Lsst@Europe2

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Lsst@Europe2 UDC 520/524(048) ISBN 978-86-80019-74-1 LSST@EUROPE2 Belgrade, Serbia, June 20-24, 2016 Book of Abstracts Editors: Željko Ivezić, Nicholas Walton and Darko Jevremović BELGRADE, 2016 SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Željko Ivezić (co-Chair: SOC) Darko Jevremović (Chair) Nicholas Walton (co-Chair: SOC) Dragana Ilić (Secretary) Darko Jevremović Andjelka Kovačević Pierre Antilogus Aleksandra Nina Sarah Bridle Tanja Milovanov Andy Connolly Luka Č. Popović Bozena Czerny Jovan Aleksić Eva Grebel Veljko Vujčić Isobel Hook Zoran Simić Lazlo Kiss Vladimir Srećković Reynald Pain Nenad Milovanović Luka Č. Popović Miodrag Malović Timo Prusti Matthias Steinmetz Lucianne Walkowicz ORGANIZER: Astronomical Observatory, Belgrade, Serbia Text arrangement: Tanja Milovanov Published and copyright © by Astronomical Observatory, Belgrade, Volgina 7, 11060 Belgrade, Serbia Supported by LSST Corporation, Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Republic of Serbia and Hotel Zira Production: Solution+, Bulevar umetnosti 27, 11070 Novi Beograd, in 100 copies UDC 520/524(048) ISBN 978-86-80019-74-1 LSST@EUROPE2 Belgrade, Serbia, June 20-24, 2016 Book of Abstracts Editors: Željko Ivezić, Nicholas Walton and Darko Jevremović BELGRADE, 2016 LSST@EUROPE2 CONTENTS SCIENCE PROGRAMME . 7 Zeljko· Ivezi¶c LSST PROJECT STATUS AND UPDATES ON OBSERVING STRATEGY . 13 Mario Juri¶c ENABLING LSST SCIENCE: THE LSST DATA PRODUCTS AND SERVICE . 14 Lucianne Walkovicz LSST SCIENCE COLLABORATIONS . 15 Andrew Connolly DARK ENERGY SCIENCE COLLABORATION . 16 Patricia Eliason THE ROLE OF LSST CORPORATION. 17 Pierre Astier COSMOLOGY SUPERNOVA SURVEYS WITH LSST . 18 Mar¶³aCebri¶anRenau THE CONTRIBUTION OF LSST TO EXPLORE THE ULTRA-FAINT SURFACE BRIGHTNESS UNIVERSE. 19 Agnieszka Pollo DARK ENERGY AND GALAXY CLUSTERING - HOW LSST WILL GAIN FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF VIPERS AND OTHER ESO DEEP SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEYS . 20 Cristina Martinez-Lombilla THE CRITICAL NEED FOR PSF TREATMENT IN ULTRA-DEEP IMAGING OF EXTENDED SOURCES. 21 Sugata Kaviraj LOW SURFACE-BRIGHTNESS SCIENCE USING LSST: UNVEILING THE FUNDAMENTAL MINOR-MERGER PROCESS . 22 Carole Mundell ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI IN THE LSST ERA . 23 Bozena Czerny, Agnieszka Kurcz, Magdalena Krupa, Agnieszka Pollo, Krzysztof Hryniewicz and Justyna Sredzinska PHOTOMETRIC REVERBERATION STUDY OF QUASARS IN LSST: STARLIGHT CONTAMINATION. 24 Dominique Sluse IMPRINTS OF THE AGN STRUCTURE ON TIME DELAY LIGHT CURVES IN LSST ERA. 25 Luka C.· Popovi¶c DETECTING SUB-PARSEC SUPER-MASSIVE BINARY BLACK HOLES - LSST PERSPECTIVE . 26 Joe Mohr SYNERGIES BETWEEN LSST AND eROSITA . 27 Maria-Rosa Cioni LSST AND THE MAGELLANIC CLOUDS. 28 3 LSST@EUROPE2 Gieseppe Bono LSST AND E-ELT: COMPLEMENTARY PATHS AND INTERSECTIONS . 29 Nicolas Lodieu THE FRAGMENTATION LIMIT IN THE NEAREST STELLAR CLUSTERS . 30 Robert Szabo THE K2 RR LYRAE SURVEY . 31 Richard McMahon and the 4MOST Consortium 4MOST - 4-METRE MULTI-OBJECT SPECTROSCOPIC TELESCOPE . 32 Jim Bosch and Robert Lupton THE LSST SOFTWARE STACK . 33 Dominique Boutigny THE FRENCH DATA ACCESS CENTER. 34 Hiranya Peiris INFERENCE, MACHINE LEARNING AND DATA COMPRESSION FOR THE LSST ERA. 36 Alan Heavens PRINCIPLED BAYESIAN ANALYSIS OF LSST WEAK LENSING - IS IT ACHIEVABLE? . 