Astro Journal Club at Drexel

* Tuesdays, 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. * * Disque Hall, Rm 808 *

Fall 2006:
This term's topic
Galaxies and their environments: Lessons from the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) Effect

Possible discussions include:

Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect of galaxy clusters

see here for the ADS link to the original paper.

SZ Effect as a probe of the galaxy formation process
Galaxy cluster scaling relations with SZ Effect.
Lensing and implications for SZ Effect
AGN heating and SZ Effect in galaxy clusters and groups
SZ Effect: Imprints on the Cosmic Microwave Background

General Format: We will have usually one talk aimed to last 20 to 30 minutes, followed by discussion within the group. Presentations should be prepared in the usual colloquium format, e.g., power point. When the speaker announces a reference paper, please make the effort to read it in advance so that we can all actively participate in the parley. An obvious place to look for potential papers remains:

http://xxx.lanl.gov/archive/astro-ph

We also strongly encourage students to become familiar and search the ADS astronomy page for articles that are already published, and thus peer reviewed, at:

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html

* We might also have external speakers this quarter, and the schedule below will be updated as information becomes available.

Fall 2006: Tuesdays, 3:30 pm, cookies and tea will be there as well.

A list of "in charge" discussion leaders/speakers will be updated weekly and can be found here:

October 3rd Danny Pan
research conducted at Drexel University

The small scale environment of void galaxies

October 10th
Arthur Congdon , Rutgers University
Microlensing of an extended source by a power-law mass distribution
Abstract: Microlensing promises to be a powerful tool for studying distant galaxies and quasars. As the data and models improve, there are systematic effects that need to be explored. Quasar continuum and broad-line regions may respond differently to microlensing due to their different sizes; to understand this effect, we study microlensing of finite sources by a mass function of stars. We find that microlensing is insensitive to the slope of the mass function but does depend on the mass range. For negative parity images, diluting the stellar population with dark matter increases the magnification dispersion for small sources and decreases it for large sources. This implies that the quasar continuum and broad-line regions may experience very different microlensing in negative-parity lensed images. We confirm earlier conclusions that the surface brightness profile and geometry of the source have little effect on microlensing. Finally, we consider noncircular sources. We show that elliptical sources that are aligned with the direction of shear have larger magnification dispersions than sources with perpendicular alignment, an effect that becomes more prominent as the ellipticity increases. Elongated sources can lead to more rapid variability than circular sources, which raises the prospect of using microlensing to probe source shape.

October 17th
Sanghamitra Deb
A primer to the SZ Effect

October 24th
no JClub per se;
see Dr. Brad Whitlock (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)
Introduction to VisIt: a parallel visualization and data analysis tool
Location: Disque 614 Date: Tuesday October 24th 2006 TIME: 3:30pm
Abstract: VisIt is an open source, richly-featured, parallel scientific visualization and data analysis application. VisIt was developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to visualize some of the largest computer simulations ever run. VisIt employs a client-server architecture to visualize remote data on a local client using a remote parallel server. VisIt incorporates various visualization techniques as well as support for many different file formats through its use of plugins. In addition, VisIt provides sophisticated data manipulation and queries, allowing users to isolate important features in their data. This talk introduces VisIt and presents a broad sample of its capabilities before concluding with a high-level view of VisIt's implementation.

October 31st
John Parejko
Measuring the SZ effect
Suggested reading:
Fosalba, P., Gaztanaga, E., Castander, F., 2003, ApJ, 597, 89, "Detection of the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe and Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effects from the Cosmic Microwave Background-Galaxy Correlation"
Bartlett, J.G., 2006, astro-ph/0606241, "SZ Surveys are Coming: What should we do?"
also, check out: The Planck Bluebook: http://www.rssd.esa.int/SA/PLANCK/docs/Bluebook-ESA-SCI(2005)1.pdf

November 7th
Anthony Dyszel

"The Shape of the SDSS DR5 Galaxy Power Spectrum" by Percival, et al. 2006
to be found at: http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0608636

November 14th
Max Soloff
cancelled, faculty meeting with the provost

November 21st
Jeff Blomquist
Title: Lyman-alpha forest-CMB cross-correlation and the search for the ionized baryons at high redshift
Authors: Rupert A.C. Croft (CMU/MPA), A.J. Banday (MPA), Lars Hernquist (CfA)
Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 369 (2006) 1090-1102 -- or -- astro-ph/0512380

