View Abstracts from CCAPP seminars prior to 2010

Analysis of Galaxy clusters in the SDSS Coadd data

2/8/10
Marcelle Soares-Santos
(U. of São Paulo)

Galaxy cluster counts in spatial pixels and mass bins constitute a sensitive probe for Cosmology. Analyses based on this fact are part of the scientific program of experiments such as the upcoming Dark Energy Survey and have been pursued using the state of the art data. We perform a measurement of cosmological parameters using cluster counts in the SDSS Coadd. A measurement using clusters requires galaxy photometric redshifts, cluster finding algorithms, cluster mass calibration, cosmological parameter estimation and a data set of sufficient scope. For the SDSS Coadd, photometric redshifts are obtained with a neural network algorithm. A cluster catalog from this sample of 13M galaxies covering 250 sq-degrees up to redshift ~1 is constructed using a Voronoi Tessellation cluster finder. The selection function is computed using DES mock galaxy catalogs. A weak lensing analysis provides the mass calibration of the cluster sample binned into observables. A joint likelihood method using the mean abundance and spatial distribution is used to obtain cosmological constraints.

Cosmic ray anisotropy measurement with IceCube

2/9/10
Rasha Abbasi
(U. of Wisconsin, Madison)
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IceCube is cubic kilometer scale neutrino observatory located at the geographical South Pole. The kilometer cubed detector construction is on schedule to be completed in 2011. At the moment it is taking data with 59 deployed strings, when completed it will comprise 80-strings plus 6 additional strings for the low energy array Deep Core. The strings are deployed in the deep ice between 1,450 and 2,450 meters depth, each string containing 60 optical sensors. In this talk I will present selected results of ongoing analysis of IceCube detector data including the search reporting the measurement of 0.06% of large scale anisotropy. The data used in the large scale anisotropy analysis contains billions of downward going muon events with a median energy per nucleon of ~14 TeV and a median angular resolution of 3 degrees. The energy dependence of this anisotropy is also presented. The observed anisotropy has an unknown origin and we will discuss various possible explanations. Studies of the anisotropy could further enhance the understanding of the structure of the galactic magnetic field and possible cosmic ray sources.

Unraveling the Formation History of Elliptical Galaxies

3/2/10
TJ Cox
(Carnegie Observatories)
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The idea that galaxies in general, and elliptical galaxies in particular, are shaped by their merger history has gained widespread acceptance. However, a detailed mapping between specific merger histories, and the wide variety of galaxies observed is still uncertain. By using a comprehensive set of state-of-the-art numerical simulations, we show that a single disk-disk merger, as originally proposed by the "merger hypothesis," is a plausible mechanism to form many elliptical galaxies provided that dissipation is involved. We also show that additional (merger?) processes are likely needed to form the largest ellipticals and we outline several properties commonly observed in elliptical galaxies that may provide insight into their formation history.

Understanding Core-Collapse Supernovae in the Transient Era

3/16/10
Chris Fryer
(Los Alamos National Laboratory)

Supernova surveys have taught us much about supernovae. But the surveys of the past focused on "normal" supernovae. Today's transient surveys are discovering a wide variety of stellar explosions. These new explosions potentially will teach us as much about supernovae as focused supernovae. I will discuss a variety of specific examples where we can use the "new" explosions discovered in transient surveys to help us understand supernovae.

Observations of Prompt Gamma-ray Burst Emission

3/30/10
Takanori Sakamoto
(NASA-GSFC)

I will review prompt emission observations from HETE-2 and Swift, which are both satellite missions dedicated to the detection of Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs). HETE-2 and Swift have on-board computers to process the data and localize GRBs in real-time without a "human-in-the-loop" delay. Thanks to the fast and accurate position localization of GRBs, our understanding of their afterglow emission and host galaxies (birthplace of GRBs) has been dramatically improved. However, the origin of GRB prompt emission is still far from being resolved. I will talk about the observational properties of the prompt GRB emission phase in the context of HETE-2 and the Swift data. I will also discuss the nature of future observations needed to understand GRB prompt emission.

Unraveling gamma-ray Blazars in the Era of Fermi and VERITAS

4/6/10
Luis Reyes
(U of Chicago)

The field of high-energy astrophysics is experiencing a revolution due to recent observations that have revealed a universe that is surprisingly rich, variable and complex at gamma-ray energies. This revolution has now switched into high gear with the launch of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the full-fledged operation of a new generation of ground-based instruments such as VERITAS, H.E.S.S. and MAGIC. Among the different classes of gamma-ray sources observed by these instruments, a particular subset of active galactic nuclei (AGN) known as blazars stand out as some of the most energetic and variable objects observed at any wavelength. In my talk I will describe how the complementary capabilities of space and ground-based instruments are leading us to a better understanding of gamma-ray blazars as high-energy sources, as a population, and as a cosmological tool to probe the background radiation known as extragalactic background light (EBL). Finally, I will discuss the important scientific return that a next-generation instrument such as AGIS would bring to the field of AGN astrophysics.

Clues about Dark Matter: Studying the Milky Way in 6-D

4/27/10
Nitya Kallivayalil
(MIT)

Tidal Streams provide a powerful probe of the potential of the Milky Way halo over large Galactocentric distances and their detailed phase-space structure gives us clues as to the nature of dark matter. Powerful theoretical techniques are now available to re-construct the underlying potential from the six-dimensional phase-space parameters that describe stellar tracers. Notably absent from the presently available data-sets are full 3-D velocities. I will describe ongoing efforts to remedy this aimed at tracers that sample the Milky Way halo at a large range of distances: the inner stellar halo, the Sagittarius Stream and Globular Clusters, and the Magellanic Clouds. I will also describe efforts to expand the number of reference QSOs suitable for space-based astrometry, and what we ultimately hope to learn about halo shape and distribution.

Measuring gravitational lenses

5/18/10
Peter Melchior
(Heidelberg University)

With current and upcoming lensing surveys, massive datasets are or will become available, which enable us to constrain the cosmological parameters governing the formation of gravitationally bound structures in the universe. I will discuss the principles employed for inferring the mass distribution of individual galaxy clusters and of the large-scale structure as a whole. I will also go through the problems we encounter, especially in estimating the lensing-induced distortions from background galaxies, and how we seek to overcome them with novel methods and dedicated simulations.

