Remeis-Wiki - User contributions [en]

Litclub

2024-04-12T09:38:20Z

Vashukla: /* What is LitClub? */

== What is LitClub? ==

LitClub is a weekly meeting held at the Dr. Karl Remeis Observatory for all observatory members. The meeting consists of a presentation of a scientific, astrophysics-related paper chosen by a speaker, who was selected to give a talk for the current week and is followed by a general discussion. The goals of the meeting are the following:

* to improve communication and presentation skills for bachelor, master, and PhD students
* to provide a platform for free and casual discussion of scientific topics
* to learn more ;-)
* to bring all our groups together

LitClub takes place on Tuesdays at 11:30, in the conference room in the main observatory building, or (if there are too many attendees) in the library in the meridian building.

LitClub is a mandatory activity for all observatory members. All students are on the list of presenters. All postdocs are expected to contribute to the discussion and to take over the presentation in case the speaker has to cancel last minute.

Please find below the general rules and commonly asked questions.

== Organization ==

Every week a person is chosen to present a paper.

'''How a person is chosen?'''

The selection of a presenter is done semi-randomly by Ingo, taking into account information about people's availability. At the beginning of the semester, a table is sent around where you can enter your availability on certain weeks (yes, all students are expected to be available a respectable amount of weeks per semester to make a presentation). If an observatory member provided no information in the table, the LitClub organizers assume that this person is available on any given day. The presenter is informed about the presentation a few days in advance.

'''How a presented paper is chosen?'''

A presenter chooses a paper from a list below, which contain the classical ("must-read") astrophysics-related papers, as well as some new advanced in the field. A different paper can be chosen, either from a peer-reviewed journal or the arxiv and which is related to space science (including, e.g., planetary science, instruments, methods, ...). In case you want to present something different, for example, to talk about your part or present research, please inform the organizers: [mailto:astro-literature@lists.fau.de astro-literature@lists.fau.de].

'''How presentation is done?'''
Presentation at the LitClub requires a few prepared slides with the most essential information, which helps to guide you (and your audience) through your talk. Any time-consuming design features are strongly discouraged: you are expected to quickly prepare simple slides with valuable content. See below the section on "Guidelines" for more details on how long the talk should be etc.

== Guidelines and Information ==

'''Basic guidelines and information on the purpose of the litclub, the roles of the audience and the speaker, and how to prepare and present the talk were presented in a short talk (by Thomas Dauser), which you can find here: [[File:litclub_guidelines.pdf]]'''

If you are new to the litclub, it is very helpful to have a look there, as it is currently the most detailed resource of information on how the litclub works.

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

'''Is it really mandatory for all students?'''

Yes.

'''What if I cannot present when I am asked?'''

In this case, you have to find a person who could present instead of you on the date. At the same time, you are expected to give a presentation within the following weeks.

'''What are acceptable reasons to not present, when I was asked?'''

Lectures and examinations - confirmed by schedule or vacation and sickness - confirmed with your supervisor. In the case of one of these reasons, please see the previous question. If you got sick on the day of the presentation and there was no time to find a different speaker, you will be shifted to one of the following weeks and LitClub will be conducted by one (or a few) of the observatory postdocs.

'''I have an upcoming conference talk, is it a good reason to not present at LitClub a week before?'''

No. It is expected that the LitClub will not take too much of your preparation time. If it does - you need (want) to learn how to make it quicker, which is possible only by practice.

'''I am working on my master (bachelor/PhD) thesis, is it an acceptable reason to not present at LitClub?'''

No. Only if you have your defence within a few days of the LitClub in question. Otherwise: it is the time for you to work with a lot of literature. Just pick one of the papers you recently read for your thesis and present it.

'''Do I have to have slides for the presentation'''

Yes. The current request by our professors is that you would prepare simple slides with the main information. (5 slides is plenty)

'''How much time I am expected to spend to prepare for the LitClub presentation?'''

It depends on the paper you choose, but in general, you should be able to prepare your talk within half of a working day.

== Contact ==

For questions and comments, please contact the organizers: [mailto:astro-literature@lists.fau.de astro-literature@lists.fau.de].
Any major modifications to the structure of LitClub will be discussed with the professors.

