The business meeting started at 11h00, in the presence of 18 members, with a brief summary of the activities and achievements of the Working group during the triennium 2006-2009.

In 1974 Fanaroff & Riley divided the extended radio sources into two classes, on the basis of their radio morphology and power. For several years we have been collecting basic parameters for extragalactic jets detected in the X-rays, looking for an extension of the classification criterion, based on their radio and X-rays properties. The fact that different processes have been proposed to explain their X-ray radiation, (synchrotron vs inverse Compton emission) suggests the possibility of a new classification scheme. However, comparing the radio-to-X-ray properties of the extragalactic jets, several aspects on their nature became unexpectedly unclear.

A large fraction of brown dwarfs and low-mass stars may form by gravitational fragmentation of relatively massive (a few 0.1 M⊙) and extended (a few hundred AU) discs around Sun-like stars. We present an ensemble of radiative hydrodynamic simulations that examine the conditions for disc fragmentation. We demonstrate that this model can explain the low-mass IMF, the brown dwarf desert, and the binary properties of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. Observing discs that are undergoing fragmentation is possible but very improbable, as the process of disc fragmentation is short lived (discs fragment within a few thousand years).

The present study takes the CoRoT-7b exoplanet as an analogue for massive terrestrial planets to investigate conditions, under which intrinsic magnetic fields could be sustained in liquid cores. We examine the effect of depth-dependent transport parameters (e.g., activation volume of mantle rock) on a planet's thermal structure and the related heat flux across the core mantle boundary. For terrestrial planets more massive than the Earth, our calculations suggest that a substantial part of the lowermost mantle is in a sluggish convective regime, primarily due to pressure effects on viscosity. Hence, we find substantially higher core temperatures than previously reported from parameterized convection models. We also discuss the effect of melting point depression in the presence of impurities (e.g., sulfur) in iron-rich cores and compare corresponding melting relations to the calculated thermal structure. Since impurity effects become less important at the elevated pressure and temperature conditions prevalent in the deep interior of CoRoT-7b, iron-rich cores are likely solid, implying that a self-sustained magnetic field would be absent.

We review some of the recent results obtained in MHD turbulence, as encountered in many astrophysical objects. We focus attention on the lack of universality in such flows, including in the simplest case (no externally imposed magnetic field, no forcing, unit magnetic Prandtl number). Several parameters can foster such a breakdown of classical Kolmogorov scaling, such as the presence of velocity-magnetic field correlations, or of magnetic helicity and the role of the interplay between nonlinear eddies and Alfvén waves. A link with avalanche processes is also discussed. These findings have led to the conjecture of the emergence of a new paradigm for MHD turbulence, as a possibly unsettled competition between several dynamical phenomena.

We report recent observations of the sharp-lined magnetic βCep pulsator ξ1 CMa (= HD 46328). The longitudinal magnetic field of this star is detected consistently, but it is not observed to vary significantly, during nearly 5 years of observation. In this poster we evaluate whether the constant longitudinal field is due to intrinsically slow rotation, or rather if the stellar or magnetic geometry is responsible.

Lyman Break Analogs (LBAs), characterized by high far-UV luminosities and surface brightnesses as detected by GALEX, are intensely star-forming galaxies in the low-redshift universe (z ~ 0.2), with star formation rates reaching up to 50 times that of the Milky Way. These objects present metallicities, morphologies and other physical properties similar to higher redshift Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs), motivating the detailed study of LBAs as local laboratories of this high-redshift galaxy population. We present results from our recent integral-field spectroscopy survey of LBAs with Keck/OSIRIS, which shows that these galaxies have the same nebular gas kinematic properties as high-redshift LBGs. We argue that such kinematic studies are not an appropriate diagnostic to rule out merger events as the trigger for the observed starburst. Comparison between the kinematic analysis and morphological indices from HST imaging illustrates the difficulties of properly identifying (minor or major) merger events, with no clear correlation between the results using either of the two methods. Artificial redshifting of our data indicates that this problem becomes even worse at high redshift due to surface brightness dimming and resolution loss. Whether mergers could generate the observed kinematic properties is strongly dependent on gas fractions in these galaxies. We present preliminary results of a CARMA survey for LBAs and discuss the implications of the inferred molecular gas masses for formation models.

