Measuring attendance: issues and implications for estimating the impact of free-to-view sports events

A feature of many non-elite sports events, especially those conducted in public places is that they are free-to-view. The article focuses on the methodological issue of estimating spectator attendance at free-to-view events and the consequences of this for impact evaluation. Using empirical data from three case studies, the article outlines various approaches to measuring attendance and discusses the key issues and implications for evaluating free-to-view sports events in the future

Star Formation and Dynamics in the nuclei of AGN

Using adaptive optics on Keck and the VLT in the H- and K-bands, we have begun a project to probe the dynamics and star formation around AGN on scales of 0.1arcsec. The stellar content of the nucleus is traced through the 2.29micron CO2-0 and 1.62micron CO6-3 absorption bandheads. These features are directly spatially resolved, allowing us to measure the extent and distribution of the nuclear star forming region. The dynamics are traced through the 2.12micron H_2 1-0S(1) and 1.64micron [FeII] emission lines, as well as stellar absorption features. Matching disk models to the rotation curves at various position angles allows us to determine the mass of the stellar and gas components, and constrain the mass of the central black hole. In this contribution we summarise results for the two type~1 AGN Mkn231 and NGC7469.Comment: contribution to "The interplay among Black Holes, Stars and ISM in Galactic Nuclei", March 200

The most massive galaxies in clusters are already fully grown at z∼0.5z \sim 0.5

By constructing scaling relations for galaxies in the massive cluster MACSJ0717.5 at $z=0.545$ and comparing with those of Coma, we model the luminosity evolution of the stellar populations and the structural evolution of the galaxies. We calculate magnitudes, surface brightnesses and effective radii using HST/ACS images and velocity dispersions using Gemini/GMOS spectra, and present a catalogue of our measurements for 17 galaxies. We also generate photometric catalogues for $\sim 3000$ galaxies from the HST imaging. With these, we construct the colour-magnitude relation, the fundamental plane, the mass-to-light versus mass relation, the mass-size relation and the mass-velocity dispersion relation for both clusters. We present a new, coherent way of modelling these scaling relations simultaneously using a simple physical model in order to infer the evolution in luminosity, size and velocity dispersion as a function of redshift, and show that the data can be fully accounted for with this model. We find that (a) the evolution in size and velocity dispersion undergone by these galaxies between $z \sim 0.5$ and $z \sim 0$ is mild, with $R_e(z) \sim (1+z)^{-0.40\pm0.32}$ and $\sigma(z) \sim (1+z)^{0.09 \pm 0.27}$, and (b) the stellar populations are old, $\sim 10$ Gyr, with a $\sim 3$ Gyr dispersion in age, and are consistent with evolving purely passively since $z \sim 0.5$ with $\Delta \log M/L_B = -0.55_{-0.07}^{+0.15} z$. The implication is that these galaxies formed their stars early and subsequently grew dissipationlessly so as to have their mass already in place by $z \sim 0.5$, and suggests a dominant role for dry mergers, which may have accelerated the growth in these high-density cluster environments.Comment: 20 pages; accepted for publication in MNRA

SINFONI's take on Star Formation, Molecular Gas, and Black Hole Masses in AGN

We present some preliminary (half-way) results on our adaptive optics spectroscopic survey of AGN at spatial scales down to 0.085arcsec. Most of the data were obtained with SINFONI which provides integral field capability at a spectral resolution of R~4000. The themes on which we focus in this contribution are: star formation around the AGN, the properties of the molecular gas and its relation to the torus, and the mass of the black hole.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. To appear in Science Perspectives for 3D Spectroscopy. ESO Astrophysics Symposia. Ed by M. Kissler-Patig, M. Roth and J. Wals

Early-type Galaxies in the Cluster Abell 2390 at z=0.23

To examine the evolution of the early-type galaxy population in the rich cluster Abell 2390 at z=0.23 we have gained spectroscopic data of 51 elliptical and lenticular galaxies with MOSCA at the 3.5 m telescope on Calar Alto Observatory. This investigation spans both a broad range in luminosity (-19.3>M_B>-22.3) and uses a wide field of view of 10'x10', therefore the environmental dependence of different formation scenarios can be analysed in detail as a function of radius from the cluster centre. Here we present results on the surface brightness modelling of galaxies where morphological and structural information is available in the F814W filter aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and investigate for this subsample the evolution of the Fundamental Plane.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, to appear in "Carnegie Observatories Astrophysics Series, Vol. 3: Clusters of Galaxies: Probes of Cosmological Structure and Galaxy Evolution", ed. J. S. Mulchaey, A. Dressler, and A. Oemler (Pasadena: Carnegie Observatories, http://www.ociw.edu/ociw/symposia/series/symposium3/proceedings.html

