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The spatial and dynamical structure of star-forming regions can help provide insights on stellar formation patterns. The amount of data from current and upcoming surveys calls for robust and objective procedures to detect structure, so the results can be statistically analysed and different regions compared. We provide the community with a tool able to detect the small scale significant structure, above random expectation, in star-forming regions, which could be the imprint of the stellar formation process. The tool makes use of the one point correlation function and of nearest neighbour statistics to determine the parameters for the DBSCAN algorithm. The procedure successfully detects significant small scale substructures in heterogeneous regions, fulfilling the goals it was designed for, and providing very reliable structures. The analysis of regions close to complete spatial randomness ($Q \in [0.7,0.87]$) shows that, even when some structure is present and recovered, it is hardly distinguishable from spurious detection in homogeneous regions due to projection effects. Interpretation should thus be done with care. For concentrated regions, we detect a main structure surrounded by smaller ones, corresponding to the core plus some Poisson fluctuations around it. We argue that these structures do not correspond to the small compact regions we are looking for. In some realistic cases, a more complete hierarchical, multi-scale analysis would be needed to capture the complexity of the region. We have developed implementations of our procedure, and a catalogue of the NESTs (Nested Elementary STructures) detected by it in four star-forming regions (Taurus, IC 348, Upper Scorpius, and Carina), which are publicly available to the community. Implementations of the 3D, and up to 6D versions of the procedure including proper movements are in progress, and will be provided as future work., Comment: 24 pages, 21 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A. Abstract abridged

Aims. To demonstrate that `INDICATE' is a powerful spatial analysis tool which when combined with kinematic data from Gaia DR2 can be used to robustly probe star formation history. Methods. We compared the dynamic & spatial distributions of young stellar objects (YSOs) at various evolutionary stages in NGC 2264 using Gaia DR2 proper motion data and INDICATE. Results. The dynamic & spatial behaviours of YSOs at different evolutionary stages are distinct. Dynamically, Class II YSOs predominately have non-random trajectories that are consistent with known substructures, whereas Class III YSOs have random trajectories with no clear expansion or contraction patterns. Spatially, there is a correlation between the evolutionary stage and source concentration: 69.4% of Class 0/I, 27.9% of Class II, and 7.7% of Class III objects are found to be clustered. The proportion of YSOs clustered with objects of the same class also follows this trend. Class 0/I objects are both found to be more tightly clustered with the general populous/objects of the same class than Class IIs and IIIs by a factor of 1.2/4.1 and 1.9/6.6, respectively. An exception to these findings is within 0.05deg of S Mon where Class III objects mimic the behaviours of Class II sources across the wider cluster region. Our results suggest (i) current YSOs distributions are a result of dynamical evolution, (ii) prolonged star formation has been occurring sequentially, and (iii) stellar feedback from S Mon is causing YSOs to appear as more evolved sources. Conclusions. Designed to provide a quantitative measure of clustering behaviours, INDICATE is a powerful tool with which to perform rigorous spatial analyses. Our findings are consistent with what is known about NGC 2264, effectively demonstrating that when combined with kinematic data from Gaia DR2 INDICATE can be used to robustly study the star formation history of a cluster., Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, 5 tables, Accepted for publication in A&A

A simplified model of clonal plant growth is formulated, motivated by observations of spatial structures in Posidonia oceanica meadows in the Mediterranean Sea. Two levels of approximation are considered for the scale-dependent feedback terms. Both take into account mortality and clonal, or vegetative, growth as well as competition and facilitation, but the first version is nonlocal in space while the second is local. Study of the two versions of the model in the one-dimensional case reveals that both cases exhibit qualitatively similar behavior (but quantitative differences) and describe the competition between three spatially extended states, the bare soil state, the populated state, and a pattern state, and the associated spatially localized structures. The latter are of two types, holes in the populated state and vegetation patches on bare ground, and are organized within distinct snaking bifurcation diagrams. Fronts between the three extended states are studied and a transition between pushed and pulled fronts identified. Numerical simulations in one spatial dimension are used to determine front speeds and confront the predictions from the marginal stability condition for pulled fronts., Comment: 14 pages, 18 figures. To appear in Physica D

