This seminar is prepared for graduate students and young researchers who are interested in the preparation of scientific research papers. On the basis of my research experience and journal editor, I will talk about journal preparation and review process of journals.

The Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey (LEGUS) is a HST Cycle 21 Treasury program. We aim at the investigation of recent (<~50 Myr) star formation and its relation with galactic environment in 50 nearby galaxies within the local 12 Mpc. Five-band imaging from the near-ultraviolet to the I-band will allow us to study accurate recent star formation histories from resolved massive stars, and the extinction-corrected ages and masses of star clusters and associations. I will present (1) the overview and the current status of LEGUS, (2) my previous work with the HST Early Release Science data, and (3) my research plan using IGRINS.

I will review some of the recent work on the RR Lyrae populations in Local Volume galaxies. The capabilities of the Hubble Space Telescope and 10-meter class ground-based telescopes have made it possible to reliably identify and characterize RR Lyrae variables out to a few Mpc. This is important because RR Lyraes are the 'Swiss Army knives' of astronomy in the sense that they have multiple and varied uses for probing the formation and evolution of galaxies. I will describe the diversity of ways that RR Lyraes are useful in this regard and what they reveal about the properties of galaxies such as M31, M32, and M33.

The National Geographical Institute is in charge of the Space Geodesy and astronomy developments in Spain. Most of the activities are carried out at Yebes Observatory where the 40 meter radiotelescope operates from 2 to 120 GHz, and participates since 2006 in rutinary EVN and IVS sessions. IGN also participates in VGOS (VLBI Geodetic Observing Systems) with the RAEGE project (An Atlantic Network of geodynamical and Spatial Stations) which consists on the installation of four geodetic fundamental stations placed in Yebes and Canary Islands in Spain and Santa Maria and Flores islands in Azores, Portugal. Each one of the stations will have a VGOS radiostelescope, gravimeters, permanent GNSS and SLR in Yebes. IGN develops its own radioastronomical instrumentation and also for others. Several areas like cryogenical receivers, feeds and LNA (low noise amplifiers) are covered since the eighties.

Recent infrared surveys have shown that the luminosity functions of protostars peak near one solar luminosity, and have a larger fraction of objects at sub-solar luminosities, which seem too low given the need to accrete the central protostar in typical estimated lifetimes. One plausible solution to this “luminosity problem'' is that mass infall occurs first to the disk, and subsequent disk accretion is low for the most of the time, with occasional short-lived, rapid accretion outbursts. In this talk I will present our recent numerical results of gravitational instability (GI)-induced, magnetorotational instability (MRI)-driven accretion outbursts in protoplanetary disks. Our results emphasize the importance of following the propagation of mass into innermost disk radii for predicting the resulting accretion luminosity as a function of time and thus addressing the protostellar luminosity problem.

A key unknown in lunar science is to what extent is the Moon is a melted, radially layered planet like Earth or a primordial relic of the early solar system, like many asteroids. A new era of lunar exploration is underway, offering major new insights into this decades-old question. Although the Moon today has no global magnetic field, new laboratory and spacecraft measurements strongly indicate that remanent magnetization in lunar rocks is the product of an ancient core dynamo. This confirms that the Moon is a highly differentiated object that formed an advecting, liquid metallic core. The dynamo field persisted from at least 4.25 to 3.56 billion years ago with an intensity reaching that of the present Earth. The field then declined by at least an order of magnitude by 3.3 Ga. The mechanisms for sustaining such an intense and long-lived dynamo are uncertain but may include exotic mechanisms like mechanical stirring by the processing mantle.

