Astrophysics Research at Liverpool John Moores University: Newly Appointed Academic Staff

这笔赠款将允许六个新的学术人员，最近在天体物理研究所雇用，开展他们的世界领先的研究，因为他们解决到他们的新的学术环境在利物浦。这些新工作人员感兴趣的领域与天文学研究所现有的科学实力大致一致，即：恒星的起源;星系的化学组成;银河系的观测和理论研究;星系团的大型宇宙学流体动力学模拟;确定超新星物理特性的理论研究。在恒星起源的标题下，我们将研究银河系中形成的恒星的初始质量如何随环境而变化。在巨大的恒星形成区域的气体观测将用于确定接近单个恒星大小的尺度上的关键物理特性。我们将对银河系圆盘和凸起中的近100万颗恒星进行一次主要的光谱调查。这一重大的遗产调查（APOGEE）及其继任者（APOGEE-2），部分由斯隆基金会支持，将对以下问题产生重大影响：星系盘和凸起区域的化学成分;球状星团的起源以及是否有第一代（第三族）恒星的证据。我们还将在超级计算机上进行银河系的宇宙学流体动力学模拟，以提供银河系合并历史的匹配良好和高分辨率的预测，与即将到来的盖亚卫星使命的观测结果进行比较，该卫星将提供银河系的3D地图。我们的河外化学成分工作侧重于一种新技术，使用红色超巨星，来测量附近星系的元素丰度通过研究物理关系，如星系的中心质量和金属丰度之间的相关性，或星系内的丰度梯度，我们将对星系形成和演化的过程有重要的见解。在最大的尺度上，我们将进行星系团的宇宙学模拟，包括所有已知的反馈机制，以提供模拟星系团的代表性样本。模拟结果将纳入正在进行的不同波长星团巡天（包括天文研究所积极参与的XMM星团巡天）的真实的观测结果，以便对星团中的宇宙学参数和物理条件作出无偏估计。我们将使用大的正在进行的瞬态调查的数据调查超新星的爆发特性，并探讨SN和它的祖先的属性之间的关系，以及寻找新类型的瞬变。特别是，我们将研究大量的Ia型超新星和研究“极端”的事件，违反了正常的行为，以提高其作为宇宙学距离指标的使用。我们所有的研究都使用最先进的地面望远镜、卫星和数据分析技术进行观测，包括在新委托的设施上进行望远镜观测，如阿尔马和VLT上的KMOS多目标摄谱仪，沿着盖亚等太空任务。新的工作人员领导国际一级的方案，这些方案在技术上也要求很高，并为下一代望远镜及其仪器的设计和操作提供信息，如E-ELT（EAGLE/EVE）、利物浦望远镜和WHT（WEAVE）。

This grant will allow six new academic staff, recently employed in the Astrophysics Research Institute, to carry out their World-leading research as they settle into their new academic environment in Liverpool. The areas of interest of these new staff broadly align with the existing scientific strengths of the ARI, namely: the origin of stars; the chemical composition of galaxies; observational and theoretical studies of the Milky Way; large cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy clusters; theoretical studies to determine the physical properties of supernovae. Under the heading of the origin of stars, we will investigate how the initial masses of stars forming in the Galaxy change with environment. Observations of the gas in giant star-forming regions will be used to determine key physical properties on scales close to the size of individual stars. We will carry out a major spectroscopic survey of nearly 1 million stars in the disc and bulge of the Milky Way. This major legacy survey (APOGEE) and its successor (APOGEE-2), partly supported by the Sloan Foundation, will have major impact on questions such as: the chemical composition of the disc and bulge regions of the galaxy; the origin of globular clusters and whether there is evidence for the very first generation (population III) stars. We will also carry out cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of the Milky Way on supercomputers to provide well-matched and high resolution predictions of the merger history of the galaxy to compare with the observations from the forthcoming Gaia satellite mission, which will provide a 3D map of the Milky Way.Our extragalactic chemical composition work focuses on a new technique, using Red Supergiant Stars, to measure the element abundances in nearby galaxies. By examining physical relationships, such as the correlation between a galaxy's central mass and metallicity, or the abundance gradients within galaxies, we will make important insights into the processes of galaxy formation and evolution. On the largest scales we will carry out cosmological simulations of galaxy clusters, including all known feedback mechanisms, in order to provide representative samples of mock clusters. Simulation results will be incorporated into real observations from on-going cluster surveys at different wavelengths (including the XMM-Cluster Survey, in which the ARI is heavily involved) in order to make unbiased estimates of the cosmological parameters and physical conditions in the clusters. We will investigate the outburst properties of supernovae using data from large on-going transient surveys and explore the relationship between the properties of the SN and its progenitor, as well as searching for new types of transients. In particular we will examine a large population of type SN Ia supernovae and study "extreme" events which violate normal behaviour in order to improve their use as cosmological distance indicators. All of our research uses the most advanced ground-based telescopes, satellites and data analysis techniques to carry out observations, including telescope time on newly commissioned facilities such as ALMA and the KMOS multi-object spectrograph on the VLT, along with space missions such as Gaia. The new staff lead programmes at the international level, which are also technically demanding and feed into the design and operation of the next generation of telescopes and their instruments, such as the E-ELT (EAGLE/EVE), Liverpool Telescope and WHT (WEAVE).