These proceedings provide the latest results on dark matter and dark energy research. The UCLA Department of Physics and Astronomy hosted its tenth Dark Matter and Dark Energy conference in Marina del Rey and brought together all the leaders in the field. The symposium provided a scientific forum for the latest discussions in the field.  Topics covered at the symposium:  •Status of measurements of the equation of state of dark energy and new experiments •The search for missing energy events at the LHC and implications for dark matter search •Theoretical calculations on all forms of dark matter (SUSY, axions, sterile neutrinos, etc.) •Status of the indirect search for dark matter •Status of the direct search for dark matter in detectors around the world •The low-mass wimp search region •The next generation of very large dark matter detectors •New underground laboratories for dark matter search  

This book, which is a reworked and updated version of Steven Bloemen’s original PhD thesis, reports on several high-precision studies of compact variable stars. Its strength lies in the large variety of observational, theoretical and instrumentation techniques that are presented and used and paves the way towards new and detailed asteroseismic applications of single and binary subdwarf stars. Close binary stars are studied using high cadence spectroscopic datasets collected with state of the art electron multiplying CCDs and analysed using Doppler tomography visualization techniques. The work touches upon instrumentation, presenting the calibration of a new fast, multi-colour camera installed at the Mercator Telescope on La Palma. The thesis also includes theoretical work on the computation of the temperature range in which stellar oscillations can be driven in subdwarf B-stars. Finally, the highlight of the thesis is the measurement of velocities of stars using only photometric data from NASA's Kepler satellite. Doppler beaming causes stars to appear slightly brighter when they move towards us in their orbits, and this subtle effect can be seen in Kepler's brightness measurements. The thesis presents the first validation of such velocity measurements using independent spectroscopic measurements. Since the detection and validation of this Doppler beaming effect, it has been used in tens of studies to detect and characterize binary star systems, which are key calibrators in stellar astronomy.

This textbook details basic principles of planetary science that help to unify the study of the solar system. It is organized in a hierarchical manner so that every chapter builds upon preceding ones. Starting with historical perspectives on space exploration and the development of the scientific method, the book leads the reader through the solar system. Coverage explains that the origin and subsequent evolution of planets and their satellites can be explained by applications of certain basic principles of physics, chemistry, and celestial mechanics and that surface features of the solid bodies can be interpreted by principles of geology.

This thesis addresses two of the central processes which underpin the formation of galaxies: the formation of stars and the injection of energy into the interstellar medium from supernovae, called feedback. In her work Claudia Lagos has completely overhauled the treatment of these processes in simulations of galaxy formation. Her thesis makes two major breakthroughs, and represents the first major steps forward in these areas in more than a decade. Her work has enabled, for the first time, predictions to be made which can be compared against new observations which probe the neutral gas content of galaxies, opening up a completely novel way to constrain the models. The treatment of feedback from supernovae, and how this removes material from the interstellar medium, is also likely to have a lasting impact on the field. Claudia Lagos Ph.D. thesis was nominated by the Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University as an outstanding Ph.D. thesis 2012.

Delineating the huge strides taken in cosmology in the past ten years, this much-anticipated second edition of Malcolm Longair's highly appreciated textbook has been extensively and thoroughly updated. It tells the story of modern astrophysical cosmology from the perspective of one of its most important and fundamental problems - how did the galaxies come about? Longair uses this approach to introduce the whole of what may be called "classical cosmology". What's more, he describes how the study of the origin of galaxies and larger-scale structures in the Universe has provided us with direct information about the physics of the very early Universe.

The purpose of this Gazetteer and Atlas of Astronomy (GAA) is to list, define and illustrate, for the first time, every named (as opposed to merely catalogued) object in the sky within a single reference work for use by the general reader, writers and editors dealing with astronomical themes, and those astronomers concerned with any aspect of astronomical nomenclature. Each part of the GAA will contain: * An introduction to the nomenclature of the body or group of bodies in question * A glossary of terminology used * A gazetteer listing in strict alphanumerical sequence essential information defining the body or feature concerned * An alphanumerically arranged classified index of all the headwords in the gazetteer * An atlas comprising maps and images with coordinate grids and labels identifying features listed in the gazetteer * Appendix material on the IAU nomenclature system and the transcription systems used for non-roman alphabets

