Day 148

Wednesday.  Chatted with Tobias last night, spoke a bit more German than last time.  Must build the bed at the new apartment tonight (uncorrelated to the previous sentence)!  Went to the Bürgeramt this morning to register my new address.

1111.6305

The first galaxies: assembly with BH feedback

Jeon, Pawlik, Greif, Glover, Bromm, Milosavljevic, Klessen

Study how the first galaxies were assembled under feedback from the accretion onto a central BH that is left behind by the first generation of metal-free stars through self-consistent cosmo simulations.  X-ray radiation from the accretion of gas onto BH remnants of Pop III stars (or HMXBs) influence the mode of second generation star formation.  Track BH accretion rate and X-ray feedback starting with the death of Pop III progenitor inside a minihalo, and follow the subsequent evolution of the BH as the minihalo grows to become an atomically cooling galaxy.  Find X-ray photoionization heating from stellar mass BH is able to quench further SF in the host halo at all times before the halo enters the atomic cooling phase.  Stronger and more diverse feedback with HMXB--photoheats the gas inside the host halo, but also promotes the formation of molecular H2 and cooling of gas in the intergalactic medium and in nearby minihalos, leading to a net increase n the number of stars formed at early times.  Simulations further show that radiative feedback from the first BHs may strongly suppress early BH growth, thus constraining models for the formation of supermassive BHs.

1111.6354

Constraining quasar parameters through bubble detection in redshifted 21-cm maps

Majumdar, Choudhury, Bharadwaj

Growing bubble of ionized hydrogen (HII) around a very high z quasar will have many anisotropic features in the shape mainly due to finite light travel time (FLTT), neutral hydrongen density fluctuations in the IGM and clustering of stellar sources [how about quasar jets?].  Detection of such a bubble in redshifted 21-cm observations will not only be a direct probe to the epoch of reionization but will also provide insight about the quasars' luminosity and age.  Simulate a growing HII bubble around a quasar at z~8 in an IGM with mean neutral fraction x_HI = 0.5.  Targeted matched-filter bubble search on the simulated visibility data performed with spherical and anisotropic filters, for 1000 hrs of GMRT observation.  Simulate search at 5 different stage of growth of the HII bubble.  Almost all cases over-estimation of photon emission rate and age of the quasar occurs due to the effect of clustering of stellar sources around the quasar.  The anisotropic filter is motivated by the growth model of the HII bubble itself; gives better match to the simulated bubble.  Reveals inherent degeneracy in photon emission rate and quasar age, which leads to a fundamental uncertainty in quasar parameter estimation, also depends on the particular state of anisotropy of the bubble.  At very early stage of growth, uncertainty in quasar age is small, but only a lower limit on photon rate.  At late stage, photon rate estimates precise, but only a lower limit on age.  If bubble appears compressed along the los, the uncertainty on both quantities are relatively small.


1111.6359
The classical Cepheid variable stars in the nuclear bulge of the MW
Matsunaga, et al


Star formation burst in the MW nuclear bulge detected at 25 million years ago, deduced by Cephied variable periods in the region (within 40 pc of the center).  Period of Cepheids vary according to the age of the star, and only period~20 day variables were found in the region.


1111.6373
The importance of nebular emission for SED modeling of distant star-forming galaxies
Schaerer, de Barros


Nebular emission of high-z galaxy SEDs important, because lines and continuum emission can contribute significantly or subtly to broad-band photometry.  Analyze 3<z<6 Lyman break galaxies, show main results illustrating e.g. the importance of nebular emission for determinations of mass-SFR relation, attenuation and age.  Suggest fairly large relations could be intrinsic.  Find majority of objects (60-70%) is better fit with SEDs accounting for nebular emission; remaining galaxies found to show relatively weak or no emission lines.  Suggests existence of two categories of galaxies, "starbursts" and "post-starbursts" among the LBG population, and relatively short SF timescales.


1111.6386
Cosmic microwave background constraints on the duration and timing of reionization from the SPT
Zahn, Reichardt, ... et al


Constrain the duration of reionization with measurements of the CMB Doppler effect from ionizing bubbles embedded in large-scale velocity streams (patch kinetic SZ effect); combine with CMB polarization, and evolution of ionized fraction can be inferred.  SPT data show ionization fraction evolved relatively rapidly.  For the basic foreground model, find the kSZ power sourced by reionization at l=3000 to be <=2.1 micro K^2.  Using reionization simulations, translate this to a limit on the duration of reionization of Delta z <= 4.4.  Find that this constraint depends on assumptions about the angular correlation between the tSZ power and the CIB.  Introduce the degree of correlation as a free parameter; find limits on kSZ power weaken to <= 4.9 micro K^2, implying Delta z ~7.2 under the assumption of no tSZ-CIB correlation, and z>5.8 when correlations are allowed.  Improved constraints from the full SPT data set in conjunction with upcoming Herschel and Planck data should detect extended reionization at >95% CL provided Delta z >= 4.


1111.6478
A compressed sensing approach to 3d weak lensing
Leonard, Dupe, Starck


* compressed sensing: (aka compressive sensing, compressive sampling, sparse sampling) a technique for finding sparse solutions to undetermined linear systems.  (reconstruct a signal that is supposed to be sparse)


Address 3 key issues in 3d WL with photometric redshifts:  bias in the redshifts of detected objects, the LoS smearing seen in reconstructions, and the damping of the amplitude of the reconstruction relative to the underlying density.  Construct a robust estimator and employ convex optimisation methods to reconstruct the density contrast, assuming the data is sparse, under the framework of compressed sensing (CS).

1111.6525
What is a spectrum?
Bolton, Bailey, Brownstein, Pandey, Schlegel, Shu


BOSS SDSS III impolements Poisson-limited sky subtaction and lossless compression of the input spectrum likelihood functional given raw CCD data.


1111.6186
An improved map of the Galactic Faraday sky
Oppermann et al


* Faraday rotation: interaction between light and magnetic field in a medium, causing rotation of the plane of polarization which is linearly proportional to the component of the magnetic field in the direction of propagation.


Summarize the current state of knowledge regarding Galactic Faraday rotation in an all-sky map of the Galactic Faraday depth.   Estimates integer rotation offsets?  Angular power spectrum shows power law behavior with an index of -2.14, where an overall variance profile as a function of Galactic latitude has been removed, in agreement with earlier work.  In accordance with a 3d fourier power spectrum P(k) proportional to k^-2.14 of the underlying field n_e times B_r under simplifying geometrical and statistical assumptions.

Day 147

Tuesday.  IKEA shipping day.  I hope I haven't missed anything.


