Pinpointing the hosts of Fast Radio Bursts with UTMOST-2D. This project proposes to localise a sample of detected ‘fast radio bursts’ to their host galaxies (or local progenitors) for the first time. ‘Fast radio bursts’ are impulsive bursts of radio energy, with characteristics consistent with an origin billions of light-years from Earth. If the source of the bursts can be pinpointed, they would offer a unique tool to study the tenuous, otherwise nearly invisible plasma that permeates the interg ....Pinpointing the hosts of Fast Radio Bursts with UTMOST-2D. This project proposes to localise a sample of detected ‘fast radio bursts’ to their host galaxies (or local progenitors) for the first time. ‘Fast radio bursts’ are impulsive bursts of radio energy, with characteristics consistent with an origin billions of light-years from Earth. If the source of the bursts can be pinpointed, they would offer a unique tool to study the tenuous, otherwise nearly invisible plasma that permeates the intergalactic medium. They could also be used as cosmic rulers to measure the expansion history of the Universe. To date, no burst has been associated with a host galaxy at a known distance, and some researchers maintain that fast radio bursts originate from more nearby sources, potentially even within our own Galaxy. The project plans to explore this hypothesis.Read moreRead less
Detecting the deaths of the first stars: Investigating the physical processes in the early Universe. This project will pursue the most distant supernova explosions in the Universe and investigate their host galaxies and environments. It will use a technique that has detected the most distant supernovae, probing 12 billion years into the past, and one that is able to discover, for the first time, the deaths of the first stars to have formed after the Big Bang. This project will use this technique ....Detecting the deaths of the first stars: Investigating the physical processes in the early Universe. This project will pursue the most distant supernova explosions in the Universe and investigate their host galaxies and environments. It will use a technique that has detected the most distant supernovae, probing 12 billion years into the past, and one that is able to discover, for the first time, the deaths of the first stars to have formed after the Big Bang. This project will use this technique to gather a statistical sample of supernovae to determine their occurrence rate and physical properties and to provide crucial data for a newly discovered, extremely powerful, third type of supernova. This data will test the laws in which early galaxies formed their stars and reveal the framework for the subsequent evolution of the Universe.Read moreRead less