BAS AL FINANCING PROGRAM FOR SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE
ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT
GUIDELINES The report should be written following the format specified hereafter. It should cover only the annual period of execution (or th e specific period indicated within) Once it is completed, it should be sent in printed to the following address: Programa De Investigación Asociativa - CONICYT Mailing address: Moneda 1375, quinto piso, Santiago Centro E - mail: Phone: For further inquirie s contact:
INDEX
I. PRESENTATION ...... 2
II. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS MADE ...... 6
III. OBJECTIVES AND RESULTS ACHIEVED ...... 8
I V. PROJECT MANAGEMENT ...... 27
V . LESSONS LEARNED ...... 28
V I. PERFORMANCE INDICATORS ...... 29
V II. FINANCIAL STATEMENT ...... 30
REPORT PERIOD : 6 th Year X 7 th Year □ 8 th Year □ 9 th Year □
PERIOD COVERED : From January to December 2013
I. PRESENTATION
NAME OF THE CENTER COD E Centro de Astrofísica y Tecnologías Afí nes (CATA) PFB - 06 DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER SIGNATUR E María Teresa Ruiz
EXECUTIVE / DEPUTY / CO - DIRECTOR
Guido Garay
MANAGER (if applicable) SIGNATURE
SPONSOR ING INSTITUTION (if applicable)
Universidad de Chile
ASSOCIATED INSTITUTION ( S ) (if applicable)
Pontificia Universidad Católica, Universidad de Concepción
CENTER WEBSITE ADDRESS 1
www.cata.cl
1 The home page of the website should contain the logo of CONICYT .
Research Lines (from January - August, 2013)
Other Researchers Princ ipal N° Title Objective (participating in the Researcher line) Barrientos, Bauer, Campusano, Clocchiatti, Demarco, Birth and evolution of structures in Dunner, Galaz, 1. - Area 1 Leopoldo Infante the Universe Jordan, Lira, Lopez, Nagar, Padilla, Quintana, R eisenegger, Treister Catelan, Costa, Chaname, Stellar Populations in the Local Jordan, Mendez, Area 2 Doug Geisler Universe Muñoz, Richtler, Rubio, Ruiz, Villanova, Zoccali Costa, Hamuy, Area 3 Distance Scale Wolfgang Gieren Mennickent, Minnit i Bronfman, Casassus, Area 4 Star Formation Guido Garay Escala, Mardones, Rubio Extrasolar planets and brown Jenkins , Jordan, Area 5 Dante Minniti dwarfs Rojo, Ruiz Clocchiatti, Maza, Area 6 Supernovae and Dark Matter Mario Hamuy Reisenegger Finger , Infante, 2. - A rea 7 Astronomical Instrumentation Leonardo Bronfman Mena, Nagar, Vanzi High Performance Astronomical Cuadra, Escala, Area 8 Alejandro Clocchiatti Computing Fellhauer, Padilla , Area 9 Outreach José Maza Galaz, Nagar
During th e regular meeting of the Principal Researches of CATA held during the month of August, we discussed the resignation of Dr. Mario Hamuy to the CATA project in order to get involved in a full time basis in the direction of the recently approved Millenium Ins titute of Astrophysics MAS. It was then decided that the research done in Supernovae be incorporated in Area 3. I t was also agreed to nominate Dr. Nelson Padilla as the new principal investigator of the High Performa nce Astronomical Computing area .
Research Lines (since September 2013)
Other Researchers Principal N° Title Objective (participating in the Researcher line) Barrientos, Bauer, Campusano, Clocchiatti, Demar co, Birth and evolution of structures in Dunner, Galaz, 1. - Area 1 Leopoldo Infante the Universe Jordan, Lira, Lopez, Nagar, Padilla, Quintana, Reisenegger, Treister Catelan, Costa, Chaname, Jordan, Stellar Populations in the Local Area 2 Doug Geisler Mendez, Muñoz, Universe Richtler, Ruiz, Villanova, Zoccali Clocchiatti, Costa, Area 3 Distance Sc ale Wolfgang Gieren Maza, Mennickent, Minniti, Reisenegger Bronfman, Casassus, Area 4 Star Formation Guido Garay Escala, Mardones, Rubio Extrasolar planets and brown Jordan, Mendez, Area 5 Dante Minniti dwarfs Rojo, Ruiz High Performance Astronomical Cuadra, Escala, Area 6 Nelson Padilla Computing and Simulations Fellhauer Finger, Infante, 2. - Area 7 Astronomical Instrumentation Leonardo Bronfman Mena, Nagar, Vanzi Area 8 Outreach José Maza Galaz, Nagar
Changes in research personnel Indicate any changes in the Staff of Principal Investigators and o ther Investigators as compared to the Development Plan of Continuity. Use this section to introduce information on profiles and roles of newly hired personnel.
Mario Hamuy, a member of the staff of Principal Investigators, presented his resignation to CATA to assume the Dir ection of the recently approved Millenium Institute in Astrophysics MAS supported by the I niciativa C ientifica Milenio.
Advisory Committee Name its members and date of constitution, include new additions and/or drop - offs, d escribe its task (s) , frequency of meeting s , decisions taken and/or recommendations made over the period . Attach report s , if applicable.
T he Advisory Committee of t he CATA is constituted by four distinguished scientists with experience in the direction and/or scientific operation of Internation al Institutes or Observatories . The current members of the Advisory Committee are Dr . Mark Phillips, Director of Magellan Telescopes; Dr. Stephen Heathcotte, Director of Cerro T ololo Interamerican Observator y; Dr. Miguel Roth, D irector of Las Campanas Observatory; and Dr. Massimo Tarenghi, former director of ALMA Observatory . Heath cotte and Tarenghi are new members with the necessary expertize and new views to help us to achieve our goals.
Every two years, the Advisory Committee review s the operation of the Center, visits CATA dependences, and meet s independently with researchers, postdoctoral fellows and students. After the on site visit , the Advisory Committee handles the Center Director a document with a critical view of the Center and recommendations . In 2014 (7 th year) we are organizing an External Committee Visit for the seco nd half of the year.
II. EXECUTI VE S UMMARY OF THE PROGRESS MADE
This section should be written in no more than two page s and must be in relation to the progress made in the reporting period . This information is public and may be published on CONICYT’s web site.
The Centro de Astrofísi ca y Tecnologías Afines (CATA) is hosted by the Universidad de Chil e’s Astronomy Department at Cerro Calán, and has two associated institutions, the Astronomy Department of the Pontificia Universidad Católica and the Astronomy Department of the Universidad de C oncepción.
The main goals of CATA are : produce a significant increase in the astronom ical community working in Chile training, at the highest possible level, researchers, stu dents and specialized engineers, to meet the challenges posed by the newly available facilities and take advantage of the opportunity for technological developments associated with these foreign investments. In addition, CATA support s Chilean astronomers and engineers to become actively involved in the development of new instrum entation, which requires innovation in high technology a nd computer science. The actions taken by the CATA during its first six year s of operation have been very successful in pursuing these goals.
1. Research
CATA continues to provide Chilean astronomer s with the proper environment and tools to engage in astronomical research, giving them the opportunity to undertake ambitious Key projects which have put them at the forefront of astrophysics. These projects favour strong interaction among CATA researcher s and make the best use of all the available research facilities. There are six main areas of astrophysics cultivated by members of the Center:
Birth and evolution of structures in the Universe Stellar populations in the local Universe The extragalactic distance scale Star formation Extrasolar planets and Brown dwarfs High performance computing and simulations
The scientific work performed in all six research areas of the CATA during the sixth year of operation has been con siderab le which is reflected by the 306 papers published by CATA members in refereed journals. Given the ample scope of the research and the amount of work done by CATA members , a fair summary is impracticable. A more detailed report of the principal science results obtained during this period in each of the individual areas of research is p resented in the Objectives and Results section. The list of refereed (ISI) publications is presented in the Table. In summary, research activities in all areas proceeded intensely fully in - line with th e initial science objectives as well as broadening their scope.
2. Human resources
CATA continues to bring forth an increase in the number of new researchers and engineers working at the three associated institutions. During the last two year s of oper ation, CATA hired three astronomers : Julio Chaname, James Jenkins and Sandro Villanova and one engineer : Ricardo Finger on a full - time basis. This brings to eighteen (18) the total number of new researchers incorporated to the Center. We also recall that d uring its first year of operation, CATA incorporated into the research and academic activities of the Center twenty new scientists at the different institutions. The research interests of Dr. Chaname (hired at Pontificia Universidad Catolica ) include stel lar dynamics, stellar structure and evolution in the Milky Way and Local Group galaxies . Dr. Jenkins, hired at Universidad de Chile, is involved in a long term ef fort to discover and characteriz e extra - solar planets in the southern hemisphere, detect ion o f short period transiting planets around bright stars and detect ion of
the lowest mass planets, down to Earth - mass regime . Dr. Villanova ’s research interest , hired at Universidad de Concepció n, is the study of stellar systems like stellar clusters and near by dwarf galaxies. Dr. Finger, hired at Universidad de Chile , is working in technology i ntegration and scientific - technological projects. His expertise is mostly in laboratory work, building physics and astronomical instrumentation, as well as on - field com missioning of astronomical instruments. He is currently man aging instrument building and doing research on mill imeter/sub - millimeter receivers and high speed radio - astronomy digital signal processing .
3. Formation
CATA is supporting the formation of huma n resources in astrophysics of the Astronomy programs in its three associated universities . During 2013 there were forty six (46 ) Ph.D. students in astronomy and forty one (41 ) students in Maste r's in Astrophysics programs . Most of these students have take n advantage of the Center by being granted funds in order to participate in observing runs at the International Observatories in Chile and/or to attend national and international meetings. During 2013, more than fifty graduate and underg raduate students we re working on individual scie nce projects associated with CATA research lines .
