The research programme in astronomy theory at Newcastle University
Lead Research Organisation:
Newcastle University
Department Name: Sch of Maths, Statistics and Physics
Abstract
The proposed research programme in astronomy theory (AT) at Newcastle University includes six projects. Their unifying theme is the focus on hydrodynamic (HD) and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) processes, ranging in scale from planets to the large-scale cosmological structure. Newcastle is an internationally leading research centre in the area of astrophysical HD and, especially, MHD. The proposed research involves a wide range of physical processes and a wide range of models and tools, including effective field theory models in cosmology, and analytical MHD models and state-of-the-art numerical simulations for a range of astrophysical objects in a variety of geometries. All of the proposed work also includes extensive comparisons with the latest observations.
The proposed programme will contribute to several research areas of strategic importance, including problems identified in STFC's Big Questions of the Science Roadmap:
A:2 How did structure first form? (Project 1: Field theory approach to cosmological large-scale structure)
A:3 What are the roles of dark matter and dark energy? (Project 1)
A:5 How do galaxies evolve? (Project 2: Magnetic fields and cosmic rays in high-redshift and nearby spiral galaxies, Project 3: Interstellar and intergalactic random magnetic fields, and Project 4: Internal gravity waves in massive stars)
A:6 How do stars form and how do they evolve? (Project 4 and Project 5: Dynamical modelling of glitches in pulsars)
B.1 How common are planetary systems and is ours typical? (Project 6: Magnetism in hot Jupiters)
C:7 High energy gamma and cosmic ray astronomy (Project 2)
D:1 How do the laws of physics work when driven to the extremes? (Project 5)
The proposed programme will contribute to several research areas of strategic importance, including problems identified in STFC's Big Questions of the Science Roadmap:
A:2 How did structure first form? (Project 1: Field theory approach to cosmological large-scale structure)
A:3 What are the roles of dark matter and dark energy? (Project 1)
A:5 How do galaxies evolve? (Project 2: Magnetic fields and cosmic rays in high-redshift and nearby spiral galaxies, Project 3: Interstellar and intergalactic random magnetic fields, and Project 4: Internal gravity waves in massive stars)
A:6 How do stars form and how do they evolve? (Project 4 and Project 5: Dynamical modelling of glitches in pulsars)
B.1 How common are planetary systems and is ours typical? (Project 6: Magnetism in hot Jupiters)
C:7 High energy gamma and cosmic ray astronomy (Project 2)
D:1 How do the laws of physics work when driven to the extremes? (Project 5)
Planned Impact
Our results will be of interest to scientists working in various different subjects areas, including cosmology, galactic and extragalactic astronomy, cosmic rays physics, dynamo theory, radio astronomy, the physics of the interstellar medium, massive and compact stars, and exoplanets and planetary systems. In terms of academic impact, we will ensure that we attend conferences that will enable us to disseminate our results effectively to the international community of scientists working in these fields of research. Although our work is primarily theoretical, it is motivated by observations, and our intention is to produce results that can be used to interpret observational data. It will therefore be important for us to communicate effectively with observers. We shall be using some of the visitor money that we are requesting as part of this grant to further develop existing links with observers.
We have identified some areas of the proposed research that may be beneficial to wider society. These are: the development and application of new image analysis methods, that may be applicable to medical image processing; the techniques that we use to handle large data sets resulting from numerical simulations, that connect to widespread problems in handling "big data"; and using our broad knowledge of astronomy and our experience in developing new planetarium shows, to provide ongoing professional development support for school teachers.
On an individual level, this research will also have a positive impact upon the PDRA's career. Clearly, they will gain important experience in these subject areas. Furthermore, by developing and using a complex, state-of-the-art, general purpose numerical codes in a parallel computing environment, they will gain significant expertise in numerical work. They will also develop their communication skills by presenting research at conferences. Our engagement in, and active support of, a broad network of intense international collaborations will provide the young researchers with international networking and collaboration skills. Our PDRAs and PhD students are regular participants of national and international summer and winter schools that offer unique opportunities to extends their knowledge base and establish international contacts with their peers. Even if some PDRAs or PhD students do not pursue an academic career, such skills are highly valued in many other employment sectors.
Cosmic ray research is particularly well suited to outreach work. For example, galactic cosmic rays may have important consequences for the health of astronauts in future manned space flights. Even at the Earth's surface, we are constantly exposed to cosmic rays, the flux of which depends crucially upon the magnetic fields that are associated with the solar wind. One of the Co-Investigators (Dr A. Fletcher) already does outreach work with local schools, including giving "Masterclasses" on Applied Mathematics and lecturing at our "Partners" summer schools for pupils attending local schools, many in deprived areas, which do not send many students to University. Building upon our previous experience in this area, we intend to introduce simple, and yet deep, ideas from our research into these outreach activities.
