Papers for Tuesday, Feb 09 2021

Galactic outflows driven by starbursts can modify the galactic magnetic fields and drive them away from the galactic planes. Here, we quantify how these fields may magnetize the intergalactic medium. We estimate the strength and structure of the fields in the starburst galaxy M82 using thermal polarized emission observations from SOFIA/HAWC+ and a potential field extrapolation. We modified the Davis-Chandrasekhar-Fermi method to account for the large-scale flow and the turbulent field. Results show that the observed magnetic fields arise from the combination of a large-scale ordered potential field associated with the outflow and a small-scale turbulent field associated with bow-shock-like features. Within the central $900$ pc radius, the potential field accounts for $53\pm4$% of the observed turbulent magnetic energy with a median field strength of $305\pm15$ $\mu$G, while small-scale turbulent magnetic fields account for the remaining $40\pm5$% with a median field strength of $222\pm19$ $\mu$G. We estimate that the turbulent kinetic and turbulent magnetic energies are in close equipartition up to $\sim2$ kpc (measured), while the turbulent kinetic energy dominates at $\sim7$ kpc (extrapolated). We conclude that the fields are frozen into the ionized outflowing medium and driven away kinetically. This indicates that the magnetic field lines in the galactic wind of M82 are `open,' providing a direct channel between the starburst core and the intergalactic medium. Our novel approach offers the tools needed to quantify the effects of outflows on galactic magnetic fields as well as their influence on the intergalactic medium and evolution of energetic particles.

We investigate the possible dynamical origin of GW190814, a gravitational wave (GW) source discovered by the LIGO-Virgo-Kagra collaboration (LVC) associated with a merger between a stellar black hole (BH) with mass $23.2$ M$_\odot$ and a compact object, either a BH or a neutron star (NS), with mass $2.59$ M$_\odot$. Using a database of 240,000 $N$-body simulations modelling the formation of NS-BH mergers via dynamical encounters in dense clusters, we find that systems like GW190814 are likely to form in young, metal-rich clusters. Our model suggests that a little excess ($\sim 2-4\%$) of objects with masses in the range $2.3-3$ M$_\odot$ in the compact remnants mass spectrum leads to a detection rate for dynamically formed "GW190814 -like" mergers of $\Gamma_{\rm GW190814} \simeq 1-6$ yr Gpc$^{-3}$, i.e. within the observational constraints set by the GW190814 discovery, $\Gamma_{\rm LVC} \sim 1-23$ yr Gpc$^{-3}$. Additionally, our model suggests that $\sim 1.8-4.8\%$ of dynamical NS-BH mergers are compatible with GW190426\_152155, the only confirmed NS-BH merger detected by the LVC. We show that the relative amount of light and heavy NS-BH mergers can provide clues about the environments in which they developed.

This work is a Brazilian-Indian collaboration. It aims at investigating the structuralproperties of Lenticular galaxies in the Stripe 82 using a combination of S-PLUS (Southern Photometric Local Universe Survey) and SDSS data. S-PLUS is a noveloptical multi-wavelength survey which will cover nearly 8000 square degrees of the Southern hemisphere in the next years and the first data release covers the Stripe 82 area. The morphological classification and study of the galaxies' stellar population will be performed combining the Bayesian Spectral type (from BPZ) and Morfometryka (MFMTK) parameters. BPZ and MFMTK are two complementary techniques, since the first one determines the most likely stellar population of a galaxy, in order to obtain its photometric redshift (phot-z), and the second one recovers non-parametric morphological quantities, such as asymmetries and concentration. The combination ofthe two methods allows us to explore the correlation between galaxies shapes (smooth, with spiral arms, etc.) and their stellar contents (old or young population). The preliminary results, presented in this work, show how this new data set opens a new window on our understanding of the nearby universe.

Neutron stars (NSs) are extraordinary not only because they are the densest form of matter in the visible Universe but also because they can generate B-fields ten orders of magnitude larger than those currently constructed on Earth. The combination of extreme gravity with the enormous electromagnetic (EM) fields gives rise to spectacular phenomena like those observed on August 2017 with the merger of a binary neutron star (NSNS) system, an event that generated a gravitational wave (GW) signal, a short $\gamma$-ray burst (sGRB), and a kilonova. This event serves as the highlight so far of the era of multimessenger astronomy. In this review, we present the current state of our theoretical understanding of compact binary mergers containing NSs as gleaned from the latest general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations. Such mergers can lead to events like the one on August 2017, GW170817, and its EM counterparts, GRB 170817 and AT 2017gfo. In addition to exploring the GW emission from binary black hole-neutron star and NSNS mergers, we also focus on their counterpart EM signals. In particular, we are interested in identifying the conditions under which a relativistic jet can be launched following these mergers. Such a jet is an essential feature of most sGRB models and provides the main conduit of energy from the central object to the outer radiation regions. Jet properties, including their lifetimes and Poynting luminosities, the effects of the initial B-field geometries and spins of the coalescing NSs, as well as their governing equation of state, are discussed. Lastly, we present our current understanding of how the Blandford-Znajek mechanism arises from merger remnants as the trigger for launching jets, if, when and how a horizon is necessary for this mechanism, and the possibility that it can turn on in magnetized neutron ergostars, which contain ergoregions, but no horizons.

