Research
The main focus of my research is the discovery and study of luminous high redshift quasars and galaxies; galaxy formation and evolution in the Epoch of Reionization; This work focuses on the discovery of high redshift galaxies and quasars powered by the accretion of matter onto supermassive black holes. My research covers the determination of space densities, star formation rates and how and when galaxies and quasars form. In the past I have worked on the experimental determination of the rate of gravitational deceleration of the Universe. This work resulted in the unexpected discovery that the rate of expansion of the Universe was accelerating. One of our team, Saul Perlmutter was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery in 2011.
I am currently involved in a number of survey projects:
- Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS)
- VISTA Hemisphere Survey
- Dark Energy Survey (DES)
- 4MOST
- EUCLID
Publications
- The discovery of the first luminous z ~ 6 quasar in the UKIDSS Large Area Survey; Venemans, B., McMahon R.G. et al, 2007, MNRAS, 376L, 76;
- DAzLE: the dark ages z (redshift) Lyman-α Explorer; Horton et al., 2004, SPIE,5492, 1022.
- The evolution of ΩHI and the epoch of formation of damped Lyman α absorbers, Peroux, C. McMahon R.G. et al, 2003, MNRAS, 346L, 1103.
- Lyman break galaxies and the star formation rate of the Universe at z~ 6; Stanway, Elizabeth R.; Bunker, Andrew J.; McMahon, Richard G., 2003, MNRAS, 342, 439:
- The far-infrared-submillimetre spectral energy distribution of high-redshift quasars, Priddey, R. and McMahon, R.G., 2001, MNRAS, 324P, 17.
- Optical Counterparts for 70,000 Radio Sources: APM Identifications for the FIRST Radio Survey; McMahon, Richard G.; White, Richard L.; Helfand, David J.; Becker, Robert H., 2002, ApJS, 143, 1.
- Measurements of Omega and Lambda from 42 High-Redshift Supernovae, Perlmutter S. et al, 1999, ApJ, 517, 565.
- Discovery of radio-loud quasars with z = 4.72 and z = 4.01; Hook, Isobel M.; McMahon, Richard G., 1998, MNRAS, 294, 7.
- Detection of Lyman-α emitting galaxies at redshift z = 4.55; Hu, Esther; McMahon Richard G., 1996, Nature, 382, 231.
- APM z >=4 QSO Survey: Spectra and Intervening Absorption Systems; Storrie-Lombardi, L. J.; McMahon, R. G.; Irwin, M. J.; Hazard, C., 1996, ApJ, 468, 121.
- 1.25-mm continuum observations of very high-redshift QSOs: Is there dust at z = 4.69?, McMahon, R.G. et al, 1994, MNRAS, 267L, 9.