This volume presents the latest research results on solar prominences, including new developments on e.g. chirality, fine structure, magnetism, diagnostic tools and relevant solar plasma physics. In 1875 solar prominences, as seen out of the solar limb, were described by P.A. Secchi in his book Le Soleil as "gigantic pink or peach-flower coloured flames". The development of spectroscopy, coronagraphy and polarimetry brought tremendous observational advances in the twentieth century. The authors present and discuss exciting new challenges (resulting from observations made by space and ground-based telescopes in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century) concerning the diagnostics of prominences, their formation, their life time and their eruption along with their impact in the heliosphere (including the Earth). The book starts with a general introduction of the prominence "object" with some historical background on observations and instrumentation. In the next chapter, the various forms of prominences are described with a thorough attempt of classification. Their thermodynamic (and velocity) properties are then derived with emphasis on the methods (and their limits) used. This goes from the simplest optically thin case to the heavy radiative treatment of plasmas out of local thermodynamic equilibrium. The following chapters are devoted to the magnetic field measurements and indirect derivation. A new branch of diagnostic tools, the seismology, is presented along with some MHD basics. This allows to better understand the propagation of waves, the energy and force equilibria. Both small-scale and large-scale studies and their relationship are presented. The importance of the newly discovered cavities is stressed in the context of prominence destabilization. The issues of prominence formation and eruption, their connection with flares and Coronal Mass Ejections and their impact on the Earth are addressed on the basis of the latest results. Finally, an exciting new area of research is unveiled with the newly discovered evidence of similar manifestations in the Universe and their possible impact on the habitability of exoplanets. References to the basic physics (where necessary) are provided and the proposed web sites addresses will allow the reader to load exciting movies. The book is aimed at advanced students in astrophysics, post-graduates, solar physicists and more generally astrophysicists. Amateurs will enjoy the many new images which go with the text.

The Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) and the Bavarian Competence Network for Technical and Scienti?c High Performance Computing (KONWIHR) publish in the present book results of numerical simulations facilitated by the High P- formance Computer System in Bavaria (HLRB II) within the last two years. The papers were presented at the Fourth Joint HLRB and KONWIHR Review and - sult Workshop in Garching on 8th and 9th December 2009, and were selected from all progress reports of projects that use the HLRB II. Similar to the workshop two years ago, the majority of the contributed papers belong to the area of computational ?uid dynamics (CFD), condensed matter physics, astrophysics, chemistry, computer sciences and high-energy physics. We note a considerable increase of the user c- munity in some areas: Compared to 2007, the number of papers increased from 6 to 12 in condensed matter physics and from 2 to 5 in high-energy physics. Bio s- ences contributed only one paper in 2007, but four papers in 2009. This indicates that the area of application of supercomputers is continuously growing and entering new ?elds of research. The year 2007 saw two major events of particular importance for the LRZ. First, after a substantial upgrade with dual-core processors the SGI Altix 4700 superc- puter reached a peak performance of more than 62 Tera?op/s. And second, the n- pro?t organization Gauss Centre for Supercomputing e. V. (GCS) was founded on April 13th.

This thesis considers the non-equilibrium and energy transfer processes involved in the evolution of astrophysical gases and plasmas. Momentum-energy transfer in collisions of atoms, molecules and ions governs the evolution of interacting astrophysical gas and plasmas. These collisions require an accurate quantum mechanical description and the work presented here develops a unified kinetic and quantum-mechanical model for this consideration. The multi-scale computational approach implemented here takes into account non-thermal distributions of atomic particles and clarifies their role in the evolution of interstellar gas and planetary atmospheres. As shown, the physical parameters of non-thermal distributions strongly depend on the differential cross sections of atomic, molecular and ion collisions. Readers will find a detailed description of the energy relaxation of energetic atoms, produced in the interstellar gas by the solar and stellar wind plasmas. Computation of the non-thermal diffuse background of energetic helium atoms in the heliosphere is also included for evaluation of the contributions from local and cosmic sources and analysis of related satellite observations. Work involving modeling of energetic particle precipitation into planetary atmospheres and formation of the planetary and exoplanetary escape fluxes has been performed with very accurate cross sections, describing momentum-energy transfer processes with high precision. Results of the Monte Carlo simulations, carried out for the Mars atmosphere at different solar conditions, can be used for analysis of observational data for Mars atmospheric escape and investigation into the history of Martian water.

This is the first book to present the science and instruments of NASA'S MESSENGER space mission. The articles, written by the experts in each area of the MESSENGER mission, describe the mission, spacecraft, scientific objectives, and payload. The book is of interest to all potential users of the data returned by the mission, to those studying the nature of Mercury, and by all those interested in the design and implementation of planetary exploration missions.

