Course Objectives:
The aim of this course is to introduce you, the students, to seminal papers
and more recent developments in research of the nearest example of a rich
galaxy cluster: the Coma Cluster of Galaxies — long thought to be a
textbook example of a virialized cluster. We will do so through
presentations followed by discussion with active participation by all
students, and determine what are the active areas of research on the
contents and environment of this nearby cluster. Textbooks, by their
nature, are out of date at the time of their publication. In this course we
aim to bridge the gap between passive acquisition of knowledge and active
PhD research by reading and discussing papers from the professional
literature. The emphasis will lie on the development and uncertainties of
current scientific theory and method.
Oral reports on the papers selected will be presented in class at the rate
of one ~45 minute presentation per week (assuming the number of students is
13 or less). Oral reports by senior graduate students, postdocs and/or
talks by visiting scientists would be on a voluntary and as-time-permits
basis only. Each report should consist of a general introduction covering
the scope of the paper and where it fits within the larger field of research
of which the paper is part, followed by a more detailed summary of the
original research presented in the paper and a discussion of its impact.
Each presentation is followed by time for questions and answers, and
discussion by the students, using questions e-mailed to me in advance
of each class as a guide.
Dates for the presentations(s) by each student will be assigned within the
first week of the first class — first come, first serve (see the
Seminar Schedule below). The choice of paper to discuss will be up to the
student, but certain restrictions and requirements will apply
(see also Tips.., below). I'll be happy
to discuss that choice.
Course Grades:
70% of the final grade
will be based on the presentation, where the emphasis lies more on content
and clarity than on how fancy the presentation looks. Each student is
responsible for providing me no later than one week
before their scheduled presentation the full bibliographic
reference to a paper of their choice (i.e., the last
possible moment will be in class the week before). I will place a link on
the class web-page to an electronic version of this paper (PDF/Postscript),
so all students can download and read it, and formulate questions. Non-timely submission of a reference will result in a
reduction of the grade. Also, after class, the student must send me
the electronic presentation, preferably as a ≤2.0 Mb PDF file with
all fonts included (if necessary, remove background images to reduce the
file size when exporting to PDF from PowerPoint or similar presentation
software). I will create a link to it into the following table (see
Seminar Schedule below), so it can be viewed and consulted later.
30% of the final grade
will be based on the participation by each student in the discussion of each
paper, as demonstrated by the posing of non-trivial questions and reasoning
demonstrating the use of the scientific method. Each student, except the
student giving the presentation, must prepare and e-mail me
at least two non-trivial questions regarding
the paper no later than 5:00PM of the Thursday before
each class (except if that class is a Special Seminar by a visiting
scientist).
Note that failure to submit questions for at least 50% of the presentations
means that even if you give a perfect presentation, your final grade
can be no better than a C+. Also note that, whereas a question can
be trivial, confused or poorly posed, the only stupid question is a question
not asked.
A full bibliographic reference includes
at the very least (1) the name of the lead author, (2) publication year, (3)
name or abbreviation of the journal, (4) volume number, and (5) page number.
Do not send me just a web-link to a PDF file or just a PDF file. It
is OK to send me a link in addition to the full bibliographic
reference, but in that case please specify the relevant ADS abstract page
(for example:
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1962ApJ...136..748E ).
Presentations:
For the computer-based presentations (i.e., HTML, PDF, Power Point, etc..),
a laptop computer running Redhat 9 Linux (with Mozilla 1.4.2
browser, Acrobat Reader 5.0 [PDF], and OpenOffice 1.1 [PPT]) will
be available in the classroom, but students are free to and will likely
prefer to bring and use their own Windows, Linux or Macintosh laptop. If
you use a Macintosh, remember to bring a DVI-to-VGA adaptor to connect to
the LCD projector. Note, that the projector provides a 1024×768 pixel
standard field of view, so you may have to adjust your display settings if
you have a wide-screen laptop. It is recommended to practice this in
advance of your presentation.
If you prepare a PowerPoint presentation and do not plan to use your
own laptop, send your presentation no later than
Thursday afternoon preceding class to me by e-mail as an attachment,
so I can check that it displays properly: proprietary fonts from Microsoft,
Adobe, and other commercial founderies (e.g., math and greek symbols, fancy
fonts) often don't display or are substituted by unreadable characters on
Open Source machines!
Tips for finding a suitable paper:
For a 45 min presentation, single 4 or 5-page Letters are not
suitable (but three related ones might well be). Typically, papers
should be the equivalent of 15–20 pages in a main journal (multi-page
tables or atlasses of figures, and the list of references don't count toward
this number; manuscripts in pre-print format should be at least 3× as
many pages).
Papers that had/have a large impact will be cited by many other authors.
Papers with few or no citations, or mostly self-citations by the authors,
may not be suitable for discussion. Papers are required to (1)
have been published in a peer reviewed journal or been accepted for
publication in a peer reviewed journal and (2) have at least 1
non-trivial citation by researchers other than the authors of that
paper. Discussion of a paper that recently appeared on 'astro-ph' may be OK
if the above conditions are met, and the "Comments" give a specific
volume/issue of the peer-reviewed journal where such paper is scheduled to
appear.
Although not a complete depository of all scientific literature in astronomy
and astrophysics, none the less, astronomy as a science is blessed in having
a very large, full-text digital library: the NASA Astrophysics Data System
(ADS) (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html).
For example, a search for a paper that I discussed a while back returned:
A full text, printable version of this paper may be obtained by clicking
on the "F" link (or by clicking on the full
reference link or "A" link, and following the
links on the abstract page that it opens). Often,
there is also a "G" that points to GIF-format
scans of each page of the paper or an "E" that
points to an HTML version (both may come handy to extract/retrieve a digital
version of a figure, table or equation to insert in your presentation).
To check the number of citations, one can click the link marked
"C".
Full resolution Postscript versions of figures can often be found on the
LANL (arXiv.org) preprint server:
(http://xxx.lanl.gov/find/astro-ph) by searching for the lead
author(s) and selecting [..., other] as the
download format and then Source (this will allow you to download a
tar-ball, which includes the originally submitted figures). Note, that the
preprint can be of an earlier year than the actual year of publication.
Here is a link to an incomplete list
of papers covering a random set of topics related to the Coma Cluster. Some
may be suitable for discussion, other may just give you an idea what topic to
pursue.
The following is the schedule of presentations:
Spring 2008 Seminar Schedule
Date
| Person
| Paper
| Title + link to presentation
|
1/18
| Rolf Jansen
|
| Introduction to the Class
|
1/23
| Frank Timmes (ASU)
|
| SESE Colloquium
(PSF-101 3:40–4:30PM)
New Capabilities for SESE in Nuclear and Computational Astrophysics
|
1/24
| Anna Pasquali (MPIA)
|
| SESE Astronomy Seminar
(PSF-566 3:00–4:00PM)
What ever happened to stellar feedback?
|
1/25
| Ignacio Ferreras (King's College)
|
| Special seminar
(PSF-566 12:15–1:30PM, i.e.: regular time, different room)
Focusing on Early-Type Galaxies
|
1/30
| Patrick Young (ASU)
|
| SESE Colloquium
(PSF-101 3:40–4:30PM)
Connecting Theory to Observations for Cosmic Explosions
|
2/01
| Natalie Hinkel
|
PS/PDF
|
Galaxy Populations in the Coma and Distant Clusters: Evolution of
k+a Galaxies and the Role of the ICM,
Poggianti, B.M., Bridges, T.J., Komiyama, Y., et al. 2004, ApJ 601, 197
|
2/08
| Jon Oiler
|
PS/PDF
|
On Iron Enrichment, Star Formation, and Type Ia Supernovae in Galaxy
Clusters, Loewenstein, M. 2006, ApJ 648, 230
|
2/15
| Mike Pagano
|
| (canceled due to illness)
|
2/20
| Alice Quillen (Rochester)
|
| SESE Colloquium
(PSF-101 3:40–4:30PM)
Sculpting Circumstellar Disks in the Planetary Regime
|
2/21
| Manoj Kaplinghat (UC Irvine)
|
| Particle Physics and Astrophysics Seminar
(PSF-306 2:00–3:00PM)
Learning about dark matter from our neighbors
|
2/21
| Robert Thacker (St.Mary's)
|
| SESE Astronomy Seminar
(PSF-566 3:30–4:30PM)
2 easy pieces: radial profile breaks in disk galaxies &
variability of substructure in dark matter halos
|
2/22
| Carola Ellinger
|
PS/PDF,
PS/PDF,
PS/PDF
|
Substructure in the Coma Cluster, Structure and Dynamics,
& Giants versus Dwarfs,
Fitchett, M., & Webster, R. 1987, ApJ 317, 653;
Colless, M., & Dunn, A.M. 1996, ApJ 458, 435; and
Edwards, S.A., Colless, M., Bridges, T.J., et al. 2002, ApJ 567, 178
|
2/22
| Alice Quillen (Rochester)
|
| Astronomy Seminar
(PSF-226 2:30–3:30PM)
Spitzer/IRS observations of Cen A and models for
episodic star formation
|
2/27
| Mordecai-Mark MacLow (AMNH)
|
| SESE Colloquium
(PSF-101 3:40–4:30PM)
Cloud Fragmentation to Planetesimal Formation: Examples of
turbulent effects in ...
