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// Month[i]=["date","Speaker","Institution","Title","Abstract","Host","Special Time Notes","Special Time Notes"];
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//August[0]=["31","He Ap","Utah","Fun with HEAP","I will talk about fun.","Mr Heap","",""];
//August[0]=["28","","","","","","","",""]
September[0]=["4","All","HEAP","Jamboree","We ask each of the faculty members, postdocs, and students to submit one slide on their recent or ongoing research or on their research interests. The seminar will be composed of 1-2min talks by everyone (a.k.a. machine gun talks or lightning talks). This provides an opportunity for people to know the current activities in the astronomy and high-energy groups, and it also serves as an introduction of the groups to the newly coming students.","Local","","",""]
September[1]=["11","Aaron Knoll","Utah","Methodologies for Large Particle Visualization","This talk will describe three methods for visualization of massive particle data, each with unique strengths. These approaches are data-parallel volume rendering, out-of-core streaming, and in-core large-memory ray tracing. As an example of the latter, we have most recently explored the balanced p-k-d tree, a data structure enabling zero-overhead representation, efficient query and real-time ray tracing of gigascale--terascale particle data. Each method offers advantages in terms of IO performance, rendering performance, and general query capability. We hope to spark discussion on the visualization needs of large-scale cosmology users, analyzing data from simulation and sky surveys, and balancing interactive analysis and batch visualization goals.","Kyle Dawson","","",""]
September[2]=["18","","","","","","","",""]
September[3]=["25","Hannah Jang-Condell","Wyoming","Disk Sculpting by Planets and Binaries and Their Effects on Planet Formation","Exoplanets have been discovered in orbits as close as 0.05 AU, and as distant as hundreds of AU.  Hence, exoplanets are a hot topic, but they are also pretty cool.  How do such disparate planetary systems arise?  The best way to learn is to directly study planets while they are forming in young circumstellar disks.  Gas-rich protoplanetary disks represent early stages of planet formation, when gas giants form, while gas-free debris disks represent later stages of planet formation, when terrestrial planets might form.  Dynamical interactions between disks and stellar companions or embedded planets sculpt the disks.  If this results in disk truncation, it can limit planet formation within the disk.  Additionally, observations of disk sculpting can help identify locations of active planet formation. Identification of these signposts of planet formation enable insights into where, when, and how planets form.","Anil Seth","","",""]
October[0]=["2","","","No HEAP Seminar","Telescope Array External Advisory Panel","","",""]
October[1]=["9","Ken Heller","Minnesota","NOvA Begins - First Results from the NOvA Neutrino Oscillation Experiment","The NOvA long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment has just completed its initialdata run and the analysis of that data.  This run constitutes about 8% of the planned data. The first run resulted in a measurement of the oscillation of muon neutrinos into two modes.  One the disappearance of muon neutrinos, the 2-3 oscillation, and the other the appearance of electron neutrinos, the 1-3 oscillation.  In addition to describing the results and their impact on the neutrino mass ordering and CP violation, I will describe the construction and design of this unique 14 kiloton detector.","Jordan Gerton","",""]
//October[2]=["16","","","","","","","",""]
October[2]=["23","John Krizmanic","Goddard","Measuring the Elemental Composition from Carbon (Z=6) to Curium (Z=96) in the Cosmic Radiation with the Heavy Nuclei eXplorer (HNX) Small Explorer Mission","The Heavy Nuclei eXplorer (HNX) experiment is designed to measure abundances of nuclei from Carbon (Z=6) to Curium (Z=96) in the cosmic radiation on an element-by-element basis. The sensitivity of HNX will allow for the measurement to be complete through the actinides, providing first abundance measurements of many of these elements. HNX is comprised of two high-precision instruments, the Extremely-heavy Cosmic-ray Composition Observer (ECCO) and the Cosmic-ray Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder (CosmicTIGER), which are to be located in a SpaceX DragonLab orbited the Earth. In this talk, I will discuss the design and performance of the HNX experiment as well as the motivating science: to determine if Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) are accelerated from new material or reservoirs of old material and what is the age of this material; determine the nucleosynthesis and acceleration processes responsible for the of Ultra-Heavy GCRs (Z>=30), and their traversed galactic pathlength; and search for anomalously heavy components in the cosmic rays.","Doug Bergman","","",""]
October[3]=["30","","","","","","","",""]
November[0]=["4","Kuver Sinha","Syracuse","What the Large Hadron Collider May Teach Us About Early Universe Cosmology","Cosmological observations provide clear evidence that the Universe is made up mainly of dark matter and dark energy, neither of which have an explanation within the Standard Model of particle physics. Combined with the mysterious hierarchical distance between the Electroweak scale and the Planck scale, and the question of understanding the Higgs mass, it is clear that the cosmic and energy frontiers are both crying out for new physics. The data-driven era of the Large Hadron Collider and the many dark matter detection experiments hold out hope for a deeper understanding of these mysteries. I will discuss both the theoretical and observational status of these issues, with a focus on how cosmic history before Big Bang Nucleosynthesis can affect our search strategies in experiments today. I will also discuss several intriguing anomalies that have appeared in the 8 TeV run of the LHC, and what one might hope to learn if any of them survives.","Pearl Sandick","Wed","11"]