CATA is substantiall y contributing to the support of a large number of postdoctoral fellows at their associated Institutions, providing either full fellowships or resources for their travels and operations. Post - doctoral associates turn out to be key elements in establishing strong scientific collaborations between all associated astronomical Institutions. Duri ng 2013 there were a total of 63 postdoctoral fellows working in the institutions associated to CATA.
The Center has hosted several scientists from abroad. Their expertise on different astrophysical topics has enhanced the activities of the Center. In addition to the research collaborations with Center members, the visitin g scientists have played an important role in the teaching of astrophysics in our Ph.D. programs.
Collaborative work among Center members continues to increase, ensuring the fulfilment of one of the scientific goals of the Center which is to boost strong scientific collaborations between members of the different participant institutions. In particular, CATA is encouraging scientists from the three Chilean institutions to work together in large collaborative projects that are beyond the scope of small rese arch groups. Key programs have been already implemented and granted considerable amounts of observing time in several telescopes at the International Observatories in Chile.
4 . Technological development
During 2013, CATA continued to play a key role in the development of high technology in Chile. The initiatives in astronomical instrumentation and high performance ast ronomical computing, which involve professors of electrical engineering and engineering students fr om the associated institutions, are mov i ng successfully and as expected . CATA is allowing the production of high technology astronomical products, and has become the seed for the development of engineering and industry in the country. All of these technology efforts are expected to have an impo rtant impact on the relation and access of Chilean engineers to the new astronomical Mega - projects being built in Chile, such as ALMA and the E - ELT.
In summary, the activities carried out during 2013 , in both the research and devel opment of high technolog y areas , have been considerable and in accord with the proposed Continuity Plan.
III. OBJECTIVES AND RESULT S ACHIEVED
Considering the objectives established in the Continuity Plan for this period , in no more than 20 pages describe the results achieved durin g the period . Refer also to those objectives that have not been accomplished indicating the reasons.
1. - Scientific and technological research of excellence with national and international scope and collaboration.
The scientific contributions from the m embers of the Center for Astrophysics and Associated Technologies (CATA) during its 6 th year of operation are fully in accord with the science goals as formulated in the original prop osal. Three hundred and seven (307 ) papers have been published in re feree d journals during year 2013 . The list of refereed (ISI) publications is presented in the enclosed Table. Given the amount of publications, it is not possible to give a complete and exhaustive view of all the research carried out during the past year. In s ummary, research activities in all areas proceeded intensely in - line with the initial science objectives and broadening their scope. A summary of the principal science results obtained during the second year of activities in each of the individual areas of research is presented in what follows.
Area 1: Birth and evolution of structures in the universe (P.I. L. Infante)
The research in this area is organized in two sub - areas: Large Scale Structure and Cosmology and Formation and Evolution of Galaxies, a nd involves a large number of researchers from all 3 institutions.
Sub - area 1. Large Scale Structure and Cosmology
Cosmological galaxy formation simulations. On the modeling side, Center members have included for the first time the effect of slews and f lips in the discs of our simulated galaxies which allow a better agreement between the observed and simulated luminosity functions. This new physical, parameter free treatment makes massive elliptical galaxies form stars faster in their earlier phases, an d at a slower rate at late times, imprinting a downsizing trend in better agreement with the observed one. Preparing for the era of ALMA observations of high redshift galaxies, Center members are in the final stages of applying a novel technique to determi ne the physical processes of submm emission in galaxies. One of our PhD students has developed the "count matching" technique that consists in ranking simulated galaxies in a light - cone by the numerical value of a proxy for submm luminosity, and assigning to them ordered Monte - Carlo sub - mm fluxes that reproduced the observed counts. Then by applying a flux limit the resulting galaxy samples depend on the proxy used. They then compare the resulting distributions of redshift, stellar mass, star formation r ate, metallicity and gas fractions to those determined observationally, and this way they can determine which proxy is the best at mimicking the observational selection. In preparation for LSST, Center members have participated actively in the Galaxies col laboration, and have constructed mock lightcones of the deep drilling fields to be surveyed by LSST. The results have been placed in a website and publicized to the LSST collaboration. These mocks will allow testing the feasibility of galaxy, and possibly , clustering studies with the deep drilling fields.
Baryonic Acoustic Oscilations (BAO.) Center researchers have made progress on the ATLAS Chile u - band extension. The VST ATLAS is a Southern sky imaging survey that will cover an ≈ 4500 square degrees area over both Galactic Caps with 90 - 120sec exposures in ugriz. A key difference of the ATLAS relative to the DES survey is that it will have u - band coverage. The u band is vital for deep surveys of quasars and also for photo - z survey s of galaxies. They have been granted Chilean VST time in P89 - P93. A QSO redshift survey based on VST ATLAS will then be able to reach g = 22.5 (i.e. u = 22.2). The quasar sky density will then reach ≈ 105/square degrees, effectively doubling the number of survey quasars to a total of ≈ 500000, allowing a significant detection of the BAO scale
while matching the expected depth of the X - ray AGN survey from e - Rosita. This extension is thus improving the overall scientific potential of the ATLAS survey, benefi ting all its related projects. The total area of the survey is 4711 squared degrees. The Chilean u - band extension therefore needs to survey ≈ 1000 sq. degrees per semester to keep pace with ATLAS. They were allocated ≈ 70h of VST time in the four previous semesters and 43h in the current one. They will request similar amount of times in the following two semesters to complete the full ATLAS area.
Sub - area 2. Formation and Evolution of Galaxies
Nearby Galaxies . Center members are studying different aspects of nearby galaxies. In particular, they are working on sub - mm studies of the dense gas in the starburst M82, using observations from the CARMA interferometer. The study is mainly focused on the extraplanar emission from the embedded and powerful disk of M8 2. Many molecules like HCN, HNC, HCO+ and others detected in the outflows are included in the study. They are also carrying out a study on Malin 1, the largest and one of the more diffuse disk galaxies in the universe. Observations with Magellan (Four Star s and Megacam), will allow to obtain the deepest optical and near - IR to date for this enigmatic galaxy, exhibiting a size of more than 150 kpc in radius and a disk surface brightness of about 26 mag per squared arcsec. Several unsolved issues regarding the ir structure and stellar distributions will be settled with these observations.
In an effort to maximize the scientific efficiency of ALMA, and enable studies of galaxy evolution in very large samples of galaxies, Center members are: (a) refining the tec hnique of estimating molecular gas masses from a single sub - mm (~850micron) flux. They are using Planck sub - mm fluxes of nearby galaxies with measurements of the CO line to fully characterize the scaling between the two quantities, and its dependence on e. g., metallicity, IR luminosity, presence of mergers; and (b) refining the CO Tully - Fisher relationship for normal galaxies, mergers, ULIRGs and SMGs, so that a single molecular gas linewidth (e.g. CO) from ALMA can be used to estimate the stellar and baryo nic mass of these.
AGNs . Center members are studying a sample of nearby active galaxies using both Integral Field Unit (IFU) optical spectroscopy with Gemini - GMOS and ALMA. Most recently they found ionized gas inflows in NGC 2110 and NGC 7213. They have obtained ALMA Cycle 1 time to image the CO J=2 - 1 morphology and dynamics in five galaxies in their IFU samples which show strong ionized gas inflows, likely the skin of a more massive molecular inflow into the central hundred parsec scale nucleus. They are also analyzing the nuclear stellar and ionized gas kinematics of ~40 (active and 'control' inactive) galaxies observed with the Magellan/IMACS - IFU. They are also participating in mmVLBI with the proto - EHT, currently four stations including APEX in Chile. Fringes to SgrA*, M87 and other powerful AGN were obtained for the first time between APEX and US stations in March 2013, and have analysed ~50 micro - arcsec imaging experiments. In addition, they are trying to kick - start a strong gravity ray - tracing grou p that will simulate, in GR and alternative gravity theories, the images expected from the EHT. Regarding Nearby AGN, Center members are making use of the recently launched NuSTAR observat ory, which has revolutionized high - energy astrophysics. The y are act ive participants in the NuSTAR working groups for AGN Physics, Obscured AGN, an d Extragalactic surveys and are involved in NuSTAR observations of the nearby Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN ) containing g rowing supermassive black holes , the Circinus Galaxy and NGC 1068, both of which stand to set a benchmarks for descriptions of all obscured AGN. Within the obscured AGN and AGN physics working groups, they have participated in a number of other studies of obscured accretion in galaxy mergers, powerful quasars, a nd diverse nearby AGN. On the extragalactic survey side, th ey have been active participants in the planning, execution, reduction, identification and characterization, including measuring distances, for new X - ray emitters discovered by NuSTAR at high energ ies (E>8 keV), and Chandra at lower energies (E<8keV). Our CATA team has used its access to large telescopes installed in Chile to follow - up a number of newly discovered objects with the VLT, Magellan, Gemini, and other telescopes.
Regarding distant AGN, Center members have been working on a few large optical and near - infrared multi - object spectrograph observing programs with MMIRS on Magellan and VIMOS on VLT, to observe X - ray and IR - selected AGN at z>1, in order to secure distances to them and spectrally characterize their nature at rest - frame optical and UV wavelengths, for better comparison to local analogs. They very recently received high - quality pipeline data products from the Harvard MMIRS instrument team which represents a significant increase in t he total number of identified objects above z~2 and should push the identification completeness of the high - redshift tail of AGN in the Chandra Deep Field - South region up significantly, as well as demonstrate the limitations of photometric redshifts for th e faintest and most distant objects.