1111.6108
Radiative signature of magnetic fields in internal shocks
Mimica, Aloy


Model internal shocks as being caused by collisions of homogeneous plasma shells with non-zero relative velocity.  Obtain that radiative efficiency is largest where one shell is weakly and the other strongly magnetized.  Propose a way to distinguish observationally between weakly magnetized from magnetized internal shocks by comparing the maximum frequency of the inverse-Compton and synchrotron part of the spectrum to the ratio of the inverse-Compton and synchrotron fluence.  [??]  Results suggest that LBL blazars may correspond to barely magnetized flows, while HBL blazars could correspond to moderately magnetized ones.  Comparing to actual blazar observations, conclude that the magnetization of typical blazars is sigma<~0.01.


1111.6111
A new dynamical parameter for the study of sticky orbits in a 3d galactic model
Zotos


Study the regular or chaotic character of the motion in the central parts of an elliptical galaxy, which hosts a massive and dense nucleus.  


1111.6132
The Taiwan Extragalactic Astronomical Data Center (TWEA-DC)
Foucaud, Hashimoto


Propose 1Pb of data storage dedicated to extragalactic astronomy by 2015--first step toward building of a National Virtual Observatory.  Photometry from public surveys, database or on-the-fly, access to raw and reducible data from archives, specific analysis tools through user-friendly interface.  First phase: focus on multiband catalog cross-matching; fully functional in 2011.


1111.6585
The Milky Way has no thick disk
Bovy, Rix, Hogg


MW's stellar disk are known to have different vertical scale heights depending on the stellar sub-population, their thickness increasing with age.  Using SEGUE spectro data, show that mono-abundance subpopulation (defined in [alpha/Fe]-[Fe/H] space, are well described by single exponential spatial-density profiles in both the radial and the vertical direction; therefore any star of a given abundance is clearly associated with a sub population of scale height h_z.  Work out how to determine the stellar surfac-mass density contributions at the solar radius R_0 of each sub population, accounting for the survey selection function, and for the fraction of the stellar population mass that is reflected in the spectroscopic target stars given populations of idfferent abundances and their presumed age distributions.  Taken together, this enables derivation of Sigma_R0(H_z), the surface-mass contributions of stellar populations with scale height h_z.  Surprisingly, find no hint of thin-thick disk bi-modality in the mass-weighted scale-height distribution, but a smoothly decreasing function, approximately Sigma_R0(h_z) \propto exp(-h_z), from h_z~200pc to 1kpc.  As h_z is ultimately the structurally defining property of a thin or thick disk, this shows clearly that the MW has a continuous and monotonic distribution of disk thicknesses: there is no 'thick disk' sensibly characterized as a distinct component.  Discuss how result is consistent with evidence for seeming bi-modality in purely geometric disk decompositions, or chemical abundances analysis.


1111.6189
X-ray, lensing and SZ triaxial analysis of Abell 1835 out to R_200
Morandi, Limousin, Sayers, Golwala, Czakon, Pierpaoli, Ameglio


Triaxial joint analysis of A1835 with X-ray, SL and SZ data.  Construct 3d structure of both DM and IC gas, and the level of non-thermal pressure of the IC gas.  Find that the intermediate-major and minor-major axis ratios of DM ar 0.7 and 0.6 respectively, and the major axis of the DM halo is inclined wrt the los by 18 deg.  Present first observational measurement of the non-thermal pressure out to R_200, which has been evaluated to be a few percent of the total energy budget in the internal regions, while it reaches about 20% in the outer volumes.  Discuss implications of method for the viability of the CDM scenario, focusing on the concentration parameter C and the inner slope of the DM gamma in order to test the CDM paradigm for structure formation: measure gamma=1 and C=4.3, agrees with CDM.  Combination of X-ray/SL at high spatial resolution, capable to resolve cluster core; along with the SZ, more sensitive to the cluster outer volume, allows characterization of the level and the gradient of the gas entropy distribution and non-thermal pressure out to R_200, breaking the degeneracy among the physical models describing the thermal history of the ICM.


1111.6249
Toward tight gamma-ray burst luminosity relations
Qi, Lu


Seek luminosity relations of GRBs from 116 samples; find 3d correlation of E_peak/tau_RT/L tighter than the corresponding 2d correlations (E_peak/L and tau_RT/L).

Day 146

Monday.  Got keys for flat yesterday, today is move-bed day.

1111.5613

Star cluster formation and some implications for GAIA

Kroupa

Stars form in spatially and temporarily correlated star formation events (CSFEs) and the dynamical processes within these "embedded clusters" leave imprints in the stellar populations in galactic fields: Correlations in phase space (e.g. gravitationally bound star clusters, tidal streams), in the binary properties of stars, and in the present-day stellar mass functions in the surviving clusters.  The dynamical processes include expulsion of massive stars from cluster cores, disruption of CSFEs due to residual gas expulsion and energy-equipartition driven evaporation of stars from clusters leading to cold kinematical streams with epicyclic overdensities [what are these?].  The properties of such phase-space structures in the MW field depend on the effective gravitational potential of the MW.  GAIA data will significantly constrain all of these aspects, and will in particular impact on gravitational dynamics via the properties of cold streams and on star formation via the constraint on the gas expulsion process through the expanding unbound populations that must be associated with every CSFE.

* GAIA: Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics, ESA astrometry space mission, successor of Hipparcos mission.  Launch expected March 2013.  L2 orbit for a 5-year mission. Compile catalog of one billion stars, to magnitude 20.  Astrometric measurements; position, distance, annual proper motion with an accuracy of about 20 micro arc seconds at 15 mag, and 200 micro arcsec at 20 mag.  Spectrophotometric measurements, multi-epoch observations of each detected object.  Radial velocity measurements.  Create an extremely precise 3-dimensional map of stars throughout our WM and beyond, and map their motions which encode the origin and subsequent evolution of the MW.  


1111.5616
The shapes and alignments of dark matter halos
Schneider, Frenk, Cole


Shapes of triaxial DM haloes and alignment correlation functions in the Millennium and Millennium-2 DM N-body sims.  These two simulations allow us to measure the distributions of halo shapes down to 10% of the virial radius over a halo mass range of 6e9 to 2e14 Msun/h.  Confirm previous results on the distributions of halo axis ratios as a function of halo mass; but mass resolution changes the median angle between halo major axes at different halo radii can vary by a factor of 2 between the two simulations.  Error in the shape determinations from limited resolution is potentially degenerate with the misalignment of halo inner and outer shapes used to constrain BCG alignments.  Simplifying parameterizations for the 3d halo-mass alignment correlation functions that are necessary ingredients for triaxial halo models, for LSS and models of galaxy intrinsic alignments as contaminants for cosmic shear surveys.  measure strong alignments between haloes of all masses and the surround ing DM overdensities out to several tens of Mpc/h, in agreement with observed shear-galaxy and cluster shape correlations.  Use these measurements to forecast the contribution to the weak lensing signal around galaxy clusters from correlated mass along the LoS.  For prolate clusters with major axes aligned with the LoS, the fraction of the WL signal from mass external to the cluster can be twice that predicted if the excess halo alignments correlation is assumed to be zero.


