bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Medieval Prompter: A Reinterpretation
Authors: Tribby William L.
Published: October 2010

During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, on the stages of England and France, there appeared a figure whose presence gives to the period a certain uniqueness. The prompter, usually functioning in other capacities and holding additional names, would seem to have been established in the theatre at this time; for the scholarship on the Greek and Roman theatre has, as yet, revealed no such person. Nor is there any suggestion of the presence of the prompter in liturgical drama. None of this, of course, rules out the possibility of the use of such a person; however, even if used in Athens, Rome, or the cathedral, he undoubtedly never held the prominence he enjoyed in that brief period of what we have been told was onstage glory.
Dingelstedt's Celebration of the Tercentenary: Shakespeare's Histories as a Cycle
Authors: Sarlos Robert K.
Published: October 2010

This rather proud statement is by Gerhart Hauptmann; anyone I wishing to challenge the validity of the boast will be wise to consider first the number of professional Shakespeare performances in the German language as compared with those in English, to take account of the amount and quality of German Shakespeare scholarship, and to realize that Shakespeare had reached many peoples in Eastern and Northern Europe by way of German transmission. In addition, the citation well illustrates the spirit in which German intellectuals approach Shakespeare.
Behind the Curtain with the Noble Savage: Stage Management of Indian Plays, 1825–1860
Authors: Amacher Richard E.
Published: October 2010

If, as Professor Quinn maintains, the national dramas centering about the American Revolution held the spotlight in the United States during the period from 1825 to 1860, certainly the Indian plays featuring the noble savage rivaled them as the second most popular form of stage entertainment. Relatively little is known of the early productions of these Indian plays by American authors.

One of the earliest American productions took the form of an “operatic spectacle,” called Tammany. It was put on at the John Street Theater in New York on March 3, 1794, with a Mrs. Hatton in the lead, and is often credited as originating “that impossible type of stage Indian” which never existed in real life.
The Beginnings of Drama in Scotland
Authors: Tobin Terence
Published: October 2010

The drama in Scotland, as in other countries of Western Europe, emerged from ancient pagan rites. Remnants of these rituals became Christianized. The extant information about these early folk entertainments, which is meager and tentative, exists mainly in ecclesiastical edicts suppressing these festivities. The sword dance, morris dance, and mummers' play all are outgrowths of dances and fertility rites associated with the four seasons. These ceremonies of pagan inspiration developed into plays of a more literary character, such as representations of St. George and of Robin Hood. Guisards, or players who performed on various holidays, were familiar figures in sixteenth-century Scotland.
A Suggested Location for the Digby Mary Magdalene
Authors: Ritchie Harry M.
Published: October 2010

Of all the isolated plays and fragments of religious drama that have come down to us from fifteenth-century England, none has caused the literary or theatrical historian more difficulty than the mystery-miracle play of St. Mary Magdalene contained in Bodleian Digby MS 133. As Hardin Craig and others have stated, the rubrics call for the most elaborate staging indicated in any English medieval play. Unlike the short playlets of fifty to two hundred lines which comprise the bulk of such cycles as Chester or York, the Mary Magdalene is 2,144 lines long and demands a minimum of sixty-four speaking performers plus some twenty to thirty mute attendants.
Hartford's First Theatre: A Chapter in the History of the Old American Company
Authors: Burnim Kalman A.
Published: October 2010

A fully documented history of the Old American Company under the direction of Lewis Hallam, John Hodgkinson, and later William Dunlap, is yet to be written. When such a history appears, it will be an important contribution not only to our knowledge of the American theatre but also to our better understanding of the early social history of our country. From New England the young nation inherited its vigorous pioneering spirit as well as its puritan piety. In New England were formed enduring attitudes for the venue of the arts in general and the theatre in particular. The pioneer had little time for the theatre and the pious had little sympathy.
Garrick's Costuming
Authors: Pentzell Raymond J.
Published: October 2010

In nineteenth-century greenrooms one of the most frequently quoted of David Garrick's remarks concerned his reaction when it was suggested that he introduce the toga and Roman hairstyles to the stage: “I have already stood my ground against the pelting of oranges, but I dare not venture to confront flying benches and bottles.” From the days of Kemble onwards, this comment has, for many theatrical historians, defined Garrick's place in the revolution in costuming taste which began in the mid-eighteenth century and culminated nearly a century later. A pioneer of historical realism, Garrick appears nonetheless a circumspect one; his “progress” was considerable, yet marked by a sense of restraint, either because his own taste was insufficiently advanced or because he shrewdly stopped short of affronting the taste of his audience. Whether one applauds historical costuming or (in the fashion of our own times) bemoans it, one still tends to leave Garrick in the limbo of the “transitional.”
Ellen Terry's Foul Papers
Authors: Bandel Betty
Published: October 2010