Galaxy Clusters . Center members were granted two ESO programs aimed at obtaining Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS) data on a sample of six distant galaxy clusters using KMOS at the VLT. Most of these clusters are part of the HAWK - I Cluster Survey. The KMOS observations are designed to detect the H - alpha emission from cluster galaxies down to a SFR limit of 5 solar masses per year with a signal - to - noise ratio of 10 per angström. A first preliminary processing of the data in hand using the SPARK software developed by the KMOS consortium has yielded H - alpha emission maps for two out of the 22 targets in J0152. In the incoming months, a more refined processing and the addition of more data should allow us to obtain higher si gnal - to - noise ratios and perform direct measurements of SFRs, velocity and velocity dispersion fields for the targeted galaxies. IFS data is fundamental to study the kinematics and structure of the ionized gas component of galaxies at both low and high re dshift. This information is highly relevant in order to understand the physical processes affecting the star formation activity of galaxies during their evolution. Particularly interesting is the study of the star - formation quenching in distant cluster gal axies in an effort to understand whether nature or nurture is the main responsible for the formation of the so called red - sequence in the color - magnitude diagram of galaxy clusters.
Cent er members continued to work on The Atacama Cosmology Telescope sc ience. The identification and follow up of the SZ detected clusters have provided with several tens of new clusters. One of our MSc students lead the analysis of the SZ - mass scaling relations, measuring dynamical masses for a sample of 16 and comparing th em with their SZ signal, providing a well - defined scaling relation. Researchers also continued to work on The Quasars Behind Clusters QbC program and published their final result on the identification of the galaxies producing the MgII absorption signature in distant QSOs, as well, as establishing the whether these absorptions were produced on the clusters (cluster galaxies) or not. Most of the MgII absorption candidates turned out to be in the clusters. This analysis will continue with higher redshift clus ter and/or larger sample of QSO - cluster pairs.
High - z Universe . Our CATA group have begun a few collaborative investigations into objects at very high redshift (z>5) as detected by in the Hubble Frontier Fields. The first data from this novel HST program h ave already led to some interesting and intriguing results. The group is currently pursuing redshift confirmation of a few viable z~7 candidates. They have also proposed for ALMA observations to observe the same field in the submm and in CO lines, to chara cterize the star - forming properties of objects near the peak of the star formation epoch (z~2) all the way out to objects potentially just forming their first stars (z~7). ALMA observing time was granted in cycle 1 to detect Carbon C[I I] at z=6.18 line on a Quadruple - Imaged lensed galaxy behind the CLASH cluster MACS0329 and at z=6.027 multiply - image lensed galaxy in Abell 383 . Observations have been carried out. These will be the first spectroscopic confirmed redshifts at high z by using C[II] emission l ine as a probe.
Area 2: Stellar Populations in the Local Universe (P.I. D. Geisler)
This Area remains active and productive, involving researchers from all 3 institutions. Work has traditionally been divided into 3 main subtopics: globular cluster sys tems of more distant galaxies, stellar populations in nearby galaxies, and stellar populations in the Galaxy.
Globular Cluster Systems .
The impact of galaxy harassment on the globular cluster systems of early - type cluster dwarf galaxies. The dynamics of globular cluster systems (GCSs) around galaxies are often used to assess the total enclosed mass, and even to constrain the dark matter distribution. The GCS of a galaxy is typically assumed to be in dynamical equilibrium within the potential of the host g alaxy. However cluster galaxies are subjected to a rapidly evolving and, at times, violently destructive tidal field. The impact of the harassment on the dynamics of GCs surrounding early type cluster dwarfs was investigated by Center members using numeric al simulations. The dynamical behaviour of the GCS is strongly influenced by the fraction of bound dark matter remaining in the galaxy. Only when this falls to about 15%, do stars and GCs begin to be stripped. Still the observed GC velocity dispersion can be used to measure the true enclosed mass to within a factor of 2, even when the dark matter falls as low as about 3%. This is possible partly because unbound GCs quickly separate from the galaxy body. However even the distribution of bound GCs may spatial ly expand by a factor of 2 - 3. Once the dark matter fraction falls into the < 3% regime, the galaxy is close to complete disruption, and GCS dynamics can no longer be used to reliably estimate the enclosed mass. In this regime, the remaining bound GCS may s patially expand by a factor of 4 to 8. It may be possible to test if a galaxy is in this regime by measuring the dynamics of the stellar disk. If a stellar disk is rotationally supported, it is likely that a galaxy has sufficient dark matter and that the d ynamics of the GCS can be used to reliably estimate the enclosed mass.
Stellar Populations in Nearby Galaxies .
IMF Variations in Ultra - Faint Dwarf Galaxies. Center members present constraints on the stellar initial mass function (IMF) in two ultrafaint dwarf (UFD) galaxies, Hercules and Leo IV, based on deep Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys imaging. The Hercules and Leo IV galaxies are extremely low luminosity, metal poor systems that have only old stellar populations. Because they have long relaxation times, the low - mass stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) can be directly measured by counting stars below the main - sequence turnoff without correcting for dynamical evolution. Over the stellar mass range probed of 0 - 5 - 0.75 solar masses, the IMFs in both galaxies are best fit by power - law slopes of 1.2 - 1.3, much shallower than the canonical Salpeter slope of 2.35 by 5 - 6 _. However, the binary fractions derived are very similar to what is found in the Milky Way. For the handful of galaxie s with directly measured IMFs, a trend exists for the power - law slopes to become shallower (more bottom - light) with decreasing galactic velocity dispersion and metallicity. This trend is qualitatively consistent with results in elliptical galaxies inferred via indirect methods and is direct evidence for IMF variationswith galactic environment.
Stellar Populations in the Galaxy .
The VVV Survey. The Vista Variables in the Via Lactea Survey (VVV) , a key project of Area 2, is a public ESO near - IR variability survey scanning the Milky Way bulge and an adjacent section of the disk. A large number of Center members from all 3 institutions are involved. They have investigated the large - scale metallicity distribution in the Galactic bulge using the large spatial c overage of the VVV to constrain bulge formation scenarios. Photometric metallicities were derived for individual red giant branch stars and used to construct the first global metallicity map of the bulge with a resolution of 30’x 45’. This revealed a clear vertical metallicity gradient of 0.28dex/kpc, with metal - rich stars ([Fe/H] 0) dominating the inner bulge in regions closer to the Galactic plane (|b| < 5). At larger scale heights, the mean metallicity of the bulge population becomes significantly more metal poor. This fits
in the scenario of a boxy bulge originating from the vertical instability of the Galactic bar, formed early via secular evolution of a two - component stellar disk. In another study, optical and near - infrared data of known RR Lyrae (RR L) stars in the bulge were combined in order to study the spatial distribution of its metal - poor component by measuring precise reddening values and distances of 7663 fundamental - mode RRL stars with high - quality photometry. They obtain a distance to the Ga lactic center of R 0 = 8.33 ± 0.14 kpc. The spatial distribution of the RRL stars differs from the structures traced by the predominantly metal - rich red clump (RC) stars. Unlike the RC stars, the RRL stars do not trace a strong bar, but have a more spheroid al, centrally concentrated distribution, showing only a slight elongation in its very center. The different spatial distributions of the metal - rich and metal - poor stellar populations suggest that the Milky Way has a composite bulge.
Multiple Populations i n Globular Clusters. All old Galactic globular clusters (GCs) studied in detail to date host at least two generations of stars, where the second is formed from gas polluted by processed material produced by massive stars of the first. This process can happ en if the initial GC mass exceeds a threshold above which ejecta are retained and a second generation is formed. Determination of this mass threshold is mandatory in order to understand how GCs form. Center members investigated nine giants belonging to the GC Ruprecht 106 were observed with the UVES@VLT2 spectrograph. Spectra cover a wide range and allow one to measure accurate abundances for many elements. These data show that Ruprecht 106 is the first convincing example of a single population GC (i.e., a true simple stellar population), although the sample is relatively small. The abundance pattern also points toward an extragalactic origin. Its present - day mass (M = 4.83 10 M ) sets a strong lower limit for the initial mass threshold below which no second generation is formed. Clearly, its initial mass must have been significantly greater, but we have no current constraints on the amount of mass loss during its evolution.
The Gaia - ESO Survey. The Gaia - ESO Survey (GES) is an ESO Large Programme with 300 nig hts on the VLT over 5 years starting in 2012 to observe some 10 5 stars at intermediate resolution with GIRAFFE and 10 4 stars at high resolution with UVES to calibrate and complement data obtained with the recently launched GAIA satellite. The combination o f uniform abundances and velocities from GES and eventual GAIA astrometry will revolutionize our knowledge of the Milky Way. Targets include field stars, GCs and some 100 open clusters and cover all major Galactic components including the thin and thick di sks, bulge and halo. The Universidad de Concepción is one of the nodes involved in analyzing cluster data. Results for the open cluster Trumpler 20 yield greatly improved parameters including distance, age, reddening and metallicity.
Area 3: The Extrag alactic Distance Scale. (P.I. W. Gieren)
The principal area of study in this period in Area 3 has been a very extensive program on late - type, double - lined spectroscopic binaries in the Magellanic Clouds and in the Galactic bulge. These systems, which are excellent distance tracers, are composed of two giant stars and have orbital periods from about 100 - 800 days, a fact which makes it necessary to observe them for years to complete the datasets needed for a full analysis of their orbits, physical parameter s of their component stars, and distances. Researchers have observed 34 systems in the LMC, 15 in the SMC and 27 in the bulge, taking advantage of existing optical light curves from the OGLE Project and collecting high - resolution spectra of these relative ly faint systems at the Las Campanas Observatory Magellan 6.5 - m and ESO 3.6 - m telescopes, together with near - infrared photometry at the ESO NTT telescope, which is necessary for the distance solutions.
In 2013, they finished the analysis of the first 8 LM C systems and derived the most accurate - ever distance to the LMC (±2%). This work has quickly become the standard reference in the field, with more than 40 citations in its first year. Researchers have started programs to determine interferometric angular diameters of 35 red clump giants with the CHARA interferometer; these data will lead to an extremely well - defined surface brightness - (V - K) color relation, which currently
constitutes the largest source of uncertainty for the distance determination from the eclipsing binary method. The expected improvement will make it possible to reduce the LMC distance uncertainty to 1%, which will go a long way to reduce the uncertainty on the Hubble constant to 2% from the Cepheid/SN Ia method. This will be a breakthroug h for cosmological studies and is one of the principal science goals of the CATA distance scale work. Center members have also presented the full analyses of the first 5 SMC eclipsing binaries leading to a ±5% distance determination for the SMC, which is l ikely to be the most accurate value determined to date.
