Annual Report • 1 Contents 3

Home , Michele Bannister, Victoria Kaspi

Institut Spatial de McGill

McGill Space Institute

2015-2016 Annual Report • 1 Contents 3 ... About the McGill Space Institute Outreach and Inreach 4 ... A Message from the Director 18 ... Education and Public Outreach 6 ... McGill Space Institute Launch 19 ... MSI in the News 21 ... MSI Fellowships Research Updates 22 ... MSI Seminars 7 ... The Search for Planet 9 23 ... A Week at the MSI 8 ... Simulating Exoplanet Atmospheres 23 ... Education, Outreach and Diversity 9 ... Dark Energy and Structure Growth 24 ... iREX 10 ... The Atmospheres of Hot Jupiters 24 ... Google Summer of Code 11 ... Dark Matter and Gamma Rays 25 ... LIGO Press Conference Event 12 ... Ice, Water and Earth in Antarctica 13 ... The Limits of Microbial Life About the MSI 14 ... Hands-on Radio Interferometers 26 ... Awards 16 ... A Repeating Fast Radio Burst 28 ... 2015-2016 MSI Members 17 ... Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping 29 ... 2015-2016 MSI Board Experiment 29 ... Visitors 2015-2016 30 ... Facilities used by MSI members 31 ... MSI Faculty Collaborations 33 ... 2015-2016 MSI Publications

2 • About the McGill Space Institute

The McGill Space Institute is an interdisciplinary The current research themes include: centre that brings together researchers engaged in • Early Universe astrophysics, planetary science, atmospheric science, astrobiology and other space-related research • Cosmology at McGill University. • Galaxy Evolution

The main goals of the Institute are to: • Astrophysics • Provide an intellectual home for faculty research staf, and students engaged in • Nuclear Astrophysics astrophysics, planetary science, and other • Compact Objects space-related research at McGill. • Exoplanets • Support the development of technology and instrumentation for space-related research. • Planetary Science

• Foster cross-fertilization and • Planetary Analogues interdisciplinary interactions and collaborations among Institute members in • Astrobiology Institute-relevant research areas. • Microbial Diversity in Extreme • Share with students, educators, and the Environments public an understanding of and an appreciation • The Search for Extraterrestrial for the goals, techniques and results of the Biosignatures. Institute’s research.

The intellectual hub of the Institute eet tr is at 3550 University, where S ty many of the Institute mem- si er iv bers work, collaborate with n U visitors, and Institute 0 5 5 events are held. 3

• 3 A Message from the Director

importantly, MSI has talented, enthusiastic stu- Prof. Victoria Kaspi dents and postdocs, who, thanks to a generous McGill Space Institute Director gift by the Trottier Family Foundation, are being trained to be the next generation of scientists. All It’s hard to believe a full year has passed since the this occurs in a warm, stimulating, friendly envi- creation of the McGill Space Institute. ronment where, for example, we take turns putting out the 3pm tea and cookies. And here the ‘we’ It seems like just yesterday that it was merely an means that even the Director can occasionally be idea — a concept we batted around, a vision of spotted preparing snacks for everyone! what could be accomplished with a novel type of research interaction, a way to bring talented pro- Looking back, it was my 2-year adventure as As- fessors, postdocs and graduate students working sociate Dean of Research in the Faculty of Science on related topics together, to stimulate new ideas that persuaded me that in spite of the impressive and directions in space-related research. world-class research strengths at McGill, something key was missing from the landscape. As ADR And what a year it has been! The MSI is now nes- I met dozens of brilliant, world-class McGill sci- tled comfortably in our ‘Space Shack’ at 3550 Uni- entists I had never seen before my administrative versity. The house has been equipped with tables, stint, in spite of having been at McGill a full decade screens, and especially black- ts and pro den fesso prior. How could there be so many talented, ac- stu rs boards, to encourage and SI M complished people in my own community, without h stimulate thought and it me being aware? w new ideas. On a daily ts e basis now, MSI e m i For example, I saw that there was research is bustling with p s on one of the foremost exciting topics of a scientifc dis- K modern science — extrasolar planets — a

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weekly seminars, P Sciences, and in the Department of Phys- discussion groups, ics, without these diferent re- Prof. and workshops. Victor ia K searchers having their paths Topics you’ll hear asp i, M ever cross, or even covered in the MSI cG il knowing of each l S lounge range from the p a others existence! c e origins of the Universe to the I n How could this s beginning of life. t it make sense? u t e

D We have visitors from i r Universities e around the world coming c t o are tradi- through regularly. Most r tionally

4 • grouped into Departmental constructs that, while in people regardless of their age or background. efciently categorizing people for administrative For this reason MSI also has outreach as a key item purposes, ultimately limit the potential intellec- in its mission. Joining forces with AstroMcGill, a tual vision of their inhabitants, forcing them and grass-roots astronomical student-run organization their ideas into artifcial knowledge ‘silos.’ Given that promotes science to the public, MSI hopes to the many responsibilities University faculty have, use the great popularity of its research as a tool it is only natural that emergence from one’s silo with which to promote science broadly in the pop- is difcult. Yet the reality is that the natural world ulation. Whether telling the public about asteroid represents an amazing continuum of phenomena; capture (as in our national-press-covered MSI progress in many of the most interesting scientifc Launch) or about Advanced LIGO’s discovery of problems demands breadth of expertise unhin- gravitational waves from a binary black hole merg- dered by artifcial, bureaucratic barriers. er via a standing-room only party with live feed from Washington, DC, MSI prides itself on making The McGill Space Institute was created to address forefront research accessible to the public . this issue in the domain of space research. As a McGill research centre, our goal is to bring togeth- As you peruse our frst Annual Report, I hope you’ll er top McGill minds — including faculty, postdocs be impressed by how far we have come in so short a and students — working on related space-relevant time. With baby steps as large as these, we are on a subjects that are at the cutting edge of modern decidedly upward trajectory, in which, quite ftting- science. MSI tackles some of the biggest questions ly, the sky is the limit. out there: Are there worlds like our own elsewhere in our Galaxy? Does Planet 9 exist? What is the I am very proud of what we have accomplished in nature of the ubiquitous Dark Matter and Dark forming the MSI. And here the ‘we’ means each and Energy in our Universe? How do black holes and every MSI member, from student through facul- neutron stars work and can they help us under- ty, as this is the lifeblood of our centre. The task stand the nature of of gravity? of fostering research interaction like sults of several im e re prom that at MSI is about bringing g th pt win u d These same questions, of prime ho isc world-class talent together , s us ty si interest to scientists, are si on in a stimulating envi- er s iv also exciting to the Mc- n ronment, to make U 0 Gill community and 5 something bigger 5 3 the public at large. t than the sum of a e Astronomy, astro- g its parts and n u physics, cosmology, o inspiring to l

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A e i n t d t r o e w r T C u e m n m r in o g L an d d D ox n ea enn a n of ce L n Science Bru ei st ld Go Vi sie ce Principal Ro McGill Space Institute Launch

The McGill Space Institute had its ofcial launch “Grabbing an Asteroid and Returning it to Earth: event on October 28, 2015. We had a VIP reception Making Audacious Ideas a Reality.” Approximately at the 3550 University building. Attendees included 150 people attended the public lecture. Vice Principal Rosie Goldstein and Dean of Science Bruce Lennox, as well as CSA Presi- The MSI launch received nation-wide press cov- dent Sylvain Laporte. In addition, our principal erage, including a Canadian – Grabbin donor Lorne Trottier attended the event. He was Press article, which ure g an ect A l ste presented with a high-quality print of mountains was picked up by e’s r c oi in d on the surface of Pluto from the recent New Hori- newspapers r a P n f. d zons mission as a token of our gratitude. across Canada. o R r e P t u r n

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6 • The Search for Planet 9

Extrasolar planet expert Prof. Nick Cowan joined scopes. Even if it ends up being discovered via the McGill Space Institute as a faculty member refected light, millimeter-telescopes would tell us in Fall 2015. His ofce was down the hall from the planet’s temperature. cosmologist Prof. Gil Holder. Te two collaborated on a project to develop a method to search for Planet Did anything unexpected happen during this 9 — a hypothetical large planet in outer Solar System, project? announced to some fanfare in January 2016. Cowan: Te entire project was surprising. Neither of us expected to collaborate on such a paper! What question were you trying to answer? We wanted to know whether the thermal glow of Holder: I would add that I was pleasantly surprised planet nine was detectable with millimeter tele- by the enthusiastic embrace of solar system science scopes. by my cosmologist colleagues; there is clearly a strong appetite for this sort of research, it just needs Why did you fnd this question interesting? a way to happen. Cosmologists (e.g., Holder) look at the cosmic microwave background and aren’t used to thinking Why this is important about moving foreground objects. Planetologists The search distant Solar System objects, including (e.g., Cowan) use optical and IR telescopes and Planet Nine, has focused on refected sunlight. don’t think about radio and millimeter telescopes. Our study was the frst to show that searches for So it was a fun outside-of-the-box collaboration. thermal fux, in particular mm radiation, was a viable method to search for Planet Nine or any other What does doing your research look like? planets lurking beyond the Kuiper belt. Tis project mostly involved pen and paper math, and noodling around on the blackboard. We used Cosmologists build mm telescopes to study the simple Python scripts to double check the math and cosmic microwave background, so it was surprising make a fgure. Our usual research usually involves to us (and indeed most cosmologists) that their using data from telescopes (on the ground and in experiments might also do compelling planetary space) and writing/running computer code to anal- science. We also showed that thermal radiation yse it. would constrain Planet Nine’s temperature and radius (and hence its formation history and subse- Neither of us could have done this project on our quent evolution). This might help us understand own. Fortunately, our ofces are right next why Uranus and Neptune, our two familiar ice 9 giants, have vastly diferent internal to each other, which made it easy to net Pla - heat sources. talk to each other as we worked nt ia g s through the problems. a g l a Cowan, N B, G. Holder, ic t What did you fnd? e h and N. A. Kaib (2016), t o We found that planet nine p Cosmologists in Search y

h of Planet Nine: The Case is readily detectable with e

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r A Research Updates • 7 Simulating Exoplanet Atmospheres

Prof. Tim Merlis’ research uses computer mod- climate than all of the carbon dioxide emissions els to expose the physical mechanisms underlying humans have produced over the last century for changes in both past and future climates. While Earth’s climate. his previous work primarily focused on Earth’s atmosphere, he recently was part of a collaboration What does doing your research look like? that worked to simulate exoplanet atmospheres. We performed numerical calculations. Some sit behind a computer ... though the adventurous ones What question were you trying to answer? stand behind a computer. Radiative transfer calculations---tracking the emission and absorption of light by the Did anything unexpected happen during this atmosphere and determining project?

how much heating or cooling

. I joined the McGill Space Institute! While I was

n results---are a critical com- o

z doing this research, I was pleasantly surprised to

r ponent of climate models.

