Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation

Special issue “Modified Gravity” in International Journal of Modern Physics D

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The special issue “Modified Gravity: Progresses and outlook of theories, numerical techniques and observational tests” edited by Baojiu Li and Kazuya Koyama has been published in the International Journal of Modern Physics D.

IJMPD has generously offered to make the articles freely accessible until the end of February 2019, at https://www.worldscientific.com/toc/ijmpd/27/15.

The DOIs for the individual articles are shown below. Some of the chapters will be available on arXiv after the 12 months embargo period after publication. We also plan to publish this as a book incorporating updates.

Chapter 1: Gravity beyond General Relativity
by Kazuya Koyama (kazuya.koyama-AT-port.ac.uk)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218271818480012
inSPIRE: http://inspirehep.net/record/1712164

Chapter 2: Parameterizations for tests of gravity
by Lucas Lombriser (lucas.lombriser-AT-unige.ch)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218271818480024
inSPIRE: http://inspirehep.net/record/1712165

Chapter 3: Simulation techniques for modified gravity
By Claudio Llinares (claudio.llinares-AT-port.ac.uk)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218271818480036
inSPIRE: http://inspirehep.net/record/1712791

Chapter 4: Approximation methods in modified gravity models
by Baojiu Li (baojiu.li-AT-durham.ac.uk)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218271818480048
inSPIRE: http://inspirehep.net/record/1712167

Chapter 5: Large-scale structure probes of modified gravity
by Catherine Heymans (heymans-AT-roe.ac.uk) and Gong-Bo Zhao (gbzhao-AT-nao.cas.cn)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1142/S021827181848005X
inSPIRE: http://inspirehep.net/record/1712166

Chapter 6: Tests of gravity with galaxy clusters
by Matteo Cataneo (matteo-AT-roe.ac.uk) and David Rapetti (David.Rapetti-AT-colorado.edu)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218271818480061
inSPIRE: http://inspirehep.net/record/1712168

Chapter 7: Toward testing gravity with cosmic voids
By Yan-Chuan Cai (cai-AT-roe.ac.uk)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218271818480073
inSPIRE: http://inspirehep.net/record/1712169

Chapter 8: Astrophysical tests of screened modified gravity
by Jeremy Sakstein (sakstein-AT-physics.upenn.edu)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218271818480085
inSPIRE: http://inspirehep.net/record/1712170

Chapter 9: Laboratory tests of screened modified gravity
By Phillipe Brax (phbrax-AT-gmail.com), Clare Burrage (clare.burrage-AT-nottingham.ac.uk) and Anne-C. Davis (a.c.davis-AT-damtp.cam.ac.uk)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218271818480097
inSPIRE: http://inspirehep.net/record/1712171

30th Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics in Portsmouth this December

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We are pleased to announce that the 30th Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics will take place from Sunday 15th to Friday 20th December 2019 in Portsmouth, UK.

The Texas meetings have covered topics such as black holes, gravitational waves, neutron stars, cosmic rays, dark matter and the early Universe since the first symposium, held in Dallas in 1963. The Symposium will include both invited and contributed talks and posters.

The 2019 meeting will be hosted by the University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation.

Conference information will be posted on the symposium website http://texas2019.org, where you can sign up for future announcements.

For any queries please contact the organisers at texas2019[AT]port.ac.uk

We look forward to welcoming you to Portsmouth,
Marco Bruni and David Wands
(chairs of the scientific and local organising committees)

South Coast Cosmology @ ICG

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The ICG will be hosting the next South Coast Cosmology meeting on 16th January 2019 in Lecture Theatre 3, Richmond Building (see https://www.port.ac.uk/about-us/maps-and-directions for travel information, Richmond is labelled 6 on the map).

Registration is via this online form. Participants are welcome to submit abstracts for talks, and we especially encourage PhD students to do so as this meeting will provide a relaxed environment in which to give a talk.

The deadline for abstract submission is 12th December 2018, and the deadline for registration is 8th January 2019.

Registration is now closed. Please see below for the schedule.

