Papers for Monday, Feb 08 2021

We present the study of dynamical status of the globular cluster NGC 1851. A combination of multiwavelength space and ground-based data sets are used for the present analysis. In order to select the genuine cluster members, we used the astro-photometric data available from HST and GAIA-DR2 catalogs. The BSS radial distribution of the cluster is plotted from the center of the cluster to the outskirts. The radial distribution of BSS shows a central peak, followed by a dip at the intermediate radii (rmin ~ 90'') and a rising trend in the outskirts. We also estimated A+rh parameter as 0.391 +/- 0.006 to validate the findings of the radial distribution study. On the basis of the minima in the BSS radial distribution and the value of A+rh parameter, we conclude that NGC 1851 belongs to Family II classification and is an intermediate dynamical state cluster.

We present the discovery of CWISE J203546.35-493611.0, a peculiar M8 companion to the M4.5 star APMPM J2036-4936 discovered through the citizen science project Backyard Worlds: Planet 9. Given CWISE J203546.35-493611.0's proper motion ($\mu_{\alpha}$, $\mu_{\delta}$) = ($-$126$\pm$22, $-$478$\pm$23) and angular separation of 34.2$''$ from APMPM 2036-4936, we calculate a chance alignment probability of $1.15 \times 10^{-6}$. Both stars in this system appear to be underluminous, and the spectrum obtained for CWISE J203546.35-493611.0 shows a triangular H band. Further study of this system is warranted to understand these peculiarities.

In the coming years, next-generation space-based infrared observatories will significantly increase our samples of rare massive stars, representing a tremendous opportunity to leverage modern statistical tools and methods to test massive stellar evolution in entirely new environments. Such work is only possible if the observed objects can be reliably classified. Spectroscopic observations are infeasible with more distant targets, and so we wish to determine whether machine learning methods can classify massive stars using broadband infrared photometry. We find that a Support Vector Machine classifier is capable of coarsely classifying massive stars with labels corresponding to hot, cool, and emission line stars with high accuracy, while rejecting contaminating low mass giants. Remarkably, 76\% of emission line stars can be recovered without the need for narrowband or spectroscopic observations. We classify a sample of ${\sim}2500$ objects with no existing labels, and identify fourteen candidate emission line objects. Unfortunately, despite the high precision of the photometry in our sample, the heterogeneous origins of the labels for the stars in our sample severely inhibits our classifier from distinguishing classes of stars with more granularity. Ultimately, no large and homogeneously labeled sample of massive stars currently exists. Without significant efforts robustly classify evolved massive stars -- which is feasible given existing data from large all-sky spectroscopic surveys -- shortcomings in the labeling of existing data sets will hinder efforts to leverage the next-generation of space observatories.

Automated searches for strong gravitational lensing in optical imaging survey datasets often employ machine learning and deep learning approaches. These techniques require more example systems to train the algorithms than have presently been discovered, which creates a need for simulated images as training dataset supplements. This work introduces and summarizes deeplenstronomy, an open-source Python package that enables efficient, large-scale, and reproducible simulation of images of astronomical systems. A full suite of unit tests, documentation, and example notebooks are available at https://deepskies.github.io/deeplenstronomy/ .

We present a systematic X-ray and multiwavelength study of a sample of 47 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with reverberation-mapping measurements. This sample includes 21 super-Eddington accreting AGNs and 26 sub-Eddington accreting AGNs. Using high-state observations with simultaneous X-ray and UV/optical measurements, we investigate whether super-Eddington accreting AGNs exhibit different accretion disk-corona connections compared to sub-Eddington accreting AGNs. We find tight correlations between the X-ray-to-UV/optical spectral slope parameter ($\alpha_{\rm OX}$) and the monochromatic luminosity at $2500~\r{A}$ ($L_{\rm 2500~\r{A}}$) for both the super- and sub-Eddington subsamples. The best-fit $\alpha_{\rm OX}-L_{\rm 2500~\r{A}}$ relations are consistent overall, indicating that super-Eddington accreting AGNs are not particularly X-ray weak in general compared to sub-Eddington accreting AGNs. We find dependences of $\alpha_{\rm OX}$ on both the Eddington ratio ($L_{\rm Bol}/L_{\rm Edd}$) and black hole mass ($M_{\rm BH}$) parameters for our full sample. A multi-variate linear regression analysis yields $\alpha_{\rm OX}=-0.13 {\rm log}(L_{\rm Bol}/L_{\rm Edd})-0.10 {\rm log}M_{\rm BH}-0.69$, with a scatter similar to that of the $\alpha_{\rm OX}-L_{\rm 2500~\r{A}}$ relation. The hard (rest-frame $>2\rm ~keV$) X-ray photon index ($\Gamma$) is strongly correlated with $L_{\rm Bol}/L_{\rm Edd}$ for the full sample and the super-Eddington subsample, but these two parameters are not significantly correlated for the sub-Eddington subsample. A fraction of super-Eddington accreting AGNs show strong X-ray variability, probably due to small-scale gas absorption, and we highlight the importance of employing high-state (intrinsic) X-ray radiation to study the accretion disk-corona connections in AGNs.

We study the evolution of one-dimensional relativistic jets, using the exact solution of the Riemann problem for relativistic flows. For this purpose, we solve equations for the ideal special relativistic fluid composed of dissimilar particles in flat space-time and the thermodynamics of fluid is governed by a relativistic equation of state. We obtain the exact solution of jets impinging on denser ambient media. The time variation of the cross-section of the jet-head is modeled and incorporated. We present the initial condition that gives rise to a reverse shock. If the jet-head cross-section increases in time, the jet propagation speed slows down significantly and the reverse-shock may recede opposite to the propagation direction of the jet. We show that the composition of jet and ambient medium can affect the jet solution significantly. For instance, the propagation speed depends on the composition and is maximum for a pair-dominated jet, rather than a pure electron-positron or electron-proton jet. The propagation direction of the reverse-shock may also strongly depend on the composition of the jet.

