Cosmo-torun

cosmo-torun@cosmo.torun.pl

328 discussions

Re: interesting cosmo CMB software?
by Michal Frackowiak 29 Oct '02

29 Oct '02

On Mon, 2002-10-28 at 19:42, Boud Roukema wrote: > What do people think of: > > http://arcturus.mit.edu/cosmics/ > It was the first free code for calculating density peturbations with an emphasis on CMB fluctuations. CMBFast is based on it. But it calculates perturbations in linear regime using full set (not full, but cut anyway) of Boltzmann equations - as opposed to some radical approximation by CMBFast. The inconsistency however is only about 1-2%, but required comp. power is MUCH bigger. In my oppinion there is no point in dealing with this soft - CMBFast is much faster and gives you practically the same accuracy. It also has more features e.g. grav. lensing, reionization. You would need a supercomputer to run COSMICS. And just a PC to run CMBFast. regards - michal

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phenomenological
by Boud Roukema 23 Oct '02

23 Oct '02

Hi I'm having an interesting (random) discussion with Sebastian, and pointed out some nice galaxy formation pages at the IAP: http://brunello.iap.fr/galics/GalICS/main_frames.html There's a useful word related to these: "phenomenological" Its meaning is somewhere in between "theoretical" and "observational", i.e. finding formulae which are reasonable from a theoretical point of view, but not directly justified, and which can be "fit" to observations. My guess is the constraints we have on Omega_m and Omega_Lambda could probably be described as phenomenological, since although they are very directly linked to GR, which definitely counts as theory, they're not (yet) linked into the rest of physics except by a range of "reasonable" hypotheses. The challenge is to get these solid observational and/or (preferably "and") theoretical support... pozd boud

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PROPOSALS su/web/TWiki/backup/quotas DEADLINE TUE 22 OCT 00:30
by Boud Roukema 14 Oct '02

14 Oct '02

Witam, The deadline passed and there were several useful comments, onlist and offlist - thanks everyone. Here are some updates and specific proposals. ########## PROPOSALS su/web/TWiki/backup/quotas V0.1 ################## ### deadline for comments/veto Tue 22 Oct 00:30 ### (1) superusers - There is now one staff member and one student who have been suggested and who have accepted, in principle, becoming superusers. I would be happy for both of them to be su, and think 3 people is sufficient. (Other people can become ordinary users, of course, and since there is plenty of scratch space, that's enough to develop experience in GNU/Linux, IMHO.) Anyone who wishes to know their names please contact me offlist. (2) web server - I've (tried to) install the default apache server of Deb3.0, and if noone objects, would like to put it online once the decision deadline passes. Are there any recommendations for firewalls etc, or good Deb /other linux links/hints for this? (3) (T)Wiki server for * cosmic topology page - complete references to all published articles (last time I counted, there were only 36 authors during the 20th century + 1 in the last year of the 19th century) * standard ruler page * meta-page for other cosmology stuff * galaxy/AGN formation/evolution pages If there are no objections, I'd like to try installing this quickly, since I think it's a key piece of software for working together efficiently. (4) backup strategy? Initial backup strategy: - daily hard disk backups (incremental) of /home - weekly hard disk backup (full) of /home + backup of same on to CDROM(s) (max 3 CDROMs since 2GB partition) (5) initial quotas: - 200MB per user on /home - 2GB per user on a /scratch disk (6) - mail server? For the moment seems safer *not* to run adjani as a mail server, and there's no obvious need anyway. So I propose to *not* run a mail server, at least for the moment. Any comments (or veto, if for a fundamental reason of what we are here for) on (1)-(6) welcome by the deadline. ##################################################################### ########## PROPOSAL for machine installation V0.02 ################## ### deadline passed ### > - Deb 3.0r0 or RedHat ? > I would like to install Debian 3.0r0, with the 2.4.18bf kernel > flavour. This includes software like SnapPea which is useful for ... There was one strong recommendation in favour of Deb 3.0r0 :) from Michał Frąckowiak. > - superusers - I think that Andrzej M and I should be superusers, but For security reasons, it's probably better to discuss this more offlist in terms of individual names. There was one objection to having a student or two as su, but the same person agreed that if it's someone we know and trust, who knows GNU/linux, it could be OK. Another opinion was in favour of having a student or two as su. See above for a specific proposal. > - name of machine (silk, sahni, liddle, peebles, novikov, levin?) Andrzej pointed out that the "dead astronomer" tradition is really just for the solaris machines. Michał F had a bunch of suggestions which show that we have different personal tastes ;), and was not enthusiastic for using the name of a dead (or live) cosmologist. But since this is a question of taste anyway, I finally chose "Adjani" after Isabelle Adjani :). > - partition suggestions (there are 2 disks each of 60Gb) Geniu and Michał H made several useful comments - thanks. > My idea of 650MB /home is that CDROM backups should be relatively easy. However, given that disks are so big today, should we create much more backed up home space? E.g. using hard disk backups on a daily basis + tape backups once a week? Or daily hard disk + up to 3 CDROMs once a week (I don't think I would have more patience than copying 3 CDROMS, even that would be pretty boring, done every week)? 3 CDROM => approx 2GB => 200MB for 10 users. Probably plenty for the next 12 months. See proposal above. In any case, the only decision required immediately is how big the partitions should be. And of course, there could be parts of a scratch disk which are linked with ln -s from the real /home in order to look like home disks so that users know/expect that they are backed up. ######################################################################