The zeta Aurigae stars are the rare but illustrious sub-group of binary stars that undergo the dramatic phenomenon of "chromospheric eclipse". This book provides detailed descriptions of the ten known systems, illustrates them richly with examples of new spectra, and places them in the context of stellar structure and evolution. Comprised of a large cool giant plus a small hot dwarf, these key eclipsing binaries reveal fascinating changes in their spectra very close to total eclipse, when the hot star shines through differing heights of the "chromosphere", or outer atmosphere, of the giant star. The phenomenon provides astrophysics with the means of analyzing the outer atmosphere of a giant star and how that material is shed into space. The physics of these critical events can be explained qualitatively, but it is more challenging to extract hard facts from the observations, and tough to model the chromosphere in any detail. The book offers current thinking on mechanisms for heating a star's chromosphere and on how a star loses mass, and relates this science synergistically to studies of other stars and binaries, and to the increasing relevance of contributions from new techniques in interferometry and asteroseismology. It also includes a detailed discussion of the enigmatic star epsilon Aurigae, which had recently undergone one of its very infrequent and very baffling eclipses. Though not a zeta Aurigae system, epsilon Aurigae is a true "Giant" among eclipsing stars. The 7 chapters of this book, written by a group of experts, have been carefully edited to form a coherent volume that offers a thorough overview of the subject to both professional and student.

A short, graduate-level synthesis of recent developments in theoretical physics, from a pioneer in the field Lectures on the Infrared Structure of Gravity and Gauge Theory presents an accessible, graduate-level synthesis of a frontier research area in theoretical physics. Based on a popular Harvard University course taught by the author, this book gives a concise introduction to recent discoveries concerning the structure of gravity and gauge theory at very long distances. These discoveries unite three disparate but well-developed subjects in physics. The first subject is the soft theorems, which were found by particle physicists in the 1950s to control the behavior of low-energy photons and are essential for all collider predictions. The second subject is asymptotic symmetries, found by general relativists in the 1960s to provide a surprising, infinite number of exact relations between distinct physical phenomena. The third subject is the memory effect, the measurement of which is sought in upcoming gravitational wave observations. An exploration of the physical and mathematical equivalence of these three subjects has provided a powerful new perspective on old results and led to a plethora of new results, involving symmetries of QED, gluon scattering amplitudes, flat-space holography in quantum gravity, black hole information, and beyond. Uniquely connective and cutting-edge, Lectures on the Infrared Structure of Gravity and Gauge Theory takes students and scholars to the forefront of new developments in the discipline. Materials are presented in a "lecture notes" style with problem sets included Concise and accessible pedagogical approach Topics include soft theorems, the memory effect, asymptotic symmetries with applications to QED, Yang-Mills theory, quantum gravity, and black holes

Magnetic fields permeate our vast universe, urging electrically charged particles on their courses, powering solar and stellar flares, and focusing the intense activity of pulsars and neutron stars.

Magnetic fields are found in every corner of the cosmos. For decades, astrophysicists have identified them by their effects on visible light, radio waves, and x-rays. J. B. Zirker summarizes our deep knowledge of magnetism, pointing to what is yet unknown about its astrophysical applications.

In clear, nonmathematical prose, Zirker follows the trail of magnetic exploration from the auroral belts of Earth to the farthest reaches of space. He guides readers on a fascinating journey of discovery to understand how magnetic forces are created and how they shape the universe. He provides the historical background needed to appreciate exciting new research by introducing readers to the great scientists who have studied magnetic fields.

Students and amateur astronomers alike will appreciate the readable prose and comprehensive coverage of "The Magnetic Universe."

Special Relativity: A Heuristic Approach provides a qualitative exposition of relativity theory on the basis of the constancy of the speed of light. Using Einstein's signal velocity as the defining idea for the notion of simultaneity and the fact that the speed of light is independent of the motion of its source, chapters delve into a qualitative exposition of the relativity of time and length, discuss the time dilation formula using the standard light clock, explore the Minkowski four-dimensional space-time distance based on how the time dilation formula is derived, and define the components of the two-dimensional space-time velocity, amongst other topics.

In recent years there have been great advances in the fields of laboratory and astronomical spectroscopy. These have been equally matched by large-scale computations using state-of-the-art theoretical methods. The accurate atomic opacities that are available today play a great role in the field of biomedical research using nanotechnology.

