This work reports the chemical evolution of adenine, alanine & glycine along with their precursor molecules during the collapsing phase of protostars. Since the abundances of these three molecules are not in the detectable range, we are proposing to observe some of its pre-cursor molecules to predict the abundances of these bio-molecules. We perform a higher order quantum chemical simulation to provide detailed spectroscopic knowledge of the precursor of these bio-molecules in the infrared and electronic range. These pre-biotic molecules could be produced in the gas phase as well as in the ice phase. Spectral properties significantly vary depending upon the environment around these molecules. To approximate recent observational/experimental features, we conduct our simulation for various astrophysical conditions. We found that our results are in line with the some recent experiments and observations.

We study and compare the stellar populations of host galaxies of different types of supernovae (SNe): SN Ia and core collapse SN (SN II and SN Ibc) at the same time. The 234 sample galaxies are selected by cross-matching the Asiago Supernova Catalogue (ASC) and the SDSS-DR7 main galaxy sample (MGS). The STARLIGHT software is used to analyze their stellar populations by fitting the continua and absorption lines of the hosts.

Imaging debris disks at millimeter wavelengths is important, because emission at these long wavelengths is dominated by large grains with dynamics similar to the population of dust-producing planetesimals. We have used the SMA and ALMA to make 1.3 millimeter observations of the debris disk surrounding the nearby (9.9 pc), ~10 Myr-old, M-type flare star AU Microscopii. We characterize the disk by implementing Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods to fit parametric models to the visibilities. The millimeter observations reveal a belt of dust emission that peaks at a radius of 40 AU. This outer size scale agrees with predictions for a reservoir of planetesimals (a “birth ring”) based on the shape of the midplane scattered light profile. We do not find any significant asymmetries in the structure or the centroid position of the emission belt. The ALMA observations with a resolution of 0.6 arcsec (6 AU) also reveal a previously unknown central emission peak, ~6 times brighter than the stellar photosphere at these wavelengths. This central component remains unresolved and could be explained by stellar activity or an inner planetesimal belt located ≲3 AU from the star and containing roughly 1% the mass of the outer belt. Future observations with higher angular resolution will be able to distinguish between these possibilities.

The study of dense matter at ultra-high density has a very long history, which is meaningful for us to understand not only cosmic events in extreme circumstances but also fundamental laws of physics. In compact stars at only a few nuclear densities but low temperature, quarks could be interacting strongly with each other. That might produce quarks grouped in clusters, although the hypothetical quark-clusters in cold dense matter have not been confirmed due to the lack of both theoretical and experimental evidence. A so-called H-cluster matter is proposed in this paper as the nature of dense matter in reality.

Motivated by recent lattice QCD simulations of the H-dibaryons (with structure uuddss), we are therefore considering here a possible kind of quark-clusters, H-clusters, that could emerge inside compact stars during their initial cooling, as the dominant components inside (the degree of freedom could then be H-clusters there). We study the stars composed of H-clusters, i.e., H-cluster stars, and derive the dependence of their maximum mass on the in-medium stiffening effect, showing that the maximum mass could be well above 2 M⊙ as observed and that the resultant mass-radius relation fits the measurement of the rapid burster under reasonable parameters. Besides a general understanding of different manifestations of compact stars, we expect further observational and experimental tests for the H-cluster stars in the future.

High-resolution spectral observations of young stars with dense protoplanetary discs like Beta Pictoris led to the discovery of variable emission lines of metal atoms, Na, Fe etc., that indicate the presence of fluxes of comet-like evaporating bodies falling onto the stars, FEBs. Assuming the presence of stellar atmospheres similar to the solar one, we show that passages of the FEBs through the stellar chromosphere and photosphere with velocities around 600 km/s will be accompanied by aerodynamic crushing of the nuclei, transverse expansion of the crushed matter, “explosion” of the flattened nuclei in a relatively very thin sub-photosphere layer due to sharp deceleration, and impulse production of a hot plasma. The impulsive rise of the layer's temperature and density lead to the generation of a strong “blast” shock wave and shock wave-induced ejection/eruption of hot plasma into space above the chromosphere. Observations of such impact-induced high-temperature phenomena are of interest for the physics/prognosis of stellar/solar flares as well as physics of comets.

In this paper, the availability, applicability and deviation of nonlinear force-free (NLFF) fields extrapolated by Approximate Vertical Integration (AVI), Boundary Integral Equation (BIE) and Optimization (Opt.) methods are studied based on the comparison with two semi-analytical fields (Low & Lou 1990). These NLFF extrapolations based on the observational vector magnetograms are used to study the spatial magnetic field in the quiet Sun.

