Astrophysics Research
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In the last decade Astrophysics has made great advances on the largest scales in measuring the shape and age of our Universe and on the smallest scales in detecting hundreds of planets outside the Solar System. The major challenge now is the formation of structure on intermediate scales. How and when did galaxies form? How do changes in environment due to the growth of large-scale structures affect the evolution of galaxies? What can the distribution of galaxies, quasars and dark matter on the largest scales tell us about the early evolution of the universe?
The Astrophysics Group recently developed a strong new focus on cosmology and the formation and evolution of galaxies. This research uses the best ground-based optical and radio telescopes including those in Hawaii, Australia, Chile and the Canary Islands. The group has also been successful in winning time on the Hubble Space Telescope. A major part of this work builds on the 2003 discovery reported by Drinkwater et al. in Nature, of a new type of galaxy. As one of the referees of the publication noted, this is only the second time in 60 years that a new type of galaxy has been discovered. The group also has a strong interest in cross-discipline research working with computer science for the Australian Virtual Observatory project and mathematics to investigate new measures of the geometry of the Universe.
Our vision is to become world leaders in both galaxy formation research and cross-discipline research to develop mathematical and computational techniques to exploit the data explosion of the Virtual Observatory. This began in 2002 with the appointment of Drinkwater and his recruitment of three research staff and the establishment of collaborations with computer science and mathematics. The development of this vision will require (1) establishing a critical mass in this research area, ideally through a joint faculty appointment with mathematics and/or computer science; and (2) strengthened international collaborations with world-leading researchers in related areas of expertise.
Faculty
Dr Michael Drinkwater
Group
2 postdocs, 1 research assistant and 3 PhD students
Collaborations at UQ
Bulmer (Mathematics), Downs and Gallagher (ITEE)
Collaborations outside UQ
Anglo-Australian Observatory; ANU; Arizona; Bonn; Brazil; Bristol; Cambridge; Chicago; Carnegie Mellon; Durham; Edinburgh; European Southern Observatory; Hawaii; Paris; NCSA; Nottingham; Oxford; Pittsburgh; Princeton; Queen Mary London; Queens/Kingston; QUT; Southampton; St. Petersburg; Space Telescope Science Institute; Sydney; UC Davis; UNSW, U. British Columbia
Selected recent publications
(since 2002)
(2003) Drinkwater et al., Nature, 423, 519
(2004) Drinkwater et al. PASA, 21, 89
(2004) Evstigneeva et al. MNRAS, 349, 1052
(2004) Pimbblet & Bulmer, PASA, 22, 1
(2004) Pimbblet & Drinkwater, MNRAS, 347, 137
Zwaan et al. 2003, AJ, 125, 2842
Telescope Time Awarded
(2003-2004)
Anglo-Australian Telescope (>5 weeks); Keck-II; Hubble Space Telescope (50 orbits; one of only 2 successful Australian proposals from a total of 12 applications in 2004); ANU 40-inch (>5 weeks); European Southern Observatory
Other Activities
Hosted the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Astronomical Society of Australia 2004; hosted the Harley Wood Winter School for Students 2004.