Support of the Astronomical Research of the Cavendish Astrophysics Group

卡文迪什天体物理学（CA）小组非常重视实验和观测天体物理学，以基础理论工作和数据分析方面的大量专业知识为后盾。这一综合赠款申请侧重于科学开发，特别是那些我们在其发展中发挥了重要作用的仪器和设施。我们亦建议一项崭新的蓝天仪器计划，这项综合拨款申请的科学计划主要围绕以下四个范畴进行：（1）利用阿尔马和SCUBA-2的崭新设施，研究银河系和邻近星系的星星形成和演化，以及发展可见光和近红外线干涉量度学。我们的研究将涵盖多个空间尺度，从表征星星形成过程和产物的Au尺度，到调查星星形成的云和细丝的秒差距尺度，到附近星系中星星形成的最大尺度。(2)开发新一代近红外阵列探测器的测试平台，该探测器的读取噪声和读取速率比现有设备提高5-10倍。这将使我们能够测试这些阵列的特性，这些特性对它们在干涉测量应用中的性能至关重要，并使我们处于无与伦比的位置，以提出基于这些阵列的ELT和长基线红外干涉仪的新的高灵敏度仪器。(3)一个雄心勃勃的和及时的实验宇宙学方案，将解决结构形成，星系组装过程中重子气体的演变，膨胀过程中的张量标量比，以及磁场和气体在星系团内介质中的相互作用等主题。我们非常适合利用来自阿尔马、AMI、EVLA、普朗克和SKA探路者的数据，以实现我们在这些领域的科学目标。这将利用我们在无线电和CMB观测、理论建模和数据分析方面的专业知识;此外，我们还进行了合作，这将使我们能够获得其他波段的补充数据集。(4)通过对引力波携带的能量和动量进行适当的广义相对论性描述，对引力波的产生、传播和探测进行建模，开发贝叶斯方法，并将其应用于激光干涉仪实验（如LIGO和丽莎）中探测引力波特征的真实的数据。

The Cavendish Astrophysics (CA) group has a strong emphasis on experimental and observational astrophysics, backed by fundamental theoretical work and substantial expertise in data analysis. This consolidated grant application focuses on scientific exploitation, particularly of those instruments and facilities in which we have played a major role in their development. We also propose an exciting new blue-skies instrumentation programme.Our scientific programme in this consolidated grant application is built around the following four areas:(1) Star formation and evolution in our own and nearby galaxies, exploiting ground-breaking new facilities in ALMA and SCUBA-2, and developments in visible and near-infrared interferometry. Our research will cover multiple spatial scales, from AU scales characterising the processes and products of star formation, through parsec scales investigating clouds and filaments where star formation occurs, to the largest scales of star formation in nearby galaxies.(2) The development of a test-bed for a new generation of near-infrared array detectors that promise both read-noise and read-rate improvements of factors of 5-10 over existing devices. This will allow us to test the characteristics of these arrays that are critical to their performance in interferometric applications, and place us in an unrivalled position to propose new high-sensitivity instrumentation based on these arrays for ELTs and long-baseline infrared interferometers.(3) An ambitious and timely programme of experimental cosmology that will address themes of structure formation, the evolution of baryonic gas during galaxy assembly, the tensor-to-scalar ratio during inflation, and the interplay of magnetic field and gas in the intra-cluster medium. We are superbly placed to exploit data from ALMA, AMI, EVLA, Planck and SKA pathfinders to achieve our science aims in these areas. This will capitalise on our expertise in radio and CMB observations, theoretical modelling and data analysis; in addition we have collaborations in place which will give us access to complementary data sets in other wavebands.(4) Modelling the generation, propagation and detection of gravitational waves (GW) through the proper general-relativistic description of the energy and momentum carried by GW, and the development and application to real data of Bayesian methods for detecting GW signatures in laser-interferometer experiments such as LIGO and LISA.