Planets and stars ultimately form out of the collapse of the same cloud of gas. Whilst planets, and planetary bodies, readily loose volatiles, a common hypothesis is that they retain the same refractory composition as their host star. This is true within the Solar System. The refractory composition of chondritic meteorites, Earth and other rocky planetary bodies are consistent with solar, within the observational errors. This work aims to investigate whether this hypothesis holds for exoplanetary systems. If true, the internal structure of observed rocky exoplanets can be better constrained using their host star abundances. In this paper, we analyse the abundances of the K-dwarf, G200-39, and compare them to its polluted white dwarf companion, WD 1425+540. The white dwarf has accreted planetary material, most probably a Kuiper belt-like object, from an outer planetary system surviving the star's evolution to the white dwarf phase. Given that binary pairs are chemically homogeneous, we use the binary companion, G200-39, as a proxy for the composition of the progenitor to WD 1425+540. We show that the elemental abundances of the companion star and the planetary material accreted by WD 1425+540 are consistent with the hypothesis that planet and host-stars have the same true abundances, taking into account the observational errors.

Faraday rotation provides a valuable tracer of magnetic fields in the interstellar medium; catalogs of Faraday rotation measures provide key observations for studies of the Galactic magnetic field. We present a new catalog of rotation measures derived from the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey, covering a large region of the Galactic plane spanning 52 deg < l < 192 deg, -3 deg < b < 5 deg, along with northern and southern latitude extensions around l ~ 105 deg. We have derived rotation measures for 2234 sources (4 of which are known pulsars), 75% of which have no previous measurements, over an area of approximately 1300 square degrees. These new rotation measures increase the measurement density for this region of the Galactic plane by a factor of two.

We present an update to the framework called SImulator of GAlaxy Millimeter/submillimeter Emission (S\'IGAME). S\'IGAME derives line emission in the far-infrared (FIR) for galaxies in particle-based cosmological hydrodynamics simulations by applying radiative transfer and physics recipes via a post-processing step after completion of the simulation. In this version, a new technique is developed to model higher gas densities by parametrizing the gas density probability distribution function (PDF) in higher resolution simulations for use as a look-up table, allowing for more adaptive PDFs than in previous work. S\'IGAME v3 is tested on redshift z = 0 galaxies drawn from the SIMBA cosmological simulation for eight FIR emission lines tracing vastly different interstellar medium phases. Including dust radiative transfer with SKIRT and high resolution photo-ionization models with Cloudy, this new method is able to self-consistently reproduce observed relations between line luminosity and star formation rate in all cases, except for [NII]122, [NII]205 and [OI]63, the luminosities of which are overestimated by median factors of 1.6, 1.2 and 1.2 dex, respectively. We attribute the remaining disagreement with observations to the lack of precise attenuation of the interstellar light on subgrid scales (<200 pc).

Planets form in young circumstellar disks called protoplanetary disks. However, it is still difficult to catch planet formation in-situ. Nevertheless, from recent ALMA/SPHERE data, encouraging evidence of the direct and indirect presence of embedded planets has been identified in disks around young stars: co-moving point sources, gravitational perturbations, rings, cavities, and emission dips or shadows cast on disks. The interpretation of these observations needs a robust physical framework to deduce the complex disk geometry. In particular, protoplanetary disk models usually assume the gas pressure scale-height given by the ratio of the sound speed over the azimuthal velocity $H/r = c_{s\rm }/v_{\rm k}$. By doing so, \textit{radiative} pressure fields are often ignored, which could lead to a misinterpretation of the real vertical structure of such disks. We follow the evolution of a gaseous disk with an embedded Jupiter mass planet through hydrodynamical simulations, computing the disk scale-height including radiative pressure, which was derived from a generalization of the stellar atmosphere theory. We focus on the vertical impact of the radiative pressure in the vicinity of circumplanetary disks, where temperatures can reach $\gtrsim 1000$ K for an accreting planet, and radiative forces can overcome gravitational forces from the planet. The radiation-pressure effects create a vertical optically thick column of gas and dust at the proto-planet location, casting a shadow in scattered light. This mechanism could explain the peculiar illumination patterns observed in some disks around young stars such as HD 169142 where a moving shadow has been detected, or the extremely high aspect-ratio $H/r \sim 0.2$ observed in systems like AB Aur and CT Cha.

The Zeeman effect is of limited utility for probing the magnetism of the quiet solar chromosphere. The Hanle effect in some spectral lines is sensitive to such magnetism, but the interpretation of the scattering polarization signals requires taking into account that the chromospheric plasma is highly inhomogeneous and dynamic (i.e., that the magnetic field is not the only cause of symmetry breaking). Here we investigate the reliability of a well-known formula for mapping the azimuth of chromospheric magnetic fields directly from the scattering polarization observed in the \ion{Ca}{2}~8542~\AA\, line, which is typically in the saturation regime of the Hanle effect. To this end, we use the Stokes profiles of the \ion{Ca}{2}~8542~\AA\, line computed with the PORTA radiative transfer code in a three-dimensional (3D) model of the solar chromosphere, degrading them to mimic spectropolarimetric observations for a range of telescope apertures and noise levels. The simulated observations are used to obtain the magnetic field azimuth at each point of the field of view, which we compare with the actual values within the 3D model. We show that, apart from intrinsic ambiguities, the method provides solid results. Their accuracy depends more on the noise level than on the telescope diameter. Large-aperture solar telescopes, like DKIST and EST, are needed to achieve the required noise-to-signal ratios using reasonable exposure times.