37 Mark Allen ALL-SKY REFERENCE DATA SERVICES OF THE CDS - PREPARING FOR BIG DATA AND THE ERA OF LSST . 38 Darko Jevremovi¶c ALERTSIM - SERBIAN CONTRIBUTION TO LSST . 39 Mikael Granvik INTERRELATING PHYSICAL AND DYNAMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ASTEROID POPULATIONS . 40 Wesley Fraser SIZES, BINARIES, AND SHEER NUMBERS. THE LSST'S REVOLUTION OF OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM, SMALL BODY SCIENCE. 41 Dino Bekte·sevi¶c A LINEAR FEATURE DETECTION ALGORITHM FOR DETECTING METEORS IN ASTRONOMICAL IMAGES. 42 Peter Vere·sand Steve Chesley LARGE SYNOPTIC SURVEY TELESCOPE: PROJECTED NEAR-EARTH OBJECT DISCOVERY PERFORMANCE . 43 Andrew Connolly and Scott Daniel TUTORIAL: LSST SIMULATIONS. .45 George Z. Angeli, Chuck Claver, Bo Xin and Brian Selvy SYSTEMS ENGINEERING, VERIFICATION, AND COMMISSIONING FOR LSST . 48 Darko Jevremovi¶cand Nicholas Walton H2020 PROPOSAL STRATEGY. 50 Dejan Vinkovi¶c BIGSKYEARTH: OPPORTUNITIES FOR LSST IN EUROPE 51 Marek Kowalski MAPPING THE DYNAMICS OF THE LOCAL UNIVERSE WITH SNe Ia . 52 4 LSST@EUROPE2 Bob Nichol SUPERNOVA COSMOLOGY. 53 Laurent Eyer THE VARIABILITY PROCESSING AND ANALYSIS OF THE TIMES SERIES OF GAIA . 54 Nina Hernitschek PS1 3PI AS A PILOT SURVEY FOR PANOPTIC TIME-DOMAIN SCIENCE . 55 Steven R. Chesley and Peter Vere·s TESTING ASTEROID LINKAGE PERFORMANCE WITH THE BASELINE LSST CADENCE . 56 Gisella Clementini CEPHEIDS AND RR LYRAE STARS AS STANDARD CANDLES AND STELLAR POPULATION TRACERS: THE GAIA-LSST SYNERGY................................................................... 57 Nikolay Ivanov and Milcho Tsvetkov SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATIC DETECTION OF OBJECTS WITH FAST VARIABILITY ON MONITORING MULTIPLE EXPOSURE PLATES . 58 Tomislav Jurki¶c PHASE DISPERSION MINIMISATION AS A TOOL FOR ANALYSIS OF LONG-TERM BRIGHTNESS VARIATIONS. 59 Yana Khusanova, Darko Jevremovi¶cand Sonia Giovanna Temporin ADAPTATION OF LSST SOFTWARE STACK TO ESO-NTT SOFI NEAR-INFRARED CAMERA . 60 Miodrag Malovi¶cand Darko Jevremovi¶c WALSH ANALYSIS - A CONVENIENT PREPROCESSOR FOR PERIOD DETECTION IN ASTRONOMY. 61 R. F. Peletier, J. H. Knapen, G. Longo et al. SUNDIAL - A NEW EU-FUNDED TRAINING NETWORK COMBINING ASTRONOMY AND COMPUTER SCIENCE. 62 Stevo Segan,· Du·sanMar·cetaand Kristina Rackovi¶cBabi¶c SIMULATION OF THE DISTORTION OF THE TELESCOPIC OPTICAL SYSTEM . 63 Giulia Stratta GRAWITA: OBSERVING THE ELECTROMAGNETIC COUNTERPARTS OF GRAVITATIONAL WAVE SOURCES . 64 Giulia Stratta RAWITA: OBSERVING OFF-AXIS SHORT GAMMA RAY BURSTS IN THE LOCAL UNIVERSE . 65 Veljko Vuj·ci¶c APPLICATION OF CEP ENGINES IN ASTRONOMY . 66 LIST OF PARTICIPANTS . 67 AUTHORS' INDEX . 75 5 LSST@EUROPE2 SCIENCE PROGRAMME 7 LSST@EUROPE2 8 LSST@EUROPE2 9 LSST@EUROPE2 10 LSST@EUROPE2 11 LSST@EUROPE2 Invited Review LSST PROJECT STATUS AND UPDATES ON OBSERVING STRATEGY Zeljko· Ivezi¶c University of Washington, USA E-mail: [email protected] I will provide status report for LSST construction activities, and discuss ongoing work on observing strategy optimization. 