The abundances of r-process elements of very metal-poor stars capture the history of the r-process enrichment in the early stage of the Milky Way formation. Currently, various types of astrophysical sites including neutron star mergers, magneto-rotational supernovae, and collapsars, are suggested as the origin of r-process elements. The time delay between the star formation and the production of r-process elements is the key to distinguish these scenarios with the caveat that the diffusion of r-process elements in the interstellar medium also induces the delay in r-process enrichment because r-process events are rare. Here we study the observed Ba abundance data of very metal-poor stars as the tracer of the early enrichment history of r-process elements. We find that the gradual increase of [Ba/Mg] with [Fe/H] requires a significant time delay (100 Myr -- 1 Gyr) of r-process events from star formation rather than the diffusion-induced delay. We stress that this conclusion is robust to the assumption regarding s-process contamination in the Ba abundances because the sources with no delay would overproduce Ba at very low metallicities even without the contribution from the s-process. Therefore we conclude that sources with a delay, possibly neutron star mergers, are the origins of r-process elements.

In hierarchical structure formation, metal-poor stars in and around the Milky Way (MW) originate primarily from mergers of lower-mass galaxies. A common expectation is therefore that metal-poor stars should have isotropic, dispersion-dominated orbits that do not correlate strongly with the MW disk. However, recent observations of stars in the MW show that metal-poor ([Fe/H] < -2) stars are preferentially on prograde orbits with respect to the disk. Using the FIRE-2 suite of cosmological zoom-in simulations of MW/M31-mass galaxies, we investigate the prevalence and origin of prograde metal-poor stars. Almost all (11 of 12) of our simulations have metal-poor stars preferentially on prograde orbits today and throughout most of their history: we thus predict that this is a generic feature of MW/M31-mass galaxies. The typical prograde-to-retrograde ratio is ~ 2:1, which depends weakly on stellar metallicity at [Fe/H] < -1. These trends predicted by our simulations agree well with MW observations. Prograde metal-poor stars originate largely from a single LMC/SMC-mass gas-rich galaxy merger, typically 7-12.5 Gyr ago, which deposited both existing metal-poor stars and significant gas on an orbital vector that sparked the formation of and/or shaped the orientation of a long-lived stellar disk, giving rise to a prograde bias for all low-metallicity stars. We also find sub-dominant contributions from in-situ stars formed in the host galaxy before this merger, and in some cases, additional massive mergers. We find few clear correlations between any properties of our MW/M31-mass galaxies at z=0 and the degree of this prograde bias as a result of diverse merger scenarios.

We present the spectroscopic analysis of 333 OB-type stars extracted from VLT-MUSE observations of the central 30 x 30 pc of NGC 2070 in the Tarantula Nebula on the Large Magellanic Cloud, the majority of which are analysed for the the first time. The distribution of stars in the spectroscopic Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (sHRD) shows 281 stars in the main sequence. We find two groups in the main sequence, with estimated ages of 2.1$\pm$0.8 and 6.2$\pm$2 Myr. A subgroup of 52 stars is apparently beyond the main sequence phase, which we consider to be due to emission-type objects and/or significant nebular contamination affecting the analysis. As in previous studies, stellar masses derived from the sHRD are systematically larger than those obtained from the conventional HRD, with the differences being largest for the most massive stars. Additionally, we do not find any trend between the estimated projected rotational velocity and evolution in the sHRD. The projected rotational velocity distribution presents a tail of fast rotators that resembles findings in the wider population of 30 Doradus. We use published spectral types to calibrate the HeI$\lambda$4921/HeII$\lambda$5411 equivalent-width ratio as a classification diagnostic for early-type main sequence stars when the classical blue-visible region is not observed. Our model-atmosphere analyses demonstrate that the resulting calibration is well correlated with effective temperature.

As fundamental parameters of the Sun, the Alfv\'en radius and angular momentum loss determine how the solar wind changes from sub-Alfv\'enic to super-Alfv\'enic and how the Sun spins down. We present an approach to determining the solar wind angular momentum flux based on observations from Parker Solar Probe (PSP). A flux of about $0.15\times10^{30}$ dyn cm sr$^{-1}$ near the ecliptic plane and 0.7:1 partition of that flux between the particles and magnetic field are obtained by averaging data from the first four encounters within 0.3 au from the Sun. The angular momentum flux and its particle component decrease with the solar wind speed, while the flux in the field is remarkably constant. A speed dependence in the Alfv\'en radius is also observed, which suggests a "rugged" Alfv\'en surface around the Sun. Substantial diving below the Alfv\'en surface seems plausible only for relatively slow solar wind given the orbital design of PSP. Uncertainties are evaluated based on the acceleration profiles of the same solar wind streams observed at PSP and a radially aligned spacecraft near 1 au. We illustrate that the "angular momentum paradox" raised by R\'eville et al. can be removed by taking into account the contribution of the alpha particles. The large proton transverse velocity observed by PSP is perhaps inherent in the solar wind acceleration process, where an opposite transverse velocity is produced for the alphas with the angular momentum conserved. Preliminary analysis of some recovered alpha parameters tends to agree with the results.

