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January[0]=["3","Bence Kocsis","CfA","Astrophysical applications of gravitational waves","","",""];
January[1]=["10","Anne-Marie Weijmans","Leiden","Cold and warm gas in NGC 2974: inferring the shape of its dark matter halo","","",""];
January[2]=["17","Richard Cool","Arizona","Constraining the evolution of the most massive galaxies since z~1","The popular model for the formation of early-type galaxies is the hierarchical merging scenario. However, the details and frequency of merging are not yet known, particularly in dense environments. The high-mass end of the galaxy luminosity function, as the extreme example of the merger phenomenon, is the most sensitive to various merger model assumptions and thus provides an ideal testing ground for these models. I will present recent work utilizing wide-area spectroscopic surveys to place constraints on the star formation and merger histories of the most massive galaxies in the universe since z~1. In particular, I will show that massive red-sequence galaxies have had very little star formation since z~1, thus limiting the importance of gas-rich mergers since that epoch, and show that the number density of very massive galaxies has evolved little in that same epoch, suggesting that very massive galaxies assembled their stellar mass at z>1. I will close with a brief introduction of PRIMUS, a new spectoscopic survey aimed at observing 15 square degrees of the southern sky with high-quality archival optical, infrared, and X-ray data and obtaining 300,000 galaxy redshifts to z~1. PRIMUS will be the largest intermediate-redshift galaxy survey to date as well as the largest sample of Spitzer-detected objects and will allow for a broad-range of investigations. ","","2:00 pm"];
January[3]=["24","","","","","",""];
January[4]=["31","Jihad Touma","Beirut","Secular instabilities in nearly-Keplerian systems: the tale of two counter-streams","","",""];


February[0]=["7","Mike Stamatikos","GSFC","Exploring GRB astrophysics via a correlated broad-band and multi-messenger paradigm","I will present various results based upon a synergistic methodology whose primary objective encompasses probing discrete gamma-ray burst (GRB) high-energy particle astrophysics via a broad-band, multi-messenger paradigm. The interface between leptonic and electromagnetic emission will be explored using the theoretical interpretation and correlative observations of high energy telescopes such as (i) Swift's Burst Alert Telescope (BAT), (ii) the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Burst Monitor (GBM) and (iii) IceCube. Multi-wavelength analysis results include evidence for temporal and spectral evolution in GRB 060218, in the context of the lag-luminosity relation, and simulation studies of joint photon energy spectra using Swift-BAT and GLAST-GBM. Lastly, a case study modeling the correlated (TeV-PeV) muon neutrino flux from GRB 030329, in the context of the canonical fireball phenomenology, and its implications for neutrino astronomy are discussed. ","",""];
February[1]=["14","Matthew van Adelsberg","JILA/Colorado","Hydrogen emission from shocks in supernova remnants","I will discuss recent hydrodynamic and emission models for the shock transition zone in Balmer-dominated SNRs.  I will emphasize the role of atomic interactions in producing distinct populations of hot neutral hydrogen atoms, which emit the observed ``broad'' component of the H-alpha line spectrum observed in these objects.  I will discuss the implications of our calculations for interpreting observations and the applicability of our general model to other classes of objects.","",""];
February[2]=["21","","","","","",""];
February[3]=["28","Jonathan Mitchell","IAS","Understanding Titan from the perspective of Earth's climate","I will summarize our understanding of the climate of Titan based on observations, theory, and modeling.  The nature of observed phenomena, such as summer-hemisphere methane clouds, the vertical profile of methane in the lower atmosphere, high-latitude hydrocarbon lakes and low-latitude dunes, can generally be understood in analogy to Earth's tropics.  The slow rotation rate and small size of Titan relative to Earth dictate a global overturning tropical circulation, or Hadley cell, which acts to homogenize atmospheric temperatures. Though Titan's thick haze allows less than 1/600th of the solar forcing at Earth to reach the surface, the global Hadley cell focuses this energy in the form of latent heat of methane into one or two convective updrafts, producing the observed isolated clouds. Unlike on Earth where the tropical oceans integrate out most of the seasonal cycle, Titan?s solid, low-heat-capacity surface allows the Hadley cell to seasonally oscillate in latitude.  The resulting dry climatology (net surface evaporation) of the low latitudes sustains deserts observed by Cassini; the mechanism sustaining these deserts is directly analogous to that of the subtropical deserts on Earth.  Surface methane evaporated from high-latitude lakes is roughly conserved during transport to lower latitudes by the Hadley cell where temperatures are higher, thus producing the observed low methane relative humidities.  A layer of condensing methane forms over much of the summer hemisphere at the top of the Hadley cell, which explains the low-latitude stratiform cloud observed by Huygens and ground-based telescopes.  The sensitivity of the simulated atmospheric circulation to methane inventory indicates almost all of the methane is currently in the atmosphere, as Cassini RADAR measurements have confirmed.","",""];


