We have developed a method allowing to extract DIBs from cool star spectra, based on combinations of stellar synthetic, telluric transmission (when necessary), and DIB profile models. It is applicable when the star temperature, surface gravity and metallicity have been previously estimated. Such a method aims at extracting extensive data from stellar spectroscopic surveys such as the Gaia-ESO Survey in progress at the VLT. The method has been applied to several strong DIBs detected towards stars from various programs and located at various distances from the solar neighborhood to the Galactic Bulge. Here we illustrate the extraction of the 8620 Å DIB, and compare its strength to the one of the 6284 Å band, both for nearby and bulge stars.

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has scanned the entire sky with unprecedented sensitivity in four infrared bands, at 3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 μm. The WISE Point Source Catalog contains more than 560 million objects, among them hundreds of thousands of galaxies with Active Nuclei (AGN). While type 1 AGN, owing to their bright and unobscured nature, are easy to detect and constitute a rather complete and unbiased sample, their type 2 counterparts, postulated by AGN unification, are not as straightforward to identify. Matching the WISE catalog with known QSOs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey we confirm previous identification of the type 1 locus in the WISE color space. Using a very large database of the popular Clumpy torus models, we find the colors of the putative type 2 counterparts, and also, for the first time, predict their number vs. flux relation that can be expected to be observed in any given WISE color range. This will allow us to put statistically very significant constraints on the torus parameters. Our results are a successful test of the AGN unification scheme.

In this project, we investigate the effects of magnetic activity on the Lithium Depletion Boundary (LDB) to recalibrate the measured ages for star clusters, using the open cluster Blanco 1 as a pilot study. We apply the LDB technique on low-mass Pre-Main-Sequence (PMS) stars to derive an accurate age for Blanco 1, and we consider the effect of magnetic activity on this inferred age. Although observations have shown that magnetic activity directly affects stellar radius and temperature, most PMS models do not include the effects of magnetic activity on stellar properties. Since the lithium abundance of a star depends on its radius and temperature, we expect that LDB ages are affected by magnetic activity. After empirically accounting for the effects of magnetic activity, we find the age of Blanco 1 to be ~100 Myr, which is ~30 Myr younger than the standard LDB age of ~130 Myr.

We have undertaken a spectroscopic survey of luminous AGNs and quasars selected in the mid-infrared from Spitzer IRAC surveys. Mid-infrared selection is much less biased with respect to obscuration than optical techniques, and hence enables the discovery of obscured quasars as well as normal, unobscured ones. Our survey is designed to include brighter 24 micron sources over wider areas and also to go to much lower fluxes limits in more limited spatial regions to allow us to disentangle dependences on redshift and luminosity. We have used 4m class telescopes to obtain spectra of the brighter 24 micron targets (targeting high luminosity objects at low z), and 8m class telescopes to identify lower luminosity high-redshift obscured quasars by targeting the fainter 24 micron targets. Fron this survey we have been able to compile a statistically complete sample of ~ 500 AGN, both obscured and unobscured, over a large range of redshift and luminosity. We find that obscured objects outnumber unobscured AGN with an obscured fraction ranging from ~ 90% to ~ 50%. For the most luminous quasars, the number densities of unobscured quasars peaks at z ~ 2.8, and for the obscured objects, the peak may be at slightly higher redshift.

Despite many investigations, the physical characteristics of the molecular gas in the Galactic center circumnuclear disk (CND) remain a topic of debate. Its mass is highly uncertain, between 104 (from dust) and 105–6 M⊙ (derived from gas tracers), and depending on the probe, density estimates for the dense clumps are 105–8 cm−3 and gas temperatures run from 50 to a few hundred K. The range of physical parameters leaves open many questions about the nature and fate of the CND. Using several ground-based observatories, together with Herschel and SOFIA, we have studied the physical conditions of the dense clumps using CO, HCN and HCO+, finding that most of them are transient. Their densities are not large enough for them to be gravitationally bound in the tidal field in the center of our Galaxy.

Supernova 2012A was discovered on 7.39UT, January, 2012 in the nearby galaxy NGC 3239 at an unfiltered magnitude of 14.6 and classified spectroscopically as a Type IIP event. Here, we present the optical photometric and spectroscopic follow-up of the event during 14d to 130d post explosion.

In this contribution we present initial results of a study on convective boundary mixing (CBM) in massive stellar models using the GENEVA stellar evolution code (Eggenberger et al.2008). Before undertaking costly 3D hydrodynamic simulations, it is important to study the general properties of convective boundaries, such as the: composition jump; pressure gradient; and “stiffness”. Models for a 15M⊙ star were computed. We found that for convective shells above the core, the lower (in radius or mass) boundaries are “stiffer” according to the bulk Richardson number than the relative upper (Schwarzschild) boundaries. Thus, we expect reduced CBM at the lower boundaries in comparison to the upper. This has implications on flame front propagation and the onset of novae.