We have identified some areas of the proposed research that may be beneficial to wider society. These are: the development and application of new image analysis methods, that may be applicable to medical image processing; the techniques that we use to handle large data sets resulting from numerical simulations, that connect to widespread problems in handling "big data"; and using our broad knowledge of astronomy and our experience in developing new planetarium shows, to provide ongoing professional development support for school teachers.
On an individual level, this research will also have a positive impact upon the PDRA's career. Clearly, they will gain important experience in these subject areas. Furthermore, by developing and using a complex, state-of-the-art, general purpose numerical codes in a parallel computing environment, they will gain significant expertise in numerical work. They will also develop their communication skills by presenting research at conferences. Our engagement in, and active support of, a broad network of intense international collaborations will provide the young researchers with international networking and collaboration skills. Our PDRAs and PhD students are regular participants of national and international summer and winter schools that offer unique opportunities to extends their knowledge base and establish international contacts with their peers. Even if some PDRAs or PhD students do not pursue an academic career, such skills are highly valued in many other employment sectors.
Cosmic ray research is particularly well suited to outreach work. For example, galactic cosmic rays may have important consequences for the health of astronauts in future manned space flights. Even at the Earth's surface, we are constantly exposed to cosmic rays, the flux of which depends crucially upon the magnetic fields that are associated with the solar wind. One of the Co-Investigators (Dr A. Fletcher) already does outreach work with local schools, including giving "Masterclasses" on Applied Mathematics and lecturing at our "Partners" summer schools for pupils attending local schools, many in deprived areas, which do not send many students to University. Building upon our previous experience in this area, we intend to introduce simple, and yet deep, ideas from our research into these outreach activities.
Publications
Aerts C
(2017)
Kepler sheds new and unprecedented light on the variability of a blue supergiant: Gravity waves in the O9.5Iab star HD 188209
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Aerts Conny
(2018)
Angular Momentum Transport in Stellar Interiors
in arXiv e-prints
Basu A
(2018)
Statistical properties of Faraday rotation measure in external galaxies - I. Intervening disc galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bera P
(2019)
The Origin of Large-Scale Magnetic Fields in Low-Mass Galaxies
in Galaxies
Boulanger F
(2018)
IMAGINE: a comprehensive view of the interstellar medium, Galactic magnetic fields and cosmic rays
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Bowman D
(2019)
Photometric detection of internal gravity waves in upper main-sequence stars I. Methodology and application to CoRoT targets
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Chamandy L
(2020)
Parameters of the Supernova-Driven Interstellar Turbulence
Description | The research programme has been successful as it produced new results at the forefront of research in galaxy formation, pulsars and neutron stars and exoplanetary atmospheres. |
Exploitation Route | The results have been published in leading international journals and e-print servers with open access. The techniques and methods developed can be used in a wide range of applications from medicine to environmental studies. |
Sectors | Education,Environment,Healthcare |
Description | Methods of statistical image analysis have been applied to medical image processing and clinical assessment of cornea damage (in collaboration with biologists and NHS staff). The experience in mathematical modelling gained in this project has been instrumental in a fledging application to the monitoring, modelling and forecast of air quality in urban environments (in collaboration with Newcastle City Council and Northumbria University). |
First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Environment,Healthcare |
Impact Types | Societal,Policy & public services |
Description | Morphological and topological image analysis for clinical diagnostics and monitoring of cornea damage |
Amount | £67,566 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ST/S002383/1 |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 10/2018 |
End | 03/2019 |
Description | Observations and models of turbulent flows: a topological approach |
Amount | £200,457 (GBP) |
Funding ID | RPG-2014-427 |
Organisation | The Leverhulme Trust |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 12/2014 |
End | 12/2018 |
Title | GalMag - A Python tool for computing realistic galactic magnetic fields |
Description | GalMag is a Python package for computing galactic magnetic fields based on mean field dynamo theory. The code computes two separate components of the galactic magnetic field: a disc and a halo component. Both are solutions to the mean field dynamo equation for the choice of parameters and galaxy rotation curves specified by the user. GalMag is open-source software available under the GNU General Public License v3 (GPL-3). |
Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The research model and its supporting software have been made publicly available only recently. I will be used by the ISSI (Bern, Switzerland) Working Group on Bayesian modelling of galactic magnetic fields and cosmic ray propagation (participants from UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, US, Italy). |