12:00 – 13:30: Early arrivals can join us for lunch

Start 13:30 – all talks 15 (12+3) mins in LT3, Richmond Building

13:30 – 13:45: Claudio Llinares (Portsmouth)  – Testing modified gravity in the laboratory

13:45 – 14:00: Giulio Fabbian (Sussex) – Hi-precision CMB lensing and galaxy surveys cross-correlation

14:00 – 14:15: Max Foxley-Marrable (Portsmouth) – Using Strongly Lensed Type Ia Supernovae to probe the Hubble Constant with suppressed systematics

14:15 – 14:30: Tomás Enrique Müller Bravo (Southampton) – Cosmology with VEILS: Building an Infrared SN Ia Hubble Diagram

14:30 – 14:45: Benjamin Thomas (Portsmouth) – The Volumetric Rate of Superluminous Supernovae from the Dark Energy Survey

14:45 – 15:15: BREAK

15:15 – 15:30: Santiago Avila (Portsmouth) – BAO with the Dark Energy Survey

15:30 – 15:45: Kareem Marzouk (Sussex) – D-Brane Inflation; and sampling multifield inflationary models

15:45 – 16:00: Natalie Hogg (Portsmouth) – New constraints on interacting vacuum dark energy

16:00 – 16:15: Tays Miranda de Andrade (UFES Brazil) – Variations on the Starobinsky Inflationary Model

16:15 – 16:30: Mike Shengbo Wang (Portsmouth) – Cosmological Inference from Galaxy-Clustering Power Spectrum: Gaussianisation and Covariance Decomposition

16:30 onwards: Discussion to continue at the pub!

The local organising committee consists of:
Bill Wright
Chris Pattison
Sesh Nadathur

ICG Cosmologists provide new measurement of cosmic controversy

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Researchers from the University of Portsmouth have come up with a new measurement of one of the most debated topics in cosmology.

Three cosmologists from the University’s Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation analysed new data to provide one of the most accurate measurements of the Hubble Constant to date.

Blanco telescope and star trails (Reidar Hahn, Fermilab)

The Hubble Constant has a long and contentious history with famous disagreements between astronomers, with people still debating its value after nearly a century of measurements.

The Hubble Constant is the local expansion rate of the Universe and is the cornerstone of modern cosmology. This expansion rate was first measured by Edwin Hubble in 1929 and is known as Hubble’s Law. A key part of this law is Hubbles’ Constant, which represents the exact expansion rate now (i.e., how fast space is expanding in our local cosmic neighbourhood).

To obtain this new measurement, the ICG researchers used a new methodology, the ‘inverse distance ladder’ method, to add new cosmological results using Type Ia supernovae from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) to existing distance measurements.

Professor Bob Nichol, Acting Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) and co-author of the study, said: “We have used this new data, and new methodology, to obtain one of the most accurate measurements of this constant to date. In fact, I’m surprised how good it is.

“Our value does not agree with local measurements of the Hubble Constant which could be telling us something fascinating about our Universe.”

The study is one of eight new papers presenting exciting results from DES, of which the University of Portsmouth is an institutional member (in 2006). They will be presented at a special DES meeting at the Royal Astronomical Society in London today (9 November).

Professor Nichol and his ICG colleague Ed Macaulay are co-authors on a number of these papers and are lead authors on the Hubble Constant study, with Professor David Bacon, also from ICG.

They will be joined by two PhD students Benjamin Thomas and Maria Vincenzi who will also be presenting their supernova results at the meeting.

[source: University of Portsmouth]

ICG researchers in Beijing

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ICG researchers in Beijing

Several ICG researchers attended the 4th CosKASI-ICG-NAOC-YITP workshop on Frontiers of Cosmology. This is the fourth workshop organised by the four institutes. This time, the workshop was held at National Astronomical Observatories of China in Beijing. There were around 60 participants including many Chinese students.

The programme of the workshop can be found here:

http://2018icosmology.csp.escience.cn/dct/page/65580

The workshop was organised by Gong-bo Zhao and Jian Li at NAOC.

ICG research project featured in European Union research and innovation magazine

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ICG researcher’s project supported by the European Research Council (ERC) has been highlighted in the EU research and innovation magazine “Horizon”:

‘Space telescope to test Einstein’s theories about gravity’

The ERC funded project “CosTesGrav” led by Prof. Koyama aims to develop cosmological tests of gravity and seek solutions to the origin of the observed accelerated expansion of the Universe by challenging conventional General Relativity. This project will exploit ICG’s involvement in international astronomical surveys such as European Space Agency’s Euclid mission.

 

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