Cosmological Constraints from the Growth of X-ray Luminous Galaxy Clusters

5/25/10
Adam Mantz
(NASA/GSFC)

Over the past few years, constraints on the growth of cosmic structure have become available from observations of the galaxy cluster population and its evolution. This advance is largely due to the painstaking identification of clusters at redshifts z>0.3 in the X-ray flux-limited ROSAT All-Sky Survey (with ongoing Sunyaev-Zel'dovich and optical surveys not far behind). I will present cosmological constraints obtained from a sample of 238 X-ray flux-selected clusters, which, including the recently released MACS sample, extend to redshift 0.5. The cluster data provide robust constraints on the amplitude of the matter power spectrum as well as the dark energy equation of state (+-0.2 for a constant w model). The ability to trace the growth of structure as a function of time also allows us to test the observed growth rate against that predicted by General Relativity, independent of the background expansion history. Ultimately, this provides a tool for testing alternative theories of gravity and potentially distinguishing them from dark energy models. Finally, I will present constraints on cluster mass-observable scaling relations, a necessary and parallel aspect of the cosmological tests, which has some interesting implications for future work.

Exploring the Ends of the Rainbow: Cosmic Rays in Star-Forming Galaxies

9/21/10
Brian Lacki
OSU/CCAPP
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The cosmic rays (CRs) in star-forming galaxies dominate their emission at gamma-ray and radio wavelengths. The observed linear correlation between the nonthermal radio emission and the thermal infrared emission of galaxies, the far infrared (FIR)-radio correlation (FRC), links together the CR electron population, star-formation rate, and magnetic field strength of galaxies. Furthermore, gamma-ray data links the CR proton population, the star-formation rate, and gas density. We construct one-zone steady-state models of cosmic ray (CR) spectra in star-forming galaxies ranging from normal galaxies to the densest starbursts, calculating both the radio and gamma-ray emission. We then calculate the broadband emission of primary and secondary CR protons, electrons, and positrons. We find the FRC is caused by conspiracies of several factors for galaxies across the range of the correlation, including CR escape from galaxies, UV opacity, non-synchrotron cooling, and secondary electrons and positrons generated by CR protons. The conspiracies have great implications for the evolution of the FRC at high z, actually preserving it to higher redshift than previously thought but allowing variations in the FIR-radio ratio with different galaxy properties. I describe how the recent gamma-ray observations of M82 and NGC 253 compare with our models. These starbursts are somewhat less gamma-ray bright than we expect, but still indicate substantial pionic losses for CR protons and non-synchrotron cooling for CR electrons and positrons, supporting the conspiracy. Finally, I will describe our more recent work on the highest energy CR electrons in starbursts and the gamma-rays they produce. Starburst galaxies ought to be opaque to 30 TeV gamma-rays through pair production; in the strong magnetic fields of starbursts, these created electrons and positrons radiate synchrotron X-rays. We find that these synchrotron X-rays could make up ~10% of the diffuse hard X-ray emission from M82-like starbursts and even more in the brightest starbursts like Arp 220.

Electromagnetic Flares from the Tidal Disruption of Stars by Massive Black Holes

9/28/10
Linda Strubbe
(Berkeley)
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A star that wanders too close to a massive black hole (BH) gets shredded by the BH's tidal gravity. Stellar gas soon falls back to the BH at a rate initially exceeding the Eddington rate, releasing a flare of energy as gas accretes. How often this process occurs is uncertain at present, as is the physics of super-Eddington accretion (which is relevant for BH growth and feedback at high redshift as well). Excitingly, transient surveys like the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF), Pan-STARRS and LSST should shed light on these questions soon -- in anticipation, we predict observational properties of tidal flares. Early on, much of the falling-back gas should blow away in a wind, producing luminous optical emission imprinted with blueshifted UV absorption lines, and the observational signatures can be qualitatively different for M_BH ~ 105 - 106 Msun relative to more massive BHs. Possible X-ray emission can complicate the spectroscopic predictions. I will describe predicted detection rates for PTF, Pan-STARRS and LSST, and discuss the substantial challenge of disentangling these events from supernovae. These surveys should significantly improve our knowledge of stellar dynamics in galactic nuclei, the physics of super-Eddington accretion, the demography of IMBHs, and the role of tidal disruption in the growth of massive BHs.

Multi-wavelength studies of Galactic satellites and implications for dark matter detection

10/5/10
Louie Strigari
(Stanford/KIPAC)
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The census of local group dwarf galaxies has changed dramatically in recent years. By studying both their number counts and internal kinematics, faint Galactic satellites uniquely test the standard cosmological model and the properties of dark matter in a regime that is not probed by large scale observations such as the distribution of galaxy clusters and the cosmic microwave background. In this talk, I will discuss the confrontation of new data with theoretical predictions, highlighting a developling new twist on the lingering issue of the overproduction of Galactic satellites in the theory of cold dark matter. I will further discuss the importance of multi-wavelength probes of satellites, following a path of discovery in optical surveys, to targeted follow up spectroscopy of individual objects, and then to searches for particle dark matter annihilation using high energy gamma-rays and neutrinos. Following this trail I argue that Galactic satellites present the most robust constraints on the dark matter annihilation cross section. Given the current constraints, I will review the status of a search for optically dark satellites with the Fermi gamma-ray telescope.

The Coyote Universe and Beyond

10/12/10
Katrin Heitmann
(Los Alamos National Lab)
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Cosmological evidence for dark energy and dark matter poses an exciting challenge to fundamental physics. Next-generation surveys will investigate new physics beyond the Standard Model by targeting the nonlinear regime of structure formation, observed using powerful probes such as weak gravitational lensing. In order to fully exploit the information available from these probes, accurate theoretical predictions are required. Currently such predictions can only be obtained from costly, precision numerical simulations. In this talk, I will introduce the "Coyote Universe" project, a combined computational and statistical program to obtain precision predictions for the nonlinear power spectrum of density fluctuations. Such a program is essential for the interpretation of ongoing and future weak-lensing measurements to investigate and understand the nature of dark energy. I will discuss planned extensions of the Coyote Universe to include more cosmological parameters and physics. This work will be carried out with a new simulation capability recently developed at Los Alamos and targeted at future hybrid computing architectures. I will give a brief overview of these new developments.

