Transition discs are protoplanetary discs that show evidence for large holes or wide gaps (with widths comparable to their radii) in their dust component. These discs could be giving us clues about the disc destruction mechanism or hints about the location and time-scales for the formation of planets. However, at the moment there remain key gaps in our theoretical understanding. The vast majority of transition discs are accreting onto their central stars, indicating that—at least close to the star—dust has been depleted from the gas by a very large amount. In this review, we discuss evidence for two distinct populations of transition discs: mm-faint—those with low mm-fluxes, small holes (≲ 10 AU), and low accretion rates (~ 10−10 − 10−9 M⊙ yr−1) and mm-bright—discs with large mm-fluxes, large holes (≳ 20 AU), and high accretion rates ~ 10−8 M⊙ yr−1. MM-faint transition discs are consistent with what would naively be expected from a disc undergoing dispersal; however, mm-bright discs are not, and are likely to be rare and long-lived objects. We discuss the two commonly proposed mechanisms for creating transition discs: photoevaporation and planet–disc interactions, with a particular emphasis on how they would evolve in these models, comparing these predictions to the observed population. More theoretical work on explaining the lack of optically thick, non-accreting transition discs is required in both the photoevaporation and planetary hypothesis, before we can start to use transition discs to constrain models of planet formation. Finally, we suggest that the few discs with primordial looking spectral energy distribution, but serendipitously imaged showing large cavities in the mm (e.g. MWC758 and WSB 60) may represent a hidden population of associated objects. Characterising and understanding how these objects fit into the overall paradigm may allow us to unravel the mystery of transition discs.

We discuss the factors influencing the formation and gravitational fragmentation of protostellar discs. We start with a review of how observations of prestellar cores can be analysed statistically to yield plausible initial conditions for simulations of their subsequent collapse. Simulations based on these initial conditions show that, despite the low levels of turbulence in prestellar cores, they deliver primary protostars and associated discs which are routinely subject to stochastic impulsive perturbations; consequently misalignment of the spins and orbits of protostars are common. Also, the simulations produce protostars that collectively have a mass function and binary statistics matching those observed in nearby star-formation regions, but only if a significant fraction of the turbulent energy in the core is solenoidal, and accretion onto the primary protostar is episodic with a duty cycle $\stackrel{>}{\sim }3\,000\,{\rm yr}$ . Under this circumstance, a core typically spawns between 4 and 5 protostars, with high efficiency, and the lower mass protostars are mainly formed by disc fragmentation. The requirement that a proto-fragment in a disc lose thermal energy on a dynamical timescale dictates that there is a sweet spot for disc fragmentation at radii $70\,{\rm AU}\stackrel{<}{\sim }R\stackrel{<}{\sim }100\,{\rm AU}$ and temperatures $10\,{\rm K}\stackrel{<}{\sim }T\stackrel{<}{\sim }20\,{\rm K}$ , and this might explain the brown dwarf desert.

Disc fragmentation provides an important mechanism for producing low-mass stars in prestellar cores. Here, we describe smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations which show how populations of prestellar cores evolve into stars. We find the observed masses and multiplicities of stars can be recovered under certain conditions.

First, protostellar feedback from a star must be episodic. The continuous accretion of disc material on to a central protostar results in local temperatures which are too high for disc fragmentation. If, however, the accretion occurs in intense outbursts, separated by a downtime of ~ 104 yr, gravitational instabilities can develop and the disc can fragment.

Second, a significant amount of the cores’ internal kinetic energy should be in solenoidal turbulent modes. Cores with less than a third of their kinetic energy in solenoidal modes have insufficient angular momentum to form fragmenting discs. In the absence of discs, cores can fragment but results in a top-heavy distribution of masses with very few low-mass objects.

We present a catalogue containing the redshifts of 3 660 X-ray selected targets in the XXL southern field. The redshifts were obtained with the AAOmega spectrograph and 2dF fibre positioner on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. The catalogue contains 1 515 broad line AGN, 528 stars, and redshifts for 41 out of the 49 brightest X-ray selected clusters in the XXL southern field.

We present the results of investigation of five stars, originally classified as dwarfs, belonging to Cyg OB2 association, their stellar, and wind properties. Using both tlusty and cmfgen codes, we derived effective temperatures, surface gravities, chemical abundances, mass-loss rates, and projected rotation velocities. Due to the fact that distance to the stars is well known, we were able to estimate their luminosities. Using evolutionary models, we estimated the ages of these sample stars and find that lower mass ones—MT282 and MT343—belong to older population of the association. Their ages are greater than 10 Myr. The ages of three other stars—MT317, MT299, MT259—are between 4 and 6 Myr.

