IUCAA-Southampton UGC-UKIERI Partnership

Next-generation multiwavelength time-domain astrophysics: developing world-leading India/UK expertise



Third exchange meeting from our Thematic Partnership (IUCAA).


Project Aims

To foster a partnership between Southampton and IUCAA on the theme of high energy astrophysics, drawing upon the common strengths of both partners. To begin a programme of education of young scientists in the field of time series analysis.


Project Outputs

  Latest Press Release and Associated Video


Read official releasess here:
Southampton
IUCAA
RAS
Netherlands
IAC
Sheffield


  Industrial Links

     Training in Data Science through HAL24K: https://hal24k.com/


  Publication highlights (incomplete list)

    (Only publications involving resulting from our partnership are listed. Acknowledgements to the Partnership may be found at the end of the publications.)

    1. A Black Hole X-ray Binary at ~100 Hz: Multiwavelength Timing of MAXI J1820+070 with HiPERCAM and NICER
        Paice, Gandhi et al. (2019, MNRAS Letter in press, arXiv:1910.04174)

    2. Hot, dense He II outflows during the 2017 outburst of the X-ray transient Swift J1357.2-0933
        Charles, +Gandhi, Paice et al. (2019, MNRAS Letter in press, arXiv:1908.00320)

    3. Nine-hour X-ray quasi-periodic eruptions from a low-mass black hole galactic nucleus
        Miniutti, +Gandhi et al. (2019, Nature in press, arXiv:1909.04693)

    4. Puzzling Blue Dips in the Black Hole Candidate Swift J1357.2-0933, from ULTRACAM, SALT, ATCA, Swift and NuSTAR
        Paice, Gandhi et al. (2019, MNRAS in press, arXiv:1905.09784)

    5. AstroSat and Chandra view of the high soft state of 4U 1630-47 (4U 1630-472): evidence of the disk wind and a rapidly spinning black hole
        Pahari, +Gandhi et al. (2018, ApJ in press, arXiv:1810.01275)

    6. An elevation of 0.1 light-seconds for the optical jet base in an accreting Galactic black hole system
        Gandhi et al. (2017, Nature Astronomy in press, arXiv:1710.09838)

    7. Furiously fast and red: sub-second optical flaring in V404 Cyg during the 2015 outburst peak
        Gandhi et al. (2016, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 459, 554)

    8. Accretion disc-corona and jet emission from the radio-loud narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy RX J1633.3+4719
        Mallick et al. (2016, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 460, 1705)

    9. Energy-dependent variability of the bare Seyfert 1 galaxy Ark 120
        Mallick et al. (2017, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 472, 174)

    10. Determining the torus covering factors for a sample of type 1 AGN in the local Universe
        Ezhikode et al. (2017, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 472, 3492)

    11. Simultaneous Optical/X-ray study of GS 1354-64 (= BW Cir) during hard outburst: evidence for optical cyclo-synchrotron emission from hot accretion flow
        Pahari et al. (2017, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 469, 193)

    12. Correlated Optical and X-ray variability in V404 Cyg
        Gandhi et al. (2016, Astronomers Telegram 7727)

    13. AstroSat/LAXPC observed 4U 1630-472 on very first day of a new outburst
        Yadav et al. (2016, Astronomers Telegram 9515)

    (An important outcome was that the students led many of the papers as primary authors.)



  Press Releases and Media Coverage (very small selection):

    1. Violent flaring revealed at the heart of a black hole
        University of Southampton Press Release

    2. Repeating outbursts of 40,000-degree wind discovered near black hole
        CNN coverage of University of Southampton Press Release

    3. Scientists penetrate mystery of raging black hole beams
        University of Southampton Press Release

    4. NuSTAR Probes Black Hole Jet Mystery
        NASA Press Release

    5. Astronomers see black hole raging red
        University of Southampton Press Release

    6. Astronomers see black hole raging red
        Royal Astronomical Society Press Release

    7. Fast and Furious Black Hole Observed with the William Herschel Telescope
        Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes Press Release

    There was huge international media coverage of the stories, including Newsweek, The Daily Mail, CNN, The Independent and many other news outlets.



  Training Exchanges

     -- 8 Indian Young Scientist Visits to Southampton for 2 months each;
     -- 4 UK Young Scientist Visits to IUCAA for 1--2 weeks each;
     -- 5 Indian Senior Scientist and 6 UK Senior Scientist exchanges for 1--2 weeks each.


  Workshops

     -- 1 workshop at Southampton on preparation for AstroSat, with participation from UK-wide audience.
         http://www.southampton.ac.uk/stag/news/events/2015/06/15-astrosat-miniworkshop.page

     -- 2 workshops at IUCAA on multiwavelength astronomy results; see photos.



Exchange visits in IUCAA (Left) and Southampton (Right).



Legacy

  Observing Proposal Awards

    (Only proposals involving both teams, resulting from direct interaction during the partnership are listed.)

     -- 15 AstroSat AO2--AO6 proposals accepted (PIs Paice, Pahari, Mallick, Misra, Dewangan, Gandhi) and 4 GO proposals accepted (2018):
         http://astrosat-ssc.iucaa.in/cycle_AO2/a02_accepted.html

     -- 4 Swift and INTEGRAL DDT/ToO proposals accepted (PIs Pahari, Altamirano, Gandhi) in 2015. e.g. The Pahari et al. paper resulted from these, as did the Gandhi et al. ATel.

     -- 1 Liverpool Telescope observing proposal accepted (spring 2016);

     -- 1 SAAO (SHOC) observing proposal accepted (Sep 2016);

     -- 4 ESO (VLT+NTT) observing proposals accepted (Sep 2016--Sep 2019);

     -- 1 JWST Early Release Science observing proposal submitted (Aug 2017);



  Number of Young Scientist Interactions

     -- About 30 people, including 15 young scientists attended the workshop in Southampton. The Indian visitors interacted with several dozen UK young scientists over the course of their visits.

     -- About 75 people, including 40 young scientists attended the two workshops at IUCAA.



  Recognition and Awards

     -- UK PI Gandhi awarded Dean's Award. Award citation specifically focuses on fostering of India/UK links and UKIERI.

     -- Artist's image from Gandhi et al. (2017, Nature Astronomy) makes HEASARC Picture of the Week

     -- International media coverage of results presented in Gandhi et al., including BBC radio, CNN, The Independent, ifLScience and many other online and news outlets.



  Future meetings and joint projects

     -- Royal Astronomical Society Discussion meeting focusing on AstroSat in Feb 2017 start discussions for the next phase of UK astronomy and collaboration with AstroSat:
         https://www.ras.org.uk/component/gem/?id=427

     -- Proposals from new AstroSat, JWST, optical publications involving both team members submitting and more planned.

     -- Proposal for UKIERI Phase 3 accepted. Discussion on AstroSat-2 begins.