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Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto
Analysis of ESPRESSO quasar spectra

Guido Cupani
Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste

Abstract
The Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectral Observations (ESPRESSO@VLT) is an extremely stable high-resolution spectrograph which is currently being developed by an international consortium including CAUP as well. With its groundbreaking characteristics (resolution up to ~200,000; wavelength range from 380 to 780 nm; centimeter-per-second accuracy in wavelength calibration; possibility to use all 4 VLT unit telescope at once) ESPRESSO is aimed to be a real "science machine" – i.e., an instrument whose subsystems are designed in a fully-integrated way to directly extract science information from the observations. In particular, ESPRESSO will be the first ESO instrument to be equipped with a dedicated tool for the analysis of data, the Data Analysis Software (DAS). A part of the DAS will be devoted to the analysis of quasar (QSO) spectra, which is relevant for a number of major science cases (study of the physical and chemical processes acting on the Inter-Galactic Medium, determination of the Dark Matter power spectrum from the statistics of the Lyman-alpha forest, assessment of the possible variability of the fundamental constants along the cosmic time). In this talk, I will present my work on the QSO-branch of the DAS. I will describe the details of the pipeline and its interface, focusing in particular on the new technique for the determination of the continuum level of emission in QSO spectra. The scientific importance of a carefully-designed, physically-motivated algorithms will be highlighted throughout.

29 January 2014, 13:30

Centro de Astrofísica
Rua das Estrelas
4150-762 Porto

Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences

Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (IA) is a new but long anticipated research infrastructure with a national dimension. It embodies a bold but feasible vision for the development of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Portugal, taking full advantage and fully realizing the potential created by the national membership of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO). IA resulted from the merging the two most prominent research units in the field in Portugal: the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto (CAUP) and the Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics of the University of Lisbon (CAAUL). It currently hosts more than two-thirds of all active researchers working in Space Sciences in Portugal, and is responsible for an even greater fraction of the national productivity in international ISI journals in the area of Space Sciences. This is the scientific area with the highest relative impact factor (1.65 times above the international average) and the field with the highest average number of citations per article for Portugal.

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