Lunar swirls are some of the most beautiful yet mysterious features on the Moon. They are characterized by their unusual albedo markings, which are wispy or sinuous in form. Swirls are often associated with the invisible presence of notable magnetic anomalies. They are found without any topographic expression of their own and occur across mare or highland terrain. We have recently re-examined the spectroscopic properties of swirls using data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper in order to determine whether there are compositional distinctions associated with their bright and dark markings. The data are consistent with the features being locally derived (rather than addition of a significant foreign component), but their albedo variations do not follow any common alteration or mixing pattern for lunar materials. Specifically, the spectral properties of swirls are not consistent with normal ‘space weathering’ of exposed lunar materials that results from the accumulation of nanophase metallic iron on soil grains when exposed to the harsh environment on the lunar surface. Instead, the observed characteristics of swirls argue for a difference in micro-scale texture of swirl regolith structure compared to that of nearby local soils. Some rearrangement of the fine components is also likely at swirls. Key issues to explore in the lunar environment are the effects that a relatively strong local magnetic field may have on small electrostatic forces that control interaction between soil grains. The mobility of the finest fraction is another key question. In addition, all regolith evolution processes occur in the strong diurnal cycling involving solar radiation ? exposure from visible to near-infrared electromagnetic radiation (heat) and solar wind energetic particles. If we could understand the direct cause and effect between the magnetic anomalies and the character and patterns in these enigmatic swirls, we would go a long way toward constraining the origin of the magnetic signatures themselves ? which in turn would ultimately constrain the early history of the Moon

There exist strong evidence supporting the co-evolution of central supermassive black holes and their host galaxies; however it is still under debate how such a relation comes about and whether it is relevant for all or only a subset of galaxies. An important mechanism connecting AGN to their host galaxies is AGN feedback, potentially heating up or even expelling gas from galaxies. AGN feedback may hence be responsible for the eventual quenching of star formation and halting of galaxy growth. A rich multi-wavelength dataset ranging from the X-ray regime (Chandra), to far-IR (Herschel), and radio (WSRT) is available for the North Ecliptic Pole field, most notably surveyed by the AKARI infrared space telescope, covering a total area on the sky of 5.4 sq. degrees. We investigate the star-formation properties and possible signatures of radio feedback mechanisms in the host galaxies of 237 radio sources below redshift z=2 and at a radio 1.4 GHz flux density limit of 0.1 mJy. Using broadband SED modelling, the nuclear and host galaxy components of these sources are studied simultaneously as a function of their radio luminosity. Here we present results concerning the AGN content of the radio sources in this field, while also offering evidence showcasing two, potentially competing, links between AGN activity and host galaxy star formation. In particular, I will show results supporting a ``maintenance'' type of feedback from powerful radio-jets. Finally, I will present preliminary results based on the stacking analysis of Herschel far-IR data of the most radio-luminous AGN in the AKARI-NEP field.

In the era of precision cosmology and redshift-deepening observation, probing the astrophysical objects in their infancy is getting ever more important. Difficulty of drop-out techniques to probe high-redshift stellar objects at z>~7 can be compensated by high-sensitivity radio telescopes, strating from several precursors (LOFAR, MWA, PAPER, 21CMA, etc.) but ending ultimately by the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) aiming to probe the Universe down to z~28. Cosmic microwave background (CMB) also bears important information on this high-redshift epoch, in terms of anisotropy in temperature and polarization. I will brief on recent theoretical developments in the astrophysics and cosmology at such high-redshift epoch, and describe how radio astronomy can perform both of these disciplines, with biased focus on SKA.

In recent years, variable sky has been intensively studied by wide-field survey observations. Such transient surveys have discovered many supernovae and also previously unknown transient events. After briefly introducing transient surveys in these years, I will introduce our activity for two optical transient surveys in Japan. One is Kiso Supernova Survey (KISS) using a 4 deg^2 wide-field camera of the 1.05m Kiso Schimidt telescope, This survey focuses on short-timescale phenomena, such as shock breakout of supernovae. The other is a planned transient survey using Hyper Suprime Cam (HSC) of the 8.2m Subaru telescope.

I will briefly introduce the space-based radio astronomical missions suggested by SHAO, i.e., the Space mm-wavelength VLBI Array, and the Space Ultra-Low Frequency Radio Observatory. The overall concept design and progress will be presented.