1111.5617
How do most planets form? --Constraints on disk instability from direct imaging
Janson, Bonavita, Klahr, Lafreniere


* Disk instability model: giant planets form in the massive protoplanetary disks as a result of its gravitational fragmentation.  May also lead to brown dwarfs, which are usually classified as stars.  
* Core accretion model: aka nucleated instability model.  Can explain the formation of giant planets in relatively low mass disks (<0.1 Msun).  Two stages of formation: a) accretion of core of approximately 10 Mearth and 2) accretion of gas from the protoplanetary disk.


Core accretion and disk instability: two competing possible paths of [giant] planet formation.  It might be that a significant population of wide planets formed by disk instabilities could exist at large separations, forming an invisible majority.  In B2-A0 type stars, <30% form and retain planets and brown dwarfs through disk instability.  Extend analysis to FGKM-type stars.   Results strengthen the conclusion that substellar companions formed and retained around their parent stars by disk instabilities are rare: <8% for an outer disk radius of 300 AU.  Frequency is always <10% at 5 to 500 AU.  Simulate migration at wide range of rates, and find that the conclusions hold even if the companions move substantially after formation.  Hence, core accretion remains the likely dominant formation mechanism for the total planet population, for every star from M to B-type.


1111.5620
Halo expansion in cosmological hydro simulations: towards a baryonic solution of the cusp/core problem in massive spirals
Maccio, Stinson, Brook, Wadsley, Couchman, Shen, Gibson, Quinn


CDM model predicts existence of cuspy DM halo density profiles on all mass scales, in disagreement of observed rotation curves of spiral galaxies, a small-scale challenge.  Employ high resolution cosmological hydro-dynamical simulations to study the effects of dissipative processes on the inner distribution of Dm in MW like objects (M~1e12 Msun).  Our simulations include SNe feedback, and the effects of the radiation pressure of massive stars before they explode as SNe.  The increase stellar feedback results in the expansion of the DM halo instead of contraction with respect to N-body simulations.  Baryons are able to erase the DM cuspy distribution creating a flat, cored, DM density profile in the central several kpc of a massive MW like halo.  The profile is well fit by a Burkert profile [???], with fitting parameters consistent with the observations.  In addition, obtain flat rotation curves as well as extended, exponential stellar disk profiles.  While the stellar disk is still partially too thick to resemble the MW thin disk, this pilot study shows that there is enough energy available in the baryonic component to alter the DM distribution even in massive disc galaxies, providing a possible solution to the long standing problem of cusps vs. cores.


1111.5628
Uncloaking globular clusters in the inner galaxy
Alonso-Garcia, et al


Present a well-defined and reasonably homogeneous photometric database for 25 of the brightest Galactic globular clusters located in the direction of the inner Galaxy.  Technique: map the differential reddening in the individual cluster fields.


1111.5662
The structures and tota (minor+major) merger histories of massive galaxies up to z=3 in the HST GOODS NICMOS survey: a possible solution to the size evolution problem
Bluck, et al


Investigate merger history of a population of 80 massive (>1e11 Msun) galaxies at high z (z=1.7 to 3).  Find massive galaxies at high redshifts are often morphologically disturbed, with a CAS deduced merger fraction f_m=0.23 at this z.  Merger history scales roughly linearly with log-stellar-mass and magnitude range.  Size evolution observed may be mostly explained by merging.


1111.5707
Galaxy and mass assembly (GAMA): the galaxy stellar mass function at z<0.06
Baldry et al


Deterine the low-redshift field galaxy stellar mass function (GSMF) from 143 deg^2 from the first 3 years of GAMA survey.  Use 5210 galaxies, r<19.4 (66%) or 19.8 (33%).  GSMF well described between 1e8 and 1e11.5 Msun with a double Schechter function with M*=1e10.66Msun, phi*_1=3.96e-3Mpc^-3, alpha_1=-0.35, phi*_20.79e-3Mpc^-3 and alpha_2=-1.47.  Need deeper imaging to address the contribution from low surface-brightness galaxies.


1111.5728
The evolving slope of the stellar mass function at 0.6<=z<4.5 from deep WFC3 data
Santini et al
Study GSMF at 0.6<z<2, confirm excess of integrated SF history with respect to the SMD at z<2 by a factor of 2~3.  Comparison of the observations with theoretical predictions show that the models forecast a larger abundance of low mass galaxies, at least up to z~3, as well as a dearth of massive galaxies at z~4 with respect to the data, and that the predicted SMD is generally overestimated at z<~2.  [??? what is SMD?]


1111.5780
The effects of baryonic cooling on the concentration-mass relation
Fedeli


Low-mass clusters and groups of galaxies display systematically larger concentrations than simply prescriptions based on pure n-body simulations.  Include: DM, stars, hot diffuse gas as observed, contraction effect experienced by DM due to the cooling of baryons in the ceentral parto f the structure.  Modified concentration-mass relation is steeper than the theoretical input, works well with observations.  The observed concentration-mass relation seems to favor a scenario where the stellar mass fraction in large clusters of galaxies is substantially lower than what is found in several studies.  The estimated concentration of cosmic structures is expected to be overestimated as a function of the radial range covered by the analysis.


1111.5793
Gravitational effects of the faraway matter on the rotation curves of spiral galaxies
Carati


Explain rotation curves without DM from the effects of far-away mass.


1111.5886
The spin alignments in galaxy pairs as a test of bouncing coupled dark energy
Jounghun lee


cDE simulations show: measuring the cosines of the angels between the spin axes in isolated pairs of galactic haloes and determining its probability density distribution, show that SUGRA003 model with bouncing cDE there is significant alignment.  No signal detected in SDSS DR7.


1111.5915
Charge exchange x-ray emission of nearby star-forming galaxies
Liu, Wang, Mao


X-ray line emission can arise not only from thermally excited hot gas (favours resonance lines), but also from the charge exchange between highly ionized ions and neutral species (CXE, favours the inter-combination and forbidden lines).  OVII triplet of nine nearby SF galaxies observed by SMM Newton, most galaxies, the forbidden lines are comparable to or stronger than the resonance lines, which is in contrast to the thermal prediction.  Other mechanisms for generating forbidden lines: collisional non-equilibrium-ionization recombining/ionizing plasma, are not favored.  CXE may be a common process and contribute a significant fraction of the soft X-ray line emission for galaxies with massive star formation.


