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
Serafin Nadeau T
(2024)
A Cacophony of Echoes from Daily Monitoring of the Crab Pulsar at Jodrell Bank
in The Astrophysical Journal
Acharya S
(2023)
A closer look at dark photon explanations of the excess radio background
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Veena V
(2023)
A CO funnel in the Galactic centre: Molecular counterpart of the northern Galactic chimney
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Austin D
(2023)
A Large Population of Faint 8 < z < 16 Galaxies Found in the First JWST NIRCam Observations of the NGDEEP Survey
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Levan A
(2023)
A long-duration gamma-ray burst of dynamical origin from the nucleus of an ancient galaxy
in Nature Astronomy
Hurley-Walker N
(2023)
A long-period radio transient active for three decades.
in Nature
Lower M
(2024)
A MeerKAT view of the double pulsar eclipses Geodetic precession of pulsar B and system geometry
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Abbate F
(2023)
A MeerKAT view of the pulsars in the globular cluster NGC 6522
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Fijma S
(2024)
A new method for short-duration transient detection in radio images: searching for transient sources in MeerKAT data of NGC 5068
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Tohill C
(2024)
A Robust Study of High-redshift Galaxies: Unsupervised Machine Learning for Characterizing Morphology with JWST up to z ~ 8
in The Astrophysical Journal
Jankowski F
(2023)
A sample of fast radio bursts discovered and localized with MeerTRAP at the MeerKAT telescope
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
Mehta V
(2023)
A Spatially Resolved Analysis of Star Formation Burstiness by Comparing UV and Ha in Galaxies at z ~ 1 with UVCANDELS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Caleb M
(2023)
A subarcsec localized fast radio burst with a significant host galaxy dispersion measure contribution
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kim W
(2023)
A survey of SiO J = 1-0 emission toward massive star-forming regions
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Cunnington S
(2024)
Accurate Fourier-space statistics for line intensity mapping: Cartesian grid sampling without aliased power
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Wandia K
(2023)
An interferometric SETI observation of Kepler-111 b
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kamieneski P
(2023)
Are JWST/NIRCam Color Gradients in the Lensed z = 2.3 Dusty Star-forming Galaxy El Anzuelo Due to Central Dust Attenuation or Inside-out Galaxy Growth?
in The Astrophysical Journal
Wallström S
(2024)
ATOMIUM: Molecular inventory of 17 oxygen-rich evolved stars observed with ALMA
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Golden-Marx J
(2023)
Characterizing the intracluster light over the redshift range 0.2 < z < 0.8 in the DES-ACT overlap
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lovisari L
(2024)
CHEX-MATE: Characterization of the intra-cluster medium temperature distribution
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Bartalucci I
(2023)
CHEX-MATE: Constraining the origin of the scatter in galaxy cluster radial X-ray surface brightness profiles
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Oppizzi F
(2023)
CHEX-MATE: Pressure profiles of six galaxy clusters as seen by SPT and Planck
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Bourdin H
(2023)
CHEX-MATE: X-ray absorption and molecular content of the interstellar medium toward galaxy clusters
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Zegeye D
(2023)
CMB-S4 forecasts for constraints on f NL through µ -distortion anisotropy
in Physical Review D