The Astrophysics Group carries out a wide range of research programmes, with particular emphasis on the fields of optical stellar interferometry, the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, star formation and galaxy evolution. Our activities in these areas embrace the confrontation between observation and theory and the development of instrumentation and technology. For observational work we use a wide range of facilities worldwide in addition to those we have been involved in building.

Locally we operate the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory a few miles outside Cambridge, where we have developed world-class telescopes including the Ryle Telescope, the Cambridge Optical Aperture Synthesis Telescope (COAST) and the Very Small Array. The VSA is a telescope for studying the CMB and was developed jointly with Jodrell Bank and the IAC Tenerife (where it is now located). The telescopes at Lord's Bridge are soon to be joined by our next instrument, the Arcminute MicroKelvin Imager (AMI), which will image the CMB at high resolution. Internationally we are major partners in the design and construction of various leading-edge instruments including a Heterodyne Array Receiver for B-band (HARP-B) - the latest in a line of submillimetre-wave receivers being developed for the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii, and we are strongly involved in the Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) - a worldwide collaborative project to build a high-resolution millimetre-wave telescope in Chile. On the technological front the Terahertz Technology Centre coming on stream in the Cavendish will facilitate the device-physics support for the mm/sub-mm projects.

There is an increasing theoretical component in the work of the AP Group as modelling and simulation assume more prominent roles in the areas of cosmology, astrophysics, device physics and terahertz electromagnetics. Data analysis in the CMB area has become a highly-developed subject in its own right - jointly with the Institute of Astronomy, we are a designated centre for analysis of data from the Planck Surveyor satellite, due for launch in 2007.

Other key areas of activity here are the applications of Geometric Algebra in physics and the Inference Group which conducts research into information theory and machine learning.

The astronomical work is mainly supported by PPARC and there is some EPSRC support in the other areas.

Follow the links below for more information, or click here for a list of publications.

Optical Aperture Synthesis and COAST
The Cosmic Microwave Background
SubMillimetre-Wave Instrumentation
Star Formation and ALMA
Galaxy Evolution
Geometric Algebra
Inference Group

Last Modified 24 January 2002
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