We report the detection of an exoplanet candidate in orbit around σ Persei from a radial velocity (RV) survey. The system exhibits periodic RV variations of 579.8 ± 2.4 days. The purpose of the survey is to search for low-amplitude and long-period RV variations in giants and examine the origin of the variations using the fiber-fed Bohyunsan Observatory Echelle Spectrograph installed at the 1.8- m telescope of Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory in Korea. We present high-accuracy RV measurements of σ Per made from December 2003 to January 2014. We argue that the RV variations are not related to the surface inhomogeneities but instead a Keplerian motion of the planetary companion is the most likely explanation. Assuming a stellar mass of 2.25 ± 0.5 M⊙, we obtain a minimum planetary companion mass of 6.5 ± 1.0 MJup, with an orbital semi-major axis of 1.8 ± 0.1 AU, and an eccentricity of 0.3 ± 0.1 around σ Per.

I present here one approach to general relativistic radiation hydrodynamics. It is based on covariant tensor conservation equations and considers only the frequency-integrated total energy and momentum exchange between matter and the radiation field. It is also a mixed-frame formalism in the sense that, the interaction between radiation and matter is described with quantities in the comoving frame in which the interaction is often symmetric in angle while the radiation energy and momentum equations are expressed in the fixed frame quantities in which the derivatives are simpler. Hence, this approach is intuitive enough to be applied straightforwardly to any spacetime or coordinate. A few examples are provided along with caveats in this formalism.

Quasars at cosmological distances can be gravitationally lensed by galaxies into two or more images. The probability of this lensing and the angular separation between the images depend on the geometry and the expansion history of the universe as well as the lensing galaxies. The time delay between lensed images is also a direct indicator of the size of the universe. I review these cosmological applications of multiple-image gravitationally lensed quasars to determine or constrain the cosmological parameters.

We now have more than 70 multiple image gravitational lens systems. Since gravitational lensing occurs through gravitational distortions in cosmic space, cosmological informations can be extracted from multiple image systems. Specifically, Hubble constant can be determined by the time delay mea-surement, curvature of the universe can be measured by the distribution of image separations in lens systems, and limits on matter density and cosmological constant can be set by the statistics of gravitationallens systems. Uncertainties, however, still exist in various steps, and results may be taken with some caution. Larger systematic survey and better understanding of galaxy properties would definitely help.

Gaudi, Naber & Sackett pointed out that if an event is caused by a lens system containing more than two planets, all planets will affect the central region of the magnification pattern, and thus the existence of the multiple planets can be inferred by detecting additionally deformed anomalies from intensive monitoring of high magnification microlensing events. Unfortunately, this method has important limitations in identifying the existence of multiple planets and determining their parameters (the mass ratio and the instantaneous projected separation) due to the degeneracy of the resulting light curve anomalies from those induced by a single planet and the complexity of multiple planet lensing models. In this paper, we propose a new channel to search for multiple planets via microlensing. The method is based on the fact that the lensing light curve anomalies induced by multiple planets are well approximated by the superposition of those of the single planet systems where the individual planet-primary pairs act as independent lens systems. Then, if the source trajectory passes both of the outer deviation regions induced by the individual planets, one can unambiguously identify the existence of the multiple planets. We illustrate that the probability of successively detecting light curve anomalies induced by two Jovian-mass planets located in the lensing zone through this channel will be substantial. Since the individual anomalies can be well described by much simpler single planet lensing models, the proposed method has an important advantage of allowing one to accurately determine the parameters of the individual planets.

Radiation hydrodynamics in high. velocity or high optical-depth flow should be treated under rigorous relativistic formalism. Relativistic radiation hydrodynamic moment equations are summarized, and its application to the near-critical accretion onto neutron star is discussed. The relativistic effects can dominate the dynamics of the flow even when the gravity is weak and the velocity is small. First order equations fail to describe the intricate relativistic effects correctly.

The stability of the geometrically thin, two-temperature hot accretion disk is studied. The general criterion for thermal instability is derived from the linear local analyses, allowing for advective cooling and dynamics in the vertical direction. Specifically, classic unsaturated Comptonization disk is analysed in detail. We find five eigen-modes: (1) Heating mode grows in thermal time scale, (5/3)(αω)-1, where alpha is the viscosity parameter and w the Keplerian frequency. (2) Cooling mode decays in time scale, (2/5)(Te/Ti)(αω)-1, where Te and Ti are the electron and ion temperatures, respectively. (3) Lightman-Eardley viscous mode decays in time scale, (4/3)(Λ/H)2(αω)-1, where Λ is the wavelength of the perturbation and H the unperturbed disk height. (4) Two vertically oscillating modes oscillate in Keplerian time scale, (3/8)1/2ω-1 with growth rate ∝(H/Λ)2. The inclusion of dynamics in the vertical direction does not affect the thermal instability, adding only the oscillatory modes which gradually grow for short wavelength modes. Also, the advective cooling is not strong enough to suppress the growth of heating modes, at least for geometrically thin disk. Non-linear development of the perturbation is followed for simple unsaturated Compton disk: depending on the initial proton temperature perturbation, the disk can evolve to decoupled state with hot protons and cool electrons, or to one-temperature state with very cool protons and electrons.

New and improved data on the gravitational lens systems discovered so far are compared with the theoretical predictions of Gott, Park, and Lee (1989, GPL). Systems lensed by a single galaxy, compatible with assumptions of GPL, support flat or near-flat geometry for the universe. But the statistical uncertainty is too large to draw any definite conclusion. We need more lens systems. Also, the probability of multiple image lensing and mean separation of the images averaged over the source distribution are calculated for various cosmological models. Multiple-image lens systems and radio ring systems are compared with the predictions. Although the data reject exotic cosmological models, it cannot discriminate among conventional Friedmann models yet.