Astrophysics at the University of Birmingham - Consolidated grant 2022-2025

宇宙看起来非常不同，取决于我们观察它的方式。利用广泛的宇宙信使，从无线电波到红外辐射和光，再到X射线和伽马射线，以及直到几年前还在空间和时间上产生的称为引力波的波纹，全光谱的“电磁辐射”揭示了宇宙并不是一个安静的地方。它的特点是暴力和戏剧性的现象，强大的爆炸，在短时间内产生惊人的大量能量。我们现在可以非常详细地研究这些灾难性事件中的许多，这要归功于一大批一流的天文台，其中一些将在未来几年内上线。我们可能会再次感到非常惊讶，并发现新的现象。我们的节目从许多不同的角度观察了一些最令人兴奋的瞬变现象，中心有黑洞和极端(“致密”)的物体。我们的目标是研究黑洞如何吞噬和撕碎星系中心的恒星。我们将利用光在宇宙尺度上的弯曲效应，通过巨大的透镜--星系群和星系团--来观察其中一些灾难性事件的多幅图像，获得关于它们的引擎和宇宙作为一个整体是如何演化的新见解。我们还将第一次尝试“听到”宇宙中数十亿个太阳质量的黑洞在星系中心分裂并辐射引力波的低语。我们相信我们现在可以用强大的银河系尺度的“仪器”探测到这种辐射，这些仪器是由被称为脉冲星的射电灯塔提供给我们的超稳定时钟。如果发生这种情况，我们将打开一扇新的宇宙观测窗口。黑洞也是极其简单的物体。它们是引力的一种基本粒子，测试它们的性质至关重要。利用我们现在经常用引力波激光干涉仪观测到的许多二元黑洞，我们将以前所未有的精度测试围绕这些天体最著名的预测之一：霍金的视界面积定理。我们上面描述的大部分或所有宇宙爆炸都发生在星系中，天文学家几十年来一直非常详细地研究星系。然而，星系是如何形成和演化的，作为宇宙中被称为“宇宙网”的错综复杂的结构的一部分，仍然是一个谜。使用世界上一些最好的望远镜进行的新的强大的调查将使我们能够检验现有的理论模型，我们将获得关于星系在宇宙时间内的演化以及在这些环境中发生的无数相互关联的物理过程的新见解。

The Universe looks very different depending on how we observe it. The use of a broad range of cosmic messengers, the full spectrum of "electromagnetic radiation" - ranging from radio waves through infrared radiation and light, to X-rays and gamma rays - and, as of only a few years ago also ripples in space and time known as gravitational waves reveal that the Universe is not a quiet place. It is characterised by violent and dramatic phenomena, powerful explosions that produce astonishingly large mount of energy over short periods of time. We can now study many of these catastrophic events in great detail thanks to a large range of superb observatories, some of which coming on-line in the next couple of years. We may be very surprised yet again, and discover new phenomena.Our programme looks at some of the most exciting transient phenomena from many different angles and has black holes and extreme ("compact") objects at its centre. We aim to study how black holes devour and shred stars at the centre of galaxies. We will use the effect of bending of light over cosmic scales to observe through massive lenses - groups and clusters of galaxies - multiple images of some of these catastrophic events, gain new insights about their engines and how the Universe evolves as a whole. We will also try to "hear" for the very first time the cosmic whisper of the population of billion solar mass black holes paring up at the centre of galaxies and radiating gravitational waves. We believe we can detect this radiation now with powerful galactic scale "instruments", the ultra-stable clocks provided to us by radio lighthouses known as pulsars. If this happens, we would open a new observational window on the Universe.Black holes are also spectacularly simple objects. They are a sort of fundamental particle of gravity and testing their properties is of paramount importance. Using the many binary black holes that we now routinely observe with gravitational-wave laser interferometers we will test to unprecedented accuracy one of the most famous predictions surrounding these objects: Hawking's horizon area theorem.Most or all of the cosmic explosions that we have described above take place in galaxies, which astronomers have studied in great detail for many decades. However, how galaxies form and evolve as part of the tangled structures in the Universe known as "the cosmic web" is still surrounded by mystery. New powerful surveys using some of the best telescopes in the world will allow us to put existing theoretical models under test, and we will gain new insights about galaxy evolution over cosmic time and the myriad of interlinked physical processes that take place in these environments.