The universe is expanding faster than it should, and no one knows why. This research programme uses supercomputers and telescopes to tackle the biggest open questions in cosmology: what drove the universe’s early inflation, what dark energy is, and how galaxies first formed and evolved. The team will analyse data from major international surveys—Planck, Euclid, LOFAR, ALMA, and the Dark Energy Survey—to test theoretical models against real observations. One project will measure the amplitude of matter fluctuations using a new catalogue of galaxy clusters; another will simulate the first stars and galaxies to predict what next-generation telescopes should see. This is fundamental science. It will not produce a product or fix a pothole. But understanding the universe’s composition and history underpins every cosmological measurement we rely on—from the age of the cosmos to the behaviour of gravity on large scales. Past work in this field led to the discovery of dark energy and the cosmic microwave background, both of which reshaped physics. Deeper knowledge here could eventually reveal whether Einstein’s equations hold at the largest scales, or whether something entirely new is at work.
View original technical description
This proposal seeks funds to continue an extensive programme of research into extragalactic astrophysics and cosmology, by addressing some of the most pressing astronomical questions of our time, such as "What are the fundamental constituents of the Universe?", "What is the nature of inflation and dark energy, believed to drive accelerated expansion in the early and late universe", "What processes govern the formation of the largest objects and structure in our universe?, and "how do galaxies form and evolve"? We will do this by combining theoretical work, much of it using high-performance computers, with multi-wavelength observational surveys. We will apply advanced techniques for making numerical predictions, data analysis and modelling, and deploy our skills through a series of international projects. The research consists of ten varied but interconnected projects, each involving one or more faculty members and researchers, that can be collected into three broad themes: Early and late universe cosmology; Galaxy simulation and modelling; Galaxy and cluster observations. In summary: Early and late universe cosmology: a series of projects will address theoretical predictions and observational constraints on inflation, dark energy and large scale structure. A particular focus of our work is the use of non-Gaussianity as an observational probe. We will be making new detailed predictions for large-scale structure non-Gaussiannity shapes from inflation and defects, and also study in detail a series of non-linear effects that are known to be important even if there is no primordial signal. This work will advance knowledge in how to extract information about new physics from cosmological observations as well as enabling precision studies of the late universe. These projects exploit STFC involvement in the Planck Surveyor Satellite and the COSMOS supercomputer. Galaxy simulation and modelling: we will use new Petascale computing facilities to carry out detailed studies of the formation and evolution of the first structures, and make statistical predictions that can be used in the exploitation of new observational facilities such as LOFAR, ALMA and SKA. As well as detailed reionization and galaxy modelling, we will also use simulations and semi-analytic models to simulate sky data to optimize techniques for signal extraction, in particular for our involvement with Euclid. Galaxy and cluster observations: We will use the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) database to resolve various questions about dwarf galaxies, such as where they are formed, and the star formation rate varies. Using data from VISTA-VIDEO and HerMES surveys we will answer questions about the different forces at play in star formation and galaxy activity. Using observations from Herchel and ALMA we will study the formation of stars in the early universe, exploiting simulations of galaxy populations to make predictions for detailed comparison. Using data from the Dark Energy Survey, we will develop a new catalogue of galaxy clusters that we will use to measure a fundamental cosmological parameter, the amplitude of matter fluctuations.
Antony Lewis (Co-Investigator)Ilian Iliev (Co-Investigator)Peter Coles (Co-Investigator)Peter Thomas (Principal Investigator)Sebastian Oliver (Co-Investigator)Stephen Wilkins (Co-Investigator)
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know