William Winter, that arbiter of affairs dramatic during the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth, after paying high tribute in Shakespeare on the Stage to the greatness of Ellen Terry as an actress, dismisses her as a lecturer on Shakespeare with a few lines. Declaring that she would have been well advised to follow in the footsteps of Fanny Kemble and Charlotte Cushman by giving Shakespearean “readings” rather than lectures, he concludes that “Her views…were often incorrect, generally commonplace, and, in the matter of thought, superficial.” (p. 225)
An Examination of the Plays Produced by Madame Vestris during her Management of the Olympic Theatre in London from January 3, 1831 to May 31, 1839.
Authors: Butler James H.
Published: October 2010

One of the highpoints of theatrical management in London during the early part of the 19th century was achieved by Madame Vestris in the nine seasons she operated the Olympic Theatre from January 3, 1831 to May 31, 1839. Important contributions in management, acting and scenic decor were made and have been commented upon. The free list was suspended; the practice of “puffing” (praising a work in advance of actual performance) was abandoned; the final curtain was rung down each night at 11 P.M. instead of the usual hour of midnight; actors' benefit performances were abolished; failures were withdrawn as quickly as possible from further performances; and by allowing no one behind the scenes to visit with actors and actresses the general atmosphere backstage was improved.
The British Background of the American Hallams
Authors: Highfill Philip
Published: October 2010

Among the pioneer artists who sought with uneven luck to bring some reflection of European culture to the crude seaports and market towns of the American eastern seaboard in the eighteenth century, none had such lasting importance as the Hallam family, the founders of the first permanent and stable theatrical company in North America.
The Queen's Men, 1583–1592
Authors: Pinciss G. M.
Published: October 2010

The Master of the Revels, Edmund Tilney, entered a traveling charge of one pound in the Revels Accounts when he was called to court “to choose out a companie of players for her majestie. Stow recorded this event in his Abridgement of the English Chronicle:

This yeare 1583, the Queene being at Barne Elmes, at the earnest suite of sir Francis Walsingham, shee entertained twelve Players into her service, and allowed them wages and liveries as Groomes of the Chamber, and untill then she had none of her owne, but divers Lords had Players.
The Greenwich Street Theatre 1797–1799
Authors: Moy James S.
Published: October 2010

On 1 September 1797, both the John Street Theatre and the New Theatre, Greenwich-Street advertised Sheridan's The School for Scandal. Although the company at the John Street Theatre subsequently postponed its performance, this confrontation was typical of what G.C.D. Odell referred to as the “Battle Royal of 1797,” New York City's first competitive theatre season. While most scholars of the American theatre are familiar with the history of the John Street Theatre, very little has been written about New York City's first “regular opposition theatre,” the Greenwich Street Theatre. Lack of information combined with scholarly bias has left us with only impressionistic images of this theatre's place in history.
The Stage History of Roar China!: Documentary Drama as Propaganda
Authors: Meserve Walter J. , Meserve Ruth I.
Published: October 2010

During the 1920's China was undergoing great political and social change. The Republican government under the leadership of Sun Yat-sen struggled against warlord factions and watched the birth of the Communist Party of China (1921). It was a time of turmoil and unrest, as newspapers headlined frightening incidents of murder, banditry, illegal taxation, military skirmishes and plundering. Added to China's problems was the recent appearance on her rivers of boat patrols by foreign governments who vowed to protect their commercial interests at any cost. That presence was an embarrassing, even an insulting situation. Finally, on the eve of 1924, Sun Yat-sen announced that China would look toward Russia for help. China would turn away from the West—particularly Britain, America, France and Germany, all of whom had participated in the division of China into foreign legations and treaty ports after the Opium War (1840–42) and had enjoyed great economic advantages as a consequence.
Burlesques of Shakespeare: the Democratic American's “Light Artillery”
Authors: Johnson Claudia D.
Published: October 2010

In 1837 William Leggett, one of the foremost American politicans and journalists of the 1830s and 1840s, wrote of Homer and Shakespeare: Walt Whitman, who certainly revered Shakespeare and frequently acknowledged Shakespeare's influence, also regarded his work as “poisonous to the idea of the pride and dignity of the common people, the life-blood of democracy.” Whitman's and Leggett's pronouncements are typical of the simultaneous admiration and disapproval with which many other democrats in an emerging American culture approached Shakespeare in the nineteenth century.
Dennis Ryan's Temple of Apollo
Authors: Garrett Kurt L.
Published: October 2010

The Baltimore Company of Comedians which had performed openly and successfully in Maryland since 1782 attempted to gain a foothold in the traditionally hostile state of Pennsylvania in November, 1783. The troupe's manager, Dennis Ryan, petitioned the Pennsylvania legislature to rescind its statute prohibiting plays. When his petition was denied, he produced three evenings' entertainment through the use of a clever subterfuge: The Temple of Apollo, a play and pantomime disguised as a concert, reading, and dance. Although Ryan's ruse was clever, it was not wholly successful: he and his actors had to take precipitous leave of Philadelphia when a riot swept through the house during the last of their three scheduled performances and alerted the sheriff to their activities. Nevertheless, Ryan was the first actor-manager to attempt to evade post-revolutionary legislative opposition to theatre by making plays appear non-theatrical.
Roar China in a Nazi Concentration Camp
Authors: Goldfarb Alvin
Published: October 2010

