Main Colloquium
Dr. Nima Khosravi	ORATED

AIMS, Cape Town

What is the right way to interpret a massive graviton? We generalize the kinematical framework of general relativity to multiple connections. The average of the connections is itself a connection and plays the role of the canonical connection in standard General Relativity. At the level of dynamics, the simplest choice of the Einstein-Hilbert action is indistinguishable from the single-connection case. However, inspired by Weyl geometry, we show how one can construct massive gravity to all orders in perturbation theory compatible with the de Rham-Gabadadze-Tolley ghost-free model. We conclude that the mass of the graviton can be interpreted as a geometrical property of spacetime arising from two connections. Furthermore in the multi-connection framework there is no ambiguity in the definition of physical metric and consequently coupling to matter.

	Special Colloquium
Dr. Volker Heesen	ORATED

UK

Radio continuum (RC) emission holds the promise of being an accurate because unobscured tracer for star formation (SF), allowing us to measure the evolution of the Cosmic star formation rate (SFR) in dusty high-z galaxies. We use WSRT RC observations at 22 cm and state-of-the-art hybrid SFR density maps, combining GALEX FUV data, tracing un-obscured SF, and Spitzer 24 mu data, tracing SF embedded in dust. With these data we calibrate the well-known RC-SFR relation as proposed by Condon (1992) on a spatially resolved basis in a sample of 17 nearby galaxies. We find that for integrated measurements Condon’s relation works quite well: the absolute value of the RC derived SFR is in agreement with the hybrid SFR, and the RC-SFR relation is almost linear with RC   SFRD(1.110.05). The same holds true for azimuthally averaged data, where the ratio of RC to hybrid derived SFR density is almost constant with only quasi-periodic fluctuations of 25kpc scale the RC-SFR relation is sub-linear, which we attribute largely to the effect of cosmic-ray transport. We study the dependence of the RC-SFR relation on various galaxy parameters and find none, meaning that the RC-SFR relation is universal.

	Main Colloquium
Dr. Pau Amaro-Seoane	ORATED

AEI, Hannover

One of the most interesting sources of gravitational waves is the inspiral of compact objects on to a massive black hole (MBH), commonly referred to as an extreme-mass ratio inspiral. The small object, typically a stellar black hole, emits significant amounts of GW along each orbit in the detector bandwidth. On the other hand, recent observations of the Galactic center revealed a dearth of giant stars inside the inner parsec relative to the numbers theoretically expected for a fully relaxed stellar cusp. The possibility of unrelaxed nuclei (or, equivalently, with no or only a very shallow cusp) adds substantial uncertainty to the estimates. I show that under quite generic initial conditions, the time required for the growth of a relaxed, mass segregated stellar cusp is shorter than a Hubble time for MBHs with masses <  5 x 106 Msun. I will also address a recent important result on EMRIs: The impact of the spin of the central MBH in their orbital parameters and event rates.

	Special Colloquium
TBA	ORATED

Third Aarseth N-body meeting in Bonn, organized by AIfA. See decription and program at this site: http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/ sambaran/christmasnbody2013/christmasnbody2013.html

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Andrei Lobanov	ORATED

MPIfR

There is a growing number of theoretical and observational arguments suggesting that new, ultralight particles (such as axions or hidden photons) are viable candidates for explaining the dark matter. These arguments also indicate that the mass range of 0.1-1000 micro-eV is particularly well-suited for hosting such a dark matter “carrier” particle. The corresponding frequency range of 0.024-240 GHz makes radio and mm-wave measurements the prime tool for dark matter detection experiments, both in laboratory and with astronomical observations. Several laboratory searches have already been performed in this domain, probing a sizable portion of the mass range of interest and reaching down to particle masses of  2 micro-eV. The tunable microwave cavity experiment WISPDMX, carried out jointly by the MPIfR, DESY and the University of Hamburg, aims to expand the hidden photon and axion dark matter searches into the 0.8-2 micro-eV range. Results from the first stage of WISPDMX measurements made within narrow bands around the nominal resonant frequencies of the cavity are presented here. These measurements reach well into the dark matter exclusion zone and rule out spontaneous symmetry breaking of the hidden Higgs boson as a mechanism for hidden photon formation. The second and third stages of WISPDMX will probe up to 80extend the searches also to the axion particle. Plans are being currently made for further, broadband experiments which should cover the entire 0.1-1000 micro-eV mass range both for hidden photon and axion dark matter searches.

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Matthias Maercker	ORATED

AIfA

In the last years, HIFI has provided us with high-sensitivity and high-resolution observations of molecular emission lines from the circumstellar envelopes (CSEs) of Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars. Observations of molecular emission lines are essential for understanding the chemical and physical processes in the CSEs, as well as for our understanding of the evolution of this important stellar population. I will present the results from a molecular inventory of 9 oxygen-rich (M-type) AGB stars as part of the HIFISTARS guaranteed time key program. The sensitivity and high spectral resolution provide valuable information on the chemistry and dynamics of the CSEs. We detect a total of 9 different molecules, as well as some of their isotopologues, covering a wide range of excitation conditions throughout the CSEs. The observed line intensities set constraints on the velocity profile of the wind, in some cases suggesting very rapid acceleration. In addition, they can be used as a tracer of the mass-loss mechanism and chemistry as a function of the chemical composition and initial stellar mass. In this context H2O is of particular importance for M-type AGB stars, both as a tracer of the chemistry and dynamics close to the central star, and as a dominant coolant in the inner CSE. Accurate modelling of the observed H2O lines requires detailed, non-local, non-TE radiative transfer modelling. I will discuss the challenges connected with such detailed modelling, and demonstrate the importance of coupled modelling between the dynamics, dust, gas, and H2O cooling.

	Special Colloquium
Bonn-Dwingeloo VLBI meeting	ORATED

TBA

	Special Colloquium
Prof. Jacques Roland	ORATED

Institut d'Astrophysique, Paris, France

TBA

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Lei Chen	ORATED

MPIfR

Circumstellar disks play a fundamental role in star formation and planet formation. Infrared interferometry provide an angular resolution of  mas, and therefore a unique way to detect the innermost sub-AU region of the disks around nearby young stellar objects (YSOs). Combining such high-spatial-resolution observations with numerical simulation of radiative transfer (RT) process, disk geometry and dust properties can be constrained. Herein I report the infrared interferometric observation of the Herbig Ae star HD 144432, and the corresponding modeling work. With our Monte-Carlo radiative transfer simulation, we found a multi-component structure of the disk, with an optically thin inner halo component from  0.17AU to  0.3AU, another optically thin halo from  1AU to  10AU, and an optically thick geometrically thin component from  10AU to  100AU. The gap region from  0.3AU to  1AU can either be opened by a giant planet, or be formed of dust coagulation. The outer halo is found to be silicate-rich, with a Si/C mass ratio of  4:1. The mass of the self-shadowed outer disk is  10-5 solar mass.

	Special Colloquium
Prof. Paola Caselli	ORATED

School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, UK

Before the formation of Sun-like stars, molecular clouds in our Galaxy fragment and produce dense regions called pre-stellar cores. These objects represent the initial conditions in the process of star and planet formation. They are cold (kinetic temperature < 10 K), dense (number density of H2 molecules > 100,000 cm-3, at least ten times higher than the surrounding parent cloud), quiescent (line broadening is dominated by thermal motions), centrally concentrated and gravitationally contracting regions embedded in molecular clouds. Dust grains in pre-stellar cores are covered with thick icy mantles and deuterium fractionation is important. Knowledge of the physical structure and kinematics of pre-stellar cores is needed to put constraints on theories of star and planet formation. This requires a good understanding of the pre-stellar core chemical structure, as spectral line profiles of trace species provide the only diagnostics of the dynamics leading to star and planet formation. Because of their simple structure and quiescent nature, pre-stellar cores are also ideal laboratories in which to measure key astrophysical processes and parameters. Here, I shall discuss our understanding of the chemical structure of pre-stellar cores based on observations and theoretical interpretation. Links to later stages of star and planet formation, including our own Solar System, will also be made.

