Annual Report 2010 Departamento de Astronom´ıa y Astrof´ısica Facultad de F´ısica Pontificia Universidad Cat´olica de Chile Av. Vicu˜naMackenna 4860, 782-0436 Macul, Santiago, Chile www.astro.puc.cl 1 Introduction take on an Assistant Professor position. The Departamento de Astronom´ıa y Astrof´ısica (De- 3.1.2 New Postdocs partment of Astronomy and Astrophysics, DAA) is one Dr. J. Alonso-Garc´ıa arrived from the University of of the two academic divisions of the Faculty of Physics • of Pontificia Universidad Cat´olica de Chile (PUC). This Michigan in Ann Arbor, USA, to take on a postdoc- faculty o↵ers undergraduate (Licenciatura) degrees in toral position. Astronomy and in Physics, and Ph.D. and Master’s pro- Dr. A. Alves-Brito arrived from the Swinburne Uni- grams in Astrophysics and in Physics. The mission of • versity, Australia, to take on a postdoctoral position. the DAA is to be an international center of excellence for studies in Astronomy and Astrophysics, covering a Dr. I. D´ek´any arrived from the Konkoly Observatory, • broad range of topics in observational and theoretical Hungary, to take on a postdoctoral position. astrophysics, and to prepare the next generations of stu- Dr. K. He lminiak arrived from the Nicolaus Coper- dents that will profit from the superb observational fa- • nicus Astronomical Center in Toru´n, Poland, to take cilities available to Chilean astronomers and their col- on a postdoctoral position. laborators. In this report, we review the main activities at DAA from January until December 2010. Dr. R. Lachaume arrived from Mexico, to take on a • postdoctoral position. 2 Highlight of the Year: The Center for Astro- Engineering Dr. A.´ Orsi arrived from the Institute of Computa- • A major instrumentation, computing and astronom- tional Cosmology at Durham University, UK, to take ical service e↵ort is being carried out at PUC. A Center on a postdoctoral position. for Astro-Engineering (AIUC) was created in 2009 and Dr. S. Sale arrived from the Imperial College in Lon- its new premises were inaugurated in 2010. It is the • don, UK, to take on a postdoctoral position. first of its class in Chile. The Centre has two laborato- ries (instrumentation and computing) and an astronom- No faculty or postdocs left the DAA during 2010 ical service area. In collaboration with several groups in Europe, USA and Japan, new concept instruments 3.2 DAA Faculty are being developed. These include wide field Adaptive Dr. Felipe Barrientos, Associate Professor (Ph.D. Optics and NIR spectrographs for the new generation of • University of Toronto, Canada, 1999) – Galaxy evo- giant telescopes in Chile (E-ELT, GMT, TAO, etc.). The lution and morphology. Elliptical galaxies. Clusters AIUC operates a cluster computer (512 cores) which is of galaxies. Observational cosmology. openly o↵ered to the Chilean astronomical community. For more details about the AIUC, see 6.1. Dr. Franz E. Bauer, Assistant Professor (Ph.D. § • University of Virginia, USA, 2001) – AGN Demo- 3 Personnel graphics, Feeding, and Evolution. Coeval Growth 3.1 Changes in 2010 of Galaxies and Super-Massive Black Holes. Deep Blank-field Surveys (Radio through X-ray). Nearby 3.1.1 New Faculty Supernovae and X-ray Binaries. Structure Forma- Dr. J. Cuadra arrived from the Max-Planck Institute tion and Galaxy Cluster Evolution. • for Astrophysics in Garching, Germany, to take on an Assistant Professor position. Dr. M´arcio Catelan, Professor (Ph.D. Universidade • de S˜aoPaulo, Brazil, 1996) – Stellar structure and Dr. T.H. Puzia arrived from the NRC Herzberg In- evolution. Globular clusters. Variable stars. Stellar • stitute of Astrophysics in Victoria, BC, Canada, to Populations. Galaxy formation and evolution. 1 Dr. Alejandro Clocchiatti, Professor (Ph.D. Univer- Magnetic Fields. Structure Formation. Clusters and • sity of Texas at Austin, USA, 1995) – Supernovae, Superclusters of Galaxies. near and far. Radiative Transfer. Galaxy Clusters. Cosmology. Dr. Manuela Zoccali, Associate Professor, (Ph.D. • Universit`adegli Studi di Padova, Italy, 2000) – Stel- Dr. Jorge Cuadra, Assistant Professor (Ph.D. lar Populations in the Milky Way. The Galactic • Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit¨at M¨unchen, Ger- Bulge. Star Clusters. Chemical Abundances. many, 2006) – Numerical astrophysics. Galactic nuclei. Super-massive black holes. 