Neutrino Oscillations and (dis)appearance prospects for IceCube-DeepCore

10/19/10
Jason Koskinen
(Penn State)
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The recent commissioning of the full DeepCore sub-array, a low-energy extension of the IceCube neutrino observatory, offers exciting opportunities for neutrino oscillation physics in the multi-GeV energy region. The improved energy reach, use of the surrounding IceCube detector as an active veto and immense size of DeepCore will produce one of the largest neutrino datasets ever acquired, annually containing tens of thousands of atmospheric neutrinos after oscillating over a baseline of up to one earth diameter. I will cover some current non-DeepCore oscillation results as well as the prospects for a DeepCore muon neutrino disappearance and possibly a tau neutrino appearance measurement. Proposed future extensions to DeepCore designed to drive the energy reach down to ~1 GeV will conclude the talk.

Observational Signatures of Neutron Star Mergers

10/26/10
Brian Metzger
(Princeton U.)
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A fraction of neutron star (NS) and black hole binaries are formed sufficiently compact that they in-spiral and merge due to the emission of gravitational waves within the lifetime of the Universe. Such compact object mergers are among the most promising sources for the direct detection of gravitational waves with ground-based interferometers such as LIGO and Virgo. Maximizing the science of such a detection will, however, require identifying a coincident electromagnetic (EM) counterpart. One possible source of EM emission is a gamma-ray burst (GRB), powered by the accretion of material that remains in a rotationally-supported torus around the central black hole. I will overview the observational and theoretical status of the connection between NS mergers and the "short duration" subclass of GRBs. Although new observations from NASA's Swift observatory have provided some evidence in favor of the merger model, the puzzling discovery has also been made that many short GRBs are followed by late-time X-ray flaring activity, which does not fit current theory and may require modifying or considering alternative progenitor models. Another source of EM emission from NS mergers is a supernova-like optical transient, powered by the radioactive decay of heavy elements synthesized in neutron-rich ejecta from the merger. I will present the first calculations of the radioactively-powered transients from mergers that include both realistic nuclear physics and radiative transport, and I will discuss the prospects for detecting and identifying such events with present and future telescopes.

The Cosmic Radio Background: Recent Measurement and Implications

11/2/10
Jack Singal
(SLAC/Stanford)

Results from the ARCADE 2 experiment reveal for the first time an extragalactic radio background that is brighter than some had assumed, in excess of the integrated contribution of discrete radio sources that have been characterized by interferometric surveys to their current flux limits. The origin of the radio background has thus provoked some debate. Given what is known from an analysis of radio source count surveys and constraints from the other cosmological backgrounds, we have developed a model to explain the radio background which has interesting astrophysical implications. This talk will combine experiment and theory. In the first part of the talk I will present the measurements performed by the balloon-borne ARCADE 2 experiment. In the second part, I will discuss how existing constraints disfavor some explanations of the radio background that have been proposed, and present the case that the background is produced largely by the radio emission of ordinary star forming galaxies above redshift 1 characterized by an evolving radio to far-infrared correlation.

QUIET experiment for CMB polarization measurement

11/8/10
Akito Kusaka
(U. of Chicago)

Cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization is the ultimate probe of primordial gravity waves in the early universe, via the B-mode (or parity odd) signal on degree angular scales. A detection of such a signal would rule out most non-inflationary models and represent indirect observation of a fundamentally new phenomenon near the grand unification energy scale. With its unique radiometer technology, QUIET is among the most competitive experiments aiming to detect such a signature in the CMB. QUIET started its observation with its 44GHz receiver in October 2008. After nine months of successful observation, we deployed the 95GHz receiver replacing the 44GHz one and the observation resumed in August 2009. In this talk, I will review its instrumentation, site, and observation strategy, as well as the current status of the analysis.

The Cosmic Diffuse Gamma-ray Background: a puzzle to unveil

11/16/10
Marco Ajello
(SLAC/Stanford)
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The Extragalactic Gamma-ray background might encrypt in itself the signature of some of the most powerful and exotic phenomena in the Universe. Recently, Fermi-LAT measured its intensity with unprecedented accuracy. At the same time Fermi, with its unprecedented sensitivity, detected over a thousand point-like sources. Most of the extragalactic sources are blazars, but a growing fraction of the detected sources comprises also starburst/starforming galaxies as well as radio galaxies. In this talk I will review and address the current efforts to sort out the different components of the extragalactic gamma-ray background, focusing in particular on the blazar class and the starforming galaxies. I will also discuss future developments and the possibility to study the fluctuations of the gamma-ray sky to gain knowledge about the 'truly' diffuse component of the gamma-ray background. Finally I will also address the variability of the gamma-ray sky and what can be learned from its systematic study.

Resonant Stripping as the origin of dwarf spheroidal galaxies

11/23/10
Elena D'Onghia
(Havard-Smithsonian CfA)

The most dark matter dominated galaxies known are the dwarf spheroidals, but their origin is still uncertain. The recent discovery of ultra-faint dwarf spheroidals around the Milky Way further challenges our understanding of how low-luminosity galaxies originate and evolve because of their even more extreme paucity of gas and stars relative to their dark matter content. By employing numerical simulations I will show that interactions between dwarf disc galaxies can excite a gravitational resonance that immediately drives their evolution into spheroidals. This effect, which is purely gravitational in nature, applies to gas and stars and is distinct from other mechanisms which have been proposed up to now to explain the origin of dwarf spheroidals, such as merging, galaxy-galaxy harassment and more general heating processes, or tidal and ram pressure stripping. Using a new analytic formalism we developed based on the linear perturbation theory I will show the nature and the efficiency of the resonant process and its applicability to the formation of tails of stars and streams of gas.

The Fermi LAT as a cosmic-ray electron observer

11/30/10
Francesco Loparco
(U. of Bari, Italy)
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Even though it was designed to be a high sensitivity gamma-ray observatory, the Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard the Fermi satellite has proved to be also an excellent electron/positron detector. The data collected by the LAT during its first year of operation have been used to measure the cosmic-ray electron and positron (CRE) energy spectrum in the energy range from 7 GeV to 1 TeV and to search for possible anisotropies in their arrival directions. An overview on the data analysis will be given and the main results will be illustrated.

Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays from Mildly Relativistic Supernovae

12/7/10
Sayan Chakraborti
(Tata Institute)

Understanding the origin of the highest energy cosmic rays, is a crucial step in using them as probes of new physics, at energies unattainable by terrestrial accelerators. However their sources remain an enigma nearly half a century after their discovery. They must be accelerated in the local universe, as otherwise background radiations would severely suppress the flux of protons and nuclei, at energies above the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) limit. Nearby GRBs, Hypernovae, AGNs and their flares, have all been suggested and debated in the literature as possible sources. A local sub-population of type Ibc supernovae with mildly relativistic ejecta have been detected for some time as sub-energetic GRBs or X-Ray Flashes and more recently as radio afterglows without detected GRB counterparts, such as SN 2009bb. In this talk we shall discuss the measurement of the size-magnetic field evolution, baryon loading and energetics, of SN 2009bb using its radio spectra obtained with the VLA and GMRT. This will allow us to see where the engine-driven SNe lie in the Hillas diagram and whether they can explain the post-GZK UHECRs?