13 LSST@EUROPE2 Invited Review ENABLING LSST SCIENCE: THE LSST DATA PRODUCTS AND SERVICE Mario Juri¶c University of Washington, USA E-mail: [email protected] The LSST is an integrated survey system. The observatory, telescope, camera and the data management systems will be built to conduct the LSST survey and will not support the 'PI mode' in the classical sense. Instead, the ultimate, science-enabling, deliverable of LSST will be the fully reduced data products and accompanying ser- vices. In this talk, we will present the baseline design and contents of LSST data prod- ucts. There will be three main categories. "Level 1" data products will be generated continuously every observing night and include measurements such as alerts to objects that have changed brightness or position. These alerts will be made available world- wide within 60 seconds. "Level 2" data products will be made available as annual Data Releases and will include images and measurements of quantities such as posi- tions, fluxes, and shapes, as well as variability information such as orbital parameters for moving objects and an appropriate compact description of light curves. Finally, approximately 10% of LSST's computing capability will set aside for community use in the form of Level 3 services. These enable custom analyses not fully enabled by Level 1/2, while taking advantage of co-location of computation with the entire LSST data set. 14 LSST@EUROPE2 Invited Review LSST SCIENCE COLLABORATIONS Lucianne Walkovicz The Adler Planetarium, USA E-mail: [email protected] The LSST Science Collaborations are working groups comprised of members of the scienti¯c community. The nine extant science collaborations represent broad topics of particular interest within LSST science areas. In practice, each collaboration works to provide scienti¯cally-motivated feedback to survey implementation decisions. Collab- orations also maintain a robust suite of ongoing research projects within themselves, to prepare for LSST by laying the scienti¯c groundwork in the years up until ¯rst light, and to be ready for science in the era of LSST itself. In this talk, I will discuss the structure and activities of the science collaborations, and outline opportunities for joining. 15 LSST@EUROPE2 Invited Review DARK ENERGY SCIENCE COLLABORATION Andrew Connolly University of Washington, USA E-mail: [email protected] The Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC) is a DOE supported science col- laboration whose goal is the study of dark energy with data from the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). In this talk I will provide an overview of DESC, the struc- ture of the analysis working groups that cover the ¯ve key probes of dark energy: weak lensing, large scale structure, galaxy clusters, supernovae, and strong lensing; the computing working groups that address the computational and simulation needs for DESC; and the technical working groups that provide the connection between dark energy science and the LSST system. I will describe the current objectives for DESC leading up to operations for the LSST and how new international contributors can join and contribute to the objectives of DESC. 16 LSST@EUROPE2 Invited Review THE ROLE OF LSST CORPORATION Patricia Eliason LSST Corporation, USA E-mail: [email protected] I will summarize the role of LSST Corporation as
Recommended publications
  • Geometric Algebra and Covariant Methods in Physics and Cosmology
