The MiMeS project demonstrated that a small fraction of massive stars (around 7%) presents large-scale, stable, generally dipolar magnetic fields at their surface. These fields that do not present any evident correlations with stellar mass or rotation are supposed to be fossil remnants of the initial phases of stellar evolution. They result from the relaxation to MHD equilibrium states, during the formation of stable radiation zones, of initial fields resulting from a previous convective phase. In this work, we present new theoretical results, where we generalize previous studies by taking rotation into account. The properties of relaxed fossil fields are compared to those obtained when rotation is ignored. Consequences for magnetic fields in the radiative envelope of rotating early-type stars and their stability are finally discussed.

We present results of analysis of the dark matter (DM) pairwise velocity statistics in different Cosmic Web environments. We use the DM velocity and density field from the Millennium 2 simulation together with the NEXUS+ algorithm to segment the simulation volume into voxels uniquely identifying one of the four possible environments: nodes, filaments, walls or cosmic voids. We show that the PDFs of the mean infall velocities v 12 as well as its spatial dependence together with the perpendicular and parallel velocity dispersions bear a significant signal of the large-scale structure environment in which DM particle pairs are embedded. The pairwise flows are notably colder and have smaller mean magnitude in wall and voids, when compared to much denser environments of filaments and nodes. We discuss on our results, indicating that they are consistent with a simple theoretical predictions for pairwise motions as induced by gravitational instability mechanism. Our results indicate that the Cosmic Web elements are coherent dynamical entities rather than just temporal geometrical associations. In addition it should be possible to observationally test various Cosmic Web finding algorithms by segmenting available peculiar velocity data and studying resulting pairwise velocity statistics.

Using redshifts from the 2M++ redshift compilation, we reconstruct the density of galaxies within 200 h −1 Mpc, and compare the predicted peculiar velocities Tully-Fisher and SNe peculiar velocities. The comparison yields a best-fit value of β ≡ Ωm 0.55/b* = 0.431 ± 0.021, suggesting Ωm 0.55σ8,lin = 0.401 ± 0.024, in good agreement with other probes. The predicted peculiar velocity of the Local Group from sources within the 2M++ volume is 540 ± 40 km s−1, towards l = 268° ± 4°, b = 38° ± 6°, which is misaligned by only 10° with the Cosmic Microwave Background dipole. To account for sources outside the 2M++ volume, we fit simultaneously for β* and an external bulk flow in our analysis. The external bulk flow has a velocity of 159 ± 23 km s−1 towards l = 304° ± 11°, b6° ± 13°.

Various theories have been proposed to predict how mass loss depends on the stellar rotation rate, both in terms of its strength, as well as its latitudinal dependence, crucial for our understanding of angular momentum evolution. Here we discuss the tool of linear spectropolarimetry that can probe the difference between mass loss from the pole versus the equator. Our results involve several groups of O stars and Wolf-Rayet stars, involving Oe stars, Of?p stars, Onfp stars, as well as the best candidate gamma-ray burst progenitors identified to date.

The Westerlund 1 Galactic cluster hosts an eclectic mix of coeval massive stars. At a modest distance of 4–5 kpc, it offers a unique opportunity to study the resolved stellar content of a young (~5 Myr) high mass (5·104M⊙) star cluster. With the aim of testing single-star evolutionary predictions, and revealing any signatures of binary evolution, we discuss on-going analyses of NTT/SOFI near-IR spectroscopy of Wolf-Rayet stars in Westerlund 1. We find that late WN stars are H-poor compared to their counterparts in the Milky Way field, and nearly all are less luminous than predicted by single-star Geneva isochrones at the age of Westerlund 1.

VLTI/AMBER and VLTI/PIONIER observations of the LBV HR Car show an interferometric signature that could not possibly be explained by an extended wind, more or less symmetrically distributed around a single object. Instead, observations both in the Brγ line and the H-band continuum are best explained by two point sources (or alternatively one point source and one slightly extended source) at about 2 mas separation and a contrast ratio of about 1:5. These observations establish that HR Car is a binary, but further interpretation will only be possible with future observations to constrain the orbit. Under the assumption that the current separation is close to the maximum one, the orbital period can be estimated to be of the order of 5 years, similar as in the η Car system. This would make HR Car the second such LBV binary.