A Bayesian Analysis of a Milky Way Ultra-Faint Satellite

1/18/11
Greg Martinez
(UC Irvine)

With the advent of SDSS the number of known Milky Way satellites has more than doubled. There new members, such as Segue 1, are extremely optically faint. Accurate mass measurements require careful analysis of velocity data. Here I describe the analysis of the multi-epoch velocity measurements of Segue 1 to determine its intrinsic velocity dispersion. Our method includes a simultaneous Bayesian analysis of both membership probabilities and the contribution of binary orbital motion to the observed velocity dispersion. Our analysis strongly disfavors the possibility that segue 1 is a bound star cluster. The inferred dark matter density is one of the highest measured, making Segue 1 a prime source for indirect dark matter detection. I will discuss the possibility of indirect detection in the context of SUSY models.

A Search for Point Sources with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

2/1/11
Jon Dumm
(UW Madison)
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Construction of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory was only recently completed on Dec 18, 2010. IceCube is the first 1km3 detector of it's kind, monitoring 1 billion tons of ice. Deep under the South Pole, IceCube looks for rare high energy neutrino interactions (> ˜100 GeV). While the observatory was under construction for 5 years, data was being collected and analyzed continuously. Some of the science highlights so far include searches for astrophysical neutrinos, a measurement of the atmospheric neutrino spectrum above 1 TeV, observation of a cosmic ray anisotropy in the southern hemisphere, and indirect searches for dark matter. This talk will describe IceCube, the motivations for building such a detector, and highlight the effort to find point-like sources of astrophysical neutrinos.

Channeling and daily modulation in direct dark matter detectors

2/8/2011
Nassim Bozorgnia
UCLA

The channeling of the ion recoiling after a collision with a WIMP in direct dark matter detectors produces a larger signal than otherwise expected. Channeling is a directional effect which depends on the velocity distribution of WIMPs in the dark halo of our galaxy, and could lead to a daily modulation of the signal. I will discuss channeling and blocking effects using analytic models produced in the 1960's and 70's, and present estimates of the expected amplitude of daily modulation in the data already collected by the DAMA experiment.

Dark matter annihilation and spherical harmonics of Fermi gamma-rays

2/15/11
Dmitry Malyshev
(NYU)

Gamma-ray production by dark matter annihilation is one of the most universal indirect dark matter signals. In order to avoid intensive astrophysical background, one can study the gamma-rays away from the Galactic plane. The problems is that the dark matter annihilation signal at high latitudes is smooth and most probably subdominant to Galactic and extragalactic fluxes. I will discuss the use of spherical harmonics decomposition as a tool to distinguish a large scale small amplitude dark matter signal from astrophysical fluxes. The sensitivity of this method for currently available Fermi data is similar to the signal from thermal WIMP dark matter annihilation into, e.g., W+W-

GADZOOKS! How to See Extragalactic Neutrinos By 2016

3/8/11
Mark Vagins
(IPMU/UCI)
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Water Cherenkov detectors have been used for many years to study neutrino interactions and search for nucleon decays. Super-Kamiokande, at 50 kilotons the largest such underground detector in the world, has enjoyed over ten years of interesting and important physics results. Looking to the future, for the last eight years R&D on a potential upgrade to the detector has been underway. Enriching Super-K with 100,000 kilograms of a water-soluble gadolinium compound - thereby enabling it to detect thermal neutrons and dramatically improving its performance as a detector for supernova neutrinos, reactor neutrinos, atmospheric neutrinos, and also as a target for the new T2K long-baseline neutrino experiment - will be discussed.

Generative modeling for the Milky Way and the Universe

3/14/11
Jo Bovy
(New York University)

At the interface between observational and theoretical astrophysics lies data analysis and inference. The most accurate and precise inferences require using a model that generates the data and that takes the noise into account. I give two examples where generative modeling performs better than other methods for parameter inference and classification. To put the Milky Way in a cosmological context we want to know its mass and dark matter distribution in detail. I will discuss in general how we can infer the gravitational potential—dynamics—from kinematics alone. As an application of this, I show how we can determine the Milky Way's circular velocity at the Sun from maser kinematics. As a second example, I discuss density-estimation-based classification for target selection. SDSS-III's BOSS aims to observe 150,000 quasars down to the faint limit of the SDSS in a redshift range (2.2 <= z <= 3.5) where the quasar and stellar color loci overlap significantly. I will show how we can determine models of the underlying distribution of quasars and stars in flux space. We can use these models to evaluate quasar probabilities for all potential targets and build an efficient survey.

Energy-Dependent Composition of UHECRs and the Future of Charged Particle Astronomy

3/29/11
Antoine Calvez
(UCLA)
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Recent results from the Pierre Auger Observatory show an energy dependent chemical composition of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs), with a growing fraction of heavy elements at high energies. These results suggest a possible non-negligible contribution from galactic sources. We show that in the case of UHECRs produced by gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), or by rare types of supernova explosions that took place in the Milky Way in the past; the change in the composition of the UHECRs can be the result of the difference in diffusion times between different species. The anisotropy in the direction of the Galactic Center is expected to be a few per cent on average, and the locations of the most recent/closest bursts can be associated with observed clustering of UHECRs.

Light WIMPs!

4/12/11
Dan Hooper
(U. of Chicago)
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Observations from the direct detection experiments DAMA/LIBRA and CoGeNT, along with those from the Gamma Ray Space Telescope, have been interpreted as possible evidence of dark matter in the form of relatively light (5-10 GeV) WIMPs. I will discuss the implications of these observations for dark matter phenomenology and discuss how it will be possible with future measurements to either confirm or refute this interpretation. I will also discuss how recent results from the Tevatron could impact efforts to build models including a light WIMP.

Optimal Linear Image Combination

4/19/11
Barnaby Rowe
(Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech)

I will describe a simple, yet general, formalism for the optimized linear combination of astrophysical images, developed here at JPL/Caltech with Christopher Hirata and Jason Rhodes. The formalism allows the user to combine multiple undersampled images to provide oversampled output at high precision. The proposed method is general and may be used for any configuration of input pixels and point spread function; it also provides the noise covariance in the output image along with a powerful metric for describing undesired distortion to the image convolution kernel. The method explicitly provides knowledge and control of the inevitable compromise between noise and fidelity in the output image.