Galaxy clusters are assembled via merging of smaller structures, in a process that generates shocks and turbulence in the intra cluster medium and produces radio emission in the form of halos and relics. The cluster pair A 399-A 401 represents a special case: both clusters host a radio halo and recent LOFAR observations at 140~MHz revealed the presence of a radio bridge connecting the two clusters and two candidate relics, one South of A 399 and the other in between the two clusters in proximity of a shock front detected in X-ray observations. In this paper we present Westerbork observations at 1.7, 1.4 and 1.2~GHz and 346~MHz of the A 399-A 401 cluster pair. We detected the radio halo in the A 399 cluster at 346~MHz, extending up to $\sim 650$~kpc and with a $125 \pm 6$~mJy flux density. Its spectral index between 1.4~GHz and 346~MHz and between 140~MHz and 346~MHz is $\alpha = 1.47 \pm 0.05$, and $\alpha = 1.75 \pm 0.14$ respectively. The two candidate relics are also seen at 346~MHz and we determined their spectral index to be $\alpha = 1.10 \pm 0.14$ and $\alpha = 1.46 \pm 0.14$. The low surface brightness bridge connecting the two clusters is below the noise level at 346~MHz, therefore we constrained the bridge average spectral to be steep, i.e. $\alpha > 1.5$ at $2\sigma$ confidence level. This result favours the scenario where dynamically-induced turbulence is a viable mechanism to reaccelerate a population of mildly relativistic particles and amplify magnetic fields even in cluster bridges, i.e. on scales of a few Mpcs.

Future prospects for solar spectroscopy missions operating in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and soft X-ray (SXR) wavelength ranges, 1.2-1600 A, are discussed. NASA is the major funder of Solar Physics missions, and brief summaries of the opportunities for mission development under NASA are given. The methods of observing the Sun in the two wavelength ranges are summarized with a particular focus on imaging spectroscopy techniques. The major spectral features in the EUV and SXR regions are identified, and then the upcoming instruments and concepts are summarized. The instruments range from large spectrometers on dedicated missions, to tiny, low-cost CubeSats launched through rideshare opportunities.

Recent ALMA molecular line observations have revealed 3-D gas velocity structure in protoplanetary disks, shedding light on mechanisms of disk accretion and structure formation. 1) By carrying out viscous simulations, we confirm that the disk's velocity structure differs dramatically using vertical stress profiles from different accretion mechanisms. Thus, kinematic observations tracing flows at different disk heights can potentially distinguish different accretion mechanisms. On the other hand, the disk surface density evolution is mostly determined by the vertically integrated stress. The sharp disk outer edge constrained by recent kinematic observations can be caused by a radially varying $\alpha$ in the disk. 2) We also study kinematic signatures of a young planet by carrying out 3-D planet-disk simulations. The relationship between the planet mass and the "kink" velocity is derived, showing a linear relationship with little dependence on disk viscosity, but some dependence on disk height when the planet is massive, e.g. $10 M_J$. We predict the "kink" velocities for the potential planets in DSHARP disks. At the gap edge, the azimuthally-averaged velocities at different disk heights deviate from the Keplerian velocity at similar amplitudes, and its relationship with the planet mass is consistent with that in 2-D simulations. After removing the planet, the azimuthally-averaged velocity barely changes within the viscous timescale, and thus the azimuthally-averaged velocity structure at the gap edge is due to the gap itself and not directly caused to the planet. Combining both axisymmetric kinematic observations and the residual "kink" velocity is needed to probe young planets in protoplanetary disks.

This paper presents a database of the spectroscopic- and photometric- spectral energy distributions (spec-SEDs and phot-SEDs) of the progenitors of core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe). Both binary- and single-star progenitors are included in the database. The database covers the initial metallicity ($Z$) range of 0.0001--0.03, mass range of 8--25 \dsm{}, binary mass ratio range of 0--1, and orbital period range of 0.1--10000\,days. The low-resolution spec-SEDs and phot-SEDs of single- and binary-star CCSN progenitors are included in the database. These data can be used for studying the basic parameters, e.g., metallicity, age, initial and final masses of CCSN progenitors. It can also be used for studying the effects of different factors on the determination of parameters of CCSN progenitors. When the database is used for fitting the SEDs of binary-star CCSN progenitors, it is strongly suggested to determine the metallicity and orbital period in advance, while it is not necessary for single-star progenitors.

We present a detailed study of KIC 2306740, an eccentric double-lined eclipsing binary system. Kepler satellite data were combined with spectroscopic data obtained with the 4.2 m William Herschel Telescope (WHT). This allowed us to determine precise orbital and physical parameters of this relatively long period (P=10.3 d) and slightly eccentric, ($e=0.3$) binary system. The physical parameters have been determined as $M_1 = 1.194\pm0.008$ M$_{\odot}$, $M_2 = 1.078\pm0.007$ M$_{\odot}$, $R_1 = 1.682\pm0.004$ R$_{\odot}$, $R_2 = 1.226\pm0.005$ R$_{\odot}$, $L_1 = 2.8\pm0.4$ L$_{\odot}$, $L_2 = 1.8\pm0.2$ L$_{\odot}$ and orbital seperation $a = 26.20\pm0.04$ R$_{\odot}$ through simultaneous solutions of Kepler light curves and of the WHT radial velocity data. Binarity effects were extracted from the light curve in order to study intrinsic variations in the residuals. Five significant and more than 100~combination frequencies were detected. We modeled the binary system assuming non-conservative evolution models with the Cambridge STARS (TWIN) code and we show evolutionary tracks of the components in the $\log L - \log T$ plane, the $\log R - \log M$ plane and the $\log P - \rm age$ plane for both spin and orbital periods together with eccentricity $e$ and $\log R_1$. The model of the non-conservative processes in the code led the system to evolve to the observed system parameters in roughly $5.1 $ Gyr.

