darwish M
(2020)
OH maser towards IRAS 06056+2131: polarization parameters and evolution status
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Wang J
(2021)
H i intensity mapping with MeerKAT: calibration pipeline for multidish autocorrelation observations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Towler I
(2023)
Gas clumping and its effect on hydrostatic bias in the MACSIS simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kramer M
(2021)
The relativistic binary programme on MeerKAT: science objectives and first results
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Vega-Ferrero J
(2021)
Pushing automated morphological classifications to their limits with the Dark Energy Survey
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Wolz L
(2022)
H i constraints from the cross-correlation of eBOSS galaxies and Green Bank Telescope intensity maps
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
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
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
Healy-Kalesh M
(2023)
On the observability of recurrent nova super-remnants
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Whittam I
(2022)
MIGHTEE: the nature of the radio-loud AGN population
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society