March[0]=["6","Alexia Schulz","IAS","Galaxy Cluster Mergers","  Galaxy cluster merger statistics are an important component in understanding the formation of large-scale structure. Recent studies suggest a merger bias, that mergers are more highly clustered than other objects of their mass. Cluster mergers are therefore also potential sources of systematic error in the mass calibration of upcoming cluster surveys.  It is difficult to study merger properties and evolution directly because identifying cluster mergers in observations is problematic. I will present results from large N-body simulations that quantify the statistical properties of massive halo mergers, specifically investigating the utility of close halo pairs (more accessible to observation) as proxies for mergers.  I will elucidate the relationship between pairs and mergers for a wide range of merger timescales, halo masses, and redshifts (0 < z < 1), and show how redshift space distortions alter the picture. I will also present a calibration of the merger kernel; a relationship between the efficiency of merging and the parent halo mass function (also known as coagulation).  I will present our investigation of the environmental dependence of this merger efficiency, and discuss how it arises","",""];
March[1]=["13","Eliot Quataert","Berkeley","New Forms of Convection in Magnetized Plasmas","In dilute plasmas, the electron mean free path is significantly larger than the electron Larmor radius. As a result, heat is transported primarily along (not across) magnetic field lines.  The physics of buoyancy instabilities (\"convection\") is dramatically modified in the presence of anisotropic heat conduction.  For a weak magnetic field, a plasma is buoyantly unstable regardless of the sign of the temperature gradient.  I describe the linear physics of these magnetically-mediated buoyancy instabilities and their nonlinear saturation.  I then discuss the application of these instabilities to several astrophysical systems, including clusters of galaxies, accretion flows onto compact objects, and cooling white dwarfs and neutron stars.","",""];
March[2]=["20","Dimitrios Psaltis","Arizona","New tests of strong-field general relativity with black holes and neutron stars","In contrast to gravity in the weak-field regime, which has been subjected to numerous experimental tests, gravity in the strong-field regime is largely unconstrained by experiments. Indeed, a large class of gravity theories can be constructed that obey the Einstein equivalence principle and cannot be rejected by solar system tests, but that diverge from general relativity in the strong-field regime. I show that such theories predict black holes and neutron stars with significantly different properties than their general relativistic counterparts. I then discuss how recent observations with current telescopes have provided interesting new constraints on scalar-tensor and braneworld gravity models that are comparable to solar-system and table-top experiments.","",""];
March[3]=["27","","","","","",""];


April[0]=["3","Mark Krumholz","Princeton","From Massive Cores to Massive Stars","The similarity between the mass and spatial distributions of pre-stellar gas cores in star-forming clouds and young stars in clusters provides strong circumstantial evidence that these gas cores are the direct progenitors of individual stars. I describe a physical model for the evolution of massive cores into stars, starting with the intial phases of collapse and fragmentation, through disk formation and fragmentation, the later phases of stellar feedback, and finally interaction of the newly formed stars with their environments. This model shows that a direct mapping from cores to stars is the natural physical outcome of massive core evolution, and thereby allows us to explain many of the properties of young star clusters as direct imprints of their gas-phase progenitors.","",""];
April[1]=["7","Ehud Nakar","Caltech","The search for the origin of short gamma-ray bursts","","Monday",""];
April[2]=["10","Jesus Falcon-Barroso","ESTEC"," The inner workings of spiral galaxies with star-forming nuclear rings","In this talk I will present results on the study of circumnuclear star-forming rings based on integral-field SAURON and NIR SINFONI observations. I'll review the main kinematic properties of these features and their relation to the surrounding morphological structures. Also, I will show that making use of the relative intensities of different NIR emission lines (i.e. [FeII], HeI, Brg) it is possible to age date the stellar clusters in the rings and therefore describe the preferred way star formation progresses along them. The main emphasis of the talk, however, I will be on the nuclear spectrum of one of the  galaxies in the sample (NGC0613) to show that it is dominated  by H2 and [FeII] emission, but with very little signatures of current star formation. I will make use of the line ratios of the emission lines present in our H- and K-band spectrum to discuss whether gas is accumulating in the nucleus and it is in a pre-starburst phase or whether, in contrast, the H2 and [FeII] lines are produced by a known AGN whose  outflow is currently disturbing the surrounding star-forming  ring.","",""];
April[3]=["14","Kirsten Shapiro","UC Berkeley","Discussion on Probing Mass Assembly in the Early Universe","","Monday",""];
April[4]=["16","Lyman Page","Princeton","Discussion on the status of and future prospects for CMB measurements","","Wednesday",""];
April[5]=["17","Daniel Holz","LANL","Cosmology with gravitational wave standard sirens","We discuss the use of gravitational wave sources as probes of cosmology. The inspiral and merger of a binary system, such as a pair of black holes or neutron stars, is extraordinarily bright in gravitational waves. By observing such systems it is possible to directly measure an absolute distance to these sources out to very high redshift. When coupled with independent measures of the redshift, these 'standard sirens' enable precision estimates of cosmological parameters. We review proposed GW standard sirens for the LIGO and LISA gravitational wave observatories. Percent-level measurements of the Hubble constant and the dark energy equation-of-state may be feasible with these instruments.","",""];
April[6]=["24","Aristotle Socrates","Princeton","The Eddington Limit in Cosmic Rays: An Explanation for the Observed Faintness of Starbursting Galaxies","In terms of their energetics, interstellar cosmic rays are an insignificant by-product of star formation. However, due to their small mean free path, their coupling with interstellar gas is absolute in that they are the dominant source of momentum deposition on galactic scales. By defining an Eddington Limit in cosmic rays, we show that the maximum luminosity of bright starbursting galaxies is capped by the production and subsequent expulsion of cosmic rays. This simple argument may explain why galaxies are faint in comparison to quasars.","",""];