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h McGill that would be devoted, in part, to exoplan-

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r climate of Earth-like This project was 100% collaboration! It is the def- a t s exoplanets! We also nition of the sum being greater than the parts: any a h one calculation on its own would not be too excit- it wanted to understand w t how the ways of doing ing. But by comparing across diferent methods re- e an vealed important diferences that meaningful alter pl this important calculation Ar xo tis n E can afect how close a planet the range of planetary orbits that are habitable. t’s im of a pression can be to its star before its climate is unstable and therefore uninhabitable. Why this is important We are still the early stages of using numerical Why did you fnd this question interesting? models to simulate the climates of exoplanets (5 I joined this informal international project with the years ago when I started doing this, you could aim of understanding diferences in fully three-di- count them on one hand). The numerical models mensional climate simulations. A big focus for my are based on those used to simulate Earth’s climate, research is atmospheric winds and their impact on but they are pushed out of the comfort zone where precipitation and surface temperature for Earth’s we can compare to Earth observations. There are climate, so it was really exciting to join a compar- many comparison projects where identical bound- ison of diferent climate simulations for exoplanet ary conditions are used for well controlled sensi- climates. It turns out there are big diferences even tivity studies for projections of future changes for before you consider the turbulent atmospheric Earth’s climate. This is one of the frst eforts to do fow, which led to the research on one-dimensional so for exoplanet atmospheres. diferences from radiative transfer. Yang, J, J. Leconte, E. T. Wolf, T. Merlis,et al. What did you fnd? (2016), Diferences in Water Vapor Radiative It does matter how the radiative transfer calcula- Transfer among 1D Models Can Signifcantly Af- tions are done. There can be big diferences. The fect the Inner Edge of the Habitable Zone, Astro- diferences between calculation methods for exo- phys. J. 826, 222.. planets have a much bigger (several fold) efect on

8 • Research Updates Dark Energy and Structure Growth

Prof. Matt Dobbs’ research group at McGill However, with a combination of the CMB power specializes in the design, construction, and oper- spectrum and our galaxy cluster survey, we can ation of novel instrumentation and experiments very precisely measure the signatures to explore the early universe. They were involved neutrino masses. Our cosmology

in building and analyzing data from the 2500 telescope can place some of the T

square-degree South Pole Telescope - Suny- most precise limits to date on e

aev-Zeldovich (SPT-SZ) Survey. the sum of the neutrino mass- o

es — well beyond what is h

What question were you trying to answer? possible in particle physics o l laboratories! e The efect of Dark Energy on the expansion history T

e of the universe (the size of the universe vs. time) is l e I am going to the South Pole s well measured through a combination of superno- c o in November to install an p vae, galaxy distribution surveys, and other probes. e

a We wanted to measure how dark energy afected upgrade to the SPT camera. n d The new camera’s primary the growth of structures in the universe and see if th e purpose is to provide the most A those efects were consistent with predictions from n ta sensitive measurements (or limits) rc models. tic n of gravitational waves emitted from a ight sky Why did you fnd this question interesting? period of infation in the early universe (a land mark discovery if robustly seen). The camera will In my view, the dark sector, with dark energy at the also substantially improve our sensitivity to neutri- helm, is the biggest mystery in physics. Anything no mass signatures. that probes it in a diferent way, to fnd cracks in our (lack of) understanding, is really interesting! Why this is important The SPT provides the most precise measurements What did you fnd? of the CMB at small angular scales. These data are Dark energy afects the growth of structure exactly used by the collaboration to make detailed mea- as one would expect from a simple cosmological surements of dark energy and neutrino properties. constant. The lambda CDM standard model of cos- They are also used by the broader community to mology has held up to yet another test, despite us combine with other probes and test many aspects being no closer to understanding the dark sector. of cosmology and astrophysics.

What does doing your research look like? The neutrino results are particularly important Building the world’s most sensitive millime- — they provide a window to particle physics that ter-wave telescope in one of the world’s most may never be available to terrestrial laboratories hostile environments – the South Pole. The data or collider-based experiments. This has spurred analysis is tricky and time consuming, taking a major new investments by funding agencies and team of physicists several years. But this analysis private foundations to build more powerful milli- is not the unique thing that sets our measurements meter-wave telescopes, such as the Simons Obser- above others – instead, it is the technology that was vatory, which recently received more than $50m of custom built for the South Pole Telescope (SPT) private, government and institutional funding. that gives us the edge on this and other Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) measurements. de Haan, T, B. A. Benson, L. E. Bleem, M. A. Dobbs, G. P. Holder, et al. (2016a), Did anything unexpected happen during this Cosmological Constraints from Galaxy Clusters project? in the 2500 square-degree SPT-SZ Survey, ArXiv We built this project 10 years ago to measure the e-prints arXiv:1603.06522. efect of dark energy on the growth of structure.

Research Updates • 9 The Atmospheres of Hot Jupiters

Dr. Joel Schwartz fnished his PhD in Earth What does doing your research look like? and Planetary Science in 2016 and will begin a Computer work all the way: I search and collect Postdoctoral research position at the McGill Space data online, calculate things with software code Institute in the Fall of 2016. His research uses I write, and make colorful graphs and pictures to computer models to simulate how energy moves help explain it all. through extremely large exoplanets that are extremely close their stars. But the second I could do feld work on an exoplanet...I’m there! What question were you trying to answer? There were actually several questions, but it all boils down to, “What can the public data tell us Why this is important about the atmospheres of very big, very hot exo- This study represents the best statistics we have planets?” These are what we call “Hot Jupiters.” about the bulk atmospherics of irradiated giant planets. We confrmed trends that previous stud- Imagine if you took Earth, dumped hydrogen on it ies had seen (e.g. more stellar irradiation means until it turned into a liquidy-gassy ball 10x bigger less day-to-night heat transport) and found other across, then shoved it 50x closer to the Sun — trends of our own (e.g. Hot Jupiters having refec- that’s like a Hot Jupiter. They have day/nightsides tive infrared clouds based on Bond albedos). And that never change and there’s nothing like them in most importantly, our technique for inferring these our Solar System. atmospheric properties could be applied to temper- ate terrestrial planets down the line.

What did you fnd? Schwartz, J C, and N. B. Cowan (2015), We learned that Hot Jupiters are dark in visible Balancing the energy budget of short-period giant light but would look shinier if you could see infra- planets: evidence for refective clouds and red light, so these planets could have interesting clouds. The more you bake Hot optical absorbers, MNRAS 449, Jupiters with starlight, the worse 4192–4203. Ar their winds are at warm up tis t’s im their nightsides (in most p re cases, at least). ss io n o f a h o t J u p i t e r

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10 • Research Updates Dark Matter and Gamma Rays

Dr. Jonathan Cornell is a postdoctoral fellow at What does doing your research look like? the McGill Space Institute, who works with Prof. As theorists our research is done with computers Jim Cline. He recently completed a project to de- and old fashioned pencil and paper. velop a theoretical model that describes the excess GeV gamma rays that come from the galactic centre. What did you fnd? Since dark matter is moving much faster in the Galactic centre than in dwarf spheroidal galaxies, What question were you trying to answer? we developed a model in which the dark matter an- One possible explanation for the excess of high nihilation rate is dependent on its velocity, leading energy gamma rays observed in the centre of our to an enhanced gamma ray signal in the Galactic Milky Way galaxy by the Fermi-Large Area Tele- centre. scope (LAT) is that these gamma rays are the prod- uct of the annihilation of dark matter particles. To make this model work, we had to develop a new method for how the dark matter is made in the However, many people argue that this explanation early universe. is not viable because a similar excess would be expected from dark matter annihilation in dwarf spheroidal galaxies [low-luminosity galaxies that Why this is important are companions to the Milky Way], and the Fer- The project pushes back against one of the major mi-LAT has not observed this. criticisms of a dark matter interpretation of the Galactic centre gamma-ray excess: namely, that at This leads to the question: Is it possible to con- this point we should have expected to see a similar struct a dark matter model in which the dark mat- signal from dwarf spheroidal galaxies. It does so ter annihilates at a much greater rate in the galactic in a simple way, by positing a p-wave dark matter centre than in dwarf spheroidals? annihilation cross section. People usually discard such models because this cross section would be quite large in the early universe, leading to dark Why did you fnd this question interesting? matter freezing out at late times with a relic density One of the most signifcant mysteries remaining in that is much too small. However, we show that this particle physics is the nature of dark matter, which problem can be overcome by introducing another up until now we have only seen interact via its particle species in the dark sector which freezes out gravitational interactions with normal matter. with the right relic density and then decays to the dark matter. The gamma ray signal from the galactic centre is one of the most promising possible f ve years signals of dark matter in- sed on of da , ba ta f eV rom Choquette, J, J. M. Cline, and J. teractions beyond the G N r 1 A ve SA M. Cornell (2016), p -wave gravitational, so it is o ’s s F ay e annihilating dark matter from important to try to r rm a i m G a decaying predecessor and understand what m a a m the Galactic Center excess, dark matter g m n i a - Phys. Rev. D 94 (1), models ex- n r e a e y s 015018 plain this. s S a p

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e h T Research Updates • 11 Ice, Water and Earth in Antarctica

Prof. Natalya Gomez joined the MSI as a faculty What does doing your research look like? member in Fall 2015. Her group’s research mod- Sitting behind a computer, developing complex els the interactions between ice, water, climate numerical models and running simulations on high and planetary interiors, and how these connec- performance computing equipment, and standing tions change planets surfaces through time. These in front of a white board or talking over Skype, models are applicable to both the Earth and other screen sharing with colleagues around the world in rocky, icy planets and moons in the Solar System. other disciplines.