I would like to make an addition to Walter J. and Ruth I. Meserve's “The Stage History of Roar China: Documentary Drama as Propaganda,” Theatre Survey, 21 (May 1980), 1–11. The propagandistic qualities of Tretiakov's play can be seen in a production I mention in my article “Theatrical Activities in Nazi Concentration Camps,” Performing Arts Journal, 1 no. 2 (Fall 1976), 3–11. In 1944 an inmate of the Polish concentration camp in Czestochowa, Shie Tigel, was allowed to organize theatrical activities. Tigel, who had been an actor in the Warsaw Yiddish theatres, was allowed to construct “a special barrack for theatre with a stage, curtains, and light reflectors.”
Thomas Forrest's Pseudonym inThe Disappointment
Authors: Sorrentino Paul
Published: October 2010

Although critics generally agree that Thomas Forrest wroteThe Disappointment; or, the Force of Credulity(1767; rev. ed. 1796), no one has explained the significance of his pseudonym, Andrew Barton. Were the play typical of early American drama, the matter of authorship would be relatively unimportant; but becauseThe Disappointmenthas historical, cultural and literary value, the pseudonym deserves attention.
The Exterior of the Park Theatre, New York City, 1798
Authors: Gates Robert A.
Published: October 2010

Of particular interest to scholars of the early American theatre is a 1798 water-color by Cotton Milbourne entitled “Saint Paul's Chapel, Broadway Between Fulton and Vesey Streets,” in the possession of the New-York Historical Society. Besides depicting the Chapel, the watercolor shows the Park Theatre as it appeared at the time of its opening in 1798. As such, it replaces the unreliable Elkanah Tisdale engraving, found in David Longworth's 1797 American Almanack, New-York Register and City Directory, as the most accurate view of the theatre prior to its reconstruction in 1820.
Robert Merry and the American Theatre
Authors: Adams M. Ray
Published: October 2010

The last years of Robert Merry's life, which were spent in America, have been enveloped in an obscurity which no scholar writing about him has attempted to dispel. The only two considerable biographical sketches written of him, the one appearing soon after his death in the Monthly Magazine for April, 1799, and the other in the Dictionary of National Biography, give the barest attention to his American exile. Fred Lewis Pattee, who writes more about him than any other historian of American literature, limits himself exclusively to the vagaries of the Della Cruscan School which Merry had founded in England, makes no mention of his connection with the American theatre to which he devoted all his writing here, indeed appears not even to have known that Merry emigrated to this country. I have here supplemented with new details the scanty record of Merry's life and especially that of his dramatic writing and connections with the stage in this country.
The Theatrical Career of Giuseppe Galli-Bibiena
Authors: Burnim Kalman A.
Published: October 2010

The Galli-Bibiena Family, whose members were summoned, one or another, sometimes several together, to the principal centers of Baroque culture, created fantastically grand scenic decorations for the lavish courts of Europe and built magnificant theatres for both prince and populace. Although charm of artistic beauty and power of phantasmal scenic creation were found in varying degrees among all of this mighty line of scenographers, their grandiose conception was epitomized in the illusionistic immensity of Giuseppe Galli-Bibiena. The Baroque period was the supreme age of illusion in the sphere of theatrical scene design and decoration, and Giuseppe was its reigning genius.
Kelly vs. Goldsmith: the Bailiffs in The School for Wives
Authors: Ferguson Oliver W.
Published: October 2010

Students of the eighteenth-century English theater are familiar with the bitter rivalry between Oliver Goldsmith and Hugh Kelly. The two had been friends until January 1768, when Kelly's False Delicacy and Goldsmith's The Good Natur'd Man opened within a week of each other. The Good Natur'd Man was moderately successful, but whatever satisfaction Goldsmith might otherwise have taken in this fact was marred by the overwhelming popularity of Kelly's comedy. To add to Goldsmith's discomfiture was the chagrin of having had one scene in his play hissed off the stage because of its low humor. In large measure, the reception given Goldsmith's first comedy influenced his intentions in his second: She Stoops to Conquer is an example of “laughing” comedy, deliberately set against the sentimental variety written by Kelly.
Oscar Wilde's Vera; or, The Nihilist: The History of a Failed Play
Authors: Reed Frances Miriam
Published: October 2010

Vera; or, The Nihilist was Oscar Wilde's first performed play, a work, as Wilde described it, “not of politics but of passion,” expressing the “cry of the peoples for Liberty.” Liberty as subject — and the rhetoric of republicanism that made liberty a catchword — came naturally to Wilde, as son of the Irish patriot Speranza and as a concerned and compassionate individual. But Wilde was also professionally ambitious. By writing a wordy tragedy of self-sacrifice with Russia and the Nihilist movement as background, Wilde hoped to appeal to popular taste in the theatre and to capitalize on public interest in current affairs. He may well have drawn his dramatic characters and the events of his play directly from a contemporary newspaper, The Era.
The Goldsmiths' “Chastell” of 1377
Authors: Osberg Richard H.
Published: October 2010