It is shown that the equalisation of temperatures between our and mirror sectors occurs during one Hubble time due to microscopic black holes production and evaporation in particles collisions if the temperature of the universe is near the multidimensional Plank mass. This effect excludes the multidimensional Planck masses smaller then the reheating temperature of the universe ($\sim10^{13}$ GeV) in the mirror matter models, because the primordial nucleosynthesis theory requires that the temperature of the mirror world should be lower than the ours. In particular, the birth of microscopic black holes on the LHC is impossible if the dark matter of our universe is represented by baryons of mirror matter. It excludes some of the possible co-existing options in particle physics and cosmology.

Radio relics associated with merging galaxy clusters indicate the acceleration of relativistic electrons in merger-driven shocks with low sonic Mach numbers ($M_{\rm s}\lesssim 3$) in the intracluster medium (ICM). Recent studies have suggested that electron injection to diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) could take place through the so-called Fermi-like acceleration in the shock foot of $\beta=P_{\rm gas}/P_{\rm B}\approx 20-100$ shocks and the stochastic shock drift acceleration (SSDA) in the shock transition of $\beta\approx 1-5$ shocks. Here we explore how the SSDA can facilitate electron preacceleration in weak quasi-perpendicular ($Q_{\perp}$) shocks in $\beta\approx 20-100$ plasmas by performing particle-in-cell simulations in the two-dimensional domain large enough to encompass ion-scale waves. We find that in supercritical shocks with $M_{\rm s}\gtrsim M_{\rm AIC}^*\sim 2.3$, multi-scale waves are excited by the ion and electron temperature anisotropies in the downstream of the shock ramp, and that through stochastic pitch-angle scattering off the induced waves, electrons are confined in the shock transition for an extended period. Gaining energy through the gradient-drift along the motional electric field, electrons could be preaccelerated all the way to injection to DSA at such ICM shocks. Our findings imply that the electron DSA process at weak ICM shocks could explain the origin of radio relics. However, a further investigation of electron acceleration at subcritical shocks with $M_{\rm s}< 2.3$ is called for, since the Mach numbers of some observed radio relic shocks derived from radio or X-ray observations are as low as $M_{\rm s}\sim 1.5$.

AOSAT is a python package for the analysis of single-conjugate adaptive optics (SCAO) simulation results. Python is widely used in the astronomical community these days, and AOSAT may be used stand-alone, integrated into a simulation environment, or can easily be extended according to a user's needs. Standalone operation requires the user to provide the residual wavefront frames provided by the SCAO simulation package used, the aperture mask (pupil) used for the simulation, and a custom setup file describing the simulation/analysis configuration. In its standard form, AOSAT's "tearsheet" functionality will then run all standard analyzers, providing an informative plot collection on properties such as the point-spread function (PSF) and its quality, residual tip-tilt, the impact of pupil fragmentation, residual optical aberration modes both static and dynamic, the expected high-contrast performance of suitable instrumentation with and without coronagraphs, and the power spectral density of residual wavefront errors. AOSAT fills the gap between the simple numerical outputs provided by most simulation packages, and the full-scale deployment of instrument simulators and data reduction suites operating on SCAO residual wavefronts. It enables instrument designers and end-users to quickly judge the impact of design or configuration decisions on the final performance of down-stream instrumentation.

We study a sample of bar-like galaxies in the Illustris TNG100 simulation, in which almost the whole stellar component is in the form of a prolate spheroid. The sample is different from the late-type barred galaxies studied before. In addition to the requirement of a high enough stellar mass and resolution, the 277 galaxies were selected based on the single condition of a low enough ratio of the intermediate to long axis of the stellar component. We followed the mass and shape evolution of the galaxies as well as their interactions with other objects and divided them into three classes based on the origin of the bar and the subsequent history. In galaxies of class A (comprising 28% of the sample), the bar was induced by an interaction with a larger object, most often a cluster or group central galaxy, and the galaxies were heavily stripped of dark matter and gas. In classes B and C (27% and 45% of the sample, respectively) the bars were induced by a merger or a passing satellite, or they were formed by disk instability. Class B galaxies were then partially stripped of mass, while those of class C evolved without strong interactions, thus retaining their dark matter and gas in the outskirts. We illustrate the properties of the different classes with three representative examples of individual galaxies. In spite of the different evolutionary histories, the bars are remarkably similar in strength, length, and formation times. The gas fraction in the baryonic component within two stellar half-mass radii at the time of bar formation is always below 0.4 and usually very low, which confirms in the cosmological context the validity of this threshold, which has previously been identified in controlled simulations. Observational counterparts of these objects can be found among early-type fast rotators, S0 galaxies, or red spirals with bars.

The GWAC-N is an observation network composed of multi-aperture and multi-field of view robotic optical telescopes. The main instruments are the GWAC-A. Besides, several robotic optical telescopes with narrower field of views provide fast follow-up multi-band capabilities to the GWAC-N. The primary scientific goal of the GWAC-N is to search for the optical counterparts of GRB that will be detected by the SVOM. The GWAC-N performs many other observing tasks including the follow-ups of ToO and both the detection and the monitoring of variable/periodic objects as well as optical transients. To handle all of those scientific cases, we designed 10 observation modes and 175 observation strategies, especially, a joint observation strategy with multiple telescopes of the GWAC-N for the follow-up of GW events. To perform these observations, we thus develop an AOM system in charge of the object management, the dynamic scheduling of the observation plan and its automatic broadcasting to the network management and finally the image management. The AOM combines the individual telescopes into a network and smoothly organizes all the associated operations. The system completely meets the requirements of the GWAC-N on all its science objectives. With its good portability, the AOM is scientifically and technically qualified for other general purposed telescope networks. As the GWAC-N extends and evolves, the AOM will greatly enhance the discovery potential for the GWAC-N. In the first paper of a series of publications, we present the scientific goals of the GWAC-N as well as the hardware, the software and the strategy setup to achieve the scientific objectives. The structure, the technical design, the implementation and performances of the AOM will be also described in details. In the end, we summarize the current status of the GWAC-N and prospect for the development plan in the near future.