CATA members have continued to work on the improvement of Cepheid variables as standard candles. Work on the mid - infrared Spitzer Cepheid period - luminosity (PL) relation has shown that it is metallic ity - independent but is likely to be nonlinear in the longest periods observed in other galaxies. They have also started a Large Program at ESO in 2012 to measure the metallicity effect on the Cepheid PL relation in optical and near - infrared bands via the d irect distance period range from 3 - 100 days which complicates its usefulness for distance determination. They have finished the LMC Shallow Survey started several years ago with the aim to obtain accurate optical photometry of long - period Cepheids in order to extend the fiducial LMC Cepheid PL relations to the determination to metal - poor Cepheids in the Small Magellanic Clouds using the Infrared Surface Brightness Technique developed by CATA members and collaborators. This is an innovative approach and will lead to accurate results in the next 2 years.
CATA members also started a new program to improve the open cluster ZAMS - fitting distances to Galactic clusters containing Cepheid variables using X - ray, and new spectroscopic and infrared data which in part were taken from the VVV ESO Public Survey led by D. Minniti of CATA. Part of this program is to find host clusters to Cepheids so far not known; we have found definitive evidence for cluster membership for 3 new Cepheids. This work has so far led to an im provement of the calibration of the Cepheid PL relation from the open cluster method by a factor of 2 compared to previous work.
Researchers started a program to interferometrically resolve the companions to nearby Cepheids using the ESO VLTI and to detec t and characterize dust around Cepheids. These studies tend to explore the effects of unresolved companion stars, and of circumstellar dust shells around Cepheids on the PL relation, particularly at near - and mid - infrared wavelengths. A Cepheid distance to the Local Group spiral galaxy M 33 has been determined using the Araucaria Project optical/near - infrared method. The distance is accurate to ±3% and is now the most accurate distance to M 33 in the literature. The Center group has now detected five Cephei d variables being members of eclipsing binary systems in the LMC - no Cepheid in an eclipsing binary was known before! We have determined Cepheid physical properties with unprecedented accuracy, most importantly their dynamical masses. In the case of the bin ary Cepheid OGLE - LMC - CEP - 0227, the mass was measured to 0.7%. The group has performed new pulsation calculations and stellar evolution calculations based on CEP - 0227, and has gained new insight about the evolution of Cepheids and processes including mass l oss and core overshooting. These studies are improving our physical knowledge about Cepheids and make them better distance indicators this way.
Work on RR Lyrae stars has continued in the period. Center members found the first - ever RR Lyrae star in a doub le - lined eclipsing binary in the Galactic bulge - interestingly, the pulsating star turned out to be just mimicking an RR Lyrae pulsator, being actually a very low - mass star and the end - product of close binary evolution. Work on an improved calibration and a pplication of the Flux - Weighted Gravity - Lumnosity Relation (FGLR) obeyed by blue supergiant stars has continued. They have determined FGLR distances accurate to ±5% for the Local Group galaxy NGC 3109 and for the spiral galaxy M 81.
Area 4: Star Form ation. (P.I. G. Garay)
During 2013, the w o rk in this area of CATA has been dominated by the analysis and interpretation of the data obtained with the recently inaugurated ALMA telescope.
ALMA results.
HH46 - 47 outflow. Center members carried out Cycle 0 ALMA observations to study the morphology, kinematics, and entrainment mechanism of the HH 46/47 molecular outflow. A 29 point mosaic, covering the two lobes at an angular resolution of about 3'', detected outflow emission at much higher velocities than previous observations, resulting in significantly higher estimates of the outflow momentum and kinetic energy than previous studies of this source, using the CO(1 - 0) line. The results show that the blue and red lobes are strikingly different and they argue that these differences are partly due to contrasting ambient densities that result in different wind components having a distinct effect on the entrained gas in each lobe. The morphology and the kinematics of the gas in the blue lobe are consistent with m odels of outflow entrainment by a wide - angle wind, and a simple model describes the observed structures in the position - velocity diagram and the velocity - integrated intensity maps. The red lobe exhibits a more complex structure, and there is evidence that this lobe is entrained by a wide - angle wind and a collimated episodic wind. Three major clumps along the outflow axis show velocity distribution consistent with prompt entrainment by different bow shocks formed by periodic mass ejection episodes which take place every few hundred years. Position - velocity cuts perpendicular to the outflow cavity show gradients where the velocity increases toward the outflow axis, inconsistent with outflow rotation. Additionally, they find evidence for the existence of a smal l outflow driven by a binary companion.
G331.512 - 0.103 outflow . Center members undertook ALMA Band 7 (350 GHz) observations towards G331.512 - 0.103, one of the most energetic and luminous molecular outflows known in the Galaxy. The observations revealed a very compact, extremely young bipolar outflow and a more symmetric outflowing shocked shell surrounding a very small region of ionized gas. The velocities of the bipolar outflow are about 70 km s - 1 on either side of the systemic velocity. The expansion vel ocity of the shocked shell is ~24 km s - 1 , implying a crossing time of about 2000 yr. Along the symmetry axis of the outflow, there is a compact feature, most probably a molecular "bullet" of high - velocity dense material. The source is one of the youngest e xamples of massive molecular outflow found associated with a high - mass star.
The HD142527 disk . Center members made ALMA observations of the disk around the young star HD142527, which exhibits a gap. The formation of gaseous giant planets is thought to o ccur in the first few million years after stellar birth and models predict that the process produces a deep gap in the dust component. The ALMA observations indicate that the bulk mass is molecular and lies in the outer disk, whose continuum emission has a horseshoe morphology, and also showed the presence of diffuse CO gas inside the gap, with denser HCO + gas along gap - crossing filaments. The researchers suggest that the putative proto - planets channel outer - disk material into gap - crossing bridges that feed stellar accretion through the inner disk. The estimated flow rate of the gas is in the range of 7×10 - 9 to 2×10 - 7 solar masses per year, which is sufficient to maintain accretion onto the star at the present rate.
Single dish results.
Center members use d the new XFFTS spectrometers installed on the Nanten2 Telescope to map the atomic carbon (CI) emission towards active star forming regions rich in PAHs. They find that the CI emission spatially coincides with the molecular gas as traced by the 13CO emissi on, and that, interestingly, CI is spatially anti - correlated with the 8 micron emission (PAHs). They conclude that atomic carbon is a major coolant in molecular clouds, and thus along with observations at other wavelengths it will be possible to investigat e the energy transfer from star forming cores to molecular
clouds.
Center members mapped the molecular line emission in several tracers, taken as part of the MALT90 survey, toward a dense clump, G0.253+0.016, which represents an example of a clump that may form an Arches - like, high - mass cluster. Recent Herschel data show that while the dust temperature is low (~19 K) toward its centre, on the exterior is higher (~27 K) due to external heating. The new molecular line data reveal that, overall, the morphol ogy of dense gas detected toward G0.253+0.016 matches very well its IR extinction and dust continuum emission. An anti - correlation between the dust and gas column densities toward its centre indicates that the clump is centrally condensed with a cold, dens e interior in which the molecular gas is chemically depleted. The velocity field shows a strong gradient along the clump's major axis, with the blue - shifted side at higher Galactic longitude. The optically thick gas tracers are systematically red - shifted w ith respect to the optically thin and hot gas tracers, indicating radial motions. The gas kinematics and line ratios support the recently proposed scenario in which G0.253+0.016 results from a tidal compression during a recent pericentre passage near SgrA* . Because G0.253+0.016 represents an excellent example of a clump that may form a high - mass cluster, its detailed study should reveal a wealth of knowledge about the early stages of cluster formation.
Center members started a long term project with APEX, in collaboration with other APEX partners, entitled "Structure, Excitation, and Dynamics of the Inner Galactic Interstellar Medium". This is a systematic survey of the southern Galactic plane in the J=2 – 1 molecular transition of 13CO, providing synergy wit h existing 13CO(1 – 0) data from the Three - mm Ultimate Mopra Milky Way Survey . The plan is to map 78 sq deg: - 60 ◦≤ l ≤ +18◦, b = ±0.5◦, at 28′′ resolution. Some science goals are: to investigate the molecular excitation and optical depth in the ISM; study the dynamics of the ISM at all scales (clumps, filaments, and molecular complexes); and measure the star formation process efficiency as a function of environment.
Center members reported the detection of CO in two regions of a local dwarf irregular galax y, WLM, where the metallicity is 13 per cent of the solar value. They used new submillimetre observations and archival far - infrared observations to estimate the cloud masses, which are both slightly greater than 100,000 solar masses. The clouds have produc ed stars at a rate per molecule equal to 10 per cent of that in the local Orion nebula cloud. The CO fraction of the molecular gas is also low, about 3 per cent of the Milky Way value. These results suggest that in small galaxies both star - forming cores an d CO molecules become increasingly rare in molecular hydrogen clouds as the metallicity decreases.
Center members are involved in the HERSCHEL Inventory of The Agents of Galaxy Evolution (HERITAGE) in the Magellanic Clouds project, which is a Herschel Spa ce Observatory open time key program. They mapped the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) at 100, 160, 250, 350, and 500 μm with the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) and Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) instruments on board Herschel using the SPIRE/PACS parallel mode. The overriding science goal of HERITAGE is to study the life cycle of matter as traced by dust in the LMC and SMC. The far - infrared and submillimeter emission is an effective tracer of the interstellar medium (ISM) dust, the most deeply embedded young stellar objects (YSOs), and the dust ejected by the most massive stars. The HERITAGE maps of the LMC and SMC are dominated by the ISM dust emission and bear most resemblance to the trace rs of ISM gas rather than the stellar content of the galaxies. The 250 μm band is the most sensitive and the source catalogs for this band have ~25,000 objects for the LMC and ~5500 objects for the SMC. These data enable studies of ISM dust properties, sub millimeter excess dust emission, dust - to - gas ratio, Class 0 YSO candidates, dusty massive evolved stars, supernova remnants (including SN1987A), H II regions, and dust evolution in the LMC and SMC.
