The GL bibliography and an interactive database

It is now possible to directly access, via the Internet, a bibliographical database on Gravitational Lensing (GL) literature. The Interactive Gravitational Lensing Bibliography (IGLB) totalizes more than 2400 titles of published articles in scientific journals and meeting proceedings (except those fully dedicated to Gravitational Lenses) as well as papers submitted to the e-Print archive. This database is a product from the Gravitational Lensing Bibliography first presented in 1993 (Proceedings of the 31st Liege International Astrophysical Colloquium). It is easy to do field based searches for title keywords, authors (using boolean operators), year and journal (a pull-down list of the most cited journals is available). Access to the original version of published articles as well as to preprints submitted to the e-Print archive at the URL address http://xxx.lanl.gov/ is also provided. This database is updated approximately every two months. The "complete" bibliography of published articles is also available in the form of Latex and PostScript files. The IGLB can be accessed at the URL: http://vela.astro.ulg.ac.be/grav_lensComment: 2 pages, 2 figures, uses paspconf.sty. Poster contribution to "Gravitational Lensing: Recent Progress and Future Goals", Boston University 1999, eds. T. G. Brainerd and C. S. Kochane

A fool's marathon

"A Fool's Marathon" is a fabulist novel exploring themes of Platonic love, imagination and its relationship to reality, and psychological coming of age through the exploits of a young Oscar Duplenty. The work-in-progress is presented in two sections: the first a contiguous five chapters from the beginning of the newest draft, and the second a selection of passages from a previous edition. These selections elucidate the book's major themes, describe its characters' motivating concerns, and exhibit a variety of possible styles for the finished work. This excerpt from "A Fool's Marathon" is presented both as a work of fiction and as a study of work in fiction, designed to help us understand the relationship between our lived experience and the narratives we inherit and construct

Music for strings

In this collection of linked stories, four characters navigate space between selves they’ve been and those to come. Alice must invent an autonomous identity after her husband dies in a bike crash. As she casts about to populate a new life, a geographer, a violinist, and a clarinetist emerge at similar crossroads. Each character locates a measure of solace in music: strings and woodwinds, the rail of bathwater and rain, a storm’s quiet end

A Change in the Lightcurve of Kuiper Belt Contact Binary (139775) 2001 QG298

New observations show that the lightcurve of Kuiper belt contact binary (139775) 2001 QG298 has changed substantially since the first observations in 2003. The 2010 lightcurve has a peak-to-peak photometric of range \Deltam{2010}=0.7\pm0.1 mag, significantly lower than in 2003, \Deltam{2003}=1.14\pm0.04 mag. This change is most simply interpreted if 2001 QG298 has an obliquity near 90 deg. The observed decrease in \Deltam is caused by a change in viewing geometry, from equator-on in 2003 to nearly 16 deg (the orbital angular distance covered by the object between the observations) off the equator in 2010. The 2003 and 2010 lightcurves have the same rotation period and appear in phase when shifted by an integer number of full rotations, also consistent with high obliquity. Based on the new 2010 lightcurve data, we find that 2001 QG298 has an obliquity {\epsilon}=90\pm30 deg. Current estimates of the intrinsic fraction of contact binaries in the Kuiper belt are debiased assuming that these objects have randomly oriented spins. If, as 2001 QG298, KBO contact binaries tend to have large obliquities, a larger correction is required. As a result, the abundance of contact binaries may be larger than previously believed.Comment: 28 pages, 10 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal (2011 July 18

The XMM-LSS Survey: A well controlled X-ray cluster sample over the D1 CFHTLS area