The Humphreys-Davidson (HD) limit empirically defines a region of high luminosities (log L > 5.5) and low effective temperatures (T < 20kK) on the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram in which hardly any supergiant stars are observed. Attempts to explain this limit through instabilities arising in near- or super-Eddington winds have been largely unsuccessful. Using modern stellar evolution we aim to re-examine the HD limit, investigating the impact of enhanced mixing on massive stars. We construct grids of stellar evolution models appropriate for the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds (SMC, LMC), as well as for the Galaxy, spanning various initial rotation rates and convective overshooting parameters. Significantly enhanced mixing apparently steers stellar evolution tracks away from the region of the HD limit. To quantify the excess of over-luminous stars in stellar evolution simulations we generate synthetic populations of massive stars, and make detailed comparisons with catalogues of cool (T < 12.5kK) and luminous (log L > 4.7) stars in the SMC and LMC. We find that adjustments to the mixing parameters can lead to agreement between the observed and simulated red supergiant populations, but for hotter supergiants the simulations always over-predict the number of very luminous (log L > 5.4) stars compared to observations. The excess of luminous supergiants decreases for enhanced mixing, possibly hinting at an important role mixing has in explaining the HD limit. Still, the HD limit remains unexplained for hotter supergiants.

Nuclear emulsion is a well-known detector type proposed also for the directional detection of dark matter. In this paper, we study one of the most important properties of direction-sensitive detectors: the preservation by nuclear recoils of the direction of impinging dark matter particles. We use the SRIM simulation and a realistic nuclear recoil energy distribution including all possible recoil atom types. We compare nuclear emulsion with the other directional detectors: in terms of direction preservation nuclear emulsion outperforms the other detectors for WIMP masses above 100 GeV/c$^2$.

We present the results of our extensive binary orbital motion corrected pulsation search for 13 low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). These selected sources exhibit burst oscillations in X-rays with frequencies ranging from 45 to 1122 Hz, and have a binary orbital period varying from 2.1 to 18.9 hours. We first determined episodes that contain weak pulsations around the burst oscillation frequency by searching all archival Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) data of these sources. Then, we applied Doppler corrections to these pulsation episodes to discard the smearing effect of the binary orbital motion and searched for recovered pulsations at the second stage. Here we report 75 pulsation episodes that contain weak but coherent pulsations around the burst oscillation frequency. Furthermore, we report eight new episodes that show relatively strong pulsations in the binary orbital motion corrected data.

We present the results of a search for the magnetic field inhomogeneity for the red giant $\epsilon$ Tau. This research is based on observations obtained over 10 nights in 2008-2010 with the ESPaDOnS CFHT spectropolarimeter. We found a previously undescribed instrumental effect in the ESPaDOnS spectra, consisting of random polarization outliers. Therefore, to measure the magnetic field from the unblended individual lines, we preliminarily cleared the initial array of spectral lines from the lines distorted by polarization outliers. On only one date from ten, the magnetic field of $\epsilon$ Tau was found to exceed 3$\sigma$. We also revealed that during two nights the time series of the magnetic field values shows a distribution that is different from the normal distribution. A hypothesis was put forward that this may be due to the inhomogeneity of the magnetic field of this star.

Dust emission is the main foreground to Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization. Its statistical characterization must be derived from the analysis of observational data because the precision required for a reliable component separation is far greater than currently achievable with physical models of the turbulent magnetized interstellar medium. This letter takes a significant step towards this goal by proposing a method that retrieves non-Gaussian statistical characteristics of dust emission from noisy Planck polarization observations at 353 GHz. We devise a statistical denoising method based on the Wavelet Phase Harmonics (WPH) statistics, which characterize the coherent structures in non-Gaussian random fields and define a generative model of the data. The method is validated on mock data combining a dust map from a magnetohydrodynamic simulation and Planck noise maps. The denoised map reproduces the true power spectrum down to scales where the noise power is an order of magnitude larger than that of the signal. It remains highly correlated to the true emission and retrieves some of its non-Gaussian properties. Applied to Planck data, the method provides a new approach towards building a generative model of dust polarization that will characterize the full complexity of the dust emission.

To understand solar and stellar dynamos combining local and global numerical modelling with long-term observations is a challenging task: even with state of the art computational methods and resources, the stellar parameter regime remains unattainable. Our goal is to relax some approximations, in order to simulate more realistic systems, and try to connect the results with theoretical predictions and state-of-the-art observations. We present here the first test-field measurements from our higher-resolution runs with improved heat conduction description. They indicate significant changes in the profiles of the most crucial inductive effect related to solar and stellar dynamo mechanisms. Higher resolution runs, currently undertaken, will bring us into an even more turbulent regime, in which we will be able to study, for the first time, the interaction of small- and large-scale dynamos in a quantitative way.

The fate of relativistic pair beams produced in the intergalactic medium by very high energy emission from blazars remains controversial in the literature. The possible role of resonance beam plasma instability has been studied both analytically and numerically but no consensus has been reached. In this paper, we thoroughly analyze the development of this type of instability. This analysis takes into account that a highly relativistic beam loses energy only due to interactions with the plasma waves propagating within the opening angle of the beam (we call them parallel waves), whereas excitation of oblique waves results merely in an angular spreading of the beam, which reduces the instability growth rate. For parallel waves, the growth rate is a few times larger than for oblique ones, so they grow faster than oblique waves and drain energy from the beam before it expands. However, the specific property of extragalactic beams is that they are extraordinarily narrow; the opening angle is only $\Delta\theta\sim 10^{-6}-10^{-5}$. In this case, the width of the resonance for parallel waves, $\propto\Delta\theta^2$, is too small for them to grow in realistic conditions. We perform both analytical estimates and numerical simulations in the quasilinear regime. These show that for extragalactic beams, the growth of the waves is incapable of taking a significant portion of the beam's energy. This type of instability could at best lead to an expansion of the beam by some factor but the beam's energy remains nearly intact.

