Essential assumptions and features of the Broadening Function (BF) technique are presented. A distinction between BF determination and the BF concept and utilization is made. The BF's can be determined in various ways. The approach based on linear deconvolution involving stellar templates, as used during the DDO program (1999 – 2008) is described, but the LSD technique would also give excellent results. The BF concept to prove and/or verify photometric light-curve solutions has so far been very limited to only a few W UMa-type binaries, with AW UMa giving particularly unexpected results.

We emphasize the crucial importance for authors and researchers to attach good and adequate metadata to their time-domain data. We provide pointers to existing and emerging standards, and provide guidance for labelling time in publications.

Using the 3D morpho-kinematic modeling software SHAPE, we have created a model of the Red Rectangle that naturally reproduces many exotic morphological features including the notorious “ladder rungs”.

Detailed studies of the stellar populations of intermediate-redshift galaxies can shed light onto the processes responsible for the significant evolution of the massive galaxy population since z < 1. We have undertaken such a study by means of deep rest-frame optical spectroscopy with IMACS on Magellan on a sample of ~80 galaxies selected from CDFS to have stellar masses > 1010M⊙ and redshift 0.65 < z < 0.75. We analyse stellar absorption line strengths and interpret them with a Monte Carlo library of star formation histories to derive constraints on mean stellar ages, metallicities and stellar masses. We present here the first characterization of the stellar mass–metallicity and stellar mass–age relations at z~0.7 and their evolution to the present-day.

In searching for a reliable variability indicator for Chandra X-ray event data, we implemented the Gregory-Loredo (G–L) algorithm to assess variability and to generate light curves for the Chandra Source Catalog. A test was performed on 118 sources detected in a single observation, spanning the intensity range 5–24,000 photons over a total observing time of 102,000 sec. We conclude that the G–L algorithm is extremely robust, yielding both a reliable variability indicator and light curves with optimal resolution, while requiring a very modest amount of CPU time. The algorithm can also work on binned data, and is capable of handling data gaps as well as variations in effective area.

TODCOR is a TwO-Dimensional CORrelation technique to measure radial velocities of the two components of a spectroscopic binary. Assuming the spectra of the two components are known, the technique correlates an observed binary spectrum against a combination of the two spectra with different shifts. TODCOR measures simultaneously the radial velocities of the two stars by finding the maximum correlation. The main use of the technique has been to turn single-lined binaries into double-lined systems. This helps to explore the binary mass-ratio distribution, especially the low-mass regime, where the secondaries are usually very faint and therefore hard to detect. The technique has been generalized to study multi-order spectra, and also triple- and quadruple-lined systems. It has several applications in studying extrasolar planets and in the future may even help to dynamically measure stellar masses of binaries through relativistc effects.

Observations of supernova remnants show that large- and small scale structures form at various points in the explosion. We present a case study of structure formation in 3D in a 15 M⊙ supernova for different parameters. We investigate the structure formation and morphology of the Rayleigh-Taylor unstable region. We also propose a method of characterizing the sizes of overdense clumps that can be compared directly with observations. The RT instabilities result in clumps that are overdense by 1-2 orders of magnitude with respect to the ambient gas, have size scales on the level of a few% of the remnant diameter, and are not diffused after the first ~30 yrs of the remnant evolution, in the absence of a surrounding medium.

In this talk I will review the Rossiter-McLaughlin (RM) effect; its history, how it manifests itself during stellar eclipses and planetary transits, and the increasingly important role its measurements play in guiding our understanding of the formation and evolution of close binary stars and exoplanet systems.

The well-known recurrent nova T Pyx has brightened by 7 magnitudes, starting on 2011 April 14, its first eruption since 1966. T Pyx is unique amongst recurrent novæ in being surrounded by a nebula formed of material ejected during previous eruptions. The latest eruption therefore offers the rare opportunity to observe a light echo sweeping through the existing shell, and a new one forming. The sudden exposure of the existing shell to high-energy light is expected to result in a change of the dust morphology as well as in the part destruction of molecules. We observe this process in the near- and mid-IR during several epochs using ESO's VLT instruments Sinfoni, Visir and Isaac. Unfortunately, in the data analysed so far we only have a tentative detection in Brα from the shell, so might in the end have to be content with upper limits for the emission from the various molecular bands and ionised lines.