The proceedings of the "International Conference on Recent Advances in Spectroscopy: Theoretical, Experimental and Astrophysical Perspectives" contain both invited and contributory papers, which give the most recent results by the peers in the areas of theoretical and experimental atomic physics as well as observational astrophysics.

At the XXIX IAU General Assembly held in Honolulu from 3-14 August 2015, the meetings known as Special Sessions and Joint Discussions were replaced by new 'Focus Meetings'. Astronomy in Focus XXIXB presents the most relevant contributions from the Focus Meetings together with summaries of all the accepted papers and posters. It covers the following topics: the legacy of Planck; x-ray surveys of the hot and energetic cosmos; stellar physics in galaxies; stellar explosions; gravitational waves and structure formation; the search for water and life's building blocks; red supergiants in the local Universe; advances in stellar physics from asteroseismology; scale-free processes in the Universe; and the frontiers of our understanding of cluster and galaxy evolution. The publications Astronomy in Focus XXIXB (together with its companion, XXIXA), the proceedings of the six main Scientific Symposia and Reports on Astronomy: Commission Legacy Reports, fully cover the XXIX IAU General Assembly.

Over the last decade, statisticians have developed new statistical tools in the field of spatial point processes. At the same time, observational efforts have yielded a huge amount of new cosmological data to analyze. Although the main tools in astronomy for comparing theoretical results with observation are statistical, in recent years, cosmologists have not been generally aware of the developments in statistics and vice versa.

Statistics of the Galaxy Distribution describes both the available observational data on the distribution of galaxies and the applications of spatial statistics in cosmology. It gives a detailed derivation of the statistical methods used to study the galaxy distribution and the cosmological physics needed to formulate the statistical models. Because the prevalent approach in cosmological statistics has been frequentist, the authors focus on the most widely used of these methods, but they also explore Bayesian techniques that have become popular in large-scale structure studies.

Describing the most popular methods, their latest applications, and the necessary mathematical and astrophysical background, this groundbreaking book presents the state of the art in the statistical description of the large-scale structure of the Universe.
Cosmology's well-defined and growing data sets represent an important challenge for the statistical analysis, and therefore for the statistics community. Statistics of the Galaxy Distribution presents a unique opportunity for researchers in both fields to strengthen the connection between them and, using a common language, explore the statistical description of the universe.

Modern comprehensive introduction and overview of the physics of White Dwarfs, Neutron Stars and Black Holes, including all relevant observations. Contains a basic introduction to General Relativity, including the modern 3+1 split of spacetime and of Einstein's equations. The split is used for the first time to derive the structure equations for rapidly rotating neutron stars and Black Holes. Detailed discussions and derivations of current theoretical results. In particular also the most recent equations of state for neutron star matter are explained. Topics , such as colour superconductivity are discussed and used for modelling. A book for graduate students and researchers. Contains exercises and some solutions.

Laika began her life as a stray dog on the streets of Moscow and died in 1957 aboard the Soviet satellite Sputnik II. Initially the USSR reported that Laika, the first animal to orbit the earth, had survived in space for seven days, providing valuable data that would make future manned space flight possible. People believed that Laika died a painless death as her oxygen ran out. Only in recent decades has the real story become public: Laika died after only a few hours in orbit when her capsule overheated. Laika's Window positions Laika as a long overdue hero for leading the way to human space exploration. Kurt Caswell examines Laika's life and death and the speculation surrounding both. Profiling the scientists behind Sputnik II, he studies the political climate driven by the Cold War and the Space Race that expedited the satellite's development. Through this intimate portrait of Laika, we begin to understand what the dog experienced in the days and hours before the launch, what she likely experienced during her last moments, and what her flight means to history and to humanity. While a few of the other space dog flights rival Laika's in endurance and technological advancements, Caswell argues that Laika's flight serves as a tipping point in space exploration "beyond which the dream of exploring nearby and distant planets opened into a kind of fever from which humanity has never recovered." Examining the depth of human empathy-what we are willing to risk and sacrifice in the name of scientific achievement and our exploration of the cosmos, and how politics and marketing can influence it-Laika's Windowis also about our search to overcome loneliness and the role animals play in our drive to look far beyond the earth for answers.

