The extraordinary DIBs observed toward Herschel 36 (Dahlstrom et al. 2013) have been analyzed (Oka et al. 2013). The analysis led us to a new way to classify the carriers of DIBs depending on whether the molecules are polar or non-polar. The pronounced Extended Tails toward Red (ETR) observed for DIBs λ5780.5, λ5797.1, and λ6613.6 are explained as due to radiative excitation of high rotational levels of polar carrier molecules in an environment with high radiative temperature ~90 K. Other DIBs (e.g., λ5849.8, λ6196.0, and λ6379.3) which do not show ETR are likely due to non-polar molecules. Model calculations taking into account the interplay of radiative and collisional effects reproduce the observed ETR using realistic molecular parameters if the radiative temperature is sufficiently high (~90 K). The calculation suggests that the carriers of DIBs with ETR are likely medium size molecules with 3 - 6 heavy atoms unless the radiative temperature is much higher.

We review the recent results of the nucleosynthesis yields of massive stars. We examine how those yields are affected by some hydrodynamical effects during the supernova explosions, namely, explosion energies from those of hypernovae to faint supernovae, mixing and fallback of processed materials, asphericity, etc. Those parameters in the supernova nucleosynthesis models are constrained from observational data of supernovae and metal-poor stars. The elemental abundance patterns observed in extremely metal-poor stars show some peculiarities relative to the solar abundance pattern, which suggests the important contributions of hypernovae and faint supernovae in the early chemical enrichment of galaxies. These constraints on supernova nucleosynthesis are taken into account in the latest yield table for chemical evolution modeling.

Using star counts method, we estimated the Galactic structure parameters in high latitude field (50° ≤ l ≤ 55°, −46° ≤ b ≤ −44°), 10 deg2 field with Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and South Galactic Cap of U-band Sky Survey (SCUSS), to explore their possible variations with absolute magnitude. Here we just considered three components: double exponential thin disk and thick disk and a de Vaucouleurs halo. And these parameters were obtained by minimising χ2.

This paper updates the recent discovery of over a dozen new diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs), first in H-band spectra of stars in the Galactic center (GC) and toward stars in the Cygnus OB2 Association. The H-band DIBs, which currently number 15, are the longest wavelength DIBs reported to date and are the first found on sightlines toward the Galactic center. K-band (2.0-2.5 μm) spectra of the GC stars do not reveal additional DIBs. Comparison of the velocity profile of the strongest of the new DIBs in the sightline toward GCS3-2 (in the GC) with that toward Cygnus OB2 No. 9 and also with the broad velocity profiles of H3+ lines toward GCS3-2 confirm that a significant fraction of the diffuse material producing the DIB absorptions on sightlines to the GC is located within the central few hundred parsecs of the Galaxy.

We investigate the nucleation of carbon and hydrogen atoms in the gas phase to form large carbon chains, clusters and cages by reactive molecular dynamics simulations. We study how temperature, particle density, presence of hydrogen, and carbon inflow affect the nucleation of molecular moieties with different characteristics.

RAVE is a spectroscopic survey of the Milky Way which collected more than 500,000 stellar spectra of nearby stars in the Galaxy. The RAVE consortium analysed these spectra to obtain radial velocities, stellar parameters and chemical abundances. These data, together with spatial and kinematic information like positions, proper motions, and distance estimations, make the RAVE database a rich source for galactic archaeology. I present recent investigations on the chemo-kinematic relations and chemical gradients in the Milky Way disk using RAVE data and compare our results with the Besançon models. I also present the code SPACE, an evolution of the RAVE chemical pipeline, which integrates the measurements of stellar parameters and chemical abundances in one single process.

We found that the thick disk stars of the Galaxy should form from gas-rich mergers and minor merger or radial migration.

Establishing the stability of cosmic fullerenes and fullerenic aggregates is extremely relevant for a variety of reasons. For instance, the emission features of C60 and C70 fall in the same spectral region as the Un-identified InfraRed (UIR) bands, which they could contribute to. To be able to contribute to the UIR emission, however, fullerenes must be able to survive long enough against the destruction mechanisms operating in the interstellar medium. In this study we focus on the effects of collisional processing, i.e., the bombardment by energetic ions and electrons. A recent experimental/theoretical study has shown that ion collisions with C60 clusters result in the dissociation of the cluster with the simultaneous formation of covalent fullerene dimers, which could play a role as DIBs carriers. We present here our first results about the collisional processing of C60 molecules and clusters by H, He and C ions in interstellar shocks. We have adapted the models that have previously been developed to successfully treat the collisional processing of PAHs in space. The nature of the interaction and the similarities between PAHs and fullerenes make this approach appropriate. In addition, our study shows that the formation of covalent dimers following ion collisions with C60 clusters is compatible with the astrophysical conditions under consideration.