May[0]=["1","","","no talk","","",""];
May[1]=["8","Clovis Hopman","Leiden","Binaries near massive black holes","","",""];
May[2]=["15","Kevin Heng","IAS","A simple theory of hydrogen shocks","Shock waves are generic phenomena that are ubiquitous in Nature across a wide range of physical parameters.  I highlight recent work done on hydrogen shocks by beginning with a brief, non-exhaustive review for the purpose of introducing jargon.  I qualify what I mean by 'simple' and apply the theory to the study of supernova remnants and supernovae.  I conclude by discussing other potential applications.","",""];
May[3]=["22","","","","","",""];
May[4]=["29","","","","","",""];


September[0]=["18","Marilena LoVerde","Columbia","Observations Through a Lumpy Universe","Weak lensing of high redshift galaxies and quasars leads to a well known adjustment of galaxy/quasar source counts called magnification bias. I will discuss how magnification bias complicates high redshift measurements of the integrated Sachs Wolfe effect, distorts the observed angular and 3D galaxy correlation functions, and alters measurements of the Lyman-alpha forest. Magnification bias can have a surprisingly large effect on these observables and potentially bias the inferred value of cosmological parameters.","",""];
September[1]=["25","Hilke Schlichting","Caltech","On the Origin of Planetary Spins & the Formation of Kuiper Belt Binaries","","",""];


October[0]=["2","Matt McQuinn","CfA","HeII Reionization and Its Effect on the IGM","Observations of the intergalactic medium (IGM) suggest that quasars reionize the HeII at z ~ 3.  HeII reionization heats the IGM by tens of thousands of Kelvin, and it affects the statistics of the HI and HeII Lyman-alpha forests. I will present a set of simulations of HeII being reionized by quasars.  These simulations lead to a different picture for this process than in previous studies.  If quasars have a mean spectral index of 1.5, I find that HeII reionization heats regions in the IGM by as much as 30,000 K above the temperature that is expected otherwise, with the volume-averaged temperature increasing by ~10,000 K and with large temperature fluctuations on ~50 comoving Mpc scales.  However, the amount of heating can be much larger if the spectrum is harder. I discuss how temperature fluctuations from HeII reionization bias measurements from the HI Lyman-alpha forest of the IGM temperature and of cosmological parameters, and I quantify the detectability of these fluctuations with wavelet statistics.  I conclude by contrasting the morphology of HeII reionization by quasars with that of hydrogen reionization by stars.","",""];
October[1]=["6","Katrien Steenbrugge","Oxford","Cygnus A revisited: a precessing jet and emission from multiple jet activity periods","Cygnus A is the nearest powerful FR II classical double radio galaxy. We present a detailed study of this galaxy using archival radio and X-ray data. I will first show that the jet precesses, allowing us to determine an upper limit to the velocity of the kpc-scale jet of 0.5c. In the 200 ks Chandra X-ray image we detect emission from a relic counterjet structure. This emission comes from ~10^3 Lorentz factor electrons inverse-Compton scattering of the cosmic microwave background. The relic counterjet feature deflects the current counterjet by ~27 degrees. A relic counterlobe and possibly the relic counter hotspot are detected in the low frequency 151 MHz image. No relic features: jet or lobe, are significantly detected on the jet side, i.e. the side closest to us. This lack of relic emission is explained using light travel time effects. Using the light travel time argument we derive the interval between active jet phases in Cygnus A.","Monday",""];
October[2]=["16","Subo Dong","Ohio State","Chasing High-Magnification Microlensing Events to Hunt for Extrasolar Planets: Discoveries, Surprises and Challenges","For a decade, high-magnification microlensing events have been theoretically anticipated as an important way to discover extrasolar planets. However, only in the last several years have they been firmly established as a crucial venue of microlensing planetary discoveries.  Almost a dozen planets (including multiple-planet systems) have been found with this method. One major challenge is to uniquely and promptly model these events. I will talk about our efforts to overcome this computational problem. I will also discuss what we have learned from these discoveries, specifically, their implications for microlensing as a planetary detection technique and broader scientific questions.","",""];
October[3]=["23","Hagai Perets","Weizmann Institute","Stellar dynamics near massive black holes: young stars, hypervelocity stars and gravitational wave sources","A massive black hole resides in the center of most, perhaps all galaxies. The one in the center of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, provides a uniquely accessible laboratory for studying in detail the connections and interactions between a massive black hole and the stars in its vicinity. Due to the the extreme conditions in this region (highest stellar densities, velocities and tidal fields) unique processes can occur there. These processes and their implication on the stellar population near the massive black hole open new possibilities in our understanding of gravitational dynamics and of post-Newtonian gravity in the weak- and strong-field limits. They may also explain and predict the existence of stars with exotic properties. In recent years young stars have been observed at the center of our Galaxy where such stars can not regularly form. At the outskirts of the Galaxy hypervelocity stars have been observed to escape from the Galaxy at extreme velocities. I will discuss the origin and evolution of these two unique population of stars and the possible connection between them, through the dynamical processes occurring near the massive black hole in the Galactic center. In addition I will discuss the possibility of using hypervelocity stars as probes of the Galactic potential; the production of gravitational wave sources both in the Galactic center and in other galactic nuclei [detectable by the planned Laser interferometer space antenna (LISA) mission]; and the possibility of directly probing the properties of the massive black hole in the Galactic center (its mass and its spin) and their general relativistic effects.","","11:00 am"];
October[4]=["30","Ari Laor","Technion/IAS","On the origin of radio emission in RQQ - a new work hypothesis","","",""];

