Andalusia (Spain) houses several astronomical observatories, among them the main observational facility in continental Europe: Calar Alto Observatory. In recent years, the regional government of Andalusia has been setting up a regulation to protect the natural conditions of darkness at night all over the region. This regulation includes several outstanding features and poses specific rules to protect the influence area of Calar Alto Observatory.

Using the solutions of the gap equations of the magnetic-color-flavor-locked (MCFL) phase of paired quark matter in a magnetic field, and taking into consideration the separation between the longitudinal and transverse pressures due to the field-induced breaking of the spatial rotational symmetry, the equation of state (EoS) of the MCFL phase is self-consistently determined. Implications for stellar models of magnetized (self-bound) strange stars and hybrid (MCFL core) stars are discussed.

The sunspot number data during the past 400 years indicates that both the profile and the amplitude of the solar cycle have large variations. Some precursors of the solar cycle were identified aiming to predict the solar cycle. The polar field and the geomagnetic index are two precursors which are received the most attention. The geomagnetic variations during the solar minima are potentially caused by the solar polar field by the connection of the solar open flux. The robust prediction skill of the polar field indicates that the memory of the dynamo process is less than 11 yrs based on the frame of the Babcock-Leighton flux transport dynamo. One possible reason to get the short magnetic memory is the high magnetic diffusivity in the convective zone. Our recent studies show that the radial downward pumping is another possible reason. Based upon the mechanism, we well simulate the cycle irregularities during RGO time period. This opens the possibility to set up a standard dynamo based model to predict the solar cycle. In the end, the no correlation between the polar field and the preceding cycle strength due to two nonlinearities involved in the sunspot emergence will be stressed.

Mass and radius of planets transiting their host stars are provided by radial velocity and photometric observations. Structural models of solid exoplanet interiors are then constructed by using equations of state for the radial density distribution, which are compliant with the thermodynamics of the high-pressure limit. However, to some extent those structural models suffer from inherent degeneracy or non-uniqueness problems owing to a principal lack of knowledge of the internal differentiation state and/or the possible presence of an optically thick atmosphere. We here discuss the role of corresponding measurement errors, which adversely affect determinations of a planet's mean density and bulk chemical composition. Precise measurements of planet radii will become increasingly important as key observational constraints for radial density models of individual solid low-mass exoplanets or super-Earths.

CARMENES (Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exo-earths with Near-infrared and optical Echelle Spectrographs) is a next-generation instrument under construction for the 3.5 m telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory by a consortium of eleven Spanish and German institutions. The scientific goal of the project is a five-year exoplanet survey targeting 300 M stars with the completed instrument. The CARMENES hardware consists of two separate échelle spectrographs covering the wavelength range from 0.55 to 1.7 μm at a spectral resolution of R = 82,000, fed by fibers from the Cassegrain focus of the telescope. Both spectrographs are housed in a temperature-stabilized environment in vacuum tanks, to enable a long-term radial velocity precision of 1 m s−1 employing a simultaneous calibration with Th-Ne and U-Ne emission line lamps.

Recent observational and theoretical results suggest that the production rates and luminosities of high-mass X-ray binaries depend on metallicity. To test this prediction, we combine HMXB population synthesis results with numerical simulations of galaxy formation to produce synthetic populations of HMXBs in star-forming galaxies, and compare the model predictions to observations of HMXB populations in nearby and high-redshift galaxies. Our models show a fair agreement with observations only when the HMXB production and luminosities are assumed to depend strongly on metallicity.

We reduce the published measurements of the equivalent width of the oxygen triplet (Oiλ7774Å) to a single system and combine the resulting homogenized indices with revised Hipparcos parallaxes to derive the MK versus log[W(Oiλ7774Å)] absolute-magnitude calibration for bright F-type giants and supergiants and use the resulting calibration to estimate both the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud and the parameters of the Galactic rotation curve.

To search for kinematic evidence of the existence of the Galactic bar, we observed 10 methanol maser sources at the near end of the bar with VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry). From these observations, we obtained absolute proper motions of eight sources based on the phase-referencing technique. We compared the motions with the predictions of three simple models in a 3D plane. This comparison showed that a non-flat circular rotation model and a dynamical model including a bar potential reproduce the observed data better than a flat rotation model. In addition, the bar model suggests that the inclination angle of the Galactic bar is around 35°, which is consistent with previous studies.