What question were you trying to answer? What role did collaboration play in your I wanted to understand and model how the ice, water and solid Earth in Antarctica are research? bedrock topo A very important role! I started out as an expert in The gra connected and infuence each other. ph y sea level change, but the types of problems I work of A n on require collaboration with people who special- ta In particular, I wanted to know r c ize in measuring and modeling ice sheets, ocean t i whether retreat of the Ant- c a circulation and climate change. This is one of the , arctic Ice Sheet in response

c r reasons I love my feld of research — my colleagues i t to climate warming, and its

i c and I get to learn a lot from each other. a contribution to future sea

o level rise was sensitive to the

n Why this is important

d structure of the Earth’s inte-

r The fate of the polar ice sheets in a progressively

s rior below the ice sheet. The

n warming world is a focus of climate research and

d Earth rebounds in response

g to removing ice mass from the a concern for policy makers and the general pub-

lic. Our models include two geophysical elements

m continent, much like a memory

that are not adequately refected in computer

f foam mattress would. This uplifting i s c t e e

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h of the bedrock below the ice sheet in simulations of Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse — the turn feeds back onto how the ice itself fows gravitational pull of the ice sheet on surrounding of the continent and into the ocean. I wanted to water, and the viscous fow of the mantle beneath know whether this efect is signifcant or not for the the bedrock that the ice sits on. We show that the type of rapid ice loss we may see in the next hun- combination of bedrock uplift and sea-surface drop dreds to thousands of years. associated with ice-sheet retreat reduces ice sheet mass loss relative to a simulation without these Why did you fnd this question interesting? efects included. The degree to which this stabili- My research bridges the gap between the com- zation occurs is dependent on the structure of the munities that study the solid Earth and sea level Earth’s deep interior, which is currently poorly changes, and those that study ice sheet evolution. known. Improving measurements and models of This problem is a perfect example of why bridging that structure may be needed to constrain projec- that gap is important. It will take an interdisciplin- tions of future ice loss and sea level change. ary approach to refne predictions of future ice loss, if the answer requires in-depth knowledge of the This understanding of planetary-scale processes solid Earth as well as the ice sheet. may provide insights into the evolution of other planets and moons and the interpretation of the What did you fnd? measurements we make of those bodies. My results suggested that knowing the structure of the solid Earth hundreds of kilometers below the Gomez, Natalya, David Pollard, and David Antarctic Ice Sheet may be needed in order to accu- Holland (2015b), Sea-level feedback lowers rately predict how the ice sheet itself will evolve in projections of future antarctic ice-sheet mass loss, response to future climate changes. Nature Communications 6, 8798 EP

12 • Research Updates The Limits of Microbial Life

This year Dr. Jackie Goordial fnished her PhD What did you fnd? and began a Postdoctoral fellowship at McGill To our surprise we weren’t able to detect any mi- in Microbiology, with a focus on astrobiology. crobial activity in these soils, thus University Valley As part of her research, she went to University may represent an example of a natural ecosystem Valley, Antarctica, to study microorganisms living that is too harsh to support microbial life. This in the permafrost in one of the coldest and driest informs us about the limits of life on Earth, but also places on Earth. other cold planetary bodies.

What question were you trying to answer? What does doing your research look like? When we went to University Valley, we were hop- This research involved a lot of diferent types of ing to fnd some extremely cold-adapted micro- work: Field work (which is high up there in terms organisms. Our original questions were along the of things I love about this work), a lot of wet lab lines of: how many, and which microorganisms are work - sitting behind a microscope, plating micro- present in the permafrost, and how cold-adapted organisms on petri dishes, doing DNA extractions are these communities? for molecular work, and countless hours behind a computer crunching the data. Sequencing data is When we started to get our results back, our ques- huge, and a lot of my time was spent processing tions shifted — Can we detect ANY microbial activ- that, and trying to make sense of it in an ecological ity at in situ temperatures, and does the permafrost context. in University Valley host an active microbial ecosystem at all? Collaboration plays a huge part in my research. For example, NASA developed a prototype permafrost Why did you fnd this question interesting? drill called IceBite which they wanted to test in a We are so used to microorganisms being present Mars like environment, such as University Valley. just about everywhere, including places where we It’s extremely hard to get to these remote environ- actively try to eradicate them. This work was inter- ments and this provided the means to tica esting to me because it touches on several Antarc ley, get us there to do some micro- Val fundamental questions: What are ty biology research. rsi ve the limits of life on Earth? Are ni there places that are even U too extreme for microorganisms to thrive? And fnally- what are the limits to life on other cold planetary bodies, if there was life present, how could we detect it?

Research Updates • 13 Why this is important Prior to this work, essentially all that was known This site is one of the best Mars analogue sites about permafrost microbial communities in the Dry that we have on Earth, similar to the dry and Valleys was that microorganisms are present. We ice-cemented permafrost found in the north greatly expanded what is known about the ecology polar region of Mars where Phoenix landed. of microorganisms that are found in Dry Valley Understanding what types of microorganisms permafrost at high elevations, by surveying the could survive or be active in these types of soils, microorganisms using next generation sequencing as well as detecting biosignatures (in the form of techniques, by culturing the organisms, and more dormant or dead cells, and nucleic acids in our interestingly by doing activity assays both in case), is important to understanding what we could situ and in the lab. Thus, greatly increasing our be looking for in near surface water ice on Mars in understanding of the microbial ecology in a rare the north polar regions. spot on earth where the only potential living things are microorganisms. Goordial, Jacqueline, Alfonso Davila, Denis Lacelle, Lyle G Whyte, et al. (2016b), Nearing the cold-arid limits of microbial life in permafrost of an upper dry valley, Antarctica, ISME J 10 (7), 1613–1624.

Hands-on Radio Interferometers

Dr. Sean Grifn is a postdoctoral fellow in the scopes (such as CHIME) to make ultra-high-resolu- McGill Cosmology Instrumentation Laboratory. tion measurements of transient events (such as fast He leads a project to design hardware for small, radio bursts) using very-long-baseline interferome- portable radio interferometers. try (VLBI).

Can you describe your project? Why did you fnd this project interesting? High-resolution radio astronomy is typically I think that hands-on experience learning “re- performed using arrays of many telescopes spread al-life-astronomer” skills is an important part of a across a large area. The information from each tele- student’s training; a tool like this one is something scope is combined in order to reconstruct the infor- I would have appreciated having access to when I mation about the part of the sky the telescopes are was an undergraduate. observing. In practice, this is called interferometry. Conceptually, this material is taught in undergrad- What did you learn? uate courses, but we wanted to produce a hands-on We’ve learned (unsurprisingly) that it is tricky to experiment that students could use to learn how build a radio telescope in the middle of a big city interferometry is actually done in practice. like Montreal. There’s so much radio frequency (RF) noise around us that it makes measuring any In addition to the teaching tool, this project can be astrophysical source difcult because their signals adapted in order to build tools for identifying sites are much dimmer than those coming from FM for future radio astronomy arrays (an “RF mon- radio, TV, and cellphone transmitters. itor”), or to use in conjunction with current tele-

14 • Research Updates However, this just means that we need to be more us to bring in specialists to work on the diferent clever about how we go about building our exper- components of the experiment, helping maximize iment. What we are learning about characterizing our efciency. the radio noise in the city is also directly applicable to our goals of building an RF monitor to identify radio quiet sites. Why this is important The frst stage of this project is an instrument At frst, we expected that we would only be able to to give young astronomers hands-on experience look at the brightest objects in the radio sky due to with a real radio interferometer. This difers from how much RF noise there is in the city. After having traditional undergraduate lab experiments where worked on this project for some time, we now be- students often repeat a historical measurement and lieve that it might be possible to expand out targets do not represent modern experiments. to include dimmer objects like pulsars. It is exciting to see that we are not necessarily as limited as we This instrument will allow undergraduates to work thought we once were. with state-of-the-art hardware and take make astronomical measurements in the same way that What does doing your research look like? modern telescopes do. It is my hope that this will help motivate future experimentalists and get them My research consists mainly of working with electronics in a lab, but involves taking trips outdoors excited about working in astronomy. to make measurements of the sky with our experi- The second stage of this project is an instrument ment. I also write a lot of software to read and anal- to help identify sites for future radio arrays. yse data from the various instruments that I use, The hardware will allow us to characterise and to help me predict what the signals I observe the environment in terms of both an absolute will look like. measurement of how noisy (or not) a given site Once the full system is ready for deployment, we is over a wide bandwidth with fne frequency will be driving out into the feld with our telescopes resolution, and a measurement of the structure to make measurements of diferent sites in an of that noise in time, which allows for the attempt to identify ‘radio-quiet’ zones as possible optimisation of data taking strategies in order future radio telescope sites. In the long term, we to minimise the impact of any ambient RF hope to build a small telescope array on the roof of interference. the Rutherford Physics building to use as a teaching instrument and a platform for testing new radio astronomy hardware. This will require actual- ers nom ly heading up to the roof and building stro l a na it, which is very exciting. io ss fe ro p y b What role did d e s u collaboration play in r e t e your research? m o r Diferent parts of our e f r e telescopes are being t n I designed and tested o i by diferent people; d a

R there is too much a

, work for any one y

person to do. Col- r

laboration allows e

h T

Research Updates • 15 A Repeating Fast Radio Burst

Prof. Vicky Kaspi leads a group of graduate and found no fewer than 10 new bursts from this source postdoctoral researchers at the MSI, who observe in follow-up observations made over a few weeks, of pulsars and related objects including magne- and have subsequently seen many more from this tars and Fast Radio Bursts. This year they discov- source. Interestingly,the source seems to show ered a repeating Fast Radio Burst in data from the these bursts in clusters: sometimes it is totally qui- Aracebo Observatory. et and emits nothing, and other times it will burst several times in just a few minutes. What question were you trying to answer? Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are a new astrophysical What does doing your research look like? mystery. FRBs consist of short (few millisecond) While we use observations from the Arecibo radio bursts of radio waves. These events are very com- telescope, locally, at McGill, our research involves mon in the sky: our best estimates suggest that using a large super computer, along with enor- several thousand go of every day across the whole mous data fles. In the end, our research ‘looks’ like sky. However, the origin of FRBs is unknown. They representations of our data sets in diferent types of appear to come from extragalactic distances, sug- plots, scoured by small groups of people who also gesting a very luminous, but mysterious source. discuss the nuances in these plots and in how the data were obtained, and what new data we need to We were trying to understand the nature of FRBs make more progress in understanding. and specifcally whether they repeat. Some models of FRBs have them being the result of a cataclysmic What role did collaboration play in your event such as the merger of two neutron stars. If research? these models are correct, then FRBs should never Our research was part of the international PALFA show repetition. So searching for repetition is a collaboration which is led out of MSI. It was with very important test of FRB models. the help of our colleagues that we were able to write a publication for the magazine Nature in a fairly Why did you fnd this question interesting? short time, and garner signifcant interest from the It is rare in science to be presented with so fresh public and press. We have also recently put togeth- and interesting a puzzle as we have in FRBs. The er a detailed follow-up publication on the source. FRB phenomenon must represent a very com- mon occurrence in the Universe, and yet is totally Why this is important unpredicted. This serves as an important reminder FRBs are a mysterious astrophysical phenomenon. that we must remain humble about our under- Previous follow-up observations have failed to fnd standing of the Universe — there’s a lot out there additional bursts at the same location as the orig- that is still surprising to us! inal detections. This frst detection of a repeating Fast Radio Burst helps put important constraints What did you fnd? on how they originate — it eliminates at least 50 telescope We discovered that one particular ibo rec percent of all models. We now know that the A FRB, a source that we discov- he source of (at least some FRBs) must be t t a ered using the 305–m radio B an energetic event on an object that R telescope in Arecibo, F a survives the original burst. f Puerto Rico, repeats! o n o This came as a shock i s s Spitler, L G, P. Scholz, J. W. T. to us since previous e r searches for repeat p Hessels, R. D. Ferdman, V. M. m

i Kaspi, E. C. Madsen, C. Patel,

bursts from the loca- ’

t s

i et al. (2016), A repeating fast

tions of other FRBs t r

came up empty. We A radio burst, Nature (London) 531, 202–205.