We present a comprehensive analysis of 10 years of HARPS radial velocities of the K2V dwarf star HD 13808, which has previously been reported to host two unconfirmed planet candidates. We use the state-of-the-art nested sampling algorithm PolyChord to compare a wide variety of stellar activity models, including simple models exploiting linear correlations between RVs and stellar activity indicators, harmonic models for the activity signals, and a more sophisticated Gaussian process regression model. We show that the use of overly-simplistic stellar activity models that are not well-motivated physically can lead to spurious `detections' of planetary signals that are almost certainly not real. We also reveal some difficulties inherent in parameter and model inference in cases where multiple planetary signals may be present. Our study thus underlines the importance both of exploring a variety of competing models and of understanding the limitations and precision settings of one's sampling algorithm. We also show that at least in the case of HD 13808, we always arrive at consistent conclusions about two particular signals present in the RV, regardless of the stellar activity model we adopt; these two signals correspond to the previously-reported though unconfirmed planet candidate signals. Given the robustness and precision with which we can characterize these two signals, we deem them secure planet detections. In particular, we find two planets orbiting HD 13808 at distances of 0.11, 0.26 AU with periods of 14.2, 53.8 d, and minimum masses of 11, 10 Earth masses.

We compare the radial profiles of the specific star formation rate (sSFR) in a sample of 169 star-forming galaxies in close pairs with those of mass-matched control galaxies in the SDSS-IV MaNGA survey. We find that the sSFR is centrally enhanced (within one effective radius) in interacting galaxies by ~0.3 dex and that there is a weak sSFR suppression in the outskirts of the galaxies of ~0.1 dex. We stack the differences profiles for galaxies in five stellar mass bins between log(M/Mstar) = 9.0-11.5 and find that the sSFR enhancement has no dependence on the stellar mass. The same result is obtained when the comparison galaxies are matched to each paired galaxy in both stellar mass and redshift. In addition, we find that that the sSFR enhancement is elevated in pairs with nearly equal masses and closer projected separations, in agreement with previous work based on single-fiber spectroscopy. We also find that the sSFR offsets in the outskirts of the paired galaxies are dependent on whether the galaxy is the more massive or less massive companion in the pair. The more massive companion experiences zero to a positive sSFR enhancement while the less massive companion experiences sSFR suppression in their outskirts. Our results illustrate the complex tidal effects on star formation in closely paired galaxies.

The origin of warm Jupiters (gas giant planets with periods between 10 and 200 days) is an open question in exoplanet formation and evolution. We investigate a particular migration theory in which a warm Jupiter is coupled to a perturbing companion planet that excites secular eccentricity oscillations in the warm Jupiter, leading to periodic close stellar passages that can tidally shrink and circularize its orbit. If such companions exist in warm Jupiter systems, they are likely to be massive and close-in, making them potentially detectable. We generate a set of warm Jupiter-perturber populations capable of engaging in high-eccentricity tidal migration and calculate the detectability of the perturbers through a variety of observational metrics. We show that a small percentage of these perturbers should be detectable in the Kepler light curves, but most should be detectable with precise radial velocity measurements over a 3-month baseline and Gaia astrometry. We find these results to be robust to the assumptions made for the perturber parameter distributions. If a high-precision radial velocity search for companions to warm Jupiters does not find evidence of a significant number of massive companions over a 3-month baseline, it will suggest that perturber-coupled high-eccentricity migration is not the predominant delivery method for warm Jupiters.

The cyano radical (CN) is one of the most frequently remotely observed species in space, also in comets. Data from the high-resolution Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer (DFMS) on board the Rosetta orbiter, collected in the inner coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, revealed an unexpected chemical complexity, and, recently, also more CN than expected from photodissociation of its most likely parent hydrogen cyanide (HCN). This work is dedicated to the derivation of abundances relative to HCN of three cometary nitriles (including structural isomers) from DFMS data. Mass spectrometry of complex mixtures does not always allow distinction of structural isomers. We assumed the most stable and most abundant (in similar environments) structure in our analysis, that is HCN for CHN, CH3CN for C2H3N, HC3N for C3HN, and NCCN for C2N2. For cyanoacetylene (HC3N) and acetonitrile (CH3CN) the complete mission timeline was evaluated, while cyanogen (NCCN) often was below detection limit. By carefully selecting periods where cyanogen was above detection limit, we were able to follow the abundance ratio between NCCN and HCN from 3.16 au inbound to 3.42 au outbound. These are the first measurements of NCCN in a comet.We find that neither NCCN, nor any of the other two nitriles, is sufficiently abundant to be a relevant alternative parent to CN.

The estimation of the polarization $P$ of extragalactic compact sources in Cosmic Microwave Background images is a very important task in order to clean these images for cosmological purposes -- as, for example, to constrain the tensor-to-scalar ratio of primordial fluctuations during inflation -- and also to obtain relevant astrophysical information about the compact sources themselves in a frequency range, $\nu \sim 10$--$200$ GHz, where observations have only very recently started to be available. In this paper we propose a Bayesian maximum a posteriori (MAP) approach estimation scheme which incorporates prior information about the distribution of the polarization fraction of extragalactic compact sources between 1 and 100 GHz. We apply this Bayesian scheme to white noise simulations and to more realistic simulations that include CMB intensity, Galactic foregrounds and instrumental noise with the characteristics of the QUIJOTE experiment Wide Survey at 11 GHz. Using these simulations, we also compare our Bayesian method with the frequentist Filtered Fusion method that has been already used in WMAP data and in the \emph{Planck} mission. We find that the Bayesian method allows us to decrease the threshold for a feasible estimation of $P$ to levels below $\sim 100$ mJy (as compared to $\sim 500$ mJy that was the equivalent threshold for the frequentist Filtered Fusion). We compare the bias introduced by the Bayesian method and find it to be small in absolute terms. Finally, we test the robustness of the Bayesian estimator against uncertainties in the prior and in the flux density of the sources. We find that the Bayesian estimator is robust against moderate changes in the parameters of the prior and almost insensitive to realistic errors in the estimated photometry of the sources.

