Recent Talks
List of all the talks in the archive, sorted by date.
Abstract
Las clases se impartirán en el aula los días 4, 5 y 6 de noviembre de 2008 en horario de 10:30 a 12:30 Programa del curso: 1.- Introduction 2.- Electromagnetic Interaction (QED) 3.- Strong Interaction (QCD) 4.- Electroweak Interaction 5.- Precision Tests 6.- CP Violation and B Physics 7.- Neutrino Masses 8.- Beyond the Standard Model 9.- Physics at LHC
Abstract
Radiation-driven mass loss largely determines the life expectancy of massive stars. I will present our most recent mass-loss predictions for massive stars, which are obtained from Monte-Carlo multi-line radiative transfer calculations. I will show how these predictions are expected to change as a function of metallicity (and redshift!) and confront the results against data from the VLT FLAMES large programme of massive stars. Finally, I discuss some of the more intricate aspects of the physics of radiation-driven outflows, emphasizing the relevance for the rotational evolution of massive stars into the Luminous Blue Variable phase. This is shown to lead to some rather unexpected results... in particular for the progenitors of supernovae and gamma-ray bursts -- calling for some major paradigm shifts of even our most basic framework of massive star evolution.
Abstract
Programa del curso: 1.- Introduction 2.- Electromagnetic Interaction (QED) 3.- Strong Interaction (QCD) 4.- Electroweak Interaction 5.- Precision Tests 6.- CP Violation and B Physics 7.- Neutrino Masses 8.- Beyond the Standard Model 9.- Physics at LHC
Abstract
Programa del curso: 1.- Introduction 2.- Electromagnetic Interaction (QED) 3.- Strong Interaction (QCD) 4.- Electroweak Interaction 5.- Precision Tests 6.- CP Violation and B Physics 7.- Neutrino Masses 8.- Beyond the Standard Model 9.- Physics at LHC
Abstract
Red Dwarf (dM) stars are the most numerous stars in our Galaxy. These faint, cool, long-lived, and low mass stars make up > 80% of all stars in the Universe. Determining the number of red dwarfs with planets and assessing planetary habitability (a planet’s potential to develop and sustain life) are critically important because such studies would indicate how common life is in the universe. Our program - "Living with a Red Dwarf" addresses these questions by investigating the long-term nuclear evolution and magnetic-dynamo coronal and chromospheric X-ray to Ultraviolet properties of red dwarf stars with widely different ages. The major focus of the program is to study the magnetic-dynamo generated X-ray-Ultraviolet emissions and flare properties of red dwarf stars from youth to old age. Emphasized are how the stellar X-UV emissions, flares & winds affect hosted planets and impact their habitability. We have developed age-rotation-activity relations and also are constructing irradiance tables (X-UV fluxes) that can be used to model the effects of X-UV radiation on planetary atmospheres and on possible life on nearby hosted planets. Despite the earlier pessimistic view that red dwarfs stars are not suitable for habitable planets - mainly because their low luminosities require a hosted planet to orbit quite close (r <0.3 AU) to be sufficiently warm to support life. Our initial results indicate that red dwarf stars (in particular the warmer dM stars) can indeed be suitable hosts for habitable planets capable of sustaining life for hundreds of billion years. Some examples of red dwarf stars currently known to host planets are discussed.
Abstract
In the first (optical) part, we present our recent results on mass and luminosity function of Galactic open clusters, a new statistical study based on the ASCC-2.5 catalogue of bright stars, complete to about 1 kpc around the Sun. This includes a new determination of the fraction of field stars born in open clusters. It also briefly addresses the issue whether all massive stars are exclusively born in clusters. In the second (infrared) part, we discuss the prospects of a 42m European ELT to "see" the origin of massive stars in dense embedded protoclusters, by penetrating dense proto- cluster clouds up to 200 mag of visual extinction at 2-5 microns. High-angular resolution AO imaging as well as 3D integral field spectroscopy are required to study the stellar density, binary content, and dynamical properties of these highly obscured, massive, compact star clusters.
Abstract
We have discovered small whirlpools in the Sun, with a size similar to the terrestrial hurricanes (<0.5 Mm). The theory of solar convection predicts them, but they had remained elusive so far. The vortex flows are created at the downdrafts where the plasma returns to the solar interior after cooling down, and we detect them because some magnetic bright points (BPs) follow a logarithmic spiral in their way to be engulfed by a downdraft. Our disk center observations show 0.009 vortexes per Mm2, with a lifetime of the order of 5 min, and with no preferred sense of rotation. They are not evenly spread out over the surface, but they seem to trace the supergranulation and the mesogranulation. These observed properties are strongly biased by our type of measurement, unable to detect vortexes except when they are engulfing magnetic BPs.
