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Munich Joint Astronomy Colloquia 2001-2002 |
October 2001
4 - A. Loeb (Harvard)
"The Reionisation of the Universe: the End of the Dark Ages"
ABSTRACT:
11 - A. Omont (IAP)
"Millimeter observations of dust and molecular emission in high
redshift AGNs"
ABSTRACT:
18 - TBD
"TBD"
ABSTRACT:
25 - Mike Irvin (Cambridge)
"The outer stellar halo of the Milky Way and M31"
ABSTRACT:
November 2001
1 - No Colloqium
8 - B. Moore (Durham)
"Tidally driven galaxy evolution"
ABSTRACT:
15 - Brian Chaboyer
"Ages of Old Stars"
ABSTRACT:
22 - K. Kuijken
"Kinematics of Bulges, Large and Small"
ABSTRACT: I will describe the results of two projects,
both aimed at measuring and
understanding the kinematics of stellar populations in bulges.
The first project involves a proper motion study, with HST, of our own
galactic bulge. We have obtained accurate proper motions for some 30,000
bulge stars in two windows, which allows us to describe the kinematics of
the bulge in fine detail, as well as separate forground stars from bulge
stars and so construct a clean colour-magnitude diagram for bulge stars.
The second project involves the use of planetary nebulae to trace the
stellar kinematics at large radii around elliptical galaxies. For this
purpose we have built, and recently commissioned, a new instrument which
can perform this task very efficiently. I will show first results from
this work, as well as describing the instrument.
29 - I. Smail (Durham)
"High redshift sub-mm sources: the dark side of galaxy formation"
ABSTRACT:
December 2001
6 - G. Gilmore (IoA Cambridge)
"Dark matter on small scales: the Draco dSph galaxy"
ABSTRACT:
13 - J. Peacock
"Measuring Large-scale Structure with the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey"
ABSTRACT:
20 - No Colloqium
27 - No Colloqium
January 2002
3 - No Colloqium
10 - No Colloqium
17 - G. Fabbiano (host - MPE)
"X-ray observations of galaxies"
ABSTRACT:
This talk will review what we have learned by observing galaxies in X-rays
over the past 20 yrs, with particular emphasis on recent Chandra results.
Galaxies are key objects for the study of cosmology, the life
cycle of matter, and stellar evolution.
X-ray observations have given us a new key band for understanding
these building blocks of the Universe,
with implications ranging from the the study of extreme physical situations,
such as can be found in the proximity of Black Holes, or near the surface of
neutron stars; to the interaction of galaxies and their environment;
to the measure of parameters of fundamental cosmological importance.
Chandra's resolution is optimal for the study of galaxies in X-rays.
Chandra's beam is 100 times smaller than that of any past or planned X-ray
mission and provides a linear physical size resolution of less that 2~pc for
Local Group galaxies and of $\sim$30~pc at the Virgo cluster distance.
Given the relatively small number and sparse distribution of luminous
X-ray sources expected in a normal galaxy (a few hundred at most in the
Milky Way and M31, down to X-ray luminosities of $10^{36} \rm ergs/s$;
Watson 1990; Supper at al 2001), confusion is seldom a problem when observing
galaxies in the local Universe with Chandra. Moreover, the small beam
translates into very efficient source detection, since the background
contribution in the beam is virtually nil in most cases: 10 counts make a very
significant source.With these capabilities Chandra is opening up the field of
X-ray population studies in galaxies, and at the same time provides the best
facility for in-depth detailed studies of the diffuse hot interstellar
emission,
and for exploring low-luminosity nuclear activity.
24 - M. Perryman (ESA) (host - ESO)
"GAIA: A Stereoscopic Map of our Galaxy"
ABSTRACT:
GAIA is an approved space experiment (launch 2011-12) that will undertake a
direct stereoscopic mapping of a significant fraction of our Galaxy's
stellar population - more than a billion stars to 20~mag. It will have the
positional accuracy (3-10 microarcsec at V<15) necessary to disentangle its
formation and evolutionary history, and to define detailed properties of
its stellar content. The observations will allow detection of upwards of a
hundred thousand new Solar System objects, of order 10,000 (Jupiter-type)
extra-solar planetary systems out to 100-200 pc, and measurement of a
number of interesting quantities in fundamental physics. Extensive
photometric and radial velocity measurements will be made from the same
platform. Conceptually, GAIA is relatively simple and is based on concepts
proven by ESA's Hipparcos mission. Nevertheless, the technology
complexities (large CCD focal planes, high structural and thermal stability,
etc) are considerable, as demanded by a `cornerstone' programme. The
organisation and execution of the data analysis will pose a number of
distinct challenges. I will give a short summary of the scientific
objectives, outline the measurement principles that allow such diverse
goals to be achieved, summarise some of the technical challenges, and
describe the organisation and status of the industrial and scientific
activities.
