Day 248

Friday: read Hirata & Seljak (2003), ReGaussianization.  Amazing how well it works (but perhaps not so well for space-based PSF; it was great for SDSS).  Went out with Tim, Vino, and Ana (Anna?), the postdocs at Penn.  Saw Gary's public lecture on planets.  Got a lot of work done with Jon while at Penn.  


Saturday: fly out to Berkeley.  Still somewhat jet lagged here.  Yookyung picked me up at Berkeley train station, Petra gave me the keys to Uros' apartment (part of his house), met up with Tommy and Rahan for tea, then Anthony joined us for dinner at Finfine.  


Sunday: must read one astro-ph today....but didn't.  Rented a car (ran down Marin to get to Hertz before they closed at noon).  Went to lunch with YK and Hee-Jong.  Grocery shopping with YK, SooMi+hubby.  Movie (Hunger Games) with YK, HJ and Tommy.


Monday:  Got my old badge back.


1204.5742
Ionization structure and chemical abundances of the Wolf-Rayet nebula NGC6888 with integral field spectroscopy
Fernandez-Martin, Martin-Gordon, Vilchez, Montero, Riera, Sanchez


* crescent nebula.
* WR star: evolved, massive stars (initially, >20 Msun) which is losing mass by means of a very strong stellar wind (2000 km/s).


Interaction between ISM and stellar winds in the WR nebula (ionization structure, chemical composition, kinematics)  Maps of extinction structure and electron density.  Shock models describes a localized SW region.  Electron temperature 7700K to 10200K.  Strong variation (x10) between different regions in the nitrogen abundance.  N/H appears lower than the solar abundance (lower at edges, and very enhanced in the inner parts).  Structure model of multiple shells.


1204.5749
Diagnostics of baryonic cooling in lensing galaxies
Leier, Ferreras, Saha


Theory: inverse proportionality between the concentration of DM haloes and virial mass, confirmed for Mvir > 6e12 Msun with X-ray observation.  Alternative approach: Concentration of DM halo in 18 early-type systems.  c-Mvir relation consistent with the X-ray analysis, extending towards lower virial masses, covering the range from 4e11 Msun up to 5e12 Msun.  Combination of lensing with photometric data constrain the baryon fraction within a few effective radii, which is compared with prescriptions for adiabatic contraction (AC) of the dark matter haloes.  Find: standard methods for AC are strongly disfavored, requiring additional mechanisms, such as mass loss during the contraction process, to play a role during the phases following the collapse of the haloes.


1204.5753
Detection of dark galaxies and circum-galactic filaments fluorescently illuminated by a quasar at z=2.4
Cantalupo, Lilly, Haehnelt


98 LyA candidates in 5500 Mpc^3 (comoving) at z=2.4, centered on the hyperluminous quasar HE0109-3518.  A large fraction of these are fluorescently "illuminated" by this quasar; verified by radiative transfer simulations.  18 objects have LyA emission limit for Pop II star formation, and 12 sources among those do not have any continuum counterpart in a deep V-band imaging of the same field.  Stacking analysis rules out LyA powered by internal SF.  These sources are thus the best candidates for proto-galactic clouds or "dark" galaxies at high-redshift, whose existence has recently been suggested by several theoretical studies; gas mass of 1e9 Msun; SFE < 4e-12 /yr, 1 order magnitude below the SFE of most gas-rich dwarf galaxies locally, and five hundred times lower than typical massive star-forming galaxies at z~2.  Also discovered extended, filamentary gas, also likely illuminated by the quasar, around some of the brightest continuum-deteted sources.  Emission compatible with the expectations for circum-galactic cold-streams, but other origins (tidal stripping) possible.


1204.5754
Carbon-rich dust production in metal-poor galaxies in the local group
Sloan et al


A study of the carbon budget in these stars reinforces previous considerations that the dredge-up of sufficient quantities of carbon from the stellar cores may trigger the final super wind phase, ending a star's lifetime on the asymptotic giant branch.


1204.5761
Using galaxy pairs as cosmological tracers
Belloso, Pettinari, Meures, Percival


AP test: constrains the product of the Hubble parameter and the angular diameter distance.  But expansion of the universe in inhomogeneous, and local curvature depends on density, distorting AP effect on small scales.  Study dynamics of galaxy pairs in Millennium, find an interplay between peculiar velocities, galaxy properties and local density that affects how pairs trace cosmological expansion--only low mass, isolated galaxy pair trace the average expansion with minimum "correction" for peculiar velocities.  


1204.5770
Halo sampling, local bias and loop corrections
Chan, Scoccimarro


New test of local bias: construct locally biased halo density field from sampling the DM halo distribution.  Preserves full scatter in the bias relation (does not rely on perturbation theory).  Automatically include the running of bias parameters, give vanishingly small loop corrections at low-k.  Better agreement of the sampling and perturbation theory results with original simulations.  Does not produce constant power at very large scales, like perturbation theory.  Demonstrate nonlocal bias effects discovered recently in simulations impact the power spectrum only at the few percent level in the weakly NL regime.


1204.5771
NGC 5466: a unique probe of the galactic halo shape
Lux, Read, Lake, Johnston


Longer tidal stream provide cleaner measurements of galactic potentials.  Find evidence for triaxial halo of MW.