Theoretical models of high-mass star formation lie between two extreme scenarios. At one extreme, all the mass comes from an initially gravitationally bound core. At the other extreme, the majority of the mass comes from cluster scale gas, which lies far outside the initial core boundary. One way to unambiguously show high-mass stars can assemble their gas through the former route would be to find a high-mass star forming in isolation. Making use of recently available CORNISH and ATLASGAL Galactic plane survey data, we develop sample selection criteria to try and find such an object. From an initial list of approximately 200 sources, we identify the high-mass star-forming region G13.384 + 0.064 as the most promising candidate. The region contains a strong radio continuum source, that is powered by an early B-type star. The bolometric luminosity, derived from infrared measurements, is consistent with this. However, sub-millimetre continuum emission, measured in ATLASGAL, as well as dense gas tracers, such as HCO+(3–2) and N2H+(3–2) indicate that there is less than ~ 100 M⊙ of material surrounding this star. We conclude that this region is indeed a promising candidate for a high-mass star forming in isolation.

We review existing smoothed particle hydrodynamics setup methods and outline their advantages, limitations, and drawbacks. We present a new method for constructing initial conditions for smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations, which may also be of interest for N-body simulations, and demonstrate this method on a number of applications. This new method is inspired by adaptive binning techniques using weighted Voronoi tessellations. Particles are placed and iteratively moved based on their proximity to neighbouring particles and the desired spatial resolution. This new method can satisfy arbitrarily complex spatial resolution requirements.

The first observations by a worldwide network of advanced interferometric gravitational wave detectors offer a unique opportunity for the astronomical community. At design sensitivity, these facilities will be able to detect coalescing binary neutron stars to distances approaching 400 Mpc, and neutron star–black hole systems to 1 Gpc. Both of these sources are associated with gamma-ray bursts which are known to emit across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Gravitational wave detections provide the opportunity for ‘multi-messenger’ observations, combining gravitational wave with electromagnetic, cosmic ray, or neutrino observations. This review provides an overview of how Australian astronomical facilities and collaborations with the gravitational wave community can contribute to this new era of discovery, via contemporaneous follow-up observations from the radio to the optical and high energy. We discuss some of the frontier discoveries that will be made possible when this new window to the Universe is opened.

Determining when and how the first galaxies reionised the intergalactic medium promises to shed light on both the nature of the first objects and the cosmic history of baryons. Towards this goal, quasar absorption lines play a unique role by probing the properties of diffuse gas on galactic and intergalactic scales. In this review, we examine the multiple ways in which absorption lines trace the connection between galaxies and the intergalactic medium near the reionisation epoch. We first describe how the Ly α forest is used to determine the intensity of the ionising ultraviolet background and the global ionising emissivity budget. Critically, these measurements reflect the escaping ionising radiation from all galaxies, including those too faint to detect directly. We then discuss insights from metal absorption lines into reionisation-era galaxies and their surroundings. Current observations suggest a buildup of metals in the circumgalactic environments of galaxies over z ~ 6 to 5, although changes in ionisation will also affect the evolution of metal line properties. A substantial fraction of metal absorbers at these redshifts may trace relatively low-mass galaxies. Finally, we review constraints from the Ly α forest and quasar near zones on the timing of reionisation. Along with other probes of the high-redshift Universe, absorption line data are consistent with a relatively late end to reionisation (5.5 ≲ z ≲ 7); however, the constraints are still fairly week. Significant progress is expected to come through improved analysis techniques, increases in the number of known high-redshift quasars from optical and infrared sky surveys, large gains in sensitivity from next-generation observing facilities, and synergies with other probes of the reionisation era.

The total magnification due to a point lens has been of particular interest as the theorem that gravitational lensing results in light amplification for all observers appears to contradict the conservation of photon number. This has been discussed several times, and various resolutions have been offered. In this note, we use a kinematic approach to provide a formula for the magnification factor for the primary image accurate to first order and valid for rays leaving the source at any trajectory. We thus determine the magnification over a sphere surrounding the system. A new result found is that while the magnification dips below unity far from the optical axis as noted by others, it returns to unity directly behind the source.

