Day 29

Thursday.  Late for KIAS LSS conference (again).

LBL INPA

Seeing in the Dark: Cosmic Shear in SDSS

Eric Huff

250 deg^2 of SDSS WL shear measurement.  Systematic errors for this measurement are probably negligible compared to the statistical errors.  Omega_m and sigma8 at z=0.6 constrained.  

Also use galaxy scaling relations to measure lensing magnification with many times the S/N of previous magnification results.  Could be superior to shear.

LBL RPM

Quantum Electrodynamics and Ultra-High Intensities

Thomas Heinzl

Strong-field quantum electrodynamics with high-intensity

1106.5104

Modeling the tidal connection between in and around galaxy clusters

Hyunmi （賢美）Song, Jounghun Lee

Day 28

Wednesday.  Gave a talk, I should have rewritten it to suit the topic of the conference.


1106.5052
Are priors responsible for cosmology favoring additional neutrino species?
Gonzalez-Morales, Poltis, Sherwin, Verde


There are (weak) cosmological and and flavor oscillation experiments (MiniBooNE and LSND) evidence for low-mass sterile neutrinos.  Once the prior-dependence is removed, the latest cosmological data show no evidence for deviations from the standard number of neutrino species.


Preprint
Photometric redshift requirements for lens galaxies in galaxy-galaxy lensing analysis
Nakajima, Mandelbaum, Cohn, Seljak, Cool


* writing down summary of the conclusion section to help me read, otherwise I'll fall asleep.


- We used SDSS DR8 5-band photo-z with ZEBRA.  Choose minimal scatter, correct for bias.

- Test the calibration set and check for exceptional observing conditions.  Used 6 subsamples.

- Photo-z bias/scatter and the derived quantities measured, mostly lens photoz.  Accuracy of 2% for a known lens redshift.  Additional blue or faint objects.  

- Biases in the "stacking quantities" that depend on redshift.  k-correction enabled due to SED.

- Specific cautions for calibration fields: full depth of photometric survey, average out LSS, survey conditions.  Scatter determines the binning width of stacking.

Day 27

Skipped Sunday afterall, then also skipped Monday.  Tuesday at KIAS.


1106.3366
The 6dF Galaxy Survey: BAO and the local hubble constant
Beutler, Blake, et al.


* Let's see if I can remember this abstract from before...


Measured BAO at z=0.106, as well as local H_0 measured with 6dF.  Use H_0 to break degeneracy between w and H_0 in the CMB data.  Comments on future surveys.


* it was a number-heavy abstract


1106.2815
Purely kinetic coupled gravity
Gubitosi, Linder


* another abstract read before...


Cosmic acceleration through kinetic terms coupled to gravity (instead of flat scalar field potential).  Some procedure on deriving the proper equations.  Couple Einstein tensor with the kinetic term (of what?), and that can be interpreted as adding a new term to Galileon gravity in curved spacetime.  Examine cosmological implications.  Find late time cosmological constant.


* what is "naturalness?"


1106.1469
Low-Resolution sodium D absorption is a bad proxy for extinction
Poznanski, Ganeshaligam, Silverman, Filippenko


* is it that bad?


Based on 443 low-resolution spectra of 172 Type Ia SNe for which both the dust extinction and Na I D equivalent width measured, the two BARELY CORRELATE.  Examine causes for this large scatter.


* it's BAD.  (actually, I have no idea how bad, having not read the paper)


1106.3328
Cluster Lensing and supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH): an overview
Postman et al.


* I read this one too.


It's a proposal paper.


1106.4016
Complete WMAP constraints on bandlimited inflationary features
Dvorkin, Hu


* What is bandlimited inflationary features?  I read this one too.


Test slow roll and single field inflation with the WMAP7 data.  Couldn't find any deviation, except one anomaly out of the 20 components.  See if the anomaly has a correspondence in the polarization spectrum, that would test their inflationary origin.  Complete analysis for bandlimited features (l<60?) in the source function of generalized slow roll--can be used to constrain parameters of specific models of the inflaton potential.


* I think I understand bandlimited, but I still don't quite understand what happened in this abstract.




KIAS Preprint
Relaxation limited evaporation of globular clusters
Maurice van Putten


* evaporation of stellar objects in globular clusters
* Kelvin-Helmholtz time scale: Astronomical process of cooling of the surface of a star or planet after gravitational contraction.  Cooling causes pressure to drop, and the star/planet shrinks as a result (Jupiter/Saturn/Brown dwarfs).  
* Globular clusters: spherical collection of stars that orbits a galactic core as a satellite out to 40 kpc.  Found in haloes of galaxies, contain considerably more stars, and are much older than the galactic open clusters found in disk.  150-158 currently known, perhaps 10 or 20 more.  Andromeda has ~500.  Some ellipticals can have as many as 13,000 globular clusters. Formation currently poorly understood.  Composed of low-metal, old stars.  
* Fokker-Planck equation: time evolution of the PDF of the velocity of a particle (can be generalized to other observables).  