	Main Colloquium
Dr. Jaiyul Yoo	ORATED

Zürich

Recent developments in CMB and large-scale galaxy surveys have led to the standard cosmological model, but the physical understanding of its ingredients remains elusive so far. In response to the gravity of these issues, numerous large-scale galaxy surveys are ongoing or planned to be operational in a near future. However, precision measurements in future galaxy surveys bring in new challenges, demanding substantial advances in theoretical modeling and observational methods. I will discuss the recent theoretical development of the general relativistic description of galaxy clustering and the observational issues associated with large-scale measurements. The relativistic effect in galaxy clustering or the deviation from the standard Newtonian description becomes substantial on large scales, in which dark energy models or alternative theories of modified gravity deviate from general relativity, and in which the fingerprint of the inflationary epoch remains in its pristine form. I will discuss how the subtle relativistic effect in galaxy clustering can be used to test general relativity on large scales and probe signatures of the early Universe.

	Special Colloquium
Prof. Roger Penrose	ORATED

University of Oxford, UK

Location: Hörsaal I Main University of Bonn Building, Am Hof 1, 53113 Bon Abstract: Conformal cyclic cosmology (CCC), initially proposed in 2005, takes what we currently regard as the entire history of the Universe, from its Big-Bang origin (but without any inflationary phase) to its final exponential expansion, to be but one aeon of a continual succession of such aeons. The big bang of each is taken to be a conformal continuation of the exponentially expanding remote future of the previous one via an infinite metric rescaling. A positive cosmological constant (dark energy) and some primordial scalar material (dark matter) are both essential to CCC’s consistency. The 2nd law of thermodynamics is CCC’s driving concept, and its consistency depends upon information loss in the quantum evaporation of black holes. Supermassive black hole encounters in the aeon previous to ours would have important observational implications for CCC, detectable within the cosmic microwave background. Recent evidence for this in both the WMAP and Planck satellite data will be presented.

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Laura Spitler	ORATED

MPIfR

Recently a population of fast radio transients has been discovered in pulsar surveys conducted at the Parkes Telescope. These Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are characterized by an anomalously large dispersion measure and little interstellar scattering. Their origin is still unclear. I will report on the discovery of an FRB found in the Pulsar ALFA survey underway at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, the first non-Parkes detection of this mysterious population.

	Main Colloquium
Dr. Martin Houde	ORATED

Western University, London, Canada

In this presentation I will discuss the recent discovery of circular polarization signals in the rotational line profiles of molecules that are negligibly sensitive to the Zeeman effect. Our initial findings obtained for CO in the Orion KL star-forming region with the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory were recently followed with similar detections for two transitions of CO in an exhaustive study of the supernova remnant IC 443 (G), led at the MPIfR with the IRAM 30m and APEX telescopes. These new results have clearly established that circular polarization arises, as predicted, from the conversion of linear polarization signals incident on the molecules responsible for the detected radiation. I will further show how the anisotropic resonant scattering model developed to explain these observations also naturally provides an answer to a long standing puzzle concerning the polarization characteristics of SiO maser lines in the circumstellar envelope of evolved stars. As this scattering model directly involves the ambient magnetic field, these results suggest the possibility of starting a whole new subfield of more incisive studies of magnetic fields in the interstellar medium.

	Special Colloquium
Dr. Jennifer van Wijngaarden	ORATED

Department of Chemistry, University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Canada

Fourier transform microwave (FTMW) and infrared (FTIR) spectra contain a wealth of information regarding molecular structures and motions. Spectra in these ranges can be recorded with high spectral resolution ( 1e–7 and  1e–3 cm–1, respectively) using modern instrumentation and this allows a very accurate and detailed characterization of fundamental molecular properties such as bond lengths, dipole moments and tunneling motions. In this talk, I will briefly describe the principles of operation of our two custom-built microwave spectrometers, their capabilities and recent experimental results. These projects directly support our FTIR studies performed using the far infrared beamline at the Canadian Light Source synchrotron. The ‘synchrotron advantage’ will be described and sample rovibrational analyses will be discussed.

	Informal Colloquium
Dr. Tae-Hyun Jung	ORATED

KASI

TBA

	Informal Colloquium
Dr. Seog-Tae Han	ORATED

KASI

TBA

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Elvire de Beck	ORATED

MPIfR

It is important to study the details of the circumstellar chemistry for all types of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in order to fully understand the synthesis of new elements, the formation of circumstellar molecules, and the return of processed material to the ISM. Broadband spectral surveys of many sources are a powerful tool to study the chemical complexity of AGB atmospheres and circumstellar envelopes. Results on such spectral scans of AGB stars have so far only been published for the carbon-rich AGB stars IRC +10216 (CW Leo; by many regarded as “prototypical”) and CIT 6 (RW LMi). The circumstellar envelopes of oxygen-rich and S-type AGB stars are rarely studied in the same detail. I will present preliminary results from projects covering spectral surveys of a diverse sample of AGB stars obtained with single-dish telescopes (on ground and in space) and interferometers, covering frequencies from about 85 GHz up to 5 THz. Comparing the results with those on similar spectral scans of other types of evolved stars, in particular IRC +10216, we can address the chemical content, the efficiency of various chemical processes, and their dependence on the evolutionary stage of the star. A comparison of isotopic ratios is of special interest, since these accurately reflect the nucleosynthesis processes ongoing inside the AGB stars. Quoting from Olofsson, 2005 (IAU Symposium, Vol. 231, 4992013508) The ultimate goal is to understand the stellar/circumstellar chemistry on the AGB (and beyond), and from this derive important results relevant to stellar evolution as well as galactic chemical evolution. The relative simplicity of the AGB circumstellar environment lends the hope that various chemical processes can be studied in great detail. In addition, through the radial structure produced by the outflowing gas and dust, there is also the possibility of understanding 2019time-resolved2019 chemistry.

	Main Colloquium
Dr. Ricardo Shiavon	ORATED

Liverpool John Moores University

TBA

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Moritz Boeck	ORATED

MPIfR

TBA

	Special Colloquium
Dr. Adam Ginsburg	ORATED

ESO

TBA

	Special Colloquium
Dr. Yu Gao	ORATED

Purple Mountain Observatory

The massive dense cores in giant molecular clouds/complexes are the sites of the formation of massive star (clusters). Here, we show that the star formation rate (SFR, indicated by FIR) and a variety of dense gas tracers (HCN, CS, high-J CS, and high-J CO) are all linearly correlated in both the dense cores and star-forming galaxies near and far. The Kennicutt-Schmidt law that relates the total gas and SFR appears to have no unique power-law slope with larger scatters since the correlation slopes change from  1 for normal spirals to  1.5 when (U)LIRGs are included. This has immediate implications on the modes of star cluster formation in galaxies since active star formation proceeds in terms of young star cluster formation. All this suggests that dense cores are the basic units contributing to the SFR and the rate of formation of young massive star clusters in galaxies. And the SFR might depend linearly upon the mass of dense molecular gas (the star formation law).

	Special Colloquium
Dr. Rick Perley	ORATED

NRAO, Socorro

The Very Large Array was completed in 1980, and has operated for twenty years with essentially no changes to the 1970s era technology on which is was based, other than some improved receivers and new frequency bands. By the 1990s, it was clear that incremental, individual improvements to the data transmission system, RF/IF electronics, and correlator would not be the optimal way to obtain significant improvements in the VLA’s scientific capabilities. Rather, a comprehensive plan to completely redesign the entire electronics and data processing system was the appropriate approach. The EVLA Project is the result of this comprehensive plan. The Project’s basic goals are to improve the technical capabilities of the VLA by a factor of ten in every major observational characteristic: Sensitivity, Frequency Coverage, Frequency Resolution, and Spatial Resolution, as well as to provide major improvements in Imaging Capabilities and Data Access. The EVLA Project is in fact a major upgrade of the world’s most productive and powerful radio telescope. It is a leveraged project, combining a sound existing array with the benefits of new technologies in signal transmission and data processing to provide fabulous new capabilities at a small fraction of the cost of an entirely new facility. In this talk, I will review the major specific goals of the project, its current progress and status, and anticipated timeline for availability new capabilities prior to its completion in 2012.

