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The hydrogen Lyman-alpha line is of utmost importance to many fields of astrophysics. This UV line being conveniently redshifted with distance to the visible and even near infrared wavelength ranges, it is observable from the ground, and provides the main observational window on the formation and evolution of high redshift galaxies. Absorbing systems that would otherwise go unnoticed are revealed through the Lyman-alpha forest, Lyman-limit, and damped Lyman-alpha systems, tracing the distribution of baryonic matter on large scales, and its chemical enrichment.We are living an exciting epoch with the advent of new instruments and facilities, on board of satellites and on the ground. Wide field and very sensitive integral field spectrographs are becoming available on the ground, such as MUSE at the ESO VLT. The giant E-ELT and TMT telescopes will foster a quantum leap in sensitivity and both spatial and spectroscopic resolution, to the point of being able, perhaps, to measure directly the acceleration of the Hubble flow. In space, the JWST will open new possibilities to study the Lyman-alpha emission of primordial galaxies in the near infrared. As long as the Hubble Space Telescope will remain available, the UV-restframe properties of nearby galaxies will be accessible to our knowledge. Therefore, this Saas-Fee course appears very timely and should meet the interest of many young researchers.

This book summarizes the recent progress in the physics and astrophysics of neutron stars and, most importantly, it identifies and develops effective strategies to explore, both theoretically and observationally, the many remaining open questions in the field. Because of its significance in the solution of many fundamental questions in nuclear physics, astrophysics and gravitational physics, the study of neutron stars has seen enormous progress over the last years and has been very successful in improving our understanding in these fascinating compact objects. The book addresses a wide spectrum of readers, from students to senior researchers. Thirteen chapters written by internationally renowned experts offer a thorough overview of the various facets of this interdisciplinary science, from neutron star formation in supernovae, pulsars, equations of state super dense matter, gravitational wave emission, to alternative theories of gravity. The book was initiated by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action MP1304 “Exploring fundamental physics with compact stars” (NewCompStar).

This book consists of invited reviews written by world-renowned experts on the subject of the outskirts of galaxies, an upcoming field which has been understudied so far. These regions are faint and hard to observe, yet hide a tremendous amount of information on the origin and early evolution of galaxies. They thus allow astronomers to address some of the most topical problems, such as gaseous and satellite accretion, radial migration, and merging. The book is published in conjunction with the celebration of the end of the four-year DAGAL project, an EU-funded initial training network, and with a major international conference on the topic held in March 2016 in Toledo. It thus reflects not only the views of the experts, but also the scientific discussions and progress achieved during the project and the meeting. The reviews in the book describe the most modern observations of the outer regions of our own Galaxy, and of galaxies in the local and high-redshift Universe. They tackle disks, haloes, streams, and accretion as observed through deep imaging and spectroscopy, and guide the reader through the various formation and evolution scenarios for galaxies. The reviews focus on the major open questions in the field, and explore how they can be tackled in the future. This book provides a unique entry point into the field for graduate students and non-specialists, and serves as a reference work for researchers in this exciting new field.

This volume extends the ISSI series on magnetic fields in the Universe into the domain of what are by far the strongest fields in the Universe, and stronger than any field that could be produced on Earth. The chapters describe the magnetic fields in non-degenerate strongly magnetized stars, in degenerate stars (such as white dwarfs and neutron stars), exotic members called magnetars, and in their environments, as well as magnetic fields in the environments of black holes. These strong fields have a profound effect on the behavior of matter, visible in particular in highly variable processes like radiation in all known wavelengths, including Gamma-Ray bursts. The generation and structure of such strong magnetic fields and effects on the environment are also described.

