The Limits, Patterns and Forms of the Kunstlerroman: A Representative Comparative Study

This study is concerned with the identification and the description of the limits, patterns and forms of a particular genre of fiction, the 'Kunstlerroman', or novel of the artist, through a comparison among texts from some of the main European literatures

Advances on GRB as cosmological tools

Several interesting correlations among Gamma Ray Bursts (GRB) prompt and afterglow properties have been found in the recent years. Some of these correlations have been proposed also to standardize GRB energetics to use them as standard candles in constraining the expansion history of the universe up to z>6. However, given the still unexplained nature of most of these correlations, only the less scattered correlations can be used for constraining the cosmological parameters. The updated E_peak-E_gamma correlation is presented. Caveats of alternative methods of standardizing GRB energetics are discussed.Comment: 8 parges, AIP conf. proc. "Probing stellar populations out to the distant universe, Cefalu' 2008" Vol. 1111, pp. 579-58

Unsolved Problems about Supernovae

A number of unsolved problems and open questions about the nature and the properties of supernovae are identified and briefly discussed. Some suggestions and directions toward possible solutions are also considered.Comment: 7 pages, Proceedings of 'Probing Stellar Populations out to the Distant Universe', Cefalu, Italy, Sep 7-19, 2008, AIP Conf. Proc. Serie

The formation and evolution of early-type galaxies : solid results and open questions

The most recent results and some of the open key questions on the evolution of early-type galaxies are reviewed in the general cosmological context of massive galaxy formation.Comment: 8 pages, invited review at the workshop "Probing Stellar Populations out to the Distant Universe", Cefalu` (Italy), September 7 - 19, 200

Spectral libraries and their uncertainties

Libraries of stellar spectra are fundamental tools in the study of stellar populations and in automatic determination of atmospheric parameters for large samples of observed stars. In the context of the present volume, here I give an overview of the current status of stellar spectral libraries from the perspective of stellar population modeling: what we have currently available, how good they are, and where we need further improvement

Early metal enrichment in high-redshift quasars

Quasars are powerful systems whose spectrum is rich of metal features that allow us to investigate the chemical evolution of galaxies at very high redshift, even close to the reionization epoch. I review the main observational constraints on the metallicity of quasars host galaxies at high redshift and discuss the implications and issues for models of galaxy evolution in the early universe.Comment: 8 pages, invited review at the workshop "Probing Stellar Populations out to the Distant Universe

The cannonball model of long GRBs - overview

During the past ten years, the predictions of the cannonball (CB) model of gamma ray bursts (GRBs) were repeatedly confronted with the mounting data from space- and ground-based observations of GRBs and their afterglows (AGs). The two underlying radiation mechanisms of the model, inverse Compton scattering (ICS) and synchrotron radiation (SR), provided an accurate description of the prompt and afterglow emission in all of the many well-sampled GRBs that were studied. Simple as they are, these two mechanisms and the burst environment were shown to generate the observed rich structure of the GRB light-curves at all observed frequencies and times.Comment: Invited talk, to be published in the proceedings of Cefalu 2009 workshop `Probing stellar populations out to the distant universe', Cefalu, Sicily, Italy, September 7-19, 200

Disentangling age and metallicity in distant unresolved stellar systems

We present some results of an observational and theoretical study on unresolved stellar systems based on the Surface Brightness Fluctuations (SBF) technique. It is shown that SBF magnitudes are a valuable tracer of stellar population properties, and a reliable distance indicator. SBF magnitudes, SBF-colors, and SBF-gradients can help to constrain within relatively narrow limits the metallicity and age of the dominant stellar component in distant stellar systems, especially if coupled with other spectro-photometric indicators.Comment: A contributed paper to the Cefalu' (Italy) "Probing Stellar Populations out to the Distant Universe", 4 pages. To appear as an AIP Conference Proceedin

The End of Amnesia: Measuring the Metallicities of Type Ia SN Progenitors with Manganese Lines in Supernova Remnants

The Mn to Cr mass ratio in supernova ejecta has recently been proposed as a tracer of Type Ia SN progenitor metallicity. We review the advantages and problems of this observable quantity, and discuss them in the framework of the Tycho Supernova Remnant. The fluxes of the Mn and Cr Kalpha lines in the X-ray spectra of Tycho observed by the Suzaku satellite suggests a progenitor of supersolar metallicity.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, Proceedings of 'Probing Stellar Populations out to the Distant Universe'. September 15-19 2008, Cefalu, Sicily, Ital

The supernova rate: a critical ingredient and an important tool

In this review I summarize the role of supernova rate as a critical ingredient of modern astrophysics, and as an important tool to understand SN explosions. Many years of active observations and theoretical modeling have produced several important results. In particular, linking SN rates with parent stellar populations has proved to be an important strategy. Despite these advances, the situation is far from clear, in particular for the SNe Ia.Comment: 9 pages; "Probing Stellar Populations out to the Distant Universe", Cefalu' (Italy), September 2008, AIP Conf. Proc. Series; Invited revie