The meeting was attended by the President and Vice-President of the Commission, along with approximately 15 other members. The President reported on the election of new officers that took place at the end of March 2012, for four new members of the Organizing Committee as well as a new Vice-President, and thanked the outgoing members. Tomaz Zwitter (Slovenia) was elected as the new VP (2012–2015), and the new OC members for the period 2012–2018 are Alceste Bonanos (Greece), Alain Jorissen (Belgium), David Katz (France), and Matthias Steinmetz (Germany). The current VP, Dimitri Pourbaix, became the President through 2015.

Laboratory spectra showing Zeeman patterns in some FeH lines susceptible to be used as magnetic probes in cool stellar atmostpheres have been recorded in the laboratory, and molecular Landé factors obtained from analysis. These Landé factors have been used to model some lines recorded in Stokes V polarisation in sunspot spectra at the solar telescope THEMIS.

We report the results of spectropolarimetric study of the classical Cepheid η Aql. We found that the longitudinal magnetic field of η Aql sinusoidally varies with the radial pulsation period, while the amplitude B, mean field B0, and phases of maximum and minimum field change from year to year. We hypothesize that possible reasons of those variations are stellar axial rotation or dynamo mechanisms.

We present preliminary results of a 3D MHD simulation of the convective envelope of the giant star Pollux for which the rotation period and the magnetic field intensity have been measured from spectroscopic and spectropolarimetric observations. This giant is one of the first single giants with a detected magnetic field, and the one with the weakest field so far. Our aim is to understand the development and the action of the dynamo in its extended convective envelope.

We briefly introduce hot subdwarfs and their evolutionary status before discussing the different types of known pulsators in more detail. Currently, at least six apparently distinct types of variable are known among hot subdwarfs, encompassing p- as well as g-mode pulsators and objects in the Galactic field as well as in globular clusters. Most of the oscillations detected can be explained in terms of an iron opacity mechanism, and quantitative asteroseismology has been very successful for some of the pulsators. In addition to helping constrain possible evolutionary scenarios, studies focussing on stellar pulsations have also been used to infer planets and characterize the rotation of the host star.

The crust of Neutron Stars can be approximated by a highly conducting solid crystal lattice. The evolution of the magnetic field in the crust is mediated through Hall effect, namely the electric current is carried by the free electrons of the lattice and the magnetic field lines are advected by the electron fluid. Here, we present the results of a time-dependent evolution code which shows the effect Hall drift has in the large-scale evolution of the magnetic field. In particular we link analytical predictions with simulation results. We find that there are two basic evolutionary paths, depending on the initial conditions compared to Hall equilibrium. We also show the effect axial symmetry combined with density gradient have on suppressing turbulent cascade.

The incoming IAU President, Norio Kaifu, welcomed the participants to the Closing Ceremony of the XXVIIIth General Assembly.

Mira and semi-regular variable stars have been studied for centuries but continue to be enigmatic. One unsolved mystery is the presence of polarization from these stars. In particular, we present 40 years of polarization measurements for the prototype o Ceti and V CVn and find very different phenomena for each star. The polarization fraction and position angle for Mira is found to be small and highly variable. On the other hand, the polarization fraction for V CVn is large and variable, from 2–7%, and its position angle is approximately constant, suggesting a long-term asymmetric structure. We suggest a number of potential scenarios to explain these observations.

We review photopolarimeters that are based on the Single Photon Avalanche Diodes (SPADs) and were designed, built, developed, and extensively used for high time resolution studies of astrophysical sources. Examples of such detectors are OPTIMA, GASP, AquEYE, and IquEYE which can measure the time of arrival of single optical photons with an accuracy of down to 50 picoseconds. We describe the most exciting results obtained with the SPADs detectors starting from the best existing optical polarimetric measurements of the Crab pulsar, the discovery of the first optical magnetar and its quasi-periodic oscillations, as well as a verification of exoplanets around eclipsing cataclysmic variables. Additionally, we discuss possible applications of such detectors for asteroseismology.

Sunspots are important signatures of the global solar magnetic field cycle. It is believed that other stars also present these same phenomena. However, today it is not possible to observe directly star spots due to their very small sizes. The method applied here studies star spots by detecting small variations in the stellar light curve during a planetary transit. When the planet passes in front of its host star, there is a chance of it occulting, at least partially, a spot. This allows the determination of the spots physical characteristics, such as size, temperature, and location on the stellar surface. In the case of the Sun, there exists a relation between the magnetic field and the spot temperature. We estimate the magnetic field component along the line-of-sight and the intensity of sunspots using data from the MDI instrument on board of the SOHO satellite. Assuming that the same relation applies to other stars, we estimate spots magnetic fields of CoRoT-2 and Kepler-17 stars.