We estimated iron and metallicity gradients in the radial and vertical directions with the F and G type dwarfs taken from the Radial Velocity Experiment Data Release 4 database. The sample defined by the constraints Zmax ⩽ 825 pc and ep ⩽ 0.10 consists of stars with metal abundances and space velocity components agreeable with the thin-disc stars. The radial iron and metallicity gradients estimated for the vertical distance intervals 0 < Zmax ⩽ 500 and 500 < Zmax ⩽ 800 pc are $\text{d}[\text{Fe}/\text{H}]/\text{d}R_{\rm m}=-0.083\pm 0.030$ and $\text{d}[\text{Fe}/\text{H}]/\text{d}R_{\rm m}=-0.048\pm 0.037$ dex kpc−1, and $\text{d}[\text{M}/\text{H}]/\text{d}R_{\rm m}=-0.063\pm 0.011$ and $\text{d}[\text{M}/\text{H}]/\text{d}R_{\rm m}=-0.028\pm 0.057$ dex kpc−1, respectively, where Rm is the mean Galactocentric distance. The iron and metallicity gradients for less number of stars at further vertical distances, 800 < Zmax ⩽ 1500 pc, are mostly positive. Compatible iron and metallicity gradients could be estimated with guiding radius (Rg) for the same vertical distance intervals 0 < Zmax ⩽ 500 and 500 < Zmax ⩽ 800 pc, i.e. $\text{d}[\text{Fe}/\text{H}]/\text{d}R_{\rm g}=-0.083\pm 0.030$ and $\text{d}[\text{Fe}/\text{H}]/\text{d}R_{\rm g}=-0.065\pm 0.039$ dex kpc−1; $\text{d}[\text{M}/\text{H}]/\text{d}R_{\rm g}=-0.062\pm 0.018$ and $\text{d}[\text{M}/\text{H}]/\text{d}R_{\rm g}=-0.055\pm 0.045$ dex kpc−1. F and G type dwarfs on elongated orbits show a complicated radial iron and metallicity gradient distribution in different vertical distance intervals. Significant radial iron and metallicity gradients could be derived neither for the sub-sample stars with Rm ⩽ 8 kpc, nor for the ones at larger distances, Rm > 8 kpc. The range of the iron and metallicity abundance for the F and G type dwarfs on elongated orbits, [−0.13, −0.01), is similar to the thin-disc stars, while at least half of their space velocity components agree better with those of the thick-disc stars. The vertical iron gradients estimated for the F and G type dwarfs on circular orbits are $\text{d}[\text{Fe}/\text{H}]/\text{d}Z_{{\rm max}}=-0.176\pm 0.039$ dex kpc−1 and $\text{d}[\text{Fe}/\text{H}]/\text{d}Z_{{\rm max}}=-0.119\pm 0.036$ dex kpc−1 for the intervals Zmax ⩽ 825 and Zmax ⩽ 1500 pc, respectively.

Using both a theoretical and an empirical approach, we have investigated the frequency of low redshift galaxy-galaxy lensing systems in which the signature of 3D weak lensing might be directly detectable. We find good agreement between these two approaches. Using data from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly redshift survey we estimate the frequency of detectable weak lensing at low redshift. We find that below a redshift of z ~ 0.6, the probability of a galaxy being weakly lensed by γ ⩾ 0.02 is ~ 0.01. We have also investigated the feasibility of measuring the scatter in the M* − Mh relation using shear statistics. We estimate that for a shear measurement error of Δγ = 0.02 (consistent with the sensitivity of the Direct Shear Mapping technique), with a sample of ~$50,000 spatially and spectrally resolved galaxies, the scatter in the M* − Mh relation could be measured. While there are currently no existing IFU surveys of this size, there are upcoming surveys that will provide this data (e.g The Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX), surveys with Hector, and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA)).

An objective classification of 147 globular clusters (GCs) in the inner region of the giant elliptical galaxy M87 is carried out with the help of two methods of multivariate analysis. First, independent component analysis (ICA) is used to determine a set of independent variables that are linear combinations of various observed parameters (mostly Lick indices) of the GCs. Next, K-means cluster analysis (CA) is applied on the independent components (ICs), to find the optimum number of homogeneous groups having an underlying structure. The properties of the four groups of GCs thus uncovered are used to explain the formation mechanism of the host galaxy. It is suggested that M87 formed in two successive phases. First a monolithic collapse, which gave rise to an inner group of metal-rich clusters with little systematic rotation and an outer group of metal-poor clusters in eccentric orbits. In a second phase, the galaxy accreted low-mass satellites in a dissipationless fashion, from the gas of which the two other groups of GCs formed. Evidence is given for a blue stellar population in the more metal rich clusters, which we interpret by Helium enrichment. Finally, it is found that the clusters of M87 differ in some of their chemical properties (NaD, TiO1, light-element abundances) from GCs in our Galaxy and M31.