We introduce our new code MYOSOTIS (Make Your Own Synthetic ObservaTIonS) which is designed to produce synthetic observations from simulated clusters. The code can synthesise observations from both ground- and spaced-based observatories, for a range of different filters, observational conditions and angular/spectral resolution. In this paper, we highlight some of the features of MYOSOTIS, creating synthetic observations from young massive star clusters. Our model clusters are simulated using nbody6 code and have different total masses, half-mass radii, and binary fractions. The synthetic observations are made at the age of 2 Myr with Solar metallicity and under different extinction conditions. For each cluster, we create synthetic images of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in the visible (WFPC2/F555W) as well as Very Large Telescopes (VLT) in the nearIR (SPHERE/IRDIS/Ks). We show how MYOSOTIS can be used to look at mass function (MF) determinations. For this aim we re-estimate stellar masses using a photometric analysis on the synthetic images. The synthetic MF slopes are compared to their actual values. Our photometric analysis demonstrate that depending on the adopted filter, extinction, angular resolution and pixel sampling of the instruments, the power-law index of the underlying MFs can be shallower than the observed ones by at least 0.25 dex which is in agreement with the observed discrepancies reported in the literature, specially for young star clusters., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, Accepted to be published in MNRAS

The radiative decays of $b$-baryons facilitate the direct measurement of photon helicity in $b\to s\gamma$ transitions thus serving as an important test of physics beyond the Standard Model. In this paper we analyze the complete angular distribution of ground state $b$-baryon ($\Lambda_{b}^{0}$ and $\Xi_{b}^{-}$) radiative decays to multibody final states assuming an initially polarized $b$-baryon sample. Our sensitivity study suggests that the photon polarization asymmetry can be extracted to a good accuracy along with a simultaneous measurement of the initial $b$-baryon polarization. With higher yields of $b$-baryons, achievable in subsequent runs of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), we find that the photon polarization measurement can play a pivotal role in constraining different new physics scenarios., Comment: Typos corrected, reference added

Aims. To present the new novel statistical clustering tool 'INDICATE' which assesses and quantifies the degree of spatial clustering of each object in a dataset, discuss its applications as a tracer of morphological stellar features in star forming regions, and to look for these features in the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372). Results. We successfully recover known stellar structure of the Carina Nebula, including the 5 young star clusters in this region. Four sub-clusters contain no, or very few, stars with a degree of association above random which suggests they may be fluctuations in the field rather than real clusters. In addition we find: (1) Stars in the NW and SE regions have significantly different clustering tendencies, which is reflective of differences in the apparent star formation activity in these regions. Further study is required to ascertain the physical origin of the difference; (2) The different clustering properties between these two regions are even more pronounced for OB stars; (3) There are no signatures of classical mass segregation present in the SE region - massive stars here are not spatially concentrated together above random; (4) Stellar concentrations are more frequent around massive stars than typical for the general population, particularly in the Tr14 cluster; (5) There is a relation between the concentration of OB stars and the concentration of (lower mass) stars around OB stars in the centrally concentrated Tr14 and Tr15, but no such relation exists in Tr16. We conclude this is due to the highly sub-structured nature of Tr16. Conclusions. INDICATE is a powerful new tool employing a novel approach to quantify the clustering tendencies of individual objects in a dataset within a user-defined parameter space. As such it can be used in a wide array of data analysis applications., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A; 15 pages, 10 figures, 3 appendices