The years 2012/2013 mark the 50th anniversary of the theoretical prediction that Brown Dwarfs, i.e. degenerate objects which are just not massive enough to sustain stable hydrogen fusion, exist. Some 20 years after their discovery, how Brown Dwarfs form is still one of the main open questions in the theory of star formation.In this volume, the pioneers of Brown Dwarf research review the history of the theoretical prediction and the subsequent discovery of Brown Dwarfs. After an introduction, written by Viki Joergens, reviewing Shiv Kumar's theoretical prediction of the existence of brown dwarfs, Takenori Nakano reviews his and Hayashi's calculation of the Hydrogen Burning Minimum Mass. Both predictions happened in the early 1960s. Jill Tarter then writes on the introduction of the term'Brown Dwarf', before Ben Oppenheimer, Rafael Rebolo and Gibor Basri describe their first discovery of Brown Dwarfs in the 1990s. Lastly, Michael Cushing and Isabelle Baraffe describe the development of the field to the current state of the art. While the book is mainly aimed at the Brown Dwarf research community, the description of the pioneering period in a scientific field will attract general readers interested in astronomy as well.

This is the second ESO workshop in aseries dedicated to science oppor­ tunities with the VLT. At the first workshop all areas of astronomical research were discussed. This second workshop is dedicated to research projects on the early Universe and has provided a forum for discussing strategies for studying faint distant objects in the optical and infrared spectral regions. This field is evolving very rapidly. There are several new surveys of galax­ ies and clusters of galaxies at intermediate redshift and quasars at very high redshift. Major advances in the morphological studies of distant galaxies, surveys of galaxies at high redshift and searches for primeval galaxies have been rendered possible by the new facilities provided by the Rubble Space Telescope and the Keck Telescope. Observational constraints on the evolution and formation of galaxies and large-scale structures as well as the cosmic chemical evolution were criti­ cally discussed with regard to theory and numerical simulations. In this context, the VLT first generation instrument capabilities were presented comprehensively and their use as cosmological tools discussed. The concluding remarks of the workshop focussed on the analysis of var­ ious possibilities for the VLT second generation instrumentation. Many of these topics were covered by invited reviews and talks, as well as some contributed talks. They are included in this volume together with the poster papers.

Astrostatistical Challenges for the New Astronomy presents a collection of monographs authored by several of the disciplines leading astrostatisticians, i.e. by researchers from the fields of statistics and astronomy-astrophysics, who work in the statistical analysis of astronomical and cosmological data. Eight of the ten monographs are enhancements of presentations given by the authors as invited or special topics in astrostatistics papers at the ISI World Statistics Congress (2011, Dublin, Ireland). The opening chapter, by the editor, was adapted from an invited seminar given at Los Alamos National Laboratory (2011) on the history and current state of the discipline; the second chapter by Thomas Loredo was adapted from his invited presentation at the Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy V conference (2011, Pennsylvania State University), presenting insights regarding frequentist and Bayesian methods of estimation in astrostatistical analysis. The remaining monographs are research papers discussing various topics in astrostatistics. The monographs provide the reader with an excellent overview of the current state astrostatistical research, and offer guidelines as to subjects of future research. Lead authors for each chapter respectively include Joseph M. Hilbe (Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Arizona State Univ); Thomas J. Loredo (Dept of Astronomy, Cornell Univ); Stefano Andreon (INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Italy); Martin Kunz ( Institute for Theoretical Physics, Univ of Geneva, Switz); Benjamin Wandel ( Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, Univ Pierre et Marie Curie, France); Roberto Trotta (Astrophysics Group, Dept of Physics, Imperial College London, UK); Phillip Gregory (Dept of Astronomy, Univ of British Columbia, Canada); Marc Henrion (Dept of Mathematics, Imperial College, London, UK); Asis Kumar Chattopadhyay (Dept of Statistics, Univ of Calcutta, India); Marisa March (Astrophysics Group, Dept of Physics, Imperial College, London, UK).