Eddington limited starbursts in the central 10pc of AGN, and the Torus in NGC1068

We present results from a survey of nearby AGN using the near infrared adaptive optics integral field spectrograph SINFONI. These data enable us to probe the distribution and kinematics of the gas and stars at spatial resolutions as small as 0.085arcsec. We find strong evidence for recent but short lived starbursts residing in very dense nuclear disks. On scales of less than 10pc these would have reached Eddington-limited luminosities when active, perhaps accounting for their short duration. In addition, for NGC1068 at a resolution of 6pc, we present direct observations of molecular gas close around the AGN which we identify with the obscuring torus.Comment: Conference proceedings to appear in "The Central Engine of Active Galactic Nuclei", ed. L. C. Ho and J.-M. Wang (San Francisco: ASP

Resolved stellar population of distant galaxies in the ELT era

The expected imaging capabilities of future Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) will offer the unique possibility to investigate the stellar population of distant galaxies from the photometry of the stars in very crowded fields. Using simulated images and photometric analysis we explore here two representative science cases aimed at recovering the characteristics of the stellar populations in the inner regions of distant galaxies. Specifically: case A) at the center of the disk of a giant spiral in the Centaurus Group, (mu B~21, distance of 4.6 Mpc); and, case B) at half of the effective radius of a giant elliptical in the Virgo Cluster (mu~19.5, distance of 18 Mpc). We generate synthetic frames by distributing model stellar populations and adopting a representative instrumental set up, i.e. a 42 m Telescope operating close to the diffraction limit. The effect of crowding is discussed in detail showing how stars are measured preferentially brighter than they are as the confusion limit is approached. We find that (i) accurate photometry (sigma~0.1, completeness >90%) can be obtained for case B) down to I~28.5, J~27.5 allowing us to recover the stellar metallicity distribution in the inner regions of ellipticals in Virgo to within ~0.1 dex; (ii) the same photometric accuracy holds for the science case A) down to J~28.0, K~27.0, enabling to reconstruct of the star formation history up to the Hubble time via simple star counts in diagnostic boxes. For this latter case we discuss the possibility of deriving more detailed information on the star formation history from the analysis of their Horizontal Branch stars. We show that the combined features of high sensitivity and angular resolution of ELTs may open a new era for our knowledge of the stellar content of galaxies of different morphological type up to the distance of the Virgo cluster.Comment: 21 pages, 17 figures, PASP accepted in pubblicatio

How typical is the Coma cluster?

Coma is frequently used as the archetype z~0 galaxy cluster to compare higher redshift work against. It is not clear, however, how representative the Coma cluster is for galaxy clusters of its mass or X-ray luminosity, and significantly: recent works have suggested that the galaxy population of Coma may be in some ways anomolous. In this work, we present a comparison of Coma to an X-ray selected control sample of clusters. We show that although Coma is typical against the control sample in terms of its internal kinematics (substructure and velocity dispersion profile), it has a significantly high (~3sigma) X-ray temperature set against clusters of comparable mass. By de-redshifting our control sample cluster galaxies star-formation rates using a fit to the galaxy main sequence evolution at z < 0.1, we determine that the typical star-formation rate of Coma galaxies as a function of mass is higher than for galaxies in our control sample at a confidence level of > 99 per cent. One way to alleviate this discrepency and bring Coma in-line with the control sample would be to have the distance to Coma to be slightly lower, perhaps through a non-negligible peculiar velocity with respect to the Hubble expansion, but we do not regard this as likely given precision measurements using a variety of approaches. Therefore in summary, we urge caution in using Coma as a z~0 baseline cluster in galaxy evolution studies.Comment: accepted for publication in MNRA

Coordination polymers and isomerism; a study using silver(I) and a ∏-stacked ligand

The ligand 2,5-bis(2-pyridylmethylsulfanylmethyl)pyrazine (L) was prepared by the base coupling of 2-(sulfanylmethyl)pyridine and 2,5-bis(chloromethyl)pyrazine. This new ligand was treated with AgClO₄ in a 1 1 metal-to-ligand ratio and with AgNO₃in a 2 1 metal-to-ligand ratio to give coordination polymers. The crystal structures of {[Ag(L)]ClO₄}∞ ( 1) and {[Ag₂(L)](NO₃)₂}∞ ( 2) were determined. The Ag(I) ions in the one-dimensional polymeric chains of 1 adopted square-pyramidal geometries with the pyridine and pyrazine N donors coordinated in an extremely bent fashion. The structure of 2 revealed two isomeric polymer chains in the one crystal forming a single supramolecular array. The isomeric polymers differed in the donor atoms about the Ag(I) ions and in the arrangement of adjacent ligands along the chain. A feature of both structures was that L adopted a three-layer ∏-stacked arrangement