Astrophysics at the University of Birmingham: Consolidated Grant 2016-2019

我们对整个宇宙的大部分知识都来自于科学家所说的“电磁辐射”，从无线电波到红外辐射和光，再到x射线和伽马射线。这种情况即将改变，因为我们即将首次探测到爱因斯坦广义相对论所预言的时空涟漪——引力波。伯明翰天体物理学和空间研究小组在这些发展中发挥着关键作用，并准备利用合并黑洞和中子星的信号来更多地了解恒星、黑洞的演化，并测试我们对引力本身的理解。我们也在开发先进的技术，这将使未来在探测引力波方面有所改进，这样就可以研究更弱的信号。传统仪器探测遥远宇宙和不同尺度的宇宙结构、星系和星系团的能力不断提高。我们将使用一些最精细的观测来推进我们对星系和星系团如何在宇宙时间内形成和演化的理解。天体物理学的一个热门话题是努力理解神秘的“暗能量”，它为宇宙的加速膨胀提供动力。我们计划利用星系团作为探测器，在最大尺度上探索宇宙的结构和膨胀历史，以推进我们对暗能量本质的理解。在我们的太阳系附近已经发现了几千颗系外行星。了解这些系统的特性，它们是如何形成的，以及它们是如何生存的，对于确定太阳系外存在什么样的行星，并最终确定生命可以在哪里发展，至关重要。我们将使用复杂的计算机模拟来探索这些系统中不同种群的特征，并在迄今为止收集的数据中推断（目前）未观察到的同伴的存在。在星系中，质量最大的恒星由于其辐射的高功率和强大的恒星风而产生重大影响。这些恒星的磁场起着重要的作用，令人惊讶的是，很难估计有多少物质在风中从这些恒星中流走。我们计划将计算机建模与不同波长的观测相结合，以提高我们对磁场对大质量恒星、它们的风和对周围环境的影响有多大的理解。

Most of our knowledge about the Universe at large has been derived from what scientists refer to as "electromagnetic radiation", ranging from radio waves through infrared radiation and light, to X-rays and gamma rays. This is about to change, since we are on the brink of the first detection of the ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves, which are predicted by Einstein's theory of General Relativity. The Birmingham Astrophysics and Space Research Group is playing a key role in these developments, and is preparing to use the signals from merging black holes and neutron stars to learn more about the evolution of stars, black holes and to test our understanding of gravity itself. We are also developing the advanced technology which will be required to make future improvements in detecting gravitational waves, so that much weaker signals can be studied.The capabilities of more conventional instruments to probe the distant Universe and cosmic structures at different scales, galaxies and galaxy clusters, continue to improve. We will use some of the most exquisite observations to advance our understanding of how galaxies and clusters form and evolve through cosmic time. A hot topic in astrophysics is the effort to understand the mysterious "dark energy" which powers the accelerating expansion of the Universe. We plan to use clusters of galaxies as probes of the structure and expansion history of the Universe on the largest scales, to advance our understanding of the nature of dark energy.A few thousand exoplanets have been discovered in our solar neighbourhood. Understanding the properties of these systems, how the formed and how they can survive is of crucial importance to determine what kind of planets exists outside our Solar System, and, ultimately, determine where life could develop. We will use sophisticated computer simulations to explore the characteristics of different populations of these systems, and to infer the presence of (presently) unobserved companions in the data that have been gathered so far. Within galaxies, the most massive stars have a major impact due to the very high power they radiate, and due to their powerful stellar winds. The magnetic field in these stars plays a major role, and it is surprisingly difficult to estimate how much matter is streaming away from such stars in a wind. We plan to combine computer modelling with observations at different wavelengths to improve our understanding of just how big an impact the magnetic field has on massive stars, their winds and the effects on their surroundings.