16 • Research Updates Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment

Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment A separate back-end processor to perform the (CHIME) is a new radio interferometer located high-cadence de-dispersion has recently been fund- at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observa- ed by the CFI. tory (DRAO) in British Columbia. At the McGilll Space Institute, Prof. Matt Dobbs, Prof. David CHIME will also act as a scientifc and technical Hanna and Prof. Vicky Kaspi are involved with pathfnder for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), CHIME along with nearly 2 dozen McGill students, pioneering the measurement of very low-surface postdoctoral fellows and technicians brightness phenomena and developing key correlator hardware. CHIME will map the 21 cm emission of neutral Hydrogen Construction of the structure for the telescope from redshifts 0.8 to 2.5 was completed in late 2015. At 8,000 m2, culminating in the larg- CHIME is now the largest telescope in

est-volume survey of the continental North America with 2% more T

distribution of matter h collecting area than the Green Bank tele-

in the Universe ever c scope.

u made. This redshift s t

o range encompasses the m The custom correlator elec- Chalk c boa critical period when o rd tronics are now being tr r ig r g Dark Energy becomes e er installed on site and l d a ia comparable to the ener- t g will be com- o r r a e m gy density of matter and le missioned in c f tr r drives the late accelerated on o late 2016. It ics m expansion of the Universe. t will be the h e

f world’s

s The survey will allow the team to mea- t largest

sure the expansion rate of the Universe H radio I

through this critical epoch, thus helping M correlator.

E /

to constrain the Dark Energy equation of F The ana- R

state. In addition, the CHIME telescope B log chain,

will be a powerful instrument to o including r

detect Fast Radio Bursts. 15 h the 1024

te 20 o la p d in dual-polariza- lete mp co tion feeds, are as w e in construction op sc now. The telescope le te e will see frst light in 2017 h t r and be commissioned o f e r that year. u t c u r t s e h t

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C Research Updates • 17 Education and Public Outreach

word of mouth, with a signifcant minority learn- AstroNights ing about it through social media. Our audience is On the third Thursday of every month, AstroMcGill about 40/60 female/male, with a median age in the holds Public AstroNight. These events consist of 25-35 age group. About 55% of our audience mem- a public talk given by a professional astronomer, bers speak English at home, coming from either usually a McGill student or professor, aimed at a English-only, bilingual English/French or bilingual broad audience. After the talk, there are night sky English/other language households. This suggests observations with portable telescopes (weather that although most talks are in English, our reach is permitting). beyond the Anglophone community in Montreal.

Over the past academic year, AstroNight talks have exploded in popularity. We went from flling Space Explorers Programme In the past, school visits by AstroMcGill volunteers the largest lecture hall in the Rutherford Physics have typically been one-time, half-day events, Building (the Keys Auditorium, 145 seats), where volunteers lead children through a few ce Explore to flling the largest lecture hall on pa rs p ll S ro activities. During the 2015-2016 school year, Gi g campus (Leacock 132, 601 seats). c ra M m we decided to make major changes to our The most popular public talks e m h t e K-12 outreach strategy, partnering with n were: i

s Physics Outreach for the McGill Space t • August 2015: e n Explorers programme.

AstroNight Pluto Palooza g a m

by Dr. Kelly Lepo, approx.

h t Over the course of fve visits

i St 550 people attending w ude

nts over one school year, the

y ob

a s

• September 2015: Le l er

p v

e future astronauts have

t th n

côté obscur de l’Univers / e e

d the opportunity to

u S t S u The Dark Side of the Universe n learn about heat t h by Gabrielle Simard, approx. 400 r o and temperature, u people attending g collisions, light h

A and colours,

• January 2016: The Dark Energy of the s

t r

Universe by Prof. Jim Cline, approx. 400 o gravity, mag- M

c netism and the

people attending G

Solar System.

• February 2016: Into the Heart of the t

Milky Way by Prof. Daryl Haggard, rd s

ga c

ag o

l H p

approx. 650 people attending y e ar s . D of Pr y We found that 45-50% of all b ” y audience members were a W at their frst AstroNight y k and a small contingent il M e h (10-20%) have come t

f o to 10 or more pub- t r lic lectures. Most a e

H survey respondents e

t heard about As-

troNight through n

“

5 18 • Outreach and Inreach 6 n

The AstroMcGill Podcast o

The podcast consists of interviews of visiting as- m

tronomers discussing their research. It is aimed at e h

a general audience and has had over 40,000 e

r downloads and streams since 2012. e s b o

o We recorded six episodes to date t ld during the 2015-2016 school year. o c e

We are in the process of retool- N th

e g ing the podcast to reach a wider u in

t av

r Br

audience, including introducing a o

new format and advertising more S

a widely. r

T h

e Social Media P h The AstroMcGill Facebook page y s i c has increased from 1481 to 2070 s L a ‘likes’ since August 1, 2015. The As- t b o o ll troMcGill twitter account gained 335 ra i t u or G followers over the same time period. ie en s o sti f t a he Seb Universe by Dr. MSI in the News

Prof. Nicolas Cowan Prof. Daryl Haggard 14 May 2016 • Sommes-nous seuls dans le 1 February 2016 • Into the Heart of the cosmos? • Québec Science Milky Way • Sky and Telescope

. Daryl Prof Hagg 25 April 2016 • Can CMB Experiments 26 October 2015 • Milky by ar ay d W Find Planet Nine? • AAS Nova — Research Way’s Monster Black ky il highlights from the journals of the American Hole Belches Big, M e h t Astronomical Society But Why? • Space. f o t com r a 7 April 2016 • How Astronomers Are e H

e Going to Find Planet Nine • Gizmodo h t Prof. Gil Holder

o t

2 May 2016 • n I 30 March 2016 • The super-Earth 55 Astronomers Cancri may have a magma ocean or discover dark windblown clouds of vaporized rock • matter galaxy, by Scientifc American accident • Space. com 24 February 2016 • Planet Nine hunters enlist big bang telescopes and Saturn 14 April 2016 • Dwarf probe • New Scientist dark galaxy hidden in ALMA gravitational lens image • Astronomy 17 February 2016 • The truth about Magazine exoplanets • Nature News

Outreach and Inreach • 19 Prof. Victoria Kaspi Dr. Kelly Lepo 2 February 2016 • Exploding Stars • TVO 13 December 2015 • Geminid meteor The Agenda shower: How to catch the cosmic light ce Kirsty Du cien nca show • CBC Montreal News f S n, r o Pr 3 February 2016 • Victoria 29 June 2015 • The Science Behind the te of is . n V i ic Kaspi named winner of Leap Second • CBC Montreal News M k y K the Gerhard Herzberg a s p Canada Gold Medal 23 July 2015 • Kelly Lepo discusses the i ,

P for Science and discovery of Kepler 452b — an Earth- r

i m Engineering, First like planet around a Sun-like Star • CBC

M Woman to Win Montreal Radio

n i

s the Prize • Many

publications including:

J Dr. James Lowenthal

t The Washington Post,

i 5 February 2016 • Montreal’s push for n

r National Geographic outdoor LED lights isn’t just a night-sky u ,

u CBC.ca, Agence France- problem. It’s unhealthy, scientists warn •

s r

d Presse, Montreal Gazette CTV Montreal News

t C

o R f

E N S

2 December 2015 • Mysterious 2 December 2015 • The perils of light radiowave blast may have come from pollution • Montreal Gazette starquake• Nature News Paul Scholz 29 June 2015 • Misbehaving pulsar’s 2 March 2016 • McGill Space Institute sudden slow-down may teach us how Graduate Student discovers a repeating they tick• New Scientist fast radio burst • Many publications including: The Washington Post, National Prof. Tracy Webb Geographic, CBC.ca, Agence France-Presse, 5 October 2015 • Massive galaxies rob gas Montreal Gazette from little neighbours • Cosmos Magizine Robert Archibald 10 September 2015 • NASA Telescopes 30 September 2015• A Pulsar Eases Of the Find Galaxy Cluster with Vibrant Heart Brakes • AAS Nova — Research •HubbleSite McGill laun highlights from the journals of ch es n the American Astronomical e Prof. Lyle Whyte w Society S 16 December 2015 • Vie sur Mars • TVr9 p a

n McGill launches new

s t

Dr. Robert Ferdman i

t Space Institute u t

15 February 2016 • Understanding e 28 October 2015 • gravity waves • CBC Montreal eart nt H Montreal Gazette bra News Vi h it w r Montreal universities te Dr. Jacqueline Goordial s lu launch new space research C 19 January 2016 • y x centres a Study reveals life’s l a 1 November 2015 • The G outer limits in d Canadian Press, article n Antarctic valley • i

appeared in many s

The Globe and Mail e

p publications across Canada o

e including: The Toronto Star, l

CBC.ca, CTV news Montreal

A 20 • Outreach and Inreach N MSI Fellowships McGill Space Institute Fellowships are made possible by a generous $1 million donation from the Trotti- er Family Foundation to support MSI postdoctoral researchers and graduate students.

McGill Space Institute Fellowships are awarded by a committee of faculty members who span diferent felds of the MSI. They recognize excellence in research among the centre’s PhD and MSc students, as well as support several postdoctoral researchers afliated with the centre.