We also present a first prototype implementation of the method then put it to practical use in reconstructing fully-sampled output images using simulated, undersampled input exposures that are designed to mimic the proposed dark energy mission WFIRST. Comparing results for different dither strategies we illustrate the use of the method as a survey design tool. Finally, we use the method to test the robustness of linear image combination when subject to practical realities such as bad pixels and focal plane plate scale variations, an important consideration for a mission such as WFIRST.

A Quest for Sources of Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays

4/26/11
Kumiko Kotera
(U. of Chicago)
(Download Seminar PDF)

The origin of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) has not been unveiled in spite of decades of experimental and theoretical research. In this talk, I discuss the observable signatures that would constrain the possible sources to one single suspect.
In particular, I will present the anisotropy signatures expected for various types of sources, and describe how the intergalactic magnetic field plays a prominent role in this picture. For this purpose, I will introduce an analytical formalism to study the propagation of UHECRs in the magnetized Universe.
Another constraint on the sources might come from multi-messenger signatures (in gamma-rays, neutrinos and gravitational waves) that can be produced together with UHECRs. I will present the expected fluxes for various astrophysical scenarios and discuss to which extent these signals could pin-point the actual sources of UHECRs.
In light of this discussion, I will briefly present the latest results of the Pierre Auger Observatory and give requirements for future detectors in UHECRs, neutrinos, gamma rays and gravitational waves, to solve this long-standing enigma.

Constraining the Dawn of Cosmic Structure and the Epoch of Reionization with the 21cm Line

5/3/11
Jonathan Pritchard
Harvard/CfA

The first billion years of the Universe contains the formation of the first galaxies and reionization. This period lies beyond the current observational frontier presenting challenges to theory and observation. Low frequency observations of the redshifted 21 cm line of neutral hydrogen will be key in developing our understanding of this period. In this talk, I will describe two aspects of the 21 cm signal from the period of "cosmic dawn": the global 21 cm signal and 21 cm fluctuations. I will discuss what can be learnt about the first galaxies and reionization from this technique and explore some of the challenges and opportunities ahead for the first observations.

Indirect Detection of Dark Matter -
Electroweak Bremsstralung and Other Stories

5/13/11
Nicole Bell
(University of Melbourne)
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Annihilation of dark matter to fermionic final states is often either helicity or velocity suppressed. We outline the circumstances under which bremsstrahlung processes can remove such suppressions, thereby dramatically improving prospects for indirect detection. In these cases, the three body final states such as e+e-gamma, e+e-Z and e\nuW dominate over the 2-body annihilation modes. Since the W and Z gauge boson have large hadronic decay modes, purely leptonic annihilation is impossible if the 3-body bremsstrahlung processes dominate. We also discuss dark matter annihilation via metastable mediators, and show that this can lead to greatly enhanced high energy neutrino signals from the Sun.

The High Altitude Water Cherenkov Gamma-ray Observatory

5/24/11
Miguel Mostafa
(Colorado State U.)

The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) experiment is a largefield of view, continuously operated TeV gamma-ray observatory to be constructed using a dense array of water Cherenkov detectors covering an area greater than 25,000 m². HAWC will be located at an elevation of 4,100 m near the Sierra Negra mountain in Mexico. The instrument will use 900 photomultiplier tubes to observe the relativistic particles and secondary gamma rays in extensive air showers. This technique has been used successfully by the Milagro observatory to detect known (as well as new!) TeV sources. HAWC is a natural extension of Milagro, which has demonstrated the ability to detect {at TeV energies{ many of the galactic sources which have been observed by the Fermi LAT in the GeV energy range. The design of HAWC was optimized using the lessons learned from Milagro, and will be 15 times more sensitive than Milagro when completed. Improvements in sensitivity, angular resolution, and background rejection will allow HAWC to measure or constrain the TeV spectra of most of the Fermi discovered GeV sources. In addition, above 100 GeV, HAWC will be more sensitive than the Fermi satellite and be the only ground-based instrument capable of detecting prompt emission from gamma-ray bursts in this energy regime. In this seminar I will present the physics motivation, the HAWC observatory, and the activities of my group.

Supernova Feedback Keeps Galaxies Simple

9/26/11
Sayan Chakraborti
(TIFR, India)

Galaxies are complicated and history dependent. Yet, recent studies have uncovered surprising correlations among the properties of galaxies. Such simplicity seems, naively, to be at odds with the paradigm of hierarchical galaxy mergers. One of the puzzling results, is the simple linear correlation between the neutral hydrogen mass and the surface area, implying that widely different galaxies share very similar neutral hydrogen surface densities. We shall see in this presentation that self-regulated star formation, driven by the competition between gravitational instabilities and mechanical feedback from supernovae, can explain the nearly constant neutral hydrogen surface density across galaxies.

Weak Lensing Simulations and Precision Cosmology with Large-area Sky Surveys

9/27/11
Matt Becker
(KICP/U. of Chicago)

Weak lensing measurements are an essential part of near- and long-term large-area sky surveys aimed at an array of scientific goals, like understanding Dark Energy, elucidating further the connection between galaxies and dark matter halos, constraining modifications to General Relativity, etc. The weak lensing community has undertaken extensive simulation efforts, both CCD image simulations and computations of the cosmological weak lensing signals from large-scale structure simulations, in order to address the variety of systematic errors which can adversely effect these measurements and their interpretation. The next logical step in this effort is the construction of mock galaxy catalogs with weak lensing shear signals self-consistently from large-scale structure simulations. While these weak lensing mock galaxy catalogs have easily been made for small patches of sky (~10 square degrees), upcoming large-area sky surveys will image thousands of square degrees or more. I will describe a new multiple-plane ray tracing code which is able to produce full-sky weak lensing deflection, convergence, and shear fields suitable for the construction of weak lensing mock galaxy catalogs for large-area sky surveys. I will also highlight the application of this code to the Dark Energy Survey simulation effort. Finally, I will present a prototypical example of these simulation efforts, my recent work on interpreting weak lensing galaxy cluster mass measurements, emphasizing understanding their scatter and more importantly their potential biases. This work, and ongoing work by others in the Dark Energy Survey collaboration based on these new weak lensing mock galaxy catalogs, illustrates the utility these simulations in understanding systematic errors in current and future weak lensing measurements from large-area sky surveys.