One of the main goals of Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs) is the direct detection of gravitational waves (GWs). A first detection will be a major leap for astronomy and substantial effort is currently going into timing as many pulsars as possible, with the highest possible accuracy. As part of the individual PTA projects, several groups are developing data analysis methods for the final stage of a gravitational-waves search pipeline: the analysis of the timing residuals. Here we report the progress of on-going work to develop, within a Bayesian framework, a comprehensive and user friendly analysis library to search for gravitational waves in PTA data.

We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) data of molecular absorption lines toward the bright central core of the prominent, nearby (d ∼ 3.8 Mpc) radio galaxy Centaurus A, at 13, 7, 3, and 1mm wavelengths. The line of sight crosses the prominent dust lane and continues through the disk and eventually through gas that may be very close to the central supermassive black hole. The goal of our survey is to determine the physical conditions of the gas via analyses of molecular line tracers including molecular abundances and excitation conditions that are sensitive to changes in temperature, density, ionization, and shocks. This study allows us to derive the physical processes that are shaping each molecular environment.

Using known frequencies of the twin peak high-frequency quasiperiodic oscillations (HF QPOs) and known mass M of the central black hole, the black-hole dimensionless spin a can be determined assuming a concrete version of the resonance model. However, large range of observationally limited values of the black hole mass implies a low precision of the spin estimates. We discuss the possibility of higher precision of the black hole spin a measurements in the framework of multi-resonance model inspired by observations of more than two HF QPOs in some black hole sources. We determine the spin and mass dependence of the twin peak frequencies with a general rational ratio n:m assuming a non-linear resonance of oscillations with the epicyclic and Keplerian frequencies or their combinations. In the multi-resonant model, the twin peak resonances are combined properly to give the observed frequency set. We focus on the special case of duplex frequencies, when the top, bottom, or mixed frequency is common at two different radii where the resonances occur giving triple frequency sets.

The behavior of filaments and prominences during the Solar Cycle is a signature of Sun's activity. It is therefore important to follow their evolution during the cycle, in order to be able to associate it with the various phases of the Solar Cycle as well as with other Solar features or events. The virtual observatory HELIO provides information that can be used for such studies, especially its Heliophysics Feature Catalogue gives a unique access to the description of various features during around one cycle. Features available are: filaments, prominences, photospheric and coronal active regions, coronal radio emission, type III radio bursts, coronal holes and sunspots. Web interfaces allow the user to query data for these features. Useful information can also be shared with other HELIO services, such as Heliophysics Event Catalogue, which provides access to dozens of tables of events such as flares, CMEs, . . .

We present a new method to investigate the IMF in the early universe from observations of extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars. EMP stars are the low-mass survivors of stars which are formed in the early universe. We can give constraints on the IMF from statistics of the elemental abundances of the EMP stars in the Galactic halo.

In February 2009, during recent deepest solar minimum, Polish Solar Photometer in X-rays (SphinX) begun observations of the Sun in the energy range of 1.2–15 keV. SphinX was almost 100 times more sensitive than GOES X-ray Sensors. The silicon PIN diode detectors used in the experiment were carefully calibrated on the ground using Synchrotron Radiation Source BESSY II. The SphinX energy range overlaps with the Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) energy range. The instrument provided us with observations of hundreds of very small flares and X-ray brightenings. We have chosen a group of solar flares observed simultaneously with GOES, SphinX and RHESSI and performed spectroscopic analysis of observations wherever possible. The analysis of thermal part of the spectra showed that SphinX is a very sensitive complementary observatory for RHESSI and GOES.

We review the nearby debris disk structures revealed by multi-wavelength images from Spitzer and Herschel, and complemented with detailed spectral energy distribution modeling. Similar to the definition of habitable zones around stars, debris disk structures should be identified and characterized in terms of dust temperatures rather than physical distances so that the heating power of different spectral type of stars is taken into account and common features in disks can be discussed and compared directly. Common features, such as warm (~150 K) dust belts near the water-ice line and cold (~50 K) Kuiper-belt analogs, give rise to our emerging understanding of the levels of order in debris disk structures and illuminate various processes about the formation and evolution of exoplanetary systems. In light of the disk structures in the debris disk twins (Vega and Fomalhaut), and the current limits on the masses of planetary objects, we suggest that the large gap between the warm and cold dust belts is the best signpost for multiple (low-mass) planets beyond the water-ice line.