Area 5: Extrasolar Planets and Brown Dwarfs. (P.I. D. Minniti)
The CATA astronomers participated in various discoveries in this Area 5, and a selected resume of the most important scientific papers follows.
After a 6 year search for planets in a sample of 88 stars members of the open cluster M67, which h as the same age and metallicity as the Sun, an international team with participation of CATA members confirmed the existence of 3 planets, one of which orbits a Solar twin. This detection rate is close to the average frequency of planets around stars that are not members of clusters. Aside from HARPS at the 3.6m La Silla telescope this work also used observations from the SOPHIE instrument at the Observatoire de Haute - Provence in France, the Swiss 1.2m Euler telescope at La Silla Observatory and the Hobby Eberly Telescope in Texas, USA. This was highlighted in the ESO PRESS RELEASE 15/01/2014.
Center members performed a photometric search aimed at discovering cool brown dwarfs in the so uthern sky imaged in IR by the VISTA telecope and the Wide - field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), a NASA observatory that scanned the mid - infrared sky from orbit in 2010 and 2011. The aim of the project is to improve our current knowledge of the density o f T dwarfs and the shape of the substellar IMF by identifying a magnitude - limited sample of T dwarfs in the full southern sky. They combined the first data release (DR1) of the VISTA Hemisphere Survey (VHS) and the WISE preliminary data release to extract candidates with red mid - infrared colors and near - to mid - infrared colors characteristics of cool brown d warfs, and discovered tens of T dwarf candidates. Additional measurements confirming the nature of the objects came from large ground - based telescopes ( Magellan, Gemini, VISTA and UKIRT). The team developed a new method that takes advantage of the way in which WISE scans the sky multiple times, allowing the identification of cool brown dwarfs that were fainter than other searches had revealed.
Center mem bers carried out a s earch for BDs in UKIDSS with the purpose of determining the sub - stellar birth rate. From a new population of mid L to mid T dwarfs with effective temperatures of 1100 to 1700 K selected from the UKIDSS Large Area Survey and confirmed wi th infrared spectra from X - Shooter/VLT, this effective temperature range is especially sensitive to the formation history of Galactic brown dwarfs. They attempted to constrain the form of the sub - stellar birth rate in order to differentiate between a flat (stellar like) birth rate and an exponentially decaying form. They found that a more extreme, Halo type birth rate, can be excluded.
Center members are gaining a better understanding of planet formation and evolution, both low and high mass planets, using a combination of instruments in Chile, HARPS, PFS, and UVES, and employing a Bayesian approach to detect low amplitude signals in the combined data series. Their work has led to the discovery of a clutch of new planets, including two systems of super - Ear ths that are located near a 7:5 MMR, and placing occurance rates on the fraction of super - Earths that orbit lom mass M - dwarf stars, including within the Habitable Zone. A highlight of this work was the discovery of the 6 planet system GJ667C, which contai ns three low mass planets in the Habitable Zone, a discovery that made a strong press release. Further up the planet mass scale, the long running CHEPS program using the Coralie and HARPS spectrographs, has produced the detection of 14 planets orbiting 12 stars, all of these are gas giants with a variety of orbital periods, and orbiting mostly metal - rich stars. Further, Center members and collaborators in the Electrical Engineering Department of U. Chile introduced a new method for detection of signals in t ime series data that uses the Minimum Mean Square Error as a basis to work from and perform a global search for any real signals within the dataset.
Center members continue to be closely involved in The HATSouth survey, dedicated to finding bright transiti ng exoplanets (TEPs) systems in the southern hemisphere. It is the largest ground - based search for TEPs, with a three - site network (Australia, Chile, and Namibia) capable of continuously monitoring a 128 sq deg area of sky using twinned 64 sq deg telescope units at each site. The year
2013 was very important, after the first few years that were taken by installation, commissioning, data analysis and spectroscopic follow - up, they published the instrument description paper and have announced to date the disc overy of five transiting exoplanets: HATS - 1b, HATS - 2b, HATS - 3b, HATS - 4b and HATS - 5b.
One of the techniques for characterizing planet atmospheres is transmission spectroscopy, which aims at measuring the apparent planetary radius with wavelength which in turn depends on the wav elength dependent atmospheric o pacity dictated by the physico - chemical state of the atmosphere. Transmission spectroscopy if a challenging technique, as the signals are at best of order 10^ - 3 and buried under large systematic effects when observed f rom the ground. Center members published the first transmission spectrum obtained with the IMACS spectrograph in Magellan, a study that required the development of state - of - the - art data reduction and analysis techniques.
Center members ar e actively participating in the Arizona - CfA - Catolica Exoplanet Spectroscopy Survey (ACCESS), an international, multi - institutional consortium with members from the Harvard - Smithsonian CfA, the University of Arizona, Pontificia Universidad Catolica, MIT, UC Santa Cruz and the Carnegie Institution. The goal of ACCESS is to observe about two dozen planets covering a wide range of mass, radius, atmospheric temperatures and energy irradiation levels, with two main scientific goals: 1) to obtain, for the first ti me, a uniform sample of visible transmission spectra of exoplanets, allowing the study of their atmospheric characteristics as a statistically significant sample, and 2) to mature the technique of ground - based observations of exoplanetary atmospheres for f uture observations of small planets.
Center members and collaborators from the Carnegie planet search team discovered a hot super - Earth and a candidate in the sub - Saturn desert range. There two planetary companions were found from radial velocities measur ed using the Magellan telescope arou nd the K7/M0 dwarf star GJ 221. Two nearby Brown dwarfs were studied also by the CATA scientists and students. A PhD student discovered the first Brown Dwarf in the VVV Survey, located at 17 pc from the Sun. They also c haracterized the nearby L/T Binary Brown Dwarf WISE J104915.57 −531906.1 recently discovered at 2 parsecs from the Sun. In addition, the team announced the discovery of new companions to High Proper Motion stars from the VVV Survey.
Sub - Area Astrobiology:
There has recently been great progress in our understanding of the origins of life, the range of conditions in which life is found on Earth, the chemistry of the Universe, extrasolar planetary systems, and the search for life in the Solar System and beyon d. These themes synergized to create Astrobiology, a truly interdisciplinary science that involves a growing number of researchers from an increasing variety of areas.
To help further this fascinating new field, D. Minniti in collaboration with CATA membe rs organized "ASTROBIO 2013", an International Workshop on Astrobiology with the aims of covering the major topics in Astrobiology, to identify opportunities for new studies, and to promote the development of the Chilean community in this subject. This lar ge workshop on “The distribution of Life on Earth, in the Solar System and the Galaxy”, that was held on 9 - 13 December 2013, at the Campus UNAB La Casona, in Santiago, Chile. The Workshop was attended by professional scientists , post - docs, and advanced st udents from around the world active in the areas of Astronomy, Biology, Physics, Engineering, Medicine, Oceanography, Geophysics, Chemistry, Planetary Physics, and related subjects interested in Astrobiology.
Area 6: High performance computing and sim ulations (P.I. Nelson Padilla)
During 2013, the area was represented in the three CATA institutions and by colleagues involved in both, data and simulation analysis. The major milestones of this year can be separated into infrastructure and science subje cts. R egarding the former, we completed the installation of the new computing cluster acquired with the grant Fondequip AIC - 57, which was applied for under the umbrella of CATA in 2012. The new equipment was open to access by Astronomers in Chile in Dece mber 2013. Additionally, we also applied for and were awarded a QUIMAL project (#130008) for new disk space to increase the storage capacity to half a Petabyte. This new equipment will be acquired and installed in 2014. Clearly, the capacity of the CATA datacenter is increasing in a steady way. Regarding the science milestones, there was intensive work in both the observational and theoretical side.
Data analysis. The computing cluster was extensively used to perform variability studies in the VVV globu lar clusters, which requires to perform PSF photometry in a large number of images. The Geryon cluster allowed us to run these processes as job arrays, and decrease significantly the amount of time required to obtain the photometry of all the epochs for wh ich the survey already has data.
Simulations. There were several new studies carried out fully using the high performance computing capabilities of CATA.
Environmental dependence of galaxy evolution in hybrid models. Using a combination of N - body/hydro dynamical cosmological simulations and semi - analytic modeling we studied the influence of different density environments on the physical properties of galaxies. The current prescriptions for many processes involving baryons, such as gas cooling, star forma tion and energy feedback, are extremely simplified because the physical processes are not understood in detail. In particular, we do not know for certain which process is responsible for the evolution of galaxies from blue, actively star forming systems in to red, passive ones. Our hybrid model takes advantage of the gas particles in simulations to determine the properties of the ICM, and we have implemented into the semi - analytic model environmental effects such as ram pressure and tidal stripping. We have successfully modeled the action of environment on the hot gas haloes of satellite galaxies and how the gradual stripping of those haloes impacts on the star formation rates of satellite galaxies. We obtain a marked improvement over previous implementation s of galaxy formation models; the colors and star formation rates of satellites in our model are in much better agreement with observations. We also 13 find that for haloes with virial mass larger than a few times 10 M ram pressure stripping is the dominan t mechanism for gas removal. Simulated photometric observations obtained from the mock catalogues constructed from our model, incorporating the influence of environment on galaxies, will be compared with data from studies already underway such as SDSS, GA MA, Pan - STARRS and NGVS, determining which properties of galaxies and which signatures of the action of environment can or cannot be properly observed in such surveys.