Medium to high-resolution stellar spectroscopic surveys can potentially be used to build DIB databases by means of automated methods of analysis. Multiplex spectrographs increase strongly those potentialities and allow small-scale variability studies. Because measurements of the stellar parameters are generally the primary goal of the surveys, synthetic spectra can be computed and used to extract DIBs from late-type star data. Large datasets should allow deeper investigations on the DIB variability in response to stellar radiation fields, DIB reddening relationships, and help localizing interstellar clouds. Here we describe our attempts to build and test automated methods adapted to both early and late type stars.

We first introduce the primary target allocation requirements and restrictions for the parallel control multiple fiber system, which is used in the LAMOST spectroscopic survey. The fiber positioner anti-collision model is imported. Then several target allocation methods and features are discussed in detail, including a network flow algorithm, high priority for fiber unit holding less target number, target allocation algorithm for groups, target allocation method for add-ons and target reallocation. Their virtues and weaknesses are analyzed for various kinds of scientific research situations. Furthermore an optimization concept using the Simulate Anneal Arithmetic (SAA) is developed to improve the fiber utilizing efficiency.

When it comes to lithium in late-type stars, atomic diffusion (AD) refers to the slow gravitational settling below the convective zone. Richard, Michaud & Richter, J. (2005) computed the influence of diffusion on the lithium abundance with different additional mixing (AddMix) parameters, after 13.5 Gyr with an initial Li abundance compatible with BBN. Without AddMix the abundance of lithium would decrease when the temperature of the star increases. This is depicted by the dashed green line in the left panel of Fig. 1 and is in contradiction with the existence of a lithium plateau. But with a model including ad-hoc AddMix, where the AddMix diffusion coefficient is given by DT and is connected to DHe(AD) at a reference temperature of log T0=6.25, it is possible to reproduce the plateau as seen in the figure (solid green line). AD with AddMix has so far been shown to be at work in two globular clusters (GC) with different metallicities. Korn et al. (2007) showed the effects in NGC 6397 at [Fe/H] = −2.1. More recently Gruyters et al. (2013) have shown smaller effects, but similar in nature, in NGC 6752 at [Fe/H] = −1.6. The Li abundance for both clusters can be brought in to agreement with predictions from the cosmic microwave background radiation and Big Bang nucleosynthesis (CMB+BBN) by using stellar structure models including AD and AddMix, although with different efficiencies of AddMix. It seems there is an evolution of AddMix with metallicity which renders AD less efficient. As AddMix acts only in the outer regions, helium settling in the core is not affected, and so the overall evolution (e.g. Teff-age relation) will be similar regardless of this parameter.

Ground-based and space-borne observations of diffuse molecular clouds suggest a number of areas where further improvements to modeling efforts is warranted. I will highlight those that have the widest applicability. The range in CO fractionation caused by selective isotope photodissociation, in particular the large 12C16O/13C16O ratios observed toward stars in Ophiuchus, is not reproduced well by current models. Our ongoing laboratory measurements of oscillator strengths and predissociation rates for Rydberg transitions in CO isotopologues may help clarify the situtation. The CH+ abundance continues to draw attention. Small scale structure seen toward ζ Per may provide additional constraints on the possible synthesis routes. The connection between results from optical transitions and those from radio and sub-millimeter wave transitions requires further effort. A study of OH+ and OH toward background stars reveals that these species favor different environments. This brings to focus the need to model each cloud along the line of sight separately, and to allow the physical conditions to vary within an individual cloud, in order to gain further insight into the chemistry. Now that an extensive set of data on molecular excitation is available, the models should seek to reproduce these data to place further constraints on the modeling results.

We determined NLTE abundances of Na in the atmospheres of 80 red giants including the 33 stars of the thin disk, 35 stars of the thick disk and 12 stars of Hercules stream.

