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
Vega-Ferrero J
(2021)
Pushing automated morphological classifications to their limits with the Dark Energy Survey
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Tohill C
(2021)
Quantifying Non-parametric Structure of High-redshift Galaxies with Deep Learning
in The Astrophysical Journal
Mohan D
(2022)
Quantifying uncertainty in deep learning approaches to radio galaxy classification
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Piat M
(2022)
QUBIC-the Q & U bolometric interferometer for cosmology
Piat M
(2020)
QUBIC: Using NbSi TESs with a Bolometric Interferometer to Characterize the Polarization of the CMB
in Journal of Low Temperature Physics
Poidevin F
(2023)
QUIJOTE scientific results - VII. Galactic AME sources in the QUIJOTE-MFI northern hemisphere wide survey
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Caleb M
(2022)
Radio and X-ray observations of giant pulses from XTE J1810 - 197
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Zhang L
(2022)
Radio Detection of an Elusive Millisecond Pulsar in the Globular Cluster NGC 6397
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Tang H
(2022)
Radio Galaxy Zoo: giant radio galaxy classification using multidomain deep learning
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Slijepcevic I
(2022)
Radio Galaxy Zoo: using semi-supervised learning to leverage large unlabelled data sets for radio galaxy classification under data set shift
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Munari U
(2022)
Radio interferometric imaging of RS Oph bipolar ejecta for the 2021 nova outburst
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Reichel M
(2022)
Recombination of Hot Ionized Nebulae: The Old Planetary Nebula around V4334 Sgr (Sakurai's Star)*
in The Astrophysical Journal
Aad G
(2020)
Reconstruction and identification of boosted di-t systems in a search for Higgs boson pairs using 13 TeV proton-proton collision data in ATLAS
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Pearce F
(2021)
Redshift evolution of the hot intracluster gas metallicity in the C-EAGLE cluster simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lee E
(2022)
Refined modelling of the radio SZ signal: kinematic terms, relativistic temperature corrections, and anisotropies in the radio background
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Barnes D
(2020)
Relativistic SZ temperature scaling relations of groups and clusters derived from the BAHAMAS and MACSIS simulations
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
Casassus S
(2021)
Resolved spectral variations of the centimetre-wavelength continuum from the ? Oph W photodissociation region
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hansen S
(2020)
Retrieving Internal Kinematics of Galaxies with Deep Learning Using Single-band Optical Images
in Research Notes of the AAS
Arámburo-García A
(2022)
Revision of Faraday rotation measure constraints on the primordial magnetic field using the IllustrisTNG simulation
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Panopoulou G
(2021)
Revisiting the Distance to Radio Loops I and IV Using Gaia and Radio/Optical Polarization Data
in The Astrophysical Journal
Samajdar A
(2022)
Robust parameter estimation from pulsar timing data
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Xu ?? X
(2020)
Rotation of Two Micron All Sky Survey Clumps in Molecular Clouds
in The Astrophysical Journal
Aad G
(2020)
Search for a scalar partner of the top quark in the all-hadronic $$t{\bar{t}}$$ plus missing transverse momentum final state at $$\sqrt{s}=13$$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2020)
Search for heavy diboson resonances in semileptonic final states in pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s}=13$$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2020)
Search for Heavy Higgs Bosons Decaying into Two Tau Leptons with the ATLAS Detector Using pp Collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2020)
Search for Heavy Resonances Decaying into a Photon and a Hadronically Decaying Higgs Boson in pp Collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV with the ATLAS Detector.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2020)
Search for Higgs Boson Decays into a Z Boson and a Light Hadronically Decaying Resonance Using 13 TeV pp Collision Data from the ATLAS Detector.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2020)
Search for light long-lived neutral particles produced in pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s} = 13~\mathrm {TeV}$$ and decaying into collimated leptons or light hadrons with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2021)
Search for phenomena beyond the Standard Model in events with large b-jet multiplicity using the ATLAS detector at the LHC
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2020)
Search for top squarks in events with a Higgs or Z boson using 139 fb$$^{-1}$$ of pp collision data at $$\sqrt{s}=13$$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Abbott R
(2022)
Searches for Gravitational Waves from Known Pulsars at Two Harmonics in the Second and Third LIGO-Virgo Observing Runs
in The Astrophysical Journal
Shamohammadi M
(2023)
Searches for Shapiro delay in seven binary pulsars using the MeerKAT telescope
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gompertz B
(2020)
Searching for electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational-wave merger events with the prototype Gravitational-Wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO-4)
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
Chen H
(2020)
Searching for obscured AGN in z ~ 2 submillimetre galaxies
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Sobey C
(2022)
Searching for pulsars associated with polarised point sources using LOFAR: Initial discoveries from the TULIPP project
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Smarra C
(2023)
Second Data Release from the European Pulsar Timing Array: Challenging the Ultralight Dark Matter Paradigm
in Physical Review Letters
Mong Y
(2023)
Self-supervised clustering on image-subtracted data with deep-embedded self-organizing map
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Sweetnam T
(2022)
Simulating the behaviour of travelling wave superconducting parametric amplifiers using a commercial circuit simulator
in Superconductor Science and Technology
Battye R
(2021)
Simulations of domain walls in Two Higgs Doublet Models
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Tress R
(2020)
Simulations of the Milky Way's central molecular zone - I. Gas dynamics
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Sormani M
(2020)
Simulations of the Milky Way's Central Molecular Zone - II. Star formation
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society