A Programme of Technology, Astrophysics and Cosmology in Cardiff, 2022-2025
Lead Research Organisation:
CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
Department Name: School of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Astronomers try to answer a wide range of questions, from fundamental ones, such as how stars and galaxies are formed and questions about the structure and evolution of the universe itself, to more detailed questions about the physical and chemical processes occurring in astronomical objects. A powerful way of trying to answer some of the most important ones is to make observations in the submillimetre waveband, one of the newest branches of astronomy. The births of stars and galaxies, for example, occur in huge clouds of gas and dust, and the dust - tiny solid fragments in interstellar space - hides the births from traditional optical telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope. With submillimetre telescopes, however, it is possible to observe radiation from the dust itself, allowing astronomers to observe the very earliest stages in the lives of stars and galaxies. Submillimetre astronomy is one of our specialities in Cardiff, with our group containing both astronomers that use submillimetre telescopes but also scientists that build novel cameras and other devices that work in this waveband - technology that also has many uses outside astronomy. In this proposal we ask for funds from the UK taxpayer to support our research. Much of this research involves using or building submillimetre instruments, but some of the projects we propose will use telescopes in other wavebands or use powerful computers to simulate the processes involved in the birth of a star or the formation of a galaxy. The questions we will try to answer include many of the most important ones. One of the surprising things about planets like ours is that they exist at all, because centimetre-sized solid chunks around a star are likely to be destroyed before they coalesce to form bigger chunks and eventually planets. We will use radio observations to search for chunks of this size in the disks of dust around newly formed stars, with the aim of understanding how small rocky planets like our own were formed, and in another project we will use a new balloon observatory to study the other end of the planetary spectrum - the giant 'hot Jupiters' that have been discovered around nearby stars. We propose several projects to investigate the formation of stars, both the stars that are forming around us today and a special population of stars with very few heavy elements that astronomers think formed just after the Big Bang, using a mixture of observations and computer simulations. We propose two project that will study supernovae, the titanic explosions that occur when a massive star collapses at the end of its life. One project will investigate the formation of dust grains and molecular gas within a supernova explosion, the other the recently discovered superluminous supernovae, up to 100 times more luminous than the standard kind. Again using a mixture of observations and computer simulations, we propose several projects to study galaxies, including a study of the Andromeda Galaxy, the nearest big galaxy, an investigation of the super-massive black holes at the centres of nearby galaxies, a computer simulation of the gas flows around a galaxy, and a project to find more examples of very distant galaxies, which we are seeing only shortly after the Big Bang and that are being highly magnified by the gravity of close galaxies. More examples of these highly magnified galaxies is important because the magnification means that we can study the way galaxies are formed in great detail. We also propose two technical projects, one to develop kinetic inductance detectors, a kind of detector that our group largely discovered and which makes possible revolutionary new instruments, and one to develop further 'meta-materials', a kind of material that makes possible novel components for instruments, such as flat lenses, and which our group has used to make the filters for all submillimetre telescopes, on the ground and in space, over the last 30 years.
Organisations
Publications
Ajeddig H
(2022)
Probing the role of magnetic fields in star-forming filaments: NIKA2-Pol commissioning results toward OMC-1
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Cai Z
(2022)
Interpreting the Statistical Properties of High-z Extragalactic Sources Detected by the South Pole Telescope Survey
in The Astrophysical Journal
Lestrade J
(2022)
Candidate cosmic filament in the GJ526 field, mapped with the NIKA2 camera
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Hasebe T
(2022)
Sensitivity Modeling for LiteBIRD
in Journal of Low Temperature Physics
Smirnova-Pinchukova I
(2022)
The Close AGN Reference Survey (CARS) No obvious signature of AGN feedback on star formation, but subtle trends
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Otter J
(2022)
Resolved Molecular Gas Observations of MaNGA Post-starbursts Reveal a Tumultuous Past
in The Astrophysical Journal
Priestley F
(2022)
The widths of magnetized filaments in molecular clouds
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Priestley F
(2022)
The initial magnetic criticality of pre-stellar cores
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bron E
(2022)
Learning from model grids: Tracers of the ionization fraction in the ISM
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Motte F
(2022)
ALMA-IMF I. Investigating the origin of stellar masses: Introduction to the Large Program and first results