Large scale structure of the universe. Researchers studied the DM filamentary structure of the cosmic web in cosmological N - body simulations. In particular, they are interested in the Large Scale filaments connected to cluster - size halos, where they can study changes in the internal properties, such as the density profile of the host, or sat ellite distribution by analyzing the accretion history and environment of satellites coming from those filaments when compared with diffuse accretion. They can also use knots, filaments, wall and voids as environment metrics to study halo/galaxy properties on environment. Filaments can be detected using the DM particles or halo distribution, using different methods. In figure 1, we show the filamentary structure in a ~10^15 Msun cluster forming region at z=2. Center members also studied the dynamics of void s, the largest non - structures of the universe, as they comprise quasi spherical regions with less than 10% of the average density of the universe. During 2014, CATA members plan to run cluster - size zoom resimulations to study the accretion history of satel lites through filaments, dynamical friction time - scales, and satellite pairs, study the time evolution of LSS filaments, and resulting halo populations. They also plan to use void statistics
to study differences between different alternative gravity models and General Relativity.
Simulating samples of line emitting galaxies. Researchers have successfully developed a model that predicts the nebular emission budget from star - forming galaxies within the context of a hierarchical galaxy formation model. The ad vent of future wide area emission line surveys motivates a further exploitation of our model to study the clustering of emission - line galaxies (ELGs) in detail. The large - scale structure of the universe is generally known to be traced by galaxies. However, the connection between galaxies and dark matter haloes can be far from trivial. They plan to analyze how galaxies selected by their emission lines effectively trace a halo population of a given mass, and to what extent galaxy properties such as line lumin osity, stellar mass or line equivalent width (EW) can introduce an ‘assembly bias’ to the clustering measurements. On the other hand, they plan to assess the reliability of different star - formation rate tracers in the context of the cosmic star formation h istory. In particular, the inferred SFR of dwarf galaxies depends strongly on the method used (i.e. UV continuum vs. line emission). This could be a signature of a varying Initial Mass Functio n (IMF) or other astrophysical processes that can be incorporate d into our semi - analytical model. These projects require an extensive use of CATA computing facilities. CATA members expect to exploit the computational power of the Geryon supercluster to its performance limit.
Modeling Sub - millimeter Galaxies and Lyman Alpha Emitters. Center members, including a PhD thesis student, use light - cones drawn from a semi - analytic model of galaxy formation in a CDM framework. They construct mock catalogs from these light - cones, for a given angular area and waveband of interest . With this they can compare different model statistics with current observational data, as well as make predictions for future surveys involving a large number of sources. The first application in this work is to explore SMG properties using a count match ing approach, i.e., choosing physical galaxy properties as proxies for their sub - millimeter luminosities, and turning the model catalogs into sub - millimeter maps. The recovered redshift, stellar mass and host halo mass distributions for model SMGs are cons istent with observations, when the sub - millimeter flux is proportional to the product between dust mass and SFR. They also find that the majority of components of blended SMGs are spatially unassociated. The upcoming plan is to extend the technique to the study of LAES. This involves running a DM simulation with better mass resolution than the one used for SMGs, to include smaller DM halos.
Gas dynamics and small scale simulations. Using detailed simulations of galaxies, researchers studied galaxy collisio ns and the subsequent formation of globular clusters due to the merger. Additionally, they studied binary - disk interactions, mass transport in galactic centers and stellar disruptions due to tydal interactions with a massive black hole. They are currently modeling the gas dynamics in the Galactic center, including the interaction of the stellar winds with the outflow produced by the inner accretion flow. This work provides the boundary conditions to interpret the upcoming observations of the enhanced acti vity of Sgr A* expected from the disruption and accretion of the infalling gas cloud G2. On a different topic, they are modeling the dynamics of fragmenting circumbinary discs. If a disc around a binary SMBH is massive enough, it will fragment and form s tars, some of which will be tidally disrupted. In that case an off - center flare will be produced, with a distinct, observable, reverberation signal.
Area 7. Astronomical instrumentation (P.I. L. Bronfman)
ALMA Band 1 optical system production
During the first five years of the BASAL project (2008 - 2012) a mm - wave laboratory (CATA MMW) was set up by CATA at DAS. The lab achieved the successful construction and testing of a prototype of the ALMA Band 1 receiver, and is now involved in the receivers’ ful l production. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA - Taiwan) and DAS. As a consortium partner DAS/CATA is providing a detailed
design and prototype of the optical system of ALMA Band 1 (35 – 52 GHz.), including the horn antenna, infrared filters and lens. DAS/CATA will lead the production of the 73 optical sets to populate the complete ALMA array. Band 1 combines a series of stringent technical specifications, construction rest rictions and cost constraints. Important specifications are that the optical system should meet a total aperture efficiency that exceeds 80%, the angular alignment of the optical beam should be within 5 mrad of the nominal direction, and the added noise du e to the optics should be lower than 10K. The illumination must be frequency independent, thus no mechanical tuning is allowed. If warm optics is present, it cannot interfere with the already - existing common optics of the other bands and the amplitude cali bration device. Further, the 7 and 12 m antennas use the same front end, which leads to different beam tilt angles. The final system prop osed by our CATA team consists of a biconvex one - zone Fresnel lens; a thin goretex membrane and a grooved surface of P TFE as infrared filter at the 15 and 110 K stages; and a compact spline - profile corrugated horn, machined from a single block of duralumin. The feed horn uses a spline design and is optimized to match the required beam parameters. It was designed using a quasi - optical model and optimized with commercial software based on mode matching. The resultant horn is more compact and exhibits better cross - polarization than a standard corrugated horn. For the warm lens we designed a biconvex one - zone Fresnel lens manufactured on a low loss material (HDPE), minimizing the added noise. Corrugations on the lens surfaces reduce the reflection losses down to - 20dB. The full integrated system was valid ated using a complete electromagnetic solver based in the f inite - element method . The calculated aperture efficiency ranges between 77.5 – 81% with a roll - off at lower frequencies. The estimate d noise contribution of the optical system is between 7.5 and 9 K. The proposed solution for compatibility with the 7 meter antennas is through tilting the beam by offsetting the lens respect to the optical axis. They are currently making the first measure ment of the proposed optical system.
LLAMA Band - 1 complete receiver & amplifier development .
The Large Latin American Millimeter Array (LLAMA) Collaboration is an Argentina - Brazil project to build and operate a 12 - m sub - millimeter telescope near Salta. LLAMA will operate in single dish and VLBI modes, together with ALMA, APEX and other radio telescopes. The CATA lab will provide a 50 - GHz high - performance cryogenic receiver similar to ALMA Band 1. CATA members will also play a role in the integration, com missioning and science of the LLAMA observatory, and are participating in the telescope preliminary design and instrumentation plan.. For the receiver, our engi ne ers are using Caltech Cryo - 3 state - of - the - art transistors for the fabrication of the low nois e amplifiers (LNAs). Two different approaches are studied; a hybrid amplifier based on a cryo - 3 transistor and a MMIC; and an amplifier composed of four cryo - 3 transistor stages. The hybrid amplifier has been designed and meas ured in collaboration with the CDT (Centro de Desarrollos Tecnológicos) at Yebes, Spain. The result s show a gain above 28 dB across the band and a mean noise temperature below 17 K. The four - stage amplifier has been designed and the simulations show a gain above 25 dB and a noise temp erature below 19 K across the frequency band.
FPGA based digital spectrometers .
Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) are a novel way to process astronomical sig nals. Its development enables the build ing of end - to - end instruments in the CATA lab, and ha s wide applications to other areas of engineering. The hardware used to perform the signal processing is known as Reconfigurable Open Architecture Computing Hardware (ROACH). It is an open FPGA - based (Xilinx Virtex 5) platform, the product of an internatio nal collaboration, with our lab as a member, led by the Center for Astronomy Signal Processing and Elec tronic Research (CASPER) at U. California, B erkeley. Using this technology, a calibrated digital sideband separating spectrometer for radio astronomy app lications was built in the CATA lab. By now, the lab has developed a family of state - of - the - art digital Fourier Transform spectrometers, with a combination of wind bandwidth and fine resolution unavailable elsewhere. Astronomical signals are down - converted and subsequently digitized by a pair of Analog - to - Digital Converters (ADC) of 3Gsps (giga - sample per second) and 8 bits each. The digital representation of the analog signal is then processed through an FPGA - based
streaming Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). D igital spectrometers have many advantages over previously used analog spectrometers, especially in terms of bandwidth and resolution, both particularly important for the scientific questions to be addressed with next - generation telescopes.
A 3 mm HEMT/F PGA 2SB receiver for the 1.2m MINI Telescope .
An on going PhD thesis aims at upgrading the telescope, with a new digital sideband separating receiver and back - end. This will provide a more sensitive instrument and improved spectral resolution and bandwidt h for science and training purposes. During 2013 the 2SB a prototype receiver was tested at room temperature using a Local Oscillator (LO) at 100 GHz. The receiver was integrated with the digital back - end, showing an image rejection over 40 dB at 100 GHz. This work generated a publication in the Journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. The final sub - harmonic mixers were acquired with concurring funding, and a new LO matching with the new working frequency has been designed. This incl udes the triplexer and Phase Lock Loop (PLL) which will be constructed in the CATA MMW Laboratory at Cerro Calan. The mechanical design of the receiver with the new mixers is now finished pending only the construction of the LO source.
2. - Training of human resources of excellence.
CATA is supporting the formation of human resources in astrophysics in all of the Astronomy programs in the associated universities . During 2013 there were forty six (46 ) Ph.D. students in astronomy (23 at the Pon tificia U niversidad Católica, 16 at the Universidad de Chile, and 7 at the Universidad de Concepción) and forty one (41 ) students in Maste r's in Astrophysics programs (23 at Pontificia Universidad Católica , 9 at the Universidad de Chile , and 9 at the Universidad de Concepción ). Most of these students have taken advantage of the Center being granted funds in order to participate in observing runs at the International Observatories in Chile and/or to attend international meetings. During 2013, more than fifty gradua te and undergraduate students were working in individual scie nce projects associated with CATA research groups .
