Faculty
Shuji Matsuura
Major research activity
Major research fields:
Infrared astronomy, cosmic background radiation, cosmology
Our laboratory aims to understand major topics in modern astronomy and astrophysics:
- How did galaxies form?
- What caused mysterious “Re-ionization of the universe”?
- What are substances of “Dark matter” and “Dark energy”?
by measuring physical properties of the cosmic background radiation.
One of main scientific objectives of our research is to find a “fossil” light of the first stars and black holes, which were born in early universe. Such objects may have re-ionized the entire universe by their strong ultra-violet (UV) photons, and their clusters may have grown to galaxies. The UV photons emitted at the early universe are caught as infrared photons at present, because of Dopplar shift of the light associated with cosmic expansion. We are looking for such a diffuse infrared background light, which originates in ancient universe, by using our own making instrument aboard sounding rocket and existing space telescopes.
It is a fun to conduct various experiments in the universe as enormous laboratory for new finding of physics. Please join us!
Major relevant publications
- Zemcov,M., Smidt,J., Arai,T., Bock,J., Cooray,A., Gong,Y., Kim,M.-G., Korngut,P., Lam,A., Lee,D.-H., Matsumoto,T., Matsuura,S., Nam,U.-W., Roudier,G., Tsumura,K., and Wada,T., Origin of Near-Infrared Extragalactic Background Light Anisotropy. Science, 346, 732-735, (2014).
- Matsuura,S., Yano,H., Yonetoku,D., Funase,R., Mori,O., Shirasawa,Y., and Solar Sail WG, Joint Planetary and Astronomical Science with the Solar Power Sail Spacecraft. Transactions of the Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences, Aerospace Technology Japan, 12, ists29, Tr_1-5 (2014).
- Zemcov,M., Tsumura,K., Arai,T., Battle,J., Bock,J., Brown,S., Cooray,A., Hristov,V., Keating,B., Kim,M.-G., Lee,D.-H., Levenson,L.R., Lykke,K., Mason,P., Matsumoto,T., Matsuura,S., Murata,K., Nam,U.-W., Renbarger,T., Smith,A., Sullivan,I., Suzuki,K., and Wada,T., The Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment (CIBER): A Sounding Rocket Payload to Study the Near Infrared Extragalactic Background Light. ApJ Suppl.Ser., 207, 31(16pp), (2013).
- Matsuura,S., Shirahata,M., Kawada,M., Takeuchi,T.T., Burgarella,D., Clements,D.L., Jeong,W.-S., Hanami,H., Khan,S.A., Matsuhara,H., Nakagawa,T., Oyabu,S., Pearson,C.P., Pollo,A., Serjeant,S., Takagi,T., and White,G., Detection of the Cosmic Far-Infrared Background in AKARI Deep Field South. ApJ, 737, 2-20, (2011).
- Matsuura,S., and Ito,H., Generation of CW Terahertz Radiation with Photomixing. Terahertz Optoelectronics: Ed. Sakai, K., Topics in Applied Physics, Vol. 97, pp.157-202, Springer-Verlag Berlin/Heidelberg, 2005