    GEOMETRIC ALGEBRA AND COVARIANT METHODS IN PHYSICS AND COSMOLOGY Antony M Lewis Queens' College and Astrophysics Group, Cavendish Laboratory A dissertation submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Cambridge. September 2000 Updated 2005 with typo corrections Preface This dissertation is the result of work carried out in the Astrophysics Group of the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, between October 1997 and September 2000. Except where explicit reference is made to the work of others, the work contained in this dissertation is my own, and is not the outcome of work done in collaboration. No part of this dissertation has been submitted for a degree, diploma or other quali¯cation at this or any other university. The total length of this dissertation does not exceed sixty thousand words. Antony Lewis September, 2000 iii Acknowledgements It is a pleasure to thank all those people who have helped me out during the last three years. I owe a great debt to Anthony Challinor and Chris Doran who provided a great deal of help and advice on both general and technical aspects of my work. I thank my supervisor Anthony Lasenby who provided much inspiration, guidance and encouragement without which most of this work would never have happened. I thank Sarah Bridle for organizing the useful lunchtime CMB discussion group from which I learnt a great deal, and the other members of the Cavendish Astrophysics Group for interesting discussions, in particular Pia Mukherjee, Carl Dolby, Will Grainger and Mike Hobson. I gratefully acknowledge ¯nancial support from PPARC. v Contents Preface iii Acknowledgements v 1 Introduction 1 2 Geometric Algebra 5 2.1 De¯nitions and basic properties .
    [Show full text]
  • Optimising Cosmic Shear Surveys to Measure Modifications to Gravity on Cosmic Scales
    Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 000, 1–13 (2009) Printed 11 November 2019 (MN LATEX style file v2.2) Optimising cosmic shear surveys to measure modifications to gravity on cosmic scales Donnacha Kirk1,Istvan Laszlo2, Sarah Bridle1, Rachel Bean2 1Department of Physics & Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK 2Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA 11 November 2019 ABSTRACT We consider how upcoming photometric large scale structure surveys can be opti- mized to measure the properties of dark energy and possible cosmic scale modifications to General Relativity in light of realistic astrophysical and instrumental systematic uncertainities. In particular we include flexible descriptions of intrinsic alignments, galaxy bias and photometric redshift uncertainties in a Fisher Matrix analysis of shear, position and position-shear correlations, including complementary cosmolog- ical constraints from the CMB. We study the impact of survey tradeoffs in depth versus breadth, and redshift quality. We parameterise the results in terms of the Dark Energy Task Force figure of merit, and deviations from General Relativity through an analagous Modified Gravity figure of merit. We find that intrinsic alignments weaken the dependence of figure of merit on area and that, for a fixed observing time, halving the area of a Stage IV reduces the figure of merit by 20% when IAs are not included and by only 10% when IAs are included. While reducing photometric redshift scatter improves constraining power, the dependence is shallow. The variation in constrain- ing power is stronger once IAs are included and is slightly more pronounced for MG constraints than for DE.