In the 2015-2016, the McGill Space Institute awarded one 2-year MSc fellowship and one 3-year PhD fellowship to graduate students beginning their degrees. We also recruited 4 graduate students and 2 postdoctoral fellows, who will hold MSI fellowships beginning in the 2016-2017 academic year. 2015- 2016 McGill Space Institute Fellows David Berardo Jeremie Choquette Jackie Goordial Supervisor: Supervisor: Supervisor: Andrew Jim Cline Lyle White Cumming Jeremie completed a MSc Dr. Jackie Goor- David in physics at McGill, work- dial fnished her graduated ing on several aspects of PhD and began from the dark matter model build- a Postdoctoral honors ing. He began a PhD in fellowship at Mc- Physcis physics in the Fall of 2015. Gill in the Winter program at of 2015. McGill before Jeremie works to develop models starting a MSc in Physics in the that suggest ways to Jackie studies microorganisms Fall of 2015. directly and indi- living at Mars analogue sites such rectly detecting as University Valley, Antarctica. David models the formation dark matter She works to identify the types of and evolution of gas giant particles microorganisms that could sur- planets around other stars through as- vive such regions as well as their using the MESA open-source trophysical biosignatures. stellar evolution software. signals.

Preview of 2016-2017 MSI Fellows MSc Students Postdoctoral Researchers Taylor Bell • University of Saskatchewan Erik Chan • Harvard University Prof. Nicolas Cowan, Physics Prof. Natalya Gomez, EPS Marie-Pier Labonté • Université Laval Prof. Tim Merlis, AOS Vanessa Graber • University of Southampton Catherine Maggiori • University of Waterloo Prof. Andrew Cumming and Prof. Lyle White, NRS Prof. Vicky Kaspi, Physics Gavin Noble • University of British Columbia Prof. Matt Dobbs, Physics

Outreach and Inreach • 21 MSI Seminars

MSI Faculty Jamboree Vikram Ravi 15 Sep 2015 California Institute of Technology Short presentations from all MSI faculty about 2 Feb 2016 their research A tale of two fast radio bursts

Sarah Hörst Sabine Stanley John Hopkins University University for Toronto 22 Sep 2015 16 Feb 2016 Understanding Haze Formation in Planetary Planetary Dynamos: The Curious Case of Atmospheres: Lessons from the Lab Saturn

Caroline Morley Ram Jakhu UC Santa Cruz McGill University 6 Oct 2015 Centre for Research of Air and Space Law Seeing Through the Clouds: The Thermal 8 Mar 2016 Emission and Refected Light of Super-Earths Space law for Astronomers with Flat Transmission Spectra Betul Kacar Roger O’Brient Harvard University NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory 5 Apr 2016 3 Nov 2015 Lessons from the Past: Synthetic Biology and One Photon, two photon red(shifted) photon, Experimental Evolution for Space Exploration blue photon: Superconducting devices for Astrophysics Workshops

Michele Bannister CRAQ Student Workshop NRC Herzberg September 9-11, 2015 17 Nov 2015 Workshop for astrophysics graduate students Exploring the Outer Solar System: Now in of the Centre for Research in Astrophysics of Vivid Colour Quebec (CRAQ), coming from Laval, Montreal and McGill University Edwin Kite University of Chicago NANOGrav 1 Dec 2015 October 19-20, 2015 Why Material From Enceladus’ Ocean Keeps Search for gravitational waves using pulsars Getting Ejected Into Space collaboration meeting.

Omer Blaes NRAO Live! UC Santa Barbara February 18-19, 2016 19 Jan 2016 NRAO staf members and local experts Outbursts Around Dead Stars: How Dwarf described the latest telescope capabilities and Novae Are Testing Our Fundamental Fluid the science they enable, with an emphasis on Dynamics Theory of Accretion Disks ALMA and the VLA.

22 • Outreach and Inreach A Week at the MSI Monday Wednesday MSI lunch Seminar 12:00 pm Exoplanet Lunch 12:00 pm (alternate weeks) N-body discussion group 1:00 pm Tea and Cookies 3:00 pm Tea and Cookies 3:00 pm French language discussion class 4:00 pm Neutron Star Discussion 3:30 pm Tuesday Random Papers Discussion 10:30 am Thursday iREx cafe 10:30 am Education, outreach 2:00 pm (alternate weeks at UdeM) and diversity discussion Tea and Cookies 3:00 pm Tea and Cookies 3:00 pm Cosmology Journal Club 3:30 pm MSI or Astronomy Seminar 3:30 pm Friday Astronomy Journal Club 10:30 am

Education, Outreach and Diversity

The McGill Space Institute education, outreach erature on a particular topic (like stereotype threat and diversity discussion group meets Tuesday or using active learning techniques in the class- age the aud afternoons in the MSI lounge, chaired o eng ience room), to postmortems of outreach es t in iqu a p by MSI coordinator Dr. Kelly hn ub activities. ec li t c l Lepo. g ec Since the discussion is held in tu rn r a e on the same day as Astro- e l These informal, hour- e physics and MSI semi- v ti long discussions cover a c nars, we often invite a s e variety of topics, from s visiting speakers to u analyzing recently o lead a discussion p e published physics L on a topic of their

y l education research l choice. e

journal articles or .

blog posts by scien-

r o

tists about diversity t

a n

and equity issues, to i

d r

an overview of the lit- o

I S

M Outreach and Inreach • 23

i R

iREX M

Prof. Nick Cowan and Prof. Andrew u

g Cumming are members of the Institut e de recherche sur les exoplanètes (iREx) which consists of 44 students, postdocs, research staf and faculty members at the Université de Montreal and McGill. Each summer, iREx ofers iREx brings together researchers who Trottier Excellence Grants focus on the characterization of exo- to undergraduates to support planets, understanding their formation, summer research projects, some evolution, composition of their atmo- of which are held at McGill. The spheres and whether they harbor life. students have desks in the MSI building where they can interact with McGill Every other week, MSI hosts the iREx café, at Space Institute researchers. which researchers discuss their latest fndings and new results in the feld.

Google Summer of Code

The McGill Space Institute was accepted in March ly high number for frst-time mentor organizations 2016 as a mentor organization for the Google Sum- (most new organizations only receive slots for one mer of Code. Dr. Kelly Lepo, Prof. Nick Cowan or two students). and Prof. Boswell Wing mentored students, who worked on open source software development Projects included an open source data reduction projects. pipeline to process images from the Spitzer Space Telescope (Cowan), an open-source Google selects the mentor organizations, modular code modeling microbi- provides the application platform and al stable isotope fractionation pays stipends to students and mentor for astrobiology (Wing), organizations. and adapting the open- source lightcurve-mod- Due to the large amount of student elling code Icarus to interest, the McGill Space Institute model accreating white received slots for three students dwarf systems (Lepo). from Google, which is an unusual-

24 • Outreach and Inreach LIGO Press Conference Event

On February 11, 2016 the LIGO (Laser Interferome- ter Gravitational-Wave Observatory) collaboration held a press conference to announce that they had detected gravitational waves for the frst time, receiving a signal from the last 0.2 seconds of a merger and “ringdown” of a pair of 36 and 29 solar mass black holes, 410 Mega-parsecs away.

The McGill Space Institute hosted a viewing party in the 3550 University building where we watched a livestream of the announcement to commemorate this historic event in non-elec- tromagnetic wave astronomy. About 100 McGill astronomers and physicists crowded into the MSI lounge, overfowing out into the hallway

and into the nearby conference room.

r e

ave signal f

l w n

na o c o ti

a s

it s

v e

a r

r p

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s t s i c i s y h p d les n o a h s ck r la e b m o g n in o g r r st e l a m il cG o M w s t a ly f m on o oo Standing r n o i

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A Outreach and Inreach • 25 Awards Faculty Awards Student Awards

Robert Brandenberger Nina Bonaventura Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada McGill Schulich Fellowship Simons Fellowship in Theoretical Physics Senior Fellowship - ETH Institute for Étienne Bourbeau Theoretical Studies Centre for Research in Astrophysics of Quebec (CRAQ) student workshop – best student Nicolas Cowan presentation Kavli Frontiers Fellow Mexican National Science and Technology Council (CONACYT) – Organization of Matt Dobbs American States (OAS) – Mexican Agency Awarded membership in the Royal Society of for International Development Cooperation Canada College of New Scholars (AMEXCID) scholarship

Natalya Gomez Peter Crockford Appointed a Tier II Canada Research Chair Mitacs - Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellowship Daryl Haggard GSA Travel Award Kavli Frontiers Fellow McGill GREAT Award Northern Science Training Program Award Victoria Kaspi NSERC Postgraduate Scholarships – Doctoral NSERC Gerhard Herzberg Gold Medal for Science and Engineering Emilie Parent NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarships – Tim Merlis Master’s Appointed a Tier II Canada Research Chair Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQNT) - Nature et technologies scholarship Ken Ragan SALTISE teaching award Paul Scholz McGill Schulich Fellowship

Jerome Quintin NSERC Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship Walter C. Sumner Memorial Fellowship Graduate Excellence Award

26 • About the MSI • 1 Canada, Chi- tion by Dr. Kelly na, Denmark, Finland, Lepo, The Dawn of Grav- France, Ireland, Italy, Nether- itational Wave Astronomy by Eli- lands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, nore Roebber, Into the Heart of the Milky United Kingdom, United States • 2 Total num- Way by Prof. Daryl Haggard, The Dark En- ber of grants received by MSI faculty members ergy of the Universe by Prof. Jim Cline, Distant for the 2015-2016 academic year. In the case Galaxies and the Cosmic Time Machine by Dr. of multi-year grants, this includes the total James Lowenthal, Le côté obscur de l’Univers amount of the grant divided by the number of by Gabrielle Simard, Pluto Palooza by Dr. Kelly years the grant covers. • 3 Australia, Cana- Lepo, Neutrinos: The Most Tiny Quantity of Re- da, China, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, ality Ever Imagined By a Human Being by Lidia Spain, Sweden, United States • 4 Comets: From Iarotsky, Neutron Stars: The Physics Labora- Harbingers of Doom to the Scientifc Revolu- tories of the Universe by Dr. Sebastien Guillot