November[0]=["5","Thibault Damour","Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques","Motion and Radiation of Binary Black Holes: the Effective-One-Body Approach","","Wednesday","11:00 am"];
November[1]=["6","Adrienne Erickcek","Caltech","Structure Beyond the Horizon: Inflationary Origins of the Cosmic Power Asymmetry","WMAP measurements of CMB temperature anisotropies reveal a power asymmetry: the average amplitude of temperature fluctuations in one hemisphere is larger than the average amplitude in the opposite hemisphere at the 99% confidence level.  This power asymmetry may be generated during inflation by a large-amplitude superhorizon perturbation that causes the mean energy density to vary across the observable Universe.  Such a superhorizon perturbation would also induce large-scale temperature anisotropies in the CMB; measurements of the CMB quadrupole and octupole (but not the dipole!) therefore constrain the perturbation's amplitude and wavelength.  I will show how a superhorizon perturbation in a multi-field inflationary theory, the curvaton model, can produce the observed power asymmetry without generating unacceptable temperature fluctuations in the CMB.  I will also discuss how this mechanism for generating the power asymmetry will be tested by forthcoming CMB experiments.","",""];
November[2]=["13","Nelson Padilla","Universidad Catolica de Chile","Understanding local and global influences on the galaxy population","Reports on the detection of local and global modulations of star formation in galaxies are reviewed and compared to results from semi-analytic models.  The latter are used for the following main objectives, i) to study the expected extent of the influence of individual galaxies on their neighbors, ii) to assess the influence of the halo merger histories on the properties of the galaxies, and iii) to characterise the relation between halo assembly and local/global environments.","",""];
November[3]=["20","Chuck Keeton","Rutgers/IAS","Gravitational Lensing by Stochastic Substructure","","",""];
November[4]=["27","","","no talk -- Thanksgiving","","",""];


December[0]=["4","Mark Vogelsberger","MPA","The Hunt for Dark Matter - Insights from N-body simulations","","",""];
December[1]=["11","Rodrigo Fernandez","University of Toronto","Numerical Experiments in Core-Collapse Supernova Hydrodynamics","The explosion of massive stars involves the formation of a shock wave. In stars that form iron cores, this shock wave stalls on its way out due to the breakup of heavy nuclei and neutrino emission. In the currently most favored explosion scenario, a fraction of the gravitational binding energy of the collapsed core radiated in neutrinos needs to be absorbed by the material below the shock. The required energy depends on the interplay between non-spherical hydrodynamic instabilities, neutrino heating, and nuclear dissociation. I will report results of one- and two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations that model key physical components of the system and separate them out to examine their combined effects. In particular, I'll focus on the effects of nuclear dissociation on non-spherical shock oscillation modes, and on the interplay between neutrino heating and alpha particle recombination in the dynamics and critical heating rate for explosion.","",""];