A self-consistent nonlinear dynamo model is presented. The nonlinear behavior of the plasma at small scale is described by using a MHD shell model for fields fluctuations; this allow us to study the dynamo problem in a large parameter regime which characterizes the dynamo phenomenon in many natural systems and which is beyond the power of supercomputers at today. The model is able to reproduce dynamical situations in which the system can undergo transactions to different dynamo regimes. In one of these the large-scale magnetic field jumps between two states reproducing the magnetic polarity reversals. From the analysis of long time series of reversals we infer results about the statistics of persistence times, revealing the presence of hidden long-time correlations in the chaotic dynamo process.

Galileo's imagination was quick to comprehend the importance of the 4 starry objects he observed near Jupiter in January 1610, not only for himself as a scientist but for our common understanding of the place of the Earth and our species in the cosmos. Even he, however, could not have imagined what those four objects would actually look like once humans got their first good look. Some 369 years the fast traveling Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft provided that first good look during 1979, followed by an even closer look from the Galileo Orbiter beginning in 1996 through 2001. The following mosaics represent some of the best of those views. They include views of impact craters young and ancient, icy terrains that have been intensely faulted, eroded or disrupted, mountains towering 10 or more kilometers high, and volcanic eruptions hotter than those on Earth. Each of the four Galilean satellites is geologically distinct, betraying very diverse global histories and evolutions. Images and other observations of these 4 objects revealed the importance of tidal heating and subsurface water oceans in planetary evolution, but mapping is very incomplete. New missions to explore these planetary bodies are being planned and the images and observations of the missions that went before will lay the groundwork for these new explorations as we begin the 5th Galilean century.

Hot luminous stars show a variety of phenomena in their photospheres and in their winds which still lack clear physical explanations at this time. Among these phenomena are non-thermal line broadening, line profile variability (LPVs), discrete absorption components (DACs), wind clumping and stochastically excited pulsations. Cantiello et al. (2009) argued that a convection zone close to the surface of hot, massive stars, could be responsible for some of these phenomena. This convective zone is caused by a peak in the opacity due to iron recombination and for this reason is referred to as the “iron convection zone” (FeCZ). 3D MHD simulations are used to explore the possible effects of such subsurface convection on the surface properties of hot, massive stars. We argue that turbulence and localized magnetic spots at the surface are the likely consequence of subsurface convection in early type stars.

Radiative feedback and magnetic field are understood to have a strong impact on the protostellar collapse. We present high resolution numerical calculations of the collapse of a 1 M⊙ dense core in solid body rotation, including both radiative transfer and magnetic field. Using typical parameters for low-mass cores, we study thoroughly the effect of radiative transfer and magnetic field on the first core formation and fragmentation. We show that including the two aforementioned physical processes does not correspond to the simple picture of adding them separately. The interplay between the two is extremely strong, via the magnetic braking and the radiation from the accretion shock.

As compressible convection has inherent up/down asymmetry, overshooting above and below a convection zone behave differently. In downward overshooting, the narrow down-flow columns dynamically play an important role. It is customary, and reasonable, to use the downward flux of kinetic energy as a proxy for overshooting. In the upward situation, the flux of kinetic energy can take on different signs near the upper boundary of the convection zone, and its magnitude is generally small. It cannot make a good proxy for overshooting. This paper discusses the results of a set of numerical experiments that investigate the problem of overshooting above a convection zone. Particle tracing and color advection are used to follow the mixing process. The overshoot region above a convection zone is found to contain multiple counter cell layers.

Spectropolarimetric observations of HD 155806 – the hottest Galactic Oe star – were obtained with CFHT/ESPaDOnS to test the hypothesis that disk signatures in its spectrum are due to magnetic channeling and confinement of its stellar wind. We did not detect a dipole field of sufficient strength to confine the wind, and could not confirm previous reports of a magnetic detection. It appears that stellar magnetism is not responsible for producing the disk of HD 155806.

