We will report on the science highlights from the conference "The first year of ALMA science", held on Dec 12-15 in Puerto Varas. On Dec 19, Leonardo Testi will discuss galactic science topics: astrochemistry, Solar System, star and planet formation and stellar evolution. Extragalactic topics will be covered by Paola Andreani on January 9.

Filamentary structure has long been recognized as the dominant morphology in the interstellar medium (ISM). Recently, near-IR and far-IR surveys carried out by Spitzer and Herschel have revealed a large population of dust filaments in our Galaxy. The prevalence of filaments in the ISM triggered a renewed interest on their formation, evolution, and especially their role in star formation. I review recent discoveries with an emphasis on observations, following a tentative classification: Filaments (FL), Hub-Filament Systems (HFS), and Filamentary Networks (FNET). We will discuss further directions of this relatively new topic.

Recent observational studies have shown that the most massive galaxies in the Universe, brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs), are almost fully assembled in terms of their stellar mass half way back to the big bang. This observation is in contrast to the predictions of current cosmological models which suggest that BCGs should more than double their stellar mass over this time. A recent study (Tonini et al., 2012) aimed to reconcile the observations and theory by predicting the stellar masses of BCGs using more up-to-date stellar population synthesis models. I will discuss the strengths of their approach, compare their results to our recently acquired BCG colours at z~1 and discuss the implications for our current understanding of hierarchical evolution in dense environments.

The origin of the gas in local early-type galaxies, and its relative dearth compared to stellar evolution expectations, are long standing issues. Gas reservoirs should be regenerated as stars lose mass, however sensitive searches find molecular gas in only 22% of local early-type galaxies. Furthermore these studies find that the amount of gas present does not correlate with the amount of stars losing mass in a given galaxy. Mergers and cold accretion provide an alternative way to introduce cold gas to a galaxy. Measurement of the kinematic misalignment between gas and the stars can be used to constrain the importance of these internal and external processes, allowing us to begin to understand the gas supply gas to ETGs. Using this technique I have shown that external sources seem to dominate, at least in field galaxies. In this informal discussion I will quickly review these findings, and then go on to highlight a major outstanding problem in understanding the distribution of kinematic misalignment angles in nearby ETGs. Simple mathematical arguments, and analytic simulations show that gas must be destroyed far quicker than it can be used up through star-formation (and the minor merger/accretion rate must be higher than previously estimated) in order to reproduce the observed distributions. The only alternative is that gas does not relax into galaxy disks at the rates typically assumed in the literature.

Stars more massive than about 1.5 M_sun lack a significant convective envelope that is a key ingredient in driving a solar-like dynamo. Despite this fact, there is a small population of chemically peculiar, intermediate-mass A- and B-type stars that have been known to host strong, globally-organized magnetic fields for over half a century. Furthermore, in the last decade our knowledge of magnetism has extended to more massive stars with the detection and characterization of the large-scale magnetic fields in a few O-type stars. In this talk I will briefly review the history of our knowledge of magnetism in stars more massive than ~1.5 M_sun. I will discuss the theory and techniques we use to measure these fields and summarize the current state of our knowledge. Finally, I will the discuss the interesting consequences of these strong magnetic fields on the photospheric structure and its interaction with the radiatively driven outflows for these stars.

I will introduce the use of chromospheric spectroscopic indicators in solar-type stars as a tool to investigate their magnetic activity. Then I will focus on the calibration of chromospheric fluxes as a means to obtain stellar ages, and discuss briefly their usefulness and limitations. Finally I will present a brand-new calibration based on the infrared Ca II triplet which we think enables the dating of old stars reliably.

We briefly introduce the historical developments concerning the estimates of the age of the Universe. Then, we will focus our attention on the most popular methods adopted to estimate the age of stellar systems (clusters, globulars). Finally, we will mention some possible avenues based on deep and accurate near-infrared color-magnitude diagrams (in other words, in the E-ELT era).

I will give some basics of how cosmological galaxy formation semi-analytic models work and why and when they are useful. I will focus on the recent developments on how to model star formation in the large scales (~kpc), motivated by theory and observations, and the impact such modelling can have on galaxy properties. If there is time, I will also mention how multi-phase ISM modelling can naturally lead to the application of more sophisticated theoretical models of feedback in galaxies.