We have developed an entirely new formulation to obtain self-gravitating, axisymmetric configurations in permanent rotation. It is based on the Lagrangian variational principle and, as a consequence, will allow us to apply it to stellar evolution calculations rather easily. We adopt a Monte Carlo technique, which is analogous to those employed in other fields, e.g. nuclear physics, in minimizing the energy functional. We also present the analogies between the study on rotating stellar configurations and the one on deformed nuclei. Possible applications are not limited to main sequence stars but will be extended to e.g. compact stars, proto-stars and planets. We believe that our formulation will be a major break-through then.

At present, it is well established that previously accepted mass-loss rates (Ṁ) of luminous OB stars may be overestimated when clumping is neglected. Our Herschel/PACS Far-Infrared (Far-IR) observations of a set of OB stars allow us to improve our knowledge of clumping stratification, constraining clumping properties in intermediate wind regions. In this work, better sampled clumping structure estimates are provided for ι Ori, ε Ori and ξ Per as well as an initial estimate of the clumping properties of the wind from τ Sco. These observations will allow us to obtain reliable mass-loss rates and improve our understanding of the wind physics.

We present the first measurement of the growth rate of structure at z=0.8. It has been obtained from the redshift-space distortions observed in the galaxy clustering pattern in the VIMOS Public Redshift survey (VIPERS) first data release. VIPERS is a large galaxy redshift survey probing the large-scale structure at 0.5 < z < 1.2 with an unprecedented accuracy. This measurement represents a new reference in the distant Universe, which has been poorly explored until now. We obtain σ8 = 0.47 ± 0.08 at z = 0.8 that is consistent with the predictions of standard cosmological models based on Einstein gravity. This measurement alone is however not accurate enough to allow the detection of possible deviations from standard gravity.

I review the nature of three-dimensional collapse in the Zeldovich approximation, how it relates to the underlying nature of the three-dimensional Lagrangian manifold and naturally gives rise to a hierarchical structure formation scenario that progresses through collapse from voids to pancakes, filaments and then halos. I then discuss how variations of the Zeldovich approximation (based on the gravitational or the velocity potential) have been used to define classifications of the cosmic large-scale structure into dynamically distinct parts. Finally, I turn to recent efforts to devise new approaches relying on tessellations of the Lagrangian manifold to follow the fine-grained dynamics of the dark matter fluid into the highly non-linear regime and both extract the maximum amount of information from existing simulations as well as devise new simulation techniques for cold collisionless dynamics.

In 1970 Zel'dovich published a far-reaching paper presenting a simple equation describing the nonlinear growth of primordial density inhomogeneities. The equation was remarkably successful in explaining the large scale structure in the Universe that we observe: a Universe in which the structure appears to be delineated by filaments and clusters of galaxies surrounding huge void regions. In order to concretise this impression it is necessary to define these structural elements through formal techniques with which we can compare the Zel'dovich model and N-body simulations with the observational data.

We present an overview of recent efforts to identify voids, filaments and clusters in both the observed galaxy distribution and in numerical simulations of structure formation. We focus, in particular, on methods that involve no fine-tuning of parameters and that handle scale dependence automatically. It is important that these techniques should result in finding structures that relate directly to the dynamical mechanism of structure formation.

Voids form a prominent aspect of the Megaparsec distribution of galaxies and matter. Not only do theyrepresent a key constituent of the Cosmic Web, they also are one of the cleanest probesand measures of global cosmological parameters. The shape and evolution of voids are highly sensitive tothe nature of dark energy, while their substructure and galaxy population provides a direct key to thenature of dark matter. Also, the pristine environment of void interiors is an important testing groundfor our understanding of environmental influences on galaxy formation and evolution. In this paper, we reviewthe key aspects of the structure and dynamics ofvoids, with a particular focus on the hierarchical evolution of the void population. We demonstratehow the rich structural pattern of the Cosmic Web is related to the complex evolution and buildupof voids.

After highlighting the principle and power of asteroseismology for stellar physics, we briefly emphasize some recent progress in this research for various types of stars. We give an overview of high-precision high duty-cycle space photometry of OB-type stars. Further, we update the overview of seismic estimates of stellar parameters of OB dwarfs, with specific emphasis on convective core overshoot. We discuss connections between pulsational, rotational, and magnetic variability of massive stars and end with future prospects for asteroseismology of evolved OB stars.