1111.5982
Angular correlation functions of X-ray point-like sources in the full exposure XMM-LSS field
Elyiv et al


AGN subsample analysis with different X-ray hardness ratios shows sources with a hard-spectrum are more clustered than soft-spectrum ones.  Clustering strength theta_0 grows with the flux limit of the sample, a trend which is also present in the amplitude of the spatial correlation function, but only for the soft band (for hard band, remains a constant).  May suggest two main types of AGN populate different environments.  Clustering results correspond to an X-ray selected AGN bias factor of ~2.5 for the soft-band sources and ~3.3 for the hard-band sources at <z>~1, which translates to halo mass of 1e13 Msun/h and 1e13.7 Msun/h, respectively.


1111.6046
Constraining the topology of the universe using the polarised CMB maps
Bielewicz, Banday, Gorski


CMB polarization circle matching to determine the topology of the universe.  Signal degrades in temperature maps.  [why does polarization signal survive?]

Day 145

Sunday.  Take care of Zahra today, then pick up apartment keys.  I hope the rug that I bought yesterday will fit.


1111.5009
An investigation of SDSS imaging data and multi-band scaling relations of spiral galaxies (with dynamical information)
Hall, Courteau, Dutton, McDonald, Zhu


3041 spirals from SDSS DR7 with rotational velocities derived from HI line widths.  Independent photometry comparison; use velocities (V) as independent metric to determine ideal galaxy sizes (R) and luminosities (L).  Isophotal fits improves upon Petrosian radii, gauged via VL and RV relations, whose respective scatters are reduced by 8% and 30% compared to SDSS.  [does the independent photometry go deeper?]  Tightest VRL relations obtained with i-band radius R235i, measured at 23.5 mag/arcsec^2, and luminosity L235i, measured within R235i.  Compute scaling relations in terms of the baryonic mass (stars+gas) Mbar, ranging from 1e8.7 Msol to 1e11.6 Msol.  


* what's the use of this?  They must use their photometry for something in another paper.


1111.5010
Cross-correlating SZ and WL maps
Munchi, Joudaki, Coles, Smidt


* cumulants kappa_n of a probability distribution are a set of quantities that provide an lternative to the moments of the distribution.  The moments determine the cumulants in the sense that any two probability distributions whose moments are identical will have identical cumulants as well, and similarly the cumulants determine the moments.
* Polyspectrum: Fourier transform of a cumulant.  Higher-order spectra.  First order poly-spectrum is the usual power spectrum, second order polyspectrum is the bispectrum.  If one considers a pair of time series, the first order polyspectrum is the cross-spectrum.  Generalize to k-dimensional time series.


Present statistical tools to cross-correlate frequency cleaned tSZ maps and tomographic WL convergence maps.  Introduce a hierarchy of mixed higher-order statistics (cumulants and cumulant correlators) to analyze non-Gaussianity in real space, as well as corresponding polyspectra in the harmonic domain.  Derive analytical expressions for the joint two-point probability distribution function for smoothed tSZ (y_s) and convergence (kappa_s) maps.  Tomographic information allows study of the evolution of higher order mixed tSZ-WL statistics with redshift.  Express the joint PDFs p_kappa(kappa_s, y_s) in terms of individual one-point PDFs p_kappa(kappa_s), p_y(y_s) and the relevant bias functions b_kappa(kappa_s), b_y(y_s).  Analytical results for two different regimes are presented that correspond  to the small and large angular smoothing scales.  Results are also obtained for corresponding hot spots in the tSZ and convergence maps.  In additions to results based on hierarchical techniques and perturbative methods, present results of calculations based on the lognormal approximation.  The analytical expressions derived here are generic and applicable to cross-correlation studies of arbitrary tracers of large scale structure including e.g. that of tSZ and soft X-ray background.  


1111.5012
On the rarity of x-ray binaries with Wolf-Rayet donors
Linden, Valesecchi, Kalogera


* Wolf-Rayet: evolved, massive stars (initially >20 Msun) which are losing mass rapidly by means of a very strong stellar wind, with speeds up to 2000 km/s.  WR stars lose 1e-5 Msun/yr (the Sun loses 1e-14 Msun/yr).  WR stars are very hot, with surface temperatures in the range of 25000K to 50000K.  Broad emission bands on an otherwise continuous spectrum (normal stars exhibit absorption lines).  Strong Helium lines; C, O, and N also identified.  WR stars are a normal stage in the evolution of very massive stars.  Can be identified in nearby galaxies (from the strong emission lines).  300 identified in MW, and increasing.  100 in LMC, 12 in SMC.  Characteristic emission lines are formed in the extended and dense high-velocity wind region enveloping the very hot stellar photosphere, which produces a flood of UV radiation that causes fluorescence in the line-forming wind region.  This ejection process uncovers in succession, first the N-rich products of CNO cycle burning of H, and later the C-rich layer due to He burning.  Most of these stars are believed to progress to become SNe Ib or Ic (core collapse, no H outer layer, lack Si absorption line.  SN Ic are hypothesized to have lost more of their initial envelope, including most of their helium.  Usually referred to as "stripped core-collapse supernovae".  Otherwise similar to Type II SN).


Reconciling the large population of Be-HMXBs with the observation of only one WR-HMXB can help constrain the dynamics of common-envelope phase.  Given the significant number of galactic HMXBs containing hydrogen-rich donors with are expected to be their progenitors, and the preponderance of loosely bound Be donors orbiting neutron stars, which would be expected to naturally evolve into WR-HMXBs through dynamical mass transfer onto the neutron star and common-envelope phase.  Find binary mergers of HMZBs during CE events must be common in order to resolve the tension between these observed populations.  We ifnd that, quantitatively, this scenario remains consistent with the typically adopted energy parameterization of CE evolution, yielding expected populations which are not at odds with current observations.  Future observations of O/B-NS binaries are likely to place significant constraints on the efficiency of CE ejection.


1111.5027
A strong dichotomy in S0 disk profiles between the Virgo cluster and the field
Erwin, Gutierrez, Beckman


S0 galaxies: lenticular galaxies; bulge with disk of no discernible feature and no SF but with dust; tends to be more luminous than spirals]


S0 galaxies are classified as I, II and III (single-exponential, truncated, and anti-truncated, equally distributed in fields), their abundance are different between field and in clusters (Virgo cluster in this case).  Virgo V0s appear to be entirely lacking in disk truncations, and instead populates single-exponential.  S0 formation may be driven by different processes in cluster and field environments; outer-disk effects can be useful tests of S0 formation models.


[11] wed

Day 144

Saturday.  Rented a car, drove to IKEA with Zeinab and Jeff, and came back.  Bought just under 1000 Euro of furniture (sofa-bed, dining table, dining chairs, and rugs, plus shipping).  


