Certain features of a practical regularisation method, in which the potential or kinetic energy is used as a time-regularising function, are described. For two-body encounters the method is less powerful than Kustaanheimo-Stiefel regularisation, but it has wider applicability.

It is well established that activity and rotation diminishes during the life of sun-like main sequence (~F7-K2V) stars. Indeed, the evolution of rotation and activity among these stars appears to be so deterministic that their rotation/activity diagnostics are often utilized as estimators of stellar age. A primary motivation for the recent interest in improving the ages of solar-type field dwarfs is in understanding the evolution of debris disks and planetary systems. Reliable isochronal age-dating for field, solar-type main sequence stars is very difficult given the observational uncertainties and multi-Gyr timescales for significant structural evolution. Observationally, significant databases of activity/rotation diagnostics exist for field solar-type field dwarfs (mainly from chromospheric and X-ray activity surveys). But how well can we empirically age-date solar-type field stars using activity/rotation diagnostics? Here I summarize some recent results for F7-K2 dwarfs from an analysis by Mamajek & Hillenbrand (2008), including an improved “gyrochronology” [Period(color, age)] calibration, improved chromospheric (R′HK) and X-ray (log(LX/Lbol)) activity vs. rotation (via Rossby number) relations, and a chromospheric vs. X-ray activity relation that spans four orders of magnitude in log(LX/Lbol). Combining these relations, one can produce predicted chromospheric and X-ray activity isochrones as a function of color and age for solar type dwarfs.

Theoretical considerations lead to the expectation that stars should not have masses larger than about $m_{\rm max*}=60$–$120M_\odot$, while the observational evidence has been ambiguous. Only very recently has a physical stellar mass limit near $150M_\odot$ emerged thanks to modern high-resolution observations of local star-burst clusters. But this limit does not appear to depend on metallicity, in contradiction to theory. Important uncertainties remain though. It is now also emerging that star-clusters limit the masses of their constituent stars, such that a well-defined relation between the mass of the most massive star in a cluster and the cluster mass, $m_{\rm max}={\cal F}(M_{\rm ecl}) \le m_{\rm max*}\approx 150M_\odot$, exists. One rather startling finding is that the observational data strongly favour clusters being built-up by consecutively forming more-massive stars until the most massive stars terminate further star-formation. The relation also implies that composite populations, which consist of many star clusters, most of which may be dissolved, must have steeper composite IMFs than simple stellar populations such as are found in individual clusters. Thus, for example, $10^5$ Taurus–Auriga star-forming groups, each with 20 stars, will ever only sample the IMF below about $1M_\odot$. This IMF will therefore not be identical to the IMF of one cluster with $2\times 10^6$ stars. The implication is that the star-formation history of a galaxy critically determines its integrated galaxial IMF and thus the total number of supernovae per star and its chemical enrichment history. Galaxy formation and evolution models that rely on an invariant IMF would be wrong.

Based both on observations and simulations, recent works propose that the speed of the spiral pattern in disk galaxies may decrease with increasing radius; the implications are that patterns are actually short-lived, and that the azimuthal color/age gradients across spiral arms predicted by density wave theory could not be produced. We, however, have consistently found such gradients, and measured spiral pattern speeds by comparing the observations with stellar population synthesis models (González & Graham 1996; Martínez-García et al. 2009a, b; Martínez-García & González-Lópezlira 2011). Here, we summarize our previous results in non-barred and weakly barred spirals, together with six new, as yet unpublished, objects. On the other hand, we have indeed found a trend whereby pattern speeds at smaller radii are larger than expected from a model that assumes purely circular orbits (cf. Figure 1), likely due to the effect of spiral shocks on the orbits of newborn stars. The results suggest that spirals may behave as steady long-lived patterns.

The formulation of the fundamental reference system to be represented by the FK5 includes the determination of the equinox and equator on the basis of planetary dynamics and the application of the new expressions for the general precession in longitude adopted in the IAU (1976) System of Astronomical Constants. The role of hypotheses which entered the determination of the lunisolar precession is explained. Results are presented for the equinox and equator of the FK5 which are based on observations of the Sun, planets, and lunar occultations.

In 1984 the International Commission on Lighting (CIE) set up a Technical Committee TC 4.21 to study interference by artificial light in astronomical observation. The resulting document “Guidelines for minimizing sky glow” (CIE No. 126) complements previous CIE documents from 1978 and the joint CIE-IAU (International Astronomical Union) publication of 1984. In this paper, we demonstrate how high performance luminaires based on more global and pertinent criteria can significantly reduce sky glow.