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Amrita Purkayastha	ORATED

AIfA

We investigate the low-frequency radio continuum emission from starburst dwarf galaxies. The extent of their synchrotron halos can possibly test models for cosmic-ray propagation and magnetic field seeding into the surrounding intergalactic medium. We have observed the radio continuum emission from the dwarf galaxies NGC 1569 and NGC 4449 at 350 MHz (92 cm), for 12 hours, using the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope. We study the non-thermal emission, spectral indices using maps at different frequencies, equipartition magnetic field strengths, spectral ageing of the electrons and finally the wind velocities. The analysis shows that the break in the radio spectrum travels towards lower frequencies with increasing radius. Also, we find unusually low spectral indices in the core of the galaxies. This may point towards non-linear diffusive shock acceleration of cosmic ray electrons in the core. Additionally, we find high wind velocities which indicate that winds from dwarfs can indeed drag magnetic fields and cosmic rays into the IGM.

	Main Colloquium
Dr. David Merritt	ORATED

RIT

Encounters between stars and stellar remnants at the centers of galaxies drive many important processes. The fact that these encounters take place near a supermassive black hole (SBH) alters the dynamics in a number of ways: (1) The orbital motion is quasi-Keplerian so that correlations are maintained for much longer than in purely random encounters; (2) relativity affects the motion, through mechanisms like precession of the periastron and frame dragging; (3) the SBH spin is affected, directly by capture and indirectly by spin-orbit torques. The interplay between these processes is just now beginning to be understood, but a key result is that relativity can be crucially important even at distances that are a substantial fraction of the SBH influence radius. I will discuss this work and its implications for stellar captures, for the evolution of SBH spins, and for the long-term evolution of galactic nuclei.

	Lunch Colloquium
Prof. Dr. Michael Kramer	ORATED

MPIfR

I report on a the results of a recent paper accepted for publication in SCIENCE describing long-term observations of the Crab pulsar. The observed data, made available by the unique Jodrell Bank timing programme with the Lovell telescope, point to a peculiar evolution of its magnetic field which can explain a long-standing mystery about the slow-down of young pulsars.

	Special Colloquium
Dr. Marian W. Pospieszalski	ORATED

NRAO Charlottesville

Improvements in the noise temperature of field-effect transistors (FETs) and, later, heterostructure field-effect transistors (HFETs) over the last several decades have been quite dramatic. In 1970, a noise temperature of 120 K was reported at 1 GHz and physical temperature of 77 K. Today, noise temperatures of 3, 8 and 25 K are typically achieved at 8, 30 and 80 GHz, respectively, for physical temperatures of 14 to 20 K. These values of noise temperatures in their respective bands are typical of cryogenic low noise amplifiers currently being used by NRAO JVLA, ALMA, VLBA, and GBT receivers and also by receivers at other radio astronomy observatories, as for example: MPI, JPL DSN, Planck LFI, CARMA and others. It is expected that amplifiers with similar performance will be used in ALMA band 1 and 2 receivers. These results have been obtained with sub-100 nm gate length InP HFETs from surprisingly few wafers and typically using conventional chip-and-wire technology In this presentation, the development of cryogenically cooled amplifiers at NRAO CDL over the years is briefly traced and an attempt is made to identify important milestones. Examples of experimental results obtained with different generations of FETs (HFETs) are compared with the model predictions. The current state-of-the-art in cryogenic low noise InP HFET amplifiers is presented and gaps in our understanding of experimental results are emphasized. Future development of new receivers such as phased array feeds (PAF), or focal plane arrays (FPA) and the development of future large instruments such as Square Kilometer Array depends on now well established properties of transistor amplifiers and their performance upon cooling. The choices of receiver’s architecture, its physical temperature, and bandwidth determine how well it addresses a particular scientific question. In that light different aspects of FPA, PAF and SKA receiver developments over the course of last 15 years or so are critically reviewed and some guidance concerning possible future development is offered.

	Main Colloquium
Dr. Raymond Oonk	ORATED

The LOFAR colloquium will consist of a sequence of short talks presenting recent LOFAR results; incl. Dr. Raymond Oonk, on: Measuring RRLs with LOFAR. to be updated

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. David Madlener	ORATED

MPIfR

The basics of knowledge gathering will be reviewed in the context of physical modeling and the inverse radiative transfer problem will be presented. This problem is essential for astrophysics and can be understood as an optimization problem on a high-dimensional parameter space. A Monte Carlo method to solve this problem using radiative transfer in the continuum will be presented and three multi-wavelength modeling campaigns of the young stellar objects HH 30, V4046 Sgr, and DoAr 33 will be discussed as an application.

	Main Colloquium
Dr. Jorge Moreno	ORATED

University of Victoria & CITA, Canada

Galaxy pairs provide a unique view of the interaction sequence experienced by merging galaxies. Observationally, interactions have a dramatic influence on galaxies, even during the earliest stages. Theoretically, a large industry of numerical merger simulations has developed. Unfortunately, the latter depend on the assumption that interacting galaxies evolve in isolation. A central goal of this work is to investigate the validity of this assumption. Using the Millennium Simulation, we built a large catalogue of simulated galaxy pairs. For each pair, we searched for a more massive ’third’ galaxy in the vicinity. A comparison of the binding-energy of the pair to the binding energy to the third galaxy allows us to rank pairs in terms of their probability of merging. The results are as follows: (a) 10isolation; (b) 35massive galaxy in the vicinity; (c) 25merge because the third galaxy will split them apart; and (d) 30pairs orbiting a third massive galaxy, and will never merge. This work demonstrates the importance of connecting galaxy pairs to the rest of the Universe, and provides guidance to both observers and simulators on how realistic it is to treat merging galaxies in isolation. Lastly, I will discuss ongoing work based on binary merger simulations. These two complementary methods (semi-analytics and hydro-simulations) will help us bridge the gap between galactic and cosmological scales, and enrich our understanding of the physical processes governing the interaction sequence.

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Jonathan Mackey	ORATED

AIfA

Zeta Oph is a nearby runaway O star that ionises an approximately spherical HII region (Sh 2-27), and its weak wind generates a small bow shock. The HII region and bow shock can be used to constrain the properties of both the star and the interstellar medium (ISM) it is moving through. I will present the first radiation-magnetohydrodynamics simulations of the H II region around Zeta Oph. The HII region drives an expanding overdense neutral shell that becomes cone-shaped because of the star’s motion. The shell properties depend strongly on the strength and orientation of the ISM magnetic field, and should be observable in neutral gas tracers. Ionised gas emission is affected by the star’s motion because the upstream ionisation front is sharper and hotter than the downstream recombination front, both of which features can be seen in Sh 2-27. The properties of the neutral shell and ionised gas could be useful indicators for determining if other isolated O stars are runaways or formed in situ.

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Miguel Requena Torres	ORATED

MPIfR

I will give an overview on the SOFIA/GREAT deployment in the Southern Hemisphere. A very successfull series of 9 flights in less than 3 weeks.

	Special Colloquium
Sias Malan	ORATED

Square Kilometre Array Africa, Cape Town, South Africa

The MeerKAT Radio Telescope is currently under construction in the Northern Cape Karoo region of South Africa. It is set to be the most sensitive radio telescope in the southern hemisphere until the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) is completed. I will present a summary of the key science goals as well as the key performance specifications of the MeerKAT telescope. In addition, an overview of the telescope architecture together with the current build status will be presented.