When N_c >~1600, evaporative evolution of stellar clusters is shown to be relaxation limited.  The total energy loss per relaxation time is larger than total particle loss per, so it's an energy-loss process.  Evaporation time is found to be 20 x t_relax (where t_relax is the time it takes for a particle in a system to change its direction by pi/2); this result agrees with N-body simulations and Fokker-Planck calculations.  t_relax is expressed in terms of the half-mass radius.  Calculates grey-body factor, derive the tidal sensitivity d ln t_ev / dy ~ -1.9 to -0.7, as a function of the virial-to-tidal radius ratio.  Evaporation drives streams of stars into the tidal field with a mean KE or 0.71 relative to the temperature of cluster.  Tidal disruption stream S-shaped.  Can/should be tested.


1106.4052
Implicit priors in galaxy cluster mass and scaling relation determinations
Mantz, Allen


Cluster mass from ICM observation requires prior information, such as parameterized functions of gas density and gas profiles.  Investigate implicit priors on hydrostatic masses (fully parametric) --- naturally imposes a prior on the slopes of the derived scaling relations, favors self-similar model.  Bias does not exist for techniques which adopt an explicit prior on the form of the mass profile but describe the ICM non-parametrically.  Constraints on M-T_X relation in literature show a separation based on the approach employed, with the results from ully parametric ICM modeling clustering nearer the self-similar value.  Shouldn't be using parametric relations, if one wants to test self-similar relations.  Alternative methods discussed.


* Assuming the gas/density profile to have a certain form results in a prior where it biases the form to have a certain slope, favoring scaling relations.  
* what does it mean to have : explicit prior on the form of mass profile?


1106.4116
Probing cosmic acceleration by using the SNLS3 SNIa dataset
Li, et al.


472 SNIa, measure acceleration.  Combine with WMAP7, SDSS DR7 BAO, and H_0 from HST WFPC3.  Find w~-1 to 1 sigma.  LCDM compatible with current observations.


1106.4264
Enhancements to velocity-dependent Dm interactions from tidal streams nad the shells in the Andromeda galaxy
Sanderson, Mohayaee, Silk


* I've read this one


Cross-section enhancement due to velocity; this can be detected in tidal streams.


1106.4294
Hubble parameter data constraints on DE
Chen, Ratra


Measure H(z) to place constraints on model parameters

Day 26

Saturday.  Actually going to do astroph today (and intend to do it tomorrow too).


1106.4621
Effects of P-wave annihilation on the Angular power spectrum of extragalactic gamma-rays from DM annihilation


* P-wave annihilation:  The orbital angular momentum of the initial state is p-wave.


DM annihilation with general velocity-dependent cross section, producing gamma rays: p-wave annihilation cross section is sigma v = a + b v^2.  Increases gamma ray power if b/a >> 1e6.  Important effect for a given b/a is largely determined yb the cosmic DM distribution.  Some speculations about how DM would behave if it were produced thermally from strong p-wave theories (whatever that is).


* the velocity that they talk about--is that the the motion of observer relative to the DM halo?


1106.4722
Dusty explosions from dusty progenitors:  The physics of SN2008S and the 2008 NGC300-OT
Kochanek


Explosive transients of stars self-obscured by very dense, dusty stellar winds.  1e10 Lsun required to render the transients little obscured and visible in the optical at their peaks---indicating cool red supergiant progenitor (~9Msun) extreme AGB stars.  Produce shock luminosity in soft X-rays, powering the long-lived luminosity of the transients.  The progenitor winds are optically thick to soft X-rays, easily absorb radio emission and rapidly reform dust destroyed by the peak luminosity of the transients.  Energy ultimately radiated by the reformed dust (only visible in the mid-IR after 3 years, although significantly luminous than the progenitor stars).  


* AGB:  Asymptotic Giant Branch:  evolving low to medium-mass stars (0.6-10 Msun), late in their lives.  
* AGB phases:  (1) "early": He fusion, CO core.   Becomes a red giant.  (2) He runs out, H burns, He accumulates, He flash.  The thermal pulsation phase.  Pulse mixes material from core region into the outer layers.  


1010.1065
ACT: SZ selected galaxy cluster at 148GHz in the 2008 survey
Marriage, et al.


23 clusters detected in 455 square-degree map.  All have optical counterparts.  10 are new.  One really massive, high z (z~0.75) cluster found.  100% pure, 80% complete (for M500>6e14 Msun) subsample.  Agrees well with self-similar and non-adiabatic, simulation-derived scaling laws.


1106.3312
Cosmology of the Galileon from massive gravity
de Rham, Heisenberg


Hubble parameter corresponds to the graviton mass.


* that's the only sentence that made sense to me.


1106.4313
An improved forecast of patchy reionization reconstruction with CMB
Yu, Yadav, McQuinn, Yoo, Zaldarriaga


* I read this one two days ago, apparently.


S/N is not as good as previously reported to get patchy reionization from angular variation in tau. It was report to be S/N~10, but it's probably more like S/N~1 because gravitational lensing signal completely dominates this signal.  Derived a better estimator to do the tau business.