1204.5861
Thermalisation of light sterile neutrinos in the early universe
Hannestad, Tamborra, Tram


Cosmo data favor additional relativistic degrees of freedom beyond the 3 active neutrinos and photons ("dark" radiation).  Light sterile neutrinos is one of the prime candidates for such additional radiation.  But constraints on sterile neutrinos based on the current cosmo data have been derived using simplified assumptions about the thermalization of the sterile neutrino at BBN; not necessarily justified.  Solve the full quantum kinetic equations in the (1 active + 1 sterile) scenario, and derive the number of thermalized species just before BBN (T~1Mev) for null and large initial lepton asymmetry, and for a range of possible mass-mixing parameters.  Find: full thermalization assumption during the BBN epoch is justified for initial small lepton asymmetry only.  Partial or null thermalization occurs when the initial lepton asymmetry is large.


1204.5869
Selected results from the ANTARES neutrino telescope
ANTARES collaboration


Cherenkov light produced in Mediterranean Seak by neutrino-induced muons.  Tri-dim array of 885 photomultipliers on 12 vertical lines; located at a depth of 2.475 km, 40km off the French coast.  Probe the universe by means for neutrino events, nature of HE astro sources, ID of CR sources, and to explore the nature of dark matter.  Searching for astrophysical sources.


1204.5927
Modelling the correlation between the thermal Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect and the cosmic infrared background
Addison, Dunkley, Spergel


Calculate, in halo model framework, the correlation between tSZ from galaxy clusters and dust emission from CIB sources.  Size of cross-correlation is approximately 10% at 150 GHz.  Contribution to the total angular power spectrum is of order -1 mu K^2 at ell=3000; this value is uncertain by a factor of two to three, because of CIB source modeling uncertainties.  Expect the large uncertainty in this component to degrade upper limits on the kSZ, due to similarity in the frequency dependence of the tSZxCIB and kSZ across the frequency range probed by current CMB missions.  Find that the degree of tSZxCIB correlation is higher for mmxsub-mm spectra than mmxmm, because more of the sub-mm CIB originates at lower redshifts (z<2), where most tSZ clusters are found.


1204.5947
Constraining multiple systems with GAIA
Beauvalet, Lainey, Arlot, Bancelin, Binzel, Marchis


GAIA will provide observations of some multiple asteroid and dwarf systems.  These observations are a way to determine and improve the quantification of dynamical parameters, such as masses and gravity fields in these systems.  Investigate this problem in the cases of Pluto's and Eugenia's system.  Developed a numerical model reproducing the specific behavior of multiple asteroid system around the Sun and fit it to the simulated observations, giving the uncertainties on the fitted parameters.  Find that GAIA will improve significantly the precision of Pluto's and Charon's mass, as well as Petit Prince's orbital elements and Eugenia's polar oblateness.


1204.6005
Cold fronts and gas sloshing in galaxy clusters with anisotropic thermal conduction
ZuHone, Markevitch, Ruszkowski, Lee


Cold fronts in cluster cool cores should be erased on short timescales by thermal conduction, unless protected by magnetic fields that are "draped" parallel to the front surfaces, suppressing conduction perpendicular to the fronts.  MHD simulations of cold from formation in the core with anisotropic thermal conduction, exploring a parameter space of coeducation strengths parallel and perpendicular to the fields lines.  Field geometry is such that the cold gas below the front surfaces can be connected to hotter regions outside via fields lines along directions perpendicular to the plane of the sloshing motions and along sections of the front which are not perfectly draped; results in heating of this gas below the front on a timescale of Gyr.  Conduction may indirectly aid in suppressing Kelvin-Helmoholtz instabilities; if conduction along field lines is unsuppressed, find that the characteristic shape jumps in x-ray emission seen in observations of clusters do not form.  This suggests that the presence of sharp cold fronts in hot clusters could be used to place upper limits on conduction in the bulk of the ICM.  Combination of sloshing and anisotropic thermal conduction can result in a larger flux of heat to the core than either process in isolation, reducing significantly the mass of cool gas that accumulates outside those radii.

Day 247

Wednesday.  Too busy moving from Princeton to Penn, and then talking to Gary, Mike, Jon.  Awesome sushi lunch with Randy at the Pod.  Meet Randy in Leiden in September!  Telecon with Zahra with Jon.
Thursday.  Xun is doing a good job with the Journal Club, it seems.  Dominique posted too!


1204.5474
The influence of stellar-dynamical ejections and collisions on the relation between the maximum-star and star-cluster-mass
Oh, Kroupa


N-body of your star cluster models to study the dynamical influence (ejection of the most massive star in the cluster) on the current relation between the maximum-stellar-mass and the star-cluster-mass.  Vary initial parameters (half-mass radius, binary fraction, mass segregation).  Massive binaries with two different pairing methods.  Low mass clusters (1000 Msun): no "most massive" star escapes the cluster within 3 Myr.  For small sized clusters (half-mass radius = 0.3 pc) with higher density eject their most massive star within 3 Myr.  Dynamical effects hardly influence the observational maximum-stellar-mass -- cluster-mass relation.

1204.5478

The observed neutron star mass distribution as a probe of the supernova explosion mechanism

Pejcha, Thompson, Kochanek

The observed distribution of NS masses reflects the physics of core-collapse supernova explosions and the structure of the massive stars that produce them at the end of their evolution.  Bayesian analysis for theoretical to observational comparison.  Models with standard binary mass ratio distributions strongly preferred over independently picking the masses from they initial mass function (strength of influence depends on current assumptions for ID the remnants of the primary and secondary stars).  NS formation models with no mass fallback favored because they reduce the dispersion in NS masses.  The double NS system masses thus directly point to the mass coordinate where the supernova explosion was initiated, making them an excellent probe of the supernova explosion mechanism.  Assume no fallback, vary the mass coordinate separating the remnant and the NSe ejecta, find that for the solar metallicity stars the explosion most likely developed at the edge of the Fe core at a specific entropy of about 2.8 k_B.  The primary limitations of study are the poor knowledge of the SNe explosion mechanism and the lack of broad range of SN model explosions of LMC to solar metallicity.