	Main Colloquium
Dr. Ralf Launhardt	ORATED

Heidelberg

Once gravity has taken over a molecular cloud core, its temperature and density structure are the most important physical quantities that determine the course of the protostellar collapse and the final stellar mass. However, observationally derived density profiles often rely either on the simplifying assumption of isothermality or on observationally poorly constrained model temperature profiles. The instruments of the Herschel satellite provided us for the first time with both the spectral coverage and the spatial resolution that is needed to directly measure the dust temperature structure of nearby molecular cloud cores. Based on FIR and submm continuum maps obtained with Herschel and ground-based instruments as part of the Guaranteed Time Herschel Key Project “The Earliest Phases of Star Formation” (EPoS), we study the thermal dust emission of individual, previously well-known, isolated, nearby small globules with embedded prestellar and protostellar cores. From these data, which cover the entire spatial extent of the clouds out to the thin intercloud medium, we reconstruct the full dust temperature and density structure of the globules. I will explain the reconstruction method and discuss the implied temperature and density distributions. In particular we find that the thermal structure of all globules (warm outer envelopes with 14-20 K and colder dense interiors with 8-12 K) is dominated by external heating from the interstellar radiation field and moderate shielding by thin extended halos. The protostars embedded in some of the globules raise the local temperature of the dense cores only within radii out to about 5000 AU, but do not significantly affect the overall thermal balance of the globules. I will also discuss some ongoing work on the evolution of dust and gas properties in such cloud cores that is based on these Herschel results.

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Yuying Zhang	ORATED

AIfA

We present the X-ray luminosity versus dynamical mass relation (L-M) for a flux-limited sample of 63 nearby clusters of galaxies in the HIFLUGCS, an X-ray flux-limited sample minimizing bias toward any cluster morphology. Our analysis is based on  1.3 Msec clean XMM-Newton X-ray data and optical spectroscopic redshifts of 13647 cluster member galaxies. For optimal use of optical spectroscopic surveys for high-redshift galaxy clusters and groups observed in upcoming X-ray surveys, we carried out Mont-Carlo re-sampling of the galaxy member redshifts for the redshift and dynamical mass calibration. We predict the redshifts, velocity dispersion and dynamical mass estimates assuming the setups of the eBOSS and 4MOST optical spectroscopic surveys, respectively, for the sample at the cluster redshifts as well as at the redshift bins of 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8. Targeting high-z cluster/group follow-up, we further investigate the redshift estimates based on five and ten redshifts per cluster, respectively, and the mass estimates based on ten redshifts per cluster.

	Special Colloquium
Dr. Prasun Dutta	ORATED

National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Pune, India

The interstellar medium is observed to have a hierarchy of structures across a large range of length scales. Statistical properties, like power spectrum, structure function or correlation function provide ways to quantify these scale invariant structures and probably can help us understand about their generating mechanisms. It has been found that the slope of the power spectrum of these fluctuations is similar across the length scales ranging from AU to kilo parsecs. Probably, this indicates that a single scale free physical process, like turbulence, is behind the generation of these structures. Resent results on this will be discussed.

	Main Colloquium
Dr. Oliver King	ORATED

Caltech, Pasadena, USA

The RoboPol project is monitoring the optical linear polarization of a large sample of gamma-ray bright blazars. We plan to measure the position angle of the linear polarization vector during a large number of gamma-ray flares, thereby probing the structure of the relativistic jet. We use the 1.3m Skinakas telescope in Crete, a custom-designed 4-channel optical polarimeter, and automated observing to achieve high observing efficiency. We successfully commissioned the instrument in Spring 2013. I will describe the goals of the project, the instrument, the operation of the automated observing control system, and present some first-light data.

	Special Colloquium
Dr. Keiichi Wada	ORATED

Kagoshima University, Japan

Energy and momentum feedback from AGNs are a crucial process on evolution of galaxies and supermassive BHs. Although feedback on a galactic scale has been extensively studied, it may also potentially affect structures and dynamics of the ISM on any scales. Here I discuss structures of the ISM around low luminosity AGNs on a scale of sub-pc to tens pc under the effect of supernovae and radiation from the nucleus, base on our recent radiation-hydrodynamic simulations. We found a plausible process, called “radiation-driven fountain”, in which a thick torus-like structure is naturally formed around a nucleus.

	Special Colloquium
Dr. Sergio Dzib	ORATED

Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Morelia

TBA

	Main Colloquium
Dr. Nissim Kanekar	ORATED

National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, India

Astrophysical studies of redshifted spectral lines provide a powerful probe of putative changes in fundamental constants across a large lookback time. After reviewing the current status of this field, I will describe results from two radio techniques to measure such changes, based on comparisons between the redshifts of (1) “conjugate satellite” radio OH lines and (2) inversion and rotational lines. Finally, I will discuss the advances that are likely to be possible in this field with the advent of new telescopes like the Very Large Array and the Atacama Large Millimetre Array over the next decade.

	Main Colloquium
Dr. Torsten Enßlin	ORATED

MPA Garching

The Planck satellite has mapped the cosmic microwave background (CMB) with unprecedented precision. An accurate determination of many cosmological parameters was possible and a number of early Universe scenarios could be constrained. The Planck mission, its main scientific results, and the anomalies seen in the CMB sky will be discussed in this talk.

	Special Colloquium
Dr. Robin Garrod	ORATED

Cornell University

Chemical processes on the surfaces of dust grains are critical to the chemical evolution of the interstellar medium and star-forming regions. The accretion of gas-phase atoms and molecules onto the grains leads to diffusive surface chemistry, whose products – such as molecular hydrogen (H2) – may desorb back into the gas-phase, or may remain to form an icy mantle. Further chemistry may then occur on these icy surfaces. The dust-grain ices consist primarily of water, and may grow to become the largest repository of oxygen in dense interstellar regions. Simulations of grain-surface chemistry have hitherto paid little attention to the structure of the grains or the surface ices. The most advanced models so far have considered only a two-dimensional “grain”, with the physical positions of the ice constituents pre-determined in a fixed-lattice system. I will present the first astrochemical models to use a fully 3-D, off-lattice treatment of the dust grains and their ice mantles. The method explicitly defines the morphology of the underlying dust grain, atom by atom. The motions (kinetics) of atoms/molecules on the surface are free to follow whatever surface structure they find; the positions and strengths of the surface potential minima (i.e. binding sites) are calculated on-the-fly, and are individualized to each surface particle. The resultant ice structure is chemically segregated and somewhat porous, showing “veins” or fissures filled with H2. The model results are visualized using ray-traced videos. The formation and structure of the ice may be observed directly with this method. The calculation of the position of each individual particle in the ice allows a new set of statistical quantities to be analysed. These simulations open up a new parameter space that may allow more direct comparisons to be drawn between experimental and interstellar ices, whose structures may be considerably different. Preliminary videos and information may be found at: www.astro.cornell.edu/ rgarrod

	Main Colloquium
Dr. Mia Bovill	ORATED

University of Maryland

The formation and evolution of the smallest dwarfs presents an unique window into external and internal feedback in lowest mass galaxies. The lowest luminosity dSphs provide near field observation tests for star formation during the epochs of the first galaxies and reionization. Using simulations which trace the fate of the first galaxies to z = 0, I will argue that the faintest dwarf satellites of the Milky Way and M31 formed the bulk of their stars before reionization and are the first of these primordial galaxies to be discovered. However, models which reproduce this primordial galaxy population overproduce the number of more massive, bright satellites.

	Main Colloquium
Prof. Mark H. Heyer	ORATED

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Star formation occurs within the cold, dense, molecular phase of the interstellar medium that is primarily configured into cloud structures. I will provide a broad overview of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in the Milky Way. This summary will include the large scale distribution of molecular gas as traced by 12CO spectroscopic observations gathered by the CfA and CTIO 1m telescopes (Dame, Hartmann, Thaddeus 2001). I will also present panoramic imaging of 12CO and 13CO J=1-0 emission observed with the 32-element heterodyne focal plane array SEQUOIA on the FCRAO 14 meter telescope. These data reveal the complex gas distribution and kinematics within GMCs and offer insight to cloud physics and the processes that regulate the production of stars.