URL | https://bitbucket.org/luizfelippe/galmag |
Description | Joint research |
Organisation | Durham University |
Department | Institute for Computational Cosmology |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Expterise in the ISM dynamics, turbulence, magnetic fields and cosmic rays. |
Collaborator Contribution | Expertise in galaxy formation, semi-analytic models of galaxy formation (Prof. C. Baugh) |
Impact | 2015MNRAS.450.3472R |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Joint research |
Organisation | King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok |
Department | Department of Materials and Production |
Country | Thailand |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Expertise in galactic magnetic field (theory and observations), dynamics of interstellar medium, theory of random functions and turbulence |
Collaborator Contribution | Expertise in cosmic ray dynamics |
Impact | 2018MNRAS.473.4544S 2017ApJ...839L..16S 2016MNRAS.457.3975S |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Joint research |
Organisation | University of Rochester |
Department | Department of Physics and Astronomy |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Expertise in galactic dynamo theory, observations of galactic magnetic fields, theory of random fields and turbulence. |
Collaborator Contribution | Expertise in fundamental dynamo theory, large-scale numerical simulations (Dr L. Chamandy) |
Impact | 2016ApJ...833...43C |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | MAMSIE collaboration |
Organisation | University of Leuven |
Department | Department of Physics and Astronomy |
Country | Belgium |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Collaboration with Prof. Conny Aerts' observational program under the ERC grant MAMSIE. Our team provides numerical simulations with which to compare observational results. |
Collaborator Contribution | Our team provides numerical simulations with which to compare observational results. |
Impact | Many joint publications listed in publications. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Title | Morphological and topological image analysis for clinical diagnostics and monitoring of cornea damage |
Description | As one of the outcomes of the STFC grant ST/N000900/1 (Project 2), we have developed methods of topological and morphological image analysis for astronomical images and computational results that can be extended to medical image analysis. We have applied for an STFC Research Grant, PPRP, aimed to foster the impact of STFC-funded research, and our application has been successful (PI: Prof. A. Shukurov, Grant Ref: ST/S002383/1, 1/10/2018-31/03/2019, £67,567). In close collaboration with a clinical ophthalmologist, we are developing computer-based clinical diagnostic aid for cornea damage in monitoring. The software package resulting from this work will be installed at the Royal Victoria Infirmary (NHS, Newcastle upon Tyne) to be used in the hospital environment by clinical ophthalmologists. |
Type | Diagnostic Tool - Imaging |
Current Stage Of Development | Initial development |
Year Development Stage Completed | 2019 |
Development Status | Under active development/distribution |
Impact | This is promising and pioneering research direction since there are no similar objective, quantitative diagnostic tools in the area of corneal ophthalmology. We are now working on further extension of this approach using artificial intelligence and machine learning. Our results will eventually be made available to a wide community of clinical ophthalmologists and high-street optometrists nationally and worldwide. |
Title | GalMag - A Python tool for computing realistic galactic magnetic fields |
Description | GalMag is a Python package for computing galactic magnetic fields based on mean field dynamo theory. The code computes two separate components of the galactic magnetic field: a disc and a halo component. Both are solutions to the mean field dynamo equation for the choice of parameters and galaxy rotation curves specified by the user. GalMag is open-source software available under the GNU General Public License v3 (GPL-3). |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | The software has been made publicly available only recently. I will be used by the ISSI (Bern, Switzerland) Working Group on Bayesian modelling of galactic magnetic fields and cosmic ray propagation (participants from UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, US, Italy). |
URL | https://bitbucket.org/luizfelippe/galmag |
Description | Bespoke planetarium show |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 31/8/2016. Three presentations of "The Invisible Universe", a specially created planetarium show for "Space Week" at the Great North Museum Hancock, Newcastle upon Tyne. Attendance: 75. Following requests, the show was further developed and repeated on 30/8/2017, attendance: 75 in planetarium, ~100 for demonstrations. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017 |
URL | https://greatnorthmuseum.org.uk/whats-on/planetarium |
Description | Planetarium Show |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 1/9/2016. Three presentations of "Rhythms of the Cosmos", a specially created planetarium show for "Space Week" at the Great North Museum Hancock. Attendance: 75. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | https://greatnorthmuseum.org.uk/whats-on/planetarium |
Description | Public Lecture |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 3/12/2016. Public Lecture on flight pioneer Otto Lilienthal. Newcastle Literary & Philosophical Society. Attendance ~20 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://www.litandphil.org.uk/ |