Motivated by the development of high-dispersion spectrographs in the mid-infrared (MIR) range, we study their application to the atmospheric characterization of nearby non-transiting temperate terrestrial planets around M-type stars. We examine the detectability of CO$_2$, H$_2$O, N$_2$O, and O$_3$ in high-resolution planetary thermal emission spectra at 12-18 $\mu $m assuming an Earth-like profile and a simplified thermal structure. The molecular line width of such planets can be comparable to or broader than the Doppler shift due to the planetary orbital motion. Given the likely difficulty in knowing the high-resolution MIR spectrum of the host star with sufficient accuracy, we propose to observe the target system at two quadrature phases and extract the differential spectra as the planetary signal. In this case, the signals can be substantially suppressed compared with the case where the host star spectrum is perfectly known, as some parts of the spectral features do not remain in the differential spectra. Despite this self-subtraction, the CO$_2$ and H$_2$O features of nearby ($\lesssim $ 5~pc) systems with mid-/late-M host stars would be practical with a 6.5-meter-class cryogenic telescope, and orbital inclination could also be constrained for some of them. For CO$_2$ and N$_2$O in a 1~bar Earth-like atmosphere, this method would be sensitive when the mixing ratio is 1-10$^3$ ppm. The detectability of molecules except O$_3$ is not significantly improved when the spectral resolution is higher than $\mathcal{R}\gtrsim 10,000$, although the constraint on the orbital inclination is improved. This study provides some benchmark cases useful for assessing the value of MIR high-resolution spectroscopy in terms of characterization of potentially habitable planets.

Modern radio telescopes produce unprecedented amounts of data, which are passed through many processing pipelines before the delivery of scientific results. Hyperparameters of these pipelines need to be tuned by hand to produce optimal results. Because many thousands of observations are taken during a lifetime of a telescope and because each observation will have its unique settings, the fine tuning of pipelines is a tedious task. In order to automate this process of hyperparameter selection in data calibration pipelines, we introduce the use of reinforcement learning. We use a reinforcement learning technique called twin delayed deep deterministic policy gradient (TD3) to train an autonomous agent to perform this fine tuning. For the sake of generalization, we consider the pipeline to be a black-box system where only an interpreted state of the pipeline is used by the agent. The autonomous agent trained in this manner is able to determine optimal settings for diverse observations and is therefore able to perform 'smart' calibration, minimizing the need for human intervention.

We recently started to investigate how liquid-crystal on silicon (LCOS) spatial light modulator (SLM) would perform as programmable focal-plane phase mask (FPM) coronagraphs. Such "adaptive coronagraphs" could potentially help adapt to observing conditions, but also tackle specific science cases (e.g. binary stars). Active FPMs may play a role in the context of segmented telescope pupils, or to implement synchronous coherent differential imaging (CDI). We present a status update on this work, notably early broadband contrast performance results using our new Swiss Wideband Active Testbed for High-contrast imaging (SWATCHi) facility. Finally, we unveil the upcoming near-infrared PLACID instrument, the Programmable Liquid-crystal Adaptive Coronagraphic Imager for the 4-m DAG observatory in Turkey, with a first light planned for the end of the year 2022.

We compute the expected sensitivity on measurements of optical depth to reionization for a ground-based experiment at Teide Observatory. We simulate polarized partial sky maps for the GroundBIRD experiment at the frequencies 145 and 220 GHz. We perform fits for the simulated maps with our pixel-based likelihood to extract the optical depth to reionization. The noise levels of polarization maps are estimated as 131 $\mu$K arcmin and 826 $\mu$K arcmin for 145 and 220 GHz, respectively, by assuming a three-year observing campaign and sky coverages of 52% for 145 GHz and 45% at 220 GHz. Our sensitivities for the optical depth to reionization are found to be $\sigma_\tau$ = 0.031 with the simulated GroundBIRD maps, and $\sigma_\tau$ = 0.011 by combining with the simulated QUIJOTE maps at 11, 13, 17, 19, 30, and 40 GHz.

The building blocks of Titan and Enceladus are believed to have formed in a late-stage circumplanetary disk around Saturn. Evaluating the evolution of the abundances of volatile species in this disk as a function of the migration, growth, and evaporation of icy grains is then of primary importance to assess the origin of the material that eventually formed these two moons. Here we use a simple prescription of Saturn's circumplanetary disk in which the location of the centrifugal radius is varied, to investigate the time evolution of the icelines of water ice, ammonia hydrate, methane clathrate, carbon monoxide and dinitrogen pure condensates. To match their compositional data, the building blocks of both moons would have had to form in a region of the circumplanetary disk situated between the icelines of carbon monoxide and dinitrogen at their outer limit, and the iceline of methane clathrate as their inner limit. We find that a source of dust at the location of centrifugal radius does not guarantee the replenishment of the disk in the volatiles assumed to be primordial in Titan and Enceladus. Only simulations assuming a centrifugal radius in the 66--100 Saturnian radii range allow for the formation and growth of solids with compositions consistent with those measured in Enceladus and Titan. The species are then able to evolve in solid forms in the system for longer periods of time, even reaching an equilibrium, thus favoring the formation of Titan and Enceladus building blocks in this region of the disk.

