Astronomy and Astrophysics at Edinburgh
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Sch of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
An astonishing feature of modern astrophysical research is that we have in principle a chain of explanation that stretches from processes on cosmological scales of billions of light years, down to the creation of stars, planets around the stars and life on the planets. In a sense, this process is almost a closed loop: the early Universe was once of sub-nuclear scale, so that quantum mechanical uncertainty is bound to seed fluctuations in density, which eventually collapse under gravity to make astronomical structures. This is the same physics of the very small that governs the formation of the atoms out of which we are all made.
But unanswered questions abound at all stages of this process. Our theories of the early Universe and explanations of its current expansion rest on the concept that empty space can have weight: the so-called "dark energy". We need to study its properties and understand its origin. In so doing, we often assume that Einstein's relativity describes gravity correctly on all scales, but can we test this? If the standard theory is correct, dark matter is required, and we are driven to follow the processes by which it clumps, and by which the gas within these clumps evolves and eventually collapses to form stars and massive black holes. New large telescopes on the ground, together with observing platforms in space such as the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, allow us to see this process in action and compare the observations with detailed computer simulations. Nearer to home, we can dissect galaxies such as our own Milky Way into individual stars, for the most detail view of how they were assembled. And finally we can study how planets arise around these stars, both from new instruments that can detect the presence of "exo-planets" and by computer simulations of how they may be created within the discs of gas and dust left over from star formation. Ultimately, one can refine the search to planets potentially capable of supporting life, and ask how life might arise within these early planetary systems.
Research in astronomy at Edinburgh attacks all of these connected questions. Progress is rapid, driven by technological breakthroughs in observational facilities and computing power, and our understanding is evolving rapidly. Major progress, even if not final answers, can be expected within a few years. This is an exciting time for our understanding of the full history and structure of our Universe and our place within it.
But unanswered questions abound at all stages of this process. Our theories of the early Universe and explanations of its current expansion rest on the concept that empty space can have weight: the so-called "dark energy". We need to study its properties and understand its origin. In so doing, we often assume that Einstein's relativity describes gravity correctly on all scales, but can we test this? If the standard theory is correct, dark matter is required, and we are driven to follow the processes by which it clumps, and by which the gas within these clumps evolves and eventually collapses to form stars and massive black holes. New large telescopes on the ground, together with observing platforms in space such as the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, allow us to see this process in action and compare the observations with detailed computer simulations. Nearer to home, we can dissect galaxies such as our own Milky Way into individual stars, for the most detail view of how they were assembled. And finally we can study how planets arise around these stars, both from new instruments that can detect the presence of "exo-planets" and by computer simulations of how they may be created within the discs of gas and dust left over from star formation. Ultimately, one can refine the search to planets potentially capable of supporting life, and ask how life might arise within these early planetary systems.
Research in astronomy at Edinburgh attacks all of these connected questions. Progress is rapid, driven by technological breakthroughs in observational facilities and computing power, and our understanding is evolving rapidly. Major progress, even if not final answers, can be expected within a few years. This is an exciting time for our understanding of the full history and structure of our Universe and our place within it.
Planned Impact
Details of our Pathways to Impact are provided in the separate 2-page attachment. In brief, we carry out an extensive programme of public engagement and knowledge transfer, implemented in collaboration with the UK ATC, and our own Wide Field Astronomy Unit. Much stems directly from the research activities that are the subject of this application.