|
2/29
| William Gray
|
PS/PDF
|
Dynamical modelling of luminous and dark matter in 17 Coma early-type
galaxies,
Thomas, J., Saglia, R.P., Bender, R., et al. 2007, MNRAS 382, 657
|
3/05
| Jean-Luc Margot (Cornell)
|
| SESE Colloquium
(PSF-101 3:40–4:30PM)
New Views of Mercury from MESSENGER and Radar Data
|
3/07
|
|
| No class
|
3/14
|
|
| Spring break — no class
|
3/19
| Lars Bildsten (UCSB)
|
| SESE Colloquium
(PSF-101 3:40–4:30PM)
Explosions in Accreting White Dwarfs: From Novae to Supernovae
|
3/21
| Emily McLinden
|
PS/PDF,
PS/PDF
|
Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium Associated with the Coma Cluster and
Virgo Cluster,
Takei, Y., Henry, J.P., Finoguenov, A., et al. 2007, ApJ 655, 831
and Fujimoto, R., Takei, Y., Tamura, T., et al. 2004, PASJ 56, L29
|
3/26
| Deidre Hunter (Lowell Obs.)
|
| SESE Astronomy Seminar
(PSF-566 12:30–13:30PM [note change in date/time])
Outer Stellar and Gas Disks of Dwarf Galaxies
|
3/27
| Ken Nagamine
|
| SESE Astronomy Seminar
(PSF-566 3:00–4:00PM)
Lymanα Emitters and Lyman Break Galaxies at redshift
z = 3–6 in Cosmological Simulations
|
3/28
| Katie Kaleida
|
PS/PDF
|
Star formation in early-type galaxies in the Coma cluster,
Caldwell, N., Rose, J.A., Sharples, R.M., et al. 1993, AJ 106, 473
|
3/28
| Ayesha Begum (Cambridge, UK)
|
| SESE Astronomy Seminar
(PSF-226 1:30–2:30PM) [note change in date/time]
FIGGS: Faint Irregular Galaxies GMRT Survey
|
4/04
| Simon Porter
|
PS/PDF,
PS/PDF
|
The Mass of the Coma Cluster: X-ray, Optical and Weak-Lensing
results, Hughes, J.P. 1989, ApJ 337, 21 and
Kubo, J.M., Stebbins, A., Annis, J., et al. 2007, ApJ 671, 1466
|
4/09
| Jill Knapp (Princeton)
|
| SESE Colloquium
(PSF-101 3:40–4:30PM)
Low-Mass Star Formation in the Taurus Molecular Cloud
|
4/10
| Jill Knapp (Princeton)
|
| SESE Astronomy Seminar
(PSF-226 3:00–4:00PM)
White Dwarf Science with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
|
4/11
| Michael Rutkowski
|
PS/PDF,
PS/PDF
|
The Globular Cluster Systems in the Coma Ellipticals. I + II,
Kavelaars, J., Harris, W., et al. 2000, ApJ 533, 125 and
Harris, W., Kavelaars, J., et al. 2000, ApJ 533, 137
|
4/17
| Daniel Stern (NASA/JPL)
|
| SESE Astronomy Seminar
(PSF-566 3:00–4:00PM)
Obscured Quasars at High Redshift
|
4/18
| Lifang Xia
|
PS/PDF
|
A Photometric and Spectroscopic Study of Dwarf and Giant Galaxies
in the Coma Cluster. III. Spectral Ages and Metallicities,
Poggianti, B.M., Bridges, T.J., Mobasher, B., et al. 2001, ApJ 562, 689
|
4/25
| Mike Pagano
|
PS/PDF
|
Particle reacceleration in the Coma cluster: radio properties and
hard X-ray emission,
Brunetti, G., Setti, G., Feretti, L., & Giovannini, G. 2001, MNRAS
320, 365
|
4/30
| Ben Weiner (Steward/UofA)
|
| SESE Astronomy Seminar
(PSF-566 3:00–4:00PM)
Outflows from star-forming galaxies at z = 1.4
|
5/07
| Christy Tremonti Steward/UofA
|
| SESE Astronomy Seminar
(PSF-226 12:00–1:00PM)
(tbd)
|
Click on the links below for the Astrophysics Seminar schedules and student
presentations of previous semesters:
- Fall 2007 (Jansen) —
News from the Frontier: z = 5 and Beyond
- Spring 2007 (Jansen) —
Nearby Galaxies: How well do we know our Cosmic Backyard?
- Fall 2006
(Windhorst) — Black Hole Growth & Galaxy Assembly: From
First Light & Reionization to the Present
- Spring 2006 (Jansen) —
Planet Formation and Our Milky Way Galaxy
- Fall 2005 (Jansen) —
Star Formation and Chemical Enrichment: From the First Stars to
Present-day Galaxies
Last update: Apr 29 2008 [RAJ]
|