1111.5008
Spheroidal post-mergers in the local Universe
Carpineti, et al


Galaxy zoo: 3373 mergers; investigate subset of galaxies from this catalog that are spheroidal 'post-mergers' (SPMs), where a single remnant is in the final stages of relaxation after the merger and shows evidence for a dominant bulge, making them plausible progenitors of early-type galaxies.  Results indicate that the SPMs have bluer colours than the general early-type galaxy population possibly due to merger-induced star formation.  An analysis using optical emission line ratios indicates that 20  SPMs exhibit LINER or Seyfert-like activity (68%), while the remaining 10 galaxies are classified as either star forming or quiescent.  A comparison to the emission line activity in the ongoing mergers indicates that the AGN fraction rises in the post-mergers, suggesting that the AGN phase probably becomes dominant only in the very final stages of the merger process.  The optical colours of the SPMs and the plausible mass ratios for their progenitors indicate that, while a minority are consistent with major mergers between two early-type galaxies, the vast majority are remnants of major mergers where at least one progenitor is a late-type galaxy.  

Day 143

Friday.  Thanksgiving at Emilio and Giovanna's last night was great fun.  Stayed until 3am.  Journal club went well too (I think).  And I will get the key to the new apartment this Sunday!


1111.5378
First law for BH binaries
Le Tiec, Blanchet, Whiting


* first law of thermodynamics: conservation of work.  Energy can be transformed, but cannot be created nor destroyed.  Change in internal energy of the system is equal to the amount of heat supplied to the system, minus the amount of work performed by the system on its surroundings.  dU = TdS - PdV


Obtain first law for binary [BH] systems of point masses moving along an exact circular orbit.  Calculation valid through 3PN order, and includes contributions of logarithmic terms at 4PN and 5PN orders.  First law of binary point-particle mechanics is derived from first principles in GR, and analogies are drawn with the single and binary black hole cases.  Some consequences of the first law explored for PN spacetimes: a simple relation between the PN binding energy and Detweiler's redshift observable is established.  Determine value of some previously unknown high order PN coefficients in the circular-orbit binding energy.  Propose new gauge invariant notions for the energy and angular momentum of a particle in a binary system.


1111.5486
Pumping the eccentricity of exoplanets by tidal effect
Correia, Boue, Laskar


When the orbit of the planet is excited by an outer companion, tidal effects combined with gravitational interactions may give rise to a secular increasing drift on the eccentricity.  (Usually, tidal interactions lead to progressing damping of the eccentricity.)  This mechanism may explain why some of the moderate close-in exoplanets are observed with substantial eccentricity values.


1111.5491
The contagion of star-formation: its origin
Anathpindika


Dense pockets of cold, molecular gas preclude the formation of stars.  Molecular cloud shocked by interstellar shock-waves propagating at supersonic velocities is examined for the possibility of dense structure-formation and future stellar wombs.  SPH simulation.


1111.5511
VVV DR1: the first data release of the MW bulge and southern plane from the near-infrared ESO public survey VISTA variables in the Via Lactea
Saito et al


ZYJHK survey on the galactic plane.


1111.5544
Constraining CR and magnetic fields in the perseus galaxy cluster with TeV observations by the MAGIC telescopes
MAGIC collaboration


Gamma-ray emission from CR expected in galaxy clusters, from powerful shocks that contribute to a substantial energy density of CRs.  Additional CR sources at AGN and SNe-driven galactic winds.  Detect gamma-ray emission from CR interactions with the ambient clutser gas in Perseus cluster for ~85 hr.  Central radio galaxy NGC 1275 at E>100 Gev has very steep energy spectrum.  Detect no significant gamma-ray excess.  Constrains the average CR-to-thermal pressure ratio to be <= 1-2%, depending on assumptions and the model for CR emission.    Maximum CR acceleration efficiency at structure formation shocks to be 4-9 microG.


1111.5567
Three fluid cosmological model using Lie and Noether symmetries
Tsamparlis, Paliathanasis


FRW flat spacetime with DE, DM and perfect fluid with a linear equation of state.  DM=dust, and DE=V(phi) scalar field with Lie symmetry invariance, selects the exponential scalar field potential.  Require: analytic solution is invariant under the point transformation generated by the Lie symmetry, eliminates DM and leads to a quintessence and phantom cosmological model containing a perfect fluid and scalar field.  ...  find new analytic solutions to quintessence and phantom cosmologies which contain all three fluids.  These solutions compute analytically all main cosmological functions (scale factor, scalar field, Hubble expansion rate, etc.)


* is this something significant?  I don't get it.  I thought these symmetries were meant to imply  conservation laws.


1111.5573
The polytropic approximation and x-ray scaling relations: constraints on gas and dark matter profiles for galaxy groups and clusters
Capelo, Coppi, Natarajan


Find polytropic parameters assuming hydrostatic equilibrium of DM and gas; M-T relation independent of T_xi (temperature at large radii xi) and c_vir (concentration).  A simple theoretical model that accounts for much of the complexity of recent, improved x-ray scaling relations.

Day 142

Thursday.  Adventmarkt had roasted chestnuts.  Saw Eric from afar, smoking outside of James Joyce on the way back.  


1111.5329
Basic properties of MHD turbulence in the inertial range
Beresnyak


MHD turbulence in the inertial range: numerics favor Goldreich-Sridhar -5/3 slope.  Full description of MHD cascade spectral quantities.


1111.5341
The 2010 very high energy gamma-ray flare & 10 years of multi-wavelength observations of M87
The H.E.S.S. collaboration


M87, an giant elliptical galaxies with a single jet, is a VHE (>100GeV) gamma-ray emitter.


1111.5424
Photon trapping enables super-Eddington growth of BH seeds in galaxies at high redshift
Wyithe, Loeb


* Bondi accretion: spherical acretion onto an object.  \dot{M} = pi R^2 rho v


Find: density at the center of typical high redshift galaxies was at a level where the Bondi accretion rate implies a diffusion speed of photons that was slower than the gravitational infall velocity, resulting in photons being trapped within the accretion flow and advected into the the BH.  Range of BH masses (M_bh~1e3 to 1e5 Msun) has accretion flow trapping radiation, corresponding to BHs that were massive enough to generate a photon trapping accretion flow, but small enough that their Bondi radii did not exceed the isothermal scale height of self-gravitating gas.  Under these conditions, the accretion reaches levels in excess of Eddington rate.  Predict: X-ray number counts of AGN at z>6 exhibit a cutoff at the low luminosities corresponding to BH masses below 1e5 Msun.  At low z, find photon trapping to be unimportant because it could only occur in rare low spin halos, and would require BH masses in excess of expectations from the observed BH-halo mass relation.  The super-Eddington growth of 1e5 solar mass seed BHs at high z may have provided a natural acceleration towards the growth of super-massive BHs at z~6-7, less than a billion years after the BB.