About the MSI • 27 2015-2016 MSI Members Faculty Members Graduate Students Undergraduate Victoria Kaspi Phys David Berardo Phys Students MSI Director MSI Fellow Dhruv Bisaria Phys Miles Cranmer Phys Andrew Cumming Phys Jeremie Choquette Phys Lisa Dang Phys MSI Associate Director MSI Fellow Kays Haddad Phys Diana Jovmir Phys Robert Brandenberger Phys Simon Archambault Phys Jyotsana Singh EPS James Cline Phys Robert Archibald Phys Benjamin Tam Phys Nicolas Cowan Phys & EPS Hossein Basrafshan Phys Reinhold Willcox Phys Matt Dobbs Phys Nina Bonaventura Phys René Doyon Phys Étienne Bourbeau Phys Staff Natalya Gomez EPS Pragya Chawla Phys Kelly Lepo Daryl Haggard Phys Gabriel Chernitsky Phys MSI Coordinator David Hanna Phys Ryan Chown Phys Gil Holder Phys Jesse Colangelo-Lillis Phys Yi Huang AOS Peter Crockford EPS Phys: Physics Timothy Merlis AOS Disrael Cunha Phys Ken Ragan Phys Bryce Cyr Phys EPS: Earth and Planetary Tracy Webb Phys Anna Delahaye Phys Sciences Lyle Whyte NRS Grace Dupuis Phys AOS: Atmospheric and Oceanic Boswell Wing EPS Elisa Ferreira Phys Sciences Guilherme Franzmann Phys Postdoctoral Jackie Goordial NRS NRS: Natural Resource Sciences Fellows Gilbert Hsyu Phys Dan Capellupo Phys Tony Lin Phys Jonathan Cornell Phys Erik Madsen Phys Qi Feng Phys Evan McDonough Phys Robert Ferdman Phys Juan Mena Phys Joined the MSI in 2015 Alfonso Diaz Furlong Phys Joshua Montgomery Phys Nicolas Cowan Adam Gilbert Phys Yuuki Omori Phys Daryl Haggard Leila Graef Phys Emilie Parent Phys Natalya Gomez Sean Grifn Phys Chitrang Patel Phys Kelly Lepo Andrew McCann Phys Tristan Seth Siegel Phys Pinsonneault-Marotte Phys Shriharsh Tendulkar Phys Jerome Quintin Phys Departing for other Ben Zitzer Phys Elinore Roebber Phys adventures in 2016 Paul Scholz Phys Gil Holder Joel Schwartz Phys Boswell Wing Gabrielle Simard Phys Benjamin Tam Phys Jonathan Tyler Phys

28 • About the MSI 2015-2016 MSI Board External Members McGill Space Institute Lorne Trottier Internal Members Co-founder of Matrox Victoria Kaspi Director McGill Space Institute Marc Guilbert Professor of Physics Senior Associate Power Corporation of Canada Andrew Cumming Associate Director McGill Space Institute Vassiliki Kalogera Associate Professor of Physics Director CIERA Institute at Northwestern University Matt Dobbs Associate Professor of Physics McGill Internal Members Chris Manfredi Robert Brandenberger Provost Professor of Physics

Bruce Lennox Timothy Merlis Dean of Science Assistant Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Rose Goldstein VPR of Research Jackie Goordial Postdoctoral Fellow

Peter Crockford PhD Student

Visitors 2015-2016 Sabbatical Visitors Short-term visitors

Prof. Ingrid Stairs Dr. Yuri Cavecchi University of British Columbia University of Amsterdam

Prof. James Lowenthal Prof. Froney Crawford Smith College Franklin and Marshall College

Dr. Cherry Ng University of British Columbia

Weicong Huang Beijing Institute of Theoretical Physics

About the MSI • 29 Facilities used by MSI members

Guillimin supercomputer Canada France Hawaii Laboratory and Telescope (Webb) Computing facilities Owned and administered by Compute Canada and Calcul Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic Quebec (Cowan, Huang, Kaspi, The McGill Stable Isotope (Cowan) Laboratory Gomez) Makes high precision Atacama Large Millimeter measurements of natural Array (Webb) abundance stable isotope ratios Ground-based in earth and planetary materials. Telescope Facilities (Wing) The Canadian Hydrogen The McGill Cosmology Intensity Mapping Experiment, Space-based Instrumentation Laboratory CHIME (Dobbs, Hanna) Telescope Facilities Develops complex digital and EBEX stratospheric balloon ultra-low noise analog cryogenic Pulsar backend recording and telescope , Co-built in the McGill electronics for astrophysics. analysis system for CHIME Cosmology Instrumentation Includes separate labs for radio (Kaspi, Dobbs) Laboratory, funded by NASA and instrumentation and mm-wave VERITAS Gamma-ray Telescope the CSA. (Dobbs) instrumentation. (Dobbs) (Hanna, Ragan) The Gamma-ray Astronomy NASA/Hubble Space Telescope Laboratory South Pole Telescope, mm-wave, (Cowan, Webb) Develops instrumentation for Cosmic Microwave Background NASA/Swift X-ray Telescope astroparticle and particle physics (Dobbs, Holder) detectors. (Hanna, Ragan) (Cumming ,Haggard, Kaspi) POLARBEAR and the Simon’s Prof. Whyte’s laboratory NASA/NuSTAR X-ray Mission Array, mm-wave, Cosmic One of the few laboratories (Cumming, Kaspi) worldwide with the facilities to Microwave Background (Dobbs) perform fundamental studies NASA/Chandra X-ray at subzero temperatures for Arecibo Observatory, Radio Observatory (Haggard, Kaspi, molecular biology/microbiology wavelengths (Kaspi) Webb) and astrobiology-related ESA/XMM-Newton X-ray investigations. Green Bank Telescope, Radio wavelengths (Kaspi) Telescope (Cumming, Kaspi, The McGill High Arctic Research Webb) Station (MARS) Jansky Very Large Array, Radio Supports feld research activities wavelengths (Haggard, Kaspi, NASA Spitzer Space Telescope consisting of sample acquisition, Webb) (Haggard, Cowan, Webb) some limited laboratory microbial and molecular Gemini Observatory (Haggard, analyses, and in situ analyses for Webb) microbial activity. (Whyte)

30 • About the MSI MSI Faculty Collaborations McGill-lead collaborations Other collaborations

CHIME The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity FINESSE Fast Infrared Exoplanet Spectroscopy Mapping Experiment, Cosmology (Dobbs, Survey Explorer (Cowan) Hanna) and Fast Radio Burst (Kaspi, Dobbs) Other participating institutions: groups California Institute of Technology • INAF- Other participating institutions: Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo • Jet Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory Propulsion Laboratory • Max Planck Institute • University of British Columbia • University for Astronomy • NASA Ames Research Center of Toronto • U.S. National Radio Astronomy • Princeton University • Queen’s University Observatory of Belfast • University of Arizona • University College London PALFA Pulsar Arecibo L-Band Feed Array survey (Kaspi) GBNCC The Green Bank North Celestial Cap Other participating institutions: Albert pulsar survey (Kaspi) Einstein Institute • ASTRON • Columbia Other participating institutions: ASTRON University • Cornell University • Franklin and • National Radio Astronomy Observatory • Marshall College • Jodrell Bank Center for Universiteit van Amsterdam • University of Astrophysics • Lafayette College • Max-Planck- British Columbia • University of New Mexico • Institut für Radioastronomie • National Radio University of Texas at Brownsville • University Astronomy Observatory • National Radio of Virginia • West Virginia University Astronomy Observatory • Naval Research Laboratory • University of British Columbia • JINA/CEE Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics University of East Anglia • University of New - Centre for Evolution of the Elements Mexico • University of Texas at Brownsville • (Cumming) University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee • West Other participating institutions: Argonne Virginia University National Laboratory • Arizona State University • Cluster of Excellence Origin and Structure VERITAS (Hanna, Ragan) of the Universe • GSI Helmholtz Centre for Other participating institutions: Adler Heavy Ion Research • Florida State University Planetarium and Astronomy Museum • • Los Alamos National Laboratory • Michigan Argonne National Lab • Barnard College State University • Monash University • Columbia University • Cork Institute of North Carolina State University • Nuclear Technology • Georgia Institute of Technology Astrophysics Virtual Institute • Nuclear • Iowa State University • National University Computational Low Energy Initiative • Ohio of Ireland, Galway • Purdue University • State University • Ohio University • Princeton Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory University • Shanghai Jiao Tong University • • University College Dublin • University TRIUMF • University of Chicago • University of California, Los Angeles • University of of Minnesota • University of Notre Dame • California, Santa Cruz • University of Chicago University of Sao Paulo • University of Victoria • University of Delaware • University of Iowa • • University of Washington • Western Michigan University of Minnesota • University of Utah • University Washington University in St. Louis

About the MSI • 31 NANOGrav The search for gravitational waves Lawrence Berkeley National Lab • Paris Diderot University • University of California, Berkeley • using pulsars (Kaspi) University of California, San Diego • University Other participating institutions: California of Colorado at Boulder Institute of Technology • Cornell University • Franklin and Marshall College • Hillsdale College • Huazhong University of Science and SPT The South Pole Telescope (Dobbs, Holder) Technology • Jet Propulsion Laboratory • Other participating institutions: Lafayette College • Montana State University • Argonne National Lab • Case-Western Reserve NASA Goddard Space Flight Center University • Fermilab • University of California, National Radio Astronomy Observatory • Naval Berkeley • University of Chicago • University Research Laboratory • Notre Dame of Maryland of Colorado, Boulder • University of Illinois at University • Oberlin College • Penn State Urbana-Champaign University • University of Alabama • University of British Columbia • University of California, The Simons Array (Dobbs) Berkeley • University of East Anglia • University Other participating institutions: Cardif of Maryland • University of Texas Rio Grande University • Dalhousie University Valley • University of Vermont • University of High Energy Accelerator Research Washington Bothell • University of Wisconsin Organization, KEK • Imperial College London Milwaukee • West Virginia University • Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory • NICER NASA’s Neutron Star Interior Composition McGill University • NASA Goddard Space Explorer (Kaspi) Flight Center • National Institute for Fusion Other participating institutions: MIT Science • Osaka University • Princeton Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space University • The Graduate University for Research • NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Advanced Studies • Three-Speed Logic, Inc. • • Noqsi Aerospace University of California, Berkeley • University of California, San Diego • University of Chicago NIRISS Near-InfraRed Imager and Slitless • University of Colorado at Boulder • University Spectrograph, James Webb Space Telescope of Melbourne • University of Paris Diderot • (Cowan) University of Tokyo Other participating institutions: Cornell University • COM DEV • National Research The Simons Observatory (Dobbs) Council Canada • Saint Mary’s University • Other participating institutions: Lawrence Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) Berkeley National Laboratory • Princeton • Swiss Federal Institute of Technology University • University of California, San Diego Zurich • Université de Montréal • University • University of California, Berkeley • University of Rochester • University of Toronto • York of Pennsylvania University