1204.5480

Gas and dust in a z2.8 obscured quasar

Schumacher, Martinez-Sansigre, Lacy, Rawlings, Schinnerer

Molecular lines in unlensed, obscured quasar.  Cl lines detected! (and CO)  Significant fraction (30%) of the molecular gas is missed from the high-excitation line analysis [?]

1204.5482

The phenomenological approach to modeling the dark energy

Kunz

A mini-review.  Describe LCDM, dark energy, modified gravity models in a fluid language: one background and two perturbation quantities.  

1204.5487

Dark matter in 3d

Alves, El Hedri, Wacker

Relevance of directional detection experiments, method to extract the local DM phase space distribution from directional data.  O(1000) events necessary to measure deviations from the standard halo model and constrain or measure the presence of anisotropies.

1204.5492

Galileons in the Sky

de Rham

Review the different frameworks where Galileon scalar fields seen to emerge e.g. in DGP, New Massive Gravity and Ghost-free massive gravity, emphasize relation with Lovelock invariant in braneworld models.

1204.5493

Observational evidence of the accelerated expansion of the universe

Astier, Pain

Review article of acceleration of the universe, and its observational evidences.

1204.5503

Discovery of Crystallized water ice in a silhouette disk in the M43 region

Terada, Tokunaga

As the title says.

1204.5505

Establishing homogeneity of the universe in the shadow of dark energy

Clarkson

Still don't know if the Copernican principle (that we are not at any special place in the universe) is true.  How to reconcile?  The abstract doesn't say, but the paper probably discusses it.

1204.5520

An integral field study of abundance gradients in nearby LIRGs

Rich, Torrey, Kewley, Dopita, Rupke

Results agree with the observed flattening of metallicity gradients as a merger progresses.  Based on 9 LIRG observations.  Agree with theoretical prediction that include chemical enrichment.

1204.5570

How long does it take to form a molecular cloud?

Clark, Glover, Klessen, Bonnell

Numerical simulation, formation of dense molecular clouds in colliding flows.  Includes time-dependent model of H2 and CO chemistry.  Clouds formed by collision of flows form stars, with SF beginning after 17 Myr in slower flow (6.8 km/s), but 4.4 Myr in faster flow (13.6 km/s).  Results consistent with models of molecular cloud formation in which the clouds are dominated by "dark" molecular gas fora considerable proportion of their assembly history.

1204.5573

A second-order bias model for the logarithmic halo mass density

Jee, Park, Kim, Choi, Kim

Analytic model for the local bias for DM haloes in LCDM.  2nd order polynomial fit can describe the numerical relation between halo mass distribution and the underlying matter distribution well, when logarithmic density is used.

1204.5614

On the variations of fundamental constants and AGN feedback in the QSO host galaxy RXJ0911.4+0551 at z=2.79

Weiss et al

Within uncertainties, consistent with no variations of the fundamental constants.

1204.5626

Radial HI profiles at the periphery of galactic disks: the role of ionizing background radiation

Abramova

Observations of neutral H in spiral galaxies reveal a sharp cutoff in the radial density profile at some distance from the center.  Use 22 galaxies, discuss: effect associated exclusively with external ionizing radiation (common assumption)?  Show: before the surface density reaches 0.5 Msun/pc2 (the same for galaxies of different types), it is hard to expect the gas to be fully ionized by background radiation.  2/13 of the galaxies with a sharp drop in the HI profile can actually be caused by ionization.  For the rest, the observed cutoff in the radial HI profile is closer to the center than if it was a consequence of ionization by background radiation and, therefore, it should be caused by other factors.

1204.5632

Career situation of female astronomers in Germany

Fohlmeister, Helling

Women astronomers from all academic levels (doctoral to professors) + those who left the field.  Networking and human support the most important factors for success.  Students should carefully choose their supervisor and collect practical knowledge abroad.  Prejudices abundant (discriminating).  Reasons why women are more likely than men to quit astronomy identified.  Give recommendations to young students.

1204.5659

Star formation laws: the effects of gas cloud sampling

Calzetti, Liu, Koda

Sampling effects on scales a few times larger than the size of the largest molecular clouds, can affect functional shape of star formation-molecular gas density relation.

* Chaplygin gas: a hypothetical substance that satisfies and exotic equation of state in the form p = -A * rho^-alpha, with alpha=1, and A is a positive constant.  Generalized Chaplygin gas has 0<a<=1.

Day 246

Tuesday.  Missed Peter's class.  Must read astro-ph!


1204.4745
Dust-to-gas ratio in the extremely metal poor galaxy I ZW 18
Herrera-Camus, et al


Blue compact galaxy, one of the most metal-poor systems known in the local universe (12+log(O/H)=7.17).  Use dust emission models to derive M_dust <= 1.1e4 Msun 3 sig upper limit.  Total dust-to-gas ratio upper limit of 5e-5.  