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PROPOSAL for longer term policy on new computer V0.01
by Boud Roukema 08 Oct '02

08 Oct '02

########## PROPOSAL for longer term policy V0.01 ######### ### no deadline for the moment ### - susers - boud + amr? + a student? - web server? - home space per user - h.m. MB? With 650MB on /home, and potentially a dozen people, that's only about 50MB each. This brings up the question of... - backup strategy? - scratch space? Probably not much to say here - except the question of whether the observers can use this for radio data while waiting for us to find other cosmo uses for this disk space. What sort of policy could be reasonable? - mail server? - (T)Wiki server for * cosmic topology page - complete references to all published articles (last time I counted, there were only 36 authors during the 20th century + 1 in the last year of the 19th century) * standard ruler page * meta-page for other cosmology stuff * galaxy/AGN formation/evolution pages - sympa vs mailman? Sympa running at the moment on "astro" is fine, but I'm just wondering... - other software? CMB stuff? specific packages? N-body stuff for galaxy formation? - standard CPU rules - more than 5 min => nice 19 - quotas for accounts and/or scratch space, decision-making on acc and/or scratch space? ######################################################################

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PROPOSAL for machine installation V0.01
by Boud Roukema 08 Oct '02

08 Oct '02

########## PROPOSAL for machine installation V0.01 ################## ### deadline Thu 10/10/02 19:00 (decisions a matter of taste, IMHO) ### - Deb 3.0r0 or RedHat ? I would like to install Debian 3.0r0, with the 2.4.18bf kernel flavour. This includes software like SnapPea which is useful for cosmic topology, and also gives the users (cosmologists) maximum control and freedom to manage the software. I don't imagine we could get easy consensus on Deb vs Redhat vs Mandrake (or other) ;), but please make any comments you feel like anyway. - superusers - I think that Andrzej M and I should be superusers, but at least one or two other people than me should also be su, e.g. a student or two. This is really a more serious and longer term decision, but if anyone wants to help install, now is the time to speak up, since I'm eager to get started... :) - name of machine (silk, sahni, liddle, peebles, novikov, levin?) In the tradition of TCfA, I guess we should pick the name of a famous astronomer. So for this machine, it should be a famous cosmologist. IMHO, it would be fun to name it after a *living* cosmologist, and preferably someone who's also a cool dude ;). Since this is a question of taste, I'm not sure how we should decide, and probably if I make an authoritarian decision, it would be reasonable since it won't really affect other people that much. But suggestions welcome :). At the moment the names I've thought of include: * liddle * silk * peebles * sahni * levin * padmanabhan * novikov - partition suggestions (there are 2 disks each of 60Gb) / 185MB /boot 15MB /tmp 150MB /home 650MB /usr 3GB /usr/local 2GB /var 1GB /var/mail 1GB /home2 2GB /scratch1 10GB /scratch[2-9] 10GB -> 80Gb /scratch10 20GB My idea of 650MB /home is that CDROM backups should be relatively easy. Any good ideas for partition? ######################################################################

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PROPOSAL for a decision-making method for new computer V0.01
by Boud Roukema 08 Oct '02

08 Oct '02

Witam wszystkim, A computer has been bought for the TCfA cosmology group! :) This is a big investment and I would like to try to apply modern management methods - specifically, consensus decision-making techniques - for deciding on how to use and run it, rather than just one or two people deciding. Please comment, criticise this proposal. (If you think it's fundamentally against what we are here for, you could argue to veto the proposal itself!) Next message: concrete proposals for the machine. boud ########## PROPOSAL for a decision-making method V0.01 ################## First, a reminder on the AIM of our group: * research and education-leading-to-research in observational cosmology * Second, background reading on what consensus is and why it's effective: flow chart: http://www.consensus.net/flowchart.html word description: http://www.consensus.net/ocac2.html Third, a simplified consensus method: DEFINITION: "anyone" is defined here as undergrad students, masters/PhD students, postdocs or faculty studying or teaching at TCfA/CAMK-Toru� in cosmology related fields. (I will put a proposal for "cafe+" type meetings on http://www.astro.uni.torun.pl/sympa/cosmo-spotka/2002-10/ soon...) PROPOSALS: WHO - anyone (the proposer) can make a proposal for use of the computer, but hopefully it should be someone willing to do the work once the decision is made! HOW - the proposal is made on the most appropriate mailing list, e.g. cosmo-torun HOW - anyone can make comments, constructive criticisms, to try to improve the proposal HOW - the proposer writes successive versions of the proposal based on the comments DECISION - after discussion seems to have converged, the proposer (or other moderator) sends an email to the same list with Subject: PROPOSAL <name of proposal> DEADLINE FOR COMMENTS/VETO <deadline>, where the deadline is X days after the date of the email. X = 2 if the decision is essentially a matter of taste X = 7 if the decision is more serious X = 1 if there is some unexpected really urgent decision to be made STEPPING ASIDE - anyone who is against the proposal, but accepts that his/her criticisms have been listened to and are not important enough for a veto, can "step aside", and these criticisms are added to the proposal. This way, others are aware of the (claimed) weak points. VETO - anyone can veto the decision, but only based on the aim of our group (see AIM: above), i.e. not for trivial reasons. He/she should explain the reason for the veto. #######################################################################

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Is DE related to CDM?
by Boud Roukema 01 Oct '02

01 Oct '02

Witam What if DE (dark energy) is not something from early universe physics but instead is directly related to the properties of the CDM (cold dark matter) particles as some sort of negative pressure? Two articles on this idea: http://de.arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0209584 Schwartz http://de.arXiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0209322 Gondolo \& Freese (Varun Sahni et al. had some ideas earlier - last 12-18 months - on how DE and non-baryonic DM could be the same thing, but I think it was just phenomenological. Though I'm not sure.) pozd boud

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Fwd: U Chi: Microwave Background Announcement (fwd)
by boud 26 Sep '02

26 Sep '02

CMB polarization discovered? Notice how the journalist manages to convert: "it's in line with theoretical predictions." into a much stronger statement: > verifies the theoretical framework that supports modern cosmological > theory. But i guess the DASI people will need to struggle to get as much media attention as MAP... i haven't followed the debate on CMB polarization, so i don't know how seriously a detection can constrain any models. Maybe Micha� F has done some reading on this...? pozdrawiam boud > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 16:26:58 -0400 (EDT) > From: David Spergel <dns@... > To: all(a)astro.Princeton.EDU > Subject: Fwd: U Chi: Microwave Background Announcement (fwd) ... >**This material was sent earlier under embargo to reporters and the >embargo having expired, is now sent to press officers.** > >THE FOLLOWING RELEASE WAS RECEIVED FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, >IN ILLINOIS, AND IS FORWARDED FOR YOUR INFORMATION. (FORWARDING >DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT BY THE AMERICAN ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY.) >Steve Maran, American Astronomical Society > >September 19, 2002 >Contact: Steve Koppes >773-702-8366 >E-mail: s-koppes(a)uchicago.edu > >Discovery supports astronomers' >paradoxical views of the universe > >The universe really is as surprising as scientists have come to >suspect it is, according to a discovery that University of Chicago >astrophysicists will announce Thursday, Sept. 19, at the COSMO-02 >conference at Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum. The discovery, >which astrophysicists have pursued with increasingly sensitive >instruments for more than two decades, verifies the theoretical >framework that supports modern cosmological theory. > >Using a radio telescope called the Degree Angular Scale >Interferometer (DASI) at the National Science Foundation's >Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, the Chicago scientists measured >the minute polarization of the cosmic microwave background, the >sky-pervading afterglow of the big bang. > >Most light is unpolarized, its many individual waves jumbled >together, each wave flickering up and down in a different plane as it >speeds toward Earth. Unpolarized light becomes polarized whenever it >is reflected or scattered. This is the principle behind polarizing >sunglasses that remove the glare from the hood of a car or the >surface of a pool. In both cases the sunglasses only permit waves >that tend to flicker up and down in the same plane to pass. > >The polarization of the cosmic microwave background was produced by >the scattering of cosmic light when it last interacted with matter, >nearly 14 billion years ago. If no polarization had been found, >astrophysicists would have to reject all their interpretations of the >remarkable data they have compiled in recent years, said John >Carlstrom, the S. Chandrasekhar Distinguished Service Professor in >Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. > >"Instead of stating that we think we really understand the origin and >evolution of the universe with high confidence, we would be saying >that we just don't know," said Carlstrom, who will announce the >discovery. "Polarization is predicted. It's been detected and it's in >line with theoretical predictions. We're stuck with this preposterous >universe." > >It's a universe in which ordinary matter, the stuff of which humans, >stars and galaxies are made, accounts for less than five percent of >the universe's total mass and energy. The vast majority of the >universe, meanwhile, is made of a mysterious force that astronomers >call "dark energy." This vague name reflects the fact that scientists >simply do not know what it is. They only know that it acts in >opposition to gravity, accelerating the expansion of the universe. > >In addition to the dark energy theory, cosmic inflation theory >improbably proposes that the universe underwent a gigantic growth >spurt in a fraction of a second just moments after the big bang. > >"This beautiful framework of contemporary cosmology has many things >in it we don't understand, but we believe in the framework," said >Clem Pryke, Assistant Professor in Astronomy & Astrophysics at the >University of Chicago and a member of the DASI team. "This new result >was a crucial test for the framework to pass." > >Carlstrom's other collaborators on the polarization discovery were >John Kovac and Erik Leitch, University of Chicago; and Nils Halverson >and Bill Holzapfel, University of California, Berkeley. > >The discovery follows in the wake of another important DASI finding. >Last year Carlstrom's team precisely measured temperature differences >in the cosmic microwave background, further supporting for the cosmic >inflation theory. > >The polarization signal is more than 10 times fainter than the >temperature differences that DASI detected earlier. DASI's first >discovery came after it collected data for 92 days from 32 spots in >the sky. But DASI needed to watch two spots in the sky for more than >200 days to detect the polarization. > >The discovery opens a new era in cosmic microwave background >experiments, said the Chicago astrophysicists. They predict that >increasingly sensitive detections of polarization will yield many >more discoveries. "It's going to triple the amount of information >that we get from the cosmic microwave background," said Kovac, a >Ph.D. student in Physics. "It's like going from the picture on a >black-and-white TV to color." > >The polarization is a signpost from when the universe was only >400,000 years old, when matter and energy were only just beginning to >separate from one another. "What's unique about polarization is that >it directly measures the dynamics in the early universe," Carlstrom >said. > >Temperature differences revealed patterns of lumpy matter frozen in >the early universe, but by measuring polarization, astronomers can >actually see how the early universe was moving. > >In the coming years, astronomers will attempt to use the CMB >polarization to measure gravity waves, a form of radiation predicted >by general relativity that corresponds to ripples in the fabric of >space-time, said Michael Turner, the Bruce and Diana Rauner >Distinguished Service Professor in Astronomy & Astrophysics at the >University of Chicago. > >"Detection of the polarization opens a new door to exploring the >earliest moments and answering the deep questions before us," Turner >said. > ### >sk/02-79 > >------------------------------------------------------------------ >IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO CONTINUE RECEIVING PRESS RELEASES THAT ARE >FORWARDED TO THE NEWS MEDIA VIA THE AMERICAN ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, >PLEASE REPLY ACCORDINGLY TO ANY INCOMING PRESS RELEASE, OR WRITE >TO hrsmaran(a)eclair.gsfc.nasa.gov. Requests for referrals to experts >should be sent to the same address.

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How the Universe got its Spots [if it has them]
by Boud Roukema 02 Sep '02

02 Sep '02

Cze�� cosmo-torun list, There was one positive comment and zero negative comments on my book proposition: http://www.astro.uni.torun.pl/sympa/cosmo-torun/2002-08/msg00003.html so i'll ask for this to be ordered. :) Cze�� Karolina, Could we please order the following cosmology book for the TCfA library? http://pup.princeton.edu/titles/7324.html > How the Universe Got Its Spots: > Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space > Janna Levin > Cloth | 2002 | $22.95 / ?15.95 | ISBN: 0-691-09657-0 > 224 pp. | 6 x 9 | 68 line illus. Thanks boud

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another cosmology book?
by Boud Roukema 19 Aug '02

19 Aug '02

Hi everyone, Sorry if the method of deciding and ordering library books on cosmology was a little confusing - I'm still learning about how things work here, so I take any blame which is due. A bunch of books has been ordered, and most have arrived, and Karolina and I will try to make up a list of these to help guide students and anyone else interested. Anyway, I just saw that a book has come out by one of the main people in observational cosmic topology work (Janna Levin): http://pup.princeton.edu/titles/7324.html > How the Universe Got Its Spots: > Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space > Janna Levin > Cloth | 2002 | $22.95 / ?15.95 | ISBN: 0-691-09657-0 > 224 pp. | 6 x 9 | 68 line illus. Why I think we should buy this: * The level of difficulty is for the common reader, but I think this should be a good motivational book, and good for bringing students up to "state-of-the-art" cosmology. * Also, most of the books we have say almost nothing on the global shape of the Universe. * There also seems to be a selection effect in the cosmology books we have so far: 50% of the population is unrepresented, and since the number of introductory cosmology books we have is something like a dozen or so, having zero introductory books by women is about 3-4 sigma inconsistent with unbiased selection. Could anyone with comments please provide them within a week or so? This way, there would be a chance of having the book not too long after students start in October-ish... Cze�� Boud

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wt/sr 20/21 sierpnia 14:00 sala budynku radio
by Boud Roukema 16 Aug '02

16 Aug '02

Cze�� wszystkim, Wprowadzenie do kosmlogii do studenci od Krak�w/Z.G�ra wtorek 20 sierpnia 14:00 �roda 21 sierpnia 14:00 wyk�adowca: boud (cosmo-torun(a)astro.uni.torun.pl) studenci: praktyki(a)astri.uni.torun.pl Witam wszystko! dla ostatnia informacja: http://www.astro.uni.torun.pl/sympa/cosmo-torun/