The regular or chaotic dynamics of an analytical realistic three dimensional model composed of a spherically symmetric central nucleus, a bar and a flat disk is investigated. For describing the properties of the bar, we introduce a new simple dynamical model and we explore the influence on the character of orbits of all the involved parameters of it, such as the mass and the scale length of the bar, the major semi-axis and the angular velocity of the bar, as well as the energy. Regions of phase space with ordered and chaotic motion are identified in dependence on these parameters and for breaking the rotational symmetry. First, we study in detail the dynamics in the invariant plane z = pz = 0 using the Poincaré map as a basic tool and then study the full three-dimensional case using the Smaller Alignment index method as principal tool for distinguishing between order and chaos. We also present strong evidence obtained through the numerical simulations that our new bar model can realistically describe the formation and the evolution of the observed twin spiral structure in barred galaxies.

We quantify the thermodynamic requirement for the Vertical Shear Instability and evaluate its relevance to realistic protoplanetary disks as a potential route to hydrodynamic turbulence.

Items of scientific knowledge at any moment in time have pre-histories when they were debated, doubted, or absolutely denied. The examples considered here are the admitted facts that star formation is an on-going process in the Milky Way, that there are young moving groups (the products of young star clusters in the process of dissolution and perhaps more complex processes), and that planets orbiting other stars are common. It is hard to imagine any of these ceasing to be part of core astronomical knowledge, but you are advised not to place large bets on this.

The origin of water and other volatiles in protoplanetary disks can be either interstellar or due to chemical processing during the protoplanetary disk phase. Depending on the strength of the ionization field present during this stage, an active chemical evolution in the protoplanetary disk midplane can lead to formation of complex volatiles on timescales shorter than the disk dissipation timescale. For this reason, we investigate the effects of cosmic rays and the usually neglected cosmic ray induced UV ionization field in time dependent chemical models of protoplanetary disks. These results are benchmarked against our current knowledge of the chemical composition of cometary ices. We conclude that water and other, more complex volatiles can be preserved in the ice mantles of dust grains. This ice mantle growth can also have a significant impact on the dust opacity and hence on the temperature profile of the disk midplane. This effect will be observable in the near future with ALMA.

Protoplanetary disks are depleted of their mass on short timescales by viscous accretion, which removes both gas and solids, and by photoevaporation which removes mainly gas. Photoevaporation may facilitate planetesimal formation by lowering the gas/dust mass ratio in disks. Disk dispersal sets constraints on planet formation timescales, and by controlling the availability of gas determines the type of planets that form in the disk. Photoevaporative wind mass loss rates are theoretically estimated to range from ~ 10−10 to 10−8M⊙, and disk lifetimes are typically ~ few Myr.

Young stars are surrounded by copious amounts of circumstellar material. Its composition, in particular its gas-to-dust ratio, is an important parameter. However, measuring this ratio is challenging, because gas mass estimates are often model dependent. X-ray absorption is sensitive to the gas along the line-of-sight while optical/near-IR extinction depends on the dust. Therefore, the absorber's gas-to-dust ratio is directly given by the ratio between X-ray and optical/near-IR extinction. We present three systems where we used X-ray and optical/near-IR data to constrain the gas-to-dust ratio of circumstellar material; from a dust rich debris disk to gaseous protoplanetary disks.

We have used the Submillimeter Array (SMA) to image, at ~1″ resolution, C2H(3−2) emission from the molecule-rich circumstellar disks orbiting the nearby, classical T Tauri star systems TW Hya and V4046 Sgr. The SMA imaging reveals that the C2H emission exhibits a ring-like morphology within each disk; the radius of the inner hole of the C2H ring within the V4046 Sgr disk (~70 AU) is somewhat larger than than of its counterpart within the TW Hya disk (~45 AU). We suggest that, in each case, the C2H emission likely traces irradiation of the tenuous surface layers of the outer disks by high-energy photons from the central stars.