The Kepler photometer was launched in March 2009 initiating NASA's search for Earth-size planets orbiting in the habitable zone of their star. After three years of science operations, Kepler has proven to be a veritable cornucopia of science results, both for exoplanets and for astrophysics. The phenomenal photometric precision and continuous observations required in order to identify small, rocky transiting planets enables the study of a large range of phenomena contributing to stellar variability for many thousands of solar-like stars in Kepler's field of view in exquisite detail. These effects range from <1 ppm acoustic oscillations on timescales from a few minutes and longward, to flares on timescales of hours, to spot-induced modulation on timescales of days to weeks to activity cycles on timescales of months to years. Recent improvements to the science pipeline have greatly enhanced Kepler's ability to reject instrumental signatures while better preserving intrinsic stellar variability, opening up the timescales for study well beyond 10 days. We give an overview of the stellar variability we see across the full range of spectral types observed by Kepler, from the cool, small red M stars to the hot, large late A stars, both in terms of amplitude as well as timescale. We also present a picture of what the extended mission will likely bring to the field of stellar variability as we progress from a 3.5 year mission to a 7.5+ year mission.

It is conjectured that magnetic configurations may be characterized by the embedded invariants which are extracted from their topological textures. Hence, experimentally observed magnetic structures can be classified by the invariants of the elementary building blocks of the 3-D structures - prime knots. These unique invariants may describe the magnetic configurations in ion drop-outs in solar impulsive events, in photospheric flux ropes carried into the interplanetary medium by the solar wind, and can affect the decay rates for complex magnetic configurations.

The AMIGA project (Analysis of the interstellar Medium of Isolated GAlaxies, http://amiga.iaa.es) has identified a significant sample of very isolated (Tcc(nearest-neighbor) ≈2-3Gyr) galaxies in the local Universe and revealed that they have different properties than galaxies in richer environments. Our analysis of a multiwavelength database includes quantification of degree of isolation, morphologies, as well as FIR and radio line/continuum properties.

Properties usually regarded as susceptible to interaction enhancement show lower averages in AMIGA–lower than any galaxy sample yet identified. We find lower MIR/FIR measures (Lisenfeld et al. 2007), low levels of radio continuum emission (Leon et al. 2008), no radioexcess above the radioFIR correlation (0%, Sabater et al.2008), a small number of AGN (22%, Sabater et al. 2012), and lower molecular gas content (Lisenfeld et al. 2011). The late-type spiral majority in our sample show very small bulge/total ratios (largely <0.1) and Sersic indices consistent with an absence of classical bulges (Durbala et al. 2008). They show redder g-r colors and lower color dispersion for AMIGA subtypes (Fernandez-Lorenzo et al. 2012) and show the narrowest (gaussian) distribution of HI profile asymmetries of any sample yet studied.

This work has been supported by Grant AYA2011-30491-C02-01 co-financed by MICINN and FEDER funds, and the Junta de Andalucia (Spain) grants P08-FQM-4205 and TIC-114.

Three-dimensional information on Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) can be obtained from a wide range of in-situ measurements and remote-sensing techniques. Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and white-light imaging sensed from several vantage points can be used to infer the 3-D geometry of the different parts that constitute a CME. High-resolution and high-cadence coronal imaging provides detailed information on the formation and release phase of a magnetic flux rope, the lateral expansion of the CME and the reconfiguration of the corona associated with the effects of pressure variations and reconnection. The evolution of the CME in the interplanetary medium and the connection of its various substructures with in-situ measurements can be obtained from multi-point heliospheric imaging.

The mass of ISM in high redshift Galaxies is a major determinant of their morphology, star formation activity and how they will evolve to low redshift. Measurement of the CO lines at z > 0.5 are time consuming, even with the sensitivity of ALMA, and the derived ISM masses are subject to uncertainty in the CO-to-H2 conversion factor. Here I describe a much faster technique— measuring the long wavelength Rayleigh-Jeans dust emission using the spectacular continuum sensitivity of ALMA. Using a metallicity-dependent gas-to-dust abundance ratio derived from studies of low-z galaxies, one then obtains the ISM mass. Initial results from our ALMA Cycle-0 observations are presented for a small sample of stellar-mass selected galaxies in COSMOS. This technique will enable measurement of 100's of galaxies at high-z with observations of typically ∼10 min per galaxy.

The ‘holy grail’ of exoplanet research today is the detection of an earth-like planet: a rocky planet in the habitable zone around a main-sequence star. Extremely precise Doppler spectroscopy is an indispensable tool to find and characterize earth-like planets; however, to find these planets around solar-type stars, we need nearly one order of magnitude better radial velocity (RV) precision than the best current spectrographs provide. Recent developments in astrophotonics (Bland-Hawthorn & Horton 2006, Bland-Hawthorn et al. 2010) and adaptive optics (AO) enable single mode fiber (SMF) fed, high resolution spectrographs, which can realize the next step in precision. SMF feeds have intrinsic advantages over multimode fiber or slit coupled spectrographs: The intensity distribution at the fiber exit is extremely stable, and as a result the line spread function of a well-designed spectrograph is fully decoupled from input coupling conditions, like guiding or seeing variations (Ihle et al. 2010). Modal noise, a limiting factor in current multimode fiber fed instruments (Baudrand & Walker 2001), can be eliminated by proper design, and the diffraction limited input to the spectrograph allows for very compact instrument designs, which provide excellent optomechanical stability. A SMF is the ideal interface for new, very precise wavelength calibrators, like laser frequency combs (Steinmetz et al. 2008, Osterman et al. 2012), or SMF based Fabry-Perot Etalons (Halverson et al. 2013). At near infrared wavelengths, these technologies are ready to be implemented in on-sky instruments, or already in use. We discuss a novel concept for such a spectrograph.

CALIFA (Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area) is a 3D spectroscopic survey of 600 nearby galaxies that we are obtaining with PPaK@3.5m at Calar Alto (Sánchez et al. 2012; Husemann et al. 2012). This pioneer survey is providing valuable clues on how the mass and metallicity grow in the different galactic spatial sub-components (“bulge” and “disk”). Processed through spectral synthesis techniques, CALIFA datacubes allow us to, for the first time, spatially resolve the star formation history of galaxies (Cid Fernandes et al. 2012). The richness of this approach is already evident from the results obtained for the first ~ 100 galaxies of the sample (Pérez et al. 2012). We have found that galaxies grow inside-out, and that the growth rate depends on a galaxy's mass. Here, we present the radial variations of physical properties sorting galaxies by their morphological type (Figure 1). We have found a good correlation between the stellar mass surface density, stellar ages and metallicities and the Hubble type, but being the the early type spirals (Sa-Sbc) the galaxies with strong negative age and metallicity gradient from the bulge to the disk.

Five non-potential parameters are calculated to investigate the temporal and spatial variations of vector magnetic field in active region 11158. An area that had evident changes of the azimuth of the vector magnetic field was found. The sunspot rotation may lead to an increase of the non-potentiality. Rapid and prominent increases are found in the variations of unsigned helicity.

We develop a robust Bayesian model to derive peculiar velocities and Fundamental Plane (FP) distances for a subsample of 9000 galaxies from the 6dF Galaxy Survey (6dFGS). These galaxies form the basis of 6dFGSv, the largest and most uniform galaxy peculiar-velocity sample to date. We perform a Bayesian analysis of the data set as a whole, determining cosmological parameters from the peculiar-velocity field (e.g., fitting β and the bulk flow), by comparing to the field predicted from the redshift survey and assuming that the galaxy distribution traces the matter distribution.

To study the origin of magnetars, a unique opportunity is provided by detecting an excess of X-ray thermal radiation of the radio pulsars (rotation powered pulsars) with dipolar magnetic fields as high as magnetars. The excess is probably caused by decay of the magnetic field as seen in magnetars. In order to investigate whether the rotation powered pulsars have the excess flux and the hard-tail component similar to magnetars, we observed PSR J0726-2612 which has a 3.44 s period and a 3 × 1013 G inferred dipolar magnetic field, with Suzaku for 44 ks on 2011 November 16-17. We report this observational result. We also compare with other observations and discuss a decaying of the magnetic field for normal radio pulsars.

Mass transfer is very common in binary evolution and it dominates the evolutionary fate of binaries. Two crucial problems i.e. dynamical mass transfer and common envelope evolution, are not well understood yet. Here we focus on the first problem, and systematically show the critical mass ratio for dynamical mass transfer when the donor stars are still on the main sequence (MS).

We present some results obtained by high resolution spectroscopic observations for symbiotic stars EG And, AG Dra, and BX Mon in recent years which were performed with 1.8-m reflector and echelle spectrograph BOES at Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory, Youngcheon, South Korea. The variations of Hα emission line during a night and the variations of H Balmer lines and He I emission lines among several analyzed lines over months and years are shown and discussed.