During the last decade, high precision photometric and spectroscopic observations have brought evidence for the presence of multiple stellar populations in globular clusters, refuting the idea that these systems are composed out of single stellar populations in which all stars have the same chemical composition and age. In particular, stars in globular clusters show a significant spread in light-medal abundances and an anti-correlation between Na and O, and Mg and Al. Since these anti-correlations are not observed among field halo stars that are believed to have formed together with the globular clusters, they raise important questions concerning the origin of globular clusters and the link between them and dwarf galaxies. In my discussion, I will present the different ideas that have been put forward to explain the light element abundance patterns and discuss future observations which might help to decide where they come from.

- Eric Emsellem : SpS3 Galaxy Evolution through Secular Processes / - Davor Krajnovic : IAUS295: The intriguing life of massive galaxies / - Tim Davis : Extragalactic part of IAUS292 Molecular Gas, Dust, and Star Formation in Galaxies; JD4, UV Emission in Early-Type Galaxies / - Steve Longmore : Galactic part of IAUS292; SpS8, Calibration of SFR Measurements; Sp12, Modern Views of the ISM

- Francesca Primas : WAM Women in Astronomy Meeting / - Nadine Neumayer : SpS1, Origin and Complexity of Massive Star Clusters / - Michael Hilker : SpS1, Origin and Complexity of Massive Star Clusters / - Felix Stoehr : SpS15, Data Intensive Astronomy

Spectropolarimetric techniques have been successfully employed in stellar physics for almost two decades. I will discuss the basics of magnetic field measurements, as well as the advantages and limitations of a few methods currently used. I will conclude by presenting the contribution of spectropolarimetric measurements to the study of magnetism of low-mass stars.

We are presently studying in great detail NGC 5253, a peculiar and nearby Blue Compact Dwarf galaxy, with the general aim of gaining insight on the processes that take place in the interplay of massive star formation and the surrounding gas. An open issue not addressed so far is how collisional and radiative transfer effects affect the determination of He^+ abundance. In this informal discussion I will i) summarize the results that we have obtained so far for the galaxy, emphasizing those that might be relevant for this particular issue; ii) explain how I became aware of it, how collisional and radiative transfer effects affect the HeI emission lines and why paying attention to them is important in the context of extragalactic astronomy; iii) discuss the 2D characterization of these two effects in NGC 5253.

With the use of high-performance coronagraphs, quasi-static speckles limit our ability to image faint companions next to bright stars, e.g. extrasolar planets. Electric field conjugation (EFC), also called speckle nulling, is a method that uses a deformable mirror to annihilate these speckles during observation, working in principle quite similar to adaptive optics. I will review the physical background of quasi-static speckles and this technique, as well as requirements on instrumentation. I will continue presenting EFC experiments performed at ESO and at UJF Grenoble in preparation for EPICS, the E-ELT planet finder.

Parameterizing light profiles of galaxies with a Sersic (1968) function and decomposing them into multiple sub-components is a popular method of estimating parameters and inferring the assembly history of galaxies. It is being routinely applied on the nearby objects, most distant galaxies and samples of several thousands (and millions) of objects. The method, however, is technically not trivial, and, while there are free software solutions, it is generally difficult to compare results of different studies. It is also a source of a major confusion in extra-galactic astronomy. I will outline the main points of the decomposition techniques as a stimulus for a discussion on three specific topics: how to do it (i.e. is there the best way), on what objects should it be applied (i.e. is it necessary), and what is the meaning of the sub-components (i.e what do we learn)? And I am very interested to hear your views. Finally, I will present some of the results obtained when decomposing early-type galaxies (in one of the possible ways) from a magnitude limited sample and comparing these to their kinematic properties. The main conclusion are: (i) ~80-85% of nearby early-type galaxies (without bars) show evidence for having two components of which at least one is exponential (disc), and (ii) photometric decomposition, can be used as a guide line, but not as a substitute for kinematics.

