We explore the possibility of detecting and characterising the warp of the stellar disc of our Galaxy using the synthetic Gaia data and the UCAC4 proper motion catalogue. We develop a new kinematic model for the galactic warp. We generate random realisations of test particles which evolve in a realistic Galactic potential warped adiabatically to various final configurations. The Gaia selection function, its errors model and a realistic 3D extinction map are applied to mimic three tracer populations: OB, A and Red Clump stars. A family of Great Circle Cell Counts (GC3) methods is used. They are ideally suited to find the tilt and twist of a collection of rings, which allow us to detect and measure the warp parameters. Moreover, We look for the kinematic signature of the warp in the μb proper motions of stars as a function of galactic longitude. Using the UCAC4 proper motions, we do not obtain a similar trend as the one we expect from our warp model. We explore a possible source of this discrepancy in terms of systematics caused by a residual spin of the Hipparcos celestial reference frame (HCRF) with respect to the extra-galactic inertial one.

PARTNeR is the acronym for Academic Project with the NASA Radio Telescopeat Robledo. The 34-m antenna in Robledo de Chavela is used by highschools, universities and amateur astronomers to learn aboutradioastronomy, physics and to get interested in science. The mainproject we develop is the observations of radio-bursts in X-ray binaries.
The high-school teachers joining our program take a trainingcourse to learn the basis of radioastronomy. Some practical lessons toteach the children the physical fundamentals of radioastronomy arealso given to them.
The operational phase of the project started in 2004, and 25 highschools, 5 universities and 4 societies of amateur astronomers havebeen involved in the project.

We aim to improve the calculation of the Mg I line profiles in benchmark stars and to assess the impact of the new quantum mechanical calculations of inelastic collisions with hydrogen. The method is based on the non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (NLTE) line formation using updated atomic data for a simple model atom of Mg I. Focus on the formation of the Mg I b triplet lines at 5167, 5172 and 5183 Å is presented for the Sun, Arcturus, HD 84937 (metal-poor dwarf) and HD 122563 (metal-poor giant). This study is preliminary and essentially tests the new atomic data. In this context, we show that NLTE effects are smaller for this triplet when quantum mechanical H collisions are included compared with the use of the semi-classical Drawin's formula.

We review the literature of high dispersion studies of late B and early A type supergiants to assess the importance of non-LTE abundance calculations for them. Practically we are interested in learning which elements and species have such calculations been performed and then which of these should be implemented in calculations with plane-parallel LTE model atmospheres. The techniques available for the quantitative modeling of these atmospheres are outlined and some recent results are discussed.

Whereas the understanding of most phases of stellar evolution made considerable progress throughout the whole of the twentieth century, stellar formation remained rather enigmatic and poorly constrained by observations until about three decades ago, when major discoveries (e.g., that protostars are often associated with highly collimated jets) revolutionized the field. At this time, it became increasingly clearer that magnetic fields were playing a major role at all stages of stellar formation. 
We describe herein a quick overview of the main breakthroughs that observations and theoretical modelling yielded for our understanding of how stars (and their planetary systems) are formed and on how much these new worlds are shaped by the presence of magnetic fields, either those pervading the interstellar medium and threading molecular clouds or those produced through dynamo processes in the convective envelopes of protostars or in the accretion discs from which they feed.

We present a brief discussion of the statistical surveys of HCN, HNC, HCO+ and HC3N that are used to model the extreme environments in the nuclei of starbursts and AGNs. Molecular studies are particularly useful for probing the deeply enshrouded dusty nuclei of luminous infrared galaxies. Here we present NGC 4418 as an example, one of the closest LIRG with high obscuration of the inner region. The interpretation of the observed line ratios require parallel development of theoretical chemical and radiative transport models.

Identification of first and second turnaround radii in groups of galaxiesprovide interesting scaling relations and may constrain cosmologicalparameters.

Our aim is to study the evolution of tidal dwarf galaxies. The firststep is to understand whether a model galaxy without Dark Matter cansustain the feedback of the ongoing star formation. We present testsof the evolution of models in which star formation efficiency,temperature threshold, initial distribution of gas and infall arevaried. We conclude that it is feasible to keep a fraction of gasbound for several hundreds of Myr and that the development of galacticwinds does not necessarily stop continuous star formation.

We present a model for the dispersal of protoplanetary disks by winds from either the central star or the inner disk. These winds obliquely strike the flaring disk surface and strip away disk material by entraining it in an outward radial-moving flow at the disk-wind interface. This interface lies several disk scale heights above the mid plane. The disk dispersal time depends on the velocity at which disk material flows into the mixing layer. If this velocity is ~10% of the sound speed, the disk dispersal time at ~1–10 AU is ~5 Myr for a 0.01 M๏ disk around a solar mass star, with a spherical wind launched from the inner disk or central star with a typical mass loss rate of 10-8M๏yr-1 and terminal velocity of vw = 100 kms-1. We conclude that wind stripping is not a dominant disk dispersal mechanism compared with viscous accretion and photoevaporation. Nevertheless, wind stripping may affect the evolution of the intermediate disk regions.

In this review, we focus on the winds of standard massive starsof spectral types O and B. We introduce the fundamental parametersthat are used to characterize the stellar winds and we describethe various techniques available nowadays to derive the windproperties. The latter are reviewed and interpreted in theframework of the standard theory of line-driven winds.