    [Show full text]
  • Radio Observations of the Host Galaxies of Short Gamma-Ray Bursts
    Radio observations of the host galaxies of short Gamma-Ray Bursts Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades doctor rerum naturalium (Dr. rer. nat.) vorgelegt dem Rat der Physikalisch-Astronomischen Fakultat¨ der Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat¨ Jena von M. Sc. Ana Maria Nicuesa Guelbenzu Gutachter 1. Prof. Dr. Katharina Schreyer, Friedrich-Schiller-Universit¨at Jena, Germany 2. Prof. Dr. Ulrich Heber, Friedrich-Alexander-Universit¨at Erlangen-N¨urnberg, Germany 3. Prof. Dr. Giampaolo Piotto, University of Padua, Italy Tag der Disputation: 13.03.2020 a mi madre Magdalena Guelbenzu Bandr´es . Contents 1 Introduction 1 1.1GRBs,theirafterglowsandprogenitors...................... 1 1.1.1 Theburstsandtheirbimodaldistribution.................. 1 1.1.2 Theafterglows............................... 3 1.1.3 GRBprogenitormodels........................... 6 1.1.4 ShortGRBs................................. 7 1.2 Long-GRB host galaxies . .......................... 9 1.2.1 Photometricstudies............................. 9 1.2.2 Spectroscopicstudies............................ 10 1.2.2.1 Starformationrates....................... 11 1.2.2.2 GRBenvironments,ISMmetallicities.............. 11 1.2.3 Legacysamples............................... 14 1.2.4 Radioobservations............................. 15 1.3Short-GRBhostgalaxies.............................. 18 1.3.1 Host galaxies as tracers of the nature of the short-GRB progenitors . 18 1.3.2 IdentifyingthehostgalaxiesofshortGRBs................ 20 1.3.3 Previousradiostudiesofshort-GRBhostgalaxies............
    [Show full text]
  • Constraining the Progenitor and Central Engine of Gamma-Ray Bursts with Observational Data
    UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones 5-1-2015 Constraining the Progenitor and Central Engine of Gamma-ray Bursts with Observational Data Lu Houjun University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/thesesdissertations Part of the Stars, Interstellar Medium and the Galaxy Commons Repository Citation Houjun, Lu, "Constraining the Progenitor and Central Engine of Gamma-ray Bursts with Observational Data" (2015). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 2366. http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/7645921 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. This Dissertation has been accepted for inclusion in UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CONSTRAINING THE PROGENITOR AND CENTRAL ENGINE OF GAMMA-RAY BURSTS WITH OBSERVATIONAL DATA by HOUJUN L¨u Bachelor of Science Neijiang Normal University, China 2007 Master of Science Guangxi University, China 2010 A dissertation
    [Show full text]
  • Keiichi Umetsu — CURRICULUM VITAE (Updated on July 8, 2021)
    Keiichi Umetsu —CURRICULUM VITAE (Updated on September 8, 2021) Contact and Personal Information Work Address: Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica (ASIAA), 11F of Astronomy-Mathematics Building, National Taiwan University (NTU), No. 1, Section 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan Email: [email protected] Web: http://idv.sinica.edu.tw/keiichi/index.php ORCID: 0000-0002-7196-4822 WOS ResearcherID: AAZ-7589-2020 Academic Appointments Full Research Fellow [rank equivalent to Full Professor], ASIAA (01/2014 – present) Kavli Visiting Scholar, Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University, China (2016) Associate Research Fellow [tenured], ASIAA (01/2010 – 12/2013) Adjunct Research Fellow, Leung Center for Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics, NTU (01/2008 – 12/2012) Assistant Research Fellow [tenure track], ASIAA (06/2006 – 12/2009) Science Lead for the Yuan Tseh Lee Array: AMiBA, Mauna Loa, Hawaii, USA (08/2005 – 07/2011) Faculty Staff Scientist, ASIAA (07/2005 – 05/2006) Postdoctoral Research Fellow, ASIAA (06/2001 – 06/2005) Education Ph.D. in Astronomy, Tohoku University, Japan (04/1998 – 03/2001) M.Sc. in Astronomy, Tohoku University, Japan (04/1996 – 03/1998) B.Sc. in Physics, Tohoku University, Japan (04/1992 – 03/1996) Publication Summary According to the NASA Astrophysics Data System, I have • 181 research papers published or in press in peer-reviewed journals, with a total h-index of 53 • 21 lead (first or corresponding*) author publications with a total of over 1400 citations • Lead author publications: 1 paper cited at least 200 times (Umetsu* et al. 2014), 6 cited at least 100 times and +1 cited 99 times (Umetsu* et al.
