Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik Annual Report 2013 Contents 1 General Information 3 1.1 AbriefhistoryoftheMPA ........................... ....... 3 1.2 CurrentMPAfacilities . ......... 4 1.3 2013attheMPA.................................... .... 5 2 Scientific Highlights 13 2.1 Distances in the Galaxy: where are those metal-poor stars? ................ 13 2.2 NIFTY: Numerical information field theory for everyone . ................. 14 2.3 Asteroseismologyofmagnetars . ........... 16 2.4 Magnetic fields in astrophysics: an electronic ’textbooklet’................. 18 2.5 Stellar lithium abundances support standard Big Bang scenario.............. 19 2.6 The Fine Art of Cooking an Exquisite Stellar Banquet . ............... 20 2.7 The Bluedisk project: searching for clues about how disk galaxiesform. 21 2.8 A New Gauge of the Origin of Type Ia Supernovae: Searching for He II Recombination LinesinEllipticalGalaxies . ........ 23 2.9 Hunting for hints on galaxy formation in stellar spectra .................. 24 2.10 Searching for Type Ia Supernovae Progenitors through Circumstellar Material . 26 2.11 Metals in galaxies: Is what we see what we expect? . ............... 28 2.12 Symmetry in the Planck maps of the cosmic microwave background ........... 30 2.13 Why do the most massive galaxies in the local Universe standstill?.. .. .. .. .. 32 2.14 D3PO Denoising, Deconvolving, and Decomposing Photon Observation.......... 33 3 Publications and Invited Talks 36 3.1 PublicationsinJournals . .......... 36 3.1.1 Publicationsthat appearedin 2013(314) . ........... 36 3.1.2 Publicationsacceptedin2013(44) . .......... 53 3.2 Publicationsinproceedings . ........... 55 3.2.1 Publications in proceedings appeared in 2013 (36) . .............. 55 3.2.2 Publications available as electronic file only . ............... 58 3.3 Invited review talks at international meetings . ................. 58 3.4 Colloquiatalks .................................. ....... 60 3.5 Publictalksandpopulararticles . ............ 61 3.6 Lecturesandlecturecourses. ........... 61 4 Personnel 63 4.1 Scientificstaffmembers . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ........ 63 4.1.1 Staffnews...................................... .. 64 4.2 PhDThesis2013/Diplomathesis2013 . ........... 65 4.2.1 Ph.D.theses2013 ............................... .... 65 4.2.2 Diplomatheses2013 ............................. ..... 65 4.2.3 PhDThesis(workbeingundertaken). ......... 66 4.3 Visitingscientists.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .......... 69 1 1 General Information 1.1 A brief history of the MPA dilute plasmas with magnetic fields and energetic particles, and the calculation of transition prob- The Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, usually abilities and cross–sections for astrophysical pro- called MPA for short, was founded in 1958 under cesses in rarefied media. From its inception the the directorship of Ludwig Biermann. It was estab- MPA has had an internationally-recognized numer- lished as an offshoot of the Max-Planck-Institut für ical astrophysics program that was long unparal- Physik, which at that time had just moved from leled by any other institution of similar size. Göttingen to Munich. In 1979, as part of plans Over the last 20 years, activities at the MPA to move the headquarters of the European South- have diversified considerably. They now address ern Observatory from Geneva to Garching, Bier- a much broader range of topics, including a va- mann’s successor, Rudolf Kippenhahn, relocated riety of data analysis and even some observing the MPA to its current site. The MPA became projects, although there is still a major emphasis fully independent in 1991. Kippenhahn retired on theory and numerics. Resources are channeled shortly thereafter and this led to a period of un- into directions where new instrumental or compu- certainty, which ended in 1994 with the appoint- tational capabilities are expected to lead to rapid ment of Simon White as director. The subsequent developments. Active areas of current research in- appointments of Rashid Sunyaev (1995) and Wolf- clude stellar evolution, stellar atmospheres, accre- gang Hillebrandt (1997) as directors at the insti- tion phenomena, nuclear and particle astrophysics, tute, together with adoption of new set of statutes supernova physics, astrophysical fluid dynamics, in 1997, allowed the MPA to adopt a system of high-energy astrophysics, radiative processes, the collegial leadership by a Board of Directors. The structure, formation and evolution of galaxies, Managing Directorship rotates every three years, gravitational lensing, the large-scale structure of with Simon White in post for the period 2012-2014. the Universe, and physical and early universe cos- In 2007 Martin Asplund arrived