We have been operating an infrared Stokes spectro-polarimeter, whose observing wavelength bands include the He i 10830 Å and Fe i 15648 Å lines. A couple of full-Sun, full-Stokes maps in both wavelength bands are taken on a daily basis, with the polarization sensitivity better than 10−3. With this sensitivity, the helium polarization maps clearly show the atomic and Hanlé polarizations besides the Zeeman polarization, particularly in prominences/filaments. On these polarization maps, we can track the magnetic field signals of the prominences/filaments during their passages on the solar disk. Therefore, this instrument works as a ‘synoptic prominence magnetograph’. Our preliminary study of the linear polarizations seen in quiescent filaments suggests that the magnetic field producing the polarization signals is located at the bottom part of a flux-rope, which supports a filament.

Stellar bars are important internal drivers of the secular evolution of disk galaxies. Using a sample of nearby barred galaxies with weak and strong bars, we evaluate the correlations between star formation properties in different galactic structures and their associated bars, and try to interpret the complex process of bar-driven secular evolution. We find that weaker bars tend to associate with lower concentrical star formation activities, while stronger bars appear to have large scatter in the distribution of the global star formation activities. In general, the star formation activities in early- and late-type galaxies have different behavior, with similar star formation rate density distributions. In addition, there are only weak trends toward increased star formation activities in bulges and galaxies with stronger bars, which is consistent with previous works. Our results suggest that the different stages of the evolutionary sequence and many factors besides bars may contribute to the complexity of this process. Furthermore, significant correlations are found between the star formation activities in different galactic structures, in which barred galaxies with intense star formation in bulges tend to also have active star formation in their bars and disks. Most bulges have higher star formation densities than their associated bars and disks, indicating the presence of bar-driven evolution. Therefore, we derived a possible criterion (Figure 1) to quantify the different stages of a bar-driven evolutionary sequence. Future work is needed to improve on the uncertainties of this study.

In this conference proceedings we summarize the key observational findings of the Herschel DUNES survey. We found 31 discs in our sample, equating to an increased dust incidence with Herschel of 20.2 ±2.0% compared to previous measurement of ~12.5±5% with Spitzer for the same population of nearby, Sun-like stars. We identify no trend towards fewer discs around later spectral types, as had previously been reported for A-M stars. Around half of the discs exhibit extended emission, representing a vast improvement in the number of spatially resolved debris discs and thereby the quality of modelling that can be applied to those systems. We also identify unusual sub-groups of discs, including ‘steep SED’ sources with dust spectral indexes in the 70–160 μm range, steeper than the Rayleigh-Jeans tail which, whilst not unheard of, are more typically seen at sub-mm wavelengths and candidate ‘cold discs’ which are identified through their lack of significant excess emission at wavelengths shorter than 100 μm.

The modelling of X-ray pulse profiles from accreting millisecond pulsars is a way to infer masses and radii of neutron stars. We briefly describe how a pulse shape encodes information on the mass and radius, but also depends on other parameters such as hot spot location and observer viewing angle. A numerical model that we have developed is then described. The model includes light bending, time-delay effects, and Doppler effects for photons. The model accounts for oblateness of the neutron star, caused by the rapid rotation, and for scattered light from the surface of the accretion disk. The millisecond pulsar SAX J1808-3658 has multiple observations taken during different outbursts. The observed pulse shapes vary greatly, and it is a challenging test to fit the different observations. Some of the latest results are given.

The evolution and dynamics of the molecular cores traced by 13CO J = 1 → 0 emission in the Taurus molecular cloud are studied. We performed a systematic examination of the distribution and dynamic state of cores in a large contiguous region, as well as the core ages, which lie between 106 and 107 years. The core velocity dispersion (CVD), which is the variance of the core velocity difference δ v, exhibits a power-law behavior as a function of the apparent separation L, i.e. CVD (km/s) ∝ L (pc)0.7, with similarities to Larson's law for the velocity dispersion of the gas.

Five non-potential parameters are calculated to investigate the temporal and spatial variations of vector magnetic field in active region 11158. An area that had evident changes of the azimuth of the vector magnetic field was found. The sunspot rotation may lead to an increase of the non-potentiality. Rapid and prominent increases are found in the variations of unsigned helicity.

We present a Resonant Switch (RS) model of twin peak high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (HF QPOs), assuming switch of twin oscillations at a resonant point, where frequencies of the upper and lower oscillations νU and νL become to be commensurable and the twin oscillations change from one pair of the oscillating modes (corresponding to a specific model of HF QPOs) to some other pair due to non-linear resonant phenomena. The RS model enables to determine range of allowed values of spin a and mass M of the neutron star located at the atoll source 4U 1636-53 where two resonant points are observed at frequency ratios νU : νL = 3:2, 5:4.