Proceedings of the 4th Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society (SEA), held in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, September 11-14, 2000

This volume contains the Proceedings of the Fifth Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society (Sociedad Espanola de Astronomfa, SEA). The meeting was held at the Universidad de Castilla La Mancha in Toledo, from September 9 to 13, 2002. The event brought together 219 participants who pre­ sented their latest results in many different subjects. In comparison with the previous scientific meetings of the Society, the numbers of oral talks and poster contributions (122 and 64, respectively) are rapidly increasing, confirming that the SEA conferences are becoming a point of reference to assess the interests and achievements of astrophysical research in Spain. During the meeting, the SEA made public the granting of the Prize to the Best Spanish Ph. D. Thesis in As­ tronomy and Astrophysics for the period 2000-2001 ex aequo to Dr. A. Zurita and Dr. E. Villaver. This is the second time that the SEA is awarding this prize, which aim is to encourage young spanish astrophysicists to pursue a high level scientific career. The Society is indebted to the Universidad de Castilla La Mancha, and, in particular, to the San Pedro Martir staff, for its hospitality. It is also indebted to the Local Organizing Committee for its dedication and the good atmosphere that prevailed at any moment, and to the Scientific Organizing Committee for its excel­ lent work.

Galaxies have a history. This has become clear from recent sky surveys, which have shown that distant galaxies, formed early in the life of the Universe, differ from the nearby ones. New observational windows at ultraviolet, infrared and millimetric wavelengths (provided by ROSAT, IRAM, IUE, IRAS, ISO) have revealed that galaxies contain a wealth of components: very hot gas, atomic hydrogen, molecules, dust, dark matter. A significant advance is expected due to new instruments (VLT, FIRST, XMM) which will allow one to explore the most distant Universe. Three Euroconferences have been planned to punctuate this new epoch in galactic research, bringing together specialists in various fields of Astronomy. The first, held in Granada (Spain) in May 2000, addressed the observational clues. The second will take place in October 2001 in St Denis de la Réunion (France) and will review the basic building blocks and small-scale processes in galaxy evolution. The third will take place in July 2002 in Kiel (Germany) and will be devoted to the overall modelling of galaxy evolution. This book contains the proceedings of the first conference. It is recommended to researchers and PhD students in Astrophysics.

New observations of the period between the cosmic recombination and the end of reionization are posing intriguing questions about where the first generations of stars were formed, how the first galaxies were assembled, whether these galaxies have low redshift counterparts, and what role the early galaxies played in the reionization process. Combining the new observational data with theoretical models can shed new light on open issues regarding the star formation process, its role in the reionization of the Universe, and the metal enrichment in galaxies at those early epochs. This volume brings together leading experts in the field to discuss our current level of understanding and what may come in the near future as our observational as well as theoretical tools improve. The book confronts the theory of how the first stars, black holes, and galaxies formed with current and planned observations. This synthesis is very timely, just ahead of the establishment of major new facilities, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a next-generation, millimeter/sub-millimeter observatory in the Atacama desert (ALMA), and ground-based Extremely Large Telescopes (ELT). Together, they will revolutionize the study of the most distant objects in the Universe.This volume is aimed at beginning graduate students but can also serve as a reference work for active researchers in the field. Apart from presenting the fundamental concepts involved, it also provides an introduction to the methods and techniques used. The book will also be useful to anyone with an astrophysical background who needs an effective starting point for learning about the first stars and galaxies.

This NATO Advanced Study Institute course provided an updated understanding, from a fundamental and deep point of view, of the progress and current problems in the early universe, cosmic microwave background radiation, large-scale struc­ ture, dark matter problem, and the interplay between them. Emphasis was placed on the mutual impact of fundamental physics and cosmology, both at the theo­ retical and experimental or observational levels, within a deep and well defined programme, and a global unifying view, which, in addition, provides of careful inter-disciplinarity. In addition, each course of this series introduced and promoted topics or sub­ jects which, although not of a purely astrophysical or cosmological nature, were of relevant physical interest for astrophysics and cosmology. Deep understanding, clarification, synthesis, and careful interdisciplinarity within a fundamental physics framework, were the main goals of the course. Lectures ranged from a motivation and pedagogical introduction for students and participants not directly working in the field to the latest developments and most recent results. All lectures were plenary, had the same duration, and were followed by a discus­ sion. The course brought together experimentalists and theoreticans physicists, astro­ physicists and astronomers from a wide variety of backgrounds, including young scientists at the post-doctoral level, senior scientists and advanced graduate stu­ dents as well.