Relativistic hierarchy of reference systems (RS) developed in recent years by different authors is examined in detail. Metric expressions and transformation relations for solar system barycentric RS (BRS), heliocentric RS (HRS), Earth-Moon local RS (LRS), geocentric RS (GRS), topocentric RS (TRS)and Earth satellite RS (SRS) may be obtained explicitly in harmonic coordinates of GRT. The time coordinate of any RS involves the corresponding time scale. Particular attention is given to the closed form representation of GRS avoiding expansions in powers of the geocentric coordinates. GRS has been constructed in both versions of dynamically non-rotating GRS (DGRS) or kinematically non-rotating GRS (KGRS). DGRS and KGRS differ in their space axes orientation by the amount of the geodesic precession. Similarly, taking into account the motion of the Sun around the center of the Galaxy one should distinguish between dynamically non-rotating BRS (DBRS) and kinematically non-rotating BRS (KBRS) differing in their space axes orientation by the amount of the galactic precession. Reduction to the galactic time and the galactic space axes may be needed in the nearest future.

The Magnetism in Massive Stars (MiMeS) Project is a consensus collaboration among many of the foremost international researchers of the physics of hot, massive stars, with the basic aim of understanding the origin, evolution and impact of magnetic fields in these objects. At the time of writing, MiMeS Large Programs have acquired over 950 high-resolution polarised spectra of about 150 individual stars with spectral types from B5-O4, discovering new magnetic fields in a dozen hot, massive stars. The quality of this spectral and magnetic matériel is very high, and the Collaboration is keen to connect with colleagues capable of exploiting the data in new or unforeseen ways. In this paper we review the structure of the MiMeS observing programs and report the status of observations, data modeling and development of related theory.

One of the most interesting constraints on star formation models comes from the study of multiplicity of young stars as a function of mass. While multiplicity studies of low-mass T Tauri stars have been quite exhaustive, an unbiased and systematic investigation of multiplicity among intermediate-mass Herbig Ae/Be (HAEBE) stars is still lacking. We are therefore conducting a photometric and spectroscopic survey of HAEBE stars to detect companions, establish their physical association with the primary and investigate their properties. The frequency and degree of multiplicity of HAEBE systems will provide new constraints on their formation mechanisms. In this paper we present preliminary results of the high resolution imaging part of the survey, carried out with the adaptive optics system Altair-NIRI on Gemini North. Of 72 stars observed, we find 44 possible binaries or multiples, including at least 25 not previously known.

Code ROCHE is devoted to modeling multi-dataset observations of close eclipsing binaries such as radial velocities, multi-wavelength light curves, and broadening functions. The code includes circular surface spots, eccentric orbits, asynchronous or/and differential rotation, and third light. The program makes use of synthetic spectra to compute observed UBVRIJHK magnitudes from the surface model and the parallax. The surface grid is derived from a regular icosahedron to secure more-or-less equal (triangular) surface elements with observed intensities computed from synthetic spectra for supplied passband transmission curves. The limb-darkening is automatically interpolated from the tables after each computing step. All proximity effects (tidal deformation, reflection effect, gravity darkening) are taken into account. Integration of synthetic curves is improved by adaptive phase step (important for wide eclipsing systems).

The code is still under development. It is planned to extend its capabilities towards low mass ratios and widely different radii of components to facilitate modeling of extrasolar planet transits. Another planned extension of the code will be modeling of spatially-resolved eclipsing binaries using relative visual orbits and/or interferometric visibilities.

The 22-year oscillations of the Earth rotation due to several geophysical processes in the core-mantle system, oceans, atmosphere and geomagnetic field are excited mainly by 22-year cycles of the solar activity. These geophysical processes produce their own oscillations of the Earth rotation with different periods around 22 years. The direct and indirect influence of the solar activity on 22-year cycles of the Earth rotation are separated from the core effects and corresponding amplitudes are estimated by means of two approaches. The first, direct approach uses extended time series of Wolf's numbers with 22-year cycles, determined by sign alternation of even sunspot cycles. A linear regression between 22-year cycles of UT1 and solar activity is determined and this regression model is used to calculate the UT1 response to the 22-year cycles of the solar activity. The second, indirect approach uses 22-year oscillation of the mean sea level, caused by water evaporation due to variations of the total solar irradiance. The influence of the mean sea level variations on the Earth rotation is calculated by means of an empirical model of global water redistribution. The core-mantle effects on the 22-year UT1 variations are determined by excluding the UT1 response to the solar activity and core angular momentum due to the geomagnetic field variations, according to the solutions from the Special Bureau of the Core (SBC).

Precise white dwarf gravitational redshifts can only be obtained utilizing systems of known distance and space velocity. Binaries with known orbits such as 40 Eri B are rare, and although common proper motion pairs have proven highly useful(Wegner 1973: Koester 1987: Wegner & Reid 1987), there are some problems in their interpretation. Another approach is to employ white dwarfs in open clusters; they not only have known systemic velocities, but also provide information on the progenitors of the white dwarfs. Of the nearby galactic clusters, the Hyades currently give the best information for achieving accurate gravitational redshifts: the members are relatively bright and nearby and their kinematics are well known.