Among the many devices of the pageant carpenter's art, including the Trees of Jesse, mountains “inuironed with red roses and white,” thrones of justice, dragons, and fonts, the castle had become, at least by the mid-fifteenth century, practically a cliché. Its origins as a pageant structure, however, have yet to be satisfactorily explained, and its iconography is still open to interpretation. Theatre historians have long been interested in the “castle” pageant that the Goldsmiths' guild organized for the coronation of Richard II because it is the first English civic pageant for which any detailed description survives. The nineteenth-century antiquary, William Herbert, believed there to be no record of the “castle” pageant in the Company's own books, however, and following this lead, Robert Withington, the great compiler of pageant history, so reports the matter.
Garrick's King Lear and the English Malady
Authors: Woods Leigh
Published: October 2010

David Garrick played King Lear ninety times over the course of his career, a figure which qualifies the mad king as the most frequently performed among his tragic roles. Such frequency is not, I think, an accident; nor are the profusion and enthusiasm of contemporary accounts of Garrick in the role the result of chance. In this essay I shall depart both from the previous scholarly treatments of Garrick's Lear which have amassed eyewitness accounts of the performance, letting these speak essentially for themselves, and from those which have treated Garrick's alteration of King Lear as if it referred only to other pre-existent versions of the play.
Eugene O'Neill in South Africa: Margaret Webster's Production of A Touch of the Poet
Authors: Blank Martin
Published: October 2010

Margaret Webster (1905–1972), British-American producer-director perhaps best remembered for her production of Othello with Paul Robeson, was also a distinguished writer, lecturer and actress. It was in these several capacities that Webster was invited in 1961 by the United States Department of State to visit South Africa. Webster was to lecture on theatre, offer her one-woman recitals of Shakespeare and Shaw, and direct an “American classic” for the South African National Theatre Organization. In discussions with members of the State Department and the National Theatre Organization, the plays of several writers, including Williams, Miller, Wilder, Hellman and MacLeish, were considered but eventually eliminated for reasons of suitability, individual taste or because of recent productions in South Africa. Eventually, A Touch of the Poet was selected for production.
All's Well that Ends Well in the American Theatre
Authors: Price Joseph G.
Published: October 2010

In 1959, after a sparse and dismal stage history, All's Well that Ends Well was given two productions in the professional theatre. Surprisingly both productions were well received by critics and audiences. Both productions enjoyed long and successful runs; the number of performances in each case surpassed that of any previous production of the play. Yet, the two productions differed markedly in interpretation. I am tempted to say that the audiences saw two different plays.
The Stage History of Heywood's Love's Mistress
Authors: Shady Raymond C.
Published: October 2010

Love's Mistress, or The Queen's Masque, first produced in 1634, marks the triumphant conclusion to Thomas Heywood's prolific career as a dramatist. It is fitting, after Heywood's thirty-eight years of service to the London stage as both actor and playwright, that this play should have been "three times presented before their two excellent Majesties within the space of eight days."
Mary Morein (fl. 1707): Drury Lane Actress and Fair Performer
Authors: Wanko Cheryl
Published: October 2010

In 1708 an actress named Mary Morein filed a bill of complaint in the Court of Chancery against William Pinkethman. Morein's name appears nowhere in The London Stage, and there is no entry for her in the Biographical Dictionary. Other than the lawsuit testimony by and against her, I am aware of no evidence about her. Thus the lawsuit is of interest because it documents the existence of an otherwise unknown performer at a stormy time in the history of the London theatre. Perhaps more important, however, it contains significant factual evidence about the employment conditions of minor actresses, and gives specific figures for what such a person might earn by performing at the Fairs.
Moonlighting in the Music Hall: The Double Life of Charles Rice
Authors: Senelick Laurence
Published: October 2010

The Parliamentary Act of 1843 that eradicated the duopoly of Covent Garden and Drury Lane affected London taverns as well as theatres. To skirt the ban on drama, minor theatres had long interpolated musical interludes into any sort of play, thus naturalizing indoors a variety format more common to the fairground or circus. The growing taste for miscellaneous entertainment was also served by tavern saloons, where variety bills supplemented alcoholic conviviality. The Act of 1843, amending the licensing act of 1737, merely recognized this fact of life and extended a welcoming hand to these and other performance spaces. All places of entertainment holding a “burletta license” might stage plays, provided that smoking and the sale of spirituous beverages were banned from the premises.
New Views of Cheap Theatres: Reconstructing the Nineteenth-Century Theatre Audience
Authors: Davis Jim , Emeljanow Victor
Published: October 2010

Our views about nineteenth-century London theatre audiences are often dominated by essentialist descriptions via which subjective impressions have been transmuted into received orthodoxy. In this article, with reference to topography, demography (based on the 1841–1861 censuses), police reports, and patterns of urban transportation, we are attempting to counter some of these received orthodoxies, using as our model a re-evaluation of what is meant by a “transpontine” or “Surrey-side” audience with reference to the Coburg (Victoria) and Surrey Theatres.
A Judaeo-Arabic Fragment of Ibn-Biklārish'sKitāb al-Mustaʿīnī, Part of a Unique 12th-Century Tabular Medical Book Found in the Cairo Genizah (T-S Ar.44.218)
Authors: SERRI YARON , LEV EFRAIM
Published: October 2010

The reconstruction of the library of Eastern medieval Jewish scholars and medical practitioners according to the Cairo Genizah is a long-term project. In the course of the work a Judaeo-Arabic fragment of a unique tabular medical book by Ibn Biklārish (T-S Ar.44.218) was identified by the authors of this article.