* apparently I remembered what it was about.


1001.2333
Shape measurement biases from underfitting and ellipticity gradients
Bernstein


When measuring galaxy shapes, methods that rely on fitting elliptical isophote methods have two biases:  (1) when galaxies do not match the models being fit ("underfitting bias")---these methods attempt to use information at high frequencies destroyed by the convolution with the PSF and/or sampling.  Propose new technique confined to observable regions of k-space.  (2) if there is ellipticity variation with radius ("ellipticity gradient bias")--most shape measurement methods are subject to this bias.  These biases can be reduced by x20-100 with the new method.  Resulting shear estimator has <1 part in 1e3 for high S/N images, even for highly asymmetric galaxies.  Without any training or calibration, new method obtains Q=3000 in the GREAT08 Challenge.


* I got to read this paper.


MNRAS 382, 315 (2007)
Bayesian galaxy shape measurement for weak lensing surveys -- I. Methodology and a fast-fitting algorithm
Miller, Kitching, Heymans, Heavens and Van Waerbeke


Measuring the shapes of galaxies by a model-fitting approach (in context of WL).  Need maximum S/N along with measurement error estimates.  Distinction between likelihood-based and Bayesian methods discussed.  Systematic biases in the Bayesian method may be evaluated as a part of the fitting process.  Overall such an approach should yield unbiased shear estimation w/o external calibrations.  Drawback is computing time, but a new algorithm introduced that is suitable for large-scale surveys.  Method tested on STEP.


MNRAS 390, 149 (2008)
Bayesian galaxy shape measurement for weak lensing surveys -- II. Application to simulations
Kitching, Miller, Heymans, van Waerbeke, Heavens


Extend the Bayesian model fitting shape measurement (above) and estimate shear using STEP simulations.  Describe method: model fitting, fast, realistic, analytical marginalization over position and amplitude (done in Fourier space).  Full posterior probability in ellipticity.  Then find shear in Bayesian way from this posterior probability surface.  Iterative algorithm that can be used to estimate the intrinsic ellipticity prior.  (COOL!!!!  ...I'm such a geek.)  Shape noise estimation is accurate and stable.
Results:  Shear bias 0.006 pm 0.005; additive offset 0.0002 (STEP 1), 0.002 pm 0.016 and offset -0.0007 (STEP2).  Bias and offset stable to changes in magnitude and size of the galaxies.  Pretty robust in systematic effects, at least in terms of shape measurements.  
Present alternative to STEP parameterization: quality factor---relates intrinsic shear variance in a simulation to the variance in shear that is measured.  Q>100 for this method, x10 better than others.


* Might have to read this a bit.

Day 25

Friday (already).  Photoz paper almost ready to put out into the World.


LBL INPA
GRB talk, re-read abstract
Antonio Cucchiara


GRB science: its own physics, factory of high energy gamma rays, SF tracers, diagnostics for the chemical evolution of interstellar and intergalactic medium.


* how do they trace SF?  GRB thought to be collapsing SNe (or NS binary merger) seen along spinning axis.  Can we see spectra of GRB?


LBL RPM
Testing strong-field CED and QED with intense field lasers, reread abstract
Antonino Di Piazza (MPI-Heidelberg)


Want to see back-reaction of a charged particle (i.e., e-) after emitting a photon in a strong field.  If the field is strong enough, one should be able to measure this back-reaction.  Also, look at the difference between classical and quantum equation of back-reaction.  Some not-understandable quotes about photon-only interference pattern.


1106.4308
The relative abundance of compact and normal massive early-type galaxies and its evolution from redshift z~2 to the present
Cassata, ...Grogin... et al.


* compact (vs normal) massive early types.  its abundance and evolution.  from z~2 to now.


563 early types (sSFR<1e-2 /Gyr), massive (M>1e10 Msun), morphologically spheroidal galaxies.    Significant evolution of the mass-size relation of early type galaxies---fractional increment almost independent on the stellar mass.  Early types formed at z>1 are preferentially small; evolution of mass-size relation at z<1 driven by both the continuous size growth of compact gals and appearance of new early types with large sizes.  Number density of early types increases rapidly (x5) from z~2 to 1, and more mildly from z~1 to 0 (x1.5).  Bulk of early types formed at z=1.


* what is the mass-size relation doing?  How does it evolve?  description not given in abstract.


1106.4007
Galaxy formation with self-consistently modeled stars and massive black holes. I: Feedback-regulated star formation and BH growth.
Kim, Wise, Alvarez, Abel


* another galaxy formation modeling code?


BH and galaxy co-evolution in a hierarchical structure formation paradigm.  AMR code Enzo modified to model the formation and feedback of molecular clouds at their characteristic scale of 15.2 pc and the accretion of gas onto a massive BH.  AGN radiative (X-ray) and mechanical (jets) feedback employed.  1e12 M_sun galo and 1e5 Msun BH at z=3 in LCDM sim: BH ionizes and heats surroundings (1e6K), suppresses SF & changes stellar distribution at core, locally dominant.  BH self-regulates by keeping ISM hot.