	Special Colloquium
Dr. Antoine Gusdorf	ORATED

ENS/LRA

Supernova Remnants (SNRs) play a vital part in the interstellar medium, where they re-distribute large amounts of energy, and probably constitute the primary sites for accelerating galactic cosmic rays. In my talk, I will present recent observations, mostly from the APEX, SOFIA (CO), and Spitzer (H2) telescopes, of various SNRs, all detected at TeV energies by the Fermi telescope. I will show that such observations are an efficient way to improve our knowledge of the physical and chemical conditions prevailing in SNR environments. I will also show how comparisons with shock models constitute a valuable tool to constrain both the shock characteristics and pre-shock conditions, leading to accurate estimates of shocked gas masses and related energetics. During this talk, I will focus on the F knot of the SNR W28, and present how our various IC443 observation programs will contribute to make this object a reliable template for the study of Galactic SNRs.

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Rebeca Garcia-Lopez	ORATED

MPIfR

Molecular outflows from very low-mass stars (VLMSs) and brown dwarfs have been studied very little, and only a few objects have been directly imaged. Using VLT SINFONI K-band observations, we will present the first spatially resolved H2 emission around IRS54, a  0.1-0.2 Msun Class I source. The molecular emission shows a complex structure delineating a large outflow cavity and an asymmetric molecular jet. In addition, new VLT ISAAC observations in the H-band have allowed us to discover an atomic jet which extends down to the central source. The outflow structure is similar to those found in low-mass Class I and CTTS. However, its Lacc/Lbol ratio is very high ( 80accretion rate is about one order of magnitude higher when compared to objects of roughly the same mass, pointing to the young nature of the investigated source.

	Main Colloquium
Dr. Andrew Harris	ORATED

University of Maryland

This talk reviews Zpectrometer CO J = 1-0 observations of high-redshift galaxies with the GBT. CO 1-0 is essential for understanding both the cool and warm molecular gas components in galaxies. For galaxies with millimeter-wave detections, comparison of J=1-0 to higher-J line fluxes reveals the presence of extended low-excitation material that increases gas mass estimates above those from previous millimeter-wave fluxes alone. Spectroscopic CO detections of  30 targets selected from the Herschel-ATLAS and Herschel-HerMES surveys confirms the existence of massive gas reservoirs within those DSFGs. The CO redshift distribution of these 350 micron-selected galaxies is strikingly similar to the optical redshifts of 850 micron-selected submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) over the same redshift range, clarifying our understanding of when massive spheroids form. Many of the bright Herschel galaxies are expected to be amplified by foreground gravitational lenses. Analysis of CO linewidths and luminosities provides a method for finding approximate gravitational lens magnifications from spectroscopic data alone, yielding amplifications of approximately 3 to 20. Correcting for magnification allows more precise estimates of gas masses, which range to Mgas > 1011 Msun. Most galaxy luminosities are consistent with an ultra-luminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) classification, but three are candidate hyper-LIRGs with luminosities greater than 1013 Lsun.

	Main Colloquium
Dr. Francesco Miniati	ORATED

ETH Zürich

TBA

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Hugh Wheelwright	ORATED

MPIfR

Massive stars play a key role in many areas of astrophysics. Therefore, it is important to understand how they form and evolve. However, massive stars are typically located at kilo-parsec distances, making the study of their circumstellar environment challenging. As a result, many aspects of massive star formation and evolution remain poorly understood. Optical interferometry offers an opportunity to address several important questions in these fields by directly probing the AU scale environment of massive stars. This enables us to study how mass is accreted onto massive stars during their formation and later injected into the ISM during the advanced stages of their evolution. In my talk, my last at the MPIfR, I will present new insights into the circumstellar discs of massive young stellar objects and the mass loss process of the evolved supergiant B[e] stars.

	Main Colloquium
Dr. Francois Boulanger	ORATED

Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, France

The Planck satellite has completed the first whole sky map of dust polarization in emission. The data is revealing a new sky we have started to explore. At 353 GHz, the observations have the sensitivity and angular resolution to image dust polarization over the whole sky. For the first time, we have the data needed to characterize the structure of the Galactic magnetic field and its coupling with interstellar matter and turbulence, in the diffuse interstellar medium and star forming molecular clouds. The data analysis also involves the characterization of the polarization properties of dust. From this dust perspective, we seek to answer three main questions. Which grains contribute to the observed polarization? Where in the ISM and with what efficiency are they aligned with the Galactic magnetic field? I will present the Planck observations, and the science questions we are investigating with results from the first Galactic Planck polarization papers.

	Special Colloquium
Kunal Mooley	ORATED

Caltech, Pasadena, USA

Radio transients are unique probes to the physics of cosmic explosions, exotic objects, and extreme environments. Taking advantage of the enhanced capabilities of the Karl G. Jansky Array (VLA), we have carried out a near-real-time survey for radio transients in the SDSS Stripe 82 region. We observed 50 sq. deg. at 3 GHz at 3 epochs to probe timescales of 1 week and 1 month with 75uJy rms. In contrast to previous surveys, our survey is coupled with contemporaneous high-cadence optical monitoring (with the Palomar Transient Factory) and rapid follow-up (at X-ray through radio frequencies). The returns have been quite rich: renewed activity from quasars, a tidal disruption event, pulsar candidates, and stellar flares. Clearly the dynamic radio sky appears to be quite rich. The lessons learned and experience gained can be fruitfully applied to future planned SKA pathfinder surveys. I will end the talk with a discussion of real-time identification and rapid classification with future VLA and PTF surveys.

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Rosie Chen	ORATED

MPIfR

Starbursts are the most prominent features in a galaxy, however its detailed properties cannot be easily studied: in distant galaxies, the stellar and gas contents are not resolved, and in the Milky Way the distances and association among stars can only be established using observationally-expensive spectroscopic data. As part of the GLOSTAR (A Global View of Star Formation in the Milky Way) project, we use high-resolution SINFONI near-IR integral field spectra of central clusters in mini-starbursts W31 and W43 together with complementary 2MASS+UKIDSS near-IR and Spitzer mid-IR imaging surveys to obtain a comprehensive census of underlying massive stellar content and determine their physical properties (e.g., distance, age, mass), as well as to spectroscopically identify massive young stellar objects (YSOs) and infer their physical properties from model fitting to their spectral energy distributions (SEDs). These two young, obscured mini-starbursts, one in the inner arm and the other at one end of the Galactic bar, have similar IR luminosities and column density of molecular gas but show distinct cluster morphologies. We have used the resolved massive stellar and YSO content to determine the intensity and propagation of star formation in these two mini-starbursts in the last 10 Myr, and compare to properties of their natal molecular environment and Galactic environments, in order to investigate environmental effect on cluster formation and starburst phenomenon. We have also compared the star formation rate (SFR) determined from resolved massive stellar content and from the integrated IR luminosities and found that the latter underestimated the SFR by a factor of 10, stressing the importance of using high-resolution data for such studies.

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Alan Roy	ORATED

MPIfR

We have equipped the APEX telescope for 1 mm VLBI and obtained first fringes on 3C 279 at 229 GHz in May 2012 with SMA (Hawaii) and SMTO (Arizona). The fringe spacing achieved was 29 microarcseconds, adequate to directly observe strong-field general-relativistic effects around the black hole in the Galactic centre by resolving the expected diameter of the shadow of the event horizon in Sgr A* of  40 microarseconds. I present on behalf of the collaboration the unusual aspects of this high-altitude installation, and the prospects for upcoming observations with a global array at the highest resolution.

