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// ["Date","Name","Affiliation","Title","Abstract","Day","Time"]
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February[0]  = ["16", "Marcel Schmittfull   ", "IAS", "Observational tools for nonlinear large-scale structure", "We are planning to run a large program of cosmological large-scale structure surveys over the next decade. By probing more modes than the CMB, we hope to learn new aspects about dark energy, the origin of the universe or neutrinos. However, many of the observed modes are nonlinear, so that it becomes a challenge to extract cosmological information. In an attempt to address some aspects of this, I will discuss non-Gaussian summary statistics, reconstructing linear information from nonlinear modes, and fast theoretical predictions for the statistics of nonlinear modes. ", "", ""];
February[1]  = ["23", "Mikhail Medvedev     ", "University of Kansas and Harvard-Smithsonian CfA","Cosmology of flavor-mixed dark matter", "The standard Lambda-CDM cosmological model is successful at describing the distribution of matter at large scales but faces problems at galactic scales. Pundits blame for this the poorly understood or modeled baryonic physics, e.g., star formation, feedback via stellar wind, supernova outflows and black hole jets, the role of magnetic fields and cosmic rays, etc. Whereas the role of baryons is still debated, alternative models of dark matter (DM) have actively been explored. A natural possibility is that DM particles are flavor-mixed, so that several mass states are present now. I will describe that interactions of mixed particles can lead to quantum evaporation (or the Munchhausen effect), which has been overlooked for decades. Next, I will discuss the simplest two-component model (2cDM), which accounts for the process, and its cosmological implications. These include the change of the mass and velocity functions of halos, the modification of halo density profiles, the growth of black holes by accretion of DM, and how it can evade the early universe freeze-out, decay, bullet cluster and other constraints. I will show that the results of N-body simulations with the 2cDM are in remarkable agreement with observations across several orders of magnitude in halo mass -- from dwarfs to clusters -- thus potentially resolving the CDM problems. The 2cDM model makes specific predictions for direct and indirect detection DM experiments.", "", ""];
March[0]     = ["1",  "Yanqin Wu            ", "University of Toronto","The Sizes of Kuiper Belt Objects","Kuiper Belt Objects are often touted as fossil records of the early Solar System. So what can we learn from them? Here I will discuss one important aspect, their primordial size distribution: is it top-heavy with most of the initial mass absorbed into large bodies like Pluto,  or is it bottom-heavy with most of the mass locked into km-sized boulders and only a minute fraction  running away to form Plutos? These two models assume different conditions in the early Solar system, rely on different dynamical processes, and make different predictions for a multitude of observables. These include, e.g., the outward migration of Neptune, crater counts on Pluto, new comets from the Oort cloud, ... and, further afield, the looks of extra-solar debris disks. ","Wednesday","2:00pm"];
March[1]     = ["2 ", "Jerry Sellwood       ", "Rutgers", "Seeding massive black holes in galaxies", "Although quasar activity is believed to be associated with galaxy mergers, at least one of the progenitor galaxies must host a pre-existing massive black hole (MBH).  Furthermore, mergers make spheroids, yet there are galaxies lacking classical bulges that host AGN.  I present a path, grounded in established galaxy dynamics, to form MBHs during galaxy assembly that also causes them to become quiescent at later times. ", "", ""];
March[2]     = ["9 ", "Laura Blecha         ", "University of Maryland", "Uncovering the Signatures of Obscured AGN in Mergers", "Galaxy mergers have long been implicated as drivers of supermassive black hole (BH) and galaxy co-evolution, but the relative importance of mergers for fueling active galactic nuclei (AGN) is still uncertain. In large part, the ongoing debate stems from strong selection effects that are inherent to empirical studies of the merger/AGN connection. The most luminous AGN are often obscured by dust in late-stage mergers; infrared (IR) and hard X-ray selected AGN are much more likely to be hosted in mergers than AGN selected at other wavelengths. Using numerical simulations with radiative transfer, we have modeled the evolution of mid-IR AGN signatures during mergers, focusing on color selection with the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). We confirm that WISE color selection is very efficient at identifying luminous AGN but show that most AGN are missed with standard selection criteria, even in late-stage major mergers. Nonetheless, we find that many mid-IR-selected AGN should contain unresolved BH pairs. I’ll describe some recent results from X-ray follow-up studies that support our findings. Finally, I will discuss the potential for the James Webb Space Telescope to reveal spatially-resolved signatures of merger-triggered AGN, opening a new window into some of the most rapidly-accreting BHs in the nearby Universe. ", "", ""];
