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Determination of fundamental stellar parameters on massive stars

Sede A. Riccò Via Santa Sofia 78, Catania

Massive stars (i.e. the progenitors of core-collapse supernovae) are quite scarce, but play a crucial role in several important astrophysical phenomena, as for example, the chemical evolution of their host galaxies. Even so, their fundamental stellar parameters (as mass, radii, temperature and luminosity) are poorly known. This relates to important uncertainties about their formation processes, structure and evolution. We are attempting to face this challenge at the research group GEMAE (Grupo de investigación en Estrellas Masivas y Agrupaciones Estelares) at the University of La Plata, together with collaborators in Chile and Spain. We rely mainly on high-quality and high-resolution spectroscopic data collected by 18 years by the OWN Survey of the O-type and WN-stars in the Southern hemisphere. In this talk I will outline the work that we are developing at GEMAE, focusing on determinations of masses of close binary stars by spectroscopy and photometry in the optic and near-infrared bands.

The evolution of young low-mass stars: focus on rotation and activity

Sede A. Riccò Via Santa Sofia 78, Catania

Between its formation stage as an active accreting seed and today, the Sun underwent large structural changes as well as variation in magnetic activity, rotation rate and its relation to the surrounding environment. I will go through the different processes that are responsible for these changes and present our latest results on the subject. We will go from the early interaction between the star and its proto-planetary disc bathing in UV radiations emitted from the massive neighbours, to the internal mixing happening in the inner layers of solar-like stars that are probed by asteroseismology.
Finally, I will review the possible applications of this work to other types of stars at different stages of the evolution in the context of the current or future surveys.

D.D.302/2023 Concorso pubblico per titoli ed esame, ai fini del reclutamento di un “Tecnologo”, Terzo Livello Professionale, con contratto di lavoro a tempo determinato e regime di impegno a tempo pieno, della durata di 18 mesi, eventualmente prorogabili, per lo svolgimento dell’attività di “Supporto attività STILES 6300 TestingWFInstrumentOnSky”

Concorso pubblico per titoli ed esame, ai fini del reclutamento di un "Tecnologo", Terzo Livello Professionale, con contratto di lavoro a tempo determinato e regime di impegno a tempo pieno, […]

D.D.455/2023 Assegno di ricerca di professionalizzazione della durata di 12 mesi dal titolo “Attività di divulgazione per l’INAF-OACT e supporto alle osservazioni solari e alla diffusione dei relativi risultati”

Pubblica selezione per titoli ed eventuale colloquio per il conferimento di un assegno di ricerca di professionalizzazione, della durata di 12 mesi, eventualmente prorogabili, dal titolo “Attività di divulgazione per […]

Challenges for the forthcoming CMB polarization experiments

Sede A. Riccò Via Santa Sofia 78, Catania

One of the major challenges in the context of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation is to detect a polarization pattern, the so called B-modes of CMB polarization, that are thought to be directly linked to the space-time fluctuations present in the Universe at the very first instants of life. To date, several challenges have prevented to detect the B-modes partly because of the lower sensitivity of the detectors. Our own Galaxy is observed in this context as a foreground contamination. However the awareness of improving the modeling of its polarized emission has been constantly increase not only to assess the cosmological signals but also to provide new insights onto the Galactic magnetic field probed with the Galactic polarized emissions, e.g. synchrotron and thermal dust. This is particularly relevant in order to better characterize the foreground contamination for future CMB experiments (e.g. SO, LiteBIRD, CMB-S4 ), where unprecedented polarization sensitivities are expected to be achieved in the coming decades.

D.D. 500/2023 Assegno di ricerca di professionalizzazione, per la durata di 12 mesi, eventualmente prorogabili, dal titolo “Sviluppo software per il processamento e analisi di dati astrofisici e cosmologici su piattaforme HPC Exascale”

Pubblica selezione per titoli ed eventuale colloquio per il conferimento di un assegno di ricerca di professionalizzazione, per la durata di 12 mesi, eventualmente prorogabili, dal titolo “Sviluppo software per […]

Astronomical Observations & Optical Communication through Atmospheric Turbulence

Sede A. Riccò Via Santa Sofia 78, Catania

The atmospheric parameters have a strong impact on the image formation through the atmosphere. Indeed, the effect of atmospheric turbulence on wavefronts reduces severely the resolution of ground-based astronomical observations. Thus, in the context of astronomical observations, the site-selection has now become essential with the advent of the next generation of Extremely Large Telescopes (ELT). Indeed, it is important to choose sites with reduced cloud coverage, weak turbulence and low aerosol distribution in order to enhance observations time and to improve their scientific performance. It is also important to remember that the choice of sites hosting astronomical projects must meet very strict criteria in terms of optical quality. Future optical communications and telemetry stations will be forced to meet the same
requirements.