We stack FIRST survey cutout images of 811 K+A galaxies to derive a mean 1.4 GHz radio image of our sample from which we measure a mean K+A flux density of 56 μJy. We carry out Monte Carlo simulations by randomly selecting radio-quiet white dwarfs to create 10,000 stacks equivalent to our K+A stack. From the measured fluxes of these stacks, we establish a 5σ detection limit of 43 μJy for stacked images. For the average redshift of our sample, we find an mean star formation rate of ~1.7 M⊙ yr−1. We split the sample by age and find a mean radio flux of 60 μJy, which corresponds to a star formation rate of 1.6 M⊙ yr−1, for galaxies with starburst ages less than 250 Myr.

A standard planetary nebula stays more than 10 000 years in the state of a photoionized nebula. As long as the timescales of the most important ionizing processes are much smaller, the ionization state can be characterized by a static photoionization model and simulated with codes like CLOUDY (Ferland et al. 1998). When the star exhibits a late helium flash, however, its ionizing flux stops within a very short period. The star then re-appears from its opaque shell after a few years (or centuries) as a cold giant star without any hard ionizing photons. Describing the physics of such behavior requires a fully time-dependent radiative transfer model. Pollacco (1999), Kerber et al. (1999) and Lechner & Kimeswenger (2004) used data of the old nebulae around V605 Aql and V4334 Sgr to derive a model of the pre-outburst state of the CSPN in a static model. Their argument was the long recombination time scale for such thin media. With regard to these models Schönberner (2008) critically raised the question whether a significant change in the ionization state (and thus the spectrum) has to be expected after a time of up to 80 years, and whether static models are applicable at all.

The first generations of stars are thought to have been more massive than Pop I stars and therefore some of these are thought to have produced pair creation supernovae (PCSNe) at the end of their life. However, the chemical signature of PCSNe is not observed in extremely metal poor stars (e.g. Umeda and Nomoto 2002) and it raises the following questions: Were stars born less (or more massive) than the mass range expected to lead to the PCSNe? Or was mass loss too strong during the evolution of these stars and prevented them from retaining enough mass to produce PCSNe? The discovery of very massive stars (VMS, M > 100 M⊙) in the Milky Way and LMC (Crowther et al. 2010) shows that VMS can form and exist. The observations of PCSN candidates (2006gy & 2007bi) also seems to indicate that such SNe may occur. Mass loss plays a crucial role in the life of VMS since the star will only die as a PCSN if the star retains a high mass throughout its life. In this paper, we shall describe the dependence of VMS evolution on metallicity and present stellar evolution models at various metallicities, including the effects of mass loss and rotation. Based on our models, we will give our predictions concerning the fate of these VMS, either a PCSN or SNIc (possibly GRBs in some cases) as a function of metallicity.

Having surveyed ≈ 10% of the sky, we have identified more than 130 PN candidates by surveying multicolour Digitized Sky Survey (DSS), Sloan Digitized Sky Survey (SDSS), and combined [O III], Hα and [S II] images. In a first imaging and spectroscopy campaign, 51 objects were identified as true and probable PNe. This work presents an additional 17 probable or possible PNe identified since that study. The majority of these candidates are situated at Galactic latitudes |b| > 5^, with the exception of seven objects located closer to the Galactic plane. Using the techniques described here that do not require any new survey data, we anticipate that many more PNe are waiting to be found, perhaps as many as 90.

The Rossiter-McLaughlin effect occurs during the eclipse or transit of an object in front of another one. In our case, it appears as an anomaly on the radial velocity Doppler reflex motion. The modelling of that effect allows one to measure the sky-projected angle between the rotation spin of the primary and the orbital spin of the secondary. In the case of exoplanets, it gave clues about the formation of the hot Jupiters. In this paper, I will talk about how the data are acquired, how models are adjusted to them, and which results have been made.

We present X-ray (Chandra), ultraviolet (Swift/UVOT; U band) and optical-infrared (Liverpool Telescope; griz bands) continuum light curves of Q0957+561 observed in the first half of 2010. A cross-correlation analysis of the light curves shows that the U-band fluctuation leads the other variations at higher and lower energies. The study constrains the geometry of the continuum emission regions in a distant radio-loud AGN for the first time. We note that our work opens a new window in echo-mapping of high-z AGNs with the use of lensed quasars, since the variability of some of the images of a given multiply-imaged quasar can be predicted in advance, provided there is a modest optical follow-up of the system.