The Intracluster Medium of Galaxy Clusters

10/11/11
Uri Keshet
(CfA, Harvard)

Recent observations of galaxy clusters reveal new insights into the dynamical and nonthermal processes in the intracluster medium (ICM). Tangential discontinuities are directly seen in high resolution X-ray maps of cool cluster cores, in the form of cold fronts. They reveal bulk shear flows which magnetize the plasma, give rise to radio minihalos, and may play a key role in solving the cooling problem. The ICM shows a rich phenomenology of non-thermal radio emission, arguably arising from hadronic cascades involving cosmic-ray protons. While such a secondary signal is too weak to be observed by Fermi, the primary gamma-ray signal from strong virial shocks may be identifiable.

Dark Matter Parameters from Neutrino Telescopes

10/18/11
Katie Richardson
(U. of New Mexico)
(Download Seminar PDF)

In this talk, I will discuss how neutrino telescopes may help us extract dark matter parameters and can in fact place the most stringent bounds on the spin-dependent dark matter-nucleon scattering cross-section. In particular the dark matter annihilation final state provides a distinctive signature that allows us to discriminate among classes of dark matter models. Models with gauge boson or tau final states alongside neutrino final states are distinguishable, and the theoretically well-motivated U(1)_B-L extension of the MSSM produces just such a mixture of final states. It is feasible that the energy reconstruction capability of the IceCube neutrino telescope will preserve the important features. Finally, I will address the prospect for differentiating neutrino flavor final states from one another.

First Cosmic Shear Measurement in SDSS

10/25/11
Eric Huff
(Berkeley)
(Download Seminar PDF)

I discuss preliminary results from a first cosmic shear measurement in SDSS. We have coadded 250 square degrees of multi-epoch SDSS imaging along the celestial equator, optimizing for weak lensing measurement. We employ standard techniques for shape measurement, shear calibration, and inference of the redshift distribution, and perform a wide array of tests that show that the systematic errors for this measurement are probably negligible compared to the statistical errors. We analyze the shear autocorrelation with and without WMAP7 priors, and produce competitive constraints on the matter density and the amplitude of the matter power spectrum at redshift z=0.6.

I will also discuss some new results on lensing magnification. Motivated by the need for greater signal-to-noise in weak lensing measurements, we have used tight photometric galaxy scaling relations to measure a galaxy-galaxy magnification signal with many times the signal-to-noise of previous magnification results. I describe how minor improvements on this work may permit magnification measurements with signal comparable to shear.

Baryon Acoustic Oscillations:
Galaxy Bias Effect and Cosmological Measurements

11/1/11
Kushal Mehta
(Arizona)

I will talk about the work presented in Mehta et al (2011) regarding measuring the effects of galaxy bias on baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) measurements in cosmological N-body simulations, and the technique of reconstruction used to refine the BAO signal. I will also talk about new SDSS-II LRG (Luminous Red Galaxies) BAO data and the measurements of cosmological parameters. These results will be presented in 3 papers (Padmanabhan et al, Xu et al, and Mehta et al, all in prep).

Propagation of Ultrahigh Energy Nuclei in the Galactic magnetic field

11/2/11
Gwenael Giacinti
(APC/Paris)

The composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) at the highest energies is a matter of debate. The measurements from the Auger Observatory would suggest a shift towards heavier nuclei, whereas Telescope Array results can still be compatible with a proton composition. We present simulations for the propagation of ultra-high energy heavy nuclei, with E > 6x10^(19) eV, within recent Galactic Magnetic Field (GMF) models. Differences between the propagation of protons and heavy nuclei in the GMF may provide additional information about the charge composition of UHECRs.
For UHE heavy nuclei primaries, there is no one-to-one correspondence between their arrival directions at Earth and the directions of their extragalactic sources. We show the challenges, and possibilities, of "UHECR astronomy" with heavy nuclei. Finally, we present a quantitative study of the impact of the GMF on the (de-)magnification of source fluxes, due to magnetic lensing effects. For 60 EeV iron nuclei, sources located in up to about one fifth of the sky would have their fluxes so strongly demagnified that they would not be detectable at Earth, even by the next generation of UHECR experiments.

Exploring the Dark Universe with Gravitational Lensing

11/15/11
Sherry Suyu
(U. or California, Santa Barbara)
(Download Seminar PDF)

Understanding the nature of dark energy and dark matter is one of the biggest challenges in modern cosmology. Strong gravitational lens systems provide a powerful tool for measuring cosmological parameters and for probing dark matter in galaxies. In the first part of my talk, I will show how strong lens systems with measured time delays between the multiple images can be used to determine the "time-delay distance" to the lens. I will present the cosmological constraints, particularly on the Hubble constant and the dark energy equation of state, from a detailed analysis of the gravitational lens B1608+656, and discuss future prospects of time-delay lens cosmography. In the second part of my talk, I will present a joint lensing and kinematics analysis of the spiral gravitational lens B1933+503 at z=0.76 to disentangle the baryons and dark matter in the spiral galaxy and probe the stellar initial mass function.

Understanding Star-forming Galaxies across Cosmic Time

11/21/11
Matt Bothwell
(U. of Cambridge, UK)

The formation of stars from the interstellar medium is one of the primary drivers of galaxy evolution, and obtaining a full characterization of the processes involved is essential if we are to understand the physics behind the formation of galaxies. Viewing galaxies at high redshift gives us a direct window into the various formation processes, but the importance of a comprehensive understanding of the z~0 Universe cannot be overemphasized, as the early stages of galaxy evolution leave telltale footprints in the properties of local galaxies. I present work examining the star formation laws in galaxies at both low and high redshift. Firstly, I discuss the distribution function of star formation in the local Universe, calculated in a manner analogous to the luminosity function, and its implications for galaxy formation scenarios.

Looking to high redshift, I present molecular gas observations of a sample of z~2 ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs). These observations provide the best view of the star formation and kinematic properties of these enigmatic systems, allowing us to place them into the context of galaxy formation models.

Core Collapse Supernovae: Black Holes and Neutrinos

11/29/11
Evan O'Connor
(Caltech)

Core-collapse supernovae are some of the most explosive high-energy astrophysical events in our universe. They are the result of the collapse of the iron core in an evolved massive star (M > 8-10 solar masses). The collapse is halted when the collapsing core reaches nuclear densities, at which point the core-collapse supernova central engine takes over. We know that the central engine must eventually drive an explosion in some fraction of massive stars, however, after over 40 years of theoretical research we still do not completely understand this core-collapse supernova mechanism. In this talk, I will review the state of core-collapse supernova theory. I will also discuss our work at Caltech on both the success and failure of the core-collapse supernova mechanism. For looking at the success, we considered the possibility that collective neutrino oscillations may enhance the neutrino mechanism. If a core-collapse supernova fails, a black hole is the result. I will discuss our predictions for black hole populations from failed supernova.