We study the effects of radiative cooling, star formation and stellar feedback on the properties and evolution of galaxy clusters using high-resolution Adaptive Mesh Refinement N-body+gasdynamics simulations of clusters forming in the $\Lambda$CDM universe. Cooling leads to the condensation of gas in the inner regions of clusters, which in turn leads to steepening of the dark matter profile. The cooling gas is replaced by the higher-entropy gas from the outer regions, which raises the entropy and temperature of gas in the cluster core. The magnitude of these effects is likely overestimated in the current simulations because they suffer from the overcooling problem: a much larger fraction of baryons is in the form of cold gas and stars than is observed. We find that the thermal stellar feedback alone does not remedy this problem. Additional ad-hoc preheating can lower the amount of cold gas but a simple uniform preheating results in incorrect star formation history, as it delays the bulk of star formation until $z<1$. Our analysis shows that the overcooling in a cluster as a whole is really the overcooling in the central galaxy and its progenitors at high redshifts. This indicates that an additional heating mechanism that can continuously heat the gas in the cluster core is required to reproduce the observed cluster properties. Energy injection by the Active Galactic Nuclei, which may provide such heating, may thus be an important missing ingredient in the current theoretical models of cluster formation.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html

The modeling of nutations and precession has advanced to the point where the rms of residuals between theory and the observational estimates from the VLBI data of the past decade is only 0.16 mas in Δψ sin є0 as well as in Δє. Such a fit is provided by the MHB2000 nutation series (Mathews et al., 2000) based on geophysical theory with a few basic Earth parameters estimated by a fit to nutation-precession data, and its accompanying precession rate. A brief account of the series is presented, along with an outline of the theoretical background and of the geophysical information of interest obtained in the process of constructing the series. A series due to Shirai and Fukushima (2000) also gives a somewhat comparable fit to data, improving on the IERS 1996 series, but it is essentially empirical and provides no geophysical insights.

The observed rate and spatial distribution of galactic novae can be explained with the concept of two nova populations, the disc novae of faster outburst development, and the slower bulge novae. Similar populations seem to exist in nearby galaxies. The space density of galactic novae depends strongly on the recurrence time, which is unknown and may lie between 500 and 20 000 years. If the recurrence time is long, the population of quiescent novae must be identified; the hibernation scenario may or may not be a solution.

Using the variable baseline of the Mark III Optical Interferometer (Shao et al. 1988) with lengths ranging from 3 to 31.5 m, we measured the fringe visibility of stars in three 25 nm bandpass filters, at wavelengths between 800 nm and 450 nm. This setup gives fringe spacings ranging from 55 mas to 3 mas.

255 stars brighter than fifth magnitude and north of –10° declination were selected from the Batten et al. (1989) catalog of spectroscopic binaries. We compiled values for the orbital axes from the McAlister & Hartkopf (1988) catalog. If unknown (in the majority of cases), they were estimated from the masses predicted from the spectral types, the periods (if known), and the distances to the binaries. Priority was given to the binaries with orbital axes between 3 mas and 40 mas. Observational procedures and the calibration of the data are described by Armstrong et al. (1992). Statistical and calibration uncertainties are in the range of 1% (red channel) to 10% (blue channel).

The complex structure of nuclear disks of normal spiral galaxies is illustrated with the example of five galaxies, observed at the 6m telescope. The problem of gravitational stability of nuclear disks is briefly discussed.

In this contribution we present a few selected examples of how the latest generation of space-based instrumentation — NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Far-Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) — are finally answering old questions about the influence of massive star feedback on the warm and hot phases of the ISM and IGM. In particular, we discuss the physical origin of the soft thermal X-ray emission in the halos of star-forming and starburst galaxies, its relationship to extra-planar Hα emission, and plasma diagnostics using FUSE observations of O vi absorption and emission.

The Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) has been used to make the first full polarization observations of 6.7 GHz methanol masers. Linear polarization was detected towards all four sources observed, at levels between a few and 10%, while none of the sources show circular polarization stronger than approximately 1.5%. Linear polarization appears to be more common in the 6.7 GHz methanol maser transition than it is for the 12.2 GHz transition, consistent with the hypothesis that the 6.7 GHz masers are more saturated.

We discuss different physical aspects that may influence pulsation stability in rapidly oscillating Ap stars. We pay particular attention to the role of the magnetic field, atomic diffusion and winds and point out some of the important uncertainties involved in present studies of pulsation stability in these stars. We argue that presently the models that best reproduce the observations are those with convection suppressed, diffusion of helium, and no winds. With these models, in the region of the HR diagram where most roAp stars have been found, we predict the excitation of high order modes and the damping of low order modes, in accord with observations.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html