* what is the "feedback of molecular clouds" with it's scale 15.2 pc?


1106.4008
Constraining Type Ia supernovae progenitors from 3 years of SNLS data
Bianco, ...Perlmutter...  et al.


* Federica!  I didn't know she was on SNLS.


SNIa: thought to be Carbon-Oxygen WD accreting mass in a binary system---but details of genesis, nature of companion still uncertain.  Non-degenerate companion observable: flux excess in the early rise portion of the lightcurve, as ejecta impacts with companion.  Has a favorable viewing angle; intensity depends on the nature of the companion.  Search for such signature in SNLS by generating synthetic lightcurves (effects of shock included).   Shocking effect more prominent in rest-frame B than V band.  Rule out contribution from WL-RG binary systems to Type Ia SN > 10% at 2 sigma, or >20% at 3 sigma.


* wait, so was it or was it not detected?  Sounds like it wasn't detected?


1106.4284
GOODS-Hershel: the far-IR view of star formation in AGN host galaxies since z~3
Mullaney et al.


* AGN and star formation?  They supposedly go hand-in-hand.


GOODS-H: IR properties of X-ray AGN.  100um and 160um fluxes dominated by the host galaxies in most cases; hence a good SF signal.  No correlation between AGN levels and global SF activity.  SFR increase strongly with redshift, by x43(+30-20) from z<0.1 to z2-3 for AGN hosts of L_X 1e42-44 ergs/s. Consistent with sSFR increase by x25-50 of normal, SF (main-sequence) galaxies.  80+/-10 percent of moderate luminosity AGNs are hosted by main-sequence galaxies.  15+/-7 in quiescent galaxies, and <10 percent in strongly starbursting galaxies.  Derive fractions of all main sequence galaxies at z...(garbled text?)  Majority of moderate nuclear activity fueled by internal mechanisms rather than violent mergers--high redshift disk instabilities could be an important AGN feeding mechanism.  Stellar mass is the best indicator whether a galaxy hosts a moderate luminosity AGN.


* AGN occurrence mostly in "main sequence" galaxies--it's not fueled by mergers.
* main sequence galaxy:  This seems to be something that "disproves current theory of hierarchical galaxy formation".  Something analogous to the MS (HR diagram) of stars.


0610031
A primer on hierarchical galaxy formation: the semi-analytical approach (68 pages)
Baugh


Physics of galaxy formation.  Hierarchical paradigm.  SAM vs numerical simulations.  


0811.1554
Galaxies appear simpler than expected
Disney, Romano, Garcia-Appadoo, West, Dalcanton, Cortese


Galaxies: dynamics, star formation, chemical enrichment, SN & BH feedback.  Hierarchical theory--galaxies are assembled from smaller pieces.  Six parameters: mass, angular-momentum, baryon-fraction, age, size, merger history.  Galaxies detected through their HI radio frequency emission (no optical selection effects), show five independent correlations among six independent observables.  Single parameter undecernable.  

Day 24

I think it's day 24.  It's Thursday, I read a lot yesterday.  I'll read more today.


LBL RPM
Testing strong-field classical and quantum electrodynamics with intense field lasers
Antonio Di Piazza


Areas of investigation of classical ED (CED) and QED.  Test extreme conditions with ultra-intense laser fields.  Landau-Lifshitz (LL) has not been tested yet: the fact that e.g., an e-, when radiating, changes its direction of travel ("radiation reaction").  Explore the regime in which radiation reaction is large, where quantum recoil and radiation reaction effects both dominate.  QED also predicts that EM fields can also interact with charged virtual particles.  


* I didn't understand the last part about using virtual particle, matterless double-slit scenario (the two laser beams) that are probed by a third laser beam to "generate interference patter entirely from light."  What's so special about light-only diffraction pattern?  We did it in high school.


LBL INPA
GRB 090429B: enlightening the dark ages of the universe
Antonio Chucchiara


GRB explosions releases energy x1000 that of SNe, and can be visible from z>10.  Key elements of GRB, and GRB as a factory of high-energy gamma rays; SF tracers, role as diagnostics for the chemical evolution of the interstellar and intergalactic medium.  
Recent discovery of GRB at z=9.4 (~500Myr after BB).  Future GRB science-driven missions.


* GRB: flashes of gamma rays associated with extremely energetic explosions, observed in distant galaxies, lasting 20-40 seconds.  Usually followed by a longer-lived afterglow.  Believed to consist of a narrow beam of intense radiation released during a SNe event ("long duration"), or a merger of binary neutron stars ("short duration").


1105.4876
Filamentary infall of cold gas and escape of lyman alpha and hydrogen ionizing radiation from an interacting high-redshift galaxy
Rauch et al.


* This is my second reading of the abstract.  I understand it better.


Interacting (dwarf) galaxies cause leaking of ionizing and Lya photos outside of the galaxy.  This may be a contributing factor to the reionization of the universe.


1105.5381
Evidence for cold accretion: discovery of primitive gas flowing onto a galaxy at z~0.274
Ribaudo, ...Prochaska, et al.