The morphology of disk galaxies is characterized by the presence of spirals and bars. Such structures have been considered as the result of dynamical mechanisms associated with ordered stellar and gaseous flows acting on the disks. However, in the last years the contribution of chaotic motions in the reinforcement of barred and spiral structures has been emphasized. I will review the new dynamical phenomena that have been found to play an important role for obtaining the observed morphologies of galactic disks in terms of the orbital theory. Chaotic phenomena in the phase space of rotating disks are in many cases essential for modeling the observed features of the galaxies.

A growing number of recent papers claim that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is not universal among early-type galaxies. There are two broad camps of support: one from the stellar population community that finds evidence in spectral lines for large numbers of low-mass stars; and one from the stellar dynamics side which finds systematically varying amounts of mass apparently unaccounted for by the stellar light using a fixed IMF. I will present an informal discussion on the path we took to get to our recent contribution on this topic using the ATLAS3D Survey, and how our result differs from previous claims.

Neutral hydrogen gas (HI) is an important component of galaxy evolution studies. Unfortunately, due to the limitations of current radio telescopes, the HI universe beyond z=0 will largely remain elusive until facilities such as ASKAP and the SKA become available. However, spectral stacking is a promising technique for pushing the redshift boundary of 21cm detections. I will discuss a stacking analysis of data from the Parkes radio telescope, combined with information from the optical 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey. By combining the HI signal of thousands of galaxies, we can achieve a strong statistical detection and therefore explore the HI properties of galaxies out to z=0.14.

Recent years have witnessed a flurry of studies that have emphasized the important role that dust plays in our understanding of the near and distant Universe. The short time-scales required for dust enrichment make core-collapse supernovae rather natural candidates for dust producers in the early Universe. Yet, direct evidence that grains condense in such supernovae is extremely sparse. I will discuss lessons learnt from mid-IR studies of supernovae, highlighting problem areas and unexpected findings.

For early-type galaxies, the ability to sustain a corona of hot, X-ray emitting gas could have played a key role in quenching their star-formation history. A halo of hot gas may act as an effective shield against the acquisition of cold gas and can quickly absorb stellar-mass loss material. Yet, since the discovery by the Einstein observatory of such X-ray halos around early-type galaxies, the precise amount of hot gas around these galaxies still remains a matter of debate. By combining the homogeneously-derived photometric and kinematic measurements for the 260 early-type galaxies of the Atlas3D integral-field spectroscopic survey with both low- and high-spatial resolution X-ray measurements, I will show that the ability to retain an halo of hot gas depends not only on galactic mass but crucially also on the dynamical structure and intrinsic flattening of a galaxy. Specifically, in the framework of the revised classification for early-type galaxies advanced by the SAURON survey, we found that: 1) Slow Rotators have hot-gas halos with X-ray luminosity and temperature values that are entirely consistent with what expected if the hot gas originates from stellar-mass loss material that is heated up at the kinetic temperature of the stars through shocks and collisions. 2) Fast Rotators have hot-gas halos with X-ray luminosities that always fall short of such a prediction, and the more so the lower their dynamical mass and the larger their intrinsic flattening and degree of rotation support.

Laser frequency combs are the new technology for top precision metrology. They can be also coupled to a spectrograph and serve as calibrators for high precision spectroscopy, from atomic and molecular spectroscopy in the laboratory to spectroscopy of celestial objects. The precision achievable in astronomical spectroscopy assisted by laser frequency combs gives the possibility to address various scientific questions from the field of exoplanets to stellar physics to cosmology. I will describe how a laser comb for astronomy works, the advantages with respect to more traditional calibration methods, and the way such a device can be coupled to an astronomical spectrograph. In particular I will describe what we are learning from our tests of the laser frequency comb on HARPS.

At all redshifts the vast majority of star forming galaxies follow a tight correlation between the star formation rate (SFR) and the stellar mass, which then came to be called the "Main Sequence of star forming galaxies". Yet, outliers exist on both sides of this Main Sequence, with passively evolving (such as elliptical) galaxies below it and 'starburst' galaxies above it. Only recently, thanks to Herschel observations, it has been possible to quantify the relative frequency of MS "liers" and outliers, as well as their relative contribution to the global SFR density at redshift ~2, the cosmic peak in the star formation activity. These evidences and developments will be informally presented and proposed to discussion.

