Astronomy Research at Queen Mary 2012-2015

我们的天文学研究计划包括横跨学科广度的项目。我们将研究太阳系的各个方面，如土星的光环系统、类地行星的形成、日冕中的粒子加速和太阳风中的湍流。虽然根植于太阳系，但这些项目的结果将与许多其他天体物理环境相关。我们将研究太阳系外行星的各个方面，包括结构和大气层。实施宇宙学和宇宙早期历史研究项目。虽然我们的大多数项目都是理论项目，但我们将实施Vista调查等观测性项目。大范围的研究领域提供了一个令人兴奋的环境，鼓励将天文学作为对整个宇宙及其历史的研究。我们现在知道有许多行星围绕着太阳以外的恒星运行。这些太阳系外行星和太阳系中的行星是如何形成的，这是一个重大的悬而未决的问题。在年轻恒星周围观察到的气尘盘中形成了行星。我们将使用复杂的计算机模拟来模拟这些圆盘，并研究嵌入的行星体和行星的演化。我们将研究小行星之间的碰撞；行星的迁移；通过形成巨行星在圆盘中的气体吸积和缺口形成。我们将使用模拟行星碰撞的模拟代码来研究岩石类地行星的形成。我们还将研究短周期行星的大气动力学。它们靠近恒星产生了强烈的热量和复杂的流动模式，这可能被用来解释对这些热行星的观测。卡西尼号太空任务提供了丰富的土星环图像。我们将以F环-普罗米修斯系统为范例，研究月球经过时引起环内引力不稳定性的机制。我们可以在数值模拟中对此进行建模，并通过与卡西尼号数据中看到的实际光环和伴随的小卫星进行比较来检验我们的结果。土星环的寿命是一个悬而未决的问题。目前的最佳估计表明，这些光环只能存活约400米，或者说太阳系年龄的10%。我们打算研究一种可能的方法，利用与更大质量的外部卫星(如土卫一)的共振来“锁定”光环系统。我们还将向Rosetta CONSERT团队提供有关木星家族彗星的最新信息。日冕是太阳大气层的上层，也是太阳风的来源，太阳风是流经太阳系的等离子体。理解太阳风如何保持热是一个关键问题，我们将研究等离子体湍流的作用，以及它如何在最小的动力学尺度上消散。日冕也是高能粒子的来源，解释电子和离子如何在耀斑中加速是一个长期存在的问题。我们将基于实际的非均匀等离子体构型，研究使用波(色散阿尔芬波)和粒子相互作用的加速过程。所有这些研究都将使用大规模、自洽的等离子体模拟。近年来，宇宙学已经从一个数据贫乏的领域转变为一个数据非常丰富的领域。宇宙微波背景(CMB)实验和大规模结构调查促成了这一转变，向理论宇宙学家提出了解释这些数据集的挑战。我们将致力于四个不同但相互补充的项目。我们将把宇宙学微扰理论扩展到线性级数之外，并将其应用到新的现象和可观测到的领域。我们对膨胀宇宙学的研究集中在早期宇宙的新的多场模型及其观测结果上。我们将研究黑洞作为宇宙学和粒子物理学的探测器，并研究宇宙学中的所谓冲浪效应，以利用CMB的偏振获得对宇称破坏的约束。

Our programme of research in Astronomy comprises projects spanning the breadth of the subject. We will study aspects of the solar system such as Saturn's ring system, the formation of the terrestrial planets, particle acceleration in the solar corona and turbulence in the solar wind. Although rooted in the solar system, the results of these projects will be relevant for many other astrophysical environments. We will study aspects of extra-solar planets, including formation and atmospheres. We will carry out projects to study cosmology and the early history of the Universe. Although the majority of our projects are theoretical, we will carry out observational projects such as the VISTA surveys. The large range of research areas provides a stimulating environment which encourages a view of Astronomy as the study of all of the Universe and its history. We now know of many planets orbiting stars other than the Sun. How these extra-solar planets and those in our Solar System formed is a major unsolved question. Planets form in the gas-dust discs observed around young stars. We will use sophisticated computer simulations to model these discs, and examine the evolution of embedded planetesimals and planets. We will study collisions between planetesimals; migration of planets; gas accretion and gap formation in the disc by forming giant planets. We will examine the formation of rocky terrestrial planets using simulation codes which model planetary collisions. We will also examine atmospheric dynamics in short-period planets. Their proximity to the star generates intense heating and complex flow patterns which may be used to interpret observations of these hot planets. The Cassini space mission has provided a wealth of images of the rings of Saturn. We will study the mechanism by which gravitational instability in a ring can be induced by a passing moon using the F ring-Prometheus system as a paradigm. We can model this in numerical simulations and test our results by comparison with actual rings and accompanying moonlets seen in Cassini data. The lifetime of Saturn's rings is an unsolved problem. The current best estimate suggests that the rings can only survive for ~400My, or <10% of the age of the solar system. We intend to investigate a possible means of "locking" the ring system using a resonance with a more massive, exterior moon such as Mimas. We will also provide the Rosetta CONSERT team with the latest information on Jupiter family comets.The corona is the upper layer of the Sun's atmosphere and the source of the solar wind, the plasma which flows out through the solar system. Understanding how the solar wind stays hot is a key problem and we will study the role of plasma turbulence and how it dissipates at the smallest kinetic scales. The solar corona is also a source of energetic particles, and explaining how electrons and ions are accelerated in flares is a long-standing problem. We will study acceleration processes which use the interaction of waves (dispersive Alfven waves) and particles, based on realistic inhomogeneous plasma configurations. All these studies will use large-scale, self-consistent plasma simulations. Cosmology has been transformed in recent years from a data poor to a very data rich area. Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments and Large Scale Structure surveys have contributed to this transformation, challenging theoretical cosmologists to explain these data sets. We will work on four different but complementary projects. We will extend cosmological perturbation theory beyond linear order and apply it to new phenomena and observables. Our study of inflationary cosmology focuses on new multi-field models of the early universe and their observational consequences. We will investigate black holes as a probe of cosmology and particle physics, and study the so-called surfing effect in cosmology to obtain constraints on parity violation using the polarisation of the CMB.