We present preliminary results on Submillimeter Array (SMA) observations of three Luminous Infrared Galaxies (LIRGs) and one infrared Quasi Stellar Object (IR QSO). The galaxies were observed at sub-kpc spatial resolution in lines of CO and 13CO, as well as in the continuum at 1.3mm. The moment maps show that the molecular gas in these galaxies is distributed in rotating disks with velocity gradients ranging from ~30 to 120 km s−1 kpc−1. Combined with archival CO J=3-2 data, the spatial distributions of the CO J=3-2/J=2-1 ratios shows clear variations across the galaxies. The brightness temperature of the overlap region in VV 114 is found to be lower than that in the nuclear region of VV 114E, suggesting that that the bulk of molecular gas in this region is sub-thermalized.

Measuring cosmological parameters with GRBs: status and perspectives

New interpretation of the Amati relation

The SED Machine - a dedicated transient spectrograph

PTF10iue - evidence for an internal engine in a unique Type Ic SN

Direct evidence for the collapsar model of long gamma-ray bursts

On pair instability supernovae and gamma-ray bursts

Pan-STARRS1 observations of ultraluminous SNe

The influence of rotation on the critical neutrino luminosity in core-collapse supernovae

General relativistic magnetospheres of slowly rotating and oscillating neutron stars

Host galaxies of short GRBs

GRB 100418A: a bridge between GRB-associated hypernovae and SNe

Two super-luminous SNe at z ~ 1.5 from the SNLS

Prospects for very-high-energy gamma-ray bursts with the Cherenkov Telescope Array

The dynamics and radiation of relativistic flows from massive stars

The search for light echoes from the supernova explosion of 1181 AD

The proto-magnetar model for gamma-ray bursts

Stellar black holes at the dawn of the universe

MAXI J0158-744: the discovery of a supersoft X-ray transient

Wide-band spectra of magnetar burst emission

Dust formation and evolution in envelope-stripped core-collapse supernovae

The host galaxies of dark gamma-ray bursts

Keck observations of 150 GRB host galaxies

Search for properties of GRBs at large redshift

The early emission from SNe

Spectral properties of SN shock breakout

MAXI observation of GRBs and short X-ray transients

A three-dimensional view of SN 1987A using light echo spectroscopy

X-ray study of the southern extension of the SNR Puppis A

All-sky survey of short X-ray transients by MAXI GSC

Development of the CALET gamma-ray burst monitor (CGBM)

We present a versatile method appropriate for the period analyses of observations containing phase information of all kinds of periodic or nearly periodic variable stars on the basis of phenomenological modelling of their phase curves and phase functions. The approach is based on rigorous application of a non-linear weighted least-squares method exploiting all available observational data and does not need an O-C diagram as an intermediate stage for period analyses. However, this approach enables us to determine precise times of extrema of light curves, to calculate ephemerides and construct plausible O-C diagrams. We substantiate the general applicability of the method on eclipsing binaries research.

I summarise recent results on multi-wavelength properties of distant lensed galaxies, with a particular focus on Herschel. Submm surveys have already resulted in a breakthrough discovery of an extremely efficient selection technique for strong gravitational lenses. Benefitting from the gravitational magnification boost, blind mm-wave redshifts have been demonstrated on IRAM, SMA and GBT, and follow-up emission line detections have been made of water, [Oiii], [Cii] and other species, revealing the PDR/XDR/CRDR conditions. I also discuss HST imaging of submm lenses, lensed galaxy reconstruction, the prospects for ALMA and e-Merlin and the effects of differential magnification. Many emission line diagnostics are relatively unaffected by differential magnification, but SED-based estimates of bolometric fractions in lensed infrared galaxies are so unreliable as to be useless, unless a lens mass model is available to correct for differential amplification.

Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGT) is currently building a new kind of general-purpose astronomical facility: a fully robotic network of telescopes of 2m, 1m and 0.4m apertures and homogeneous instrumentation. A pan-network approach to scheduling (rather than per individual telescope) offers redundancy in the event of poor weather or technical failure, as well as the ability to observe a target around the clock. Here we describe the network design and instrumentation under development, together with the main science programmes already being lead by LCOGT staff.