Standards of Fundamental Astronomy (SOFA) is an International Astronomical Union (IAU) service that provides accessible and authoritative algorithms and procedures that implement standard models used in fundamental astronomy. This paper summaries the current status, noting the changes during 2009-2012, and discusses issues that may arise in the future.

The evidence for the acceleration of the universe shows that canonical theories of cosmology and particle physics are incomplete, and that new physics is out there, waiting to be discovered. Forthcoming high-resolution ultra-stable spectrographs will play a key role in this quest for new physics. Here we focus on astrophysical tests of the stability of nature's fundamental couplings, and by taking existing VLT data as a starting point we discuss how forthcoming improvements (in particular with the E-ELT) will impact on fundamental cosmology.

We introduce a pilot project to measure metallicitiy gradients for a sample of twenty nearby galaxies drawn from the Herschel Reference Survey (HRS), representative of normal, star-forming spiral galaxies. We have obtained optical spectroscopic observations using the Very Large Telescope with the FORS2 instrument in multi-object mode, targeting individual Hii and star-forming regions across the galaxy discs (P. I.: L. Cortese). From the ratios of the strong emission lines, we estimate the local gas-phase oxygen abundance and construct metallicity gradients. Combining these new data with Herschel PACS/SPIRE far-infrared photometric observations and Hi 21 cm line maps, to trace the cold dust and gas respectively, will allow the study of the relationships between stars, gas, dust and metals on sub-kiloparsec scales.

The IERS Conventions (2010) provides the international standard for models for use in the generation of celestial reference systems (CRS), terrestrial reference systems (TRS), and the Earth orientation parameters (EOPs) that relate the associated frames. Significant improvements over the previous IERS Conventions (2003) are outlined, and an overview of the latest adopted models and standards is shown. Finally, future plans for the Conventions are provided.

The [CII] 158 μm line is typically the brightest far-IR emission line from star-forming galaxies. As such, this line is a possible tracer of star-formation, but to do so we need the relative contributions of different ISM phases. Using high physical resolution observations of the [CII] 158 μm line from Herschel PACS in five 3'×3' field in M 31 and optical IFU spectra from PPaK and ancillary IR data, we are able to spatially separate out the ISM phases Kapala. We find that a large fraction of [CII] emission in M 31 arises from diffuse gas (~20–90), with a sub-linear relation of [CII]–SFR at ~50 pc scales. However, on ~kpc scales, the observed empirical [CII]–SFR relation is in agreement with other extragalactic studies.

This work studies the behavior of entropy in recent cosmological models that start with an initial de Sitter expansion phase, go through the conventional radiation and matter dominated eras to be followed by a final de Sitter epoch. In spite of their seemingly similarities (observationally they are close to the Λ-CDM model), different models deeply differ in their physics. The second law of thermodynamics encapsulates the underlying microscopic, statistical description, and hence we investigate it in the present work. Our study reveals that the entropy of the apparent horizon plus that of matter and radiation inside it, increases and is a concave function of the scale factor. Thus thermodynamic equilibrium is approached in the last de Sitter era, and this class of models is thermodynamically correct. Cosmological models that do not approach equilibrium appear in conflict with the second law of thermodynamics. (Based on Mimoso & Pavon 2013)

Cosmic string interactions often result in the formation of cosmic string loops that detach from the long string network and radiate their energy in the form of gravitational waves. Loop production occurs copiously throughout the cosmological evolution of a cosmic string network and the superimposition of their emissions gives rise to a stochastic gravitational In this essay, we briefly review our recent work on the stochastic gravitational wave background generated by cosmic string networks and introduce a set of numerical and analytical tools for the computation of this background.

Galaxy outflows are a vital mechanism in the regulation of galaxy evolution through feedback and enrichment. NGC 2146, a nearby infrared luminous galaxy (LIRG), presents evidence for outflows along the disk minor axis in all gas phases (ionized, neutral atomic and molecular). We present new far-IR Herschel imaging and spectroscopy of this galaxy from the Key Insights on Nearby Galaxies: a Far-Infrared Survey with Herschel (KINGFISH) project, as well as new optical integral field unit spectroscopy, to map the kinematics and gas excitation in the central 5 kpc and trace the dust distribution (Kreckel et al.2014). We observe an increased velocity dispersion in the [OI] 62 um, [OIII] 88 um, [NII] 122 um and [CII] 158 um fine-structure lines that is spatially coincident with shocked gas above and below the disk.

In the last few years, numerous observational studies have provided us with strong evidence that star clusters host multiple stellar generations and subverted the standard view according to which these systems were the prototype of ‘simple stellar populations’.

With integral field spectroscopic data from the the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral-field spectrograph (SAMI) survey and the VLA, we will study the relationship between star formation (as traced by Hα emission) and the radio continuum emission within galaxies with the aim of better understanding the intricacies of local scaling relations.