	Special Colloquium
Dr. Tatiana Vasyunina	ORATED

MPIfR

It is currently assumed that infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) might present the early evolutionary stages of high-mass stars (> 8 solar masses). Sub-millimeter and millimeter studies performed in the past 15 years show that IRDCs present a broad variety of properties, and hence, a wide range of problems and questions that can be tackled. In our study, we mainly concentrate on investigating molecular composition and chemical processes in IRDCs. I will present the results of our latest studies and talk about the behavior of dense gas tracers, organic and deuterated species in IRDCs. In the period from 2008 till 2012, using Mopra, APEX, and IRAM radio telescopes, we collected molecular line data for many molecules including N2H+, HCO+, HCN, HNC, CS, CO, CH3CCH, CH3OH, CH3CHO, CH3OCHO, CH3OCH3, DNC, DCN, DCO+, and N2D+ for a number of IRDCs. For all species, except CH3OCH3, we estimate molecular abundances. As a next step, we performed chemical modeling and compared observational and modeled abundance values. This comparison showed that molecular abundances of the cold and dense gas tracers can be reproduced with a simple 0D model without any internal structure. In contrast, abundances of the observed organic species can be reproduced only with a two-phase physical model with warm-up and taking non-thermal desorption from dust grains into account. Our model also shows the importance of the surface reactions for IRDC-like environmenst and presents IRDCs as a laboratory to study chemical processes at the temperature regime between 15 and 30 K.

	Main Colloquium
Dr. Tobias Westmeier	ORATED

University of Western Australia

As a consequence of the cold dark matter (CDM) paradigm, galaxies are thought to form and evolve in a continuous process of mergers and accretion of satellite galaxies. Given its abundance and extended radial distribution in most galaxies, the 21-cm line of neutral hydrogen is particularly well suited to study the effects of mergers and interaction in galaxy groups in the local universe. In my talk I will present new, deep HI observations of the Magellanic Stream and the nearby Sculptor group with the Australia Telescope Compact Array and the Parkes radio telescope. I will elaborate how the distance and origin of the Magellanic Stream can be constrained by the measured physical parameters of the gas and illustrate how to use the HI clouds and clumps as probes of the physical conditions in the Galactic halo. I will also report on the discovery of a population of circumgalactic gas clouds around the galaxy NGC 55 and their implications for the history and evolution of the Sculptor group.

	Special Colloquium
Alexander Kreplin	ORATED

MPIfR Bonn

During star formation, young stellar objects (YSOs) are surrounded by matter accumulated from their natal envelope, which is bound in circumstellar dust and gas disks. Observations of circumstellar disks can therefore improve our understanding of the star formation process. Infrared interferometry can provide the required high angular resolution needed to resolve the dust and gas in the innermost disk regions at AU and sub-AU scales. With the near-infrared interferometric instrument VLTI/AMBER, we have spatially resolved the inner region of the YSO candidate stars V921 Sco and MWC 300 and the two Herbig Ae stars HD144432 and KK Oph. In this talk, I will briefly discuss the concept of the AMBER instrument and then focus on the observational results and the simultaneous modeling of the visibilities and SEDs with geometric, temperature-gradient and radiative transfer models.

	Special Colloquium
Prof. Tom Megeath	ORATED

University of Toledo, Ohio

Most low mass stars form in the massive molecular cloud complexes that are also the sites of high mass star formation. These vast complexes contain a rich diversity of environmental conditions, from the dense centers of clusters where low mass stars are found in close proximity to massive stars, to sparse groups of low mass stars many tens of parsecs from the nearest massive stars. I will discuss an observational program to use these massive complexes as astrophysical laboratories for studying star formation across the mass spectrum and the formation of planets around low mass stars. This program uses multi-wavelength observations of rich star forming complexes such as Orion to empirically characterize protostars, pre-main sequence stars, and disks in the diverse conditions found within the complexes. These observations show how the conditions in the cloud gas and the density of nearby stars influence the rate and efficiency of star formation, the multiplicity and mass function of the nascent stars, and the presence of circumstellar disks. The large numbers of young stars in these complexes also makes them valuable hunting grounds for rare objects that may be unusual or in short-lived phases of protostellar evolution; I will overview some recent finds of rare objects in Orion.

	Special Colloquium
Burcu Beygu	ORATED

Kapteyn Institute, The Netherlands

Cosmological voids provide a unique environment for the study of galaxy formation and evolution. They are vast regions occupying most of the volume in the universe with sizes in the range of 20 - 50h^{-1} Mpc, usually roundish in shape and largely devoid of galaxies. In this least dense regions of the cosmic web, we do find a dilute population of galax- ies in their interior. Void galaxies may be the rare probes of the faint and tenuous substructure that hierarchical structure formation theories predict to exist in voids. In my talk I will present the recent results from our Void Galaxy Survey (VGS). VGS is a multiwavelength survey of 60 void galaxies. Galaxies in the VGS have been selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (SDSS DR7) using purely geometric and topological techniques. Our geometrically selected sample consist of small galaxies, with stellar mass less than 3 x 10^{10} Msun. Most of these are small, blue star forming disk galaxies and many of them have companions and extended HI disks, which are often morphologically and kinematically disturbed. We do find, however, unexpected elements as well such as an interacting galaxy system forming a fiamentary structure, an Sb0 galaxy and an AGN.

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Martin Sommer	ORATED

AIfA

Giant radio halos in clusters of galaxies provide clear evidence that ultra-relativistic particles (cosmic rays) and magnetic fields can be maintained over Mpc scales, but we still lack a conclusive theoretical model for explaining the acceleration of electrons over an entire cluster volume. Our statistical understanding of the radio halo population has so far been obtained from X-ray selected cluster samples, with X-ray luminosities being used as a proxy for cluster mass. These studies indicate that only 20-30clusters host radio halos (the ’radio-active’ fraction). I will present first results on the correlation of radio halo power with integrated Comptonization, using public radio survey data (NVSS) with Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect measurements from Planck as a proxy for cluster mass. The result is a tight correlation between radio halo power and cluster mass, and a much increased fraction of clusters hosting diffuse radio emission compared to an X-ray reference sample with a similar mass distribution. I will discuss the implications of these results on our current understanding of radio halo origins. In the light of the results, previous estimates of the ’radio-active’ fraction of clusters of galaxies may need to be revised upward.

	Special Colloquium
Prof. Dave McComas	ORATED

Southwest Research Institute San Antonio (Texas), USA

NASA`s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) is operating in a highly elliptic orbit around the earth with an apogee of about 30 earthradii. Its main instrument is an ENA camera that registrates e-nergetic n-eutral a-toms from all directions of space forming ENA sky maps. These ENA`s result from charge exchange processes of low energy interstellar H-atoms with ionized high energy plasma species, especially protons. In space ENA`s are not deflected neither by collisional interactions nor by electromagnetic fields. Thus they communicate the physics of their distant source regions directly to the IBEX detector, while approaching IBEX on straight trajectories that originate at distant plasma sites. In this talk it will be demonstrated that on the basis of this new ENA detection technique the plasma physics at the orders of the heliosphere could already very successfully be investigated. The talk will also touch upcoming exciting possibilities connected with the use of this new ENA techniques in the near future.