We present the South Galactic Pole (SGP) data release from the GaLactic and Extragalactic All-sky Murchison Widefield Array (GLEAM) survey. These data combine both years of GLEAM observations at 72-231 MHz conducted with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) and cover an area of 5,113 $\mathrm{deg}^2$ centred on the SGP at 20$^\mathrm{h}$40$^\mathrm{m}$ < RA < 05$^\mathrm{h}$04$^\mathrm{m}$ and $-48\deg$ < Dec < $-2\deg$. At 216 MHz, the typical rms noise is $\approx 5$ mJy/beam and the angular resolution $\approx 2$ arcmin. The source catalogue contains a total of 108,851 components above $5\sigma$, of which 77 per cent have measured spectral indices between 72 and 231 MHz. Improvements to the data reduction in this release include the use of the GLEAM Extragalactic catalogue as a sky model to calibrate the data, a more efficient and automated algorithm to deconvolve the snapshot images, and a more accurate primary beam model to correct the flux scale. This data release enables more sensitive large-scale studies of extragalactic source populations as well as spectral variability studies on a one-year timescale.

The discovery of a planet orbiting around Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun, opens new avenues for the remote observations of the atmosphere and surface of an exoplanet, Proxima b. To date, three-dimensional (3D) General Circulation Models (GCMs) are the best available tools to investigate the properties of the exo-atmospheres, waiting for the next generation of space and groundbased telescopes. In this work, we use the PlanetSimulator (PlaSim), an intermediate complexity 3D GCM, a flexible and fast model, suited to handle all the orbital and physical parameters of a planet and to study the dynamics of its atmosphere. Assuming an Earth-like atmosphere and a 1:1 spin/orbit configuration (tidal locking), our simulations of Proxima b are consistent with a day-side open ocean planet with a superrotating atmosphere. Moreover, because of the limited representation of the radiative transfer in PlaSim, we compute the spectrum of the exoplanet with an offline Radiative Transfer Code with a spectral resolution of 1 nm. This spectrum is used to derive the thermal phase curves for different orbital inclination angles. In combination with instrumental detection sensitivities, the different thermal phase curves are used to evaluate observation conditions at ground level (e.g., ELT) or in space (e.g., JWST). We estimated the exposure time to detect Proxima b (assuming an Earth-like atmosphere) thermal phase curve in the FIR with JWST with signal-to-noise ratio $\simeq$1. Under the hypothesis of total noise dominated by shot noise, neglecting other possible extra contribution producing a noise floor, the exposure time is equal to 5 hours for each orbital epoch.

In this paper we present DMC, a model and associated tool for polarimetric imaging of very long baseline interferometry datasets that simultaneously reconstructs the full-Stokes emission structure along with the station-based gain and leakage calibration terms. DMC formulates the imaging problem in terms of posterior exploration, which is achieved using Hamiltonian Monte Carlo sampling. The resulting posterior distribution provides a natural quantification of uncertainty in both the image structure and in the data calibration. We run DMC on both synthetic and real datasets, the results of which demonstrate its ability to accurately recover both the image structure and calibration quantities as well as to assess their corresponding uncertainties. The framework underpinning DMC is flexible, and its specific implementation is under continued development.

We have carried out the first comprehensive investigation of enhanced line emission from molecular hydrogen, H$_{2}$ at 1333.79 {\AA}, observed at flare ribbons in SOL2014-04-18T13:03. The cool H$_{2}$ emission is known to be fluorescently excited by Si IV 1402.77 {\AA} UV radiation and provides a unique view of the temperature minimum region (TMR). Strong H$_{2}$ emission was observed when the Si IV 1402.77 {\AA} emission was bright during the flare impulsive phase and gradual decay phase, but it dimmed during the GOES peak. H$_{2}$ line broadening showed non-thermal speeds in the range 7-18 $\rm{km~s}^{-1}$, possibly corresponding to turbulent plasma flows. Small red (blue) shifts, up to 1.8 (4.9) $\rm{km~s}^{-1}$ were measured. The intensity ratio of Si IV 1393.76 {\AA} and Si IV 1402.77 {\AA} confirmed that plasma was optically thin to Si IV (where the ratio = 2) during the impulsive phase of the flare in locations where strong H$_{2}$ emission was observed. In contrast, the ratio differs from optically thin value of 2 in parts of ribbons, indicating a role for opacity effects. A strong spatial and temporal correlation between H$_{2}$ and Si IV emission was evident supporting the notion that fluorescent excitation is responsible.

Identifying the underlying mechanisms behind the excitation of transverse oscillations in coronal loops is essential for their role as diagnostic tools in coronal seismology and their potential use as wave heating mechanisms of the solar corona. In this paper, we explore the concept of these transverse oscillations being excited through a self-sustaining process, caused by Alfv\'{e}nic vortex shedding from strong background flows interacting with coronal loops. We show for the first time in 3D simulations that vortex shedding can generate transverse oscillations in coronal loops, in the direction perpendicular to the flow due to periodic "pushing" by the vortices. By plotting the power spectral density we identify the excited frequencies of these oscillations. We see that these frequencies are dependent both on the speed of the flow, as well as the characteristics of the oscillating loop. This, in addition to the fact that the background flow is constant and not periodic, makes us treat this as a self-oscillating process. Finally, the amplitudes of the excited oscillations are near constant in amplitude, and are comparable with the observations of decay-less oscillations. This makes the mechanism under consideration a possible interpretation of these undamped waves in coronal loops.