In 2019, the Research and Education Collaborative Occultation Network (RECON) obtained multiple-chord occultation measurements of two centaur objects: 2014 YY$_{49}$ on 2019 January 28 and 2013 NL$_{24}$ on 2019 September 4. RECON is a citizen-science telescope network designed to observe high-uncertainty occultations by outer solar system objects. Adopting circular models for the object profiles, we derive a radius $r=16^{+2}_{-1}$km and a geometric albedo $p_V=0.13^{+0.015}_{-0.024}$ for 2014 YY$_{49}$, and a radius $r=66 ^{+5}_{-5}$km and geometric albedo $p_V = 0.045^{+0.006}_{-0.008}$ for 2013 NL$_{24}$. To the precision of these measurements, no atmosphere or rings are detected for either object. The two objects measured here are among the smallest distant objects measured with the stellar occultation technique. In addition to these geometric constraints, the occultation measurements provide astrometric constraints for these two centaurs at a higher precision than has been feasible by direct imaging. To supplement the occultation results, we also present an analysis of color photometry from the Pan-STARRS surveys to constrain the rotational light curve amplitudes and spectral colors of these two centaurs. We recommend that future work focus on photometry to more deliberately constrain the objects' colors and light curve amplitudes, and on follow-on occultation efforts informed by this astrometry.

Quantifying long-term statistical properties of satellite trajectories typically entails time-consuming trajectory propagation. We present a fast, ergodic\cite{Arnold} method of analytically estimating these for $J_2-$perturbed elliptical orbits, broadly agreeing with trajectory propagation-derived results. We extend the approach in Graven and Lo (2019) to estimate: (1) Satellite-ground station coverage with limited satellite field of view and ground station elevation angle with numerically optimized formulae, and (2) long-term averages of general functions of satellite position. This method is fast enough to facilitate real-time, interactive tools for satellite constellation and network design, with an approximate $1000\times$ GPU speedup.

We are currently developing Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) detectors for a next-generation space-borne hard X-ray telescope which can follow up on the highly successful NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) mission. Since the launch of NuSTAR in 2012, there have been major advances in the area of X-ray mirrors, and state-of-the-art X-ray mirrors can improve on NuSTAR's angular resolution of ~1 arcmin Half Power Diameter (HPD) to 15" or even 5" HPD. Consequently, the size of the detector pixels must be reduced to match this resolution. This paper presents detailed simulations of relatively thin (1 mm thick) CZT detectors with hexagonal pixels at a next-neighbor distance of 150 $\mu$m. The simulations account for the non-negligible spatial extent of the deposition of the energy of the incident photon, and include detailed modeling of the spreading of the free charge carriers as they move toward the detector electrodes. We discuss methods to reconstruct the energies of the incident photons, and the locations where the photons hit the detector. We show that the charge recorded in the brightest pixel and six adjacent pixels suffices to obtain excellent energy and spatial resolutions. The simulation results are being used to guide the design of a hybrid application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)-CZT detector package.

The emission mechanism for hard $\gamma$-ray spectra from supernova remnants (SNRs) is still a matter of debate. Recent multi-wavelength observations of TeV source HESS J1912+101 show that it is associated with an SNR with an age of $\sim 100$ kyrs, making it unlikely produce the TeV $\gamma$-ray emission via leptonic processes. We analyzed Fermi observations of it and found an extended source with a hard spectrum. HESS J1912+101 may represent a peculiar stage of SNR evolution that dominates the acceleration of TeV cosmic rays. By fitting the multi-wavelength spectra of 13 SNRs with hard GeV $\gamma$-ray spectra with simple emission models with a density ratio of GeV electrons to protons of $\sim 10^{-2}$, we obtain reasonable mean densities and magnetic fields with a total energy of $\sim 10^{50}$ ergs for relativistic ions in each SNR. Among these sources, only two of them, namely SN 1006 and RCW 86, favor a leptonic origin for the $\gamma$-ray emission. The magnetic field energy is found to be comparable to that of the accelerated relativistic ions and their ratio has a tendency of increase with the age of SNRs. These results suggest that TeV cosmic rays mainly originate from SNRs with hard $\gamma$-ray spectra.

We explore the sensitivity offered by a global network of cosmic ray detectors to a novel, unobserved phenomena: widely separated simultaneous extended air showers. Existing localized observatories work independently to observe individual showers, offering insight into the source and nature of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. However no current observatory is large enough to provide sensitivity to anticipated processes such as the GZ effect or potential new physics that generate simultaneous air showers separated by hundreds to thousands of kilometers. A global network of consumer electronics (the CRAYFIS experiment), may provide a novel opportunity for observation of such phenomena. Two user scenarios are explored. In the first, with maximal user adoption, we find that statistically significant discoveries of spatially-separated but coincident showers are possible within a couple years. In the second, more practical adoption model with $10^6$ active devices, we find a worldwide CRAYFIS to be sensitive to novel "burst" phenomena where many simultaneous EASs occur at once.

We investigate a mechanism for a super-massive black hole at the center of a galaxy to wander in the nucleus region. A situation is supposed in which the central black hole tends to move by the gravitational attractions from the nearby molecular clouds in a nuclear bulge but is braked via the dynamical frictions by the ambient stars there. We estimate the approximate kinetic energy of the black hole in an equilibrium between the energy gain rate through the gravitational attractions and the energy loss rate through the dynamical frictions, in a nuclear bulge composed of a nuclear stellar disk and a nuclear stellar cluster as observed from our Galaxy. The wandering distance of the black hole in the gravitational potential of the nuclear bulge is evaluated to get as large as several 10 pc, when the black hole mass is relatively small. The distance, however, shrinks as the black hole mass increases and the equilibrium solution between the energy gain and loss disappears when the black hole mass exceeds an upper limit. As a result, we can expect the following scenario for the evolution of the black hole mass: When the black hole mass is smaller than the upper limit, mass accretion of the interstellar matter in the circum-nuclear region, causing the AGN activities, makes the black hole mass larger. However, when the mass gets to the upper limit, the black hole loses the balancing force against the dynamical friction and starts spiraling downward to the gravity center. From simple parameter scaling, the upper mass limit of the black hole is found to be proportional to the bulge mass and this could explain the observed correlation of the black hole mass with the bulge mass.

Observations of exoplanet atmospheres have shown that aerosols, like in the Solar System, are common across a variety of temperatures and planet types. The formation and distribution of these aerosols are inextricably intertwined with the composition and thermal structure of the atmosphere. At the same time, these aerosols also interfere with our probes of atmospheric composition and thermal structure, and thus a better understanding of aerosols lead to a better understanding of exoplanet atmospheres as a whole. Here we review the current state of knowledge of exoplanet aerosols as determined from observations, modeling, and laboratory experiments. Measurements of the transmission spectra, dayside emission, and phase curves of transiting exoplanets, as well as the emission spectrum and light curves of directly imaged exoplanets and brown dwarfs have shown that aerosols are distributed inhomogeneously in exoplanet atmospheres, with aerosol distributions varying significantly with planet equilibrium temperature and gravity. Parameterized and microphysical models predict that these aerosols are likely composed of oxidized minerals like silicates for the hottest exoplanets, while at lower temperatures the dominant aerosols may be composed of alkali salts and sulfides. Particles originating from photochemical processes are also likely at low temperatures, though their formation process is highly complex, as revealed by laboratory work. In the years to come, new ground- and space-based observatories will have the capability to assess the composition of exoplanet aerosols, while new modeling and laboratory efforts will improve upon our picture of aerosol formation and dynamics.

The blazar OQ 334 displayed a {\gamma}-ray flare in 2018, after being in the long quiescent {\gamma}-ray state since 2008. Subsequent to the flare, the source was in a higher {\gamma}-ray flux state and again flared in 2020. We present here the first spectral and timing analysis of the source at its various flaring states. During the higher {\gamma}-ray state, we found four major peaks identified as P1, P2, P3, and P4. From timing analysis, we found the rise and decay time of the order of hours with the fastest variability time of 9.01+/-0.78 hr. We found the highest {\gamma}-ray photon of 77 GeV during P4, which suggests the location of the {\gamma}-ray emitting region at the outer edge of the broad-line region or the inner edge of the torus. The {\gamma}-ray spectral analysis of the source indicates that during P4, the {\gamma}-ray spectrum clearly deviates from the power-law behavior. From cross-correlation analysis of the {\gamma}-ray and radio lightcurves, we found that the two emission regions are separated by about 11 pc. Our broadband spectral energy distribution modeling of the source during quiescent and active phases indicates that more electron and proton power are required to change the source from low flux to high flux state. The Anderson-Darling test and histogram fitting results suggest that the three days binned {\gamma}-ray fluxes follow a lognormal distribution.

We propose a method for constructing the time-dependent phase space distribution function (DF) of a collisionless system from an isolated kinematic snapshot. In general, the problem of mapping a single snapshot to a time-dependent function is intractable. Here we assume a finite series representation of the DF, constructed from the spectrum of the system's Koopman operator. This reduces the original problem to one of mapping a kinematic snapshot to a discrete spectrum rather than to a time-dependent function. We implement this mapping with a convolutional neural network (CNN). The method is demonstrated on two example models: the quantum simple harmonic oscillator, and a self-gravitating isothermal plane. The latter system exhibits phase space spiral structure similar to that observed in Gaia Data Release 2.

Circumstellar environments of oxygen-rich stars are among the strongest SiO maser emitters. Physical processes such as collisions, infrared pumping and overlaps favors the inversion of level population and produce maser emission at different vibrational states. Despite numerous observational and theoretical efforts, we still do not have an unified picture including all the physical processes involved in the SiO maser emission. The aim of this work is to provide homogeneous data in a large sample of oxygen-rich stars. We present a survey of 67 oxygen-rich stars from 7 to 1 mm, in their rotational transitions from J=1-0 to J=5-4, for vibrational numbers v from 0 to 6 in the three main SiO isotopologues. We have used one of the 34 m NASA antennas at Robledo and the IRAM 30 m radio telescope. The first tentative detection of a v=6 line is reported, as well as the detection of new maser lines. The highest vibrational levels seem confined to small volumes, presumably close to the stars. The J=1-0, v=2 line flux is greater than the corresponding v=1 in almost half of the sample, which may confirm a predicted dependence on the pulsation cycle. This database is potentially useful in models which should consider most of the physical agents, time dependency, and mass-loss rates. As by-product, we report detections of 27 thermal rotational lines from other molecules, including isotopologues of SiS, H2S, SO, SO2, and NaCl.