UV and optical observations from COS HST of a z~0.2 Lyman Limit system (LLS).  The LLS traces infalling gas, and the O VI arises due to its interaction with the galaxy halo.  Gas cannot trace an outflow due to its very low metallicity (???).  Ionization conditions of such accreting gas favor intermediate ions such as CIII and Si III as observational tracers of "cold" (1e4K) streams which are metal-poor and predominantly ionized.


1106.4312
An examination of possible gravitational perturbations in the transit timing variations of exoplanet WASP-3b
Littlefield


Claim of sinusoidal variation in the transit timing detected.  Signal might be the consequence of gravitational perturbations caused by a hypothetical second exoplanet in the WASP-3 system.  5 transit timing measurements made.


1106.4313
An improved forecast of patchy reionization reconstruction with CMB
Su, Yadav, McQuinn, Yoo, Zaldarriaga


Angular fluctuation in the CMB optical depth tau due to inhomogeneous reionization.  This can correlate different spherical harmonic modes, and imprint non-Gaussianity on CMB maps.  Recent derivation of minimum variance estimator found tau fluctuations can be detected with S/N of 10 in e.g., CMBPol.  Non-G signal from gravitational lensing of CMB is the dominant source of contamination, even after delensing of 98%.  Construct unbiased estimators the simultaneously reconstruct inhomogeneous reionization signals and gravitational lensing signals.  Apply new unbiased estimators to future CMB experiment, show that (S/N)^2 ~ O(1) to ~O(10).


1106.4410
One micron excess sources in the UKIDSS- I. Three T dwarfs in the SDSS southern equatorial stripe
Matsuoka, et al.


Discovery of two field brown dwarfs, and a rediscovery of another.  From 1um excess in UKIDSS.  Classification supported by optical to near IR colors as well.  One of the faintest T-dwarfs known.  Distances are 50-110pc, most distant T-dwarfs known.  Significant propermotions of 150-290 mas/yr, or 40-100 km/s transverse motion.  No detectable brightness variations.


1106.4526
A very high proper motion star and the first L dwarf in the Kepler field
Gizis, Troup, Burgasser


* OBAFGKM-LT(Y) is the Harvard spectral classification system for the stars.
* RNS are mixed in with the M giants.  Other classifications available.


Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and 2MASS: report two nearby high proper motion dwarfs.  2.1"/yr and 0.48"/yr, estimated distance @ 17 pc.  Lie at low galactic latitudes.


1107.4984
Radiative events as a probe of dark forces at GeV-Scale e+e- colliders
Barze', et al.


Ideal environment to search for a light weakly coupled vector boson U (dark photon), emerging in new physics models, with GeV scale, high luminosity e+e- colliders ("flavor factories").  U boson production in association with a photon, then decay of U boson into lepton pairs.  Some details that escapes me.


1006.3359
Modeling dielectric half-wave plates for CMB polarimetry using a Mueller matrix formalism
Bryan, Montroy, Ruhl


* dielectric: electrical insulator that can be polarized by an applied electric field.
* half-wave plate: retards one polarization by half a wavelength (180 degrees).  
* Mueller calculus: matrix method for manipulating Stokes vectors, represent the polarization of incoherent light.  Light wich is unpolarized or partially polarized must be treated using Mueller calculus, while fully polarized light can be treated with either Mueller calculus or the simpler Jones calculus.  A 4x4 matrix, generalization of the Jones matrix.
* Jones calculus: in optics, polarized light can be described using the Jones calculus (Jones vectors have 2 elements for each of the polarization components).  A 2x2 matrix.  
* birefringent: double refraction.  Used to make wave plates, polarizing prisms, and Lyot (narrow passband, used in solar astronomy) filters.


Derive analytic formula using the Mueller matrix formalism--parameterizes nonidealities of the half-wave plate (HWP) made from dielectric antireflection-coated birefringent slabs.  Model accounts for frequency-dependent effects at normal incidence, including those driven by the reflections at dielectric boundaries.  Model also used to guide the characterization of an instrument that uses a HWP.  Coupling of HWP to different source spectra, and impact on foreground removal for the SPIDER CMB experiment.  Used in a mapmaking algorithm that fully corrects for HWP nonidealities.


1104.0672
ARKCoS: Artifact-Suppressed Accelerated radial kernel convolution on the sphere
Elsner, Wandelt


Hybrid Fourier/direct space convolution algorithm for compact radial (azimuthally symmetric) kernels on the sphere.


Takes advantage of the inexpensive massive parallelism afforded by GPUs.  Applications: modeling of instrumental beam shapes in compact kernels, fine-scale wavelet transformations, optimal filtering for the detection of point sources.  Works for any pixelization where pixels are grouped into isolatitude rings.  Ringing  features completely absent on ECP grid.  Highly suppressed on HEALPix pixelization.  Example: running on GPU speeds up beam convolution for simulations on Planck by two orders of magnitude, while maintaining a fractional RMS accuracy of 1e-5.