== Litclub Paper List (WILL BE UPDATED!!!)==

We collect potentially interesting papers in an [https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/user/libraries/8mOwkXjvQl206110FBulVw ADS library] to give some inspiration (a separate [https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/user/libraries/9B-WkBVbTAmnzI7rmQ7dtA library] lists the already presented papers). But everyone is encouraged to present any interesting scientific work, not restricted to astronomy! Also, in case you found interesting papers feel free to add them to the list below (create sections as required).

=== X-ray astronomy ===

- Electromagnetic extraction of energy from Kerr black holes (Blandford-Znajek mechanism): Blandford, Znajek, MNRAS 179, 433, 1977 <ref>[https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1977MNRAS.179..433B/abstract]Blandford, Znajek, MNRAS 179, 433, 1977</ref> (although, astrophysically, the Blandford-Payne mechanism likely contributes more to jet launching, e.g., Livio, Ogilvie, Pringle, ApJ 512, 100, 1999)

- "The corona contracts in a black-hole transient": Kara et al., Nature 565 198, 2019 <ref>[https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019Natur.565..198K/abstract]Kara et al., Nature 565 198, 2019</ref>, although this result is disputed (e.g., arxiv/2112.08116)

- Connection of FRBs and magnetars: "INTEGRAL Discovery of a Burst with Associated Radio Emission from the Magnetar SGR 1935+2154" (Mereghetti, 2020ApJ...898L..29M)

- "Discovery of oscillations above 200 keV in a black hole X-ray binary with Insight-HXMT" (Ma et al., 2021NatAs...5...94M)

- "Cygnus X-1 contains a 21-solar mass black hole—Implications for massive star winds" (Miller-Jones 2021Sci...371.1046M)

- EuCAPT White Paper: Opportunities and Challenges for Theoretical Astroparticle Physics in the Next Decade (Batista et al., arxiv.org/abs/2110.10074) - perhaps too long but really interesting summary

- Dark Energy Survey 3 Year Results (e.g., http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2021arXiv210513549D)

=== Aliens? :0 ===

- Estimating the prevalence of malicious extraterrestrial civilizations (Caballero 2022arXiv220511618C) [https://arxiv.org/pdf/2205.11618.pdf]

=== Cosmology ===

- Is the Expansion of the Universe Accelerating? All Signs Still Point to Yes: A Local Dipole Anisotropy Cannot Explain Dark Energy [https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ab7a16/pdf]

=== Statistics ===

- "STATISTICS, HANDLE WITH CARE: DETECTING MULTIPLE MODEL COMPONENTS WITH THE LIKELIHOOD RATIO TEST" (Protassov, 2002ApJ...571..545P)

=== Some more extravagant stuff ===

- The Breakthrough Listen Search For Intelligent Life Near the Galactic Center (Gajjar et al., ApJ 162, 33, 2021)

- An Objective Bayesian Analysis of Life's Early Start and Our Late Arrival (Kipping, 2020, https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.09008)

=== Non-astrophysics ===

- creating unique random numbers using the quantum noise of the vacuum: Gabriel et al., Nature Photonics 4, 711, 2010

How to use the Remeis cluster

2023-06-23T20:46:56Z

Vashukla: /* The Data-Storage System */

== How To use the Remeis Cluster ==

The Cluster of the Remeis observatory is designed to make all resources available for easy usage. Nevertheless, there are a few important things one has to know in order to use the cluster properly. In the following the most important information will be listed. Other questions or problems with the system or software sould be directed to [mailto:admin@sternwarte.uni-erlangen.de admin@sternwarte.uni-erlangen.de].

=== Performing Computations ===

* The servers ''crux'', ''grus'', and ''phoenix'' should not be used for computations at all.
* Computations and extractions on the Cluster should be submitted via '''slurm'''. Information on how to use it can be found [[Slurm|here]].
* Also interactive sessions can be started via '''slurm'''.

