News & Events

Making the Invisible Visible: discovering forces beyond what we see

4pm to 9pm Wednesday 20th March 2013

Physics West, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston

The University of Birmingham’s Particle Physics Group, Gravitational Wave Group and Astronomical Society cordially invite you to attend an evening of discovery on Wednesday the 20th of March from 4pm to 9pm at the University of Birmingham’s Edgbaston campus. The event is a part of this year’s National Science and Engineering Week and the University’s Arts andScience Festival.

We encourage adults, families and children of all ages to learn more about the physics of the universe we live in via our hands on activities, lectures and demonstrations. Find out how we use kilometre size experiments and state of the art computer analysis and simulation to discover the invisible forces which influence everything from the smallest subatomic particle to the structure of galaxies.

Talks:

• 17:00: Discovering Black holes with Gravitational Waves by Chiara Mingarelli
• 17:45: Laser Interferometers and Gravitational Waves by Charlotte Bond
• 18:30: An introduction to Particle Physics and the Large Hadron Collider by Cristina Lazzeroni
• 19:15: Astronomy talk: tbc

For more information please contact Miss Katherine Grover, Doctoral Researcher in the Gravitational Wave Group: Email: kat@star.sr.bham.ac.uk Phone: 01214143721. Look here for information on how to find us. For information on National Science and Engineering Week visit www.britishscienceassociation.org/national­science­engineering­week.For more information on the University Science and Arts Festival visit www.birmingham.ac.uk/artsandsciencefestival.

Postdoctoral position in Gravitational-Wave Astrophysics advertised

The Gravitational-Wave Group at the University of Birmingham invites applications for a post-doctoral position in the area of gravitational-wave astrophysics and data analysis, with emphasis on compact-object binary systems. More details can be found here. For full consideration, candidates must apply online and arrange for three letters of reference to be sent by the closing date of Tuesday 27th Febraury 2013 to postdoc-gwastro [at] star.sr.bham.ac.uk .

Chiara Mingarelli named Very Early Career Woman Physicist Prize runner-up

The University of Birmingham's College of Engineering and Physical Science has published a feature article on GW group member Chiara Mingarelli. Chiara has recently been named runner up for the Institute of Physics and Shell's "Very Early Career Woman Physicist Prize 2012". The prize is awarded annually to a candidate who has shown leadership in her field and has demonstrated commitment to excellence in both her research and outreach activities.

Parameter Estimation with interpolated waveforms

Graduate student Rory Smith, mentored by Dr. Ilya Mandel, led an international collaboration to demonstrate that waveforms interpolated via singular value decomposition can be successfully used for parameter estimation on gravitational waves from compact binaries. This technique has great promise for speeding up parameter estimation on long-duration signals in the era of advanced and third-generation detectors.

The LIGO Magazine

The US-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is supported by an international group of more than 800 scientists from about 80 institutions, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC, http://www.ligo.org). Birmingham is contributing to the development, operation and science exploitation of Advanced LIGO, the most sensitive, kilometer-sized gravitational wave observatory in the world.

Following the examples of other large science projects we decided to create the LIGO Magazine, a regular publication to exchange information, news and stories from and with the LSC community. The inaugural issue is now available, with more than 30 pages of entertaining stories and fascinating photos from the installation of the Advanced LIGO detectors.

We believe that the magazine is also a good way to find out more about LIGO and the gravitational wave community, and to satisfy your general interest in science and technology. Therefore the magazine is available as a free download (pdf file) at:
http://www.ligo.org/magazine/

We hope you find it inspiring and entertaining. Let us know what you think and do tell your friends and colleagues by forwarding this link to them.

PhD positions announced

The Birmingham Gravitational Wave Group expects to fill several Ph.D. positions starting in Autumn 2012. We encourage applications to pursue projects in any of the research areas of the group (experiments, astrophysics and observations), working with Dr. Andreas Freise, Dr. Ilya Mandel, and Prof. Alberto Vecchio. Studentships are assigned on a competitive basis within the School of Physics and Astronomy and, where relevant, the University of Birmingham. In addition to studentships funded by research councils, this year additional funding opportunities are available for outstanding candidates through special programs. Please see the jobs page for more details.

Recent publications

The group is proud to announce several exciting recent publications: