Related papers: Mathematics and explanation in astronomy and astro…
The growing sample of magnetic stars shows a remarkable diversity in the properties of their magnetic fields. The overall goal of current studies is to understand the origin, evolution, and structure of stellar magnetic fields in stars of…
We model the evolution of the galactic bulge and of the bulges of a selected sample of external spiral galaxies, via the multiphase multizone evolution model. We address a few questions concerning the role of the bulges within galactic…
A short introduction is given to astrophysics of neutron stars and to physics of dense matter in neutron stars. Observed properties of astrophysical objects containing neutron stars are discussed. Current scenarios regarding formation and…
Learning to use math in science is a non-trivial task. It involves many different skills (not usually taught in a math class) that help blend physical knowledge with mathematical symbology. One of these is the idea of quantification: that…
In this thesis, we introduce novel methods for analyzing pulsar populations using a variety of mathematical techniques. These tools-particularly graph theory-have been thoroughly validated in advanced mathematics, enabling us to overcome…
Since the dawn of civilization, humanity has grappled with the big questions of existence and creation. Modern cosmology seeks to answer some of these questions using a combination of mathematics and measurement. The questions people hope…
Surveys of the local and distant Universe are the means to test and improve our models of galaxy formation. Substantial successes in the models are evident, while there is also considerable recent progress in identifying what remains to be…
Cosmic structures at large scales represent the earliest and most extended form of matter condensation. In this lecture we review the application of the methods and concepts of modern statistical physics to these structures. This leads to a…
A historical review of our understanding of bulges is first presented, highlighting similarities and differences between bulges and ellipticals. Then, some topics of current interest are reviewed, bypassing stellar population questions and…
We describe a new inquiry design aimed at teaching advanced high-school to senior college students the basics of stellar populations. The inquiry is designed to have students come up with their own version of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram…
This article looks at philosophical aspects and questions that modern astrophysical research gives rise to. Other than cosmology, astrophysics particularly deals with understanding phenomena and processes operating at "intermediate" cosmic…
A detailed understanding of the physics of star and planet formation requires study of individual objects as well as statistical assessment of global properties and evolutionary trends. Observational investigations of circumstellar material…
The role mathematics plays within physics has been of sustained interest for physicists as well as for philosophers and historians of science. We explore this topic by tracing the role the mathematical structure associated with SU(2) has…
The shapes of galaxies are not randomly oriented on the sky. During the galaxy formation and evolution process, environment has a strong influence, as tidal gravitational fields in the large-scale structure tend to align nearby galaxies.…
The incredible variety of galaxy shapes cannot be summarized by human defined discrete classes of shapes without causing a possibly large loss of information. Dictionary learning and sparse coding allow us to reduce the high dimensional…
A general overview of neutrino physics and astrophysics is given, starting with a historical account of the development of our understanding of neutrinos and how they helped to unravel the structure of the Standard Model. We discuss why it…
Numerous physical aspects of stellar physics have been presented in Ses- sion 2 and the underlying uncertainties have been tentatively assessed. We try here to highlight some specific points raised after the talks and during the general…
Particles have tremendous potential as astronomical messengers, and conversely, studying the universe as a whole also teaches us about particle physics. This thesis encompasses both of these research directions. Many models predict a…
Identification of first and second turnaround radii in groups of galaxies provide interesting scaling relations and may constrain cosmological parameters.
We provide a complete structure theorem for involutory matrices. This yields a new approach to principal angles between subspaces and provide a series of nice formulae for these angles.