November[1]=["6","Lucy Fortson","Minnesota","Looking for evidence of secondary gamma rays in blazar spectra from cosmic ray line of sight interactions","Recent analyses of very high energy (VHE; >100GeV) blazar spectra have shown evidence for an excess of N3-rays when attenuation by extragalactic background light (EBL) is expected to be high. A possible explanation for this anomaly is secondary N3-rays from ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) interacting with background photons. If the intergalactic magnetic field (IGMF) strength is sufficiently small, these UHECRs could travel straight enough for long enough that the secondary VHE N3-rays would appear point-like for existing imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. I will first give an overview of blazars and the VERITAS blazar observing program, highlighting some recent results and then show results from a study using the publicly available UHECR propagation code CRPropa to investigate the cosmic-ray power and spectrum required to account for the anomalous blazar spectra.","Pierre Sokolsky","",""]
November[2]=["13","Chris Kelso","North Florida","Halo simulations with baryons and direct detection of dark matter","The spatial and velocity distributions of dark matter in the Milky Way Halo affect the signals expected to be observed in searches for dark matter. Results from direct detection experiments are often analyzed assuming a simple isothermal distribution of dark matter, the Standard Halo Model (SHM). Yet there has been skepticism regarding the validity of this simple model due to the complicated gravitational collapse and merger history of actual galaxies.  In this paper we compare the SHM to the results of detailed simulations of structure formation to investigate whether or not the SHM is a good representation of the true WIMP distribution in the analysis of direct detection data.  We examine two  Milky Way-like galaxies from the MaGiCC simulations of galaxy formation, obtained in simulations run a) with dark matter only and b) with baryonic physics included. The inclusion of baryons drives the shape of the DM halo to become more spherical.  In addition,  we also conclude that the SHM is in fact a good approximation to the true dark matter distribution for the purpose of dark matter direct detection calculations in the simulations that include baryonic physics.","Pearl Sandick","","",""]
November[3]=["20","Denija Crnojevic","Texas Tech","Resolving the extended stellar haloes of nearby galaxies: the wide-field PISCeS survey","I will present results from the wide-field Panoramic Imaging Survey of Centaurus and Sculptor (PISCeS): we investigate the resolved stellar haloes of two nearby galaxies (the spiral NGC253 and the elliptical Centaurus A, D~3.7 Mpc) out to a galactocentric radius of 150 kpc with Magellan/Megacam. The survey led to the discovery of ~20 faint satellites and stunning streams/substructures in two environments substantially different from the Local Group, i.e. the loose Sculptor group of galaxies and the Centaurus A group dominated by an elliptical. These discoveries clearly testify the past and ongoing accretion processes shaping the haloes of these nearby galaxies, and provide the first complete census of their satellite systems down to an unprecedented M_V<-8. This survey pushes the limits of near-field cosmology beyond the Local Group for the first time, and enables a comparison of external galaxies' resolved haloes to the M31 wide-field PAndAS survey. The detailed characterization of the stellar content, shape and gradients in the extended haloes of NGC253, Centaurus A and in their satellites represent crucial constraints to theoretical models of galaxy formation and evolution.","Anil Seth","","",""]
//November[3]=["27","","","","","","","",""]
December[0]=["4","Stephan LeBohec","Utah","Quantum by lack of smoothness","After a few general comments about measurements, scaling laws, and relativity, I will show how the abandonment of the implicit assumption of differentiability in classical mechanics leads to standard quantum mechanics. This process involves identifying resolution as an attribute of reference frames at the same level as position and motion. This, in turn, suggests that chaotic systems beyond the predictability horizon could be described in terms of a quantum-like mechanics. I will then go over possible experimental tests.","","","",""]
December[1]=["11","Trey Jensen","Utah","Spectroscopic Signatures of Quasar Diversity","In this talk, we present the composite spectra of high redshift quasars observed in the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey.  We reproduce a known relationship between intrinsic luminosity and emission line strength and find two new trends in quasar diversity.  First, we find a clear relationship between the broadband color and the outflow velocities in the broadline region.  We attribute this to the orientation of the accretion disk relative to the observer. More interestingly, we find a clear evolution with redshift that has a signature identical to that of intrinsic luminosity. We argue that this finding indicates that both the luminosity/emission line relationship and the redshift evolution are a result of variations in the accretion efficiency.","Kyle Dawson","",""]
January[0]=["15","Benjamin Racine","Oslo","Bispectral non-Gaussianity in the Planck data","In the current standard paradigm, quantum fluctuations during inflation are the seeds of all the perturbations in the Universe, including the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies. In the simplest models, their statistics is Gaussian, and can thus be studied with statistics of order 2. But many other models predict deviations from Gaussianity, that we can study with higher order statistics. The ESA Planck Satellite, launched in 2009, observed the CMB temperature and polarization over the full sky with an unprecedented precision. In February 2015, the Planck collaboration published the best constraints to date on non-Gaussian models. In this talk, we will introduce the physics of non-Gaussianity, its estimation in the context of CMB data analysis, and present the latest results. We will focus on the Bispectrum, statistics of order 3, and the fNL parameter.","Julian Bautista","","",""]
January[1]=["22","Miguel Mostafa","Penn State","The High Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory","The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) experiment is a large field of view, continuously operated TeV gamma ray observatory located at 14,000 ft in Mexico. HAWC has an order of magnitude better sensitivity, angular resolution, and background rejection than the previous generation of ground arrays for gamma-ray detection. The improved performance allows us to detect both transient and steady emissions, to study the Galactic diffuse emission at TeV energies, and to measure or constrain the TeV spectra of GeV gamma-ray sources discovered with the Fermi satellite. In addition, HAWC is the only ground-based instrument capable of detecting prompt emission from gamma-ray bursts above 100 GeV. In this seminar I will present the physics motivation, potential for discoveries, current status of the experiment, and the first results of the HAWC Observatory.","Douglas Bergman","","",""]
January[2]=["29","Stephanie Majewski","Oregon","Top Quarks in ATLAS: Bridging Measurements and Searches","On the heels of the twentieth anniversary of its discovery, the top quark now plays a major role in searches for new physics at the LHC. Furthermore, the interplay between top quark measurements and searches has been essential to fully explore avenues for new physics. I will present several \"classic\" Standard Model top cross-section measurements and the results of searches for beyond the Standard Model top partners using 20 fb<sup>-1</sup> of sqrt(s) = 8 TeV data collected by the ATLAS experiment. Prospects for the 2016 searches will also be discussed.","Pearl Sandick","","",""]
February[0]=["5","Eric Schlegel","Texas San Antonio","Feedback in Galaxies: What is it?","Star formation is well-established as varying over the course of cosmic time with a peak near redshifts of 2 or 3. A simple look at true-color images of spirals shows a clear indication of active star formation in the disk and little in the nuclear volume. That raises the question of how star formation is suppressed.  I will describe a recent Chandra observation of NGC 5195 in M51 that provides an example of feedback. I will also aim at setting a context for interpreting the NGC 5195 observation as feedback.","Nathalie Hoffmann","","",""]
February[1]=["12","Stephan S. Lawrence","Hofstra","Could You Repeat That? Bending the Rules of Space and Time with Light Echoes","As with most celestial objects, our knowledge of astronomical explosions is severely handicapped by being stuck here on Earth, forced to observe these interesting cataclysms from a single point in time and from a single line-of-sight at an extraordinarily large distance. In this talk I will review the basic physics of light echo phenomena, which allow us to \"bend\" the rules of relativity and view these events and study their surroundings by probing space at superluminal speeds, by traveling back into past, and by effectively teleporting ourselves to different locations to view the same event from different sightlines. I will then focus in detail on results of our studies of the light echoes of Supernova 1987A, the recurrent nova T Pyxidis and the recent Type Ia supernova 2014J in the nearby starburst galaxy M82.","Douglas Bergman","","",""]
February[2]=["19","","","","","","","",""]
February[3]=["26","","","","","","","",""]
March[0]=["4","Guangtun Zhu","Johns Hopkins","Probing the Cosmic Baryon Cycle with Dark Energy Surveys","We are entering a new era of astronomy. The ambitious dark energy surveys (e.g., SDSS-IV/eBOSS, DESI, LSST, WFIRST) will provide an unprecedentedly large amount of data. To extract astrophysical information from the unstructured data requires creative thinking and innovative data techniques. I will introduce novel statistical techniques to extract absorption information from large datasets. Applying the new techniques to the SDSS dataset, I will present the largest metal absorber catalog of 100,000 systems, the first measurement of the large-scale distribution of cool gas around galaxies, and the correlation between the circumgalactic medium and galaxy properties. With some of the most recent data from the ongoing SDSS-IV/eBOSS survey, I will further demonstrate how galaxies interact with the circumgalactic medium in the cosmic baryon cycle. I will discuss the new constraints of th ese results bring on galaxy formation and show that these new statistical techniques will greatly increase the potential of stage-IV dark energy surveys for astrophysical sciences.","Zheng Zheng","","",""]
March[1]=["11","Frank van den Bosch","Yale","On the Tidal Evolution of Dark Matter Substructure","A large fraction of subhalos in numerical simulations is disrupted. What causes this disruption? Is it numerical or physical? I address these issues using a suite of hundreds of numerical simulations, and demonstrate that (i) previous claims regarding the disruption of subhaloes are incorrect, (ii) numerical noise causes excessive disruption, even when sub haloes are resolved with a million particles, (iii) the mass evolution of subhaloes is governed by complex, non-linear dynamics that inhibits analytical descriptions. I conclude that the majority of subhalo disruption in simulations is numerical and discuss implications for numerous fields of astrophysics.","Kyle Dawson","","",""]
//March[2]=["18","","","","","","","",""]
March[2]=["23","Ying Zu","Carnegie Mellon","The Distribution and Motion of Galaxies in and around Dark Matter Halos","I will present novel statistical methods to unveil the physical link between the observed galaxy properties and the underlying dark matter halos, using the measurements of spatial clustering, weak gravitational lensing, and redshift-space distortions around galaxy clusters from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS).  I will first describe the 'iHOD' model, a powerful improvement to the Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD) formalism which extracts maximum information on the stellar-to-halo relation from galaxy surveys. The derived stellar-to-halo mass relation not only explains the clustering and lensing of SDSS galaxies, but also automatically reproduces the stellar mass functions observed in SDSS. From the color dependence of the clustering and lensing signals, the quenching of star formation activities in galaxies is found to be primarily tied to the dark matter mass of halos, rather than the stellar mass or halo age assumed in several popular galaxy formation models.  For the second part of my talk, I will present an analytical model of the galaxy infall kinematics (GIK), which accurately describes the velocity distribution of galaxies from within the cluster inner region to beyond several tens of virial radii away from the cluster center. Most important, the average GIK can be reconstructed from the redshift-space cluster-galaxy cross-correlation function for any sample of clusters, therefore allowing for a dynamic estimate of the stacked density profile of clusters in the infall region.  Comparing this dynamic mass estimate to the weak lensing mass measured for the same clusters would provide powerful constraints on any potential deviation of gravity from General Relativity on large scales.","Zheng Zheng","Wed 12pm","INSCC 345",""]
April[0]=["1","","","","","","","",""]
April[1]=["8","","","","","","","",""]
April[2]=["15","Niel Brandt","Penn State","A Good Hard Look at Growing Supermassive Black Holes in the Distant Universe","Sensitive cosmic X-ray surveys with the Chandra, XMM-Newton, and NuSTAR observatories have revolutionized our ability to find and study distant active galactic nuclei (AGNs), the main sites of supermassive black hole growth in the Universe. I will describe some of the resulting discoveries about the demographics, physics, and ecology of AGNs. Topics covered will include the utility of deep X-ray plus multiwavelength surveys for investigating distant AGNs; evolution constraints for the typical AGNs of the distant Universe; the cosmic balance of power between supermassive black holes and stars; interactions between AGNs and their hosting galaxies; and the AGN content of newly forming galaxies. I will end by discussing some key outstanding questions and new observations and missions that aim to answer them.","Vivek Mariappan","","",""]
April[3]=["22","Petra Huntermeyer","Michigan Tech","Highest Energy and Multiwavelength Astronomy with the HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory in Mexico","TeV gamma-ray astrophysics is one of the latest additions to the realm of multiwavelength astronomy and constitutes the highest energy band of electromagnetic emission reaching us from space. Since the pioneering detection of TeV gamma-ray emission from the Crab Nebula by the Whipple Teleccope at Mt. Hopkins, in Arizona in 1989 this relatively young field has grown tremendously and about a couple of hundred very-high-energy gamma-ray sources have been detected. Because of the exponentially decreasing flux with energy, TeV gamma-ray telescopes require a large effective area and thus ground-based TeV observatories make use of the interaction of gamma rays with the earthb.S., and MAGIC.","Rasha Abbasi","","",""]
April[4]=["29","Warren Skidmore","TMT Observatory Corp.","The Thirty Meter Telescope Observatory: The Next Generation Ground Based Optical/Infra-Red Observatory","After a construction status update, I will describe how the telescope design was developed to support a broad range of observing capabilities and how the observatory is being engineered. I'll discuss some of the observational capabilities that the Thirty Meter Telescope will provide and some of the areas of study that will benefit from the TMT's capabilities, specifically synergistic areas with new and future proposed astronomical facilities. Finally I will describe the avenues through which astronomers can have some input in the planning of the project and potential NSF partnership, prioritizing the development of 2nd generation instruments and directing the scientific aims for the observatory.","Douglas Bergman","","",""]