The Cologne-Bonn-Zermatt symposium is a well established series of conferences, occurring on a 5-year cycle, on the dense interstellar medium and related topics. The main results constitute valuable proceedings that offer everyone working in this field an authoritative and comprehensive source of reference.

Various kinds of masks obscure our view of our galaxy, the Milky Way, as well as of other galaxies. Masks of interstellar dust affect our measurements within galaxies, on scales ranging from individual supernovae to the galaxies themselves. The “mass mask” (our inability to image mass rather than light) gives astronomers a very incomplete picture of the size and structure of galaxies themselves, because we cannot image the dark matter which provides most of the galactic mass. Another mass is the “dynamical mask”: as galaxies form, much dynamical information is lost in the birthing process. A new thrust in research is to retrieve such information by means of chemical tagging. About 50 astronomers flew into Namibia in April 2010, to celebrate the 70th birthday of Professor K.C. Freeman, Fellow of the Royal Society. At age 70, Freeman, a father of dark matter in galaxies, continues to be one of planet's most highly cited astronomers. The current volume affords readers a unique perspective on galaxies by probing the thoughts of some of the greatest astronomers of our age. Contributions focus on galaxies from within our Local Group to those in our high redshift Universe. Approximately 40 in-depth review and contributed papers are contained in the volume, each written by an expert in the field. Two unusual features of the current volume include the “Star Country” of the San people of southern Africa as well as the introduction into astronomy of “The Treachery of Images” by the Belgian surrealist artist René Magritte. “Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see”, said Magritte. These words resonate the theme of the current volume “Galaxies and their Masks”, which is written at a level to be appreciated by both specialist and doctoral student alike.

Astronomy is a scienti?c discipline that has developed a rapid and impressive growth in Spain. Thirty years ago, Spain occupied a purely anecdotal presence in the international context, but today it occupies the eighth position in the world in publication of astronomical articles, and, among other successes, owns and op- ates ninety per cent of the world's largest optical telescope GTC (Gran Telescopio Canarias). The Eighth Scienti?c Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society (Sociedad Espanol ˜ a de Astronom´ a, SEA), held in Santander in July 7–11 2008, whose p- ceedings are in your hands, clearly shows the enthusiasm, motivation and quality of the present Spanish astronomical community. The event brought together 322 participants, who represent almost 50% of Spanish professional astronomers. This percentage, together with the continuously increasing, with respect to previous SEA meetings, number of oral presentations and poster contributions (179 and 127 respectively), con?rms that the SEA conferences have become a point of reference to assess the interests and achievements of astrophysical research in Spain. The most important and current topics of modern Astrophysics were taken into accountat thepreliminarymeeting,aswell as the numberandqualityofparticipants and their contributions, to select the invited speakers and oral contributors. We took a week to enjoy the high quality contributions submitted by Spanish astronomers to the Scienti?c Organizing Committee. The selection was dif?cult. We wish to acknowledge the gentle advice and commitment of the SOC members.

The study of clusters of galaxies has advanced tremendously in the recent years due to the advent of large or dedicated ground-based telescopes, the increasingly sensitive space observatories and the significant advances in numerical astrophysics and cosmology. The current generations of large spectroscopic and wide-field imaging survey and ongoing multi-wavelength studies, covering a large range of the electromagnetic spectrum from X-rays to the sub-mm and the radio, are making major breakthroughs in our understanding of galaxy aggregation and transformation processes in different environments, on the properties of the tenuous ICM gas, on the starburst activity and on revealing environmental effects on galaxy formation and evolution. The reviews presented in this volume cover a wide-range of cluster of galaxies topics like the physics of the ICM gas, the internal cluster dynamics, the detection of clusters using different observational techniques, the great advances in analytical or numerical modeling of clusters, weak and strong lensing effects, the large scale structure as traced by clusters, the cosmological significance of clusters as well as the formation and evolution of clusters within the new cosmological paradigm. This volume is aimed towards the researchers and senior graduate students in multi-wavelength astrophysics and cosmology.

