The differential magnification of high-redshift ultraluminous infrared galaxies

A class of extremely luminous high-redshift galaxies has recently been detected in unbiased submillimetre-wave surveys using the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) camera at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. Most of the luminosity of these galaxies is emitted from warm interstellar dust grains, and they could be the high-redshift counterparts of the low-redshift ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs). Only one - SMM J02399-0136 - has yet been studied in detail. Three other very luminous high-redshift dusty galaxies with well determined spectral energy distributions in the mid-infrared waveband are known - IRAS F10214+4724, H1413+117 and APM 08279+5255. These were detected serendipitously rather than in unbiased surveys, and are all gravitationally lensed by a foreground galaxy. Two - H 1413+117 and APM 08279+5255 - appear to emit a significantly greater fraction of their luminosity in the mid-infrared waveband as compared with both low-redshift ULIRGs and high-redshift submillimetre-selected galaxies. This can be explained by a systematically greater lensing magnification of hotter regions of the source as compared with cooler regions: differential magnification. This effect can confuse the interpretation of the properties of distant ultraluminous galaxies that are lensed by intervening galaxies, but offers a possible way to investigate the temperature distribution of dust in their nuclei on scales of tens of parsecs.Comment: 5 pages, 1 two-panel figure, 2 one-panel figures. In press at MNRAS. Final proof versio

The ISM at high redshifts: ALMA results and a look to the future

ALMA is revolutionizing the way we study and understand the astrophysics of galaxies, both as a whole and individually. By exploiting its unique sensitivity and resolution to make spatially and spectrally resolved images of the gas and dust in the interstellar medium (ISM), ALMA can reveal new information about the relationship between stars and gas, during and between galaxies' cycles of star formation and AGN fueling. However, this can only be done for a modest number of targets, and thus works in the context of large samples drawn from other surveys, while providing parallel deep imaging in small fields around. Recent ALMA highlights are reviewed, and some areas where ALMA will potentially make great contributions in future are discussed.Comment: 8 pages, Review contribution to the Third Year ALMA conference, Tokyo, December 201

Sport as real life

A new chapter that examines the relationship between sport and European society. It argues that the discourses of modernisation surrounding the sports industry echo broader political and economic discourses that dominate European thinking on the relationship between sports and industry

Sacred sites, contested rites/rights: contemporary pagan engagements with the past

Our Sacred Sites, Contested Rites/Rights project (www.sacredsites.org.uk) examines physical, spiritual and interpretative engagements of today’s Pagans with sacred sites, theorises ‘sacredness’, and explores the implications of pagan engagements with sites for heritage management and archaeology more generally, in terms of ‘preservation ethic’ vis a vis active engagement. In this paper, we explore ways in which ‘sacred sites’ --- both the term and the sites --- are negotiated by different interest groups, foregrounding our locations, as an archaeologist/art historian (Wallis) and anthropologist (Blain), and active pagan engagers with sites. Examples of pagan actions at such sites, including at Avebury and Stonehenge, demonstrate not only that their engagements with sacred sites are diverse and that identities --- such as that of ‘new indigenes’ --- arising therefrom are complex, but also that heritage management has not entirely neglected the issues: in addition to managed open access solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, a climate of inclusivity and multivocality has resulted in fruitful negotiations at the Rollright Stones.</p