    [Show full text]
  • Annual Review 2011/12
    UCL DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY 2011–12 ANNUAL REVIEW PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY ANNUAL REVIEW 2011–12 Contents Welcome It is an honour to write this WELCOME 1 introduction standing, to misquote Newton, on the shoulders of giants. COMMUNITY FOCUS 3 Jonathan Tennyson finished his Teaching Lowdown 4 tenure as Head of Department in September 2011 and so the majority Student Accolades 4 of the material contained in this Outstanding PhD Theses Published 5 Review records achievements under his leadership. In addition, Tony Career Profiles 6 Harker is currently acting as Head of Science in Action 8 Department in many matters and will continue to do so until October 2012. Alumni Matters 9 This is due to my on-going commitments with the ATLAS experiment on the ACADEMIC SHOWCASE 11 Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Staff Accolades 12 I currently spend a large amount of my time in Geneva and I am very grateful Academic Appointments 14 to both Tony and Jonathan, as well as to other members of staff for helping Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) 15 to make this transition a success. In Portrait of Dr Phil Jones 16 particular I would also like to thank Hilary Wigmore as Departmental Manager and Raman Prinja as the new Director of RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT 17 Teaching for their continued support. Atomic, Molecular, Optical and Position Physics (AMOPP) 19 High Energy Physics (HEP) 21 “Success in such long- Condensed Matter and term, high-impact projects Materials Physics (CMMP) 25 requires sustained vision Astrophysics (Astro) 29 and dedicated work by Biological Physics (BioP) 33 excellent scientists over Research Statistics 35 many years.” Staff Snapshot 38 Underpinning this success is the outstanding quality of scientific research and education within the Department.
    [Show full text]
  • Efeitos Da Modelagem Da PSF Em Estimativas Cosmológicas Usando
    Universidade Estadual de Campinas Instituto de F´ısica \Gleb Wataghin" Andres Alejandro Navarro Alsina Efeitos da modelagem da PSF em estimativas cosmologicas´ usando lentes gravitacionais fracas Effects of PSF modeling in cosmological estimates using weak gravitational lensing Campinas 2020 Andres Alejandro Navarro Alsina Effects of PSF modeling in cosmological estimates using weak gravitational lensing Efeitos da modelagem da PSF em estimativas cosmologicas´ usando lentes gravitacionais fracas Dissertation presented to the \Gleb Wataghin" Physics Institute of the University of Campinas in partial ful- fillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Physics, in the area of physics. Disserta¸c~aoapresentada ao Instituto de F´ısica \Gleb Wataghin"da Universidade Estadual de Campinas como parte dos requisitos exigidos para a obten¸c~ao do t´ıtulo de Mestre em F´ısica, na ´area de F´ısica. Supervisor/Orientadora: Prof. Dr. Fl´avia Sobreira Este exemplar corresponde a` versao~ final da disserta¸cao~ defendida pelo aluno Andres Alejandro Navarro Alsina, e orientado pela Prof. Dra. Flavia´ Sobreira. Campinas 2019 Ficha catalográfica Universidade Estadual de Campinas Biblioteca do Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin Lucimeire de Oliveira Silva da Rocha - CRB 8/9174 Navarro Alsina, Andres Alejandro, 1993- N228e NavEffects of PSF modeling in cosmological estimates using weak gravitational lensing / Andres Alejandro Navarro Alsina. – Campinas, SP : [s.n.], 2019. NavOrientador: Flávia Sobreira. NavDissertação (mestrado) – Universidade Estadual
    [Show full text]
  • Annual Review 2009/10
    UCL DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY Annual Review 2009–10 Contents Introduction 1 Student Highlights and News 2 Careers 6 Staff Highlights and News 8 Outreach Work 14 The International Year of Astronomy 16 High Energy Physics (HEP) 19 Atomic, Molecular, Optical and Position Physics (AMOPP) 22 Condensed Matter and Materials Physics (CMMP) 24 Astrophysics (Astro) 26 Biological Physics 28 Grants and Contracts 29 Publications 32 Staff 40 Cover image: ‘Castor in Bloom’ by Dr Stephen Fossey This image is a composite of digital photographs taken of the bright star Castor during testing of a new CCD camera on the Radcliffe telescope at UCL’s observatory in Mill Hill (ULO). The telescope has a 24-inch lens to focus the light, and like all such instruments brings light of different colours to a focus at slightly different distances from the lens. The best-focus position for each colour is determined by placing a mask with a circular pattern of holes over the lens, and images through red, green, and blue filters are taken at several focus positions; the mask produces separate images of the star in each out-of-focus colour, with the colour in best focus being more concentrated towards the central spot. Hence, each ‘petal’ of the `flower’ is Castor’s spectral image, dispersed by the telescope lens. PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY ANNUAL REVIEW 2009–10 1 Introduction At the same time the reviews highlighted Although my comments above suggest a number of areas in which we could that the Department continues to do better. In particular, the panel gave thrive, it is hard not to look at the future us helpful advice on how to improve without considerable concern.