The fragment is unique in several respects, particularly (a) very few medieval Arabic tabular medical works are known, (b) only few works by Andalusian Jewish authors of the late 11th or early 12th century have been found in the Genizah so far, (c) only one Judaeo-Arabic fragment of Ibn Biklārish'sKitāb al-Mustaʿīnīis known to date.

The main importance of our find is that it is the first time that a rare Spanish medical book has appeared in the Cairo Genizah collection. Dozens of the Genizah's fragments have been identified as medical books, but none by a Spanish Jewish author, written in Judaeo-Arabic, and tabulated!
Anniversary General Meeting, President's Address, 13th May 2010
Authors: Johnson Gordon
Published: October 2010

Like a number of other learned societies founded in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the Royal Asiatic Society was established to support research and to disseminate knowledge to the public. It depends for its charitable status and the privileges attached to its Royal Charter on upholding these objectives. The Society has a good record in this respect, extending now over 186 years. To some degree, the work of the learned societies was first intruded on, and then taken over by, the universities as they grew in number, expanded their curricula, and went in for research as well as teaching. This was particularly true of the twentieth century where, in our field of interest, Asian studies in the humanities and social sciences became firmly lodged in several universities in the United Kingdom. But there always remained a place, particularly one where professional academics and the wider public could meet, for Society's such as ours to flourish; and, looking ahead, as university budgets come under greater pressure, I foresee a growing role for the Royal Asiatic Society in the future in ensuring that the interest and importance of understanding Asian societies and cultures remains in the forefront of the public mind.
The Legacies of Galileo
Authors: Pacini Franco
Published: October 2010

The scientific community is celebrating in 2009 the International Year of Astronomy. The timing coincides with the 400th anniversary of the first astronomical use of a telescope, when Galileo's observations demonstrated that the Earth is not alone in the Universe. One can hardly think of a more important event in the history of mankind.
JD1 – Dark Matter in Early-type Galaxies: Overview
Authors: Koopmans Léon V. E. , Treu Tommaso
Published: October 2010

We summarize the motivations and main conclusions of the joint discussion “Dark Matter in Early-type Galaxies”.
Dark Matter and Elliptical Galaxy Dynamics
Authors: Gerhard Ortwin
Published: October 2010

The halos of elliptical galaxies, through their orbit and angular momentum distribution, contain important information about the formation and evolution of these systems.
Microlensing Diagnosis in Lensed Quasars
Authors: Motta V. , Mediavilla E. , Falco E. E. , Muñoz J. A.
Published: October 2010

Simple gravitational lens models usually suffice to reproduce the positions of lensed quasar images, but they have problems to reproduce their optical flux ratios. The so-called flux ratio anomalies are thought to be produced by small-scale structure in the lens galaxies (microlensing).
Non-equilibrium Dynamical Processes in the Galaxy
Authors: Quillen Alice. C , Minchev Ivan
Published: October 2010

Dynamical models have often necessarily assumed that the Galaxy is nearly steady state or dynamically relaxed. However observed structure in the stellar metallicity, spatial and velocity distributions imply that heating, mixing and radial migration has taken place. Better comprehension of non-equilibrium processes will allow us to not only better understand the current structure of the galaxy but its past evolution.
The Milky Way Halo and the First Stars: New Frontiers in Galactic Archaeology
Authors: Beers Timothy C. , Tumlinson Jason , O'Shea Brian , Peruta Carolyn , Carollo Daniela
Published: October 2010

We discuss plans for a new joint effort between observers and theorists to understand the formation of the Milky Way halo back to the first epochs of chemical evolution. New models based on high-resolution N-body simulations coupled to simple models of Galactic chemical evolution show that surviving stars from the epoch of the first galaxies remain in the Milky Way today and should bear the nucleosynthetic imprint of the first stars. We investigate the key physical influences on the formation of stars in the first galaxies and how they appear today, including the relationship between cosmic reionization and surviving Milky Way stars. These models also provide a physically motivated picture of the formation of the Milky Ways “outer halo,” which has been identified from recent large samples of stars from SDSS. The next steps are to use these models to guide rigorous gas simulations of Milky Way formation, including its disk, and to gradually build up the fully detailed theoretical “Virtual Galaxy” that is demanded by the coming generation of massive Galactic stellar surveys.
Physics and Structure of the Galactic disc(s)
Authors: Schönrich Ralph A.
Published: October 2010

