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

我们关于整个宇宙的大部分知识都来自科学家所说的“电磁辐射”，范围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时空中被称为引力波的涟漪，这是爱因斯坦广义相对论所预测的。伯明翰天体物理和空间研究小组在这些发展中发挥了关键作用，并准备利用黑洞和中子星合并的信号来了解更多关于恒星和黑洞的演化，并测试我们对引力本身的理解。我们还在开发先进的技术，以改进未来对引力波的探测，以便研究更弱的信号。更传统的仪器探测遥远宇宙和不同尺度、星系和星系团的宇宙结构的能力继续提高。我们将使用一些最精致的观测来推进我们对星系和星系团如何在宇宙时间中形成和演化的理解。天体物理学中的一个热门话题是努力理解神秘的“暗能量”，它为宇宙加速膨胀提供动力。我们计划使用星系团作为最大尺度的宇宙结构和膨胀历史的探测器，以促进我们对暗能量本质的理解。在我们的太阳附近已经发现了数千颗系外行星。了解这些系统的性质、如何形成以及它们如何生存，对于确定太阳系外存在什么样的行星，并最终确定生命可能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的不同群体的特征，并在迄今收集的数据中推断(目前)未观察到的同伴的存在。在星系内部，最大质量的恒星由于它们辐射的能量非常高，以及它们强大的恒星风而产生重大影响。这些恒星中的磁场起着主要作用，要估计有多少物质在风中从这些恒星中流出是令人惊讶的困难。我们计划将计算机模拟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的影响、它们的风以及对它们周围环境的影响的理解。

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.