    [Show full text]
  • Great10) Challenge Handbook
    Submitted to the Annals of Applied Statistics GRAVITATIONAL LENSING ACCURACY TESTING 2010 (GREAT10) CHALLENGE HANDBOOK BY THOMAS KITCHING1∗,ADAM AMARA2,MANDEEP GILL3,STEFAN HARMELING4,CATHERINE HEYMANS1,RICHARD MASSEY1,BARNABY ROWE5,TIM SCHRABBACK6,LISA VOIGT7,SREEKUMAR BALAN7,GARY BERNSTEIN9,MATTHIAS BETHGE4;10,SARAH BRIDLE7,FREDERIC COURBIN11,MARC GENTILE11,ALAN HEAVENS1,MICHAEL HIRSCH4, RESHAD HOSSEINI4,ALINA KIESSLING1,DONNACHA KIRK7,KONRAD KUIJKEN6,RACHEL MANDELBAUM12,BABACK MOGHADDAM5,GULDARIYA NURBAEVA11,STEPHANE PAULIN-HENRIKSSON13,ANAIS RASSAT13,JASON RHODES5,BERNHARD SCHOLKOPF¨ 4,JOHN SHAWE-TAYLOR7,MARINA SHMAKOVA3,ANDY TAYLOR1,MALIN VELANDER6,LUDOVIC VAN WAERBEKE14,DUGAN WITHERICK7,DAVID WITTMAN 15 1Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh; 2ETH, Zurich; 3Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics & Cosmology, Stanford; 4Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, University Tubingen;¨ 5Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA; 6Leiden Observatory, Leiden University; 7University College London; 8Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge; 9Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania; 10Institute for Theoretical Physics, University Tubingen;¨ 11Laboratoire d’Astrophysique, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL); 12Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University; 13CEA-Saclay, Service dAstrophysique, Paris; 14Univeristy of British Columbia, Vancouver; 15University of California, Davis; arXiv:1009.0779v1 [astro-ph.CO] 3 Sep 2010 1 2 KITCHING
    [Show full text]
  • The Practical Use of Cosmic Shear As a Probe of Gravity
    The Practical use of Cosmic Shear as a Probe of Gravity Donnacha Kirk Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University College London Department of Physics & Astronomy UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON April 2011 I, Donnacha Kirk, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. Specifically: • The work on luminosity functions and red galaxy fractions in section 2.7 was done by Dr. Michael Schneider (then at Durham) as part of our collaboration on the paper Kirk et al. (2010). • The work in chapters 3 & 4 is my contribution to, and will form the substantial part of, papers in preparation with collaborators Prof. Rachel Bean and Istvan Lazslo at Cornell University. The MG effect on the linear growth function was computed by Istvan Lazslo. • The Great08 section of chapter 6 draws on my contributions to the Great08 Handbook (Bridle et al. 2009), Great08 Results Paper (Bridle et al. 2010a) and Great10 Handbook (Kitching et al. 2010). To Mum and Dad, for everything. Boyle. ... an’ it blowed, an’ blowed – blew is the right word, Joxer, but blowed is what the sailors use... Joxer. Aw, it’s a darlin’ word, a daarlin’ word. Boyle. An’, as it blowed an’ blowed, I often looked up at the sky an’ assed meself the question – what is the stars, what is the stars? Voice of Coal Vendor. Any blocks, coal-blocks; blocks, coal-blocks! Joxer. Ah, that’s the question, that’s the question – what is the stars? Boyle.