Molecular emissions are tools for diagnosing the nature of the emitting regions. The interpretation of these emissions has become an essential key for understanding star-formation, the ISM, starburst and AGN activity, galaxy evolution, and cosmology. This talk will consider the interpretation of the signatures of thermal molecular line emissions and non-thermal maser emissions and what these mean for the emitting regions.

I will demonstrate that, contrary to expectations, early-types galaxies contain a significant amount of cold molecular gas, and that the spatially-resolved kinematics of this gas can be used to establish its origin. More importantly, the molecular gas turns out to be an excellent, arguably the best tracer of the circular velocity in early-type galaxies, thus allowing accurate total/dynamical mass measurements. I will exploit this principally in two ways. First, to show that an accurate CO Tully-Fisher (luminosity-circular velocity) relation can easily be derived for early-type galaxies. This opens the way to probe the mass growth of galaxies of all types to significant redshits, with a unique and simple method. Second, to show that CO can be used to accurately measure the mass of the supermassive black holes lurking at galaxy centres. This opens the way for literaly hundreds of measurements across the Hubble sequence, potentially revolutionising our understanding of the co-evolution of galaxies and black holes.

Supernova remnants are an excellent laboratory to study many fundamental subjects of modern astronomy and astrophysics such as the nature of stellar evolution, explosion, interstellar chemical evolution, and cosmic-ray acceleration. With the emergence of modern X-ray observatories supernova remnant study has been revolutionized for the last decade. We briefly introduce recent results from deep X-ray observations of Type Ia supernova remnants, Kepler and G299.2-2.9. We detect Fe-peak ejecta elements Mn, Cr, Fe, and Ni in Kepler. Our estimated mass ratios among these elements show that Kepler's supernova was a thermonuclear explosion of a relatively young white dwarf with a supersolar metallicity. G299.2-2.9 apparently shows an elongated, strong outflow-like ejecta feature. This particular emission feature may suggest an asymmetric explosion or a significantly modified environment, unlike the traditional picture of Type Ia supernova.

In recent years, various optical surveys revealed large samples of quasars out to z of 6. Studies have shown that at such high redshifts we are approaching the Epoch of Reionization, when the first stars and massive black holes were formed. High redshift quasars provide both interesting constraints on the growth of the first supermassive black holes, and light sources with which to probe the ionization history of the Universe. While observations at radio wavelengths show that only a few of these high-z quasars are radio-loud, (sub)mm studies reveal a significant fraction (20-30%) of these most distant sources to be copious emitters of far-IR radiation with FIR luminosities > 10^12 Lsun. VLBI, with its unprecedented resolving power, can be utilized to study the highest redshift quasars to 1) look at their physical structures at milliarcsecond resolution, 2) test for strong gravitational lensing to address the high mass values of their supermassive black holes, and 3) test, by direct imaging, whether the dominant power source at radio frequencies is an AGN or starburst, particularly in those sources that are strong FIR emitters. In this talk I will give an overview of the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) and the High Sensitivity Array (HSA), and present observational results obtained on various radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars at redshifts z > 4 with the VLBA and the HSA. I will also provide a summary on a similar work that targets sum-mm galaxies at z~2.

Clusters of galaxies are great laboratories for many astrophysical processes on galaxy scale and have become one of the key probes in today's cosmology. Especially their mass function redshift distribution helps unveiling the effect of the mysterious driving force on the expansion of the universe - dark energy. In order to step forward to even higher precision cosmology using clusters, one not only needs to build good analysis tools, such as cluster finders, but also understands their systematics. In this talk, I will map out a round trip from understanding systemactics in large cluster samples to improving those tools for better cosmology. I will present a way to improve the understanding of the Universe as an interlocking element between real data and simulations. This will include, 1) building an empirically-motivated mock catalog using high-resolution N-body simulations to test various analysis tools, 2) understanding contamination and incompleteness using cross match of multi-wavelength cluster samples from large sky survey data. These projects are crucial in interpreting data from cluster surveys, such as South Pole Telescope (SPT), Dark Energy Survey (DES), as well as an upcoming survey from the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT).