We study the secular dynamics of extrasolar planetary systems by extending the Lagrange-Laplace theory to high order and by including the relativistic effects. We investigate the long-term evolution of the planetary eccentricities via normal form and we find an excellent agreement with direct numerical integrations. Finally we set up a simple analytic criterion that allows to evaluate the impact of the relativistic effects in the long-time evolution.

Attempts to interpret the observed oscillation spectrum of the SPB star HD 50230 are reported. We argue that a nearly equidistant period spacing found in the oscillation spectrum of the star is most likely accidental. The observed period distribution requires excitation of modes with the degree l > 4. Much more may be learned from the rich oscillation spectrum of the star but most of the work is still ahead of us.

Medium to high-resolution stellar spectroscopic surveys can potentially be used to build DIB databases by means of automated methods of analysis. Multiplex spectrographs increase strongly those potentialities and allow small-scale variability studies. Because measurements of the stellar parameters are generally the primary goal of the surveys, synthetic spectra can be computed and used to extract DIBs from late-type star data. Large datasets should allow deeper investigations on the DIB variability in response to stellar radiation fields, DIB reddening relationships, and help localizing interstellar clouds. Here we describe our attempts to build and test automated methods adapted to both early and late type stars.

We review the recent results of the nucleosynthesis yields of massive stars. We examine how those yields are affected by some hydrodynamical effects during the supernova explosions, namely, explosion energies from those of hypernovae to faint supernovae, mixing and fallback of processed materials, asphericity, etc. Those parameters in the supernova nucleosynthesis models are constrained from observational data of supernovae and metal-poor stars. The elemental abundance patterns observed in extremely metal-poor stars show some peculiarities relative to the solar abundance pattern, which suggests the important contributions of hypernovae and faint supernovae in the early chemical enrichment of galaxies. These constraints on supernova nucleosynthesis are taken into account in the latest yield table for chemical evolution modeling.

We are using five different surveys to compile the largest sample of diffuse interstellar band (DIB) measurements ever collected. GOSSS is obtaining intermediate-resolution blue-violet spectroscopy of ~2500 OB stars, of which 60% have already been observed and processed. The other four surveys have already collected multi-epoch high-resolution optical spectroscopy of 700 OB stars with different telescopes, including the 9 m Hobby-Eberly Telescope in McDonald Observatory. Some of our stars are highly-extinguished targets for which no good-quality optical spectra have ever been published. For all of the targets in our sample we have obtained accurate spectral types, measured non-DIB ISM lines, and compiled information from the literature to calculate the extinction. Here we present the first results of the project, the properties of twenty DIBs in the 4100-5500 Å range. We clearly detect a couple of previously elusive DIBs at 4170 Å and 4591 Å; the latter could have coronene and ovalene cations as carriers.

Fomalhaut harbours a moderately eccentric dust belt with a planet candidate (Fom b) imaged near its inner edge. MCMC-based orbital determination of Fom b shows that the orbit is highly eccentric (e≃0.9), nearly apsidally aligned with the belt. We study the secular interaction between the planet and the dust ring. We show that only if it is a small mass object, Fom b can perturb the belt without destroying it. But Fom b's perturbing action inevitably drives the belt to high eccentricity and apsidal misalignment. This behaviour is due to the planet's high eccentricity.

This dynamical outcome contradicts both observations and orbital determination. We conclude that another, more massive and less eccentric planet (Fom c) is required to dynamically control the belt. We show that Fom b is likely to have been formerly trapped in mean-motion resonance with Fom c and that subsequent eccentricity increase caused it to cross Fom c's orbit and to jump on its present day orbit via a scattering event.

The predictions of our chemodynamical simulations from cosmological initial conditions are as follows: The disk formed Inside-out. Metallicity radial and vertical gradients exist, but no [α/Fe] radial gradient. Metallicity radial gradient is steeper at higher redshifts. The [α/Fe]-[Fe/H] relation is caused by the delayed enrichment of Type Ia supernovae (not with long lifetimes, but with the metallicity effect). The bulge formed through the assembly of small gas-rich galaxies at high redshifts. [α/Fe] is higher, [Mn/Fe] is lower, [(Na, Al)/Fe] are higher than the disk. Metallicity and [α/Fe] vertical gradients exist, which is caused by the increase of metal-rich and low [α/Fe] populations at lower latitudes. Bars may form later, which may show boxy and cylindrical rotation. Half of thick disk stars (kinetically selected) come from minor mergers. [α/Fe] is higher, and [Mn/Fe] is lower than the thin disk, but [(Na, Al, Cu, Zn)/Fe] are lower than the bulge. There are metallicity vertical, weak metallicity radial, and no [α/Fe] radial gradients. It would be interesting to compare the predictions with other models such as radial mixing, disk heating, and clumpy disks.