During the last two years, twelve (12) astronomy student s obtained their Ph.D. degree, 5 at Pontificia Universidad Católica ( Pamela Arriagada, Pia Amigo, Claudio Cáceres , Ivan Lacerna, and Nicolas Viaux), 4 at Universidad de Concepcion ( Paulina Assmann, Renee Mateluna , Roger Leiton, and Francisco Mauro) and 3 at Universidad de Chile (Yanett Contreras, Sergio Hoyer and Matias Jones ). In the same p eriod seventeen (17) studen ts obtained their Master ’s degree.
CATA is also allowi ng a substantial increase in human resources devoted to the development of astronomical instrumentation in Chile . Currently, eight engineer students (2 in the Ph.D. program) are involved in the development, design and construction of different parts of the receivers being built at the CTA MMW Laboratory.
During 2013, the three Institutions associated to the C ATA hosted a total of sixty three (63 ) Postdoctoral fellows. CATA c ontributes in a substantial way in the support of these postdoctoral fellows, providing either full fellowships or resources for their travels and operations. Post - doctoral associates turn out to be key elements in establishing strong scientific collaborat ions between all associated astronomical Institutions.
3. - Application of the research results into actions that contribute to increment the competitiveness of Chilean economy (Industry, civil society and public bodies or policy makers).
Regarding t he astronomical instrumentation area, there are two main ways in which the development of Band 1 receiver technology for ALMA will impact the competitiveness of Chilean economy. The first area is high frequency communications. Through the development of l ocal know - how in the frequency range covered by the Band 1 of ALMA, 31.3 GHz to 45 GHz, Chilean engineers are gaining extremely valuable experience in the field of communications technology, particularly in the field of High Electron Mobility Transistors ( HEMT), which will be used in future high frequency satellite communications. Second, students of the new PhD programs in Electrical Engineering specializing in astronomical instrumentation and carrying on research in receiver technology will form the core of a new high technology nascent industry oriented to satisfy the future receiver maintenance and upgrade needs of the observatories in Chile, both ALMA and others being planned.
There are several other lines of work on instruments and telescopes, at eac h of the branches of the Center, which are also expected to increase the competitiveness of Chilean engineers and have in the near future an impact on the industry. Among them we mention SIMPLE, a project to build a high resolution infrared spectrograph fo r the ESO - ELT. Funding was obtained by one of the CATA associated institutions, namely the Pontificia Universidad Catolica, to participate in a consortium with three other institutes from ESO that will study the feasibility of SIMPLE. The SIMPLE group from PUC involves professors and students of astronomy and engineer ing .
Inno vation and Technology Transfer.
Highly compact antennae for 60 - GHz in - door super - wideband applications : A new, very compact, antenna for in - door super - wideband applications was dev eloped during 2013 in the CATA MMW laboratory. Center members, using simulations and measurements, demonstrated the feasibility of an antenna made of several small thin gold loops (bond wires); since bond wires are commonly used in electronics industry fo r semiconductors interconnection, the basic technology is readily available. This work is part of a col laboration with members of the Electrical Engineering Department . The results were accepted by the University Intellectual Property office, who secured f unds for a patent application, which text is under preparation.
New Test Cryostat : A new test cryostat was bui lt to extend the CATA MMW Laboratory capabilities to test and measure full receivers at two different temperatures: 8 0 and 15 K. This is the fi rst of its kind built in Chile. The cold head was reused from an existing cryostat, avoiding the purchase of expensive parts. Assembly took place in 2013, incorporating a temperature controller. The main body parts construction was outsourced to the local industry, while the small and precise p arts where constructed at the MMW ’s mechanical workshop. The new cryostat operates at several temperatures down to 12 K. It will allow the characterization at cryogenic temperatures of several receiver components from all the different projects as the ALMA Band 1 receiver prototype, the MINI receiver upgrade, and the LLAMA receiver prototype.
The future: cameras in the millimeter range and CCAT
In recent years laboratories worldwide are focusing their efforts on d eveloping heterodyne cameras in different frequency ranges since they will increase dramatically the efficiency of current telescopes. Our work in the development of a receiver for Band 1 of ALMA and upgrading of the front end for the MINI telescope have p ermitted us to start development of technology for the fabrication of cameras in the millimeter range, specifically in band 80 - 115 GHz. The short term aims are (i) Development of individual compact components such as amplifiers, mixers, speakers and polar izer’s, and (ii) Design
for an integrated receiver which will then be replicated to form a camera. The long term aims are to include a camera in the LLAMA Telescope. The Caltech Cornell Atacama Telescope (CCAT) is the next major radio telescope to be inst alled in Chile, and is designed to accommodate both incoherent and heterodyne large cameras. The development for the first coherent camera has already started led by the University of Cologne, Germany, with whom we carry on a collaboration in this area. Co llaboration includes control software, machining, and RF and IF design. Pablo Tapia (MSc) is starting work on a joint thesis aimed to program controllers for efficient biasing of the SIS junctions at the heart of the camera, and will make a 6 - month interns hip in Cologne.
4. - Activities of support to other national research groups.
As one of the main thrusts of our CATA is to increase human resources and networks for National Astronomy, we have a strong commitment to help groups of excellence at other Uni versities. We have thus established collaborations with individual researchers at the Astronomy Departments of the University of Valparaiso (UV), University of La Serena (ULS) and University Andres Bello (UAB).
This goal is materialized in three different lines of action: support for scientific activities of researchers, support for post - doctoral fellows and support for scientific workshops. These actions allow us to open new venues of collabora tion and networking, thus avoiding the usual a dministrative di fficulties involve d in the interaction of different Universities. Among t he specific activities carried out during 2013 we mention (i) Support for travel expenses of associated researchers ; (ii) Support for joint Postdoctoral Positions, and (iii) Support for Scientific Workshops and Networking:
5 - . Outreach and dissemination of the Center’s activities and/or synergies with science education.
CATA continues to suppo rt outreach activities in order to strengthen the mission of attracting young minds to c ultivate science as well as to get a better visibility on the general public. The main outreach activities can be grouped into four categories: Web page, Public talks, Media coverage , and Social Networks. In term of numbers CATA’s outreach activities durin g 2013 received a combined public of approximately 8 .000 persons.
During 2013, the outreach activities have been strong in all these categories. Among the main achievements we mention the following: i) The website of CATA experienced a 76% increase in th e number of visits compared to that during 2012; ii) Two of CATA scientific papers become one of the most referred Chilean News in medias abroad (according to the July - September Trimestral Inform of This Chile, “Chile Monitor”); and iii) There was a consid erable increase in the number of followers of our Facebook site.
Public talks.
During 2013 , CATA talks had an important impact among Chilean Society, not only in Santiago but also in several other cities in the country. With the aid of Internet, some of the talks were streamed, recorded and uploaded to Youtube, extending the opportunity to increase the audience out of regular bounds. During 2013, CATA registered more than 30 public lectures, five thematic events (most of these at University of Concepción ), two book launchings, one launching of a Smartphone Application, one deploy of an insitu experience of Astronomy at School (Carina Project, at Curacaví) . Among the talks, a special one was the one given by D. Proust in the Asociación de Sordos de Chile for persons with auditi on problems. A course was offered for teachers, entitled “Astronomía en el Aula”, together with the Heidelberg Center en Santiago. A public talk, together with a session of solar observations , was given in Eastern Island, supported together with the Milenium Nucleus for the Milky Way. More than 200 videos of the public talks were given to schools along the whole country, reaching potentially to 130 thousands students.
Citizen Science .
CATA is involved in the Global robotic telesco pes intelligent array for science (GLORIA) , a Citizen Science initiative sponsored by Europea n Union and represented by CATA member José Maza, who is the scientific in charge of the project in Chile . During 2013 Gloria transmitted by Internet two live astr onomical events to the whole world: The Aurora Borealis Phenomena captured from Greenland (between August 23 and August 28) and The Total Solar Eclipse on November 3 (from Kenya). Both events capture jointly more than 300 thousand views from all around th e world, Chile was one top two Latin American countries according to audience (after Argentina). Also an important hit of the Chilean team of Gloria was the production a time - lapse of the travel of ISON comet to the Sun – December 2013 - the video was record ed by the University of Chile Telescope CATA 500 (placed at Cerro Tololo, Coquimbo Region), this material – who was upload it to Youtube CATA’s channel - received more than 7 thousand visits in less than 48 hours.
New approaches for outreach.
During 2013, CATA developed a new strategy of three branches in orde r to impact in Chilean Society:
Webpage. The Internet Portal ( http://www.cata.cl ) is our window to the Society in which we show our most important hits such: papers , public lectures, videos, podcasts, and medias interventions. We have decided to write our news contents in an easy language in order to reach people with non - previous astronomy knowledge. During 2013 we published in the website 80 articles, 5 photo galle ries and 5 videos, which were accessed by 37.428 visitors (76% more than 2012). Of these visitors 58,2% were from Chile , 7,0 % from Spain , 5,7 % from M éxico, 4,5 % from USA and 3,9 % from Argentina.
Medias . The CATA outreach team has become an Astronomy reference with Chilean medias. CATA astronomers got a high visibility in medias (Newspaper, TV Channel s , Magazines, Radios and Websi tes), particularly during conjunctural issues (star dust, fall of asteroids, eclipses, inaugurations, etc.). The ranking, in number of appearance is as follow: José Maza, UCH (84); María Teresa Ruiz, UCH (79); Diego Mardones UCH (45); Sergio Vásquez, UC ( 44); Ezequiel Treister, UDEC (33); Dante Minniti, UC (32); Wolfgang Gieren UDEC (32), Guido Garay, UCH (27) and Álvaro Orsi, UC (27).