We present the XMM-LSS cluster catalogue corresponding to the CFHTLS D1 area. The list contains 13 spectroscopically confirmed, X-ray selected galaxy clusters over 0.8 deg2 to a redshift of unity and so constitutes the highest density sample of clusters to date. Cluster X-ray bolometric luminosities range from 0.03 to 5x10^{44} erg/s. In this study, we describe our catalogue construction procedure: from the detection of X-ray cluster candidates to the compilation of a spectroscopically confirmed cluster sample with an explicit selection function. The procedure further provides basic X-ray products such as cluster temperature, flux and luminosity. We detected slightly more clusters with a (0.5-2.0 keV) X-ray fluxes of >2x10^{-14} erg/s/cm^{-2} than we expected based on expectations from deep ROSAT surveys. We also present the Luminosity-Temperature relation for our 9 brightest objects possessing a reliable temperature determination. The slope is in good agreement with the local relation, yet compatible with a luminosity enhancement for the 0.15 < z< 0.35 objects having 1 < T < 2 keV, a population that the XMM-LSS is identifying systematically for the first time. The present study permits the compilation of cluster samples from XMM images whose selection biases are understood. This allows, in addition to studies of large-scale structure, the systematic investigation of cluster scaling law evolution, especially for low mass X-ray groups which constitute the bulk of our observed cluster population. All cluster ancillary data (images, profiles, spectra) are made available in electronic form via the XMM-LSS cluster database.Comment: 12 pages 5 figures, MNRAS accepted. The paper with full resolution cluster images is available at http://vela.astro.ulg.ac.be/themes/spatial/xmm/LSS/rel_pub_e.htm

The XMM-LSS catalogue: X-ray sources and associated optical data. Version I

Following the presentation of the XMM-LSS X-ray source detection package by Pacaud et al., we provide the source lists for the first 5.5 surveyed square degrees. The catalogues pertain to the [0.5-2] and [2-10] keV bands and contain in total 3385 point-like or extended sources above a detection likelihood of 15 in either band. The agreement with deep logN-logS is excellent. The main parameters considered are position, countrate, source extent with associated likelihood values. A set of additional quantities such as astrometric corrections and fluxes are further calculated while errors on the position and countrate are deduced from simulations. We describe the construction of the band-merged catalogue allowing rapid sub-sample selection and easy cross-correlation with external multi-wavelength catalogues. A small optical CFHTLS multi-band subset of objects is associated wich each source along with an X-ray/optical overlay. We make the full X-ray images available in FITS format. The data are available at CDS and, in a more extended form, at the Milan XMM-LSS database.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures and 11 tables (fig. 1 and 6 are enclosed in reduced resolution), MNRAS Latex, accepted by MNRA

The XMM-LSS survey. Survey design and first results

We have designed a medium deep large area X-ray survey with XMM - the XMM Large Scale Structure survey, XMM-LSS - with the scope of extending the cosmological tests attempted using ROSAT cluster samples to two redshift bins between 0<z<1 while maintaining the precision of earlier studies. Two main goals have constrained the survey design: the evolutionary study of the cluster-cluster correlation function and of the cluster number density. The results are promising and, so far, in accordance with our predictions as to the survey sensitivity and cluster number density. The feasibility of the programme is demonstrated and further X-ray coverage is awaited in order to proceed with a truly significant statistical analysis. (Abridged)Comment: Published in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physic

The XMM-LSS survey: the Class 1 cluster sample over the initial 5 square degrees and its cosmological modelling

We present a sample of 29 galaxy clusters from the XMM-LSS survey over an area of some 5deg2 out to a redshift of z=1.05. The sample clusters, which represent about half of the X-ray clusters identified in the region, follow well defined X-ray selection criteria and are all spectroscopically confirmed. For all clusters, we provide X-ray luminosities and temperatures as well as masses. The cluster distribution peaks around z=0.3 and T =1.5 keV, half of the objects being groups with a temperature below 2 keV. Our L-T(z) relation points toward self-similar evolution, but does not exclude other physically plausible models. Assuming that cluster scaling laws follow self-similar evolution, our number density estimates up to z=1 are compatible with the predictions of the concordance cosmology and with the findings of previous ROSAT surveys. Our well monitored selection function allowed us to demonstrate that the inclusion of selection effects is essential for the correct determination of the evolution of the L-T relation, which may explain the contradictory results from previous studies. Extensive simulations show that extending the survey area to 10deg2 has the potential to exclude the non-evolution hypothesis, but that constraints on more refined ICM models will probably be limited by the large intrinsic dispersion of the L-T relation. We further demonstrate that increasing the dispersion in the scaling laws increases the number of detectable clusters, hence generating further degeneracy [in addition to sigma8, Omega_m, L(M,z) and T(M,z)] in the cosmological interpretation of the cluster number counts. We provide useful empirical formulae for the cluster mass-flux and mass-count-rate relations as well as a comparison between the XMM-LSS mass sensitivity and that of forthcoming SZ surveys.Comment: Accepted for publication by MNRAS. Full resolution images as well as additional cluster data are available through a dedicated database at http://l3sdb.in2p3.fr:8080/l3sdb