	Main Colloquium
Ewan Barr	ORATED

MPIfR

The high sensitivity of the Effelsberg telescope makes it one of the most powerful pulsar survey instruments in existence. Yet, despite this fact, the telescope has seen limited use by pulsar searchers. In this colloquium, I will present the first results of a new wave of pulsar searches with the Effelsberg telescope. These searches make use of the state-of-the-art receiver and backend systems at Effelsberg to provide unprecedented time and frequency resolution, enabling us to probe the Galaxy deeper than ever before in the hunt for elusive millisecond pulsars. I will first present a large-scale search for radio pulsations in gamma-ray sources from the Fermi LAT First Source Catalog. Here, we performed observations of 289 gamma-ray sources, leading to the discovery of the 2.65-ms pulsar J1745+1017. Timing observations show J1745+1017 to be a member of a newly expanded population of pulsars in tight binary systems with very low-mass companions. Through detailed analysis of the Fermi LAT data we conclusively show J1745+1017 to be a pulsed gamma-ray emitter. To close, I will present the first results of the on-going Northern High Time Resolution Universe pulsar survey. This is an ambitious project to, in tandem with a partner survey using the Parkes radio telescope, perform an all-sky search for pulsars and fast transients. This survey has already resulted in the discovery of 13 new pulsars, one of which is of particular note: PSR J1946+3414 is a Galactic-disk millisecond pulsar in a highly-eccentric binary system. Due to its unusual properties, we propose that PSR J1946+3414 was formed in a primordial hierarchical triple star system.

	Main Colloquium
Prof. Dr. Melvyn Davies	ORATED

University of Lund

Black holes exceeding a billion solar masses have been detected at redshifts greater than six. The rapid formation of these objects may suggest a massive early seed or a period of growth faster than Eddington. I will discuss how in the process of hierarchical structure assembly, dense star clusters can be contracted on dynamical timescales due to the nearly free-fall inflow of self-gravitating gas with a mass comparable to or larger than that of the clusters. This leads to core collapse where the cluster core can reach a central density high enough for fast mergers of stellar-mass black holes producing a supermassive black hole seed. I will also consider the formation of supermassive black holes in nuclear stellar clusters at later times. I will suggest that above a critical velocity dispersion sim 40 km/s, massive central black holes will form in relaxed stellar systems. This is because above this dispersion primordial binaries cannot support the system against deep core collapse. Finally, I will consider the nucleus of our own galaxy and discuss what the absence of red giants in the very centre may be telling us about the processes at play in the nucleus of the Milky Way.

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Roy Nirupam	ORATED

MPIfR

The diffuse interstellar medium is known to have significant structures over a wide range of scales. These structures are generally interpreted as the signature of turbulence in the ISM. In this talk, I will present the results from high resolution observation of HI absorption towards 3C 138 and the estimated structure function of the tiny scale opacity fluctuations. Over 5 - 100 AU, the structure function is well represented by a power law with power law index of 0.33, slightly shallower than the earlier reported power spectrum index of 2.5 - 3.0 at sim1000 AU to few pc scales. The amplitude of the structure function suggests significantly higher opacity fluctuations at these scales than the expected value from the extrapolation of observations at larger scales. This indication of the presence of rich tiny scale structures may be used to constrain models of turbulent ISM.

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Eric Clausen-Brown	ORATED

MPIfR

I will present a new method to measure the product of jet Lorentz factor and intrinsic opening angle in flux-limited samples of active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets. This parameter is physically important for jet launching and dynamics since it is related to jet sidewise expansion velocity and causality. The measurement is carried out by analyzing the observed distribution of apparent opening angles in very long baseline interferometry flux-limited samples of jets, given some prior knowledge of the AGN radio luminosity function. When applied to the MOJAVE flux-limited sample of AGN jets, I find the product of jet half-opening angle and Lorentz factor to be 0.1pm0.03, which implies that AGN jets are causally connected. I also find evidence that jets viewed very close to the line of sight effectively have smaller intrinsic opening angles than jets viewed more off-axis, which is consistent with Doppler beaming from a velocity field consisting of a fast inner spine and slow outer sheath.

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Joris Verbiest	ORATED

MPIfR

Since late last year, the final fixes have been applied to the LOFAR station in Effelsberg, (finally) allowing fully sensitive scientific observations to commence. In this talk, I will give a brief overview of the current state of Effelsberg LOFAR observations, followed by a discussion of planned research projects for single-station pulsar observations; and how these tie in with the more sensitive pulsar projects with the LOFAR core in the Netherlands.

	Main Colloquium
Andreas Quirrenbach	ORATED

For our understanding of planetary system formation, it is important to determine how the number and characteristics of extrasolar planets depend on the properties of their parent stars. More than ten years ago, we started monitoring a sample of 300 giant stars with precise radial velocities, with the goal of detecting massive planets around them. We have found more super-Jupiter planets and brown dwarfs than expected, demonstrating that these objects are quite common around stars with about 2 Solar masses. We are planning to extend the radial-velocity technique to stars with very small masses in the framework of the CARMENES project, which is constructing two new high-resolution spectrographs for the 3.5m telescope on Calar Alto in Spain. By covering the visible and near-IR wavelength ranges simultaneously, this facility will be uniquely suited for the detection of terrestrial planets in the habitable zones of M dwarfs.

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Yiping Ao	ORATED

MPIfR

In this talk I will present our recent APEX observations towards the molecular clouds in the Galactic Center. The triple formaldehyde transition lines at 218 GHz were used to determine the gas temperatures for the molecular clouds. Derived gas kinetic temperatures for individual molecular clouds ranges from 50 K to values in excess of 100 K. The high temperatures of molecular clouds on large scales in the GC region may be driven by turbulent energy dissipation and/or cosmic-rays instead of photons. Such a non-photon-driven thermal state of the molecular gas provides an excellent template for the more distant vigorous starbursts found in ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs).

	Main Colloquium
Jan Forbrich	ORATED

MPIfR Bonn

Observational star formation science has become a thoroughly multi-wavelength field. While studies of the earliest stages of star formation require the detection of cold dust and gas in the submillimeter wavelength range or from extinction mapping, young stellar objects are best studied in the infrared, X-ray, and radio ranges. Multi-wavelength studies of neighbouring molecular clouds allow us to constrain the initial conditions of star formation which can then be compared to observations of molecular clouds in other galaxies. Additionally, recent advances in sensitivity have opened the possibility of studying correlated multi-wavelength variability, for example from stellar X-ray flares heating circumstellar disks. In this talk, I will summarize recent work in these two areas, using observations obtained with APEX, Herschel, Spitzer, Chandra, XMM, and the VLA.

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Daniel Asmus	ORATED

MPIfR

Mid-infrared (MIR) observations of active galactic nuclei (AGN) enable the study of the astrophysical dust in these objects. This dust plays a key role regarding the central accreting supermassive black hole and the surrounding star formation. Only the high angular resolution (HR) provided by 8-meter class telescopes allows us to isolate the emission of the central engine on scales of a few tens of parsecs. I present a sample of ca. 230 local AGN which comprises all ground-based HR MIR observations performed to date. The photometry in multiple filters allows to characterize the properties of the dust emission for most objects. Because of its size and characteristics, this sample is very well-suited for AGN unification studies. In particular, I discuss the enlarged MIR/X-ray correlation which extends over six orders of magnitude in luminosity and potentially probes different physical mechanisms. Finally, tests for intrinsic differences between the AGN types are presented.

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Evan Keane	ORATED

MPIfR

I will review the various methods that have been used in the search for short duration transient radio signals. After introducing the so-called “transient phase space”, I will present some highlights of the discoveries from the past few years. Then, I shall focus on a number of as-yet-unexplained signals which might prove to be powerful cosmological probes. Next, I will review the known sources of transient radio emission, as well as speculating on theoretical possibilities, considering the observational evidence for these. I will conclude by looking at the very latest in search techniques as the community transitions from archival searches of single-telescope surveys towards real-time all-sky monitoring using vast telescope arrays.