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 28th
Ernie Mamikonyan
Title: The Integrated Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect as the Superior Method for Measuring the Mass of Clusters of Galaxies
Authors: Patrick M. Motl, Eric J. Hallman, Jack O. Burns, Michael L. Norman
Astrophys.J. 623 (2005) L63-L66, --or-- http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0502226

December 5th
Michael French
research conducted at Drexel University
Calculating Star Formation Rates from Photometry of Void Galaxies

December 12th
exam week, no JClub

====================================

Note: Penn talks that don't clash with ours will also be added FYI.
- Penn Journal Club is at 1pm on Fridays in DRL Astro Room.
Locations:

Disque 808 is found on the 8th floor of Disque Hall

DRL Astro Room is found on the 4th floor of David Rittenhouse Laboratory, on 33rd and Walnut
(DRL A2 is also in David Rittenhouse Laboratory, on 33rd and Walnut, but on the first floor)

See the home pages of Drexel and Penn for more details, maps, etc.

e-mail to: constant@drexel.edu with questions or suggestions regarding our Journal

See here for the archive of previous astro seminars.


October 3rd	Danny Pan research conducted at Drexel University The small scale environment of void galaxies
October 10th	Arthur Congdon , Rutgers University Microlensing of an extended source by a power-law mass distribution Abstract: Microlensing promises to be a powerful tool for studying distant galaxies and quasars. As the data and models improve, there are systematic effects that need to be explored. Quasar continuum and broad-line regions may respond differently to microlensing due to their different sizes; to understand this effect, we study microlensing of finite sources by a mass function of stars. We find that microlensing is insensitive to the slope of the mass function but does depend on the mass range. For negative parity images, diluting the stellar population with dark matter increases the magnification dispersion for small sources and decreases it for large sources. This implies that the quasar continuum and broad-line regions may experience very different microlensing in negative-parity lensed images. We confirm earlier conclusions that the surface brightness profile and geometry of the source have little effect on microlensing. Finally, we consider noncircular sources. We show that elliptical sources that are aligned with the direction of shear have larger magnification dispersions than sources with perpendicular alignment, an effect that becomes more prominent as the ellipticity increases. Elongated sources can lead to more rapid variability than circular sources, which raises the prospect of using microlensing to probe source shape.
October 17th	Sanghamitra Deb A primer to the SZ Effect
October 24th	no JClub per se; see Dr. Brad Whitlock (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) Introduction to VisIt: a parallel visualization and data analysis tool Location: Disque 614 Date: Tuesday October 24th 2006 TIME: 3:30pm Abstract: VisIt is an open source, richly-featured, parallel scientific visualization and data analysis application. VisIt was developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to visualize some of the largest computer simulations ever run. VisIt employs a client-server architecture to visualize remote data on a local client using a remote parallel server. VisIt incorporates various visualization techniques as well as support for many different file formats through its use of plugins. In addition, VisIt provides sophisticated data manipulation and queries, allowing users to isolate important features in their data. This talk introduces VisIt and presents a broad sample of its capabilities before concluding with a high-level view of VisIt's implementation.
October 31st	John Parejko Measuring the SZ effect Suggested reading: Fosalba, P., Gaztanaga, E., Castander, F., 2003, ApJ, 597, 89, "Detection of the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe and Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effects from the Cosmic Microwave Background-Galaxy Correlation" Bartlett, J.G., 2006, astro-ph/0606241, "SZ Surveys are Coming: What should we do?" also, check out: The Planck Bluebook: http://www.rssd.esa.int/SA/PLANCK/docs/Bluebook-ESA-SCI(2005)1.pdf
November 7th	Anthony Dyszel "The Shape of the SDSS DR5 Galaxy Power Spectrum" by Percival, et al. 2006 to be found at: http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0608636
November 14th	Max Soloff cancelled, faculty meeting with the provost
November 21st	Jeff Blomquist Title: Lyman-alpha forest-CMB cross-correlation and the search for the ionized baryons at high redshift Authors: Rupert A.C. Croft (CMU/MPA), A.J. Banday (MPA), Lars Hernquist (CfA) Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 369 (2006) 1090-1102 -- or -- astro-ph/0512380 Happy Thanksgiving!
November 28th	Ernie Mamikonyan Title: The Integrated Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect as the Superior Method for Measuring the Mass of Clusters of Galaxies Authors: Patrick M. Motl, Eric J. Hallman, Jack O. Burns, Michael L. Norman Astrophys.J. 623 (2005) L63-L66, --or-- http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0502226
December 5th	Michael French research conducted at Drexel University Calculating Star Formation Rates from Photometry of Void Galaxies
December 12th	exam week, no JClub