1104.3987
On the dynamics of planetesimals embedded in turbulent protoplanetary discs with dead zones
Gressel, Nelson, Turner


* magnetorotational instability (MRI): fluid instability that arises when the angular velocity of a magnetized fluid decreases as the distance from the center increases.  Relevance in astrophysics where it is an important part of the dynamics in accretion discs.  (Violates Rayleigh stability criterion.)


Accretion in protoplanetry discs is thought to be driven by turbulence via the magnetorotational instability (MRI).  Fully turbulent disk leads to collisional destruction of bodies with radii R_p < 100 km.  Diffusion of semimajor axes also arises, leading to large-scale spreading of the planetesimal population throughout the inner regions of the protoplanetary disc.  Examine turbulent excitation of the velocity dispersion and radial diffusion of planetesimals in these discs.  Employ 3D simulation.  Planetesimals develop large random velocities leading to collisional destruction/erosion for bodies with sizes < 100km.   Diffusion (radial) < 0.25 AU, consistent with solar system constraints.  A dead zone may provide a safe haven in which km-sized planetesimals an avoid mutual destruction through collisions.


1106.0040
Enhanced CMB non-Gaussianities from Lorentz violation
Chialva


Lorentz symmetry violation effects on the scalar CMB byspectrum.  THer ecan be enhancements, when symmetry breaking violate adiabatic condition temporarily in the early universe.  Depend on the form of the modified dispersion relation (pattern of Lorentz violation). Study Lorentz violation through these phenomena.  

Day 23

Wednesday.  My luggage is supposed to arrive this afternoon, thank goodness.


1106.3194
The evolution of quiescent galaxies at high redshift (z>1.4)
Pozzi, ... Ilbert, Capak, Kneib, Le Fevre, ... et al.


Observe significant evolution of the quiescenet stellar mass function from 2.5<z<3.0 to 1.4<z, while the quiescent population increases from 10% to 50% at the same redshift and mass intervals.  Compare models with evolution of fraction of quiescent galaxies, find best model.  Find that there is already a significant number of quiescent galaxies at z>2.5.


1106.3328
Cluster Lensing and Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH)
Postman, Coe, ... Broadhurst ... Graves,  ... Moustakas, ... et al


524 multi-cycle treasury program.  Gravitational properties of 25 galaxy cluster.  Establish degree of concentration of dark matter in the cluster cores.  20 x-ray selected (mostly relaxed), with 5 lensing-selected clusters to check lensing bias.  Total of 16 broadband filters from NUV to NIR, 20 orbits per cluster.  Magnified z>7 candidates from cluster lenses.


* wow.  This is the super-duper version of what we submitted to Hubble ~4 years ago.


1106.3079
Black hole growth in the early universe is self-regulated and largely hidden from view
Treister, Schawinski, Volonteri, Natarajan, Gawiser


Formation of first massive objects, initial conditions of BH seed properties are quickly erased.  Deep X-ray observations measure amount of BH growth in z~6-8 galaxies.  Early bursts, significant growth, but obscured and do not contribute to the re-ionization of the Universe with their UV emission.


1106.3072
SLUG - Stochastically lighting up galaxies I:  Methods and validating tests
da Silva, Fumagalli, Krumholz


A new code to stochastically light up galaxies (SLUG), study the effects of stochasticity on the luminosities of stellar populations (important for understanding populations in the low mass or low star formation rate regime).  Stochastic, but includes effects of clustering, stellar initial mass function, SF history, stellar evolution, cluster disruption.  Output: catalogs of star clusters and their properties (IMF and photometry), 2D histograms of color-magnitude diagrams of every star in the simulation, photometric properties of field stars and integrated photometry of the entire simulated galaxy.  Compare with other code and MW observations.  


1106.3183
A Lya blob and zabs ~ zem damped Lya absorber in the DM halo of the binary quasar Q0151+048
Zafar, et al.


* Lya blob: a huge concentration of gas emitting the Lya emission line (recombination of ionized H) into ground state.  Found in high z universe (because of redshifting into optical).  Appears to be related to AGN jet activity.


Binary quasar (qA and qB) at z~1.929, 3.3" separation.  DLA is observed at a higher redshift in qA.  Host galaxies of both QSOs detected, as well as a Lya blob.


* a specific measurement on a specific system.


1105.3186
Scaling relations and overabundance of massive clusters at z>~1 from WL studies with HST
Jee, Dawson, Hoekstra, Perlmutter .. Suzuki, ... et al.


* scaling relations of... what?
* overabundant relative to LCDM prediction?


22 (+5) clusters at z>~1, WL studies from HST.  Compare WL mass with other observables.  Presence of the most massive clusters in our sample in tension with LCDM?  Lensing mass tighly correlated with gas temperatures.  M-T_X relation of M \propto T_X^alpha, alpha = 1.54 pm 0.23; consistent with self-similar prediction of alpha = 1.5 (3/2).  Normalization is, however, lower than previous results by 20-30% at low z---evolution?  Existence of massive clusters provide tension with current LCDM model.  


* lensing mass-temperature relation at z>~1!