The mapping of the surface of stars requires diverse skills, analysis techniques and advanced modeling, i.e. the collaboration of scientists in various specialties. This volume gives insights into new techniques allowing for the first time to obtain resolved images of stars. It takes stock of what has been achieved so far in Chile, on the ESO VLTI instrument or, in the States, on the CHARA instrument. In recent times interferometry, combined with adaptive optics has allowed to reconstruct images of stars. Besides the Sun (of course) by now five stars have been resolved in detail. In addition to interferometry, this book highlights techniques used for mapping the surfaces of stars using photometry made by space observatories; Zeeman- and Doppler Imaging; mapping the surface element abundances via spectroscopy. This book will also take stock of the best images of the solar surface, made by connecting the differential rotation to the underlying physical parameters derived from helioseismology. Recent measurements of flattening of the solar surface by SDO showed that the Sun's shape is linked to the rotation of the core. It is shown how such a result is generalizable to the stars.

The winner of UCL's annual HEP thesis prize, this work describes an analysis of the data from the second flight of the Antarctica Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA). ANITA is a balloon-borne experiment that searches for radio signals originating from ultra-high energy neutrinos and cosmic rays interacting with the Antarctic ice or air. The search for ultrahigh energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin is one of the outstanding experimental challenges of the 21st century. The ANITA experiment was designed to be the most sensitive instrument to ultra-high energy neutrinos that originate from the interactions of cosmic rays with the cosmic microwave background. The methodology and results of the neutrino and cosmic ray searches are presented in the thesis.

This thesis presents the results of indirect dark matter searches in the gamma-ray sky of the near Universe, as seen by the MAGIC Telescopes. The author has proposed and led the 160 hours long observations of the dwarf spheroidal galaxy Segue 1, which is the deepest survey of any such object by any Cherenkov telescope so far. Furthermore, she developed and completely characterized a new method, dubbed "Full Likelihood", that optimizes the sensitivity of Cherenkov instruments for detection of gamma-ray signals of dark matter origin. Compared to the standard analysis techniques, this novel approach introduces a sensitivity improvement of a factor of two (i.e. it requires 4 times less observation time to achieve the same result). In addition, it allows a straightforward merger of results from different targets and/or detectors. By selecting the optimal observational target and combining its very deep exposure with the Full Likelihood analysis of the acquired data, the author has improved the existing MAGIC bounds to the dark matter properties by more than one order of magnitude. Furthermore, for particles more massive than a few hundred GeV, those are the strongest constraints from dwarf galaxies achieved by any gamma-ray instrument, both ground-based or space-borne alike.

The authors give an overview of atomic diffusion as applied to all types of stars, showing where it plays an essential role and how it can be implemented in modelling. Part I describes the tools that are required to include atomic diffusion in models of stellar interiors and atmospheres. An important role is played by the gradient of partial radiative pressure, or radiative acceleration, which is usually neglected in stellar evolution. In Part II, the authors systematically review the contribution of atomic diffusion to each evolutionary step. The dominant effects of atomic diffusion are accompanied by more subtle effects on a large number of structural properties throughout evolution. The goal of this book is to provide the means for the astrophysicist or graduate student to evaluate the importance of atomic diffusion in a given star. A fundamental physical process, atomic diffusion can significantly affect the superficial abundances of stars and/or their evolution. This guide includes all the information needed to take proper account of atomic diffusion's impact.

This volume is the updated and extended translation of the Russian original. It presents the results of observations of solar activity and its effects in the Earth space environment carried out from July 2001 to December 2005 on board the CORONAS-F space mission. The general characteristics of the CORONAS-F scientific payload are provided with a description of the principal experiments. The main results focus on the global oscillations of the Sun (p-modes), solar corona, solar flares, solar cosmic rays, Earth's radiation belts, and upper atmosphere. The book will be welcomed by students, post-graduates, and scientists working in the field of solar and solar-terrestrial physics. This English edition is supplemented by sections presenting new results of the SPIRIT and TESIS experiments under the CORONAS solar program, as well as from the SONG experiment onboard the CORONAS-F satellite.

The original work presented in this thesis constitutes an important contribution to modern Cosmic Ray (CR) physics, and comes during one of the most exciting periods of this field. The first part introduces a new numerical code (DRAGON) to model the CR propagation in our Galaxy. The code is then used to perform a combined analysis of CR data, making it possible to determine their propagation properties with unprecedented accuracy. The second part is dedicated to a theoretical interpretation of the recent crucial experimental results on cosmic electron and positron spectra (PAMELA, Fermi-LAT experiments). Using the tools developed in the first part of the thesis, the author convincingly argues for the existence of a new spectral component, which could arise either from local astrophysical sources, such as pulsars, or from Dark Matter annihilation or decay. This thesis is a highly advanced work; the methods, analysis and results are clearly and carefully presented. This work is set to become an important reference document for any future work in this area.