We present a full two-fluid magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) description for a completely ionized hydrogen plasma, retaining the effects of the Hall current, electron pressure and electron inertia. According to this description, each plasma species introduces a new spatial scale: the ion inertial length $\lambda_{i}$ and the electron inertial length $\lambda_{e}$, which are not present in the traditional MHD description. In the present paper, we seek for possible changes in the energy power spectrum in fully developed turbulent regimes, using numerical simulations of the two-fluid equations in two-and-a-half dimensions (2.5D). We have been able to reproduce different scaling laws in different spectral ranges, as it has been observed in the solar wind for the magnetic energy spectrum. At the smallest wavenumbers where plain MHD is valid, we obtain an inertial range following a Kolmogorov $k^{-5/3}$ law. For intermediate wavenumbers such that $\lambda_{i}^{-1} << k << \lambda_{e}^{-1}$, the spectrum is modified to a $k^{-7/3}$ power-law, as has also been obtained for Hall-MHD (HMHD) neglecting electron inertia terms. When electron inertia is retained, a new spectral region given by $k > \lambda_{e}^{-1}$ arises. The power spectrum for magnetic energy in this region is given by a $k^{-11/3}$ power law. Finally, when the terms of electron inertia are retained, we study the self-consistent electric field. Our results are discussed and compared with those obtained in solar wind observations and previous simulations.

We present a study of the host bulge properties and their relations with the black hole mass on a sample of 10 intermediate-type active galactic nuclei (AGN). Our sample consists mainly of early type spirals, four of them hosting a bar. For 70$^{+10}_{-17}%$ of the galaxies we have been able to determine the type of the bulge, and find that these objects probably harbor a pseudobulge or a combination of classical bulge/ pseudobulge, suggesting that pseudobulges might be frequent in intermediate-type AGN. In our sample, 50\pm14% of the objects show double-peaked emission lines. Therefore, narrow double-peaked emission lines seem to be frequent in galaxies harboring a pseudobulge or a combination of classical bulge/ pseudobulge. Depending on the bulge type, we estimated the black hole mass using the corresponding $M_{BH} - {\sigma*}$ relation and found them with a range of: 5.69$\pm$0.21 $<$ $\log M_{BH}^{\sigma*}$ $<$ 8.09$\pm$0.24. Comparing these $M_{BH}^{\sigma*}$ values with masses derived from the FWHM of H$\beta$ and the continuum luminosity at 5100 \AA from their SDSS-DR7 spectra ($M_{BH}$) we find that eight out of ten (80$^{+7}_{-17}$%) galaxies have black hole masses that are compatible within a factor of 3. This result would support that $M_{BH}$ and $M_{BH}^{\sigma*}$ are the same for intermediate-type AGN as has been found for type 1 AGN. However, when the type of the bulge is taken into account only 3 out of the 7 (43$^{+18}_{-15}%$) objects of the sample have their $M_{BH}^{\sigma*}$ and $M_{BH}$ compatible within 3-$\sigma$ errors. We also find that estimations based on the $M_{BH}-\sigma*$ relation for pseudobulges are not compatible in 50$\pm20%$ of the objects., Comment: 32 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ, Dec 04 2012. Subjects: Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)

A sample of 10 nearby intermediate-type active galactic nuclei (AGN) drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-DR7) is presented. The aim of this work is to provide estimations of the black hole mass for the sample galaxies from the dynamics of the broad line region. For this purpose, a detailed spectroscopic analysis of the objects was done. Using BPT diagnostic diagrams we have carefully classified the objects as true intermediate-type AGN and found that 80%$^{+7.2%}_{-17.3%}$ are composite AGN. The black hole mass estimated for the sample is within 6.54$\pm$0.16\,$<$\,log\,$M_{\rm BH}$\,$<$\,7.81$\pm$0.14. Profile analysis show that five objects (\object{J120655.63+501737.1}, \object{J121607.08+504930.0}, \object{J141238.14+391836.5}, \object{J143031.18+524225.8} and \object{J162952.88+242638.3}) have narrow double-peaked emission lines in both the red (H$\alpha$, [\ion{N}{2}]$\lambda\lambda$6548,6583 and [\ion{S}{2}]$\lambda\lambda$6716,6731) and the blue (H$\beta$ and [\ion{O}{3}]$\lambda\lambda$4959,5007) region of the spectra, with velocity differences ($\Delta V$) between the double peaks within 114\,$<\Delta V\,<$\,256 km s$^{-1}$. Two of them, \object{J121607.08+504930.0} and \object{J141238.14+391836.5} are candidates for dual AGN since their double-peaked emission lines are dominated by AGN activity. In searches of dual AGN; Type 1, Type 1I and intermediate-type AGN should be carefully separated, due to the high serendipitous number of narrow double-peaked sources (50%$\pm$14.4%) found in our sample., Comment: 37 pages, 14 figures, 6 tables, accepted for ApJ, Nov 26, 2012 Subjects: Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)

