Cosmology, Gravitation and Astrophysics at Portsmouth

这笔综合拨款将支持朴茨茅斯大学宇宙学和引力研究所（ICG）在宇宙学、引力和天体物理学方面的研究。ICG于2002年通过该大学的战略投资成立，现在拥有60多名研究人员，使其成为英国最大的星系外天文团体之一。在2014年卓越研究框架中，朴茨茅斯大学在物理研究成果质量方面排名第八。宇宙学和天体物理学正在经历一个发现的黄金时代，受到新的天文调查和理论进步的推动，以及最近探测到来自黑洞和中子星的引力波。然而，在建立一个更完整的宇宙模型之前，我们仍然面临着三个根本性的挑战：1)构成宇宙96%的“暗物质”和“暗能量”的性质是什么？星系是如何形成和演化的？iii)宇宙结构的起源和统计性质是什么？这笔拨款将通过开创性的理论工作和利用新的天空调查来绘制数十亿遥远星系的地图，解决这些基本问题。星系是宇宙的“积木”，研究它们是如何形成的，我们将利用星系来提高我们对宇宙学的理解。我们将利用当前和即将进行的星系调查，如DES、LSST、4MOST、SDSS、DESI和欧几里得，利用星系群、超新星和弱引力透镜等互补探测器来量化宇宙。这些数据将与LIGO和VIRGO实验中新的引力波观测结果相补充。精确的宇宙学模型将被构建和分析，并用朴茨茅斯的SCIAMA超级计算机进行模拟。这些模型将与数据进行比较，以揭示宇宙的真实本质。我们的工作将帮助我们理解和测量宇宙在其整个历史中的演变。我们将使用超新星等标准蜡烛和星系相关函数中的重子声学振荡等标准标尺来绘制宇宙随时间的膨胀。我们将研究早期宇宙中的量子涨落如何被宇宙膨胀拉伸到天文尺度，并在今天宇宙中光和物质的分布中留下印记。我们还将探索爱因斯坦广义相对论或其他引力理论在塑造我们宇宙结构演变中的特征印记。此外，我们的分析将揭示暗物质的特性，我们可以通过引力“看到”暗物质，但它不像正常物质那样相互作用。我们将对整个宇宙时间内星系的特征有更全面的了解。我们将研究原始星系中心的超大质量黑洞和第一批类星体的起源，并通过引力波探测追踪它们的合并历史。我们将利用天文调查来了解星系是如何形成的，通过更详细地研究它们的恒星成分。ICG的工作人员致力于让公众参与他们的研究，例如“熵”，这是一个基于宇宙学的沉浸式艺术表演，以及在线公民科学项目，如超新星猎人和重力间谍。此外，我们的工作人员还参观了许多当地的学校和大学，并在朴茨茅斯历史船坞举办了一年一度的观星活动，有数百人参加。我们也从研究中寻求创新，利用我们的技能和经验为日常问题开发新颖的解决方案，例如检测故障的智能电表，改善急诊室护理，以及培训下一代数据科学家。

This consolidated grant will support research in cosmology, gravitation and astrophysics at the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation (ICG) in the University of Portsmouth. The ICG was formed in 2002 through a strategic investment from the university, and now hosts more than 60 researchers making it one of the largest extragalactic astronomy groups in the UK. Portsmouth was ranked 8th in terms of quality of physics research outputs in the Research Excellence Framework 2014.Cosmology and astrophysics are experiencing a golden age of discovery driven by new astronomical surveys and theoretical advances, and the recent detection of gravitational waves from inspiralling black holes and neutron stars. However, we still face three fundamental challenges before a more complete model of the Universe can be achieved: i) What are the properties of the "dark matter" and "dark energy" that make up 96% of the Universe? ii) How do galaxies form and evolve? iii) What is the origin, and statistical nature, of structures in the Universe? This grant will address these fundamental problems through pioneering theoretical work and the use of new surveys of the sky to map billions of distant galaxies. Galaxies are the "building blocks" of the Universe and as well as studying how they form, we will use the galaxies to improve our understanding of cosmology. We will exploit current and forthcoming galaxy surveys like DES, LSST, 4MOST, SDSS, DESI and Euclid to quantify the Universe using complementary probes such as the clustering of galaxies, supernovae and weak gravitational lensing. These data will be complemented with new gravitational wave observations from the LIGO and VIRGO experiments. Precise cosmological models will be constructed and analysed, and simulated with Portsmouth's SCIAMA supercomputer. These models will be compared to data to reveal the true nature of the Universe. Our work will help us understand and measure the evolution of the Universe throughout its entire history. We will use standard candles, such as supernovae, and standard rulers, such as baryon acoustic oscillations in the galaxy correlation functions, to chart the cosmic expansion over time. We will study how quantum fluctuations in the very early universe may be stretched by cosmic inflation to astronomical scales, leaving their imprint in the distribution of light and matter in the universe today. We will also explore the characteristic imprint of Einstein's general relativity or alternative gravity theories in shaping the evolution of structure in our Universe. Additionally, our analyses will shed light on the properties of dark matter, which we can "see" via gravity but which does not interact like normal matter. We will obtain a fuller understanding of the characteristics of galaxies throughout cosmic time. We will study the origin of the supermassive black holes at the centre of primeval galaxies and the first quasars, and trace their merger history through the detection of gravitational waves. We will use astronomical surveys to understand how galaxies form by studying their stellar contents in ever greater detail. ICG staff are committed to engaging the public in their research, e.g., "Entropy", which is an immersive art performance based on cosmology, and online citizen science projects like Supernova Hunter and Gravity Spy. In addition, our staff visit many local schools and colleges, and run an annual Stargazing event at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard for hundreds of participants. We also seek innovation from our research, using our skills and experiences to develop novel solutions to everyday problems, e.g. detecting faulty smart meters, improving emergency room care, and training the next generation of data scientists.