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strony kosmologii w TCfA
by Boud Roukema 09 Aug '02

09 Aug '02

Cze�� studenci z Krakowie/Zielona G�ra, Tu s� strony pracy kosmologia w TCfA: http://www.astro.uni.torun.pl/sympa/ Sugeruj� �e studenci prac*(a)astri.uni.torun.pl mog� tworzy� lista mejla z archiwem - tu jest przyk�ad archiw: http://www.astro.uni.torun.pl/sympa/cosmo-torun/2002-08/thrd1.html z *tej* mejlem, b�dzie: http://www.astro.uni.torun.pl/sympa/cosmo-torun/2002-08/msg00001.html - dla rozmawia� o jak uczy� si� o astronomia, gdzie s� dobre sajta internecie dla jak my�le�cie jest interesuj�cy w astronomia, itd... Mo�liwe Krzysztof G (chris@astri...) mo�e pomaga� z programem "mailman" (jest jaki program "sympa"). Je�li chcescie �e robi� wyk�ad o kosmologi�, prosz� organizowajcie si� dni i czas (np w drugie p�lowie miesi�c, ale jak chce�cie). Pracuj� w pokoju #36 w budynku radio-owy. pozdrawiam boud

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studenci Krakow/ZG
by Boud Roukema 08 Aug '02

08 Aug '02

Cze�� Krzysztof, The students from Krak�w/�.G�ra will only officially start in the radio group during the second two weeks of their visit, but since once of the best ways they can learn about astronomy research - including cosmology research - includes learning how to find and analyse observational data, and this includes them talking to each other in and writing "reports" on their ideas, i asked Andrzej Strobel if it could be possible if you could give these students computer accounts right now, and from the radio group, we could help straight away by providing them a mailing list using the "sympa" robot, which would archive all of their email messages automatically in html files, like these: http://www.astro.uni.torun.pl/sympa/ In fact, one or two of the students could be the list manager(s), this can work perfectly OK even if they only have accounts on astri machines. (I think...) I would be happy to spend some time with them getting them started, but you'd need to tell me/them what disk usage is possible/reasonable. They could of course use the mailing list for discussing spectroscopy to start off with, and then radio stuff / cosmology later... It's up to them to take the initiative. Pozdrawiam Boud PS: This message will (hopefully ;) be publicly archived here: http://www.astro.uni.torun.pl/sympa/cosmo-torun/2002-08/thrd1.html

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urlop 29/07 - 02/08
by Boud Roukema 27 Jul '02

27 Jul '02

Cze�� wszystkim, B�dzi� w urlopu 29/07 - 02/08, w Hajn�wce przez �ubr�w... Na ra�e Boud

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test with 'resurrected' asterix
by Andrzej Marecki 27 Jun '02

27 Jun '02

Is this list being correctly archived now? This is not a trivial question - asterix (the machine that keeps the archives) has got a new disk & operating system. If you can read this message at: http://www.astro.uni.torun.pl/sympa/cosmo-torun/2002-06/thrd1.html - the answer is "yes, everything is OK". -- Andrzej

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(fwd) Master Optical/Radio/Xray Catalogue (final version) now available on
by Andrzej Marecki 06 Jun '02