Context. The Vista Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) near-infrared variability survey explores some of the most complex regions of the Milky Way bulge and disk in terms of high extinction and high crowding. Aims. We add a new wavelength dimension to the optical information available at the American Association of Variable Star Observers International Variable Star Index (VSX-AAVSO) catalogue to test the VVV survey near-infrared photometry to better characterise these objects. Methods. We cross-matched the VVV and the VSX-AAVSO catalogues along with Gaia Data Release 2 photometry and parallax. Results. We present a catalogue that includes accurate individual coordinates, near-infrared magnitudes (ZY JHKs), extinctions Aks, and distances based on Gaia parallaxes. We also show the near-infrared CMDs and spatial distributions for the different VSX types of variable stars, including important distance indicators, such as RR Lyrae, Cepheids, and Miras. By analysing the photometric flags in our catalogue, we found that about 20% of the stars with measured and verified variability are flagged as non-stellar sources, even when they are outside of the saturation and/or noise regimes. Additionally, we pair-matched our sample with the VIVA catalogue and found that more than half of our sources are missing from the VVV variability list, mostly due to observations with low signal-to-noise ratio or photometric problems with a low percentage due to failures in the selection process. Conclusions. Our results suggest that the current knowledge of the variability in the Galaxy is biased to nearby stars with low extinction. The present catalogue also provides the groundwork for characterising the results of future large variability surveys such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time in the highly crowded and reddened regions of the Galactic plane, as well as follow-up campaigns for

We perform an observational test of no-hair theorem using quasi-periodic oscillations within the relativistic precession model. Two well motivated metrics we apply are Kerr-Q and Hartle-Thorne metrics in which the quadrupole is the parameter that possibly encodes deviations from the Kerr black hole. The expressions for the quasi-periodic frequencies are derived before comparing the models with the observation. We encounter a degeneracy in constraining spin and quadrupole parameters that makes it difficult to measure their values. In particular, we here propose a novel test of no-hair theorem by adapting the Hartle-Thorne metric. It turns out that a Kerr black hole is a good description of the central object in GRO J1655$-$40 given the present observational precisions.

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) constructed natively on the sphere have been developed recently and shown to be highly effective for the analysis of spherical data. While an efficient framework has been formulated, spherical CNNs are nevertheless highly computationally demanding; typically they cannot scale beyond spherical signals of thousands of pixels. We develop scattering networks constructed natively on the sphere that provide a powerful representational space for spherical data. Spherical scattering networks are computationally scalable and exhibit rotational equivariance, while their representational space is invariant to isometries and provides efficient and stable signal representations. By integrating scattering networks as an additional type of layer in the generalized spherical CNN framework, we show how they can be leveraged to scale spherical CNNs to the high resolution data typical of many practical applications, with spherical signals of many tens of megapixels and beyond.

It has been shown beyond reasonable doubt that the majority (about 95%) of the total energy budget of the universe is given by the dark components, namely Dark Matter and Dark Energy. What constitutes these components remains to be satisfactorily understood however, despite a number of promising candidates. An associated conundrum is that of the coincidence, i.e. the question as to why the Dark Matter and Dark Energy densities are of the same order of magnitude at the present epoch, after evolving over the entire expansion history of the universe. In an attempt to address these, we consider a quantum potential resulting from a quantum corrected Raychaudhuri/Friedmann equation in presence of a cosmic fluid, which is presumed to be a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of ultralight bosons. For a suitable and physically motivated macroscopic ground state wavefunction of the BEC, we show that a unified picture of the cosmic dark sector can indeed emerge, thus resolving the issue of the coincidence. The effective Dark energy component turns out to be a cosmological constant, by virtue of a residual homogeneous term in the quantum potential. Furthermore, comparison with the observational data gives an estimate of the mass of the constituent bosons in the BEC, which is well within the bounds predicted from other considerations.

We investigate how the production of gravitational waves (GWs) is affected by the GW velocity $(c_T)$ during preheating after inflation. For instance, we simulate the production of GWs after $\lambda\phi^4$ chaotic inflation, and find that GW spectrum is enhanced for $c_T<1$, but distorted (suppressed at low frequency, but enhanced at high frequency) for $c_T>1$.

Recent strong-field regime tests of gravity are so far in agreement with general relativity. In particular, astrophysical black holes appear all to be consistent with the Kerr spacetime, but the statistical error on current observations allows for small yet detectable deviations from this description. Here we study superradiance of scalar and electromagnetic test fields in deformed Kerr spacetimes and we observe that for large deformations superradiance is highly suppressed with respect to the Kerr case. Surprisingly, for small deformations there exists a range of values for the deformation parameter for which the maximum amplification factor is larger than the Kerr one. We also provide a first result about the superradiant instability of these deformed spacetimes against massive scalar fields.

Solar Orbiter observed an interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) event at 0.8 AU on 2020 April 19. The ICME was also observed by Wind at 1 AU on 2020 April 20. An interplanetary shock wave was driven in front of the ICME. We focus on the transmission of the magnetic fluctuations across the shock and analyze the characteristic wave modes of solar wind turbulence near the shock observed by both spacecraft. The ICME event is characterized by a magnetic helicity based technique. The shock normal is determined by magnetic coplanarity method for Solar Orbiter and using a mixed coplanarity approach for Wind. The power spectra of magnetic field fluctuations are generated by applying both a fast Fourier transform and Morlet wavelet analysis. To understand the nature of waves observed near the shock, we use the normalized magnetic helicity as a diagnostic parameter. The wavelet reconstructed magnetic field fluctuation hodograms are used to further study the polarization properties of waves. We find that the ICME-driven shock observed by Solar Orbiter and Wind is a fast forward oblique shock with a more perpendicular shock angle at 1 AU. After the shock crossing, the magnetic field fluctuation power increases. Most of the magnetic field fluctuation power resides in the transverse fluctuations. In the vicinity of the shock, both spacecraft observe right-hand polarized waves in the spacecraft frame. The upstream wave signatures fall in a relatively broad and low-frequency band, which might be attributed to low-frequency MHD waves excited by the streaming particles. For the downstream magnetic wave activity, we find oblique kinetic Alfven waves with frequencies near the proton cyclotron frequency in the spacecraft frame. The frequency of the downstream waves increases by a factor of 7-10 due to the shock compression and the Doppler effect.