For the solar neighborhood, the frequency distributions of elements from oxygen to zinc are in excellent agreement not only for the average values but also for the scatter. In chemodynamical simulations, chemical enrichment takes place inhomogeneously, and the scatter originates from a combination of various effects - mergers, migration, and in-situ. The inhomogeneous enrichment is important in reproducing observed nitrogen abundances, and also in understanding elemental abundance patterns of dwarf spheroidal galaxies and carbon-enhanced damped Lyman α systems.

We study the rotation-activity relationship for low-mass members of the young cluster h Persei, a ~13 Myr old cluster. h Per, thanks to its age, allows us to link the rotation-activity relation observed for main-sequence stars to the still unexplained activity levels of very young clusters.

We constrained the activity levels of h Per members by analyzing a deep Chandra/ACIS-I observation pointed to the central field of h Per. We combined this X-ray catalog with the catalog of h Per members with measured rotational period, presented by Moraux et al. (2013). We obtained a final catalog of 202 h Per members with measured X-ray luminosity and rotational period. We investigate the rotation-activity relation of h Per members considering different mass ranges. We find that stars with 1.3 M⊙ > M 1.4 M⊙ show significant evidence of supersaturation for short periods. This phenomenon is instead not observed for lower mass stars.

Most astronomers know about B. E. Markarians discovery and further study of galaxies with UV excess. It is less known that in 1963 Markarian drew attention to a small group of galaxies with color index-spectral type discrepancy. Early spectral type of these galaxies is combined with large color index (e.g. M82). Later studies showed that galaxies with large intrinsic color indices (CI ≥ 0.85) exhibit properties typical for active galaxies - galaxies with “red excess” are as active as galaxies with UV excess.

We present progenitor mass constraints on supernovae (SNe), from correlations with star-forming regions within host galaxies. Through a pixel statistics method used together with H-alpha imaging of host galaxies, we present a progenitor mass sequence running from supernovae type Ia (SNIa) arising from the lowest, through SNII, SNIb, and finally SNIc arising from the highest mass progenitors, implied from an increasing association of their explosion sites with star formation (SF). We also present constraints on the various core-collapse (CC) sub-types, finding the perhaps surprising result that SNIIn show the lowest degree of association with SF of any CC type, implying relatively low-mass progenitors. Finally, we compare the SNIIn environment distribution to that of SNIa, posing the provocative question that additional SNIIn may be linked to the SNIa phenomenon where the latter's spectra are hidden beneath that of circumstellar material (CSM) interaction.

We present maps of a large number of dense molecular gas tracers across the central molecular zone of our Galaxy. The data were taken with the CSIRO/CASS Mopra telescope in Large Projects in the 1.3 cm, 7 mm, and 3 mm wavelength regimes. Here, we focus on the brightness of the shock tracers SiO and HNCO, molecules that are liberated from dust grains under strong (SiO) and weak (HNCO) shocks. The shocks may have occurred when the gas enters the bar regions and the shock differences could be due to differences in the moving cloud masses. Based on tracers of ionizing photons, it is unlikely that the morphological differences are due to selective photo-dissociation of the molecules. We also observe direct heating of molecular gas in strongly shocked zones, with high SiO/HNCO ratios, where temperatures are determined from the transitions of ammonia. Strong shocks appear to be the most efficient heating source of molecular gas, apart from high energy emission emitted by the central supermassive black hole Sgr A* and the processes within the extreme star formation region Sgr B2.

The musician programme at the University of Canterbury has been successfully identifying pulsation modes in many γ Doradus stars using hundreds of ground-based spectroscopic observations. This paper describes some of the successful mode identifications and emerging patterns of the programme. The hybrid γ Doradus/δ Scuti star HD 49434 remains an enigma, despite the analysis of more than 1700 multi-site high-resolution spectra. A new result for this star is apparently distinct line-profile variations for the γ Doradus and δ Scuti frequencies.

We present the first results of our analysis of the famous variable star, WR6 (HD50896). Using IUE ultraviolet data and an ESPaDOnS spectropolarimetric survey of this star, we plan to determine possible variation of the stellar and wind parameters during the different phases using the radiative transfer code CMFGEN. After the detection of parameter's modifications as a function of the phase, we will analyse deeper the origin of these variability (for example, CIRs?). In the present poster we show the first results of our analysis of the variability and the first step of the stellar parameter determination of the average spectrum of this star.