We present the first results of a dedicated search for Diffuse Interstellar Bands that have profiles with FWHM > 6 Å. Broad DIBs have been noticed in past surveys using averages of multiple sight lines (e.g. Jenniskens & Désert, 1994), but careful detection, measurement, and cataloguing for individual sight lines has not been done since the pioneering work of Herbig (1995). We have initiated an observing campaign using the Apache Point Observatory in order to obtain low-resolution spectra to search for such broad DIBs and monitor their behaviour from star to star. A first sample of 21 stars with 0.3 < E(B-V) < 3.3 mag, along with 15 matched low-reddening stars, were observed with the APO/DIS B400 (R ~ 450) and R300 (R ~ 1000) gratings to obtain spectra having S/N > 500.

We propose that the diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) arise from absorption lines of electronic transitions in molecular clusters primarily composed of a single molecule, atom, or ion (“seed”), embedded in a single-layer shell of H2 molecules (Bernstein et al. 2013). Less abundant variants of the cluster, including two seed molecules and/or a two-layer shell of H2 molecules may also occur. The lines are broadened, blended, and wavelength-shifted by interactions between the seed and surrounding H2 shell. We refer to these clusters as CHCs (Contaminated H2 Clusters). CHC spectroscopy matches the diversity of observed DIB spectral profiles, and provides good fits to several DIB profiles based on a rotational temperature of 10 K. CHCs arise from ~cm-sized, dirty H2 ice balls, called CHIMPs (Contaminated H2 Ice Macro-Particles), formed in cold, dense, Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs), and later released into the interstellar medium (ISM) upon GMC disruption. Attractive interactions, arising from Van der Waals and ion-induced dipole potentials, between the seeds and H2 molecules enable CHIMPs to attain cm-sized dimensions. When an ultraviolet (UV) photon is absorbed in the outer layer of a CHIMP, it heats the icy matrix and expels CHCs into the ISM. While CHCs are quickly destroyed by absorbing UV photons, they are replenished by the slowly eroding CHIMPs. Since CHCs require UV photons for their release, they are most abundant at, but not limited to, the edges of UV-opaque molecular clouds, consistent with the observed, preferred location of DIBs. An inherent property of CHCs, which can be characterized as nanometer size, spinning, dipolar dust grains, is that they emit in the radio-frequency region. Thus, CHCs offer a natural explanation to the anomalous microwave emission (AME) feature in the ~10-100 GHz spectral region.

Blue luminescence (BL) and extended red emission (ERE) are observed as diffuse, optical-wavelength emissions in interstellar space, resulting from photoluminescence by ultraviolet(UV)-illuminated interstellar grains. Faintness and the challenge of separating the BL and ERE from the frequently much brighter dust-scattered continuum present major observational hurdles, which have permitted only slow progress in testing the numerous models that have been advanced to explain these two phenomena. Both the ERE, peaking near 680 nm (FWHM ~ 60 - 120 nm) and the BL, asymmetrically peaking at ~ 378 nm (FWHM ~ 45 nm), were first discovered in the Red Rectangle nebula. Subsequently, ERE and BL have been observed in other reflection nebulae, and in the case of the ERE, in carbon-rich planetary nebulae, H II regions, high-latitude cirrus clouds, the galactic diffuse ISM, and in external galaxies. BL exhibits a close spatial and intensity correlation with emission in the aromatic emission feature at 3.3 micron, most likely arising from small, neutral polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules. The spectral characteristics of the BL also agree with those of fluorescence by PAH molecules with 13 to 19 carbon atoms. The BL phenomenon is thus most readily understood as the optical fluorescence of small, UV-excited aromatic molecules. The ERE, by contrast, though co-existent with mid-IR PAH emissions, does not correlate with emissions from either neutral or ionized PAHs. Instead, the spatial ERE morphology appears to be strictly governed by the density of far-UV (E ≥ 10.5 eV) photons, which are required for the ERE excitation. The most restrictive observational constraint for the ERE process is its exceptionally high quantum efficiency. If the ERE results from photo-excitation of a nano-particle carrier by photons with E ≥ 10.5 eV in a single-step process, the quantum efficiency exceeds 100%. Such a process, in which one to three low-energy optical photons may be emitted following a single far-UV excitation, is possible in highly isolated small clusters, e.g. small, dehydrogenated carbon clusters with about 20 to 28 carbon atoms. A possible connection between the ERE carriers and the carriers of DIBs may exist in that both are ubiquitous throughout the diffuse interstellar medium and both have an abundance of low-lying electronic levels with E ≤ 2.3 eV above the ground state.