The model of Schönrich & Binney (2009) offers new ways to understand the chemo-kinematic structure of the solar neighbourhood in the light of radial mixing. The combination of chemical information with rich kinematic data reveals a still hardly explored abundance of interconnections and structures from which we can learn about both the physics and history of our Galaxy. Large upcoming datasets can be used to improve estimates of central parameters, to shed light on the Galaxy's history and to explore the unexpected way of understanding the well-known division of the Galactic disc yielded by the new model.
Gas flows within the Galaxy
Authors: Combes Francoise
Published: October 2010

In the recent years, more and more sophisticated models have been proposed for the gas distribution and kinematics in the Milky Way, taking into account the main bar, but also the possible nuclear bar, with the same or different pattern-speed. I review the success and problems encountered by the models, in particular in view of the new discovery of a symmetrical far-side counterpart of the 3 kpc arm. The inner part, dominated by the bar, and the outer parts, dominated by the spiral arms, can be observed from a virtual solar position, and the errors coming from kinematical distances are evaluated. The appearance of four arms could be due to a deprojection bias.
Mapping the Milky Way with SDSS, Gaia and LSST
Authors: Ivezić Željko ,   (for the LSST Collaboration)
Published: October 2010

We summarize recent work on the Milky Way “tomography” with SDSS and use these results to illustrate what further breakthroughs can be expect from Gaia and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). LSST is the most ambitious ground-based survey currently planned in the visible band. Mapping of the Milky Way is one of the four main science and design drivers. The main 20 000 deg2. survey area will be imaged about 1000 times in six bands (ugrizy) during the anticipated 10 years of operations, with the first light expected in 2015. Due to Gaia's superb astrometric and photometric accuracy, and LSST's significantly deeper data, the two surveys are highly complementary: Gaia will map the Milky Way's disk with unprecedented detail, and LSST will extend this map all the way to the halo's edge.
An iterative method for constructing stellar systems models: how far does it work?
Authors: Sotnikova Natalia Ya. , Rodionov Sergei A.
Published: October 2010

We present a new method for constructing equilibrium phase models for stellar systems. Applications of the iterative method include both modelling of observational data and the construction of initial condition for N-body simulations.
UT1 and relativistic theory of Earth rotation
Authors: Klioner S. A.
Published: October 2010

The influence of post-Newtonian effects in the rotation of Earth on UT1 are investigated and found to be negligible.
The use of Galileo signals for time transfer metrology
Authors: Uhrich Pierre , Tuckey Philip
Published: October 2010

We briefly summarise the planned Galileo navigation system signals and their potential application in time and frequency metrology.
Stability of pulsar rotational and orbital periods
Authors: Kopeikin Sergei
Published: October 2010

Millisecond and binary pulsars are the most stable astronomical standards of frequency. They can be applied to solving a number of problems in astronomy and time-keeping metrology including the search for a stochastic gravitational wave background in the early universe, testing general relativity, and establishing a new time-scale. The full exploration of pulsar properties requires that proper unbiased estimates of spin and orbital parameters of the pulsar be obtained. These estimates depend essentially on the random noise components present in pulsar timing residuals. The instrumental white noise has predictable statistical properties and makes no harm for interpretation of timing observations, while the astrophysical/geophyeical low-frequency noise corrupts them, thus, reducing the quality of tests of general relativity and decreasing the stability of the pulsar time scale.
Primeval Jets from Young Stars
Authors: Ray T. P.
Published: October 2010

The jet phenomenon lasts at least a million years for young, solar-like, stars and it occurs during a wide variety of young stellar object (YSO) phases. This includes the period when the source is highly embedded (Class 0) to when it becomes optically visible for the first time as a classical T Tauri star (Class II). Here I briefly discuss some of the properties of jets from the youngest objects.
On the correlation of the highest energy cosmic rays with AGNs
Authors: de Souza Vitor , s Biermman Peter L.
Published: October 2010

In this paper we briefly discuss the present status of the cosmic ray astrophysics under the light of the new data from the Pierre Auger Observatory. The measured energy spectrum is used to test the scenario of production in nearby radio galaxies. Within this framework the AGN correlation would require that most of the cosmic rays are heavy nuclei and are widely scattered by intergalactic magnetic fields.
Suzaku observations of early-type galaxies
Authors: Matsushita K. , Fukazawa Y. , Hayashi K. , Konami S. , Nagino R. , Ohashi T. , Tawara Y. , Tozuka M.
Published: October 2010

The metal abundances in the hot X-ray emitting interstellar medium (ISM) of early-type galaxies give us important information about the present metal supply into the ISM through supernovae (SNe) Ia and stellar mass loss. In addition, O and Mg abundances should reflect the stellar metallicity and enable us to directly look into the formation history of these galaxies. The XIS instrument onboard the Suzaku satellite has an improved line spread function due to a very small low-pulse-height tail below 1 keV coupled with a very low background.
Numerical simulations of elliptical galaxies
Authors: Kobayashi Chiaki
Published: October 2010