1204.4749
A per-baseline, delay-spectrum technique for accessing the 21cm cosmic reionization signature
Parsons, Pober, Aguirre, Carilli, Jacobs, Moore


Challenge in measuring 21cm emission from cosmic reionization: compensating for the frequency dependence of an interferometer's sampling pattern (causes smooth-spectrum FG to appear unsmooth and degrade the separation between foregrounds and the target signal).  Present an approach to foreground removal that explicitly accounts for this frequency dependence.  Apply delay transformation to each baseline of an interferometer to concentrate smooth-spectrum FG within the bounds of the maximum geometric delays possible.  By focusing on delay-modes that correspond to image-domain regions beyond the horizon, possible to avoid the bulk of smooth-spectrum FGs.  Show delay-modes that are uncorrupted by foregrounds also represent samples of the 3d power spectrum; can be used to constrain cosmic reionization.  Uses spectral smoothness to differentiate FG from the targeted 21cm signature, this per-baseline analysis relies on spectrally-and spatially-smooth instrumental responses for FG removal.  For sufficient levels of instrumental smoothness relative to the brightness of interfering FGs, this technique substantially reduces the level of calibration previously thought necessary to detected 21cm reionization.  Result: this places fewer constraints on antenna configuration within an array--in particular, facilitates the adoption of configurations that are optimized for power-spectrum sensitivity.  Potential for the PAPER array to detect 21cm reionization at an amplitude of 10 mK^2 near k~0.2 h/Mpc with 128 dipoles in 7 months of observing.


1204.4789
A New type of ambiguity in the planet and binary interpretations of central perturbations of high-magnification gravitational microlensing events
Choi, et al


High-magnification microlensing events detecting planets; present a case of central perturbation (usually distinguishable whether it is from the planet or a binary companion due to different magnification around the caustics) for which it is difficult to distinguish the planetary and binary interpretations.  The peak of a lensing light curve affected by this perturbation appears to be blunt and flat.  Different caustics by planet or binary companion can show similar magnification curve.  (Planet: negative perturbation region behind the back end of an arrowhead-shaped central caustic; binary: a similar perturbation for a source trajectory passing through the negative perturbation region between two cusps of an astroid-shaped [?] caustic.  Demonstrate degeneracy; expect this to be common.


1204.4834
Non-therrmal processes in bowshocks of runaway stars.  Application to Zeta Oph
del Valle, Romero


Runaway massive stars are O- and B-type stars with high spatial velocities with respect to the interstellar medium; can produce bowshocks in the surrounding gas.  Star moves supersonically through the interstellar gas.  The shocked matter emits thermal radiation and a population of locally accelerated relativistic particles is expected to produce non-thermal emission over a wide range of energies.  Model the non-thermal emission by relativistic particles, and thermal radiation caused by free-free interactions.  Apply model to Zeta Oph.  Spectral energy distributions of massive runaways are predicted for the whole EM spectrum.  Non-thermal radiation might be detectable at various energy bands for relatively nearby runaway stars, especially at HE gamma rays.  Inverse compton scattering with photons from the heated dust gives the most important contribution to the high-energy spectrum.  This emission approaches Fermi sensitivities in the case of Zeta Oph.


1204.4846
Duty cycle and the increasing Star Formation history of z \geq 6 galaxies
Jaacks, Nagamine, Choi


Examine the history of SFH for z>=6 using cosmological hydro simulations.  The averaged SFH between 6<z<15 can be characterized well by an exponentially increasing functional form (time scale 70 to 200 Myr) for stellar masses 1e6 to 1e10 Msun, or a simple power-law which exhibits a similar mass dependent time-scales.  Take SFH or individual galaxies and find the duty cycle (DC_SFH), the fraction of SF time that is above HST detection.  Similarly, define DC_Muv, where rest-fram UV is sufficient for HST observation.  Both DC has a sharp transition from 0 to 1 between 1e6 to 1e9 Msun stellar mass.  Duty cycle also manifested in the intrinsic scatter in the Ms-SFR relation and Ms-Muv relation.  Fitting functions for DC for SAM usage.  Simulation more compatible with observational estimates.


1204.4871
Probing the innermost dusty structure in AGN with mid-IR and near-IR interferometers
Kishimoto, Hoenig, Antonucci, Barvainis, Kotani, Millour, Tristram, Weigelt


Focus on type 1 AGN where innermost region is unobscured.  Trace the structure by observing dust grains radiatively heated by the central engine.  Dust sublimation radius = R_in, found to be scaling with L^1/2, as expected.  In the MIR, the overall size in units of R_in seems to become more compact in higher luminosity sources; a power law, where the slope is steeper in higher luminosity objects.  NIR flux not a simple inward extrapolation of the MIR power law component, but rather comes from a little distinct brightness concentration at the inner rim region of the dust distribution; structure not well constrained, but possibly has a steeper radial distribution in jet-launching objects.  


1204.4917
The interaction of dark matter cusp with the baryon component in disk galaxies
Khoperskov, Shustov, Khoperskov


Examine the effect of the formation and evolution of disk galaxy on the distribution of dark halo matter.  Simulate DM and DM+baryon; use N-body for stellar and DM; TVD MUSCL for gas-dynamic simulations.  Includes: SF, stellar feedback, heating and cooling of the ISM; high spatial resolution.  Find: (1) SF and SNe feedback resolved the problem of cusp distribution of DM.  (2) interaction of DM with dynamic substructures of stellar and gaseous galactic disk (spiral waves, bar) has an impact on the shape of the DM halo: the in-plane distribution of DM is more symmetric in runs where the baryonic component is taken into account.