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
McElroy R
(2022)
The Close AGN Reference Survey (CARS): Data Release 1 and Beyond
Muñoz-Echeverría M
(2022)
Multi-probe analysis of the galaxy cluster CL J1226.9+3332: Hydrostatic mass and hydrostatic-to-lensing bias
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Matsuura M
(2022)
Spitzer and Herschel studies of dust in supernova remnants in the Small Magellanic Cloud
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Giulietti M
(2022)
The far-infrared/radio correlation for a sample of strongly lensed dusty star-forming galaxies detected by Herschel
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Otter Justin
(2022)
Resolved Molecular Gas Observations of MaNGA Post-starbursts Reveal a Tumultuous Past
in American Astronomical Society Meeting #240
Ansari Z
(2022)
Inferring properties of dust in supernovae with neural networks
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Muñoz-Echeverría M
(2022)
The LPSZ-CLASH galaxy cluster sample: Combining lensing and hydrostatic mass estimates
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Pouteau Y
(2022)
ALMA-IMF III. Investigating the origin of stellar masses: top-heavy core mass function in the W43-MM2&MM3 mini-starburst
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Brennan S
(2022)
Photometric and spectroscopic evolution of the interacting transient AT 2016jbu(Gaia16cfr)
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Rohde P
(2022)
Protostellar outflows: a window to the past
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Onori F
(2022)
The nuclear transient AT 2017gge: a tidal disruption event in a dusty and gas-rich environment and the awakening of a dormant SMBH
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Wells M
(2022)
ATLASGAL - star forming efficiencies and the Galactic star formation rate
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Liu L
(2022)
WISDOM Project - XII. Clump properties and turbulence regulated by clump-clump collisions in the dwarf galaxy NGC 404
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lunde E
(2022)
The TolTEC camera: optical alignment and characterization
Greaves J
(2022)
Single-dish 1-cm-band radio photometry of protoplanetary discs: few centimetre-sized dust grains?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Katsioli S
(2022)
Exploring the millimetre emission in nearby galaxies: Analysis of the edge-on galaxy NGC 891
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Bing L
(2022)
Searching for high-z DSFGs with NIKA2 and NOEMA
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Wang J
(2022)
Formation of the SDC13 Hub-filament System: A Cloud-Cloud Collision Imprinted on the Multiscale Magnetic Field
in The Astrophysical Journal
Glass D
(2022)
Cool interstellar medium as an evolutionary tracer in ALMA-observed local dusty early-type galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Koch P
(2022)
A Multiscale Picture of the Magnetic Field and Gravity from a Large-scale Filamentary Envelope to Core-accreting Dust Lanes in the High-mass Star-forming Region W51
in The Astrophysical Journal
Santander-García M
(2022)
The ionised and molecular mass of post-common-envelope planetary nebulae The missing mass problem
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Greaves J
(2022)
Low levels of sulphur dioxide contamination of Venusian phosphine spectra
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ritacco A
(2022)
NIKA 150 GHz polarization observations of the Crab nebula and its spectral energy distribution ( Corrigendum )
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Dong ? Y
(2022)
SN 2016dsg: A Thermonuclear Explosion Involving a Thick Helium Shell
in The Astrophysical Journal
Chastenet J
(2022)
SOFIA/HAWC+ observations of the Crab Nebula: dust properties from polarized emission
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bonne L
(2022)
A potential new phase of massive star formation A luminous outflow cavity centred on an infrared quiet core
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Ejlali G
(2022)
Dust Emission in Galaxies at Millimeter Wavelengths: Cooling of star forming regions in NGC6946
in EPJ Web of Conferences
De Marco O
(2022)
The messy death of a multiple star system and the resulting planetary nebula as observed by JWST
in Nature Astronomy
Whitworth A
(2022)
Ionizing feedback from an O star formed in a shock-compressed layer
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Prole L
(2022)
Primordial magnetic fields in Population III star formation: a magnetized resolution study
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
García-Rojas J
(2022)
MUSE spectroscopy of planetary nebulae with high abundance discrepancies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lara-López M
(2022)
The Fornax3D project: The environmental impact on gas metallicity gradients in Fornax cluster galaxies
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Ruffa I
(2022)
The AGN fuelling/feedback cycle in nearby radio galaxies - IV. Molecular gas conditions and jet-ISM interaction in NGC 3100
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Young L
(2022)
Down but Not Out: Properties of the Molecular Gas in the Stripped Virgo Cluster Early-type Galaxy NGC 4526
in The Astrophysical Journal
Lestrade J
(2022)
Overdensity of SubMillimiter Galaxies in the GJ526 Field mapped with the NIKA2 Camera
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Zabel N
(2022)
VERTICO II: How H i-identified Environmental Mechanisms Affect the Molecular Gas in Cluster Galaxies
in The Astrophysical Journal