Astronomy

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Astronomy Astrophysics
Group Profile
Prof John Brown (Astronomer Royal for
Scotland) Dr Declan Diver Dr Lyndsay Fletcher Dr
Martin Hendry Dr Alec Mackinnon (Dept. of Adult
Cont. Educ.) Dr Graham Woan
Faculty
Research and Support Staff
10 Honorary Visiting Faculty 5 PDRAs (4 PPARC
1 EPSRC) 2 PPARC-funded Computing Support 3
Secretarial Technical Support
Postgraduates
13 (2 shared with IGR 5 PPARC 4 EPSRC)
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Astronomy Astrophysics
Major Change in Age Profile 5 Lecturer
appointments in 12 years
Focussing of Expertise Theory Hardware Data
utilisation
Specific Skills Brown Diver
Mackinnon Woan
Hendry Fletcher
plasma theory and diagnostics plasma theory and
simulations plasma theory and gamma-ray
diagnostics radio and signal analysis statistical
modelling and cosmology solar data analysis and
modelling
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Astronomy Astrophysics
Group involvement in hardware / data exploitation
Solar SoHO, Yohkoh, TRACE, RHESSI
Stellar XMM, Chandra, IUE, FUSE
m-lensing OGLE, PLANET, MOA
Cosmology PSCz, 2dF, HST, SDSS
links with IGR (Woan joint PGs) in signal
analysis and astrophysics
Current PPARC support
Rolling theory programme RHESSI mission
grant approx. 1 quota studentship per year
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Analysis of RHESSI HXR Data
RHESSI launched 5th Feb 2002
Unprecedented spatial and spectral resolution
Glasgow sole UK Co-I
Probing solar flare physics HXR image
analysis HXR spectral inversion
Electron beam dynamics g-rays and ions
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Analysis of RHESSI HXR Data
RHESSI launched 5th Feb 2002
Unprecedented spatial and spectral resolution
Glasgow sole UK Co-I
Probing solar flare physics HXR image
analysis HXR spectral inversion
Electron beam dynamics g-rays and ions
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Analysis of RHESSI HXR Data
RHESSI launched 5th Feb 2002
Unprecedented spatial and spectral resolution
Glasgow sole UK Co-I
Probing solar flare physics HXR image
analysis HXR spectral inversion
Electron beam dynamics g-rays and ions
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RHESSI Spectroscopy
April 21 2002 event
Time evolution of X-ray spectra Soft
Hard Soft
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Particle Acceleration Near Magnetic Nulls
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Solar Photospheric Flows
Developing tools for Solar B mission
Solar B will measure photospheric magnetic field
and trace its interaction with the corona
Footpoints advected by photospheric flow flux
tubes can become unstable rapid release of
magnetic energy
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Solar Photospheric Flows
Developing tools for Solar B mission
Solar B will measure photospheric magnetic field
and trace its interaction with the corona
Footpoints advected by photospheric flow flux
tubes become unstable rapid release of magnetic
energy
Flow calculated by Lattice Boltzmann method
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Modelling Hot Star Winds
Wolf-Rayet stars lose 1 solar mass / 104 yrs
important for stellar evolution, ISM abundances
World-leading expertise in inversion techniques
for probing density, velocity structure of
stellar winds
Developed spectropolarimetric diagnostics of
clumpy winds
XMM time to study Wolf-Rayet star variability
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Modelling Be Star Disks
Physical origin of Be star disks unclear
Developed (with Cassinelli) Magnetic Torquing
model.
Fits well observations across spectral class
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Robust Statistical Methods for Cosmology

• 21st Century an era of precision cosmology
• Crucial to improve statistical techniques for
  testing model assumptions
• Developing robust methods for analysis
• of redshift surveys

investigating completeness constraining
luminosity evolution
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Robust Statistical Methods for Cosmology

• 21st Century an era of precision cosmology
• Crucial to improve statistical techniques for
  testing model assumptions
• Developing robust methods for analysis
• of redshift surveys

investigating completeness constraining
luminosity evolution
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Future Plans
Further expand pioneering research programme in
astrophysical plasma theory, diagnostics and
simulations
statistical analysis of sparse and noisy data
problems
Specific Goals
Analysis and interpretation of RHESSI data
Optimal exploitation of Solar B, Stereo, Planck,
SNAP, GEST, GEO600
Age profile enables long term strategy
participation in PPARC Roadmap