In order to understand the Barium abundance distribution in the Galactic disk based on Cepheids, one must first be aware of important effects of the corotation resonance, situated a little beyond the solar orbit. The thin disk of the Galaxy is divided in two regions that are separated by a barrier situated at that radius. Since the gas cannot get across that barrier, the chemical evolution is independent on the two sides of it. The barrier is caused by the opposite directions of flows of gas, on the two sides, in addition to a Cassini-like ring void of HI (caused itself by the flows). A step in the metallicity gradient developed at corotation, due to the difference in the average star formation rate on the two sides, and to this lack of communication between them. In connection with this, a proof that the spiral arms of our Galaxy are long-lived (a few billion years) is the existence of this step. When one studies the abundance gradients by means of stars which span a range of ages, like the Cepheids, one has to take into account that stars, contrary to the gas, have the possibility of crossing the corotation barrier. A few stars born on the high metallicity side are seen on the low metallicity one, and vice-versa. In the present work we re-discuss the data on Barium abundance in Cepheids as a function of Galactic radius, taking into account the scenario described above. The [Ba/H] ratio, plotted as a function of Galactic radius, apparently presents a distribution with two branches in the external region (beyond corotation). One can re-interpret the data and attribute the upper branch to the stars that were born on the high metallicity side. The lower branch, analyzed separately, indicates that the stars born beyond corotation have a rising Barium metallicity as a function of Galactic radius.

The Sun is located inside an enormous local cavity filled with a million degree, ionized hydrogen gas and surrounded by a wall of dense and cold gas, this cavity is known as the Local Bubble (LB). Since the tempreture of Local Bubble is high, the typical singly-ionized atoms or molecules can not survive at this high tempreture. To overcome this problem we should probe the Local Bubble using species which survive under this condition so we have done a whole sky survey in north hemisphere by observing absorptions in the Diffuse Interstellar Bands (DIBs) for sight-lines with distance >300 pc. We have done 30 nights observation and have observed 473 bright stars. We found that the correlations between 5780 Å DIBs and Na I D doublets inside of the LB is much more than carriers outside of the LB.

Despite the recent advancements in the field of galaxy formation and evolution, fully self-consistent simulations are still unable to make the detailed predictions necessary for the planned and ongoing large spectroscopic and photometric surveys of the Milky Way disc. These difficulties arise from the very uncertain nature of sub-grid physical energy feedback within models, affecting both star formation rates and chemical enrichment. To avoid these problems, we have introduced a new approach which consists of fusing disc chemical evolution models with compatible numerical simulations. We demonstrate the power of this method by showing that a range of observational results can be explained by our new model. We show that due to radial migration from mergers at high redshift and the central bar at later times, a sizable fraction of old metal-poor, high-[α/Fe] stars can reach the solar vicinity. This naturally accounts for a number of recent observations related to both the thin and thick discs, despite the fact that we use thin-disc chemistry only. Within the framework of our model, the MW thick disc has emerged naturally from (i) stars born with high velocity dispersions at high redshift, (ii) stars migrating from the inner disc very early on due to strong merger activity, and (iii) further radial migration driven by the bar and spirals at later times. A significant fraction of old stars with thick-disc characteristics could have been born near the solar radius.

There is overwhelming evidence that the Milky Way has formed its stars at a relatively constant rate throughout the Hubble time. This implies that its stock of cold gas was not in place since the beginning but it has been acquired slowly through gas accretion. The gas accretion must have been at low metallicity in order to reconcile the metallicities observed in the disc with the predictions of chemical evolution models. But how does this gas accretion take place? I review the current evidence of gas accretion into the Milky Way and similar galaxies through the infall of cold gas clouds and satellites. The conclusion from these studies is that the infalling gas at high column densities observed in HI emission is a least one order of magnitude below the value required to sustain star formation, thus accretion must come from a different channel. The likely reservoir for gas accretion is the cosmological corona of virial-temperature gas in which every galaxy must be embedded. At the interface between the disc and the corona the cold high-metallicity disc gas and the hot coronal medium must mix efficiently and this mixing causes the cooling and accretion of the lower corona. I show how this mechanism reproduces the kinematics of the neutral extraplanar gas in the Milky Way and other nearby galaxies and the ionised high-velocity clouds observed in HST spectra. I conclude with the speculation that the loss in efficiency of the disc-corona interaction is the ultimate cause for the evolution of disc galaxies towards the red sequence.