Our work in knowledge transfer and exploitation is exemplified by the case study of MOPED and the resulting spin-out company Blackford Analysis. MOPED (Massively Optimised Parameter Estimation and Data compression) is a unique process that employs a massive data compression step, enabling very rapid analysis without compromising accuracy. The MOPED algorithm was designed at the IfA by Prof. Alan Heavens and Dr Benjamin Panter to solve problems in cosmology, but has since been successfully applied to a number of medical applications, the most obvious being the ability of MOPED to speed up 3-D MRI image reconstruction to the point where it would no longer be necessary to immobilize children with a general anaesthetic for MRI scans. A spin-out company, Blackford Analysis Ltd, started trading in August 2010, has received significant investment, and now employs 9 people in the UK (sited at ROE, allowing continued academic interaction), developing very rapid image alignment tools for the medical imaging market. There has been direct user-engagement in the medical imaging field, through researchers, clinicians and industry luminaries, as well as MRI scanner manufacturers and PACS vendors. Recently Blackford Analysis has expanded its work into applications in other areas, securing a two-year consultancy contract with Rolls Royce worth £65,000, and identifying further commercial applications of MOPED in security imaging and in the oil and gas industries.
The case of Blackford Analysis exemplifies how novel techniques developed for astronomical research can be effectively applied to have a major impact in wider society. We plan to replicate this success through the University of Edinburgh's involvement in the new Higgs Centre for Innovation (to be completed at ROE by spring 2016). The Higgs Centre aims to ensure that further technologies, algorithms, and techniques from any of ATC instrumentation, IfA research, or WFAU data handling are effectively transferred to industry through close interactions between our academics/PDRAs and the public and private sectors (with the potential to create of further spinout companies from the STFC incubator). We are also taking the Big Data initiative, and interaction with the commercial sector, very seriously. (i) We have a long tradition of designing and developing new data centre facilities in active collaboration with local companies, who then use their experience with other commercial customers. (ii) As part of leading a proposal for UK participation in LSST, we are working with STFC to identify BIS infrastructure funding to work with industry. (iii) We are currently advertising for a new position specialising in novel data handling techniques.
We are also involved in a particularly vigorous programme of Public Outreach, Engagement & Education, under the auspices of the ROE Visitor Centre (www.roe.ac.uk/vc; jointly funded by the University and STFC) that draws directly on the cutting-edge research supported by our STFC Consolidated grant. Within the UK university sector, this programme is unusual in its breadth and scope, extending well beyond the normal expectation of public talks, press releases and media interviews. This is in part because university staff, PDRAs and students have the opportunity to work collaboratively with Visitor Centre Staff, but is also due to the unique advantages afforded by the ROE site, with its unusual combination of front-line astronomical research, world-leadiing instrument development, and astronomical history/heritage. Further details of activities and impact are provided in the Pathways to Impact attachment.
Our work in knowledge transfer and exploitation is exemplified by the case study of MOPED and the resulting spin-out company Blackford Analysis. MOPED (Massively Optimised Parameter Estimation and Data compression) is a unique process that employs a massive data compression step, enabling very rapid analysis without compromising accuracy. The MOPED algorithm was designed at the IfA by Prof. Alan Heavens and Dr Benjamin Panter to solve problems in cosmology, but has since been successfully applied to a number of medical applications, the most obvious being the ability of MOPED to speed up 3-D MRI image reconstruction to the point where it would no longer be necessary to immobilize children with a general anaesthetic for MRI scans. A spin-out company, Blackford Analysis Ltd, started trading in August 2010, has received significant investment, and now employs 9 people in the UK (sited at ROE, allowing continued academic interaction), developing very rapid image alignment tools for the medical imaging market. There has been direct user-engagement in the medical imaging field, through researchers, clinicians and industry luminaries, as well as MRI scanner manufacturers and PACS vendors. Recently Blackford Analysis has expanded its work into applications in other areas, securing a two-year consultancy contract with Rolls Royce worth £65,000, and identifying further commercial applications of MOPED in security imaging and in the oil and gas industries.
The case of Blackford Analysis exemplifies how novel techniques developed for astronomical research can be effectively applied to have a major impact in wider society. We plan to replicate this success through the University of Edinburgh's involvement in the new Higgs Centre for Innovation (to be completed at ROE by spring 2016). The Higgs Centre aims to ensure that further technologies, algorithms, and techniques from any of ATC instrumentation, IfA research, or WFAU data handling are effectively transferred to industry through close interactions between our academics/PDRAs and the public and private sectors (with the potential to create of further spinout companies from the STFC incubator). We are also taking the Big Data initiative, and interaction with the commercial sector, very seriously. (i) We have a long tradition of designing and developing new data centre facilities in active collaboration with local companies, who then use their experience with other commercial customers. (ii) As part of leading a proposal for UK participation in LSST, we are working with STFC to identify BIS infrastructure funding to work with industry. (iii) We are currently advertising for a new position specialising in novel data handling techniques.