We present results from integral field spectroscopy with the Potsdam Multi-Aperture Spectrograph at the 3.5m telescope at Calar Alto Observatory of the intense star-forming region [HL90] 111 at the center of the starburst galaxy IC 10. We have obtained maps with a spatial sampling of 1" x 1" = 3.9 pc x 3.9 pc of different emission lines and analyzed the extinction, physical conditions, nature of the ionization, and chemical abundances of the ionized gas, as well determined locally the age of the most recent star-formation event. By defining several apertures, we study the main integrated properties of some regions within [HL90] 111. Two contiguous spaxels show an unambiguous detection of the broad He II 4686 emission line, this feature seems to be produced by a single WNL star. We also report a probable N and He enrichment in the precise spaxels where the WR features are detected. The enrichment pattern is roughly consistent with that expected for the pollution of the ejecta of a single or a very small number of WR stars. Furthermore, this chemical pollution is very localized (~2"~7.8 pc) and it should be difficult to detect in star-forming galaxies beyond the Local Volume. We also discuss the use of the most-common empirical calibrations to estimate the oxygen abundances of the ionized gas in nearby galaxies from 2D spectroscopic data. The ionization degree of the gas plays an important role when applying these empirical methods, as they tend to give lower oxygen abundances with increasing ionization degree., Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present optical photometry and spectroscopy of the afterglow and host galaxy of gamma-ray burst 040924. This GRB had a rather short duration of T90 ~2.4s, and a well sampled optical afterglow light curve. We aim to use this dataset to find further evidence that this burst is consistent with a massive star core-collapse progenitor. We combine the afterglow data reported here with data taken from the literature and compare the host properties with survey data. We find that the global behaviour of the optical afterglow is well fit by a broken power-law, with a break at ~0.03 days. We determine the redshift z = 0.858 +/- 0.001 from the detected emission lines in our spectrum. Using the spectrum and photometry we derive global properties of the host, showing it to have similar properties to long GRB hosts. We detect the [Ne III] emission line in the spectrum, and compare the fluxes of this line of a sample of 15 long GRB host galaxies with survey data, showing the long GRB hosts to be comparable to local metal-poor emission line galaxies in their [Ne III] emission. We fit the supernova bump accompanying this burst, and find that it is similar to other long GRB supernova bumps, but fainter. All properties of GRB 040924 are consistent with an origin in the core-collapse of a massive star: the supernova, the spectrum and SED of the host and the afterglow., Comment: A&A submitted. 10 pages, 4 figures

