• Wed, NOV 12, 2014
    SPEAKER: Robert F. Carswell (Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, UK)
    TITLE: Unravelling the element abundances and ionization structure in intervening QSO absorbers
    ABSTRACT: Normally the widths of the saturated Lyman absorption lines make it difficult to determine heavy element abundances for different components in a QSO absorber. We suggest how a mixture of velocity structure and ionization modelling may be used to separate components, and find a range of metallicities within an absorption complex which has been studied in detail. The general applicability of, and potential problems with, this sort of analysis is discussed. We also note a source of bias which could lead to overestimates of the heavy element abundances in some systems (particularly the so-called sub-DLAs).
    contact: Tae-Sun Kim
  • Wed, NOV 5, 2014
    SPEAKER: Franco Vazza (Hamburger Sterwarte, Universität Hamburg, DE)
    TITLE: The magnetism in the cosmic web from simulations and looking towards future observationslink
    ABSTRACT: Magnetic fields are nowadays routinely observed in galaxies and galaxy clusters, while little is known about their distribution in cosmic filaments and for most of the cosmic web. However, the latter potentially carries information about the origin of cosmic magnetism, as it should relate with early cosmological epochs. I will show what can be presently done to follow the growth of magnetic fields in the cosmic web using cosmological simulations, and discuss how this can be used to study the detectability of the cosmic web with future (or incoming) radio facilities, as well as to study the propagation of ultra high-energy cosmic rays in the Universe.
    contact: Matteo Viel
  • Wed, OCT 29, 2014
    SPEAKER: Robert Ben Metcalf (Università of Bologna, IT)
    TITLE: Gravitational Lensing link
    ABSTRACT: Gravitational lensing is becoming an important tool in astrophysics and cosmology. It has been used to study everything from the structure of quasars to the evolution of dark energy. I will review some of these successes and describe future prospect for gravitational lensing in the age of Euclid and SKA. The number of strong gravitational lenses in particular is expected to increase by two orders of magnitude in the not so distant future. I will talk about the issues of finding such rare events in large data sets and how to use them once they are found
    contact: Umberto Maio
  • Wed, OCT 15, 2014
    SPEAKER: Carla Maria Coppola (Chemistry Department, Bari University, IT)
    TITLE: Primordial H2 formation in the early universe link
    ABSTRACT:The increasing sensibility of space missions devoted to Universe exploration at cosmological scales requires an accurate description and modeling of chemical and physical conditions present at high redshifts epochs. In this talk, non-equilibrium features of molecular processes occuring in the primordial plasma will be investigated. In particular, vibrational distribution functions, excitation temperatures and distortion photons due to radiative cascade of H2 on the CMB spectrum will be described.
    contact: Paolo Molaro
  • Wed, OCT 8, 2014
    SPEAKER: Luca Stringhetti (INAF-MI, IT)
    TITLE: The System Thinking in INAF: A personal view of the status of system thinking application in INAF link
    ABSTRACT: This talk will present a personal view of how the way to do projects in astrophysics (and not only in this field) has changed in modern times and how a better applications of a system thinking can help our daily work effectively. We believe that in INAF we do a lot of system thinking, even if sometimes we do not know, so the problem is not doing more, but doing better. Lean principles, so well used in many different applications since the '60, have found in recent years some effective examples in innovation applications. In this talk we will give a short presentation on the motivation to start a cooperation with Università Bocconi di Milano on an application of Lean principles in INAF. We will also present the results of the survey conducted in november 2012 in "Macroarea 5", survey conducted in collaboration with Bocconi, and we discuss with you about conclusions and possibly ways.
    contact: Andrea Zacchei
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