1106.4016
Complete WMAP constraints on bandlimited inflationary features
Dvorkin, Hu


* Cora!  
* ..what is a bandlimited inflationary feature?


Test slow roll and single field inflation with WMAP7 data, with PCA which is sensitive, for a feature in the inflation potential or sound speed.  Complete analysis for bandlimited features in the source function of generalized slow roll can be used to constraint parameters of specific models of inflaton potential.


* I don't understand this abstract, if that's not obvious.


1106.4018
Predicted constraints on cosmic string tension from Planck and future CMB polarization measurements.
Foreman, Moss, Scott


Fisher forecast on cosmic string tension Gmu.  More general simulations that commonly used in the literature.  


* whatever.  


1106.4022
The emission by dust and stars of nearby galaxies in the Herschel KINGFISH survey
Skibba et al.


Estimate the total emission from dust and stars of 62 nearby galaxies in the KINGFISH survey, from Herschel and ancillary UV and submm data.  Interception and re-radiation of radiation by dust.  Dust/stellar flux ratio has a range of 3 decades; varies with morphology and total IR luminosity; also related to gas-phase metallicity (not so dust/stellar mass).  Substantial scatter between dust/stellar mass and dust/stellar flux.  Compare dust/flux and dust temperatures; early-types have slightly warmer temperatures than spirals, probably due to more intense interstellar radiation fields, or different dust grain compositions.   Early-types and early-type spirals have strong correlation between dust/stellar flux ratio and sSFR; suggests that the bright far-IR emission on some of these galaxies is due to ongoing star formation and the radiation field from older stars.


* cool.  Dust in ellipticals are warmer than in spirals.  Didn't quite understand why from the abstract.


1106.4034
Joint QSO-CMB constrains on reionization history
Mitra, Choudhury, Ferrara


* QSO absorption lines, I guess, with CMB.


Decompose the function N_ion(z) [# photons intering per baryon in collapsed objects] into its principal components.  Include CMB which seem to contain more info than just the single number tau.  Using MCMC, find z<6 ionization is highly constrained, but for z>6 broad range of histories are still permitted.  Reionization 50% complete at 9.0<z<11.8 (2sig).  With PLANCK, the z>6 reionization will be much better constrained, but need data sets other than CMB.  


1106.4264
Enhancements to velocity-dependent DM interactions from tidal streams and shells in the Andromeda galaxy
Sanderson, Mohayaee, Silk


* Joe Silk!
* velocity dependent DM interactions?  Shells in Andromeda?


Calculate detection over smooth DM distribution from tidal structure in M31, assuming cross-section is inversely proportional to the relative velocities of the DM particles (Sommerfeld effect; I guess they assume DM has zero angular momenta).  More gamma-ray emission compared to the BG (wait, how?  "the low velocity in the structure"--the stream has less signal?), calculate expected signal from Fermi.


* Sommerfeld effect: 
* sommerfeld enhancement: rate of DM self annihilation, resulting in gamma rays or e-e+ pairs.  Rate of this process is the product of the cross section times the incident flux.  The estimated rate seems to be too low, from astroparticle observations.  But if two particles attract each other, the rate is enhanced (classically: focuses, and increases velocity).  Increased velocity changes rate depending on angular momentum; in general it increases the rate, but for zero angular momentum it goes like the inverse of the velocity.


* I don't understand whether the stream should be generating more gamma rays or not.  confusing abstract.


1106.4301
The water vapor spectrum of APM 08279+5255
Bradford, et al.


* water vapor?


z=3.91 quasar spectra at Caltech Submillimeter Observatory; 12 CO rotational transitions (dominates CO cooling), and 6 transitions of H2O at energy levels ranging up to 643K (more cooling!).  First detections at high z.  Assume gas distributed over a 550pc size scale for calculations.  H2O cooling comparable to CO cooling.  Emission in H2O is similar to low z, but ~x50 higher in luminosity (wow).  H2O abundance in good agreement with expectations.  Dust continuum in this system pumps the massive reservoir of warm water vapor.


0212216
Neutrino Mass and dark energy from weak lensing
Abazajian, Dodelson


Matter distribution evolution sensitive to DE and neutrino mass.  Lensing experiments to measure both features simultaneously.  Tight constraint of 0.1eV uncertainty for neutrino mass (as well as DE); most of the restrictive power comes from constraints in distance relations, not matter growth.


Introduction:
The energy density in massive neutrinos and the equation of state of the DE are clearly needed.  Both leave similar signatures in the matter distribution in the universe: neutrino inhibit growth of structure (still somewhat relativistic), and DE slows growth of structure.  Concentrate on radial tomography (change in shear field of source galaxies in different redshift bins).


Lensing of galaxies at fixed redshift:
Lensing tomography: lensing convergence in different angular pixels.  dz = 0.1, angular bin size = 1 deg^2.  Comoving distance depends on cosmology (energy density).  Growth function depends on neutrino masses (roughly, a fractional decrease in the power on scales probed by lensing surveys equal to 12 f_nu, where f_nu = Omega_nu / Omega_m).  For every 1eV of m_mu, the growth is suppressed by ~0.1.  The growth rate is affected by both Omega_DE and w, while WL kernel is sensitive mostly to Omega_DE and not to w.