31 - Frank Verbunt (host - MPA)
"The Earth-Moon system"
ABSTRACT:
The spin of the earth and the orbital revolution of the moon
are coupled by tidal forces. I discuss a very simple model which
reproduces the main results of the highly complex complete
computations. The time scale on which the lunar orbit evolves
can be calibrated using recent accurate measurements of the
rate at which the moon receds from the earth. This leads to the
result that the moon was close to the earth surface less than 1.5 Gyr
ago. At such a short distance tidal energy dissipation would melt all
the rock ('the tidal catastrophe'), which is not compatible with the
presence of 3 Gyr old rock formations on earth. This leads me to
describe the history of the rotation of the earth as derived from
VLBI (current), historical solar eclipses (2500 ago), growth
patterns in sea-shells (400 Myr ago), and deposition patterns in
mud layers (900 Myr ago). I briefly discuss possible physical
explanations of the various periodicities observed in the long
term evolution of earth rotation, and the currently most popular
hypthesis for the formation of the moon.
February 2002
7 - K. Fuhrmann (host - MPE)
"Nearby stars and the Milky Way"
ABSTRACT:
The study of long-lived field stars in the solar neighborhood implies that
our Galaxy started 13 or 14 Gyr ago with the implementation of a massive
population of disk stars -- the so-called thick disk -- which was
discovered by Gilmore & Reid in 1983. The very high star formation rate in
that phase resulted in a fast metal-enrichment, but was followed by a star
formation gap of no less than three billion years. In a second phase, then,
the thin disk -- our "familiar Milky Way" -- came on stage. Nowadays it
traces the bright side of the Galaxy, but it is also embedded in a huge
coffin of dead thick-disk stars, that provide a lot of baryonic
dark matter.
14 - Karl Mannheim (host - USM)
"Clues from the High-Energy Universe"
ABSTRACT:
The likely existence of cold dark matter and dark energy indicate that the
Standard Model of particle physics is incomplete.
Major attempts are underway to disentangle precisely the cosmological
effects of the new physics inventory of the Universe. Here, the
focus is on methods in high-energy astrophysics to find clues on the
nature of massive particles due to their decay or annihilation.
21 - Francesco Paresce (host - ESO)
"The VLT Interferometer: present status, first results and future
prospects"
ABSTRACT:
The VLT interferometer has been operating since the time of first
fringes in March 2001 with a pair of 40 cm diameter siderostats
at baselines of 16 and 66m and since October 2001 with a pair of
8m diameter telescopes (UT1 and UT3) with a baseline of 102m
using the test camera VINCI operating in the K band. A fair
fraction of its commissioning time has been devoted to observing
a number of objects of scientific interest around the southern
sky bright enough to allow high precision visibilities to be
obtained on a routine basis. A large number of stellar sources
with correlated magnitudes brighter than K~6 and K~3 with the
8m and 40cm telescopes respectively have been observed over this
time period with limited u,v plane coverage. In this talk, I will
describe the present status of the facility and review the most
interesting results on sources never observed before at these
spatial resolutions like Eta Carinae, Beta Pictoris, and a
number of Mira variables and on known sources for which the
VLTI data allow the establishment of tighter constraints on
theoretical models. I will also briefly describe plans for
future development of the facility.
28 Roeland van der Marel (host - MPE)
"The Structure of the LMC from Near-IR Surveys"
ABSTRACT:
March 2002
7 - No Colloqium
14 - Guinevere Kauffmann (host - MPA)
"The physical properties of galaxies: results
from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey"
ABSTRACT:
21 - C. McKee (host - MPE)
"The Formation of Massive Stars and Star Clusters"
ABSTRACT:
28 - No Colloqium (Maundy Thursday)
April 2002
4 - Roland Bacon (Lyon) (host - ESO)
"Structure and kinematics of early-type galaxies: the SAURON project"
ABSTRACT:
10 (WEDNESDAY! at the
usual time of 16:15)
David Elbaz (Saclay) (host - MPE)
"Resolution of the cosmic infrared background with ISOCAM"
ABSTRACT:
18 - Matthias Steinmetz (host - MPA)
"The hierarchical origin of galaxy morphology"
ABSTRACT:
25 - M. Rowan-Robinson (host - ESO)
"Do Type Ia Supernovae Prove Lambda > 0 ?"