06 Jun '02

-- forwarded message -- Newsgroups: sci.astro.research Path: mat.uni.torun.pl!news.man.torun.pl!news.man.poznan.pl!news-fra1.dfn.de!news-lei1.dfn.de!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!newsfeed01.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!newspeer1-gui.server.ntli.net!ntli.net!newspeer.clara.net!news.clara.net!server3.netnews.ja.net!bath.ac.uk!unknown From: eric(a)flesch.org (Eric Flesch ) Subject: Master Optical/Radio/Xray Catalogue (final version) now available on Approved: sci.astro.research-request(a)slimy.greenend.org.uk (mjh) Sender: unknown(a)scorpius.star.bris.ac.uk (Address not verified) Organization: Orcon Internet Message-ID: <mt2.0-4318-1023269017(a)star.bris.ac.uk> X-Posting-Tool: modtool v2.0 Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2002 09:23:20 GMT Lines: 55 Xref: mat.uni.torun.pl sci.astro.research:1433 Announcing the final version of the Master Catalogue of Radio/Xray Detections overlaid onto the Optical Background. This version is earmarked for the refereed process. Changes are as follows: Optical background: The APM catalogue has recently been completed to include the southern galactic cap, and these data have been added to the optical background of the Master catalogue (which merges APM & USNO). Thanks to Mike Irwin for the final push to complete the southern fields, and to Ray Stathakis for publishing that data on the AAO website. Radio detections: The FIRST and NVSS catalogues are found to have astrometry at least as good as the APM, so field shifts for these are restricted to corrections of the APM astrometry. Thanks to Rick White in clarifying issues involved in this. Detection of double radio lobes has been much improved in this version, and over 10,000 of these are displayed. These detections are reliable in this version, compared with an admittedly cursory effort last time. Xray detections: It is necessary to shift the ROSAT HRI, RASS, PSPC and WGA fields over the optical background to find the correct astrometry. The method has been improved now to clean up recalcitrant fields. Whilst never perfect, the bulk of xray fields have been aligned with good confidence. QSOs and AGN with optical APM/USNO signatures are included even if they do not have radio/xray associations. These include the SDSS early data release and there are about 30,000 in total. QSOs from old papers from the 70's and 80's are now correctly identified using improved likelihood algorithms. There are about 200 such objects, previously identified incorrectly, which are now assigned to the correct optical object. The Master Catalogue assigns probabilities to radio/xray objects that they are QSOs, galaxies, stars, or erroneous associations. This has been refined via a decision tree algorithm, as well as the complete APM data allowing better compensation against local sky densities. The probabilities are calculated against a 670,000,000 object whole-sky background database. Get the Master Catalogue at ftp://quasars.org/quasars . There is a ReadMe there and smaller subset catalogs. There will be some site cleanup as this catalog goes to publication, so get the subset catalogs now if you want them. This version of the Master Catalogue improves selection of about 15% of the objects compared with the previous version, but the highest-probability QSO candidates are mostly unchanged. The SUMSS southern sky radio catalog is due for release any day now, and I will update the Master Catalogue with that data when it is available. Eric Flesch Wellington, New Zealand 5 June 2002 -- end of forwarded message -- -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Andrzej Marecki | Torun Centre for Astronomy | e-mail: amr(a)astro.uni.torun.pl N. Copernicus University | WWW: http://www.astro.uni.torun.pl ul. Gagarina 11 | tel: +48 56 6113032 PL-87-100 Torun, POLAND | fax: +48 56 6113009 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Cosmic Background Imager
by Andrzej Marecki 05 Jun '02

05 Jun '02

The team of Cosmic Background Imager (CBI) released images with a resolution as good as 6 minutes of arc which allows to resolve blobs of matter with masses of about 5-80 x 10^14 solar masses i.e. corresponding to the mass of galaxy clusters. See: http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~tjp/CBI/ -- Andrzej

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proposition for masters students 2002/2003
by Boud Roukema 23 May '02

23 May '02

---------------------------------------------------------------------- Proposition for Supervising Masters (Magister) projects at TCfA for Oct 2002 - Sep 2003 Supervisor: B. Roukema Number of students: up to 3-4 students is possible Title: Observational Constraints on Cosmological Parameters Description: There are many possible projects which could be done as a master's thesis project, in using publicly available archival data from observational surveys to constrain one or more of the local or global cosmological parameters, either those related to shape (curvature, topology) or maybe also those unrelated to shape ("dark energy"). The precise projects would be chosen in discussion with the masters students during Oct-Nov 2002. Some examples would include further development and application of the "Dark Energy" software package which has been worked on during the "Shape of the Universe" monograph course: http://www.astro.uni.torun.pl/sympa/shape-univ/ Requirements: - basic knowledge in astronomy, physics, mathematics, computing skills - desire to measure something about the shape of the Universe - willingness both to learn from and to teach others interested in observational cosmology at TCfA - willingness to learn the following practical skills: touch-typing, emacs, \LaTeX, usage of the sympa mailing lists - willingness to participate in the "Shape of the Universe" monograph course and/or Bronek Rudak's semester 9 "Kosmologia" course: http://www.ncac.torun.pl/~bronek/KOS.html - nie ma problemu je�li student magisterowy nie (jeszcze) dobrze m�wi� po angielsku ----------------------------------------------------------------------

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XXI Texas Symposium - REGISTRATION NOW OPEN! (fwd)
by boud＠astro.uni.torun.pl 21 May '02

