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
Tramonte D
(2023)
QUIJOTE scientific results - V. The microwave intensity and polarization spectra of the Galactic regions W49, W51 and IC443
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Toy M
(2023)
Rates and properties of Type Ia supernovae in galaxy clusters within the dark energy survey
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Towler I
(2024)
Inferring the dark matter splashback radius from cluster gas and observable profiles in the FLAMINGO simulations
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
Taylor A
(2024)
MIGHTEE polarization early science fields: the deep polarized sky
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Tafoya D
(2023)
The heart of Sakurai's object revealed by ALMA
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Tacchella S
(2023)
JWST NIRCam + NIRSpec: interstellar medium and stellar populations of young galaxies with rising star formation and evolving gas reservoirs
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Sánchez C
(2023)
The Dark Energy Survey Year 3 high-redshift sample: selection, characterization, and analysis of galaxy clustering
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Surnis M
(2023)
Discovery of an extremely intermittent periodic radio source
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Summers J
(2023)
Magellanic System Stars Identified in SMACS J0723.3-7327 James Webb Space Telescope Early Release Observations Images
in The Astrophysical Journal
Sormani M
(2023)
Fuelling the nuclear ring of NGC 1097
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Song X
(2023)
The Thousand-Pulsar-Array programme on MeerKAT - VIII. The subpulse modulation of 1198 pulsars
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Smith D
(2023)
The Third Fermi Large Area Telescope Catalog of Gamma-Ray Pulsars
in The Astrophysical Journal
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
Smail I
(2023)
Hidden Giants in JWST's PEARLS: An Ultramassive z = 4.26 Submillimeter Galaxy that Is Invisible to HST
in The Astrophysical Journal
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
Singal J
(2023)
The Second Radio Synchrotron Background Workshop: Conference Summary and Report
in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Serafin Nadeau T
(2024)
A Cacophony of Echoes from Daily Monitoring of the Crab Pulsar at Jodrell Bank
in The Astrophysical Journal
Seeyave L
(2023)
First light and reionization epoch simulations (FLARES) X iii : the lyman-continuum emission of high-redshift galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Saxena A
(2023)
JADES: Discovery of extremely high equivalent width Lyman- a emission from a faint galaxy within an ionized bubble at z = 7.3
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Rigby A
(2024)
The dynamic centres of infrared-dark clouds and the formation of cores
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Rhodes L
(2023)
FRB 20121102A: images of the bursts and the varying radio counterpart
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
Posselt B
(2023)
The Thousand Pulsar Array program on MeerKAT - IX. The time-averaged properties of the observed pulsar population
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Polletta M
(2023)
Spectroscopy of the supernova H0pe host galaxy at redshift 1.78
in Astronomy & Astrophysics