For the formation of elliptical galaxies, two scenarios, monolithic collapse vs. major merger, have been debated. We simulate the formation and chemodynamical evolution of 128 Es from the CDM initial fluctuations, using the GRAPE-SPH code that include star formation, supernovae feedback, and chemical enrichment. In our CDM-based scenario, galaxies form through the successive merging of subgalaxies with various masses.
Hot ISM in young elliptical galaxies
Authors: Kim Dong-Woo
Published: October 2010

Using Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray observations of young, post-merger elliptical galaxies, we present X-ray characteristics of age-related observational results, by comparing with typical old elliptical galaxies in terms of X-ray properties of their low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) and hot interstellar matter (ISM).
Keck constraints on a varying fine-structure constant: wavelength calibration errors
Authors: Murphy Michael T. , Webb John K. , Flambaum Victor V.
Published: October 2010

The Keck telescope's High Resolution Spectrograph (HIRES) has previously provided evidence for a smaller fine-structure constant, α, compared to the current laboratory value, in a sample of 143 quasar absorption systems: Δα/α=(-0.57±0.11)×10−5. The analysis was based on a variety of metal-ion transitions which, if α varies, experience different relative velocity shifts. This result is yet to be robustly contradicted, or confirmed, by measurements on other telescopes and spectrographs; it remains crucial to do so. It is also important to consider new possible instrumental systematic effects which may explain the Keck/HIRES results. Griest et al. (2009) recently identified distortions in the echelle order wavelength scales of HIRES with typical amplitudes ±250 m s−1. Here we investigate the effect such distortions may have had on the Keck/HIRES varying α results. Using a simple model of these intra-order distortions, we demonstrate that they cause a random effect on Δα/α from absorber to absorber because the systems are at different redshifts, placing the relevant absorption lines at different positions in different echelle orders. The typical magnitude of the effect on Δα/α is ~0.4×10−5 for individual absorbers which, compared to the median error on Δα/α in the sample, ~1.9×10−5, is relatively small. Consequently, the weighted mean value changes by less than 0.05×10−5 if the corrections we calculate are applied. Unsurprisingly, with corrections this small, we do not find direct evidence that applying them is actually warranted. Nevertheless, we urge caution, particularly for analyses aiming to achieve high precision Δα/α measurements on individual systems or small samples, that a much more detailed understanding of such intra-order distortions and their dependence on observational parameters is important if they are to be avoided or modelled reliably.
Cosmological observations to shed light on possible variations
Authors: Wendt M. , Reimers D. , Molaro P.
Published: October 2010

Cosmology contributes a good deal to the investigation of variation of fundamental physical constants. High resolution data is available and allows for detailed analysis over cosmological distances and a multitude of methods were developed. The raised demand for precision requires a deep understanding of the limiting errors involved. The achievable accuracy is under debate and current observing proposals max out the capabilities of today's technology. The question for self-consistency in data analysis and effective techniques to handle unknown systematic errors is of increasing importance. This work is motivated by numerous findings of different groups that partially are in disagreement witch each other. A large part of these discrepancies reflects the different methods of handling systematic errors. Evidently systematics are not yet under control or fully understood. We try to emphasize the importance to take these errors, namely calibration issues, into account and put forward some measures adapted to the problem. Alternative approaches for some of the steps involved are introduced.
GAME – A small mission concept for high-precision astrometric test of General Relativity
Authors: Vecchiato A. , Gai Mario , Donati Paolo , Morbidelli Roberto , Lattanzi Mario G. , Crosta Mariateresa
Published: October 2010

GAME (Gamma Astrometric Measurement Experiment) is a concept for a small mission whose main goal is to measure from space the γ parameter of the Parameterized Post-Newtonian formalism, Will (2001)) A satellite, looking as close as possible to the Solar limb, measures the gravitational bending of light in a way similar to that followed by past experiments from the ground during solar eclipses. In the cited formalism, deviations of the γ parameter from unity are interpreted as deviations from the predictions of General Relativity which are foreseen by several competing theories of gravity. In the present theoretical scenario, such deviations are expected to appear in the range between 10−5 and 10−7. The most stringent experimental constraints available up to now are those of the Cassini mission, that gives 1−γ≲10−5 Bertotti et al. (2003), while future space missions are expected to reach the 10−7 level of accuracy. (Vecchiato et al. (2003), Turyshev et al. (2004), Ni (2008))

Preliminary simulations have shown that the expected final accuracy of GAME can reach the 10−7 level, or better if the mission profile can be extended to fit a larger budget Vecchiato et al. (2009), Gai et al. (2009). This work, which has recently been extended to better assess the mission performances, has confirmed the previous results and has given indications on how further improve various aspects of the mission profile.