The presence of pulsations influences the local parameters at the surface of massive stars and thus it modifies the Zeeman magnetic signatures. Therefore it makes the characterisation of a magnetic field in pulsating stars more difficult and the characterisation of pulsations is thus required for the study of magnetic massive stars. Conversely, the presence of a magnetic field can inhibit differential rotation and mixing in massive stars and thus provides important constraints for seismic modelling based on pulsation studies. As a consequence, it is necessary to combine spectropolarimetric and seismic studies for all massive classical pulsators. Below we show examples of such combined studies and the interplay between physical processes.

Over more than twenty years, Wojtek Dziembowski and I collaborated on nearly fifty papers, which were concentrated in helioseismology through the 1980s and 1990s, but extended early into the new century. In this review, I discuss the most significant results of this collaboration and some of the underlying sociology that contributed to the intensity and longevity of our collaboration. Our work began with placing limits on the Sun's buried magnetic field and ended with extracting from the solar-cycle dependent oscillation frequency changes the roles (and net result) of competing dynamical drivers of changes in the solar diameter.

In this review we focus on non-linear phenomena in pulsating stars: mode selection and amplitude limitation. Of many linearly excited modes, only a fraction is detected in pulsating stars. Which of them are excited, and why (the problem of mode selection), and to what amplitude (the problem of amplitude limitation) are intrinsically non-linear and still unsolved problems. Tools for studying these problems are briefly discussed and our understanding of mode selection and amplitude limitation in selected groups of self-excited pulsators is presented. We focus on classical pulsators (Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars) and main-sequence variables (δ Scuti and β Cephei stars). Directions of future studies are briefly discussed.

Asymmetries in exoplanet transits are a useful tool for developing our understanding of magnetic activity on both stars and planets outside our Solar System. Near-UV observations of the WASP-12 system have revealed asymmetries in the timing of the transit when compared with the optical light curve. In this proceedings we review a number of reported asymmetries and present work simulating near-UV transits for the hot-Jupiter hosting star HD 189733.

Gattini and CSTAR have been installed at Dome A, Antarctica, which provide time-series photometric data for a large number of pulsating variable stars. We present the study for several variable stars with the data collected with the two facilities in 2009 to demonstrate the scientific potential of observations from Dome A for asteroseismology.

Pulsating stars in eclipsing binary systems play an important role in asteroseismology. The combination of their spectroscopic and photometric orbital solutions can be used to determine, or at least to constrain, the masses and radii of components. To successfully perform any seismic modelling of a star, one has to identify at least some of the detected modes, which requires precise time-series photometric and spectroscopic observations. This work presents a progress report on the analysis of two β Cephei-type stars in eclipsing binaries: HD 101794 (V916 Cen) and HD 167003 (V4386 Sgr).

In addition to well-known mechanisms of excitation of solar and stellar oscillations by turbulent convection and instabilities, the oscillations can be excited by an impulsive localized force caused by the energy release in solar and stellar flares. Such oscillations have been observed on the Sun (‘sunquakes’), and created a lot of interesting discussions about physical mechanisms of the impulsive excitation and their relationship to the flare physics. The observation and theory have shown that most of a sunquake's energy is released in high-degree, high-frequency p modes. In addition, there have been reports on helioseismic observations of low-degree modes excited by strong solar flares. Much more powerful flares observed on other stars can cause ‘starquakes’ of substantially higher amplitude. Observations of such oscillations can provide new asteroseismic information and also constraints on mechanisms of stellar flares. I discuss the basic properties of sunquakes, and initial attempts to detect flare-excited oscillations in Kepler short-cadence data.

High-quality data from space-based observatories present an opportunity to fit stellar models to observations of individually-identified oscillation frequencies, not just the large and small frequency separations. But such fits require the evaluation of a large number of accurate stellar models, which remains expensive. Here, we show that global-mode oscillation frequencies interpolated in a grid of stellar models are precise and accurate, at least in the neighbourhood of a solar model.

Accurate spectroscopic measurements of magnetic fields in low mass stars remain challenging because of their cool temperatures, strong line blending, and often fast rotation. This is why previous estimates were based either on the analysis of only a few lines or made use of some indirect techniques. This frequently led to noticeable scatter in obtained results. In this talk I will present and discuss new results on the determination of the intensity and geometry of the magnetic fields in M-dwarfs using IR observations obtained with CRIRES@VLT. The instrument provides unprecedented data of high resolution (R = 100 000) which is crucial for resolving individual magnetically broadened molecular and atomic lines. Such an in-depth analysis based on direct magnetic spectral synthesis opens a possibility to deduce both field intensity and geometry avoiding most of the limitation and assumptions made in previous studies.

We present results of observations of 22 664 stars in the Kepler field of view acquired with the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) in the years 2011 – 2012, and provide a database of the atmospheric parameters derived from those data.