We present measurements of $f_h$, the ratio of the aligned components of the projected halo and galaxy ellipticities, for a sample of central galaxies using weak gravitational lensing data from the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS). Using a lens galaxy shape estimation that is more sensitive to outer galaxy regions, we find $f_{\rm h}=0.50\pm0.20$ for our full sample and $f_{\rm h}=0.55\pm0.19$ for an intrinsically red (and therefore higher stellar-mass) sub-sample, rejecting the hypothesis of round halos and/or galaxies being un-aligned with their parent halo at $2.5\sigma$ and $2.9\sigma$, respectively. We quantify the 93.4% purity of our central galaxy sample using numerical simulations and overlapping spectroscopy from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly survey. This purity ensures that the interpretation of our measurements is not complicated by the presence of a significant fraction of satellite galaxies. Restricting our central galaxy ellipticity measurement to the inner isophotes, we find $f_{\rm h}=0.34\pm0.17$ for our red sub-sample, suggesting that the outer galaxy regions are more aligned with their dark matter halos compared to the inner regions. Our results are in agreement with previous studies and suggest that lower mass halos are rounder and/or less aligned with their host galaxy than samples of more massive galaxies, studied in galaxy groups and clusters.

G0.253+0.016, aka 'the Brick', is one of the most massive (> 10^5 Msun) and dense (> 10^4 cm-3) molecular clouds in the Milky Way's Central Molecular Zone. Previous observations have detected tentative signs of active star formation, most notably a water maser that is associated with a dust continuum source. We present ALMA Band 6 observations with an angular resolution of 0.13" (1000 AU) towards this 'maser core', and report unambiguous evidence of active star formation within G0.253+0.016. We detect a population of eighteen continuum sources (median mass ~ 2 Msun), nine of which are driving bi-polar molecular outflows as seen via SiO (5-4) emission. At the location of the water maser, we find evidence for a protostellar binary/multiple with multi-directional outflow emission. Despite the high density of G0.253+0.016, we find no evidence for high-mass protostars in our ALMA field. The observed sources are instead consistent with a cluster of low-to-intermediate-mass protostars. However, the measured outflow properties are consistent with those expected for intermediate-to-high-mass star formation. We conclude that the sources are young and rapidly accreting, and may potentially form intermediate and high-mass stars in the future. The masses and projected spatial distribution of the cores are generally consistent with thermal fragmentation, suggesting that the large-scale turbulence and strong magnetic field in the cloud do not dominate on these scales, and that star formation on the scale of individual protostars is similar to that in Galactic disc environments.

Cyclopropenone was first detected in the cold and less dense envelope of Sagittarius B2(N). It was found later in several cold dark clouds and it may be possible to detect its minor isotopic species in these environments. In addition, the main species may well be identified in warmer environments. We aim to extend existing line lists of isotopologs of c-H2C3O from the microwave to the millimeter region and create one for the singly deuterated isotopolog to facilitate their detections in space. Furthermore, we aim to extend the line list of the main isotopic species to the submillimeter region and to evaluate an equilibrium structure of the molecule. We employed a cyclopropenone sample in natural isotopic composition to investigate the rotational spectra of the main and 18O-containing isotopologs as well as the two isotopomers containing one 13C atom. Spectral recordings of the singly and doubly deuterated isotopic species were obtained using a cyclopropenone sample highly enriched in deuterium. We recorded rotational transitions in the 70-126 GHz and 160-245 GHz regions for all isotopologs and also in the 342-505 GHz range for the main species. Quantum-chemical calculations were carried out to evaluate initial spectroscopic parameters and the differences between ground-state and equilibrium rotational parameters in order to derive semi-empirical equilibrium structural parameters. We determined new or improved spectroscopic parameters for six isotopologs and structural parameters according to different structure models. The spectroscopic parameters are accurate enough to identify minor isotopic species at centimeter and millimeter wavelengths while those of the main species are deemed to be reliable up to 1 THz. Our structural parameters differ from earlier ones. The deviations are attributed to misassignments in the earlier spectrum of one isotopic species.

Recently, a noticeable number of new star clusters was identified in the outskirts of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) populating the so-called star cluster age gap, a space of time (~ 4-12 Gyr) where the only known star cluster is up-to-date ESO121-SC\,03. We used Survey of the Magellanic Stellar History (SMASH) DR2 data sets, as well as those employed to identify these star cluster candidates, to produce relatively deep color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) of 17 out of 20 discovered age gap star clusters with the aim of investigating them in detail. Our analysis relies on a thorough CMD cleaning procedure of the field star contamination, which presents variations in its stellar density and astrophysical properties, such as luminosity and effective temperature, around the star cluster fields. We built star cluster CMDs from stars with membership probabilities assigned from the cleaning procedure. These CMDs and their respective spatial distribution maps favor the existence of LMC star field density fluctuations rather than age gap star clusters, although a definitive assessment on them will be possible from further deeper photometry.

