Lancaster University Observational Astrophysics 2021-2024

这里提出的工作解决了天体物理学中一些最重要的开放问题，主要集中在理解星系的形成和演化以及宇宙本身的特性。它与STFC科学路线图的挑战密切相关，这些挑战涉及暗物质和暗能量的作用和性质，宇宙中第一批恒星和星系的形成以及星系如何演化这一尚未解决的关键问题。为了解决这些基本问题，我们采用互补的方法。我们将使用即将上线的新望远镜来寻找和研究Ia型超新星。这些将被用作跨越时间的距离指示器，以研究宇宙本身的演化，并更好地理解是什么导致了宇宙的加速膨胀。新的望远镜数据还将用于发现隐藏在数千个星系中心的闪烁的超大质量黑洞。我们将把这些黑洞与它们更明亮的兄弟——类星体——的数据进行比较，类星体在与我们类似的星系中迅速成长。通过研究黑洞的全部数量，我们将进一步了解这些黑洞是如何成长的，以及如何影响它们所在的星系。我们将揭开高能光子在银河系迷宫中产生和逃逸背后的物理机制，并揭开宇宙中最后一次主要相变的来源。通过人工智能技术，我们将发现数千个新的星系团，这些星系团将用于了解星系如何在密集环境中进化以及暗物质本身的性质。我们将发现新的星系类型，并利用它们来了解是什么控制着遥远宇宙中星系的增长。我们的研究包括使用世界上最强大和最先进的望远镜进行最先进的观测，如哈勃太空望远镜和欧洲南方天文台运行的设施，包括ALMA（阿塔卡马大型毫米波阵列）和VLT（甚大望远镜）。我们还将开始使用新的设备，包括4米多目标光谱望远镜（4MOST），鲁宾天文台的时空遗留调查（LSST），以及詹姆斯韦伯太空望远镜（JWST）和欧洲航天局的欧几里得任务。我们将把我们最先进的研究成果带给广大观众，为我们的便携式充气天文馆LUniverse创造鼓舞人心的新节目。这些新节目将向普通观众解释我们小组目前的研究项目，并将在西北地区的推广活动和学校中展示。

The work proposed here tackles some of the most important open questions in astrophysics, broadly centred on understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies and the properties of the Universe itself. It is closely linked with the STFC Science Roadmap challenges pertaining to the roles and nature of dark matter and dark energy, the formation of the first stars and galaxies in the Universe and the still unsolved key question of how galaxies evolve. In order to address such fundamental questions, we use complementary approaches. We will use new telescopes that are now coming on line to find and study Type Ia supernovae. These will be used as distance indicators across time to study the evolution of the universe itself and to better understand what is causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate. New telescope data will also be used to discover twinkling supermassive black holes hidden in the centres of thousands of galaxies. We will compare these black holes with data from their much more luminous siblings - quasars - which have grown rapidly in galaxies similar to our own. By studying the full population we will advance our understanding of how these black holes grow and influence the galaxies which host them. We will unveil the physical mechanisms behind the production and escape of high energy photons through galactic labyrinths, near and far, and unveil which sources caused the last major phase transition in the Universe. With artificial intelligence techniques, we will discover thousands of new clusters of galaxies, which will be used to understand how galaxies evolve in dense environments and the nature of dark matter itself. We will find new types of galaxies and use them to understand what controls the growth of galaxies in the distant Universe. Our research involves making state-of-the-art observations using the world's most powerful and advanced telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope and facilities run by the European Southern Observatory including ALMA (the Atacama Large Millimeter Array) and the VLT (Very Large Telescope). We will also begin to use new facilities including the 4-m Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST), the Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), and in space the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the European Space Agency's Euclid mission.We will bring our state-of-the art research to a wide audience by creating inspiring new shows for our portable inflatable planetarium, the LUniverse. These new shows will explain our group's current research projects to a general audience and will be shown at outreach events and in schools around the North-West.