as a new direc- mology. Several previous research themes (solar tor but, for personal reasons, decided to return to system physics, the quantum chemistry of astro- The Australian National University in 2011. He physical molecules, general relativity and gravita- remains linked to the institute as external Scien- tional wave astronomy) have been substantially re- tific Member, joining the other external Scientific duced since 1994. Members: Riccardo Giacconi, Rolf Kudritzki and Werner Tscharnuter. Eiichiro Komatsu arrived in Since 2001 the MPA has been part of the In- 2012 from the University of Texas to take up a di- ternational Max-Planck Research School in Astro- rectorship, bringing new impetus to the institute’s physics, a joint initiative between the Max Planck research into the early universe and the growth of Society and the Ludwig-Maximilians University of structure. This generational change continued in Munich. About 70 PhD students participate in 2013 when the MPA’s own Guinevere Kauffmann the school at any given time, most of them at the was promoted to a directorship, thereby ensuring MPE or the MPA. This has subtantially increased that the institute will remain a centre for studies and internationalised the graduate student body at of the formation and evolution of galaxies. Finally, MPA over the last decade and has resulted in pro- a search is currently underway for another new di- ductive social and professional links between MPA rector, active in some area of theoretical or numer- students and those at other local institutions. Cur- ical subgalactic astrophysics, to succeed Wolfgang rently about 25 students at MPA participate in the Hillebrandt who retired in 2012. IMPRS. The MPA was originally founded as an insti- MPA policy is effectively set by the Wis- tute for theoretical astrophysics, aiming to develop senschaftliche Institutsrat (WIR) which has met the theoretical concepts and numerical algorithms regularly about 6 times a year since 1995 to dis- needed to study the structure and evolution of stars cuss all academic, social and administrative issues (including the sun), the dynamics and chemistry affecting the institute. This consists of all the per- of the interstellar medium, the interaction of hot, manent scientific staff, as well as elected represen- 3 4 1. General Information tatives of the postdocs, doctoral students and sup- and development plans through regular meetings port staff. It acts as the main formal conduit for to ensure continuity in the working environment discussion and communication within the institute, experienced by the users. advising the directorate on all substantive issues. The most important resources provided by the Ad hoc subcommittees of the WIR carry out the RZG are parallel supercomputers, PByte mass annual postdoc and student hiring exercises, mon- storage facilities (also for backups), and the gate- itor student progress, oversee the running of the way to the German high-speed network for science computer system, and, in recent years, have carried and education. MPA participates actively in dis- out the searches for new directions and directorial cussions of major investments at the RZG, and has candidates. provided several benchmark codes for the evalua- Other aspects of the MPA’s structure have his- tion of the next generation supercomputer options. torical origins. Its administrative staff (which RZG also hosts a number of mid-range comput- moved to a new extension building in early 2013) ers owned by MPA. Presently, two Linux-clusters is shared with the neighboring, but substantially (with 756 and over 2500 processor cores) are lo- larger MPI für extraterrestrische Physik (MPE). cated at RZG, and are used for moderately parallel The library in the MPA building also serves the two codes. In addition, a dedicated system of 156 cores, institutes jointly. All major astronomical books about 650 GB memory and 180 TB disk space is and periodicals are available. The MPA played used, among other purposes, for data analysis of an important role in founding the Max-Planck So- the Millenium simulations. This system also offers ciety’s Garching Computer Centre (the RZG; the public web services to access and use the Millenium principal supercomputing centre of the Society as Databases. a whole). MPA scientists have free access to the MPA’s computer system guarantees that every RZG and are among the top users of the facilities user has full access to all facilities needed, and there. Ten posts at the computing centre, includ- that there is no need for users to perform main- ing that of its director, are formally part of the tenance or system tasks. All desks are equipped MPA’s roster. This arrangement has worked well with modern PCs, running under one operating and results in a close and productive working rela-