Results:
Two effects measured, (1) evolution of the power spectrum (growth function) and (2) projection of physical distances onto redshift space.  Tomography breaks degeneracy between w and Omega_DE (projection more sensitive to Omega_DE than w).  Projection is completely independent of neutrino mass; neutrino mass very correlated with w.  Future measurements of neutrino mass will contribute to DE param. estimates.  Constraints on neutrino from WL alone is not small enough if w and Omega_DE allowed to vary.  But cosmo measurements still put limits on neutrino mass--they are not degenerate (i.e., have a mass hierarchy), for example.  Uncertainties in the power spectrum from ambiguity in the other parameters (Omega_m h^2, Omega_b h^2, n, A) are projected to be smaller than one percent after Planck.


* to be summarized on Monday.


1106.3327
Cosmic Mach Number as a sensitive test of the growth of structure
Ma, Ostriker, Zhao


CMN: the ratio between the mean velocity and the velocity dispersion of galaxies as a function of cosmic scales.   Data consistent with WMAP7 LCDM.  CMN is highly sensitive to the growth of structure on scakes 0.01<k<0.1 h/Mpc.  Modified gravity and massive neutrino models can  be probed with CMN data.


1106.3331
The morphology of galaxies in BOSS
Masters et al


240 COSMOS objects to check morphology of luminous and massive objects at 0.3<z<0.7.  Majority posses early type morphology (3/4).  Remainder are late-types.  (g-i)>2.35 selects 90% early type subset, comparable to the LRG samples; remaining 10% are likely passive spirals.  ~25% of early-type galaxies are unresolved multiple systems in SDSS imaging, of which 50% are real associations of "dry mergers".  SDSS size systematically larger (by 40%) than HST images, and provide statistical correction for the difference.  


1106.3366
The 6dF galaxy survey: BAO and the local hubble constant
Beutler, Blake, et al


Large scale correlation function of the 6dFGS show BAO signal at z=0.106.  Find local Hubble constant of H_0 = 67pm3.2 km/s/Mpc that depends only on WMAP7 calibration of the sound horizon and 6dFGS clustering---find w=-0.97pm0.13 from WMAP7 and 6dFGS only.  WALLABY (radio) and TAIPAN (optical) are both likely to yield BAO peak detections.  


1106.3565
The relationship between black hole growth and star formation in Seyfert galaxies
Diamond-Stanic, Rieke


Estimates of BH accretion rates and SFR of nuclear, extended, and total region of Seyferts.  Use Spitzer.  BH accretion rate are correlated with nuclear SFR, but completely uncorrelated to the total SFR.  AGN duty cycle of 5-10% maintains the ratio between BG and bulge masses seen in the local universe.  


* cool.


1106.3766
SZ observations with a statistically complete sample of galaxy clusters with ORCA-p
Lancsaster et al.


* Very weak detection of individual clusters.


30 GHz SZ observations; 18 most x-ray luminous clusters at x>0.2 in ROSAT BCS.  All 17 samples (one removed) have y_0 param > 1.9e-4, and 13 are detected at >3 sigma.  X-ray/SZ scaling relation (T_X, L_X, M_X proxi Y_X) and find good agreement with predictions from self-similar models.  Intrinsic scatter in y_0 is about 25%.  


1106.3823
Probability distribution functions of cosmological lensing: convergence, shear, and magnification
Takahashi, Oguri, Sato, Hamana


* 1pt functions of kappa, gamma, mu.


Ray tracing simulations.  Convergence and magnification PDFs are closely related to each other via mu = (1-kappa)^{-2} up to the high magnification tail.  Mean convergence is negative (over the whole sky), and is correlated with the convergence variance.  Simple analytical formulae for the PDFs.  Examine SL probability and magnification effects on the luminosity functions.


* nice, useful.


1106.3875
The case for primordial BH as dark matter
Hawkins


* only if PBH's are formed before BBN.


Stellar mass primordial black holes = DM?  Then most LOS will be microlensed.  Microlens: achromataic and symmetric variations and absence of time dilation.  Evidence of stellar mass PBH weakest in MC microlensing--rate too small.


1106.3987
Matter power spectra in dynamical DE cosmologies
Fedeli, Dolag, Moscardini


* ugh.


Use cosmo simulations to investigate gas cooling and SF in LSS.  Formation of structures in five different DE models: LCDM + 4 Omega_Lambda(z).  DM only run for comparison with +baryon.  Dynamical DE introduce a specific signature on the power spectra of matter components, independent of cosmologies considered.  Generic shape well capturesed by the halo model.  Finder details of the DM power spectrum can be precisely captured only at the cost of a few slight modifications to the model ingredients.  Backreaction of baryons onto DM works the same as in ordinary LCDM.  Increment in avg concentration is less pronounced than in the fiducial model (~10%).  SF less efficient with DE displays dynamical evolution.


* that last line was interesting.