1204.4919
GRB progenitors and observational criteria
Zhang


Long GRBs typically belong to Type II (massive star progenitor), while short-duration to Type I (compact star progenitors); but counterexamples do exist.  Need multiple observational criteria to classify GRBs.  Use "amplitude", in addition to "duration" and "hardness" to quantify burst progenitors.


1204.4934
Diffuse Lyman alpha haloes around Lyman alpha emitters at z=3: do dark matter distributions determine the Lyman alpha spatial extents?
Matsuda, et al


Stack 2128 LAEs at z=3.1, examine the surface brightness profiles of Lya haloes around high-z galaxies as a function of environment.  Slope of Lya radial profile flatter as the Mpc-scale LAE surface densities increase; almost independent of the central UV luminosities.  Lya photons formed via shock compression by gas outflows or cooling radiation by gravitational gas inflows may partly contribute to illuminate the Lya haloes, but most can be explained by photo-inoization by ionizing photos or scattering of Lya photons produced in HII regions in and around the central galaxies.  Regardless of the source of Lya photons, if Lya haloes trace the overall gaseous structure following the DM distributions, it is not surprising that the Lya spatial extents depend more strongly on the surrounding Mpc-scale environment than on the activities of the central galaxies.


(*) 1204.4981
Probing primordial non-Gaussianity with weak lensing minkowski functionals
Shirasaki, Yoshida, Hamana, Nishimichi


Study the cosmological information contained in the Minkowski Functions (MFs) of WL kappa maps.  Show that the MFs provide strong constraints on f_NL.  Run a set of cosmological N-body simulations and perform ray-tracing simulations of WL, generate 100 independent convergence maps of 25 degsq FoV for f_NL=-100, 0 and 100.  Fisher analysis for sigma8 and w.  WL MFs can constrain f_NL~80 and w~0.036.  A 20000 sqdeg survey using LSST will constrain f_NL~25 and w~0.013.  Show further improvement with tomographic method.

Day 245

Sunday.  At Frankfurt airport.  ICE, 1hr 45 minutes from Bonn.  Saw the "Lorelei" from the train. Ate onigiri, tamagoyaki and smoked salmon on the plane.  Had dinner with Tina Tan and Stephanie (Seema couldn't make it), at Teresa's.  Nice to chat with them again.
Monday.  Finally managed to install GREAT3, with GitHub.  I'll use this (Git and GitHub) at Bonn.  Found out what the Americans think of the Euclid project--that it's troubled, management wise.  Saw Rachel, was good to talk to her again.


1204.4720
Molecular abundances in the inner layers of IRC +10216
Agundez, Fonfria, Cernicharo, Kahane, Daniel, Guelin


* this star is a very sooty carbon star, brightest known star in 5um.


Observatons of CS, SiO, SiS, NaCl, KCl, AlCl, AlF and NaCN with IRAM 30-m telescope (80-357.5 GHz frequency range).  Rotational transitions, highly excited vibrational states in emission.  Derive molecular abundances in all layers.  Actively contributing to the formation of dust (CS and SiS).  S and Si: most of these elements have already condensed onto grains, mostly in the form of MgS and SiC.  NaCl, KCl, AlCl, AlF, and NaCN, despite their refractory character, are not significantly depleted in the cold outer layers.  A few percent of the metals Na, K and Al survive in the gas phase, either in atomic or molecular form, and are therefore available to participate in the gas phase chemistry in the outer envelope.


1204.4724
On the assumption of Gaussian likelihoods for estimators of cosmological power spectra and their information content
Carron


The assumption of a Gaussian estimator likelihood is neither necessary nor really adequate; warn against the use of Gaussian likelihoods with parameter dependent covariance matrices for parameter inference from such spectra.


1204.4725
The 6dF galaxy survey: z \approx 0 measurement of the growth rate and sigma_8
Beutler, Blake, Colless, et al


z-space distortion in the 2-pt correlation function of 6dF; 81971 galaxies over 17k deg sq with effective z ~ 0.067.  Sigma_8, Omega_m as expected.


1204.4726
Submillimeter photometry of 323 nearby galaxies from the Herschel reference survey
Ciesla, et al


This submm catalogue of nearby galaxies (range of morphological types and environments) is a benchmark for the study of the dust properties in the local universe, given the z=0 reference for any cosmological survey.

Day 244

Saturday.  Seems like I got 5 hits on my post yesterday?  Tim's BD yesterday, Edo went to Leiden.  Didn't go to Jeff's Ugly Party, because, as Zeinab says, we're not Ugly.  Must wake up at 5am tomorrow, leave at 6.


1204.3896
The lifetime and powers of FR IIs in galaxy clusters
Antognini, Bird, Martini


* FR II: Radio galaxy class 2, meaning two lobes seen (jets may also be seen).  FR I (class 1) means two jets (with plumes) seen, but no lobes.


FRIIs unlikely to contribute to cluster heating, because the energy doesn't escape the lobes efficiently.  (the video was easier to understand)  Jet power correlated with black hole mass, radio luminosities.  Jet power not correlated with cluster richness; lifetime not correlated with any other cluster properties.  Jet power approximately an order of magnitude larger than required to counteract cooling.


1204.3897
CO J=2-1 line emission in cluster galaxies at z~1: fueling star formation in dense environments
Wagg, ... Dey, Jannuzi, .. Stern, et al


IR luminous cluster galaxies at z~1, CO line emission; 2 are optically faint, dust obscured galaxies (DOGs) w/in 2Mpc of each of their cluster center.  CO no detected in either.  Translates to small molecular H2.  Has mid-IR continuum, suggests AGN contributes to the dust heating.  SF efficiencies in DOGs uncertain.  A significant reservoir of molecular gas in a z~1 galaxy located away from the cluster center demonstrates that the fuel can exist to drive an increase in star-formation and AGN activity at the outskirts of high-redshift clusters.