	Main Colloquium
Dr. Nanda Rea	ORATED

Institute of Space Sciences, Barcelona

Despite decades of research, our ignorance of many physical processes related with strong magnetic fields is clear: we only need to note that the strongest steady magnetic field achieved in terrestrial labs is some hundreds of Tesla, only thousands of times stronger than a common refrigerator magnet. To test our theoretical predictions for new physical processes and the state of matter under the most extreme magnetic conditions, we have only one possibility: we need to turn to astronomical observations of neutron stars, the strongest magnets in the Universe. Neutron stars provide a unique environment where we can test (at the same time) our understanding of matter with extreme density, temperature, and magnetic field. In this more general contest, I will review our current knowledge on the most magnetic neutron stars, a small sample of pulsars named magnetars. I plan to discuss their connection with ’typical’ radio pulsars within a new magnetho-thermal evolutionary scenario, and show how the study of the emission properties of those extreme neutron stars is providing crucial information about the physics involved at these extremes conditions (i.e. their period clustering can constrain the ’nuclear pasta phase’, a proposed novel state of matter having nucleons arranged in a variety of complex shapes). Furthermore, I will show new results on the low-magnetic field magnetars, and their natural consequence on several fields of astronomy, such as gamma-ray bursts, gravitational wave background, and on the last phases of the life of a massive star.

	Special Colloquium
Cameron Van Eck	ORATED

University Nijmegen

Observations of magnetic fields in galaxies provide critical constraints in modelling the origin and evolution of these magnetic fields, and studying how these fields are influenced by their physical environment. As a result of improved observational techniques, the number of galaxies with detailed magnetic field measurements has increased significantly in recent years. There is now sufficient data to begin looking at statistical properties of galactic magnetic fields. In my talk, I will present the results of correlation studies identifying relationships between magnetic fields and ISM parameters of galaxies, such as gas density and star formation rate. I will describe work done on testing different theories for the saturation of galactic dynamos, which predict relationships between the observed material properties and the magnetic field properties. Some cynical comments on how observers report results may also be included, depending on how many observers are in the audience.

	Main Colloquium
Dr. Rene Breton	ORATED

University of Southampton

Typical neutron star densities are beyond the reach of Earth laboratory experiments and the study of their equation of state can provide important knowledge about the behaviour of ultra-dense matter. While the neutron star equation of state remains elusive due to observational challenges (e.g. namely the lack of reliable simultaneous mass and radius measurements), the most massive neutron stars constrain it to increasingly stiff models. The most promising candidates to search for massive neutron stars are the binary millisecond pulsars, which are old, once-slowly rotating pulsars that have been spun-up by accreting mass from a close companion star. Empirically, the so-called black-widow systems seem particularly promising: for the prototype system, PSR B1957+20, we recently inferred a mass of 2.4 solar masses. If confirmed by further study, this would make it the heaviest know neutron star. In this talk, I will describe how the light curve and spectrum of the strongly irradiated companion was used to determine the black-widow pulsar mass. I will also discuss perspectives of several new mass measurements in similar systems detected with the help of the Fermi gamma-ray observatory.

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Jonathan Mackey	ORATED

AIfA

The nearby red supergiant (RSG) Betelgeuse has a complex circumstellar medium out to at least 0.5 parsecs from its surface, shaped by its mass-loss history within the past  0.1 Myr, its environment, and its motion through the interstellar medium (ISM). In principle its mass-loss history can be constrained by comparing hydrodynamic models with observations, including the suggestion that Betelgeuse may have only recently become a RSG. To test this possibility a stellar evolution model was calculated for a single star with properties consistent with Betelgeuse. The resulting evolving stellar wind was incorporated into 2D hydrodynamic simulations to model a runaway blue supergiant (BSG) undergoing the transition to a RSG near the end of its life. The collapsing BSG wind bubble induces a bow shock-shaped inner shell which resembles Betelgeuse’s bow shock, and has a similarly low mass. Surrounding this is the larger-scale retreating bow shock generated by the now defunct BSG wind’s interaction with the ISM. These features are compared to the circumstellar medium around Betelgeuse, brought into sharp focus by new Herschel far-infrared observations and VLA 21cm data.

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Franco Mantovani	ORATED

MPIfR

RadioNet3 coordinates all Europe’s leading radio astronomy facilities in an integrated cooperation to achieve transformational improvement in the quality and quantity of the scientific research of European astronomers. RadioNet3 includes facilitation of research via dedicated Network Activities, four pathfinders for the SKA in its Transnational Access Programme, and stimulates new R&D via Joint Research Activities for the already existing radio infrastructures in synergy with ALMA and SKA. The RadioNet3 programme, briefly described, aims at ensuring that a healthy scientific and technical community will be ready and prepared for these radio telescopes of the future.

	Special Colloquium
Dr. Nick Indriolo	ORATED

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore

Cosmic rays play a vital role in initiating the chemistry that occurs in molecular clouds. The ionization of H and H2 begins a network of ion-molecule reactions responsible for generating many of the diatomic and small polyatomic molecules observed in the ISM. A few such species—OH+, H2O+, and H3+ in particular—are formed and destroyed by rather simple processes, making them powerful probes of the cosmic-ray ionization rate. At present, we have performed observations searching for H3+ absorption in over 50 sight lines, and for OH+ and H2O+ absorption in an additional 8 sight lines. Using these observations, we have inferred the distribution of cosmic-ray ionization rates in the diffuse ISM throughout the Galaxy. Some of the highest ionization rates are about 25 times larger than the lowest upper limits, suggesting variations in the underlying low-energy cosmic-ray flux across the Galaxy. We posit that such variations are caused by the distance between an observed cloud and the nearest site of particle acceleration, a conjecture supported by the high ionization rates found in close proximity to supernova remnants.

	Lunch Colloquium
Dr. Helmut Wiesemeyer	ORATED

MPIfR

In December 2011 we started the commissioning and scientific use of PolKa, the polarimeter for the LArge BOlometer CAmera (LABOCA) at the APEX. Meanwhile the performance of PolKa, which is a PI instrument, has been characterized and software for data reduction is available. After an introduction to submm polarimetry and to its technical aspects, first scientific results shall be presented along with an outlook to future activities: magnetic field structures found in supernova remnants (Tau A, IC443), radiative processes to be considered, and filaments in molecular cloud complexes (Vela C and Serpens South).

	Main Colloquium
Dr. Joerg Fischera	ORATED

Mt Stromlo Observatory, Australia

The origin of the initial mass function of the stars is still poorly understood but it is believed that it is directly linked to the complex structure of molecular clouds. Observations indicate that the star forming process is predominantly related to filamentary structures. I will show that filaments of low mass-line density are consistent with pressurized isothermal self-graviting cylinders and can therefore be used to infer the distance, the pressure of the surrounding medium, and (for known distance) an independent measurement of the emission properties of dust grains in the molecular phase. I will discuss basic aspects and provide a physical interpretation of the observed statistical properties of star forming and non-star forming clouds which suggest a separation into two different components related to a turbulent medium and self-gravitating pressurized condensed structures.

	Main Colloquium
Dr. Anja Schröder	ORATED

Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory

About 25dust and stars of our Milky Way. Dynamically important structures might still lie hidden in this zone, such as the rich massive cluster A3627. Complete whole-sky mapping of the galaxy and mass distribution is required in explaining the origin of the peculiar velocity of the Local Group and the dipole in the Cosmic Microwave Background. In my talk I will give an overview of the methods and problems of this research and present some recent results on HI observations in the Northern Zone of Avoidance.

	Lunch Colloquium
Marcel Pawlowski	ORATED

AIfA

The Milky Way satellite galaxies are part of a vast polar structure (VPOS), a thin plane also consisting of globular clusters and streams of disrupted systems. I will present an updated analysis of the orbital poles of these satellite galaxies based on their proper motions, which shows that almost all satellites co-orbit within the VPOS. In addition, about half of the satellite galaxies of Andromeda also define and co-orbit in a thin plane. I will illustrate these observed structures and their relative orientations with a 3D-model of the nearby galaxies, revealing a surprising amount of spacial order in the Local Group. The discovery of similar phase-space structures in the two only satellite galaxy systems for which 3D positions are known emphasizes the need to develop an understanding of their origin. The observed structures are in contradiction to the expected distribution of primordial dwarf galaxies as predicted by cosmological simulations, but they agree well with the distributions of tidal dwarf galaxies which form in the phase-space correlated debris of interacting galaxies.