John Dyson has contributed to the study of the hydrodynamic processes that govern a wide variety of astrophysical sources which he has helped explain. In this volume dedicated to him, introductory reviews to a number of the key processes and to the sources themselves are given by leading experts. The mechanisms in which the multi-component natures of media affect their dynamics receive particular attention, but the roles of hydromagnetic effects are also highlighted. The importance of cosmic ray moderation and mass transfer between different thermal phases for cosmic ray moderation and mass transfer between different thermal phases for the evolution of flows are amongst the topics treated. The main types of regions considered include those where stars form, the circumstellar environments of evolved stars, the larger scale interstellar structures caused by the mass loss of stars, and those where the lines of AGNs form. The reviews complement one another and together provide a coherent introduction to the astrophysics of diffuse sources suitable for postgraduate students and researchers in astrophysics. Individual reviews stand alone and are suitable for an audience that includes advanced undergraduates doing final year projects.

This is the second edition of my book Galaxy Formation. Many people liked the rst edition which appeared in 1998, just before the explosion of magni cent new data which have completely changed the face of astrophysical cosmology. Many of the agonies which had to be gone through in the rst edition have disappeared and, to many people's amazement, including mine, there is now a concordance model for cosmology, the cosmologist's equivalent of the particle physicist's standard model. Just like the standard model, however, the concordance model creates as many problems as it solves. This is not a cause for concern, but rather one for celebration because we are now able to ask much better and deeper questions than in the past. These questions indicate clearly the need for physics and astrophysics ‘Beyond the Concordance Model'. Theobjectofthisneweditionistobringthisamazingstoryup-to-date,verymuch inthespiritofthe rstedition.Torecapitulatesomeofthepointsmadeintheprevious prefaceabouttheoriginofthebook,IwasaskedbySpringer-Verlagtoexpandtheset of lecture notes that I prepared in 1988 for the First Astrophysics School organised by the European Astrophysics Doctoral Network into a full-length book. The set of notes was entitled Galaxy Formation and was published as a chapter of the volume Evolution of Galaxies: Astronomical Observations (eds. I. Appenzeller, H.J. Habing andP.Lena,pages1to93,Springer-VerlagBerlin,Heidelberg,1989).Inthatchapter, Iattemptedtobridgethegapbetweenelementarycosmologyandthetechnicalpapers appearing in the literature which can seem quite daunting on rst encounter. The objective was to present the physical ideas and key results as clearly as possible as an introduction and guide to the technical literature.

This volume documents the contributions presented at the Seventh Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society (Sociedad Española de Astronomía, SEA). The event bought together 301 participants who presented 161 contributed talks and 120 posters, the greatest numbers up to now. The fact that most exciting items of the current astronomical research were addressed in the meeting proofs the good health of the SEA, a consolidated organization founded fifteen years ago in Barcelona. Two plenary sessions of the meeting were devoted to the approved entrance of Spain as a full member of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and to the imminent first light of the greatest telescope in the world, the GTC (Gran Telescopio de Canarias), milestones that will certainly lead the Spanish Astronomy in the next future.

Starbursts are important features of early galaxy evolution. Many of the distant, high-redshift galaxies we are able to detect are in a starbursting phase, often apparently provoked by a violent gravitational interaction with another galaxy. In fact, if we did not know that major starbursts existed, these conference proceedings testify that we would indeed have difficulties explaining the key properties of the Universe! These conference proceedings cover starbursts from the small-scale star-forming regions in nearby galaxies to galaxy-wide events at high redshifts; one of the major themes of the conference proved to be'scalability', i.e., can we scale up the small-scale events to describe the physics on larger scales. The key outcome of this meeting – and these proceedings – is a resounding'yes'to this fundamental, yet profound question. The enhanced synergy facilitated by the collaboration among observers using cutting-edge ground and space-based facilities, theorists and modellers has made these proceedings a true reflection of the state of the art in this very rapidly evolving field.