Abstract
Based on observations with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), I will present accurate relative ages for a sample of 64 Galactic globular clusters. This Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Treasury program has been designed to provide a new large, deep and homogeneous photometric database. Relative ages have been obtained using a main sequence fitting procedure between clusters in the sample. Relative ages are determined with an accuracy from 2% to 7%. It has been proved that derived ages are independent of the assumed theoretical models. The existence of two well defined Galactic globular cluster groups is found. A group of old globular clusters with an age dispersion of 6% and showing no age-metallicity relation, and, on the other hand, a younger group showing a clear age-metallicity relation similar to that found in the globular clusters associated to the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy. Roughly 1/3 of the clusters belong to the younger group. Considering these new results, it is very tempting to suggest a Milky Way's halo formation scenario in which two differentiated phases took place. A very fast collapse, where the old and coeval globular clusters where formed, followed by accretions of Milky Way's satellite galaxies.
Abstract
(1) We present SAURON integral-field stellar velocity and velocity dispersion maps for four double-barred early-type galaxies: NGC2859, NGC3941,NGC4725 and NGC5850. The presence of the nuclear bar is not evident from the radial velocity, but it appears to have an important effect in the stellar velocity dispersion maps: we find two sigma-hollows of amplitudes between 10 and 40 km/s at either sides of the center, at the ends of the nuclear bars. We have performed numerical simulations to explain these features. Ruling out other possibilities, we finally conclude that, although the sigma-hollows may be originated by a younger stellar population component with low velocity dispersion, more likely they are an effect of the contrast between two kinematically different components: the high velocity dispersion of the bulge and the ordered motion (low velocity dispersion) of the nuclear bar.(2) We have explored radial color and stellar surface mass density profiles for a sample of 85 late-type galaxies with available deep (down to ~27.0 mag/arcsec2 SDSS g'- and r'-band surface brightness profiles. About 90% of the light profiles have been classified as broken exponentials, exhibiting either truncations (Type II galaxies) or antitruncations (Type III galaxies). Their associated color profiles show significantly different behavior. For the truncated galaxies a radial inside-out bluing reaches a minimum of (g' - r') = 0.47 +/- 0.02 mag at the position of the break radius, this is followed by a reddening outwards. The anti-truncated galaxies reveal a more complex behavior: at the break position (calculated from the light profiles) the color profile reaches a plateau region - preceded with a reddening - with a mean color of about (g' - r') = 0.57 +/- 0.02 mag. Using the color to calculate the stellar surface mass density profiles reveals a surprising result. The breaks, well established in the light profiles of the Type II galaxies, are almost gone, and the mass profiles resemble now those of the pure exponential Type I galaxies. This result suggests that the origin of the break in Type II galaxies are most likely to be a radial change in stellar population, rather than being caused by an actual drop in the distribution of mass. The anti-truncated galaxies on the other hand preserve their shape to some extent in the stellar surface mass density profiles. We find that the stellar surface mass density at the break for truncated (Type II) galaxies is 13.6 +/- 1.6 Msun/pc2 and 9.9 +/- 1.3 Msun/pc2 for the anti-truncated (Type III) ones. We estimate that ~15% of the total stellar mass in case of Type II galaxies and ~9% in case of Type III galaxies are to be found beyond the measured break radii.
Abstract
Starbursts and AGNs are frequently coupled in the central kiloparsecs of Seyfert galaxies, where molecular gas plays a critical role in fueling nuclear starburst activity and feeding the central black hole. Unveiling the dusty nuclear regions with high-spatial resolution techniques in the near-infrared (NIR) permits us to disentangle the AGN and the stellar clusters, characterizing both sources separately. In this context, a small sample of nearby galaxies have been observed with VLT/NaCo adaptive optics in the NIR. These observations were completed with similar high-spatial resolution data in the mid-infrared (VLT/VISIR), optical (HST) and radio wavelengths (VLA). A new alignment for the starburst galaxy NGC 253 was found based on NIR and radio data, due to the high-spatial resolution in both spectral regions, finding NIR counterparts for 8 known radio sources. It is remarkable the lack of any optical or IR counterpart for the radio core, proposed as a low luminosity AGN, which presents an IR-to-radio emission ratio similar (or even lower) than Sgr. A*. Using the high-spatial resolution aligned dataset from optical-IR to radio wavelengths we derived a representative spectral energy distribution (SED) based on 37 young dust embedded clusters resolved in the inner 0.4 kpc. The template is characterized by a maximum at 20 μ and a gentle bump in the 1-2 μ range. These features, absent in lower spatial resolution templates, can be well reproduced by considering an important contribution of very young stellar objects to the IR, and are thus associated with hot dust surrounding the protostars. The average SED was then compared with the nuclear star forming regions found in the Seyfert 2/starburst galaxy NGC 7582.Upcoming talks
- Ciencia desde el espacio en España: hoja de ruta de la AEEDr. Isabel Pérez GrandeTuesday November 26, 2024 - 10:30 GMT (Aula)
- Revisiting mass transfer and accretion in symbiotic binaries in the Gaia eraDr. Jaroslav MercThursday November 28, 2024 - 10:30 GMT (Aula)
Recent Colloquia
Recent Talks