21 May '02

Hi everyone, I'm not that eager to go to an "expensive hotel chain" meeting, but if I miss the northern summer cosmo meetings then at least I could go to one big cosmo meeting this calendar year... Cze�� Boud > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 17:44:37 +0200 (CEST) > From: XXI Texas Symposium <texaflor(a)arcetri.astro.it> > Subject: XXI Texas Symposium - REGISTRATION NOW OPEN! > Texas in Tuscany XXI Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics Florence, Italy, December 9-13, 2002 FIRST CIRCULAR (May 2002) Introduction The XXI Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics will be organized in Florence, 9-13 December 2002, by the National Institute of Astrophysics - Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, in collaboration with the National Institute of Nuclear Physics and other scientific Institutions (the complete list will appear in a subsequent announcement). The meeting will be held in the Palazzo dei Congressi, in the historic center of the city, and will consist of Invited Review Talks (IT) in the morning (each lasting about 40 minutes) and Joint Discussions (JD) during the afternoon. Invited Talks will review recent developments in various fields in Astrophysics, Cosmology and related issues of Physics of Gravitation and Elementary Particles. Joint Discussions will cover specific areas with a number of shorter invited talks (about 20 minutes each). In addition, participants will be able to propose poster papers covering their recent research. The goal of the meeting is to provide a general review of the status and the prospects of research for a diversified audience of astrophysicists and physicists. How to reach Florence Florence can be reached directly by airplane from several major European cities. Alternative airports with international connections are Bologna or Pisa (both about 1 hour train ride from Florence). Another alternative is Rome (the train ride from the Rome Central Station Termini to Florence can be as short as 95 minutes) or Milan (the train ride from the Milan Central Station to Florence takes almost 3 hours). Please note, however, that both in Milan and in Rome the trip from the Airport to the Central Station will take about one additional hour. Accommodation The Organizers have selected a travel agency in Florence to handle all the problems connected with accommodation. The Organizers will not be able to help in any other way with this matter. Block reservations in various hotels are being made, which will be assigned on a first-come-first-served basis until November 15, 2002. Participants who want to arrange directly their own accommodation, or to contact a different travel agency are of course free to do so; they are however advised to book their accommodation as soon as possible, given the strong touristic pressure on Florence. Booking will be firm after a deposit equal to the cost of the first night in the chosen hotel. The quoted costs include breakfast, and all applicable taxes. The deposit will be acknowledged in the final bill, to be paid by the participant directly at the hotel upon leaving. Participants who want to leave earlier than initially arranged must notify the hotel at least 24 hours in advance. Cancellations will be possible only until November 15, 2002; in these cases the deposit will be returned less a 30% handling fee. The accommodation form is now available at http://www.arcetri.astro.it/~texaflor/accommodation_first.html Registration The registration fee for the Symposium will be 300 Euros if paid by November 1 and 400 Euros thereafter. This will cover participation, coffee breaks and a personal copy of the Proceedings. The registration form is now available at http://www.arcetri.astro.it/~texaflor/registration_first.html Program The following topics will be covered by Invited Talks and (in some cases) additional Joint Discussions: - PHYSICS AROUND THE BIG BANG - THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EARLY UNIVERSE - COSMOLOGICAL PARAMETERS - THE DAWN OF LIGHT IN THE UNIVERSE - COSMOLOGICAL BACKGROUND - DARK MATTER AND GRAVITATIONAL LENSES - LARGE SCALE STRUCTURES AND CLUSTERS OF GALAXIES - GAMMA RAY BURSTS - ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI - SUPERNOVAE, REMNANTS AND COLLAPSED STARS - BLACK HOLES - GRAVITATIONAL WAVES - COSMIC-RAY AND GAMMA-RAY ASTRONOMY - NEUTRINO PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY Invited speakers A partial list of invited speakers includes: R. Blandford, C. Cesarsky, A. Fabian, F. Halzen, A. Lasenby, B. Leibundgut, P. Madau, I. Novikov, B. Schutz, P. Steinhardt, V. Trimble, G. Veneziano, M. Vietri, S. White. The program with the complete list of speakers and convenors of the Joint Discussions will appear on the web at http://www.arcetri.astro.it/~texaflor/program.html. The Proceedings of the Symposium will include the invited reviews and the presentations at the joint discussions (no posters). Scientific Organizing Committee F. Pacini (Chair, Italy), M. Baldo Ceolin (Italy), M. Rees (UK), R. Barbieri (Italy), V. Rubin (USA), C. Cesarsky (ESO), G. Setti (Italy), A. Gimenez (ESA), J. Silk (UK), G. Hasinger (Germany), M. Tavani (Italy), R. Kolb (USA), Y. Totsuka (Japan), R. Manchester (Australia), V. Trimble (USA), I. Novikov (Denmark), G. Veneziano (CERN), A. Olinto (USA), L. Woltjer (France) Local Organizing Committee M. Salvati (Chair), R. Bandiera, L. Falai, R. Maiolino, F. Mannucci, A. Marconi, E. Masini, N. Nagar. Further information: http://www.arcetri.astro.it/~texaflor/ e-mail: texas_florence(a)arcetri.astro.it fax ++ 39 055 220039

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astro-ph/0205155 another step in cosmo-topology...
by Boud Roukema 13 May '02

13 May '02

Cze�� wszystkim, An interesting paper by Rocha et al., a European collaboration (including Krzyszek G�rski) on COBE analysis of equal-side-length torus models of the Universe: http://de.arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0205155 They use the word "asymmetric" to talk about the possibility that the side lengths might be unequal. Given the absence of any serious physical theory for the global shape of the Universe, it seems best, IMHO, to keep all options open... Pozd, Boud

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Paddy+Tirth: DE & DMatter same thing?
by Boud Roukema 09 May '02

09 May '02

Paddy and his PhD student Tirth have come up with an idea for how dark matter and dark energy could just be two components of the same thing: http://de.arXiv.org/abs/hep-th/0205055 Cool! :)