With over two dozen exoplanet atmospheres observed today, the field of exoplanet atmospheres is solidly established. The highlights of exoplanet atmosphere studies include: detection of molecular spectral features; constraints on atmospheric vertical temperature structure; detection of day-night temperature gradients; and a new numerical approach to atmosphere temperature and abundance retrieval. As hot Jupiter observations and interpretation are maturing, the next frontier is super Earth atmospheres. Theoretical models of super Earth atmospheres are moving forward with observational hopes pinned on the James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for launch in 2014. Further in the future lies direct imaging attempts to answer the enigmatic and ancient question, “Are we alone?” via atmospheric biosignatures.

Alfven/acoustic waves are ubiquitous in astrophysical as well as in laboratory plasmas. Their interplay with energetic ions is of crucial importance to understanding the energy and particle exchange in astrophysical plasmas as well as to obtaining a viable energy source in magnetically confined fusion devices. In magnetically confined fusion plasmas, an experimental phase-space characterisation of convective and diffusive energetic particle losses induced by Alfven/acoustic waves allows for a better understanding of the underlying physics. The relevance of these results in the problem of the anomalous heating of the solar corona is checked by MHD simulations of Tokamak-like Solar flare tubes.

The utilization of integral-field spectroscopy has led us to a new understanding of the physical conditions in galaxies within the first few billion years after the Big Bang. In this proceedings, we analyze observations of ~50 massive galaxies as seen as they were 10 Gyrs ago using SINFONI from the ESO-VLT. We show that the large line width they exhibit can be explained by the intense mechanical energy output from the young stars. We also study the influence of cold gas accretion upon these galaxies: We show that an unrealistic amount of shocked gas would be needed in order to explain the Hα emission from these galaxies through shocks from gas accretion with velocity about the Hα line widths of these galaxies. We also use DEEP2 photometric measurements for a sub-sample of 10 of these galaxies to evaluate their ratio of Hα to FUV flux as a function of their Hα and R-band luminosity surface brightnesses. Our data suggests that perhaps their initial mass function (IMF) is flatter than Salpeter at the high mass end, as has been suggested recently for some local galaxies. It may be that high turbulence is responsible for skewing the IMF towards more massive stars as suggested by some theories of star-formation. Much work is however needed to accredit this hypothesis.

Division V organized a brief Business meeting during the XXVIIth General Assembly, prior to Business meetings (reported separately) of Commissions 27 and 42. The Division V Business Meeting began at 11:00 on 5 August 2009.

In this work, we present the analysis results using UMRAO preliminary data base. We used the light curves 1) to get the shortest timescales and then to get the brightness temperature so that we can estimate the Doppler factors; 2) to investigate the periodicity and discuss the variability index. We also used the data base to discuss the polarization properties of blazars. We found that the periodicity distribution in BL Lacs and that in the flat spectrum radio quasars should be from the same distribution. The Doppler factor in FSRQs is higher than that in BL. The polarization in BLs are higher than that in the flat spectrum radio quasars

The flows in and around sunspots are rich in detail. Starting with the Evershed flow along low-lying flow channels, which are cospatial with the horizontal penumbral magnetic fields, Evershed clouds may continue this motion at the periphery of the sunspot as moving magnetic features in the sunspot moat. Besides these well-ordered flows, peculiar motions are found in complex sunspots, where they contribute to the build-up or relaxation of magnetic shear. In principle, the three-dimensional structure of these velocity fields can be captured. The line-of-sight component of the velocity vector is accessible with spectroscopic measurements, whereas local correlation or feature tracking techniques provide the means to assess horizontal proper motions. The next generation of ground-based solar telescopes will provide spectropolarimetric data resolving solar fine structure with sizes below 50 km. Thus, these new telescopes with advanced post-focus instruments act as a ‘zoom lens’ to study the intricate surface flows associated with sunspots. Accompanied by ‘wide-angle’ observations from space, we have now the opportunity to describe sunspots as a system. This review reports recent findings related to flows in and around sunpots and highlights the role of advanced instrumentation in the discovery process.