University of Durham Astronomy Research at Durham Institute

University of Durham Astronomy Research at Durham Institute for Computational Cosmology

Astronomy at Durham

Astronomy at Durham ~90 astronomers in 5 groups: • Xgal theory & observations (45) • Astronomical instrumentation (32) • Gamma rays (9) • High energy astro (3) • Historical astronomy (1)

University of Durham Funded by: • JIF • JREI • Prof Peter Ogden • Durham University The Institute for Computational Cosmology Opened by Tony Blair on Oct/02 New building Ogden Chair New lectureship The Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics COSMA-1 Supercomputer The “Cosmology machine” www. icc. dur. ac. uk Institute for Computational Cosmology

Key questions addressed at Durham University of Durham 1. What is the universe made of? 2. What is the identity of the dark matter? 3. What are the values of the fundamental cosmological parameters? 4. What is the origin of cosmic structure? 5. How do galaxies form and evolve? 6. What is role of quasars in galaxy formation? 7. Astrophysics of extreme objects (black holes, gamma ray sources) Institute for Computational Cosmology

University of Durham Research tools 1. Observations (space and ground-based telescopes) – Whole wavelength range from -rays to radio – 4% of all worldwide telescope time (ESO VLT, Gemini) – Large surveys of galaxies and quasars – Targetted observations 2. Theory – Large supercomputer simulations – Analytical techniques (semi-analytic galaxy formation) – Modelling Institute for Computational Cosmology

The Cosmology Machine University of Durham One of the largest supercomputers for academic research in the UK dedicated to numerical cosmology Centaur 128 Ultra. Sparc III cluster 64 Gigabytes ram Titania 24 Sunfire processors 48 Gigabytes COSMA-1 £ 650 k JREI grant to Virgo £ 250 k Sun Total cost (2002 -06) Opened by Patricia Hewitt in Aug/01 2006 COSMA-3 £ 675 k SRIF-2 -- ICC £ 55 k SRIF-2 -- Sussex £ 75 k PPARC – Virgo £ 2, 370, 000 PPARC contribution £ 75, 000 Quintor 512 processors, 630 Gbytes ram, 60 Tbyte storage £ 465 k JIF grant to ICC £ 200 k Sun March/04 COSMA-2 Institute for Computational Cosmology

University of Durham Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology at Durham: 2005 -2010 University Support for Astronomy • • • 1994 – 04 : 14 faculty appointments 1999 : £ 600 k refurbishment instrumentation labs 2001 : £ 1 million for Ogden Centre 2003 : £ 1 million for Netpark instrumentation lab 2004 : £ 675 k (SRIF-2) for Cosmology Machine 2004 -- : 4 new Professors Institute for Computational Cosmology

University of Durham Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology at Durham: 2005 -2010 Recent appointments: • 2005 • 2004 • 2002 • 2001 • 2000 : Alastair Edge (Obs: extragalactic) : Martin Ward (Obs: X-rays, AGN/starburst, GRB) : Adrian Jenkins (50% e-Science Lecturer, ICC) : Tom Theuns (Theory, ICC) : Shaun Cole (Theory, ICC) : Simon Morris (Instrumentation & Obs) : Chris Done (accretion disks) Promotions and future appointments: • 2004 : Richard Bower Professor • 2004 : Ian Smail • 2005 : Shaun Cole Professorial Fellow Professor Institute for Computational Cosmology

University of Durham Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology at Durham: 2005 -2010 Institute for Computational Cosmology

The 2 d. F galaxy redshift survey University of Durham Institute for Computational Cosmology

University of Durham Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology at Durham: 2005 -2010 Publications • • 401 refereed papers since 2001 • 5 applicants (+MJW) in “highly-cited” ISI list (top 0. 5%) (total of 20 in UK) Ranked 1 st in UK astronomy for citation impact in latest analysis by Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) Institute for Computational Cosmology

University of Durham Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology at Durham: 2005 -2010 Refereed papers by applicants Cm = citations per paper mean for NASA ADS Institute for Computational Cosmology

University of Durham Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology at Durham: 2005 -2010 Major international collaborations: • The Virgo consortium (based at Durham) • The 2 d. F galaxy and QSO redshift survey • The 2 d. F/SDSS Luminous Red Galaxy (LRG) programme • EC RTN on Physics of the IGM • EC RTN SISCO (Durham coordinator) • EC Alfa network programme (Durham coordinator) Institute for Computational Cosmology