We explore the use of Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS) to observe extrasolar planet transits. Although this technique should find its full potential in space observations (e.g. JWST, TPF), we have tested its basics with ground based time series observations of HD209458b obtained with WHT+INTEGRAL during a transit. For this analysis we used 5550 spectra, obtained in 150 exposures during a period of >7 hours. We found that IFS offers 3 fundamental advantages with respect to previously used methods. (i) It improves the effective S/N in photon limited observations by distributing the light coming from the star into the 2 dimensions of the detector. (ii) This type of IFS data allows to 'auto-calibrate' instrumental and background effects. (iii) Since the star image characteristics as well as its photometric properties are extracted from the same data-cube, it is possible to decorrelate photometric instabilities induced by PSF variations. These data have also allowed us to explore the accuracy limits of ground based 'relative' spectrophotometry. This was done using a photometric index that probes the NaD lines, for which we obtained a nominal 1-sigma error of ~1.0x10^-4. This result, based on observations of only 1 transit, indicates that this type of ground observation can constrain the characterization of the transmission spectrum of extrasolar planets. The present observations are compatible with no extra NaD depression during the transit. Though this result seems to be inconsistent with the recently reported HST-STIS findings we point out its limited statistical meaning: the results disagree within 1-sigma, but agree within 2-sigma. We also give some recommenda-tions to instrument developers in order to enhance the efficiency of the method., Comment: 15 pages, 2 tables, 10 figures. To appear in PASP (January 2006)

Extensive light and colour curves for the Type Ia supernova SN 2002er are presented as part of the European Supernova Collaboration. We have collected UBVRI photometry from ten different telescopes covering the phases from 7 days before until 619 days after maximum light. Corrections for the different instrumental systems and the non-thermal spectrum of the supernova (S-corrections) have been applied. With the densely sampled light curves we can make detailed comparisons to other well-observed objects. SN 2002er most closely resembles SN 1996X after maximum, but clearly shows a different colour evolution before peak light and a stronger shoulder in V and R bands compared to other well-observed SNe Ia. In particular, the rise time appears to be longer than what is expected from rise-time vs.decline-rate relation. We use several methods to determine the reddening towards SN 2002er based on the colour evolution at near peak and at late phases. The uvoir (bolometric) light curve shows great similarity with SN 1996X, but also indications of a higher luminosity, longer rise time and a more pronounced shoulder 25 days past maximum. The interpretation of the light curves was done with two independent light curve codes. Both find that given the luminosity of SN 2002er the 56Ni mass exceeds 0.6 Msun with prefered values near 0.7 Msun. Uncertainties in the exact distance to SN 2002er are the most serious limitation of this measurement. The light curve modelling also indicates a high level of mixing of the nickel in the explosion of SN 2002er., Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present new observations of IRAS 04000+5052, a Galactic HII region associated with a young stellar cluster and possibly located at the Perseus arm. Contrary to previous claims, we have found that this object is not a compact metal-poor HII region. The electron density and chemical composition of the nebula are similar to those of normal HII regions of the Galactic disk. The radial velocity of the ionized gas coincides with that obtained from CO observations, indicating that the nebula is associated with a molecular cloud. Probably, the ionizing source of the HII region is a Herbig Be star of B0.5 spectral type., Comment: 15 pages, 2 tables, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in PASP

We describe the technique used to develop on-orbit calibrators for IRAC and validate the method for either K0-M0III or A0-A5V stars. For SIRTF, the approach uses all available optical, NIR, and MIR photometry, and yields absolute spectra from UV to MIR. One set of stars is from Landolt's network of optical standards, the other from Carter-Meadows IR standards. Traceability to the Cohen-Walker- Witteborn framework of absolute photometry and spectra is assured. The method is based on using either "supertemplates" to represent the intrinsic shapes of the spectra of K0-M0IIIs from 1150A to 35 um, or Kurucz synthetic spectra for A0-5V stars. Each supertemplate/model is reddened according to a star's extinction and normalized by characterized optical photometry. This paper tests our ability to predict NIR (JHK) magnitudes from supertemplates or models constrained by Hippa- rcos/Tycho or precision ground-based optical data. We offer absolute calibrated spectra of 33 optical standards to demonstrate the viability of this technique for a set of IR calibrators 100-1000 times fainter than we have previously publ- ished. We calculate the absolute uncertainties associated with predicting IRAC mags for the faintest cool giant and hot dwarf in this new set of calibrators., Comment: 53 pages, Latex, AASTEX5 macros