    [Show full text]
  • Search for Gravitational-Wave Inspiral Signals Associated with Short Gamma-Ray Bursts During Ligo’S Fifth and Virgo’S First Science Run
    Search for Gravitational-wave Inspiral Signals Associated with Short Gamma-ray Bursts During Ligo’s Fifth and Virgo’s First Science Run The MIT Faculty has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters. Citation Abadie, J. et al. “SEARCH FOR GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE INSPIRAL SIGNALS ASSOCIATED WITH SHORT GAMMA-RAY BURSTS DURING LIGO’S FIFTH AND VIRGO’S FIRST SCIENCE RUN.” The Astrophysical Journal 715.2 (2010): 1453–1461. As Published http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637x/715/2/1453 Publisher IOP Publishing Version Author's final manuscript Citable link http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/76674 Terms of Use Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Detailed Terms http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ DRAFT VERSION 3 MARCH 2010 Preprint typeset using LATEX style emulateapj v. 08/22/09 SEARCH FOR GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE INSPIRAL SIGNALS ASSOCIATED WITH SHORT GAMMA-RAY BURSTS DURING LIGO’S FIFTH AND VIRGO’S FIRST SCIENCE RUN J. ABADIE29 , B. P. ABBOTT29 , R. ABBOTT29 , T. ACCADIA27 , F. ACERNESE19AC , R. ADHIKARI29 , P. AJITH29 , B. ALLEN2,77 , G. ALLEN52 , E. AMADOR CERON77 , R. S. AMIN34 , S. B. ANDERSON29 , W. G. ANDERSON77 , F. ANTONUCCI22A , S. AOUDIA43A , M. A. ARAIN64 , M. ARAYA29 , K. G. ARUN26 , Y. ASO29 , S. ASTON63 , P. ASTONE22A , P. AUFMUTH28 , C. AULBERT2 , S. BABAK1 , P. BAKER37 , G. BALLARDIN12 , S. BALLMER29 , D. BARKER30 , F. BARONE19AC , B. BARR65 , P. BARRIGA76 , L. BARSOTTI32 , M. BARSUGLIA4 , M.A. BARTON30 , I. BARTOS11 , R. BASSIRI65 , M. BASTARRIKA65 ,TH. S. BAUER41A , B. BEHNKE1 , M.G. BEKER41A , A. BELLETOILE27 , M. BENACQUISTA59 , J.
    [Show full text]
  • Estimation of Compact Binary Coalescense Rates from Short Gamma-Ray Burst Redshift Measurements
    A&A 529, A97 (2011) Astronomy DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201016166 & c ESO 2011 Astrophysics Estimation of compact binary coalescense rates from short gamma-ray burst redshift measurements A. Dietz LAPP, Université de Savoie, CNRS/IN2P3, Chemin de Bellevue, BP 110, 74941 Annecy-le-Vieux Cedex, France e-mail: [email protected] Received 18 November 2010 / Accepted 15 February 2011 ABSTRACT Aims. We aim to estimate the rate of compact binaries and compare these with similar estimates based on either the observation of these binaries or population synthesis models. Since the merger of these compact objects are likely to produce short gamma-ray bursts, conclusions about the opening angle of these bursts can be made. Methods. We use a set of observed redshift measurements of short gamma-ray bursts to model the rate of these merger events in the nearby universe. Various corrections are included in the calculation, such as the field-of-view of the satellite missions, the beaming factors of gamma-ray burst and other parameters. Results. The computed rate estimates are compared to other rate estimates, based on observations of binary neutron stars and popu- lation synthesis models. Given the upper limit established by LIGO/Virgo measurements, it is possible to draw conclusions about the beaming angle of gamma-ray bursts. Key words. gravitational waves – gamma-ray burst: general 1. Introduction seconds (Kouveliotou et al. 1993; Horvath 2002). Bursts with a duration shorter than two seconds are called short GRB’s, and Short gamma-ray bursts (GRB) are powerful explosions in the bursts lasting longer than two seconds are labeled long GRBs.
    [Show full text]