The outreach team also succeed ed in inserting our own subjects on to their agendas, such as the papers: ALMA observations of the HH 46/47 molecular outflow of D. Mardones and G. Garay, both of University of Chile and 3D kinematics through the X - shaped Milky Way bulge of S. Vasquez, M. Zoccali, and D. Minnitti of Catholic University of Chile. Both of these research results w ere highlighted by the Inform of This is Chile “Chile Monitor July - September” as two of the most important Chilean news spread by international medias, during that period. CATA’s mentions were not only high in number but also in the hierarchy of medias wh o reproduced our news. H ere we list some of them: La Tercera (26), El Mercurio (22), LUN (18), Radio Cooperativa (16), Radio Bío Bío (17), La Nación Online (12), Canal 24 horas (8), TVN (7).
Social Networks :
Facebook . CATA is aware of the importance of S ocial Networks in order to reach those who are not interest ed on regular medias but are very “connected” with Internet. According to the last “Comscore media study” Chileans consume an average of 18.8 hrs of Internet per month and Facebook is – by far - the preferred site of Chileans with 10.4 millions of registered users, in that scenario we created CATA’ site in Facebook on February 1, 2013. In Facebook we present the same news reported in our Web page, b ut also we highlighted interesting astronomy news fr om abroad. The result is that by April 2014 we have reached 3004 followers. This means that we have a captive audience able to regularly see the news which we upload in our Facebook Page.
Other Facebook feature that we are using is “Facebook Groups”, that mean that our news go directly to those who are willingly declared that they are interest in subject such: science, astronomy, and astrophysics, etc. (in Chile and abroad) . Finally, since recently we are using R.O.I (R eturn of Investment) techniques, as a result, during the last 50 days we have boosted 13 articles reaching 192.800 views.
Twitter . The second largest Social Network in the world has been very important for us in order to penetrate into the Chilean Opinion Leader’s group. During 2013 we got a very good response from users with larger number of followers who directly retweet or recommend our Tweets such: Mauricio Bustamante (2.3 millons.), Soledad Onetto (1,23 millions), and Fernando Paulsen (684 thousand), three of the most influential journ alist in Chile .
Please h ighlight unexpected or unanticipated outcomes and indicate what has been done to deal with them (new research lines, alliances, discoveries, difficulties, etc.) . Use as much space as needed.
As explained above, during the 6 th year of CATA Dr. Mario Hamuy, PI of the research Area 6 “Supernovae and Dark Matter” won a Millenium Institute as its Director and he resigned to its position as a member of CATA . Given that Area 6 can be related to Ar ea 3 (distance scales) we decided to merged both under Area 3.
Dr. Alejandro Clocchi atti was replaced as PI of the new Area 6 “High performance Computing and Simulations” by Dr. Nelson Padilla. This decision was taken mainly to strengthen the research as pect of HPC, in support of a new group of theoretical astrophysicist hired by CATA.
In the research Areas, the main difficulties are related to the lack of flexibility to use the funds (how to pay, what to pay, how much to pay) with no relation to the bes t scientific outcome of the Center.
On the Instrumentation aspect, during 2013 the Center for Astro - engineering at PUC, with support from CATA, has undertaken the task of giving service to ESO in order to maintain the 2.2m telescope at La Silla, has built optical instrumentation for national telescopes and is presently in a consortium planning to build an instrument to E - ELT. CATA plans to continue supporting this initiative, which although was not planned from the beginning, it is making great progress an d will be a contribution to technological development.
Regarding the MMW Laboratory, which was a priority from the start, the scope of what it is being achieve has grown to not only provide the Band 1 receiver (prototype ready and tested, construction of 66 units under way), but also make modification to improve the performance of other Bands in collaborations with international partners. Construction of a clone of the Band 1 receiver built for ALMA is under way and will be installed in an Antenna (similar to ALMA Antennae ) that will operate in Argentina (the LLAMA Project).
After these first years of technological development (that started from zero) there are efforts to patent some developments. The contact with local industry is still wea k, but hopefull y will grow thanks to efforts done from our side that will probably be mostly small business started by our own CATA members.
For the technological Areas the main difficulty has been the procurement of the necessary laboratory equipment. Some, equipment i s very expensive, exceeds the funds allocated to CATA, in these cases the solution has been to travel and use laboratories abroad taking advantage of new and established collaborations. For relatively less expensive equipment, purchased with CATA funds the main problem is the procedure, using the Government portal (Chile Compras) even if we know that the item required is not easy to find and not made in Chile, it takes time to be able to buy directly to the only company abroad that produces that item. This has produced substantial delays and extra cost.
IV. PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Please use this section to summarize the management activities of the C en ter during the period. Amongst others, this secti on should include the a lignment of the organization a nd management model with the o bjectives of the Continuity of the Development Plan . I n the case of changes made after the approval of the Continuity of the Development Plan , please modify the organizational flowchart .
Current Organizational Flowchart of t he Center
Director : María Teresa Ruiz G.
Sub - Director : Guido Garay B.
External Committee: Mark Phillips (Chair), Steve Heathcotte, Miguel Roth , Massimo Tarenghi
Administration: Administrators: Erika Rojas and Patricia Monroy Sec retary: Mariela Fajardo
Research : L. Infante P.I. Area 1 D. Geisler P.I. Area 2 W. Gieren P.I. Area 3 G. Garay P.I. Area 4 D. Minniti P.I. Area 5 N. Padilla P.I. Area 6
H uman Resources : D. Minniti . – G. Garay – W. Gieren
Technology : L. Bronfman P.I. Area 7
Public Outreach : José Maza P.I. Area 8
V. LE SSONS LEARNED
The following section should provide in formation on substantive lessons about the research, teaching and training , knowledge and technology transfer, alliances with other institutions, outreach and other activities undertaken . An explanation should be provided on why things are going right, why things are not working out as anticipated and what the project is doing about it.
Include here a summary of the response to the recommendations during the continuity evaluation process given by the International Panel (if any) and indicate how they have been considered in the reported period and their projections .
Do not extend further than 5 pages. Indicate the need of confidentiality if re q uired.
(I would prefer if this is kept confidential)
What is going right: The science teams are working well, the productivity has gone up, new hires at CATA institutions, and in other universities, we think, thanks to the visibility that CATA has given to Astronomy in Chile. Astronomy has become an interesting science for universities but also to government organ izations and the general public. Several CATA astronomers have won grants to strengthen different areas of astronomy. The graduate programs in astronomy at the three CATA universities are now internationally recognized with a large fraction of non - chilean students.
What has been more difficult if not wrong:
In line with what has been the trend in our country, and probably world - wide, during the las t 2 years we have had to confront a small number of associated researchers that want to have more to say in t he way the Cente r is run, and expressed their thoughts in a belligerent way. Following the recommendation of the International Committee, we re - invited the members of the three departments to be associated to the Center and ask them to sign a letter accept ing (or not) the invitation, that also stipulates what they are entitled to and what are their responsibilities with the Center. All but one associated astronomer agreed and signed the letter, and that situation, that affected CATA in a negative way, is f or now quiet.
Regarding the Management of the Center we have contacted the Rectors of the three universities in order to organize a Board meeting with them. As that was difficult to achieve due to their very complicated agendas, they agree to nominate the respective Vic e - rectors for Research to represent them, I am still waiting for them to give me a date, before I go down the organization flow - chart. Meanwhile issues related to the role of public vs. private universities , far beyond the scope of CATA, are producing tension s between the CATA universities, which probably affect their enthusiasm in trying to contribute to a joint project like CATA. We will keep trying, the good news is that CATA astronomers, no matter what university they belong to, are worki ng together as always.
VI. PERFORMANCE INDICATORS T his section has been modified since this information is already provided in the Appendices of output information (articles, theses, patents, etc.) that are sent and agreed with the coordinator in ma nagement and information from The Program who , once finished this process, will add the corresponding table to the report available to the reviewers. 2) To complete with the actual numbers the tables of indicators projected for the second phase presented in the Continuity Plan. Both sets of tables will be considered Appendices 1 and 2 of this document.
COMMENTS ON THE INDICATORS If applicable , i n no more than 2 pages include your comments on the indicators ; explain possible gaps between the ones repor ted v / s the ones estimated in the proposal.
VII. FINAN C IAL STAT E MENT
FUNDS OBT A INED
Please indicate the funds obtained in the reported period using the follow ing table:
Am ount MAIN FUNDING % of total ( M$) Main Public Funding - S ignifican t and S table C ONICYT Team Research Projects in Science & Technology PIA 1.210.340 38.5% Anillos 300.000 9.5% Regional Centers M SI Millen nium Institutes
Millennium Nuclei 201.890 6.4% CORFO International Centers COUNTERPART FUNDING Less Important Public Competition Funds CONICYT FONDECYT 57 2.647 18.2% FONDEF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION QUIMAL 271.948 8.7% CORFO CORFO - INNOVA 15.000 0.5% Other, insert rows Name of the institution Private S ources - N ational or I nternational N on - P rofit or F or - P rofit O rganizations National Sources Corporations Name of the institution Non - profit Org. Name of the institution Other, insert rows Name of the instituti on International Sources Corporations XILINX Inc. 15.000 0.5% Non - profit Org. ALMA 12.000 0.4% GEMINI 342.900 10.9% ESO 174.640 5.6% CASSACA 26.000 0.8% Other, insert rows Name of the institution Contributions from the Sponsoring Entit y Name of the institution
APPENDIX ES
1. Tables of output (Excel file) 2. Information on indicators from the period (personalized appendix will be sent for each Center)
DOCUMENTATION REQUIRED (This documentation has to match the information provided in the tables of output)
a) Publications Pdf files of the Publications resulting from the informed period or the e - address of a site where to access it (ideally the Center web site)
b) Organ ization of Scientific Events Include a digital copy of the abstracts or full manuscript of the presentations at congresses, courses, conferences, workshops or symposia organized by the Center or provide an e - address of a site to access this information.
c) Participation in Scientific Events. Include a digital copy of the abstracts that reflect the attendance of members of the Center to congresses, courses, conferences, workshops and symposia and attach a digital copy of the front page of the scientific even t .
If the theses are already finished, please attach a d) Theses digital copy of the abstract and the subject index.