POLARBEAR (Dobbs) Other participating institutions: Cardif University • Imperial College • KEK, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization •

32 • About the MSI 2015-2016 MSI Publications

Abeysekara, A U, S. Archambault, A. Archer, Q. from Geminga above 100 GeV with VERITAS, Feng, S. Grifn, D. Hanna, A. McCann, K. Astrophys. J. 800, 61. Ragan, J. Tyler, B. Zitzer, et al. (2015), Gamma- Rays from the Quasar PKS 1441+25: Story of an Aliu, E, S. Archambault, T. Arlen, Q. Feng, S. Escape, ApJ. Lett. 815, L22. Grifn, D. Hanna, A. McCann, K. Ragan, B. Zitzer, et al. (2012), VERITAS deep observations Abeysekara, A U, S. Archambault, A. Archer, of the dwarf spheroidal galaxy Segue 1, Phys. Rev. Q. Feng, S. Grifn, D. Hanna, A. McCann, D 85 (6), 062001. K. Ragan, J. Tyler, B. Zitzer, et al. (2016a), VERITAS and multiwavelength observations of Aliu, E, S. Archambault, T. Arlen, Q. Feng, S. the BL Lacertae object 1ES 1741+196, MNRAS 459, Grifn, D. Hanna, A. McCann, K. Ragan, B. 2550–2557. Zitzer, et al. and VERITAS Collaboration (2015b), Erratum: VERITAS deep observations of the Abeysekara, A U, S. Archambault, A. Archer, dwarf spheroidal galaxy Segue 1 [Phys. Rev. D 85, Q. Feng, S. Grifn, D. Hanna, T. T. Y. Lin, 062001 (2012)], Phys. Rev. D 91 (12), 129903. A. McCann, K. Ragan, J. Tyler, B. Zitzer, et al. (2016b), A Search for Brief Optical Flashes Aliu, E, A. Archer, T. Aune, Q. Feng, S. Grifn, Associated with the SETI Target KIC 8462852, D. Hanna, A. McCann, K. Ragan, J. Tyler, B. ApJ. Lett. 818, L33. Zitzer, et al. (2015c), VERITAS Observations of the BL Lac Object PG 1553+113, Astrophys. J. 799, Ade, P A R, Y. Akiba, A. E. Anthony, M. Dobbs, C. 7. Feng, A. Gilbert, et al. (2015a), A Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background B-Mode An, H, R. F. Archibald, R. Hascoët, V. M. Kaspi, Polarization with Polarbear, Publication of Korean et al. (2015a), Deep NuSTAR and Swift Monitoring Astronomical Society 30, 625–628. Observations of the Magnetar 1E 1841-045, Astrophys. J. 807, 93. Ade, P A R, K. Arnold, M. Atlas, M. Dobbs, C. Feng, A. Gilbert, J. Montgomery, et al. and An, H, E. Bellm, V. Bhalerao, V. M. Kaspi, et Polarbear Collaboration (2015b), POLARBEAR al. (2015b), Broadband X-Ray Properties of constraints on cosmic birefringence and the Gamma-Ray Binary 1FGL J1018.6-5856, primordial magnetic felds, Phys. Rev. D 92 (12), Astrophys. J. 806, 166. 123509, arXiv:1509.02461. Anthonisen, M, R. Brandenberger, A. Lagüe, Aleksic, J, S. Ansoldi, L. A. Antonelli, S. et al. (2016), Cosmic Microwave Background Grifn, D. Hanna, J. Tyler et al.(2015a), spectral distortions from cosmic string loops, J. Multiwavelength observations of Mrk501 in 2008, Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 2, 047. A&A573,A50. Anthonisen, M, R. Brandenberger, and P. Aleksic, J, S. Ansoldi, L. A. Antonelli, S. Scott (2015), Constraints on cosmic strings from Archambault, S. Grifn, D. Hanna, K. ultracompact minihalos, Phys. Rev. D 92 (2), Ragan, et al. (2015b), The 2009 multiwavelength 023521. campaign on Mrk 421: Variability and correlation Archambault, S, A. Archer, T. Aune, Q. Feng, S. studies, A&A 576, A126. Grifn, D. Hanna, A. McCann, K. Ragan, J. Aliu, E, S. Archambault, A. Archer, S. Grifn, Tyler, B. Zitzer, et al. (2016a), Exceptionally D. Hanna, A. McCann, K. Ragan, J. Tyler, Bright TeV Flares from the Binary LS I +61 303, B. Zitzer, et al. (2015a), A Search for Pulsations ApJ. Lett. 817, L7.

About the MSI • 33 Archambault, S, A. Archer, A. Barnacka, Q. Feng, Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background, S. Grifn, D. Hanna, A. McCann, K. Ragan, J. Astrophys. J. 821, 13. Tyler, B. Zitzer, et al. (2016b), Discovery of very high energy gamma rays from 1ES 1440+122, Arzoumanian, Z, A. Brazier, S. Burke-Spolaor, R. MNRAS 461, 202–208. D. Ferdman, V. M. Kaspi, et al. and NANOGrav Collaboration (2015), NANOGrav Constraints Archambault, S, A. Archer, M. Beilicke, Q. Feng, on Gravitational Wave Bursts with Memory, S. Grifn, D. Hanna, A. McCann, K. Ragan, J. Astrophys. J. 810, 150. Tyler, B. Zitzer, et al. and Veritas Collaboration, and Z. D. Hughes (2015), VERITAS Detection of Aubin, F, A. M. Aboobaker, P. Ade, M. Dobbs, et γ-Ray Flaring Activity From the BL Lac Object 1ES al. (2016), Temperature calibration of the E and 1727+502 During Bright Moonlight Observations, B experiment, ArXiv e-prints arXiv:1601.07923 Astrophys. J. 808, 110. [astro-ph.IM].

Archambault, S, A. Archer, W. Benbow, S. Grifn, Barton, A, R. H. Brandenberger, and L. Lin D. Hanna, A. McCann, K. Ragan, J. Tyler, (2015), Cosmic strings and the origin of globular B. Zitzer, et al. and the VERITAS collaboration clusters, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 6, 022. (2016c), Upper Limits from Five Years of Blazar Baxter, E J, J. Clampitt, T. Giannantonio, Observations with the VERITAS Cherenkov R. Chown, G. P. Holder, Y. Omori, et al. Telescopes, AJ 151, 142. (2016), Joint Measurement of Lensing-Galaxy Archer, A, W. Benbow, R. Bird, Q. Feng, S. Correlations Using SPT and DES SV Data, ArXiv Grifn, D. Hanna, A. McCann, K. Ragan, J. e-prints arXiv:1602.07384. Tyler, B. Zitzer, et al. (2016), TeV Gamma-Ray Baxter, E J, R. Keisler, S. Dodelson, M. A. Dobbs, Observations of the Galactic Center Ridge by G. P. Holder, et al. (2015a), A Measurement of VERITAS, Astrophys. J. 821, 129. Gravitational Lensing of the Cosmic Microwave Archibald, A M, S. Bogdanov, A. Patruno, V. M. Background by Galaxy Clusters Using Data from Kaspi, S. P. Tendulkar, et al. (2015a), Accretion- the South Pole Telescope, Astrophys. J. 806, 247. powered Pulsations in an Apparently Quiescent Baxter, E J, R. Keisler, S. Dodelson, M. A. Dobbs, Neutron Star Binary, Astrophys. J. 807, 62. G. P. Holder, et al. (2015b), A Measurement of Archibald, R F, E. V. Gotthelf, R. D. Ferdman, Gravitational Lensing of the Cosmic Microwave V. M. Kaspi, S. P. Tendulkar, et al. (2016), A Background by Galaxy Clusters Using Data from High Braking Index for a Pulsar, ApJ. Lett. 819, the South Pole Telescope, Astrophys. J. 806, 247. L16. Berger, P, L. B. Newburgh, M. Amiri, M. Dobbs, Archibald, R F, V. M. Kaspi, A. P. Beardmore, A. J. Gilbert, D. Hanna, J. Mena, S. Siegel, et al. (2015b), On the Braking Index of the Unusual et al. (2016), Holographic Beam Mapping of High-B Rotation-Powered Pulsar PSR J1846- the CHIME Pathfnder Array, ArXiv e-prints 0258, Astrophys. J. 810, 67. arXiv:1607.01473 [astro-ph.IM].

Arzoumanian, Z, A. Brazier, S. Burke-Spolaor, Bhattacharya, B, D. London, J. M. Cline, G. R. D. Ferdman, V. M. Kaspi, et al. and The Dupuis, et al. (2015), Quark-favored scalar dark NANOGrav Collaboration (2016), The NANOGrav matter, Phys. Rev. D 92 (11), 115012. Nine-year Data Set: Limits on the Isotropic Bramberger, S F, R. H. Brandenberger, J. Quintin, et al. (2015), Cosmic string loops as the

34 • About the MSI seeds of super-massive black holes, J. Cosmol. Cowan, N B, G. Holder, and N. A. Kaib (2016), Astropart. Phys. 6, 007. Cosmologists in Search of Planet Nine: The Case for CMB Experiments, ApJ. Lett. 822, L2. Brandenberger, R, R. Costa, and G. Franzmann (2015), Can backreaction prevent Crawford, T M, R. Chown, G. P. Holder, M. eternal infation? Phys. Rev. D 92 (4), 043517. A. Dobbs, et al. (2016a), Maps of the Magellanic Clouds from Combined South Pole Telescope and Brandenberger, R H (2015), String gas cosmology Planck Data, ArXiv e-prints arXiv:1605.00966. after Planck, Classical and Quantum Gravity 32 (23), 234002. D’Ammando, F, M. Orienti, J. Finke, A. McCann, K. Ragan, J. Tyler, B. Zitzer et al. (2015), The Capellupo, DM, H. Netzer, P. Lira, B. most powerful faring activity from the NLSy1 Trakhtenbrot, and J. Mejía-Restrepo (2016), Active PMN J0948+0022, MNRAS 446, 2456–2467. galactic nuclei at z~1.5-III. Accretion discs and black hole spin, MNRAS 460, 212–226. de Haan, T, B. A. Benson, L. E. Bleem, M. A. Dobbs, G. P. Holder, et al. (2016a), Chen, G, H. An, V. M. Kaspi, F. A. Harrison, Cosmological Constraints from Galaxy Clusters K. K. Madsen, and D. Stern (2016), NuSTAR in the 2500 square-degree SPT-SZ Survey, ArXiv Observations of the Young, Energetic Radio Pulsar e-prints arXiv:1603.06522. PSR B1509-58, Astrophys. J. 817, 93. Degenaar, N, R. Wijnands, A. Bahramian, A. Choquette, J, and J. M. Cline (2015), Minimal Cumming, et al. (2015), Neutron star crust non-Abelian model of atomic dark matter, Phys. cooling in the Terzan 5 X-ray transient Swift Rev. D 92 (11), 115011. J174805.3-244637, MNRAS 451, 2071–2081.