=== The Data-Storage System ===

* '''/userdata:''' Extracted data like images or spectra or other space consuming stuff or stuff which can re recreated/downloaded again should be put there. /userdata is a RAID6 system, i.e. two disks can fail simultaneously w/o data loss --> your data is safe on /userdata! However, there is NO backup of userdata, as /userdata is too big to be backed up simply. And there is no quota on /userdata.

* '''/home:''' This is the place for self-developed software, scripts, documents, TeX files, diploma/phd/... theses, papers, spreadsheets, etc. /home is also a RAID system, i.e. more than one disk may fail w/o data loss. Furthermore, /home is backed up every night to TWO different disks (in two machines) AND once a week on an external disk that is stored outside the observatory for the worst case (e.g., fire). It therefore does not make sense to create your own private backups on local scratch disks etc. /home, however, is quite small (1 TB for all the institute); we therefore have a quota of about 10GB per user. It is no problem to get more space, if you can't move stuff around anymore, just drop an Email to the admins. On the other hand, you don't have to fill your quota completely! To check your quota you can use the ''quota'' command on crux, like
ssh crux quota -s -f /home

* '''/scratch:''' For temporary or otherwise not very important data. You should not store anything important on /scratch!! The scratch disks are NOT backedup and the scratch disks are not fail safe, i.e. if a scratch disk is broken (which happens regularly), your data is GONE.

* '''Satellite Data:''' We already have archives for most satellite raw data (applies mostly to the X-ray people). So please do not download any raw data yourself, but talk to the person in charge of a specific mission. You can find out who is responsible by executing <code>showSatelliteContacts</code> in the shell.

=== Logging into Remeis ===

==== Remote Login ====

===== Using ssh =====
You can log-in via ssh simply by
ssh -X <username>@<host>.sternwarte.uni-erlangen.de

===== Using the NX-Client =====

If you need a graphics interface, it might be worth to use the <code>nxclient</code> to connect to the Remeis Cluster. The corresponding <code>nxserver</code> is installed on (almost) all machines. In order to use it you have to [http://www.nomachine.com/download.php download] it and follow the Connection-Wizard to connect on a host. Always use the same machine, as only a limited number of total connections is allowed on each machine. This works for Linux, Mac OSX, and even Windows.

===== Hosts =====
Host names are generally the constellation names, e.g., <code>norma</code> or <code>leo</code>. All available hosts can be found in the shell variable <code>$RemeisHosts</code>. The servers (<code>crux</code>, <code>grus</code>, and <code>phoenix</code>) should not be used.

==== Connecting without password and short hostnames ====

Sick of always typing <code>user@myfavouritehost.sternwarte.uni-erlangen.de</code> and always having to enter your password when switching machines inside inside the Remeis Cluster? The follwing setup will make your life easier.

===== Config-File =====

In the file <code>~/.ssh/config</code> you can set up the configuration for ssh. A few things are really useful.
# activate compression, might lead to a faster connection
Compression yes
# do X11 forwarding by default, i.e., the option "-X" is
# always set when using "ssh"
forwardX11 yes

In order to define a short-cut for a host, you have to add the following information to the ''~/.ssh/config''
# the short-name you want to call the host (most useful is the general name of the machine
Host=pulsar
# now define user and host such that ''<User>@<Hostname>'' is the correct adress
Hostname=pulsar.sternwarte.uni-erlangen.de
User=YourUsername

===== ssh-keys =====

If you setup the ssh-keys properly, you can login via ssh without entering a password. This isn't only nice to have, but if you use [[torque:start|Torque]], this is mandatory. A detailed description can be found [[SSH-Keys|here]].

=== Setting the Default Options/Software ===

Each new account is equipped with a sample file at ''~/.cshrc'', which is loaded on every start of the terminal. Hence, this defines your options, i.e., the software available, short-cuts, your favourite editor, and so on. Commonly useful options are activated by default. In addition, there are a few additional features, which are commented out by default but still very useful for most users.

# set your favourite text editor to be used by default; important, e.g., if you want to use GIT
setenv EDITOR jed

# activate the X-ray software (HEADAS, satellite extraction scripts, ...)
source $SOFTDIR/softwarescript_Xray.csh

More information on the TC shell and how to configure it can be found [[TcShell|here]].

[[Category:Current Members]][[Category:Software]]