We are also involved in a particularly vigorous programme of Public Outreach, Engagement & Education, under the auspices of the ROE Visitor Centre (www.roe.ac.uk/vc; jointly funded by the University and STFC) that draws directly on the cutting-edge research supported by our STFC Consolidated grant. Within the UK university sector, this programme is unusual in its breadth and scope, extending well beyond the normal expectation of public talks, press releases and media interviews. This is in part because university staff, PDRAs and students have the opportunity to work collaboratively with Visitor Centre Staff, but is also due to the unique advantages afforded by the ROE site, with its unusual combination of front-line astronomical research, world-leadiing instrument development, and astronomical history/heritage. Further details of activities and impact are provided in the Pathways to Impact attachment.
Organisations
Publications
Winters J
(2014)
THE SOLAR NEIGHBORHOOD. XXXV. DISTANCES TO 1404 M DWARF SYSTEMS WITHIN 25 PC IN THE SOUTHERN SKY
in The Astronomical Journal
Magnelli B
(2014)
The far-infrared/radio correlation and radio spectral index of galaxies in the SFR- M * plane up to z ~2
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Shulevski A
(2015)
The peculiar radio galaxy 4C 35.06: a case for recurrent AGN activity?
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Davis T
(2015)
Molecular and atomic gas in dust lane early-type galaxies - I. Low star formation efficiencies in minor merger remnants
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Wilson Michael J.
(2015)
Rapid modelling of the redshift-space power spectrum multipoles for a masked density field
in ArXiv e-prints
Davis T
(2015)
Erratum: Molecular and atomic gas in dust lane early-type galaxies - I. Low star formation efficiencies in minor merger remnants: Table 1.
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Agarwal Bhaskar
(2015)
New constraints on direct collapse black hole formation in the early Universe
in ArXiv e-prints
Nandra K
(2015)
AEGIS-X: DEEP CHANDRA IMAGING OF THE CENTRAL GROTH STRIP
in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Lukic Z
(2015)
The Lyman a forest in optically thin hydrodynamical simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Heald G
(2015)
The LOFAR Multifrequency Snapshot Sky Survey (MSSS) I. Survey description and first results
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Kuijken K
(2015)
Gravitational lensing analysis of the Kilo-Degree Survey
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Thomson A
(2015)
Tracing cool molecular gas and star formation on ~100 pc scales within a z ~ 2.3 galaxy
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Umehata H
(2015)
ALMA DEEP FIELD IN SSA22: A CONCENTRATION OF DUSTY STARBURSTS IN A z = 3.09 PROTOCLUSTER CORE
in The Astrophysical Journal
Grazian A
(2015)
The Lyman continuum escape fraction of galaxies at z = 3.3 in the VUDS-LBC/COSMOS field
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Marchetti L
(2015)
The HerMES submillimetre local and low-redshift luminosity functions
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Durkalec A
(2015)
Stellar mass to halo mass relation from galaxy clustering in VUDS: a high star formation efficiency at z ? 3
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Kohno Kotaro
(2015)
SXDF-UDS-CANDELS-ALMA 1.5 arcmin
2 deep survey
in IAU General Assembly
Thomson A. P.
(2015)
VizieR Online Data Catalog: Selected ALESS submm galaxies radio properties (Thomson+, 2014)
in VizieR Online Data Catalog
Chapman S
(2015)
A millimetre-wave redshift search for the unlensed HyLIRG, HS1700.850.1
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Mann R
(2015)
Editorial
in Astronomy and Computing
McDermid R
(2015)
The ATLAS3D Project - XXX. Star formation histories and stellar population scaling relations of early-type galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Smith B
(2015)
The first Population II stars formed in externally enriched mini-haloes
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Koprowski M.