Choquette, J, J. M. Cline, and J. M. Cornell Deibel, A, A. Cumming, E. F. Brown, et al. (2015), (2016), p -wave annihilating dark matter from A Strong Shallow Heat Source in the Accreting a decaying predecessor and the Galactic Center Neutron Star MAXI J0556-332, ApJ. Lett. 809, excess, Phys. Rev. D 94 (1), 015018. L31.

Cohn, J D, M. White, T.-C. Chang, G. Holder, N. Deming, D, H. Knutson, J. Kammer, N. Cowan, et Padmanabhan, and O. Doré (2016), Combining al. (2015), Spitzer Secondary Eclipses of the Dense, galaxy and 21-cm surveys, MNRAS 457, 2068– Modestly-irradiated, Giant Exoplanet HAT-P-20b 2077. Using Pixel-level Decorrelation, Astrophys. J. 805, Colangelo-Lillis, Jesse, Boswell A. Wing, and 132. Lyle G. Whyte (2016), Low viral predation Errard, J, P. A. R. Ade, Y. Akiba, M. Dobbs, A. pressure in cold hypersaline arctic sediments Gilbert, et al. (2015), Modeling Atmospheric and limits on lytic replication, Environmental Emission for CMB Ground-based Observations, Microbiology Reports 8 (2), 250–260. Astrophys. J. 809, 63.

Cowan, N B, T. Greene, D. Angerhausen, N. E. Ferdman, R D, R. F. Archibald, and V. M. Batalha, M. Clampin, K. Colón, I. J. M. Crossfeld, Kaspi (2015), Long-term Timing and Emission J. J. Fortney, B. S. Gaudi, J. Harrington, N. Behavior of the Young Crab-like Pulsar PSR Iro, C. F. Lillie, J. L. Linsky, M. Lopez-Morales, B0540-69, Astrophys. J. 812, 95. A. M. Mandell, and K. B. Stevenson (2015), Characterizing Transiting Planet Atmospheres Furniss, A, K. Noda, S. Boggs, S. Grifn, K. through 2025, PASP 127, 311–327. Ragan, B. Zitzer, et al. (2015), First NuSTAR

About the MSI • 35 Observations of Mrk 501 within a Radio to TeV et al. (2016c), “Cold adaptive traits revealed Multi-Instrument Campaign, Astrophys. J. 812, by comparative genomic analysis of the 65. eurypsychrophile rhodococcus sp. jg3 isolated from high elevation McMurdo dry valley Giannantonio, T, P. Fosalba, R. Cawthon, Y. permafrost, Antarctica, FEMS Microbiology Omori, G. Holder, G. Simard, et al. (2016), Ecology 92 (2), 10.1093/femsec/fv154. CMB lensing tomography with the DES Science Verifcation galaxies, MNRAS 456, 3213–3244, Gourgouliatos, K N, and A. Cumming (2015), Hall arXiv:1507.05551. drift and the braking indices of young pulsars, MNRAS 446, 1121–1128. Gomez, N, L. J. Gregoire, J. X. Mitrovica, et al. (2015a), Laurentide-cordilleran ice sheet saddle Graef, L L, and R. Brandenberger (2015a), A collapse as a contribution to meltwater pulse 1a, note on trans-Planckian tail efects, J. Cosmol. Geophysical Research Letters 42 (10), 3954–3962, Astropart. Phys. 9, 032. 2015GL063960. Graef, L L, and R. Brandenberger (2015b), Gomez, Natalya (2015), Climate science: Small Breaking of spatial difeomorphism invariance, glacier has big efect on sea-level rise, Nature 526 infation and the spectrum of cosmological (7574), 510–512. perturbations, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 10, 009.

Gomez, Natalya, David Pollard, and David Hanna, D, L. Sagnières, P. J. Boyle, et al. (2015), Holland (2015b), Sea-level feedback lowers A directional gamma-ray detector based on projections of future antarctic ice-sheet mass loss, scintillator plates, Nuclear Instruments and Nature Communications 6, 8798 EP . Methods in Physics Research A 797, 13–18.

Goordial, Jacqueline, Alfonso Davila, Charles Hezaveh, Y D, N. Dalal, D. P. Marrone, G. P. W. Greer, Rebecca Cannam, Jocelyne DiRuggiero, Holder, et al. (2016), Detection of Lensing Christopher P. McKay, and Lyle G. Whyte (2016a), Substructure Using ALMA Observations of the Comparative activity and functional ecology of Dusty Galaxy SDP.81, Astrophys. J. 823, 37. permafrost soils and lithic niches in a hyper-arid polar desert, Environmental Microbiology. Horowitz, C J, D. K. Berry, C. M. Briggs, A. Cumming, et al. (2015), Disordered Nuclear Goordial, Jacqueline, Alfonso Davila, Denis Pasta, Magnetic Field Decay, and Crust Cooling Lacelle, Lyle G Whyte, et al (2016b), Nearing the in Neutron Stars, Physical Review Letters 114 (3), cold-arid limits of microbial life in permafrost of 031102. an upper dry valley, Antarctica, ISME J 10 (7), 1613–1624. Kaib, N A, and N. B. Cowan (2015a), Brief follow- up on recent studies of Theia’s accretion, Icarus Goordial, Jacqueline, Isabelle Raymond- 258, 14–17. Bouchard, Jennifer Ronholm, Lyle Whyte, et al.(2015), Improved-high-quality draft Kaib, N A, and N. B. Cowan (2015b), The feeding genome sequence of rhodococcus sp. jg-3, a zones of terrestrial planets and insights into Moon eurypsychrophilic actinobacteria from antarctic formation, Icarus 252, 161–174. dry valley permafrost, Standards in Genomic Kammer, J A, H. A. Knutson, M. R. Line, N. B. Sciences 10, 61. Cowan, et al. (2015), Spitzer Secondary Eclipse Goordial, Jacqueline, Isabelle Raymond- Observations of Five Cool Gas Giant Planets and Bouchard, Yevgen Zolotarov, Lyle Whyte

36 • About the MSI Empirical Trends in Cool Planet Emission Spectra, Objects among Radio Pulsars, Astrophys. J. 808, Astrophys. J. 810, 118. 130.

Karako-Argaman, C, V. M. Kaspi, R. S. Lynch, E. Lynch, R S, R. F. Archibald, V. M. Kaspi, C. Madsen, et al. (2015), Discovery and Follow- and P. Scholz (2015), Green Bank Telescope up of Rotating Radio Transients with the Green and Swift X-Ray Telescope Observations of the Bank and LOFAR Telescopes, Astrophys. J. 809, Galactic Center Radio Magnetar SGR J1745-2900, 67. Astrophys. J. 806, 266.

Keek, L, A. Cumming, Z. Wolf, et al. (2015), The MacLeod, A M L, P. J. Boyle, D. S. Hanna, et imprint of carbon combustion on a superburst al. (2015), Development of a Compton imager from the accreting neutron star 4U 1636-536, based on bars of scintillator, ArXiv e-prints MNRAS 454, 3559–3566. arXiv:1506.05150.

Keisler, R, S. Hoover, N. Harrington, M. A. Masui, K, M. Amiri, L. Connor, D. Hanna, et al. Dobbs, A. Gilbert, G. P. Holder, et al. (2015a), (2015), A compression scheme for radio data in Measurements of Sub-degree B-mode Polarization high performance computing, Astronomy and in the Cosmic Microwave Background from 100 Computing 12, 181–190. Square Degrees of SPTpol Data, Astrophys. J. 807, 151. McGraw, S M, J. C. Shields, F. W. Hamann, D. M. Capellupo, et al. (2015), Constraining FeLoBAL Keisler, R, S. Hoover, N. Harrington, M. A. outfows from absorption line variability, MNRAS Dobbs, A. Gilbert, G. P. Holder, et al. (2015b), 453, 1379–1395,. Measurements of Sub-degree B-mode Polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background from 100 Medin, Z, and A. Cumming (2015), Time- Square Degrees of SPTpol Data, Astrophys. J. 807, dependent, Compositionally Driven Convection in 151. the Oceans of Accreting Neutron Stars, Astrophys. J. 802, 29. Knispel, B, A. G. Lyne, B. W. Stappers, R. Ferdman, V. M. Kaspi, E. Madsen, C. Mejía-Restrepo, JE, B. Trakhtenbrot, P. Lira, D.M. Patel, P. Scholz, et al. (2015), Einstein@Home Capellupo, et al. (2016), Active galactic nuclei at Discovery of a PALFA Millisecond Pulsar in an ~1.5-II. Black hole mass estimation by means of Eccentric Binary Orbit, Astrophys. J. 806, 140. broad emission lines, MNRAS 460, 187–211.

Lazarus, P, A. Brazier, J. W. T. Hessels, V. M. Moghaddam, H B, R. H. Brandenberger, Y.-F. Kaspi, E. Madsen, C. Patel, P. Scholz, R. Cai, and E. G. M. Ferreira (2015), Parametric Ferdman, et al. (2015), Arecibo Pulsar Survey resonance of entropy perturbations in massless Using ALFA. IV. Mock Spectrometer Data preheating, International Journal of Modern Analysis, Survey Sensitivity, and the Discovery of Physics D 24, 1550082. 40 Pulsars, Astrophys. J. 812, 81. Mykytczuk, N C S, J. R. Lawrence, C. R. Omelon, Lin, L, S. Yamanouchi, and R. Brandenberger L. G. Whyte, et al. (2016), Microscopic (2015), Efects of cosmic string velocities and the characterization of the bacterial cell envelope of origin of globular clusters, J. Cosmol. Astropart. planococcus halocryophilus or1 during subzero Phys. 12, 004. growth at 15˚c, Polar Biology 39 (4), 701–712.

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