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Dimming Supernovae by Axions
by Andrzej Marecki 08 May '02

08 May '02

Yet another "non-orthodox" view on SN dimming attributed to the expansion of the Universe: http://t8web.lanl.gov/people/terning/axion.html (This is based on a paper accepted by Physical Review Letters 88 (2002), 161302.) -- Andrzej

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ASTROVIRTEL: Third Call for Proposals (fwd)
by boud 13 Apr '02

13 Apr '02

I don't think we're ready for this yet, but feel free to think about this. If anyone can think of a project, go ahead and write your thoughts to the list - be creative! And don't worry about your ideas being crazy. Starting off from a crazy idea and playing with it can often yield a good idea... Which is better than no ideas at all... > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 12:26:20 +0200 (MET DST) > From: AstroVirtel User <astrov at eso.org> > To: boud.roukema@... > X-SBFolder: Default > X-SBClass: OK > Subject: ASTROVIRTEL: Third Call for Proposals > > > Dear Colleague, > > The ASTROVIRTEL Project, supported by the European Commission > and managed by the ST-ECF on behalf of ESA and ESO, is aimed > at enhancing the scientific return of the ST-ECF/ESO Archive. > It offers the possibility to European Users to exploit it as > a virtual telescope, retrieving and analysing large quantities > of data with the assistance of archive operators and scientific > personnel. The first two cycles of operation of the ASTROVIRTEL > project are almost completed and some interesting results > have already been achieved and published > [see http://www.stecf.org/astrovirtel/publications.html] > > We are now announcing the Third Call for ASTROVIRTEL Proposals. > Detailed instructions for the submission of proposals can be found > at http://www.stecf.org/astrovirtel/. > > The deadline for submission is June 17th, 2002. > > ASTROVIRTEL is an initiative financed by the European Commission under > the scheme "Enhanced Access to Large Infrastructures" and therefore is > open to European scientists from EC Member and Associated States > [for a list of these states, see > http://www.stecf.org/astrovirtel/ECStates.html]. > > Do not hesitate to contact us if you need further information. The > ASTROVIRTEL email address is astrovirtel(a)eso.org . > > Best regards, > > Piero Benvenuti, Head / ST-ECF > Peter Quinn, Head / DMD > > PS: Since we merged different mailing lists, it might happen that > you receive this email twice. Our apologies. > > -- > ASTROVIRTEL > > Accessing Astronomical Archives as Virtual Telescopes > A Project supported by the European Commission > Access to Research Infrastructures > Action of the Improving Human Potential Programme > > Tel: +49 89 32006291 Fax: +49 89 32006480 > mailto:astrovirtel@eso.org URL: http://www.stecf.org/astrovirtel/

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Another confirmation of the existence of dark energy.
by Andrzej Marecki 12 Apr '02

12 Apr '02

----- Forwarded message from NewsAlert ----- NEWSALERT: Friday, March 22, 2002 @ 1504 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest news from Astronomy Now and Spaceflight Now [...] NEW EVIDENCE: EXPANSION OF UNIVERSE IS ACCELERATING --------------------------------------------------- A team of UK and Australian astronomers has discovered new, independent evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. Their findings have just appeared in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. A team of 27 astronomers led by Professor George Efstathiou of the University of Cambridge has published strong evidence for the existence of dark energy using an entirely different technique. Their results show that the universe is full of dark energy, completely consistent with the earlier supernovae results. "Dark energy appears to exist and to dominate over more conventional types of matter" says Professor Efstathiou. "An explanation of the dark energy may involve String Theory, extra dimensions or even what happened before the Big Bang. At present nobody knows. The ball is now firmly in the theorists court." http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0203/22expansion/ [...] ----- End of forwarded message from NewsAlert ----- -- Andrzej Marecki

2 9

2 observation-linked galaxy projects (long term)
by Boud Roukema 03 Apr '02

03 Apr '02

Hi. I'm just sending this message to have it conveniently on the archive with an obvious "Subject:" header. I think I've already mentioned these two projects (or themes) which are linked to local observational facilities: (1) polarisation of radio-galaxies Ryszard Wielebi�ski of Bonn suggested that a good way to use the radio telescope here would be to observe galaxies at different frequencies, so with different amounts of Faraday rotation of polarised light, so that the polarisation could be inferred. (2) galaxy formation modelling in preparation for future infrared satellite data Ryszard Szczerba said something about NCAC being involved in an infrared satellite project (I think I got the name wrong - Ryszard, do you have a link to the web site of the project?), so if someone does some galaxy formation work in preparation for this, there would be a good chance of getting good observational constraints, and maybe even falsifying some models, and having to generate new ones, which is the exciting part of science :). Cze�� Boud Ryszard: this email will be archived on http://www.astro.uni.torun.pl/sympa/cosmo-torun/ Please reply directly to the list (unless you have something secret to say).

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