* Na und?


1204.3901
Detection of elements at all three r-process peaks in the metal-poor star HD 170717
Roederer, Lawler


First detection of all 3 r-process peaks [which ones?!?!] in the metal-poor halo star.  Elements include: As, Se (not detected previously in halo stars) and Te, Os, Ir, Pt (previously detected).  Present atomic transition probabilities.  Predictions are such that production of lightest r-process elements are generally decoupled from the heavier r-process elements.


* r-process: any heavy nuclei are bombarded with a large neutron flux to form highly unstable neutron rich nuclei, which very rapidly undergo beta decay to form more stable nuclei with higher atomic number and the same atomic weight.  The neutron flux is astonishingly high, about 1e22 neutrons /cm^2/s.  First peak at atomic mass A=130 but no actinides.

1204.3908

HST-COS observations of AGN. I. Ultraviolet composite spectra of the ionizing continuum and emission lines

Shull, Stevans, Danforth

Measure rest-fram ionizing continua and emission lines for 22 AGN, using UV COS on HST.  See no Lyman edge or He I emission in the AGN composite.  22 AGNs exhibit a substantial range of FUV/EUV spectra indices and a correlation with AGN luminosity and redshift, likely due to observing below the 1000A spectral break.

1204.3910

The X-factor in Galaxies: II. the molecular hydrogen -- star formation relation

Feldmann, Gnedin, Kravtsov

Empirical relation of H2 density and SFR surface density, which holds for galaxy scale and >=kpc sized patches of ISM, but degrades at sub-kpc scale.  What are the physical mechanisms that determine the scale-dependent properties of the relation?  Study this relation with simulation. with peak resolution of 100 pc.  Chemical network for H2, CO emission model, stochastic prescription for SF on 100pc scales.  SF modeled as Poisson process in which the average SFR is directly proportional to the mass of H2.  Numerical model in good agreement with Kennicutt-Schmidt and the Sigma relations  Observations based on CO emission ill suited to reliably measure the slope of the latter relation at low H2 surface densities on sub-kpc scales.  Sigma (H2-SFR) relation steepens at high H2 Sigma as a result of the surface density dependence of the CO/H2 conversion factor.  Sub-kpc scales, most of the scatter in the relation is a consequence of discreteness effects in the SF process.  In contrast, variations of the CO/H2 conversion factor are responsible for most of the scatter measured on super-kpc scales.  

1204.3919

No evidence of dark matter in the solar neighborhood

Bidin, Carraro, Mendez, Smith

Surface mass density of galactic disk at the solar position, up to 4 kpc from the plane, by means of the kinematics of ~400 thick disk stars.  Results match the expectations for the visible mass only, and no DM detected in the volume under analysis.  Current models of DM excluded with a significance higher than 5 sigma, unless a highly prolate halo is assumed.  Lack of DM at the solar position challenges current models.

1204.4074

Central kinematics of the globular cluster NGC 2808: upper limit on the mass of an intermediate-mass black hole

Lützgendorf, et al

Use high angular resolution ground-based spectrographs to measure IMBH mass kinematically, at the center of a globular cluster.  Combine with HST/ACS photometric data, probe IMBH is at its center.  Best fit model: no BH solution.  Upper limit of M_BH<1e4 Msun (2 sigma), global M/L ratio of 2.1.

1204.4096

Image analysis for cosmology: shape measurement challenge review & results from the mapping dark matter challenge

Kitching, Rhodes, Heymans, Massey, et al

* must read this paper!

Mapping DM competition, 700 submissions in 2 months, factor of 3 improvement in shape measurement accuracy on high S/N galaxies and 10 improvement tested on constant shear blind simulations.  Review WL shape measurement challenges.

1204.4114

Observational evidence of AGN feedback

Fabian

AGN feedback (which presumably is responsible for the central SMBH and host galaxy mass) evidence is difficult to obtain, but is accumulating.  Radio emission common in massive elliptical galaxies; well observed directly through x-ray observations of the central galaxies of cool core clusters in the form of bubbles in the hot surrounding medium.  Energy flow (roughly continuous) heats the hot IC gas and reduces radiative cooling and subsequent SF by an order of magnitude.  Feedback appears to maintain a long-lived heating/cooling balance.  ...

Day 243

Friday.  Couldn't properly run JC yesterday, and asked for help, which they did (Edo, Nina, Cris especially, Emilio, even Aaron).  It was a good JC, talking about Dark Matter in the universe, whether one believes it or not (Pavlo's), and another on tallying up the DM content in the local universe (apparently a believable figure).  I even got volunteers to run JC for the next 5 weeks (out of 7, 2 are holidays) while I'm gone.  Had dinner with Cris last night at a French restaurant.


1204.4180
Construction of a calibrated probabilistic classification catalog: Application to 50k variable sources in the all-sky automated survey
Richards, Starr, Miller, Bloom, Butler, Brink, Crellin-Quick


Need well-calibrated probabilistic classification catalogs for minimum human intervention.  Describe a process to produce a probabilistic classification catalog of variability with machine learning from a multi-epoch photometric survey.  In addition to producing accurate classifications, show how to estimate calibrated class probabilities; probability calibration is important.  Feature-based anomaly detection for discovery of objects that do not fit the predefined class taxonomy.  Apply methods to sources observed by the All Sky Automated Survey, present the catalog (28-class probabilistic classification catalog of >50k sources.  Error rate <20% (estimated), demonstrate class posterior probabilities that are reasonably calibrated.  Classification code publicly available.


