Astrophysics and Cosmology Research at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics 2023-2026
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.
Pulsars and Time Domain Astrophysics: The focus of this group is astrophysical signatures that are changing with time - signals which go 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.
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.
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.
Pulsars and Time Domain Astrophysics: The focus of this group is astrophysical signatures that are changing with time - signals which go 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.
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.
Organisations
Publications
Acharya S
(2024)
Constraining broad photon spectrum injections from exotic and astrophysical sources
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Fisher R
(2024)
Radio pulse profile evolution of magnetar Swift J1818.0-1607
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lovisari L
(2024)
CHEX-MATE: Characterization of the intra-cluster medium temperature distribution
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Smirnov O
(2024)
The RATT PARROT: serendipitous discovery of a peculiarly scintillating pulsar in MeerKAT imaging observations of the Great Saturn - Jupiter Conjunction of 2020. I. Dynamic imaging and data analysis
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Van Der Wateren E
(2024)
PSR J0210+5845: Ultra-wide binary pulsar with a B6 V main sequence star companion
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Frye B
(2024)
The JWST Discovery of the Triply Imaged Type Ia "Supernova H0pe" and Observations of the Galaxy Cluster PLCK G165.7+67.0
in The Astrophysical Journal
Belkin S
(2024)
GRB 230911A: The First Discovery of a Fermi GRB Optical Counterpart with the Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO)
in Research Notes of the AAS
Driessen L
(2024)
FRB 20210405I: a nearby Fast Radio Burst localized to sub-arcsecond precision with MeerKAT
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bowler R
(2024)
The ALMA REBELS survey: obscured star formation in massive Lyman-break galaxies at z = 4-8 revealed by the IRX-ß and M ? relations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Dodge O
(2024)
Mass estimates from optical modelling of the new TRAPUM redback PSR J1910-5320
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Slijepcevic I
(2024)
Radio galaxy zoo: towards building the first multipurpose foundation model for radio astronomy with self-supervised learning
in RAS Techniques and Instruments
Taylor A
(2024)
MIGHTEE polarization early science fields: the deep polarized sky
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Nabizadeh A
(2024)
A search for high-redshift direct-collapse black hole candidates in the PEARLS north ecliptic pole field
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Mutie I
(2024)
Radio jets in NGC 1068 with e -MERLIN and VLA: structure and morphology
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Palla M
(2024)
Metal and dust evolution in ALMA REBELS galaxies: insights for future JWST observations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Radcliffe J
(2024)
Revisiting a flux recovery systematic error arising from common deconvolution methods used in aperture-synthesis imaging
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Wethers C
(2024)
Double, double, toil, and trouble The tails, bubbles, and knots of the local compact obscured nucleus galaxy NGC 4418
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Irfan M
(2024)
Mitigating the effect of 1/ f noise on the detection of the H i intensity mapping power spectrum from single-dish measurements
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Wallström S
(2024)
ATOMIUM: Molecular inventory of 17 oxygen-rich evolved stars observed with ALMA
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lower M
(2024)
A MeerKAT view of the double pulsar eclipses Geodetic precession of pulsar B and system geometry
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Ma Z
(2024)
JWST's PEARLS: Improved Flux Calibration for NIRCam
in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Ormerod K
(2024)
EPOCHS VI: the size and shape evolution of galaxies since z ~ 8 with JWST Observations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bom C
(2024)
Designing an Optimal Kilonova Search Using DECam for Gravitational-wave Events
in The Astrophysical Journal
Whittam I
(2024)
MIGHTEE: Multi-wavelength counterparts in the COSMOS field
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society