During my visit to ESO I have been engaged in a number of collaborations to try and better understand the physical conditions of dust and gas in star-forming regions. Despite being ongoing research, and thus not yet subjected to rigorous refereeing, two of these projects weave together well for an informal discussion. I will first discuss an investigation into the extinction and emission properties of dust in the Perseus Molecular Cloud, combining Herschel and 2MASS data. I will follow with a theoretical discussion of the time variability of protostellar envelope spectral energy distributions due to episodic accretion events and why long-term monitoring of protostars in the sub-mm should be undertaken.

The Galactic bulge is the only bulge that can be resolved in stars down to the bottom of the main sequence, and for which detailed chemical abundances can be obtained for individual stars. Yet its 3D structure and stellar population is surprisingly poorly understood, mainly due to the lack of wide area surveys. What was believed to be a triaxial spheroid (the bar) is in fact an X-shaped structure. The common practice to extrapolate to the whole bulge the stellar population characteristics of a few low reddening windows, turned out to be very dangerous. I will summarize our current understanding of the galactic bulge, together with ongoing and future efforts to shed light on its origin.

I will review where we detect water in our solar system, how we do this, and why we are interested. I'll go on to talk about where else we expect to see it, and where the current limitations in our detection ability are. I'd like this discussion to concentrate on these problems to be solved, given the wide range of expertise in different techniques and different wavelengths that exists at ESO.

In response to the quantity of exoplanet discoveries in the last 20 years the focus of exoplanet research has shifted from the detection towards the characterization of these planets and, in particular, their atmospheres. Currently, observations of exoplanet atmospheres are mainly feasible for highly inflated giant planets. I will discuss the method of spectrophotometric transit observations, which is currently used to probe such hot Jupiter atmospheres, and point out its successes and limitations. Furthermore I will discuss a project using Earth spectra obtained with the ESA spacecraft Venus Express, in which we aim to investigate the nature of the spectral variability that could potentially be observable for an Earth-like exoplanet with future instrumentation.

Spectro-astrometry is a powerful technique which can be used to recover spatial information from ground-based spectra on milli-arcsecond scales. In my talk I will describe the technique and outline how to optimise spectroscopic observations for spectro-astrometric analysis. In addition, I will describe how it has been used very successfully to study binarity, outflow activity and the circumstellar environment of young stars and brown dwarfs.

Sparse aperture masking (SAM) interferometry combined with Adaptive Optics (AO) is a technique that is uniquely suited to investigate structures near the diffraction limit of large telescopes. The strengths of the technique are a robust calibration of the Point Spread Function (PSF) while maintaining a relatively high dynamic range. In this talk I will present the main characteristics of this technique, their advantages and limitations, as well as, some targets of opportunity. I will conclude the talk with the preliminary results of our SAM+AO observations on sources in the central parsec of the Galaxy.

The Stratospheric Observatory for Far-Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has performed the first successful science flights last year. After the shutdown of the Kuiper airborne observatory (KAO) in 1995, it is now SOFIA that took over and produces science. I will review the properties of the KAO and SOFIA from a personal perspective (I flew with the KAO and had an observing program with SOFIA), and lay out which science can be done with SOFIA, giving practical advice for proposal preparation and background information. I will also present first results of my CII spectral line mapping program that studied pillars and globules in Cygnus and my study on the atmospheric transmission in the submm-FIR range relevant for SOFIA.

I will discuss how photometric and spectroscopic properties of massive globular clusters can help to unveil the formation history of galaxies, since their properties (age, metallicity, structural parameter distributions) reflect the physical conditions at the time of their formation. However, there are key features in their stellar populations which can render even spectroscopic ages younger. I will discuss how these degeneracies can be avoided for a sample of massive clusters in dwarf irregular galaxies and intermediate-age merger-remnant massive galaxies, to unveil the complex merging history of the latter.

I will try to describe the main ingredients which lead to the formation of a bar. This will involve some ugly drawings illustrating the basics of density wave theory, physics of resonant cavities, and orbital structure. My (naive) hope is that you walk away with an intuitive view of how bars form, their impact on the evolution of galaxies, and why they are so captivating objects to work on.