1204.4182
SOSS: a moving object image search tool for asteroid precovery
Gwyn, Hill, Kavelaars


Code available.  Run on CFHT MegaCam archive.


1204.4184
A fundamental problem in the theory of low mass galaxy evolution?
Weinmann, Pasquali, Oppenheimer, Finlator, Mendel, Crain, Maccio


SAM and observed number density evolution of low mass galaxies have dramatic differences.  While predicting z=0 numbers correctly, actual evolution happens late.  Found same results with hydrosims.  Underlying cause of discrepancy: presence of a positive correlation between sSFR and stellar mass in both SAM and Hydro models.  Similar positive correlation found between specific DM accretion rate and the halo mass, model galaxies are growing in a way that follows the growth of their host haloes too closely.  Need to find a mechanism that decouples the growth of low mass galaxies, which occurs at late times, from the growth of their host haloes, which occurs at early times.  [low mass galaxies grow at late time, host halo mass accrete early time].  Current form of SF driven feedback implemented in most galaxy formation models is unlikely to achieve this goal, owing to its fundamental dependence on host halo mass and time.


1204.4185
Stable counteralignment of a circumbinary disc
Nixon


Gas accreting onto SMBH binary: can have any disk orientation wrt binary angular momentum.  Disk may wholly counteralign; the same disc may conteralign in inner regions and on longer timescales, coaling its outer regions.  For typical disc parameters, a misaligned circumbinary disc is likely to wholly co- or counter-align with the binary plane, because the binary angular momentum dominates the disc angular momentum; while in extreme scenarios the disc may simultaneously co- and counter- align.  Coplanar prograde circumbinary discs are stable.  Retrogrades are also stable, of coplanar.  A chaotic accretion event onto and SMBH binary will therefore result in a coplanar circumbinary disc that is ether prograde or retrograde with respect to the binary plane.


1204.4190
Milky way star forming complexes and the turbulent motion of the galaxy's molecular gas
Lee, Murray, Rahman


Expansion of bubbles is a major driver of the turbulent motion of the inner MW molecular gas.  These bubbles (24 sources) emit half the ionizing luminosity of the Galaxy.


1204.4194
CANDELS: correlations of SEDs and morphologies with star-formation status for massive galaxies at z~2
Wang, Huang, Faber, ... Dekel, ... Grogin, et al


Study of SED, morphologies and SF for an IRAC-selected extremely red object sample in the GOODS CDF-S field.  Use HST/WFC3 NIR imaging from CANDELS, as well as Chandra 4Ms (deepest available) X-ray data.  133 objects with [3.6um]=21.5 limiting mag, approximately complete for galaxies with M>1e11 Msun at 1.5<z<2.5.  Morphology consistent with color classification.  IR color classification consistent with rest-frame color classification.  Find quiescent and SF galaxies are well separated in the morphology parameter diagram measuring their concentration and clumpiness: galaxy types split by Gini coefficient = 0.58.  SF quenching process must lead to or be accompanied by the increasing galaxy concentration.  Disks are commonly seen in this massive galaxy sample at 1.5<z<2.5: 30% of quiescent galaxies and 70% of SF galaxies with M*>1e11 Msun have disks in their rest-frame optical morphologies.  The prevalence of these extended, relatively undisturbed disks challenges the merging scenario as the main mode of massive galaxy formation.


1204.4206
Revealing companions to nearby stars with astrometric acceleration
Tokovinin, Hartung, Hayward, Makarov


51 Hipparcos astrometric binaries observed with AO, directly resolving 17 sub-arcsecond companions and 7 wider ones.  Compare with simulated binary population.  Fraction of resolved companions slightly lower than expected from binary statistics; about 10% of astrometric companions could be "dark" (WD and late M-dwarfs).  Several binars found with companions too wide to explain the acceleration.  Reanalysis shows that some acceleration solution in the original Hipparcos catalog are spurious.


1204.4210
On the link between central black holes, bar dynamics, and dark matter halos in spiral galaxies
Treuthardt, Seigar, Sierra, Al-Baidhany, Salo, Kennefick, Kennefick, Lacy


SMBH mass and spiral pitch angle (P) related--evidence that SMBHs are tied to the overall secular evolution of a galaxy.  Discovery of SMBHs in late-type galaxies with littel or no bulge suggests that an underlying correlation between the DM halo concentration and SMBH exists, rather than between the bulge mass and MBH.  Meausre P using 2d FFT and estimate the bar pattern speeds of 40 barred spiral galaxies from the Carnegie-Irvine Galaxy Survey.  Estimate gravitational potential from Ks band images, produce dynamical simulation models.  Pattern speed allow the ID those galaxies with ow central dark halo densities, or fast rotating bars, while P provides and estimate of MBH.  Find that a wide range of MBH exists in galaxies with low central DM halo densities, which appears to support other theoretical results.  Find: galaxies with low central dark halo densities appear to follow more predictable trends in P versus deVauc morphological type (T) and bar strength vs. T than barred galaxies in general.  The empirical relationship between MBH and total mass of a galaxy Mtot predict the minimum Mtot that will be observationally measured of the fast bar galaxies.  ...


