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Black Hole

Lensing of space time around a black hole. At Oxford we study black holes observationally and theoretically on all size and time scales - it is some of our core work.

Credit: ALAIN RIAZUELO, IAP/UPMC/CNRS. CLICK HERE TO VIEW MORE IMAGES.

Prof. Matt Jarvis

Professor of Astrophysics

Research theme

  • Astronomy and astrophysics

Sub department

  • Astrophysics

Research groups

  • Cosmology
  • Galaxy formation and evolution
  • Hintze Centre for Astrophysical Surveys
  • MeerKAT
  • Rubin-LSST
  • The Square Kilometre Array (SKA)
Matt.Jarvis@physics.ox.ac.uk
Telephone: 01865 (2)83654
Denys Wilkinson Building, room 703
  • About
  • Publications

The Clustering of Active Galactic Nuclei and Star Forming Galaxies in the LoTSS Deep Fields

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press (OUP) (2025) staf1626

Authors:

CL Hale, PN Best, KJ Duncan, R Kondapally, MJ Jarvis, M Magliocchetti, HJA Röttgering, DJ Schwarz, DJB Smith, J Zheng

Abstract:

Abstract Using deep observations across three of the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey Deep Fields, this work measures the angular clustering of star forming galaxies (SFGs) and low-excitation radio galaxies (LERGs) to z ≲1.5 for faint sources, S144 MHz ≥200 μJy. We measure the angular auto-correlation of LOFAR sources in redshift bins and their cross-correlation with multi-wavelength sources to measure the evolving galaxy bias for SFGs and LERGs. Our work shows the bias of the radio-selected SFGs increases from $b=0.90^{+0.11}_{-0.10}$ at z ∼0.2 to $b=2.94^{+0.36}_{-0.36}$ at z ∼1.2; faster than the assumed b($z$)∝1/D($z$) models adopted in previous LOFAR cosmology studies (at sensitivities where AGN dominate), but in broad agreement with previous work. We further study the luminosity dependence of bias for SFGs and find little evidence for any luminosity dependence at fixed redshift, although uncertainties remain large for the sample sizes available. The LERG population instead shows a weaker redshift evolution with $b=2.33^{+0.28}_{-0.27}$ at z ∼0.7 to $b=2.65^{+0.57}_{-0.55}$ at z ∼1.2, though it is also consistent with the assumed bias evolution model (b($z$)∝1/D($z$)) within the measured uncertainties. For those LERGs which reside in quiescent galaxies (QLERGs), there is weak evidence that they are more biased than the general LERG population and evolve from b=$2.62^{+0.33}_{-0.33}$ at z ∼0.7 to $b=3.08^{+0.85}_{-0.84}$ at z ∼1.2. This suggests the halo environment of radio sources may be related to their properties. These measurements can help constrain models for the bias evolution of these source populations, and can help inform multi-tracer analyses.
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The dependence of the Type Ia Supernova colour–luminosity relation on their host galaxy properties

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press 543:3 (2025) 2180-2203

Authors:

S Ramaiya, M Vincenzi, MJ Jarvis, P Wiseman, M Sullivan

Abstract:

Using the Dark Energy Survey 5-yr sample, we determine the properties of type Ia supernova (SN Ia) host galaxies across a wide multiwavelength range – from the optical to far-infrared – including data from the Herschel and Spitzer space telescopes. We categorize the SNe Ia into three distinct groups according to the distribution of their host galaxies on the star formation rate (SFR) – stellar mass () plane. Each region comprises host galaxies at distinct stages in their evolutionary pathways: Region 1 – low-mass hosts; Region 2 – high-mass, star-forming hosts and Region 3 – high-mass, passive hosts. We find SNe Ia in host galaxies located in Region 1 have the steepest slope (quantified by ) between their colours and luminosities, with . This differs at the significance level to SNe Ia in Region 3, which have the shallowest colour–luminosity slope with . After correcting SNe Ia in each subsample by their respective , events in Region 3 (high-mass, passive hosts) are mag () brighter, post-standardization. We conclude that future cosmological analyses should apply standardization relations to SNe Ia based upon the region in which the SN host galaxy lies in the SFR– plane. Alternatively, cosmological analyses should restrict the SN Ia sample to events whose host galaxies occupy a single region of this plane.
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Evidence for inverse Compton scattering in high-redshift Lyman-break galaxies

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press 543:1 (2025) 507-517

Authors:

IH Whittam, MJ Jarvis, Eric J Murphy, NJ Adams, RAA Bowler, A Matthews, RG Varadaraj, CL Hale, I Heywood, K Knowles, L Marchetti, N Seymour, F Tabatabaei, AR Taylor, M Vaccari, A Verma

Abstract:

Radio continuum emission provides a unique opportunity to study star formation unbiased by dust obscuration. However, if radio observations are to be used to accurately trace star formation to high redshifts, it is crucial that the physical processes that affect the radio emission from star-forming galaxies are well understood. While inverse Compton (IC) losses from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are negligible in the local universe, the rapid increase in the strength of the CMB energy density with redshift [] means that this effect becomes increasingly important at . Using a sample of high-redshift () Lyman-break galaxies selected in the rest-frame ultraviolet (UV), we have stacked radio observations from the MIGHTEE survey to estimate their 1.4-GHz flux densities. We find that for a given rest-frame UV magnitude, the 1.4-GHz flux density and luminosity decrease with redshift. We compare these results to the theoretical predicted effect of energy losses due to IC scattering off the CMB, and find that the observed decrease is consistent with this explanation. We discuss other possible causes for the observed decrease in radio flux density with redshift at a given UV magnitude, such as a top-heavy initial mass function at high redshift or an evolution of the dust properties, but suggest that IC scattering is the most compelling explanation.
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MIGHTEE-HI: the radial acceleration relation with resolved stellar mass measurements

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press 541:3 (2025) 2366-2392

Authors:

Andreea A Vărăşteanu, Matt J Jarvis, Anastasia A Ponomareva, Harry Desmond, Ian Heywood, Tariq Yasin, Natasha Maddox, Marcin Glowacki, Michalina Maksymowicz-Maciata, Pavel E Mancera Piña, Hengxing Pan

Abstract:

The radial acceleration relation (RAR) is a fundamental relation linking baryonic and dark matter in galaxies by relating the observed acceleration derived from dynamics to the one estimated from the baryonic mass. This relation exhibits small scatter, thus providing key constraints for models of galaxy formation and evolution – allowing us to map the distribution of dark matter in galaxies – as well as models of modified dynamics. However, it has only been extensively studied in the very local Universe with largely heterogeneous samples. We present a new measurement of the RAR, utilizing a homogeneous sample of 19 H i-selected galaxies out to . We introduce a novel approach of measuring resolved stellar masses using spectral energy distribution fitting across 10 photometric bands to determine the resolved mass-to-light ratio, which we show is essential for measuring the acceleration due to baryons in the low-acceleration regime. Our results reveal a tight RAR with a low-acceleration power-law slope of , consistent with previous studies. Adopting a spatially varying mass-to-light ratio yields the tightest RAR with an intrinsic scatter of only dex, highlighting the importance of resolved stellar mass measurements in accurately characterizing the gravitational contribution of the baryons in low-mass, gas-rich galaxies. We also find the first tentative evidence for redshift evolution in the acceleration scale, but more data will be required to confirm this. Adopting a more general MOND interpolating function, we find that our results ameliorate the tension between previous RAR analyses, the Solar System quadrupole, and wide-binary test.
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Hi intensity mapping with the MIGHTEE Survey: first results of the Hi power spectrum

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press 541:1 (2025) 476-493

Authors:

Aishrila Mazumder, Laura Wolz, Zhaoting Chen, Sourabh Paul, Mario G Santos, Matt Jarvis, Junaid Townsend, Srikrishna Sekhar, Russ Taylor

Abstract:

We present the first results of the H i intensity mapping power spectrum analysis with the MeerKAT International GigaHertz Tiered Extragalactic Exploration (MIGHTEE) survey. We use data covering 4 square degrees in the COSMOS field using a frequency range of 962.5–1008.42 MHz, equivalent to H i emission in . The data consist of 15 pointings with a total of 94.2 h on-source. We verify the suitability of the MIGHTEE data for H i intensity mapping by testing for residual systematics across frequency, baselines, and pointings. We also vary the window used for H i signal measurements and find no significant improvement using stringent Fourier mode cuts. We compute the H i power spectrum at scales in autocorrelation as well as cross-correlation between observational scans using power spectrum domain averaging for pointings. We report consistent upper limits of 29.8 mK Mpc from the 2 cross-correlation measurements and 25.82 mK Mpc from autocorrelation at 2 Mpc.The low signal-to-noise ratio in this data potentially limits our ability to identify residual systematics, which will be addressed in the future by incorporating more data in the analysis.
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