[from a paper by N.R.Napolitano, S.Capozziello, A.J.Romanowsky, M.Capaccioli, C.Tortora] The discussion is about the first analysis of the extended stellar kinematics of ETGs made using, as an alternative to dark matter, a Yukawa-like correction to the Newtonian gravitational potential derived from f(R) gravity. In this framework, long-slit and planetary nebulae data for three ETGs with either decreasing or flat velocity dispersion profiles are modeled out to 7 effective radii. The modified Newtonian potential, used in a dispersion-kurtosis Jeans analysis to account for the mass-anisotropy degeneracy, is able to fit well all the data, and produces an anisotropy distribution which is consistent with that estimated if a dark halo is considered. The parameter measuring the "strength" of the Yukawa-like correction is, on average, smaller than the one previously found in spiral galaxies and correlates both with the scale length of the Yukawa-like term and the orbital anisotropy.

The CO/CO2 ratio varies dramatically among comets and is uncorrelated with JF vs NIC or with any dynamical measure of evolution. Correspondingly, the ratios of each to water vary dramatically. The high ratios of CO2 to CO require, if it is not an evolutionary process, that the CO2 form by grain surface chemistry (on a CO+H2O grain). But even more important, this probably also requires extensive mixing in a common zone of formation of both JFCs and LPCs/NICs. This zone lies in between the CO2 and CO snow lines, most likely in the giant planets region. The D/H ratio in comets as well as the diversity of colors of cometary nuclei support the same view. A scenario where all comets formed in a wide region with subsequent disruption and mixing as the giant planets migrated inward then outward is plausible. It has direct implications on the structure and heterogeneity of cometary nucleus resulting from the accretion of cometesimals of different natures.

The gas content, stellar configuration, and overall appearance of low-mass galaxies can be significantly changed by external influence, particularly in dense environments like galaxy clusters. Tidal forces can remove dark matter and heat stellar disks; the pressure of the intracluster medium can strip the gaseous halo and even remove gas from the disk. Within this framework, I would like to discuss questions like these: How (in)efficient is ram pressure stripping in halting star formation in the disk, and under which conditions? How much harm can tidal forces from the group/cluster potential do to the baryons, and where is "harassment" actually relevant? Did the destruction of nucleated low-mass galaxies lead to ultra-compact dwarfs? If we want to investigate the role of such mechanisms for transforming late-type into early-type galaxies, on which epochs should we focus our studies, and how wrong are we doing when we simply compare today's populations with each other?

There is a peculiar difference between the metallicty distribution of field stars and the metallicity distribution of clusters in galactic haloes. The ratio between metal-rich clusters and metal-rich field stars is much lower than the ratio between metal-poor clusters and metal-poor field stars. These ratios also show a dependence on location in the halo. This might be due to a combination of several possible effects which may depend on metallicity and environment: - (a) clusterformation vs starformation efficiencies depends on metallicity and environment - (b) the infant-mortality rate of metal-rich clusters is higher than for metal-poor clusters - (c) the dynamical evolution of clusters depends strongly on metallicity and environment. I will discuss some of the observation and hope to have discussions/suggestions/comments on these and other effects that may play a role.

In order to achieve the optimal scientific return from the VLT, ESO has developed an end-to-end data flow system from proposal entry to science archive that provides the backbone infrastructure for VLT operations. User support is one of the main nodes of this schema, acting as the main interface between ESO and its users’ community. It thus provides support to the Observatory in operating the VLT and to all users of ESO (V-)facilities in the definition and implementation of the best observing strategies in order to achieve their scientific goals. But this is just the core task … fortunately (and sometimes unfortunately) we do much more than that!

'Radio mode' feedback from an active nucleus is now thought to play an important role in regulating the star-formation history of massive galaxies. Confusingly, radio jets have been invoked both to trigger star formation in galaxies and to suppress star formation. I'll show some results from our recent observational work which uses large-area radio and optical surveys to study the relationship between the radio properties of massive galaxies and their stellar populations. I'll also say something about the new Australian Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), and discuss the ASKAP FLASH survey, a blind all-sky survey in which we plan to probe neutral hydrogen in galaxies out to redshift z=1 by detecting the 21cm HI line in absorption against background radio sources.