1111.5427
Spectral energy distributions of a set of HII regions in M33 (HerM33es)
Relano et al


HerM33es is a Key Project for Herschel.  Study SED of a set of HII regions of M33 [3rd largest in the local group].  Perform classification of selected HII region sample in morphology (filled/ mixed shell and clear shell objects); study SED for each and for each morphology type.  Study emission distribution of each band within the region.  Find different trends in the SEDs for each morphological type that are related to properties of the dust and their associated stellar cluster.  Emission distribution of each band within the region is different for each morphological type of object.  


1111.5449
Stellar population models in the UV:  I. Characterisation of the new generation stellar library
Koleva, Vazdekis


UV and optical domain spectral predictions not accurate in stellar population models, because the lack of high-quality stellar libraries.  NGSL represent at significant step towards the improvement of this situation.


1111.5461
UHE neutrinos from PopIII stars: concept and constraints
Berezinsky, Blasi


Cosmogenic UHE neutrinos in SNe explosions that accompany the death of Pop III stars.  Accelerated protons produce neutrinos in collisions with CMB photons.  Simplify: Pop III star death at fixed redshift (z_b=10-20).  Discuss formation of collisionless shocks and particle acceleration in the early universe.  Composition of accelerated particles is expected to be proton dominated.  Diffuse neutrino flux from the "bright phase" burst is concentrated in a relatively narrow range around 7.5e15 (20/z_b)^2 eV.  The mu neutrino flux may be detectable by IceCube .  Possible signature of the neutrino production from Pop II stars may be the detection of resonant neutrino events--10 events in 5 years of observations, at E=6.3e15 eV, in the form of e-m cascades.  Large uncertainties in the existing predictions of UHE cosmogenic neutrino fluxes--those from the first stars might be the best bet.


[28]

Day 141

Tuesday.  Back to all-work.  At least I will go out to the Adventmarkt on Wednesday with Yoon, Mayumi and co.


1111.3328 (Special Topic)
The quantum state cannot be interpreted statistically
shulevski


1111.4477
An improved fitting formula for the dark matter bispectrum
Gil-Marin, Wagner, Fragkoudi, Jiminez, Verde


Fitting formula for the DM bispectrum, using a set of LCDM simulations to calibrate the fitting parameters for 0.03 h/Mpc < k < 0.4 h/Mpc and 0<z<1.5.  The BAO features well described.  Deviation of fitting formula typically <5%, and never above 10%.  


1111.4478
Jet-induced star formation in gas-rich galaxies
Gaibler, Kochfar, Krause, Silk


Feedback from AGN in massive galaxies: AGN jet provide large energy and quench cooling flows.  Impact on host galaxy not understood, primarily focused on quenching of star formation.  Simulate interaction of a powerful AGN jet with the massive gaseous disk (1e11 Msun) of a high redshift galaxy.  Spatially resolve both jet and the clumpy, multi-phase interstellar medium (ISM) and include an explicit star formation model in the simulation.  Over 1e7 years, jet activity excavates the central region, but overall causes change in shape of density probability distribution function and hence SFR due to the formation of a blast wave with strong compression and cooling in the ISM.  This results in a ring- or disc-shaped population of young stars.  At later times, the increase in SFR also occurs in the disk regions further out since the jet cocoon pressurizes the ISM.  The total mass of the additionally formed stars may be up to 1e10 Msun for one duty cycle.  Discuss details of the jet-induced star formation and potential consequences for galaxy evolution and observable signatures.


1111.4483
Probing the neutrino mass hierarchy with the rise time of a supernova burst
Chakraborty, Fischer, Hudepohl, Janka, Mirizzi, Serpico


Diagnositc tool for the neutrino mass hierarch at large 1-3 leptonic mixing angle theta_13 possible with the rise time of a Galactic SN \bar{nu}_e lightcurve (observable at Icecube Cherenkov detector).  Matter suppression--a sufficiently rast rise time and the lack of long accretion-enhancement of the early Fe-core SN signal are indicative of an inverted mass hierarchy.  Test robustness of this feature (concerning differences of the progenitor structure, high-density equation of state, detailed treatment of neutrino-matter interactions and dimensionality of the simulation) with two different codes.  Find: faster rise time for an inverted hierarchy as compared to normal hierarchy is predicted by all models.


1111.4485
Ctability, chaos and entrapment of stars in very wide pairs
Makarov


* Jacobi radius:   ??


Widely separated celestial objects affected by gravitational potential of the Galaxy, but they can exists over times comparable to Hubble type, under appropriate initial conditions.  For arbitrarily chosen initial coordinates of a pair of stars, there exists a volume of the space of initial velocity components where the orbits remain bound in the planar tidal field for longer than 10 Gyr, even though the initial separaton is well outside the Jacobi radius.  Boundary of this phase space of stable orbits is fractal, and the motion at the boundary conditions is chaotic.  Pairs may remain confined for several Gyr, and then suddenly disintegrate due to a close rendezvous.  Entrapment of unrelated stars into wide pairs is possible, but quite rare.  Astrometry survey revealed that extremely wide pairs of stars are present in significant numbers in the Galaxy; results are expected to help discriminating the cases of genuine binarity and chance entrapment; can test limits of Newtonian gravitation [not very specific here].


1111.4492
Type Ia SN rates and the progenitor problem, a review
Maoz, Mannuci


Some problem with SN Ia rate measurements, which can provide clues to projenitors.  The delay time distribution (DTD--SN Ia rate versus time that would follow a hypothetical brief burst of star formation) show t^-1 power law--at face value, this results supports the idea of a double-degenerate progenitor origin for SN Ia.  Single-degenerate, probably immediately after SB, or if the red-giant donor channel is more efficient than theory.  DTD normalization good agreement among various measurements.  WD binary population measurement suggests that WD merger rate can explain the galactic SN Ia rage, if sub-Chandra mergers lead to SN Ia events.  


* they haven't read the singular-progenitor scenario paper!!  I think that one has the most promise. 


1111.4588
Low-resolution spectroscopy of the SZ effect and estimates of cluster parameters
de Bernardis, et al


Estimates of the physical parameters of clusters (optical depth, plasma temperature, peculiar velocity, non-thermal components, etc.)  obtained from ground-based multi-band SZ photometry can be significantly biased, owing to the reduced frequency coverage, to the degeneracy between the parameters and to the presence of a number of independent components larger than the number of frequencies measured.  Low resolution spectroscopic measurements of SZ effect that cover >270 Ghz are effective in removing the degeneracy.  Use simulation with different experimental configurations (4-band, 6-band,multi-range differential spectrometer, full coverage spectrometer) and intracluster plasma stratifications.  Find: measurements with ground-based few-band photometers are biased towards high electron temperatures and low optical depths, and require coverage of high frequency and/or independent complementary observation to produce unbiased information, and requires coverage of high frequency and/or independent complementary observations to produce unbased information.  A differnetial spectrometer that covers 4 bands with a resolution of ~6GHz eliminates most if not all bias.  Full-range differential spectrometers are the ultimate resource that allows a full recovery of all parameters.