March[3]     = ["16", "Morgan MacLeod       ", "IAS", "Mass ejection in common envelope interactions: observational evidence begins to constrain a long-standing theoretical problem", "It is becoming an observational reality to catch common envelope episodes and stellar mergers in action as astronomical transients. We think that most compact binaries pass through these phases, where one star becomes engulfed by the envelope of its companion, but many of the details remain uncertain. The detection of associated transients allows us to place constraints on the long-standing theoretical mystery surrounding the nature of mass ejection in common envelope binary star interactions. I will discuss what we stand to learn from studying these events and work in progress toward a synthesis of theoretical modeling with this new observational evidence. ", "", ""];
March[4]  = ["23 ", "Jean-Baptiste Fouvry ", "IAS", "Secular Evolution in Discrete Self-Gravitating Stellar Discs", "Fluctuations in a stellar system's gravitational field cause the orbits of stars to evolve. These fluctuations can either originate from external perturbers (e.g. flybys), or from the intrinsic discreteness of the system (e.g. giant molecular clouds in a disc). Such a distinction allows us to address the pressing question of the respective roles of nature (system's internal properties) vs. nurture (cosmic environment) in the establishment of the observed properties of these systems. When accounting for finite-N effects, one may rely on the inhomogeneous Balescu-Lenard equation, to capture the induced orbital restructuration, and describe the associated secular diffusion. I will present this formalism, while emphasising in particular the key physical mechanisms at play in this context. When applied to a tepid stellar disc, it predicts the formation of narrow ridge-like structures in action space, in agreement with numerical simulations. In astrophysics, the inhomogeneous Balescu-Lenard equation is a new and rich framework, which may describe self-consistently the secular diffusion of giant molecular clouds in galactic discs, the thickening of stellar discs, or even the long-term evolution of population of stars within the Galactic centre, as I will show.", "", ""];
March[5]     = ["30", "Tanmay Vachaspati    ", "Arizona State University", "Search for Intergalactic Magnetic Fields and Implications", "The ongoing search for intergalactic magnetic fields using blazar observations suggests field strength in the 10^(-14) to 10^{-17} G range on tens of Mpc length scales. Such fields can have important implications for the early universe and also raises some puzzles.", "", ""];
April[0]     = ["5 ", "Simon Foreman        ", "CITA", "Cosmic shear as a probe of galaxy formation physics", "The precision of current and future cosmological observations at Megaparsec scales demands a detailed understanding of the effects of baryonic processes on the clustering of matter at these scales. In this talk, I will explore how to use measurements of cosmic shear to constrain the impact of these processes on the total matter power spectrum. I will present forecasts demonstrating that shear measurements from Stage III surveys (such as DES and HSC) and beyond will be able to strongly constrain (or even rule out) current simulation-based implementations of baryonic physics (such as AGN feedback). These forecasts make use of a model-independent parametrization of the impact of baryons on the matter power spectrum, and marginalize over several key observational and theoretical systematics. The results indicate that cosmic shear can likely be used as a robust probe of the physics of galaxy formation, and provide an important observational input for future simulations or modeling efforts. ", "Wednesday", "11am"];
April[1]     = ["13", "Nevin Weinberg       ", "MIT", "Nonlinear Tides in Coalescing Binary Neutron Stars", "Coalescing binary neutron stars are among the most promising sources for ground-based gravitational wave detectors such as advanced LIGO.  Tidal interactions in such systems extract energy from the orbit and, at some level, modify the gravitational wave signal.  Previous studies found that tidal effects are probably too small to be detected from individual systems with LIGO.  However, these studies typically assumed that the tide can be treated as a linear perturbation to the star.  I will show that the linear approximation is invalid even during the early stages of inspiral and that nonlinear fluid effects in the form of tide-internal wave interactions may become important around the time the binary first enters LIGO's bandpass (at gravitational wave frequencies around 30 Hz).  Although the precise influence of nonlinear fluid effects is not yet well constrained, I will show that they may significantly modify the gravitational wave signal from coalescing binary neutron stars.", "", ""];