Beyond the Standard Model of Cosmology:
Dark Energy, Neutrinos, and Primordial Non-Gaussianity

12/6/11
Shahab Joudaki
(UCI)
(Download Seminar PDF)

Some of the most outstanding problems of physics lie in the understanding of the dark sector of the universe, in particular dark energy, neutrinos, and inflation.
The dark energy and neutrinos are correlated through their effects on distances and the clustering of matter. I will review the present state of surveys sensitive to the effects of dark energy and neutrino mass. I will then forecast how well the present dark energy density and its equation of state along with the sum of neutrino masses may be constrained using multiple probes that are sensitive to the growth of structure and expansion history, in the form of weak lensing tomography, galaxy tomography, supernovae, and the cosmic microwave background. I will include all cross-correlations between these different probes and allow for non-negligible dark energy at early times (motivated by the coincidence problem) in spatially flat and non-flat cosmological models. In the latter portion of the talk, I will discuss a novel method to constrain non-Gaussianity of the primordial density perturbations by its impact on the ionization power spectrum from 21 cm emission during the epoch of reionization. I will show that 21 cm experiments in the near future may constrain inflationary models via primordial non-Gaussianity to the same precision as expected from Planck.

The LHCf experiment: Verification of high energy cosmic ray interactions

1/10/12
Yoshitaka Itow
(Nagoya University)
(Download Seminar PDF)

Recent progress in air shower observations of the highest energy cosmic rays with $\sim 10^{20}$ eV gives us an enigmatic problem about their origins and propagations. One difficulty is implication of air shower observations due to uncertainty of hadron interactions in such high energy. The particle production at the very forward region plays an important role in air shower development, since it carries most of collision energy. The LHCf experiment is dedicated to measure spectra of neutral particles at very forward region of the LHC collision point in order to verify interaction of cosmic rays of 10^{17} eV. The data taking had been carried out for $\sqrt{s}$=0.9TeV and 7TeV. The results of "inclusive" gamma-ray energy spectra at 0 degree has been obtained. Future plan for very forward measurement at p-A or A-A collisions is also discussed.

Adventures in dark-matter astrophysics

1/30/12
Annika Peter
(U. of California, Irvine)

From astronomical observations, we know that dark matter exists, makes up 23% of the mass budget of the Universe, clusters strongly to form the load-bearing frame of structure for galaxy formation, and hardly interacts with ordinary matter except gravitationally. However, this information is not enough to identify the particle specie(s) that make up dark matter. As such, the problem of determining the identity of dark matter has largely shifted to the fields of astroparticle and particle physics. In this talk, I will review the current status of the astroparticle/particle-physics search for the nature of dark matter. Given the absence of detections in those experiments, I will advocate a return of the problem of dark-matter identification to astronomy, and show what kinds of theoretical and observational work might be used to pin down the nature of dark matter once and for all.

Understanding the cosmic recombination epoch

1/31/12
Chris Hirata
(Caltech)

The primary cosmic microwave background anisotropies have proven to be among the most useful cosmological probes, due to a combination of impressive observational advances and the simplicity of the underlying theory -- the CMB is a linear perturbation on a homogeneous and isotropic background. The most difficult part of the theoretical prediction for the primary CMB anisotropies has turned out to be the modeling of the cosmic recombination epoch: the transition from an ionized to neutral Universe, roughly 400,000 years after the Big Bang, which is the "surface" that we actually see when we look at the CMB. Even though the early Universe contained just three elements, computing its recombination history at the sub-percent level needed for Planck involves a maze of forbidden transitions, line escape processes, and radiative transfer in the far ultraviolet where the continuum opacity is dominated by multi-photon transitions in hydrogen (rather than by metals or dust). I will conclude by evaluating our current understanding of the recombination epoch and prospects for more direct tests of recombination models.

Signatures of Energy Injection in the Cosmic Microwave Background

2/7/12
Tracy Slatyer
(IAS)

Dark matter annihilation, or other new physics, could inject high-energy electrons and photons into the early universe after the redshift of last scattering, modifying the cosmic ionization history. In turn, this modification induces a characteristic perturbation to the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background radiation. I will discuss how to describe an arbitrary energy injection history in terms of a few parameters that efficiently characterize the possible effects on the CMB. This approach allows very general constraints to be set on arbitrary models of energy injection from new physics.

Bounds on annual modulation signal in dark matter direct detection

2/15/12
Jure Zupan
(U. of Cincinnati)

I will show constraints on the annual modulation signal in Dark Matter direct detection experiments which assume only very general properties of dark matter halo. The derivation of the bound uses an expansion in the earth velocity and is expressed in terms of the unmodulated event rate. I will illustrate the bounds by applying them to the annual modulation signals reported by the DAMA and CoGeNT experiments in the framework of spin-independent elastic scattering. While the DAMA signal satisfies our bounds, severe restrictions on the DM mass can be set for CoGeNT. Finally, I will also review the constraints on light dark matter interpretation of the CRESST-II results.

The Renaissance of Radio Detection of Cosmic Rays

2/21/12
Tim Huege
(KIT)

In the 1960s, researchers at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Manchester, UK discovered that cosmic ray air showers emit pulsed radio signals at MHz frequencies. After a decade of very active research, however, activities in the field ceased completely.
Since 2001, radio detection of cosmic ray air showers has experienced an impressive renaissance. The LOPES experiment in particular has pioneered a modern approach to cosmic ray radio detection using digital radio-interferometry. LOPES has confirmed that the radio emission is coherent, is of dominantly geomagnetic origin, and has great potential for large scale application complementing existing detection techniques for ultra-high energy cosmic rays. This potential is currently being evaluated with the Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA), which in its final setup will consist of 160 antennas covering an area of 20 square kilometres.
In this talk, I will review the revival of the radio detection technique, describe its current status and open questions, and discuss its future development.