Planet–star plasma interactions can be described as the interaction of a plasma flow with an obstacle, each being possibly magnetized. Examples of the 4 possible situations are found in our solar system, with intense radio emissions produced in 3 cases out of 4, when either the flow or the obstacle is strongly magnetized. Scaling laws are derived that relate the emitted radio power to the power dissipated in the various corresponding flow–obstacle interactions. They are generalized as a “radio–magnetic” scaling law between the output radio power and the magnetic energy flux convected onto the obstacle. Extrapolating it to the case of exoplanets, we find that hot Jupiters may produce very intense radio emissions due to planetary magnetospheric interaction with a strong stellar wind, reconnection between planetary and stellar magnetic fields, or unipolar interaction between the planet and a magnetic star (or strongly magnetized regions of the stellar surface). Emitted radio power is expected in the hecto–decameter range with intensity 103 to 106 times that of Jupiter (unless some “saturation” mechanism occurs). Corresponding flux densities should be detectable at tens of parsecs range with modern radio arrays. We briefly discuss ongoing observational searches as well as the interests of direct radio detection.

Thanks to development of some new detectors small compare to wavelength of detected wave, as we foreseen in SWIFTS that these detectors can be placed in the vanishing field along propagation of light in order to detect the Lippmann interferogram, we propose here to present basic of SWIFTS and review some concepts where detectors has already set inside optical components and thinking about extensions of the concept of SWIFTS in new optical instrumentation by including directly detectors inside optical component.


Caustics are formally singular structures that frequently form in collisionless media. The non-negligible velocity dispersion of dark matterparticles renders their density finite. We evaluated the maximum density ofthe caustics within the framework of secondary infall model of formation ofdark matter haloes. The result isthen used to demonstrate that caustics can be probedby properly stacking the weak-lensing signal of about 600 haloes. CFHTLS accompanied by X-ray observations and the space-based experiments like SNAP or DUNE can provide us with the required statistics.The extension of our results to more realistic models including the effects of mergers is outlined.


We review the properties of stellar populations and the interstellarmedium (ISM) of various kinds of massive star forming regions(ranging from stellar clusters, Hii regions, super star clusters,etc. to distant starburst galaxies). The nature of their multi-wavelength spectra as well as the techniques used for their interpretation is are discussed.These objects play an important role in our understandingof star formation, interactions between stars and the ISM, and galaxyevolution among others.

The present work is placed in the framework of the preparation for the interpretation of the seismic space data from the space mission CoRoT. In this context, rotation have become one of the most limiting factors when analysing the observed spectra of stars. A general view on the effects of rotation on the oscillations is given from the point of view of a linear perturbation analysis. As well, the latest results about the effect of shellular rotation on adiabatic oscillation frequencies are addressed. Finally, the role of rotation on asteroseismic diagnostics is discussed. In particular, échélle diagrams and analysis of rotation profile variations are examined.

Adaptive Optics Systems are now routinely operated on several4 meter class telescopes, allowing to achieve angular resolutionsdown to 70 msec in the near-infrared. Although these Systems have excellentperformances, their use for exploring the physics and structureof AGN is still limited for the following reasons: the limiting magnitudeof the wavefront sensor is too high, the sensitivity of infrareddetectors does not give access to medium/high spectral resolution spectroscopyand the angular resolution achieved does not always fit theapparent size of the physical components responsible for emission featuresclose to the central engine. The new generation of 8 — 10 m classtelescopes bring improvements in this matter. However, some interestingresults have been obtained so far with Adonis, the ESO La Sillaadaptive optics System on the 3.60 meter telescope, in the investigationof AGN structure. In particular, a prominent structure has beendetected in the central arcsec core of NGC 1068, which might featurethe dusty/molecular torus expected on theoretical grounds.

Numerical simulations have been carried out to assess theopportunity to detect extrasolar planets with MIRI: the mid-IRinstrument of NGST. Several coronagraphs and telescope designshave been investigated. As a result, we found that very youngplanets (50 Myr) as well as old planets (5 Gyr) can be imaged in thethermal-IR (5 μm to 20 μm) down to a few Jupiter masses ifan appropriate high-contrast coronagraph is in used. Promisingresults of numerical simulations are presented.

To determine the star formation histories of dwarf galaxies we use fossil methods. Compared to the color-magnitude diagrams analyzes, which are well tested and widely accepted, the studies of integrated spectra are still young. In order to assess their capabilities and limitations, we compare the results of three publicly available star formation recovery programs (StarLight, STECKMAP and ULySS).


Stellar rotation and magnetism are two phenomena which intervene in many pulsating stars. As a result, calculating their effects on stellar pulsations has been the subject of active research for a number of years, and many results have emerged. For instance, slow stellar rotation lifts mode degeneracy and leads to evenly spaced frequency multiplets. At rapid rotation rates, a new organisation of the frequency spectrum appears, in which the centrifugal force plays a dominant role. Stellar magnetism plays an important role on pulsation frequencies both directly and indirectly. Various studies show how magnetism can shift frequencies and play on mode excitation and selection. Magnetism also introduces other types of waves with a different frequency spectrum organisation.