A statistical analysis of the orientation of Nabatean sacred monuments demonstrates that astronomical orientations were often part of an elaborated plan and possibly a trace of the astral nature of the Nabataean religion. Petra and other monuments in the ancient Nabataean kingdom have proven to be marvellous laboratories for the interaction between

We report experimental oscillator strengths for 28 infrared Fe I transitions, for which no previous experimental values exist. These transitions were selected to address an urgent need for oscillator strengths of lines in the H-band (between 1.4 μm and 1.7 μm) required for the analysis of spectra obtained from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III

Strong gravitational lenses are now being routinely discovered in wide-field surveys at (sub-)millimeter wavelengths. We present Submillimeter Array (SMA) high-spatial resolution imaging and Gemini-South and Multiple Mirror Telescope optical spectroscopy of strong lens candidates discovered in the two widest extragalactic surveys conducted by the

The main goal of this thesis has been to investigate the effect that the macroscopic vertical velocity fields have on the scattering polarization signals formed in the solar chromosphere. We followed a theoretical approach based on the spectral synthesis of scattering polarization signals in dynamic models of the quiet Sun. Until now, the impact of

We present the results of a numerical adaptive mesh refinement hydrodynamical and N-body simulation in a Λ cold dark matter cosmology. We focus on the analysis of the main properties of massive galaxies (M* > 1011 M⊙) at z = 0. For all the massive virtual galaxies, we carry out a careful study of their one-dimensional density, luminosity, velocity