What Stars are Useful For - A Particle Physicist's Point of View

2/28/12
Alexander Friedland
(LANL)

Stars realize a variety of physical conditions inaccessible in the lab. Various stages of stellar evolution are influenced by microphysical processes that are sensitive to the fundamental properties of elementary particles. This makes it possible to use stars to search for new particle physics beyond the Standard Model. I will discuss what massive stars tell us about neutrino magnetic moments and axion particles. As a particularly amusing example of conditions that cannot be reproduced in the lab, I will also mention the phenomenon of collective oscillations of neutrinos streaming out of the supernova core.

Double White Dwarf Binaries: Pre- and Post-meger

3/6/12
Tony Piro
(Caltech)
(Download Seminar PDF)

We now know of many white dwarf binaries in our Galaxy that will merge within a Hubble time due to gravitational wave emission. But there remains a lot of uncertainty in what will happen when the merger occurs. I will discuss theoretical work concerning the tidal interactions between the white dwarfs, how the tidal dissipation imprints itself on the inspiral, and the ramifications the tides have for the merger. Next I will explore the possible observational signatures expected when the total mass of the binary exceeds the Chandrasekhar limit, such as producing a Type Ia supernova or an accretion induced collapse to a neutron star. Such theoretical studies will aid current and future wide field, high cadence surveys that are revolutionizing our view of the transient sky.

Blowing Bubbles with Supernovae

PRICE PRIZE LECTURE
3/7/12
Sayan Chakraborti
(TIFR, India)

Our galaxy is full of gigantic bubbles. The distribution of gas in galaxies has often been compared to Swiss Cheese. But there is confusion about what is responsible for these bubbles? We shall discuss the role of supernovae in blowing bubbles.

Gravitational Flexion: Facts and Opinions

3/13/12
Massimo Viola
(U. of Edinburgh)

Gravitational flexion, caused by derivatives of the gravitational tidal field, is potentially very important for the analysis of the dark matter distribution in gravitational lenses, such as galaxy clusters or the dark matter haloes of galaxies. Reliable flexion measurements, specially in large surveys like KiDS or EUCLID, can increase the accuracy with which the inner profile of galaxy clusters can be constrained or can support the detection of substructures, whose presence in galaxy clusters is a firm prediction of the Cold-Dark Matter cosmogony. However the measurement of this signal and its interpretation are not trivial. I will critically discuss all those aspects and I will present possible solutions.

Probing the origin, propagation & distribution of cosmic rays with the Fermi LAT

3/27/12
Markus Ackermann
(DESY)
(Download Seminar PDF)

The Fermi Large Area Telescope is a pair-conversion telescope designed to study gamma-rays between 20 MeV and several hundreds of GeV. Its large effective area, field-of-view and survey-mode observation strategy make it a unique instrument to study the gamma-ray emission from potential sources of cosmic rays, as well as the diffuse emission from the interactions of the cosmic rays with the interstellar gas and radiation fields. Even though it was designed as a gamma-ray telescope, the LAT is also very competitive in measuring directly the local cosmic-ray electron and positron intensities in the GeV energy range. Lacking an on-board magnet, the Earth magnetic field is used for charge separation in the energy range between 20 GeV and 200 GeV. I will review the results obtained during the LAT mission and their astrophysical implications.

Observational Probes of Cosmic Acceleration

4/3/12, 4/10/12
Michael Mortonson & David Weinberg
(OSU/CCAPP)
(Download Seminar PDF)

In this two-person, two-part seminar, we will cover highlights from our review article "Observational Probes of Cosmic Acceleration," by D. Weinberg, M. Mortonson, D. Eisenstein, C. Hirata, A. Riess, and E. Rozo (arXiv:1201.2434). The article describes the techniques that underpin ongoing and planned "dark energy experiments," including BOSS, DES, BigBOSS, LSST, and Euclid/WFIRST. The first seminar will cover motivation, theoretical background and parameterized models, Type Ia supernovae, baryon acoustic oscillations, and weak lensing. The second seminar will discuss galaxy clusters and (briefly) some alternative methods, then turn to performance forecasts for "Stage III" and "Stage IV" cosmic acceleration programs and the complementarity of different approaches.

Highly Eccentric Jupiters and Binaries

4/24/12
Boaz Katz
(IAS)

They are out there, they are detectible, and finding them may solve the problem of how hot Jupiters and tight binaries form.

Any nu's from GRBs?

5/1/12
Markus Ahlers
(U. of Wisconsin, Madison)

Gamma ray bursts are among the prime suspects as the sources of ultra-high energy (UHE) cosmic rays (CRs). Not only are these objects capable of accelerating nuclei to the extreme energies so far detected but they can also supply enough power to sustain the energy density of UHE CRs. The production of high energy neutrinos would be an unavoidable consequence of the acceleration of nuclei in the presence of the intense radiation field of the GRB. The IceCube experiment has been looking for this neutrino emission associated with GRBs detected by the SWIFT and Fermi satellites between May 2008 and April 2010. Whereas typical models predict at least a few observable neutrinos during this period IceCube found none. I will discuss how this non-observation challenges the UHE CR paradigm of GRBs.

What do we know about the prompt emission in GRBs?

5/8/12
Asaf Pe'er
(Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

Since the launch of Fermi in 2008, a prime focus had been given to understanding the physical origin of the prompt emission from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). I will review recent Fermi results, and focus on some key, unsolved questions. I will then emphasis the role played by photospheric emission. In particular, I will explain various mechanisms that broaden the "Planck" spectrum that can potentially explain the observed spectra.

Cosmology with Absorption Line Systems

5/16/12
Michele Fumagalli
(Santa Cruz)

The study of absorption line systems in spectra of distant quasars offers a unique way to map the physical properties of hydrogen and metals in the intergalactic medium and in high-redshift galaxies. In this talk, I will use predictions from hydrodynamical cosmological simulations of high-redshift galaxies to discuss the prospects of studying inflows and outflows with absorption line systems. I will also present first results from an ongoing observational program that led to the discovery of pristine gas clouds at z=3 and I will discuss this finding in the context of Big Bang nucleosynthesis.

Measuring the growth of structure and the expansion rate at z=0.57 in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey

5/22/12
Beth Reid
(LBL)

While the underlying clustering of galaxies is believed to be isotropic, two distinct effects change the relative amplitude of clustering along and perpendicular to the line of sight. The Alcock-Pacyznski effect allows a geometric test to measure the product of the angular diameter distance and Hubble expansion rate at the galaxy sample's redshift. Peculiar velocities of galaxies also amplify the apparent clustering along the line-of-sight. We demonstrate our ability to distinguish these effects in the data through their scale-dependence, and present measurements of both the growth of structure and the expansion rate at z=0.57 using data from the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey.