A Programme of Technology, Astrophysics and Cosmology in Cardiff 2012-14

我们提出了一个天体物理学和宇宙学的技术开发计划，并实施了在加的夫开发的世界领先项目，以研究我们自己和其他星系中恒星和行星的形成，星系是如何形成和演化的，以及我们今天看到的宇宙是如何起源于大爆炸的。我们将继续开发世界上最灵敏的用于超长红外波长的探测器，以及相关的光学部件，利用由人类设计和制造的材料类别，具有最适合他们的任务的性能，而不是依赖于自然产生的矿物和塑料。这两个技术开发领域在天文学之外都有潜在的广泛应用，例如在安全扫描仪和生物医学成像等领域。用于成像的技术还可以扩展到进行光谱分析，我们提出了一项计划，以发展获得大面积天空图像中每个点的光谱的能力，这对于了解在深度调查中发现的物体有多远，以及组成这些物体的气体中的条件是至关重要的。我们还建议开发干涉测量技术，将两个独立的望远镜组合在一起，以产生远红外波长的高角度分辨率，并参与美国领导的气球干涉仪实验。最后，我们建议参与EBEX气球实验，以测量宇宙微波背景中的所谓B模偏振信号，如果发现它，将向我们展示宇宙一开始的快速膨胀暴涨是如何发生的。

We propose a programme of technology development for Astrophysics and Cosmology, along with implementation of technology developed in Cardiff for world-leading projects to investigate star and planet formation in our own and other galaxies, how galaxies form and evolve, and how the Universe we see around us today originated in the big bang. We will continue to develop the world's most sensitive detectors for very long infrared wavelengths, along with associated optical components utilising 'metamaterials' the class of materials designed and manufactured by human beings to have the properties best suited to their task, rather than relying on naturally occurring minerals and plastics. Both of these areas of technology development have potential wide applications outside of Astronomy, in areas such as security scanners and bio-medical imaging for example. The technologies used for imaging can also be extended to undertake spectroscopy, and we propose a programme to develop the capability to obtain a spectrum of every point in a large area image of the sky, which is essential for understanding how far away the objects found in deep surveys are, but also what the conditions in the gas that make up these objects are. We also propose to develop the technique of interferometry, where two separate telescopes are combined to create high angular resolution, for far-infrared wavelengths and to participate in a US-led balloon interferometer experiment. Finally we propose to participate in the Ebex balloon experiment to measure the so-called B-mode polarization signal in the cosmic microwave background, which if found will show us how inflation, the rapid expansion at the very beginning of the Universe, occurred.