ABSTRACT:
Although there is a very impressive consensus on cosmological parameters
from Type Ia supernovae, large-scale structure and CMB studies, it does
seem important to test all the elements of this consensus. There do in
fact seem to be some inconsistencies in the analysis of Type Ia supernovae
which make the claimed result less secure than claimed. Is there an
alternative to Lambda ?
May 2002
2 - C. Kochanek (host - MPA)
"The detection of CDM substructures"
ABSTRACT:
9 - Holiday
16 - L. Maraschi (host - MPA)
"The Jet-Disk connection in Blazars:
towards
a unified physical model of radio-loud AGN"
ABSTRACT:
23 - M. Begelman (host - MPA)
"Defeating the Eddington limit"
ABSTRACT:
30 - Holiday
June 2002
6 - Lee Hartmann
"Dynamic Molecular Cloud and Star Formation in the Solar Neighborhood"
ABSTRACT:
The standard model of (at least low-mass) star formation envisages
collapse of cold molecular cloud cores after substantial diffusion of
magnetic fields over a period of several Myr. Strong magnetic fields
were presumed necessary to slow gravitational contraction and thus
avoid
overproducing stars in molecular clouds which last for some tens of
Myr. This picture is in direct contradiction with observations of
stellar populations in nearby molecular clouds, which are never older
than a
few Myr. The evidence of stellar ages demonstrates that molecular
cloud formation in the solar neighborhood is generally rapid, that
star
formation follows immediately upon cloud formation, and that the
molecular gas must also be dispersed rapidly. In this dynamic
picture,
the low galactic rate of star formation is due to a low overall
efficiency
of converting gas into stars rather than slow collapse.
Drawing upon large-scale simulations of the dynamical interstellar
medium, I outline a physical scenario of formation of molecular clouds
by large-scale flows which can satisfy the observational constraints.
I conclude with a detailed analysis of star formation in the Taurus
molecular cloud which suggests protostellar cloud core formation by
gravitational fragmentation in filaments.
13 - T. Marsh (Southampton) (host - MPA)
"The Demographics of Close Binary Stars"
ABSTRACT: The talk reviews the observational search for populations
of close binary stars which can be compared to theoretical
"population synthesis" and what it has told us so far. I will
cover detached white dwarf and subdwarf binary stars, and possibly
also semi-detached (AM CVn) white dwarf binaries.
20 - Roberto Maiolino (host - MPE)
"The population of obscured AGN"
ABSTRACT:
Most Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are obscured by a large amount
of gas and dust, implying that the accretion process of galactic nuclei
is
mostly hidden during their evolution. I will review the physical and
statistical properties of obscured AGN (in the local Universe and at
high redshift) as inferred by various observational data obtained during
the past few years, with emphasis on infrared and X-ray data, which
allow
to pierce the circumnuclear medium embedding this class of sources.
I will also discuss obscured AGN within the context of the infrared
and X-ray cosmic background.
27 - A. Lasenby (Cavendish) (host - ESO)
"TBD"
ABSTRACT:
July 2002
4 - Amiel Sternberg (host - MPE)
"The Compact High Velocity HI Clouds as Dark Matter Mini-Halos"
ABSTRACT:
The high velocity atomic hydrogen clouds (HVCs)
have remained enigmatic since their discovery via 21 cm
observations decades ago. I will present an up-to-date
review of the observational
properties of the HVCs. I will then
discuss the hypothesis that the population of
compact clouds (CHVCs) traces cold-dark-matter ("mini-halo")
substructure in the Milky Way halo or Local Group environment.
The presence of dark-matter substructure is an important
theoretical prediction of the hierarchical galaxy formation
scenario. I will present quantitative
mini-halo models for the CHVCs that are able to account
for their key observational characteristics.
October 2002
10 - Jerry Ostriker (host - ESO)
"TBD"
ABSTRACT:
November 2002
7 - Scott Kenyon (host - MPA)
"Debris disks and planet formation"
ABSTRACT:
| Last update: May 21, 2002 | K.M. Górski | Send Comments |
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