Empirical determination of the shape of dust attenuation curves in star-forming galaxies

Vivienne Wild, Stephane Charlot, Jarle Brinchmann et al. ADS

There are a variety of dust extinction and attenuation laws used in the literature. Here we measure empirically for the first time the effective attenuation law for light coming from star-forming galaxies. We show how the wavelength dependence varies with galaxy properties such as whether there is a dominant bulge, specific star formation and inclination.
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Improved redshifts for SDSS quasar spectra

Paul Hewett, Vivienne Wild ADS and the catalog

SDSS QSO redshifts with fewer systematics: see the key figures and download the tables from the paper here. New DR7 QSO catalogue now available!
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Timing the starburst AGN connection

Vivienne Wild, Tim Heckman, Stephane Charlot ADS

The existence of a correlation between the mass of stars in the
bulge of local galaxies, and the masses of the supermassive black holes at the centres of these galaxies (M-sigma relation), suggests a joint mechanism by which both objects grow together. The difference in scales is enormous however, and finding a physical process which can robustly link the masses of a stellar bulge 1000 times more massive than the central supermassive black hole, has been keeping theorists busy for many years.

Here we use the enormous statistical power of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to directly measure when the black hole starts to grow during a strong burst of star-formation.
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