(2015)
The SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey: galaxies in the deep 850-micron survey, and the star-forming `main sequence'
in ArXiv e-prints
Ibar E
(2015)
A multiwavelength exploration of the [C ii]/IR ratio in H-ATLAS/GAMA galaxies out to z = 0.2
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Fritz A
(2015)
The formation and build-up of the red-sequence over the past 9 Gyr in VIPERS
in Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
Kobayashi T
(2015)
A separate universe view of the asymmetric sky
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Timmons N
(2015)
EXTINCTION AND NEBULAR LINE PROPERTIES OF A HERSCHEL -SELECTED LENSED DUSTY STARBURST AT z = 1.027
in The Astrophysical Journal
Mead A
(2015)
Rapid simulation rescaling from standard to modified gravity models
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Agarwal Bhaskar
(2015)
Detecting Direct Collapse Black Holes: making the case for CR7
in ArXiv e-prints
Cappi A
(2015)
The VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS) Hierarchical scaling and biasing?
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Choi Ami
(2015)
CFHTLenS and RCSLenS: Testing Photometric Redshift Distributions Using Angular Cross-Correlations with Spectroscopic Galaxy Surveys
in ArXiv e-prints
Ikarashi S
(2015)
COMPACT STARBURSTS IN $z\sim 3$-6 SUBMILLIMETER GALAXIES REVEALED BY ALMA
in The Astrophysical Journal
Dunlop James
(2015)
Cosmic Star-Formation History and Deep ALMA imaging of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field
in IAU General Assembly
Kettula K
(2015)
CFHTLenS: weak lensing calibrated scaling relations for low-mass clusters of galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Macintosh B
(2015)
Discovery and spectroscopy of the young jovian planet 51 Eri b with the Gemini Planet Imager.
in Science (New York, N.Y.)
Penarrubia Jorge
(2015)
The formation of the smooth halo component
in IAU General Assembly
Biller Beth
(2015)
The First Search for Weather in a T-Type Planetary Mass Object
in Spitzer Proposal
Laporte N
(2015)
ENVIRONMENT OF THE SUBMILLIMETER-BRIGHT MASSIVE STARBURST HFLS3 AT z ~ 6.34
in The Astrophysical Journal
Rice K
(2015)
Can Kozai-Lidov cycles explain Kepler-78b?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
McCracken H
(2015)
Probing the galaxy-halo connection in UltraVISTA to z ~ 2
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ashby M
(2015)
S-CANDELS: THE SPITZER -COSMIC ASSEMBLY NEAR-INFRARED DEEP EXTRAGALACTIC SURVEY. SURVEY DESIGN, PHOTOMETRY, AND DEEP IRAC SOURCE COUNTS
in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Ford J
(2015)
CFHTLenS: a weak lensing shear analysis of the 3D-Matched-Filter galaxy clusters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Umehata H.
(2015)
VizieR Online Data Catalog: AzTEC/ASTE 1.1mm survey of SSA22 (Umehata+, 2014)
in VizieR Online Data Catalog
Simpson F
(2015)
Enhancing the cosmic shear power spectrum
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Yajima H
(2015)
Can the 21-cm signal probe Population III and II star formation?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hand N
(2015)
First measurement of the cross-correlation of CMB lensing and galaxy lensing
in Physical Review D
Brienza M
(2015)
LOFAR discovery of a 700-kpc remnant radio galaxy at low redshift
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Granett B. R.
(2015)
A high-dimensional look at VIPERS galaxies
in ArXiv e-prints
Chen C
(2015)
AN ALMA SURVEY OF SUBMILLIMETER GALAXIES IN THE EXTENDED CHANDRA DEEP FIELD SOUTH: NEAR-INFRARED MORPHOLOGIES AND STELLAR SIZES
in The Astrophysical Journal