The AstroSat mission carries several high-energy detectors meant for fast timing studies of cosmic sources. In order to carry out high precision multi-wavelength timing studies, it is essential to calibrate the absolute time stamps of these instruments to the best possible accuracy. We present here the absolute time calibration of the AstroSat LAXPC instrument, utilising the broadband electromagnetic emission from the Crab Pulsar to cross calibrate against Fermi-LAT and ground based radio observatories Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) and the Ooty Radio Telescope (ORT). Using the techniques of pulsar timing, we determine the fixed timing offsets of LAXPC with respect to these different instruments and also compare the offsets with those of another AstroSat instrument, CZTI.

We analyze primordial non-gaussianities in presence of an ultra-slow phase during the inflationary dynamics, focusing on scenarios relevant for the production of primordial black holes. We compute the three-point correlation function of comoving curvature perturbations finding that non-gaussianities are sizable, and predominantly local. In the context of threshold statistics, we analyze their impact for the abundance of primordial black holes, and their interplay with the non-gaussianities arising from the non-linear relation between density and curvature perturbations. We find that non-gaussianities significantly modify the estimate of the primordial black holes abundance obtained with the gaussian approximation. However, we show that this effect can be compensated by a small change, of a factor $2\div3$ at most, of the amplitude of the primordial power spectrum of curvature perturbations. This is obtained with a small tuning of the parameters of the inflationary model.

Accurate cosmological parameter estimates using polarization data of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) put stringent requirements on map calibration, as highlighted in the recent results from the Planck satellite. In this paper, we point out that a model-dependent determination of polarization calibration can be achieved by the joint fit of the TE and EE CMB power spectra. This provides a valuable cross-check to band-averaged polarization efficiency measurements determined using other approaches. We demonstrate that, in $\Lambda$CDM, the combination of the TE and EE constrain polarization calibration with sub-percent uncertainty with Planck data and 2% uncertainty with SPTpol data. We arrive at similar conclusions when extending $\Lambda$CDM to include the amplitude of lensing $A_{\rm L}$, the number of relativistic species $N_{\rm eff}$, or the sum of the neutrino masses $\sum m_{\nu}$. The uncertainties on cosmological parameters are minimally impacted when marginalizing over polarization calibration, except, as can be expected, for the uncertainty on the amplitude of the primordial scalar power spectrum $\ln(10^{10} A_{\rm s})$, which increases by $20-50$%. However, this information can be fully recovered by adding TT data. For current and future ground-based experiments, SPT-3G and CMB-S4, we forecast the cosmological parameter uncertainties to be minimally degraded when marginalizing over polarization calibration parameters. In addition, CMB-S4 could constrain its polarization calibration at the level of $\sim$0.2% by combining TE and EE, and reach $\sim$0.06% by also including TT. We therefore conclude that relying on calibrating against Planck polarization maps, whose statistical uncertainty is limited to $\sim$0.5%, would be insufficient for upcoming experiments.

Explosive astrophysical transients at cosmological distances can be used to place precision tests of the basic assumptions of relativity theory, such as Lorentz invariance, the photon zero-mass hypothesis, and the weak equivalence principle (WEP). Signatures of Lorentz invariance violations (LIV) include vacuum dispersion and vacuum birefringence. Sensitive searches for LIV using astrophysical sources such as gamma-ray bursts, active galactic nuclei, and pulsars are discussed. The most direct consequence of a nonzero photon rest mass is a frequency dependence in the velocity of light propagating in vacuum. A detailed representation of how to obtain a combined severe limit on the photon mass using fast radio bursts at different redshifts through the dispersion method is presented. The accuracy of the WEP has been well tested based on the Shapiro time delay of astrophysical messengers traveling through a gravitational field. Some caveats of Shapiro delay tests are discussed. In this article, we review and update the status of astrophysical tests of fundamental physics.

The Sari\c{c}i\c{c}ek howardite meteorite shower consisting of 343 documented stones occurred on 2 September 2015 in Turkey and is the first documented howardite fall. Cosmogenic isotopes show that Sari\c{c}i\c{c}ek experienced a complex cosmic ray exposure history, exposed during ~12-14 Ma in a regolith near the surface of a parent asteroid, and that an ca.1 m sized meteoroid was launched by an impact 22 +/- 2 Ma ago to Earth (as did one third of all HED meteorites). SIMS dating of zircon and baddeleyite yielded 4550.4 +/- 2.5 Ma and 4553 +/- 8.8 Ma crystallization ages for the basaltic magma clasts. The apatite U-Pb age of 4525 +/- 17 Ma, K-Ar age of ~3.9 Ga, and the U,Th-He ages of 1.8 +/- 0.7 and 2.6 +/- 0.3 Ga are interpreted to represent thermal metamorphic and impact-related resetting ages, respectively. Petrographic, geochemical and O-, Cr- and Ti- isotopic studies confirm that Sari\c{c}i\c{c}ek belongs to the normal clan of HED meteorites. Petrographic observations and analysis of organic material indicate a small portion of carbonaceous chondrite material in the Sari\c{c}i\c{c}ek regolith and organic contamination of the meteorite after a few days on soil. Video observations of the fall show an atmospheric entry at 17.3 +/- 0.8 kms-1 from NW, fragmentations at 37, 33, 31 and 27 km altitude, and provide a pre-atmospheric orbit that is the first dynamical link between the normal HED meteorite clan and the inner Main Belt. Spectral data indicate the similarity of Sari\c{c}i\c{c}ek with the Vesta asteroid family spectra, a group of asteroids stretching to delivery resonances, which includes (4) Vesta. Dynamical modeling of meteoroid delivery to Earth shows that the disruption of a ca.1 km sized Vesta family asteroid or a ~10 km sized impact crater on Vesta is required to provide sufficient meteoroids <4 m in size to account for the influx of meteorites from this HED clan.