1111.4659
One gravitational potential or two?  Forecasts and tests
Bertschinger


Metric of perturbed RW spacetime charcterized by three functions: a(t), Phi(r,t), Psi(r,t).  Newtonian potential Phi moves matter, causes LSS.  Massless particles respond equally to Phi and Psi.  The difference of the two potentials, called the gravitational slpi, is predicted to be very small in GR by can be substantial in modified gravity theories.  The two potentials can be measured, and gravity tested on cosmological scales, by combining weak gravitational lensing or the ISW effect with galaxy peculiar velocities of clustering.


1111.4770
Dynamical processes in galaxy centers
Combes


Different processes to cause rapid gas inflow/outflow in galaxy centers reviewed.  Non-axisymmetries can be created or maintained by internal disk instabilities, or galaxy interactions.  Simulations and observations tell us that the fueling is a chaotic and intermittent processes, with different scenarios and time-scales, according to the various radial scales across a galaxy.

1111.4843
Iron and alpha-element production in the first one billion years after the big bang
Becker, Sargent, Rauch, Carswell


Measure column densities in 9 low-ionization systems (quasar spectra) at 4.7<z<6.3 using Keck, Magellan, and VLT.  The column density ratios among C II, O I, Si II, and Fe II are nearly identical to sub-DLAs and metal-poor ([M/H] < -1) DLAs at lower redshifts, with no significant evolution over 2<z<6.  The abundances in the z>4.7 systems are likely to represent the typical integrated yields from stellar populations within the first gigayear of cosmic history. Because it happened so early in the universe, this observation places direct constraints on the metal production of massive stars, including iron yields of prompt supernovae.  Lack of redshift evolution further suggests that the metal inventories of most metal-poor absorptions systems at z>2 are also dominated by massive stars, with minimal contributions from delayed Type Ia SNe or AGB winds.  The relative abundances in our systems broadly agree with those in very metal-poor, non-carbon-enhanced Galactic halo stars.  This is consistent with the picture in which present-day metal-poor stars were potentiall formed as early as one billion years after the big bang.

1111.4878

The non-thermal emission of extended radio galaxy lobes with curved electron spectra

Duffy, Blundell

Explain the spectral curvature and turnover at radio frequencies for synchrotron-emitting lobes of radio galaxies and quasars.  Lorentz factor at the turnover in the energy distribution gives the equipartition magnetic field strength and the total energy of the radiating plasma, obviating the need for any assumed values of the cutoff frequencies.  This framework readily yields the form of X-ray emission due to inverse-Compton (IC) scattering of CMB photons by the electrons in the plasma having Lorentz factors of ~1000.  Also present contribution to CMB anisotropies due to relativistic plasmas such as giant radio galaxy lobes, expressed in terms of the extent to which the lobes have their magnetic field and particle energies are in equipartition with one another.

1111.4919

Overview of Saturn lightning observations

Fischer et al

Lightning in Saturn's atmosphere monitored by Cassini for 6 years.  Radio signatures of SED (Saturn Electrostatic Discharges) with imaging of cloud features and flash-illuminated clouds combined.  Cassini has radio and plasma wave instrument and an imaging system, also received ground-based support: The intense SED radio waves were also detected by the giant UTR-2 radio telescope, and committed amateurs observed SED-related white spots with their backyard optical telescopes.  The Cassini optical/IR spectrometers provided some information on the chemical constituents possibly created by the lightning discharges and transported upward by vertical convection.  Summarize main results on Saturn lightning provided by this multi-instrumental approach and compare Saturn lightning to Earth's.


1111.4983
Weak lensing results of the merging cluster A1758
Ragozzine, Clowe, Markevitch, Gonzalez, Bradac


Weak lensing results of A1758 (two separate mergers, N and S).  N agrees with previous WL results of clusters, whose X-ray gas components were found to be largely separated from their clusters' gravitational potentials.  The WL mass peaks of the two northern clusters are separated at the 2.5 sigma level.  Estimate the combined mass of the two N clustersis 2.2e15 M_sun and r_200=2.3 Mpc.  Detect 7 strong lensing candidates, two of which may provide information that would improve the mass measurements of A1758N.


1111.4985
Milky Way tomography IV: Dissecting Dust
Berry, Ivezic, et al


Use SDSS photometry of 73M stars to simultaneouly obtain best-fit main-sequence stellar energy distribution and amount of dust extinction along the line of sight towards each star.  SDSS photometry sufficient to break degeneracies between intrinsic stellar color and dust amount, if the shape of extinction curve is fixed.  Absorption R_V can be determined to 0.1 mag uncertainty, if SDSS+2MASS photometry used.  Allow detailed studies of dust properties and its spatial distribution, and of the stellar spatial distribution at low Galactic latitudes.  Results in good agreement with the SFD dust maps at high northern Galactic latitudes, but indicate that the SFD extinction map consistently overestimated by about 20% in the sourthern sky, in agreement with Schlafly+ (2010).  Dust extinction curve supports Fitzpatrick (1999) and Cardelli+ (1989).  Find R_V=3.0 over most of the high-latitude sky.  At low galactic latitudes (|b|<5), demonstrate that the SFD map cannot be reliably used to correct for extinction as most stars are embedded in dust, rather than behind it.  Introduce a method for efficient selection of candidate red giant stars in the disk, dubbed "dusty parallax relation", which utilizes a correlation between distance and the extinction along the LoS.  Best-fit parameters made public.


1111.5006
CLASH: discovery of a bright z~6.2 dwarf galaxy quadruply lensed by MACS J0329.6-0211
Zitrin et al


18-band photometry shows photoz of this dwarf galaxy to be ~6.2, lensed by a cluster at z=0.45.  Cluster has additional 15 multiply-imaged candidates of sources spanning the range z~2-4.  Mass model independently supports the high photoz (magnification = 12, 17, 4, and 4).  Construct source image with physical resolution of ~200 pc when the universe was ~0.9 Gyr old, where the z~6.2 galaxy occupies a source-pane area of approximately 2.2 kpc^2.  [is this big or small?]  Estimate stellar mass of ~1e9 Msun, subsolar metallicity (Z/Z_sun~0.5), low dust content (A_V~0.1 mag), a demagnified SFR of ~3.2 M_sun/yr, and a specific SFR of ~3.4 /Gyr, all consistent with the properties of local dwarf galaxies.