For understanding the relationship between star formation and the interstellar medium properties, measuring the disk thickness of a galaxy is very important since it allows us to derive the volume density, a quantity that may be better correlated with star formation rate (SFR) than surface density. In this talk, I present a study of the vertical structure of the gaseous and stellar disks in a sample of edge-on galaxies (NGC 891, 4157, 4565, and 5907) using BIMA/CARMA CO (J = 1-0), VLA HI, and Spitzer 3.6 micron data. In order to take into account projection effects when measuring the disk thickness as a function of radius, I obtain the inclination by modeling the radio data. Using the measurement of the disk thicknesses and the derived radial profiles of gas and stars, I estimate the corresponding volume densities and vertical velocity dispersions. Both stellar and gas disks have smoothly varying scale heights and velocity dispersions, contrary to assumptions of previous studies. Using these scale heights and velocity dispersions, the gravitational instability parameter Q follows a fairly uniform profile with radius and is greater than or similar to 1 across the star forming disk. The star formation law has a slope that is significantly different from those found in more face-on galaxy studies, both in deprojected and pixel-by-pixel plots and this is likely due to IR opacity. Midplane density appears to be a better predictor of molecular-to-atomic ratio than midplane gas pressure.

New physics associated with the cosmic acceleration can be probed at cosmological scales as well as in laboratory experiments. I will begin by discussing the formation of large-scale cosmic structure, whose statistics will allow us to constrain cosmic expansion and new forces along with the masses of neutrinos. Using higher-order cosmological perturbation theories, I compute the power spectrum of large-scale structure, the Fourier transform of the two-point correlation function, for a universe with massive neutrinos and a cosmic acceleration driven by a time-varying dark energy density. Comparison with N-body dark matter simulations shows that perturbation theory is accurate to a few percent at distances of interest to upcoming galaxy surveys, and predicts a shift in the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations. Next, I will discuss laboratory constraints on couplings between dark energy and Standard Model particles, which are complementary to cosmological probes. Several models predict fifth forces at the dark energy scale, of order 100 microns, which are accessible to the next generation of laboratory experiments. Dark energy may also couple to photons, allowing for the production of dark energy particles in the Sun or the laboratory. The combination of information from the megaparsec and the micron scales will provide comprehensive constraints on dark energy over the next decade.

The origin of high energy emission has always been a key question in AGN physics. The gamma-ray bright blazars constitute a unique laboratory to probe jet formation and its relation to radio-to-gamma-ray variability. A combination of high-resolution VLBI images associated with densely time sampled multi-frequency flux measurements of the extreme BL Lac object S5 0716+714 over the past four years allow us to study its broad-band variability, allowing us to probe the jet acceleration zone, with emphasis on the location and size of the emitting regions and the evolution with time. We study the characteristics of some prominent mm-/gamma-ray flares in the context of (1) the shock-in-jet models, (2) broadband spectral modeling, (3) and jet kinematics, to probe the location of the high energy emission region. Here, I will present and discuss the main results of the study.

Globular Cluster (GC) cores have long been speculated to contain Intermediate-Mass Black Holes (IMBHs). Claims stemming from indirect detection methods abound, however there are still no definitive detections of radio or X-ray emission from accreting matter on IMBHs in GCs. Due to the high mass of IMBHs, an important criterium for distinguishing an IMBH candidate from other sources is based on how central the source is. I will briefly discuss analytical predictions and numerical simulation results about how far an IMBH can wander from the center of a typical GC, and the consequences in terms of potential false negatives in direct detection attempts.

