Related papers: Recent Results of Solid-State Spectroscopy
Our understanding of the Universe today includes overwhelming observational evidence for the existence of an elusive form of matter that is generally referred to as dark. Although many theories have been developed to describe its nature,…
We review recent advances in our understanding of massive stars through the analysis of their spectra. Improvements in model atmospheres and analysis methods are briefly discussed. Results obtained for stars in the Local Group are compared…
The dust emissivity spectral index, $\beta$, is a critical parameter for deriving the mass and temperature of star-forming structures, and consequently their gravitational stability. The $\beta$ value is dependent on various dust grain…
New Cosmic Microwave Background, Galaxy Clustering and Supernovae type Ia data are increasingly constraining the dark energy component of our Universe. While the cosmological constant scenario remains consistent with these new tight…
We present a SOFIA FORCAST grism spectroscopic survey to examine the mineralogy of the circumstellar dust in a sample of post-asymptotic giant branch yellow supergiants that are believed to be the precursors of planetary nebulae. Our…
We present a semi-empirical model for the infrared emission of dust around star-forming sites in galaxies. Our approach combines a simple model of radiative transfer in dust clouds with a state-of-the-art model of the microscopic optical…
Rapid progress has been made recently toward the measurement of cosmological parameters. Still, there are areas remaining where future progress will be relatively slow and difficult, and where further attention is needed. In this review,…
Any distortion of a chemical structure causes new features to appear in the absorption spectrum of the structure, especially in the visible and near UV (see Paper I). Chemical modeling, using molecular orbital theory, showed that the…
Our current understanding of the physical conditions in the inner regions of protoplanetary discs is becoming increasingly challenged by the more detailed observational and theoretical explorations. Calculation of dust temperature is one of…
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) will provide the data to support detailed investigations of the distribution of luminous and non- luminous matter in the Universe: a photometrically and astrometrically calibrated digital imaging survey…
The existence of a cosmic neutrino background -- the analogue of the cosmic microwave background -- is a fundamental prediction of standard big bang cosmology. Up to now, the observational evidence for its existence is rather indirect and…
Can a gas behave like a crystal? Supersolidity is an intriguing and challenging state of matter which combines key features of superfluids and crystals. Predicted a long time ago, its experimental realization has been recently achieved in…
Dark energy is an important science driver of many upcoming large-scale surveys. With small, stable seeing and low thermal infrared background, Dome A, Antarctica, offers a unique opportunity for shedding light on fundamental questions…
The coagulation of cosmic dust grains is a fundamental process which takes place in astrophysical environments, such as presolar nebulae and circumstellar and protoplanetary disks. Cosmic dust grains can become charged through interaction…
Thermal dust is the major polarized foreground hindering the detection of primordial cosmic microwave background (CMB) B-modes. Its signal exhibits complex behavior in frequency space, arising from the combined variation in our Galaxy of…
Numerous astrophysical and cosmological observations are best explained by the existence of dark matter, a mass density which interacts only very weakly with visible, baryonic matter. Searching for the extremely weak signals produced by…
With Planck and Herschel, we now have the spectral coverage and angular resolution required to observe dense and cold molecular clouds. As these clouds are optically thick at short wavelength but optically thin at long wavelength, it is…
Galaxies' rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) properties are often used to directly infer the degree to which dust obscuration affects the measurement of star formation rates. While much recent work has focused on calibrating dust attenuation in…
In a previous paper we proposed a new model for the emission by amorphous astronomical dust grains, based on solid-state physics. The model uses a description of the Disordered Charge Distribution (DCD) combined with the presence of…
We explore whether assumptions about dust grain shape affect resulting estimates of the composition and grain size distribution of the AU Microscopii (AU Mic) debris disk from scattered light data collected by Lomax et al. (2018). The near…