Day 140

Monday.  No more.  Weekend, had lunch with Daniela.  Went to the Adventmarkt with Aaron.  Parents will come visit me over the weekend.


1111.4208
Non-thermal emissions from cool cores heated by cosmic-rays in galaxy clusters
Fujita, Ohira


Non-thermal emissions from CR proton streaming and ICM interaction, stably heating the cores, where CR prevail.  Comparison between model and radio observations show that overall CR spectra must be steep, and most of the CRs in the cores are low-energy CRs.  This indicates that the (AGN) shocks which produce CR travel in the hot ICM with fairly small Mach numbers.  Synchrotron emissions from secondary electrons should be observed as radio mini-halos in the cores (at low frequencies).  The steepness of the spectra makes it difficult to detect non-thermal X-ray and gamma-ray emissions from the cores.  The low-energy CRs may be heating optical filaments observed in the cores.


1111.4209
Observing turbulent fragmentation in simulations: predictions for CARMA and ALMA
Offner, Capodilupo, Schnee, Goodman


Synthetic observations of starless and protostellar cores undergoing fragmentation on scales of a few thousand AU to produce wide binary systems.


1111.4211
The spatial and velocity bias of linear density peaks and proto-haloes in the LCDM cosmology
Elia, Ludlow, Porciani


Lagrangian bias of CDM haloes within LCDM cosmology.  Analysis of proto-halos--the initial conditions with the subset of particles belonging to individual redshift-zero haloes.  Measure number density, velocity divergence fields, estimate auto spectral densities, measure cross spectral densities with linear matter distribution.  Test Lagrangian-bias model presented by Desjacques and Sheth---based on the assumption that haloes form out of local density maxima of a specific height.  Comparison validates the predicted functional form for the scale-dependence of the bias for both the density and velocity fields.  Also show that the bias coefficients are accurately predicted for the velocity divergence.  But the theoretical values for the density bias parameters do not match the numerical results as a function of halo mass.  Likely due to simplistic assumptions that relate virialized haloes to density peaks of a given height in the model.  Detect appreciable stochasticity for the Lagrangian density bias, even on very large scales; corresponds to higher order corrections.


1111.4212
Clustering of sub-millimeter galaxies in a self-regulated baryon collapse model
Xia, Negrello, Lapi, Zotti, Danese, Viel


CIB anisotropies in the framework of the physical evolutionary model for proto-spheroidal galaxies.  2 parameter fitting: minimum halo mass and power-law index of the mean occupation function of satellite galaxies.  Effective halo mass of 5e12 Msun of z~2 sub-millimeter galaxies is close to that estimated for the most efficient star formers at the same redshift.  ...


1111.4215
Evidence for DM contraction and a Salpeter IMF in a massive early-type galaxy
Sonnenfeld, Treu, Gavazzi, Marshall, Auger, Suyu, Koopmans, Bolton


Double Einstein ring system: combine lensing and dynamics, constrain mean slope of the total mass density profile rho \propto r^-gamma' within the outer ring to be gamma'=1.98.  Then obtain a bulge-halo decomposition, assuming a power law from the DM halo.  Analysis yields gamma_DM=1.7 for the inner slope of the DM profile (in agreement with DM distribution in ellipticals), and a stellar mass from lensing and dynamics M_*^LD=5.5e11 Msun.  Compare stellar mass inferred from stellar population synthesis, and find Salpeter IMF provides a good description of the stellar population of the lens, while a Chabrier IMF is ruled out at 95% confidence level.  Data suggest growth accretion of small systems from a compact red nugget is a plausible formation scenario for this object.


1111.4216
Multiwavelength constraints on pulsar populations in the galactic center
Wharton, et al


There can be as many as 1e3 active radio pulsars pointed towards Earth in the inner parcec of the Galaxy.


1111.4241
The Atlas 3D project --- XIII. Mass and morphology of HI in early-type galaxies as a function of environment
Serra ... Blitz ..., et al


Nearby early type galaxies (ETG) down to M(HI)~1e7Msun; outside of Virgo, HI in ~40% of ETG, ~10% inside Virgo cluster.  HI morphology: majority a disk/ring, some unsettled gas distributions.   Small disk <1e8Msun confined within the stellar body and sharing the same kinematics as stars, or large discs/rings extending to tens of kpc from the host galaxy and kinematically decoupled from the stars.  Galaxies with central HI exhibit signatures of SF in ~70% of the cases, ~5 times more frequently than galaxies without central HI.  Central ISM dominated by molecular gas---small disc ETGs the conversion of HI into H2 is as efficient as in spirals.  The ETG HI mass function has M*~2e9 Msun and slope=-0.7.  ETGs host much less HI than spirals as a family, but a significant fraction of them is as HI-rich as spirals, difference is that ETGs lack the high-column density HI typical of the bright stellar disk of the latter.  Find envelope of decreasing M(HI) with increasing environment density.  The gas-richest ETGs live in the poorest environments (where star-formation is more common), galaxies in the center of Virgo have the lowest IH content, and cluster outskirts are a transition region.  Find HI morphology-density relation: low environment density, HI is mostly distributed on large disks/rings.  More disturbed HI morphologies dominate environment densities typical of rich groups, confirming the importance of processes occuring on a galaxy-group scale for the evolution of ETGs.


1111.4243
SED fitting with MCMC: methodology and application to large galaxy surveys
Acquaviva, Gawiser, Guaita


GalMC: public MCMC algorithm for SED fitting, and show results for a stacked observation of LAE galaxies at z~3; discuss dependence of the inferred SED parameters on the assumptions maade in modeling the stellar populations.  SpeedyMC is a faster version that uses pre-computed template libraries, which runs a lot faster.


1111.4402
GMASS ultradeep spectroscopy of galaxies at z~2 -- VII. star formation, extinction and gas outflows from UV spectra
Talia et al


Dust extinction estimated from the rest-frame UV continuum stlope; used to obtain dust-corrected star-formation rates for the galaxies of the sample.  A positive correlation between sFR and stellar mass was observed.  Low-ionization absorption lines, associated with the interstellar medium, were found to be blueshifted, with respect to the rest frame of the system, which indicates that there is outflowing gas with typical velocities of the order of ~100 km/s.  Correlation between galaxy UV spectral characteristics and galaxy general properties: report a possible correlation between the equivalent width of the interstellar absorption lines and SFR, stellar mass, and colour excess similar to that seen to hold at different redshifts.  


1111.4434
CHFTLenS: improving the quality of photometric redshifts with precision photometry
Hildebrandt, Erben, ... et al


Correction of systematic effects in the photoz arising from the different PSF in the five optical bands.  Careful homogenization of PSF necessary, gain is particularly pronounced at fainter magnitudes.  ZP corrections are less important if PSF is properly homogenized.