Cosmological hydrodynamical simulations show that the baryonic elements that at z = 0 form the stellar populations of late-type galaxies (LTGs), display, at high z, a gaseous web-like organization, where different singular structures (walls, filaments, nodes) show up. The analysis also shows that the spheroid-to-be elements are the first to be involved in the singular structures, while thick and thin disk-to-be elements chronologically follow them. We discuss how these differences at high z can explain the differences among these three components at z = 0.

We examine the infall pattern of subhaloes onto hosts in the context of the large-scale structure. We find that the infall pattern is essentially driven by the shear tensor of the ambient velocity field. Dark matter subhaloes are preferentially accreted along the principal axis of the shear tensor which corresponds to the direction of weakest collapse. We examine the dependence of this preferential infall on subhalo mass, host halo mass and redshift. Although strongest for the most massive hosts and the most massive subhaloes at high redshift, the preferential infall of subhaloes is effectively universal in the sense that its always aligned with the axis of weakest collapse of the velocity shear tensor. It is the same shear tensor that dictates the structure of the cosmic web and hence the shear field emerges as the key factor that governs the local anisotropic pattern of structure formation. Since the small (sub-Mpc) scale is strongly correlated with the mid-range (∼ 10 Mpc) scale - a scale accessible by current surveys of peculiar velocities - it follows that findings presented here open a new window into the relation between the observed large scale structure unveiled by current surveys of peculiar velocities and the preferential infall direction of the Local Group. This may shed light on the unexpected alignments of dwarf galaxies seen in the Local Group.

We discuss various applications ofvide, the Void IDentification and Examination toolkit, anopen-source Python/C++ code for finding cosmic voids in galaxy redshift surveysand $N$-body simulations.Based on a substantially enhanced version of ZOBOV, vide not only finds voids, but alsosummarizes their properties, extracts statisticalinformation, and providesa Python-based platform for more detailed analysis, such asmanipulating void catalogs and particle members, filtering, plotting,computing clustering statistics, stacking, comparing catalogs, andfitting density profiles.vide also provides significant additional functionality forpre-processing inputs: for example, vide can work with volume- ormagnitude-limited galaxy samples with arbitrary survey geometries,or darkmatter particles or halo catalogs in a variety of common formats.It can also randomly subsample inputsand includes a Halo Occupation Distribution model forconstructing mock galaxy populations.vide has been used for a wide variety of applications, fromdiscovering a universal density profile to estimatingprimordial magnetic fields, andis publicly available athttp://bitbucket.org/cosmicvoids/vide\_publicandhttp://www.cosmicvoids.net.

Filaments of the cosmic web drive spin acquisition of disc galaxies. The point process of filament-type saddle represent best this environment and can be used to revisit the Tidal Torque Theory in the context of an anisotropic peak (saddle) background split. The constrained misalignment between the tidal tensor and the Hessian of the density field generated in the vicinity of filament saddle points simply explains the corresponding transverse and longitudinal point-reflection symmetric geometry of spin distribution. It predicts in particular an azimuthal orientation of the spins of more massive galaxies and spin alignment with the filament for less massive galaxies. Its scale dependence also allows us to relate the transition mass corresponding to the alignment of dark matter halos' spin relative to the direction of their neighboring filament to this geometry, and to predict accordingly it's scaling with the mass of non linearity, as was measured in simulations.

While recent years have seen rapid growth in the number of galaxy peculiar velocity measurements, disagreements remain about the extent to which the peculiar velocity field - a tracer of the large-scale distribution of mass - agrees with both ΛCDM expectations and with velocity field models derived from redshift surveys. The 6dF Galaxy Survey includes peculiar velocities for nearly 9 000 early-type galaxies (6dFGSv), making it the largest and most homogeneous galaxy peculiar velocity sample to date. We have used the 6dFGS velocity field to determine the amplitude and scale of large-scale cosmic flows in the local universe and test standard cosmological models. We also compare the galaxy density and peculiar velocity fields to establish the distribution of dark and luminous matter and better constrain key cosmological parameters such as the redshift-space distortion parameter.

We examine the stacked integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) imprints on the CMB along the lines of sight of voids and superclusters in galaxy surveys, using the Jubilee ISW simulation and mock luminous red galaxy (LRG) catalogues. We show that the expected signal in the concordance \Lam CDM model is much smaller than the primary anisotropies arising at the last scattering surface and therefore any currently claimed detections of such an imprint cannot be caused by the ISW effect in \Lam CDM. We look for the existence of such a signal in the Planck CMB using a catalogue of voids and superclusters from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), but find a result completely consistent with \Lam CDM – i.e., a null detection.