Moreover, thanks to its flexible observation strategy, GAME is also able to target other interesting scientific goals in the realm of General Relativity, as well as in those involving observations of selected extrasolar systems in the brown dwarf and planetary regime.
Dynamo action in rotating convection
Authors: Guerrero Gustavo , de Gouveia Dal Pino Elisabete M.
Published: October 2010

We present MHD numerical simulations of a rotating turbulent convection system in a 3D domain (we have used the finite volume, Goudunov type MHD code PLUTO (Mignone et al. 2007)). Rotating convection is the natural scenario for the study of the dynamo action which is able to generate a large scale magnetic field, like the observed in the sun. Though we have neglected in the present approach the Ω effect, due to a large scale shear, our model is appropriate to test the controversial existence of the so called α effect that arises from helical turbulence (e.g. Cattaneo & Hughes 2006, Käpylä et al. 2009). We start with a two-layer piece-wise polytropic region in hydrostatic equilibrium (e.g. Ziegler 2002), considering one stable overshoot layer at the bottom and a convectively unstable layer at the top of the computational domain. We have allowed this hydrodynamic system to evolve up to the steady state, i.e., after about 10 turnover times (τ). Then, we introduced a seed magnetic field and let the system evolve for more ~40 τ. Our preliminary results are summarized below in Figure 2.
Realistic MHD numerical simulations of solar convection and oscillations in inclined magnetic field regions
Authors: Kitiashvili Irina N. , Kosovichev Alexander G. , Wray Alan A. , Mansour Nagi N.
Published: October 2010

It is known that physical properties of solar turbulent convection and oscillations strongly depend on magnetic field. In particular, recent observations from SOHO/MDI revealed significant changes of the wave properties in inclined magnetic field regions of sunspots, which affect helioseismic inferences. We use realistic 3D radiative MHD numerical simulations to investigate solar convection and oscillations and their relationship in the presence of inclined magnetic field. In the case of highly inclined and strong 1-1.5 kG field the solar convection develops filamentary structure and high-speed flows (Fig. 1a), which provide an explanation to the Evershed effect in sunspot penumbra (Kitiashvili, et al. 2009).
Data Reduction Induced Errors in the Asteroseismology of Early-Type Stars
Authors: Škoda Petr
Published: October 2010

In the asteroseismology of early type stars it plays an important role the extremely precise high resolution spectroscopy. Especially the determination of pulsation modes from observations requires the identification of subtle changes in line profiles of a number of chemical elements. As commonly available instruments suitable for this purpose are echelle spectrographs, there is a number of possible imperfections and even systematic errors introduced by the echelle reduction procedures. We will mention several, most critical steps, that should be carefully checked during every reduction.
Times-Series Photometry & Spectroscopy of the Bright Blue Supergiant Rigel: Probing the Atmosphere and Interior of a SN II Progenitor
Authors: Guinan Edward F. , Eaton J. A. , Wasatonic R. , Stewart H. , Engle S. G. , McCook G. P.
Published: October 2010

As the 7th brightest star and the most luminous star in the solar neighborhood, Rigel (β Orionis) is a very intriguing object. This blue supergiant (B8 Iab; V-mag = +0.05–0.18-mag; B–V = -0.03), at a distance (from Hipparcos) of ~240±35 pc has a 〈MV〉 = -6.7 mag. The following physical properties were determined via spectroscopic, photometric, and interferometric studies: L/L⊙ ≈ 66,000 K; Teff ≈ 12,000 K; M/M⊙ ≈ 17±3; R/R⊙ ≈ 70; τ ≈ 3–10 Myr. Interestingly Rigel has similar physical properties with the 12th mag blue supergiant progenitor of SN 1987A: Sanduleak -69° 202a. Thus Rigel (along with its co-asterism Betelgeuse) are likely to be the nearest progenitors of a Type II supernova. Such a nearby explosion would be V ≈ -11th mag (similar to a quarter moon).
Asteroseismology of rapidly rotating pulsators
Authors: Dziembowski W.A.
Published: October 2010

Oscillation frequencies were determined for a number of rapidly rotating main sequence stars. However, real seismic probing is still ahead of us. I review here tools that we have for modeling pulsation in rotating stars and their potential application to seismic sounding.
Simulating the chemistry and dynamics of molecular clouds
Authors: Glover S. C. O. , Federrath C. , Low M.-M. Mac , Klessen R. S.
Published: October 2010

We have performed high-resolution three-dimensional simulations of turbulent interstellar gas that for the first time self-consistently follow its coupled thermal, chemical and dynamical evolution. Our simulations have allowed us to quantify the formation timescales for the most important molecules found in giant molecular clouds (H2, CO), as well as their spatial distribution within the clouds. Our results are consistent with models in which molecular clouds form quickly, within 1–2 turbulent crossing times, and emphasize the crucial role of density inhomogeneities in determining the chemical structure of the clouds.
Constraining How Star Formation Proceeds: Surveys in the Sub-mm and FIR
Authors: Johnstone Doug
Published: October 2010

Coordinated multi-wavelength surveys of molecular clouds are providing strong constraints on the physical conditions within low-mass star-forming regions. In this manner, Perseus and Ophiuchus have been exceptional laboratories for testing the earliest phases of star formation. Highlights of these results are: (1) dense cores form only in high column density regions, (2) dense cores contain only a few percent of the cloud mass, (3) the mass distribution of the dense cores is similar to the IMF, (4) the more massive cores are most likely to contain embedded protostars, and (5) the kinematics of the dense cores and the bulk gas show significant coupling.