3.3 Postdoctoral Fellows 2010 The following scientists held postdoctoral positions Dr. Rolando D¨unner, Adjunct Assistant Professor, at the DAA during the reported period. • (Ph.D. PUC, 2009) – Large scale structure and cos- mology. Astronomical instrumentation. Dr. Javier Alonso-Garc´ıa (Ph.D. University of Michi- • Dr. Gaspar Galaz, Associate Professor (Ph.D. Uni- gan, USA, 2010) – Stellar populations. Galactic as- • versit´ede Paris, France, 1998) – Stellar population tronomy. Stellar evolution. Stellar variability. Pho- in galaxies. Galaxy evolution. Statistical properties tometry. of the galaxy distribution. Dr. Alan Alves-Brito (Ph.D. Universidade de S˜ao • Dr. Leopoldo Infante, Professor (Ph.D. University of Paulo, Brazil, 2008) – Stellar populations. Chemi- • Victoria, Canada, 1990) – Galaxy and structure evo- cal abundances. High-resolution spectroscopy. lution. Pairs, groups and clusters of galaxies. LSB, Dr. Rodolfo Angeloni (Ph.D. University of Padova, dwarf and star forming galaxies in relation to envi- • Italy, 2009) – Symbiotic Stars. Interstellar Dust. ronment. High-z QSOs. Correlation functions. Stellar variability. Photometry. Nebular Spec- Dr. Andr´es Jord´an, Assistant Professor (Ph.D. Rut- troscopy. • gers University, USA, 2004) – Search and character- Dr. Timo Anguita (Ph.D. Ruprecht Karls Univer- ization of transiting exoplanets. Galaxies in nearby • sit¨at Heidelberg, Germany, 2009) – Gravitational clusters. Star clusters. lensing. Galaxy evolution. Galaxy clusters. Dr. Dante Minniti, Professor (Ph.D. University of • Dr. Istv´anD´ek´any (Ph.D. E¨otv¨osLor´and University, Arizona, USA, 1993) – Globular clusters. Stel- • Hungary, 2010) – Photometry. Time-series analysis. lar populations and evolution. Extrasolar planets. Stellar pulsation. Stellar evolution. Galaxy formation. Galactic structure. Gravitational microlensing. Astrobiology. Dr. Harold Francke (Ph.D. Universidad de Chile, • 2009) – Galaxy formation and evolution. Cosmol- Dr. Nelson Padilla, Associate Professor (Ph.D. Uni- ogy and large scale structure of the universe. • versidad Nacional de C´ordoba, Argentina, 2001) – Numerical astrophysics. Galaxy and Structure For- Dr. Maren Hempel (Ph.D. Ludwig-Maximilians- • mation. Cosmology. Universit¨atM¨unchen, Germany, 2004) – Globular cluster systems. Stellar Populations. Galaxy forma- Dr. Thomas H. Puzia, Assistant Professor (Ph.D. tion and evolution. • Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit¨at M¨unchen, Ger- many, 2003) – Star clusters and star cluster sys- Dr. Krzysztof He lminiak (Ph.D. Nicolaus Coperni- • tems. Chemical evolution and enrichment histories cus Astronomical Center, Poland, 2010) – Deriva- of galaxies. Galaxy formation and evolution. Stellar tion of fundamental parameters of late-type stars in dynamics. Stellar populations. Population synthesis binaries using precise photometry. High-resolution models. Stellar abundances. Hierarchical structure spectroscopy. Imaging with adaptive optics and opti- formation. Mass assembly of galaxies. cal interferometry. Dr. Hern´anQuintana, Professor (Ph.D. Cambridge Dr. R´egis Lachaume (Ph.D. Universit´ede Grenoble, • University, UK, 1973) – Observational astrophysics. • France, 2003) – The vertical structure of accretion Clusters of galaxies. Interacting galaxies. Large discs around young-mass young stars. scale structure. Dr. Alvaro´ Orsi (Ph.D. Durham University, UK, Dr. Andreas Reisenegger, Professor and DAA Chair- • 2010) – Galaxy formation. Large Scale structure. • man (Ph.D. Caltech, USA, 1993) – Theoretical As- Semi-analytical modelling. High redshift galaxies. trophysics and Cosmology. Neutron Stars. Stellar Ly↵ radiative transfer. 2 Dr. Jason Quinn (Ph.D. Notre Dame University, 4 Academic Programs • USA, 2007) – Supernova Spectro-polarimetry. Error 4.1 Graduate Program and Students 2010 analysis. Numerical methods. 4.1.1 Graduate Program Dr. Markus Rabus (Ph.D. Universidad de la Laguna, The DAA o↵ers Ph.D. and Master programs in As- • Spain, 2009) – Search and characterization of exo- trophysics. They include core courses on Physical Pro- planets. cesses in Astrophysics, Advanced Stellar Astrophysics, Dr. Roberto K. Saito (Ph.D. Universidade Federal and Advanced Extragalactic Astrophysics. The pro- • de Santa Catarina, Brasil, 2008) – Cataclysmic Vari- grams are completed with elective courses, supervised able Stars. Stellar Astrophysics. Astronomical Data research, and a thesis. Students typically start research Processing. projects during their first semester. Dr. Stuart E. Sale (Ph.D. Imperial College London, 4.1.2 Graduate Students • UK, 2009) – Interstellar extinction. Galactic astron- Students enrolled during this period were: omy. Stellar variability. Photometry. Paula Aguirre, Ma. Luisa Alonso, P´ıa Amigo, Heather Andrews, Ignacio Araya, Pamela Arriagada, Support for the postdoctoral fellows comes from a Juan Carlos Beam´ın, Claudio C´aceres, Daniela Car- combination of DAA funds, grants from the Joint ESO– rasco, Mauricio Carrasco, Carlos Contreras, Sergio Flo- Chile Committee for the Development of Astronomy res, Cristina Garc´ıa, Denis Gonz´alez, Jorge Gonz´alez, in Chile, the ALMA–FONDECYT and ALMA–Gemini Nicol´asGonz´alez, Paulina Gonz´alez, Lucia Guaita,