Astronomy at Durham 2020-2023

天文学比几乎任何其他科学分支都更能激发公众的想象力。任何人都可以在夜空中看到月亮、行星、恒星和附近的星系。在过去的几十年里，我们对宇宙的认识发展迅速。在标准宇宙学模型的基础上，我们生活在一个宇宙中，其中至少三分之二的质量能量是以暗能量的形式存在的，暗能量导致宇宙以不断增加的速度膨胀。大约四分之一的质量能量是以暗物质的形式存在的，很可能是一种新的弱相互作用的基本粒子，目前还没有在地球上被探测到（因此粒子物理学家对此非常感兴趣）。其余5%的质能以普通或重子物质的形式存在，其中只有十分之一左右存在于恒星和行星（如地球）中，其余大部分以气体的形式存在于星系之间。我们的课程将前沿的理论和观测研究与创新的仪器开发相结合，以了解我们所居住的宇宙。我们将宇宙早期阶段的理论研究与理论和观测项目相结合，以确定黑洞、星系及其所在的更大规模结构的形成和演化。我们将模型的预测与最新的观测结果相结合，同时积极利用达勒姆大学所追求的创新仪器发展。我们将探索天体物理学线索，以确定暗物质的身份和暗能量的本质，重点关注星系的演化，回到宇宙最早的时代，以及更大尺度环境对它们性质的影响。我们将利用地面天文台和地球轨道卫星上的最新仪器，研究黑洞的形成和演化，以及它们在决定星系及其更大尺度结构的结构和性质方面的作用。

Astronomy can capture the public imagination to a greater extent than almost any other branch of science. It is accessible to anyone who gazes up into the night sky to look at the Moon, the planets, stars, and nearby galaxies. Our understanding of the universe has developed rapidly over the past several decades. On the basis of the standard cosmological model we live in a universe where at least two thirds of the mass energy is in the form of dark energy which causes the Universe to expand at an ever increasing rate. About a quarter of the mass energy is in the form of dark matter, most probably a new weakly interacting elementary particle yet to be detected on Earth (and hence of great interest to particle physicists). The remaining five percent of the mass energy is in the form of ordinary, or baryonic, matter of which only about a tenth is in stars and planets such as the Earth, and the rest resides mostly as gas in between galaxies.Our programme combines cutting-edge theoretical and observational research with innovative instrumentation development to understand the universe in which we inhabit. We blend theoretical research on the earliest phases of the Universe with theoretical and observational projects to determine the formation and evolution of black holes, galaxies, and the larger-scale structures in which they reside. We confront the predictions from our models with our latest observational results, while actively exploiting innovative instrumentation developments pursued in Durham. We will explore astrophysical clues to the identity of the dark matter and the nature of the dark energy, focus on the evolution of galaxies back to the earliest times in the Universe and the influence on which the larger-scale environment has had on their properties. We will investigate the formation and evolution of black holes and their role in determining the structure and properties of galaxies and their larger scale structures, using the latest instruments on ground-based observatories and Earth-orbiting satellites.