1204.4219
An absence of neutrinos associated with Cosmic ray acceleration in gamma-ray bursts
IceCube Collaboration


GRB a leading candidate for acceleration of UHE CRs; should be accompanied by TeV neutrinos in proton-photon interactions during acceleration.  2 years of IceCube detector produced no evidence for this neutrino emission, placing strong constraints on models of neutrino and CR production in these sources.


1204.4234
Candidate stellar occultations by large trans-neptunian objects up to 2015
Assafin et al


2717 stellar occultation candidates for TNOs (Eris, Haumea, Ixion, Makemake, Orcus, Quaoar, Sedna, Varuna, 2002 TX300 and 2003 AZ84) for 2011-2015, for stars of R=19 down to about 21.  Data available on web.


1204.4236
The spin of late-type galaxies at redshifts $z \le 1.2$
Cervantes-Sodi, Hernandez, Hwang, Park, Le Borgne


Study the evolution of the galactic spin using data of high z galaxies in GOODS survey.  Distribution consistent with that found for nearby galaxies.  Find no sign of redshift evolution in the range 0.4<z<1.2.  Mass and environmental dependence of the spin in the high-z galaxies similar to that of low-z galaxies, showing a strong dependence on mass (low mass systems present higher lambda_d values than high-mass ones, with no significant dependence on the environmental density).  Individual disc galaxies might occasionally suffer from strong evolution, they evolve in such a way that the overall spin distribution of the galactic population remains constant from z~1 to the present epoch.  


1204.4241
Scale-dependent bias of galaxies and mu-type distortion of the cosmic microwave background spectrum from single-field inflation with a modified initial state
Ganc, Komatsu


Phenomenological consequences of a modification of the initial state of a single inflationary field.  Observe a k^-3 signature in LSS [in bispectrum?]


1204.4261
Differential rotation of main-sequence dwarfs: predicting he dependence on surface temperature and rotation rate
Kitchatinov, Olemskoy


Gyrochronology and theory used to reduce the number of input parameters of differential rotation models.  Predicts: surface differential rotation as a function of surface temperature and rotation period, both which can be defined observationally.  Tendency for the differential rotation to increase with temperature.  Increase much steeper for late F-stars compared to G- and K-dwarfs.  Slow and fast rotation regimes for internal stellar rotation identified.  Star attains maximum differential rotation at rotation rates intermediate between two regimes.  Amplitude of meridional flow increases with surface temperature and rotation rate.  Structure of flow changes considerably between slow and fast rotation.  The flow in rapid rotators concentrated in the boundary layers near the top and bottom of the convection zone with very weak circulation in between.


1204.4265
Evolution of active galactic nuclei
Merloni, Heinz


SMBH: discuss how evolution is constrained, probed by AGN.  Initial study were "demography" for LSS studies, but strong evolution in luminosity and number density hindered attempts to derive cosmological parameters.  AGN luminosity functions, relation of SMBH growth the environment (scaling relations and limits on the evolution of the SMBH mass function).  Physical models of AGN feedback.  First SMBH formation, role of BH in high-z universe discussed.


1204.4293
Fast calculation of the weak lensing aperture mass statistic
Leonard, Piers, Starck


Fully explore the formalism underlying the aperture mass statistic.  Demonstrate that the M_ap is formally identical to a wavelet transform at a specific scale; filter functions most frequently used in M_ap studies are not ideal (being non-local in both real and Fourier space).  In contrast, the wavelet formalism offers a number of wavelet functions that are localized both in real and Fourier space, yet similar to the 'optimal' aperture mass filters commonly used.  For an number of wavelet functions (e.g., starlet), a number of fast algorithms exist to compute the wavelet transform.  Significant advantages over the usual aperture mass algorithm when it comes to image processing time, demonstrating speed-up factors of 5-1200 for aperture radii in the range 2 to 64 pixels.


1204.4314
Galileons on Trial
Appleby, Linder


Galileon gravity: predictions for the combination of cosmic expansion and growth history are distinct from LCDM, approaching LCDM in one causes deviations in the other.  This tension allows it to severely disfavor the entire class of minimally coupled standard Galileon gravity.


1204.4320
The search for supernova-produced radionuclides in terrestrial deep-sea archives
Feige, Wallner, Winkler, Merchel, et al


Enhanced concentration of 60Fe found in a deep ocean's crust in 2004 in a layer corresponding to an age of ~2Myr.  Two suitable marine sdiment cores from the south Australian basin and estimate the intensity of a possible signal of the SNe-produced radionuclides 26Al, 53Mn, 60Fe and the pure r-process element 244Pu in these cores.  


* this abstract doesn't give the results!!!  From the conclusion: concentration compared to long-living 10Be to date the sediments.  Al and Mn challenigng to clearly distinguish from a SN signal.  Sediment cores split into sections of 1cm length (3kyr). ...  Not yet clear how dust is formed in a SN ejecta, and how the grains are transported to Earth.  Radionuclides only able to overcome the ram pressure of the solar wind and interplanetary B-field if they are condensed into dust particles.  


1204.4437
Inner polar rings and disks: observed properties
Moiseev


47 galaxies of all morphological types (E to Irr), with inner regions that have polar (or strongly inclined) disks and rings, compiled from literature.  Radii of the majority of them do not exceed 1.5 kpc.  Polar structure equally common in barred and unbarred galaxies.  If a galaxy has a bar (or a triaxial bulge), this leads to the polar disk stabilization (axis of rotation usually coincides with the major axis of the bar.  More than two thirds of all considered galaxies reveal signs of recent interaction or merging.  Direct relation between the external environment and the presence of an inner polar structure.