We review spectroscopic evidence of multiple stellar populations in globular clusters. First, we lay down the basic data: the C-N, Na-O, Mg-Al anti-correlations among red giants and main sequence stars, and discuss how they appear to be general properties of globular clusters, in spite of cluster-to-cluster differences. We will then describe what is currently known about He from spectroscopy. We will then present the implications and current observations for the interpretation of the horizontal branches, showing that the multiple population phenomenon is strongly related to the distribution of stars along them. We will briefly mention the spectroscopic evidence related to some less understood cases, like the clusters with multiple subgiant branches. Finally, we summarize the relation between multiple populations and general properties for globular clusters, and their implications for the formation scenario.

This paper is concerned with a meteoroid shape estimation technique based on statistical laws of distribution for fragment masses. The idea is derived from the experiments that show that brittle fracturing produces multiple fragments of size lesser than or equal to the least dimension of the body. The number of fragments depends on fragment masses as a power law with exponential cutoff. The scaling exponent essentially indicates the initial form of the fragmented body. We apply the technique of scaling analysis to the empirical data on the mass distributions for Košice, Almahata Sitta and Bassikounou meteorites.

I review the evidence supporting and characterizing multiple populations within globular clusters (GCs) based on spectroscopy, i.e. on abundance variations within the stellar population of an individual GC, which dates back to almost 40 years ago. I discuss some of my recent work in this area.

We analyze the cross-correlation function of the soft and hard X-rays of the atoll source 4U 1636-53 with RXTE data. The results show that the cross-correlations evolve along the different branches of the color-color diagram. At the lower left banana states, we have both positive and ambiguous correlations, and positive correlations are dominant for the lower banana and the upper banana states. The anti-correlation is detected at the top of the upper banana states. The cross-correlations of two atoll sources 4U 1735-44 and 4U 1608-52 have been studied in previous work, and the anti-correlations are detected at the lower left banana or the top of the upper banana states. Our results show that, in the 4U 1636-53, the distribution of the cross-correlations in the color-color diagram is similar to those of 4U 1735-44 and 4U 1608-52, and confirm further that the distribution of cross-correlations in color-color diagram could be correlated with the luminosity of the source.

Multiwavelength Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs) of far-infrared (FIR) galaxies detected in the AKARI South Ecliptic Poles Survey (ADF-S) allow to trace differences between [Ultra]-Luminous Infrared Galaxies ([U]LIRGS) and other types of star-forming galaxies (SF).

In the double-lobed Fanaroff-Riley type-II radio galaxy 3C328, one lobe is devoid of a~hotspot. We carried out the VLBA observations of the central component of 3C328 and we found there a jet pointing towards the lobe without a hotspot. We suggest that this is because the nucleus of 3C328 remained in off-state for some time in the recent past. No jets were produced during that period so both hotspots faded out. However, under the assumption that one lobe is much farther from the observer than the other, the hotspot of the far-side lobe can be perceived as not decayed yet due to the light-travel lag. Since activity of the nucleus has been restored, we obtain a proof that it is recurrent. It follows that the orientation of the jet is not a paradox.

An intriguing discovery in the field of multiple stellar populations in globular clusters is that some of them show internal variations in the bulk of the heavy-element content. I summarize the chemical properties of one of these clusters, M22, in comparison with the most extreme ω Centauri, underlying the analogies and differences between the two objects.

Given the generic definition of statistics, it is clear that astronomers have engaged in statistical analysis of some variety since astronomy first emerged as a science. However, from the early nineteenth century until the beginning of the twenty-first the two disciplines have been somewhat estranged – there was no formal relationship between the two. This has now changed, as is evidenced by the recent creation of the International Astrostatistics Association (IAA), the ISI astrostatistics committee, astrostatistics working groups authorized by the IAU and AAS, and this Symposium. The challenge for us to come is in establishing how statisticians and astronomers relate in developing the discipline of astrostatistics. I shall propose a direction for how the discipline can progress in both the short term and well as for future generations of astrostatisticians.

I conclude the SCCC21 conference highlighting some of the contrasts we heard about, some specific topics (the statistics of random fields), and discuss how some of these play out in the analysis of cosmic microwave background data. I conclude with a hopeful look at the efficacy of blind analyses in the CMB and elsewhere in cosmology.

This talk covers preliminary work in which we apply a strictly differential line-by-line chemical abundance analysis to high quality UVES spectra of the globular cluster NGC 6752. We achieve extremely high precision in the measurement of relative abundance ratios. Our results indicate that the observed abundance dispersion exceeds the measurement uncertainties and that many pairs of elements show significant correlations when plotting [X1/H] vs. [X2/H]. Our tentative conclusions are that either NGC 6752 is not chemically homogeneous at the ≃0.03 dex level or the abundance variations and correlations signify star-to-star He abundance variations.