April[2]     = ["20", "Elinor Medezinski    ", "Princeton", "Weighing Galaxy Clusters with Weak Lensing in the Hyper-SuprimeCam Survey ", "Accurate cluster masses are a key component in deriving cosmological constraints from galaxy cluster abundance. Weak lensing (WL) provides a direct measure of the cluster mass, both baryonic and dark, regardless of the underlying nature of the mass or the dynamics of the system. The Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam Strategic Survey Program (HSC-SSP) survey is underway and will image 1400 square degrees in 5 broad bands to r~26. In this talk, I will present the HSC survey and discuss the challenges in measuring the WL mass of galaxy clusters using the first HSC data release of ~150 square degrees. I will show how we calibrate the Planck Sunyaev Zel'dovich (SZ) cluster masses with the aid of HSC WL that will ultimately lead to improved cosmological constraints from future cluster SZ surveys.", "", ""];
April[3]     = ["27", "Gabriele Trevisan    ", "New York University", "Resumming Infrared Effects at the BAO scale", "In this talk I will discuss the non-linear infrared effects that plagues Standard Perturbation Theory for Large Scale Structure. Understanding and resumming these contributions is essential to achieve a detailed description of the correlation functions around the BAO scale. ", "", ""];
May[0]     = ["4",    "Nicholas Law         ", "University of North Carolina", "Two Robots Exploring the Habitable Sky: Robo-AO and Evryscope", "", "", ""];
May[1]     = ["11",   "Yoram Lithwick       ", "Northwestern", "Towards a Theory of Rotating Convection in Stars and Planets", "", "", ""];
May[2]     = ["18",   "Kento Masuda         ", "Princeton", "Eccentric Companions to Two Kepler Planets: Clues to the Formation of Warm Jupiters", "", "", ""];
May[3]     = ["25",   "Jennifer Sokoloski   ", "Columbia", "Gamma-Ray Emission from Novae", "Seven years ago, while surveying the high-energy sky, the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi satellite unexpectedly detected gamma-rays from a nova explosion.  Four years later, after several more such detections, the Fermi/LAT team reported that novae constitute a new class of gamma-ray sources.  High spatial-resolution radio imaging of one particular nova -- V959 Mon -- has now revealed the origin of these gamma-rays.  Our observations showed that V959 Mon produced multiple, distinct outflows.  When these outflows collided with each other, the resulting shocks accelerated particles to relativistic speeds, enabling them to generate gamma-rays.  Moreover, it appears to be common for classical nova eruptions to produce colliding flows like those in V959 Mon, making novae important laboratories for particle acceleration in shocks.  I will describe our findings and their implications.", "", ""];
May[4]     = ["26",   "Nienke van der Marel ", "University of Hawaii", "Resolving gas and dust in transitional disks: the ALMA view on planet formation", "Protoplanetary disks of gas and dust around young stars are the birth cradles of planets. The study of these disks was for a long time based on unresolved observations, limiting our understanding of planet formation. Of particular interest are the so-called transitional disks with inner dust cavities, a sign of active evolution. The arrival of ALMA has revolutionized our view of the structure of these disks. ALMA observations in the last few years have revealed rings, asymmetries, dust/gas segregation, gas dynamics, evidence for dust trapping and vortices, and many more exciting phenomena that have been predicted for decades in disk models. Using new physical-chemical modeling tools it is now possible to constrain gas and dust densities and compare these with planet-disk interaction model predictions. In this talk I will discuss several recent ALMA discoveries and the next steps in planet formation studies.", "Friday", "11am"];
June[0]     = ["1",   "Stephen Adler   ", "IAS", "Implications of a Frame-Dependent Dark Energy Action", "", "", ""];
June[1]     = ["8",   "Nathan Leigh    ", "AMNH", "Chaotic Gravitational Dynamics in Star Clusters", "In this talk, I will discuss several analytic methods for chaotic gravitational dynamics, applied to dense stellar systems.  I begin with a statistical mechanics approach to the chaotic four-body problem, which yields distribution functions for the velocities and orbital parameters of the products of these interactions, including the properties of dynamically-formed triple star systems.  Until recently, observational constraints for the properties of binary, and particularly triple, star systems in Galactic GCs were lacking; their high densities make them notoriously difficult to access observationally.  Here, we report the discovery of populations of photometric triple star candidates in 19 clusters, demonstrating that triples are ubiquitous in Galactic GCs.  Triples are sensitive probes of stellar-mass black holes (BHs), which act to destroy higher-order multiples during dynamical interactions; the presence of large numbers of triple stars presented here predicts that no black holes should exist in the densest GCs. Finally, we illustrate that empirical measurements of the binary and triple fractions in star clusters are alone sufficient to constrain the initial cluster conditions. ", "", ""];