Seminars and Colloquia at ESO Garching and on the campus

I will discuss the results from my recent research that explores multi-phase gas reservoirs in extreme environments during the epoch of peak cosmic star formation (z ~ 2-4). Using multiwavelength observations, we reveal how massive gas structures fuel intense star formation in overdense regions while being shaped by energetic feedback processes. Our work demonstrates that both high-resolution interferometry and wide-field observations are essential for understanding the complete picture of gas as protoclusters begin to take shape.

High-resolution data resolve compact cores with extraordinary star formation rates and reveal narrow metal-enriched filaments tracing galactic outflows extending 60+ kpc from their hosts. Meanwhile, single-dish observations recover a significant excess of gas than interferometric maps alone, revealing extended low-surface-brightness reservoirs that could represent a proto-intracluster medium. Together, these findings reveal complex gas ecosystems in the early universe where intense star formation, AGN activity, and powerful feedback coexist, driving the assembly of the most massive cosmic structures.

Understanding the role of magnetic fields in the formation of planetary systems has been a long-standing goal of astronomy. Although magnetic fields are widely believed to be a critical ingredient in planet formation, direct observational constraints during the protoplanetary disk phase remain limited. In this talk, I will review previous efforts to detect magnetic fields threading protoplanetary disks and discuss the key limitations of these approaches. I will then present a new observational technique that we have recently developed, which enables a more robust detection of disk magnetic fields. Finally, I will place these results in the broader context of Solar System constraints and outline how forthcoming observations and planned upgrades to ALMA will further advance this field.

NASA has invited the ADS team to further expand to other Earth and space science disciplines. Thus, SciX was born as a new service built on top of ADS infrastructure and databases. By serving a broader range of disciplines, SciX will also foster cross-disciplinary discovery. In this Informal Discussion, I will provide an overview of the current situation, ADS’ way forward, and present SciX. Particular emphasis will be put on how researchers can use SciX effectively with minimal changes to their established workflows.

Faint blazars are often difficult to identify, as their recognition typically requires cross-matching positional counterparts across radio, optical, and X-ray catalogs. To support high-energy studies for the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO), we adopted an alternative approach. Starting from the Fermi-LAT 4FGL-DR4 catalog (5,062 γ-ray sources at galactic latitude |b| > 10°), we searched for blazar counterparts using Firmamento*, a web-based platform developed within the Open Universe initiative of UNOOSA. Firmamento integrates multi-frequency data and high-level analysis tools for spectral energy distribution (SED) studies.
By combining automated algorithms with visual inspection and validation by experts, high-school, and undergraduate students — given the large size of the sample — we discovered 421 new blazar associations, reducing the fraction of unassociated Fermi-LAT sources from 25% to 17%. The resulting catalog, 1FLAT, has been published in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.
This talk presents both the scientific results and the educational framework behind this collaborative effort.

 

* https://firmamento.nyuad.nyu.edu/data_access