Tidal disruption flares are thought to be evidences for quiescent supermassive black holes at the centers of inactive galaxies, because of those characteristic time variations with large luminosities. However, there is poorly known about tidal disruption and subsequent mass fallback process for stars approaching supermassive black holes on bound orbits. We perform three dimensional Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics simulations of those processes with a pseudo-Newtonian potential. We find that the mass fallback rate decays with the expected -5/3 power of time for parabolic orbits, albeit with a slight deviation due to the self-gravity of the stellar debris. For eccentric orbits, however, there is a critical value of the orbital eccentricity, significantly below which all of the stellar debris is bound to the supermassive black hole. All the mass therefore falls back to the supermassive black hole in a much shorter time than in the standard, parabolic case. The resultant mass fallback rate considerably exceeds the Eddington accretion rate and substantially differs from the -5/3 power of time. We also show that general relativistic precession is crucial for accretion disk formation via circularization of stellar debris from stars on moderately eccentric orbits. We also discuss how a black hole spin affects the debris circularization by SPH simulations with Post-Newtonian corrections.

The AAO has always been a pioneer of innovative instrumentation for cosmology, and especially survey cosmology involving fiber-based massive multiplexing over large fields. I will review the instruments the AAO has developed, both for our own own use, and for other observatories including ESO, Subaru and GMT. I will also review the technologies under development by the Instrument Science group. I will also look forward to projects still in the future, and how AAO and KASI might be able to work together for mutual benefit.

The New Solar Telescope (NST) in Big Bear is the first facility-class an off-axis solar telescope built in the US in a generation. The NST is in regular operation with adaptive optics (AO) correcting the light currently feeding photometric and near-IR polarimetric systems, as well as an imaging spectrograph. In this presentation I will review the existing and planned NST instrumentation and improvements. In the second part of my presentation I will review scientific results and findings based on the NST data.

We present our investigation of the characteristics of Class II protoplanetary disks in Orion A star-forming region. Our major goal is to analyze a large sample of protoplanetary disks with near- and mid-IR spectra, by statistical approaches, to understand protoplanetary disk evolution in Orion A. For this work, 303 protoplanetary disks in Orion A region observed by IRS/Spitzer and the follow-up observation of 120 objects from SpeX/IRTF are used to reveal the characteristics of Class II disks in Orion A. For clues on environmental effects on disk evolution and planet formation, we compare the disk properties and dust properties of Orion A disks to that of Taurus disks and examine trends with respect to position within Orion A. We extract spectral indices, equivalent widths, and integrated fluxes from IRS spectra of Class II objects in Orion A which pertain to disk structure and dust composition. We measure mass accretion rates using hydrogen recombination lines in SpeX spectra of our targets. Utilizing the properties, we analyze the general distribution of properties of disks in ONC, L1641, and Taurus from their histograms. Our main findings are as follows. (1)Transitional disks ? those protoplanetary disks for which deficits of infrared excess signify sharp-edged gaps in the dust distribution ? are produced gravitationally by companions to the central star. (2) From the high frequency (>20%) of transitional disks and the similar vertical structure of the Orion A disks to those of Taurus, we infer that giant planet formation and dust sedimentation is well under way, if not complete, even in the youngest Class II objects. (3) Less grain processing ? crystallization and growth of grains to diameter of 1?10 μm ? has occurred among the dust grains in the Orion A disks than in Taurus. The time scales for dust processing must therefore lie in the range of ages of the nearby clouds like Orion, NGC 1333, Taurus, Ophiuchus and Chamaeleon. (4) We detected PAH emission at 6?14 μm from disks around low-mass and low-luminosity young stars, excited externally by UV from the Trapezium stars. (5) As others have found for the Trapezium region of Orion, the disks of the surrounding Orion Nebular Cluster suffer reduced emission at long infrared wavelengths. The reduction tracks distance from the most luminous Trapezium star, θ1 Ori C, so this appears to be the effect of UV oblation of the outer part of the disks.