We present CCD $UBVI$ photometric study of poorly studied intermediate age open cluster SAI 35 (Juchert 20) for the first time. To accomplish this study, we also used LAMOST DR5, 2MASS, and Gaia EDR3 databases. We identified 214 most probable cluster members with membership probability higher than 50%. The mean proper motion of the cluster is found as \mu_{\alpha}cos\delta=1.10 \pm 0.01 and \mu_{\delta}=-1.66 \pm 0.01 mas/yr. We find the normal interstellar extinction law using the various two-color diagrams. The age, distance, reddening, and radial velocity of the cluster are estimated to be 360 \pm 40 Myr, 2.9 \pm 0.15 kpc, 0.72 \pm 0.05 mag and -91.62 \pm 6.39 km/sec. The overall mass function slope for main-sequence stars is found to be 1.49\pm0.16 within the mass range 1.1-3.1 M_\odot, which is in agreement with Salpeter's value within uncertainty. The present study demonstrates that SAI 35 is a dynamically relaxed. Galactic orbital parameters are determined using Galactic potential models. We found that this object follows a circular path around the Galactic center.

The morphological classification of radio sources is important to gain a full understanding of galaxy evolution processes and their relation with local environmental properties. Furthermore, the complex nature of the problem, its appeal for citizen scientists and the large data rates generated by existing and upcoming radio telescopes combine to make the morphological classification of radio sources an ideal test case for the application of machine learning techniques. One approach that has shown great promise recently is Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). Literature, however, lacks two major things when it comes to CNNs and radio galaxy morphological classification. Firstly, a proper analysis of whether overfitting occurs when training CNNs to perform radio galaxy morphological classification using a small curated training set is needed. Secondly, a good comparative study regarding the practical applicability of the CNN architectures in literature is required. Both of these shortcomings are addressed in this paper. Multiple performance metrics are used for the latter comparative study, such as inference time, model complexity, computational complexity and mean per class accuracy. As part of this study we also investigate the effect that receptive field, stride length and coverage has on recognition performance. For the sake of completeness, we also investigate the recognition performance gains that we can obtain by employing classification ensembles. A ranking system based upon recognition and computational performance is proposed. MCRGNet, Radio Galaxy Zoo and ConvXpress (novel classifier) are the architectures that best balance computational requirements with recognition performance.

We perform a hierarchical Bayesian analysis of the GWTC-2 catalog to investigate the mixed scenario in which the merger events are explained by black holes of both astrophysical and primordial origin. For the astrophysical scenario we adopt the phenomenological model used by the LIGO/Virgo collaboration and we include the correlation between different parameters inferred from data, the role of the spins in both the primordial and astrophysical scenarios, and the impact of accretion in the primordial scenario. Our best-fit mixed model has a strong statistical evidence relative to the single-population astrophysical model, thus supporting the coexistence of populations of black-hole mergers of two different origins. In particular, our results indicate that the astrophysical mergers account for roughly four times the number of primordial black hole events and predict that third-generation detectors, such as the Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer, should detect up to hundreds of mergers from primordial black hole binaries at redshift $z\gtrsim30$.

We report on the creation and application of a novel decay network that uses the latest data from experiment and evaluation. We use the network to simulate the late-time phase of the rapid neutron capture (r) process. In this epoch, the bulk of nuclear reactions, such as radiative capture, have ceased and nuclear decays are the dominant transmutation channels. We find that the decay from short-lived to long-lived species naturally leads to an isochronic evolution in which nuclei with similar half-lives are populated at the same time. We consider random perturbations along each isobaric chain to initial solar-like r-process compositions to demonstrate the isochronic nature of the late-time phase of the r-process. Our analysis shows that detailed knowledge of the final isotopic composition allows for the prediction of late-time evolution with a high degree of confidence despite uncertainties that exist in astrophysical conditions and the nuclear physics properties of the most neutron-rich nuclei. We provide the time-dependent nuclear composition in the Appendix as supplemental material.

We investigate self-gravitating equilibria of halos constituted by dark matter (DM) non-minimally coupled to gravity. In particular, we consider a theoretically motivated non-minimal coupling which may arise when the averaging/coherence length $L$ associated to the fluid description of the DM collective behavior is comparable to the local curvature scale. In the Newtonian limit, such a non-minimal coupling amounts to a modification of the Poisson equation by a term $L^2\,\nabla^2\rho$ proportional to the Laplacian of the DM density $\rho$ itself. We further adopt a general power-law equation of state $p\propto \rho^{\Gamma}\, r^\alpha$ relating the DM dynamical pressure $p$ to density $\rho$ and radius $r$, as expected by phase-space density stratification during the gravitational assembly of halos in a cosmological context. We confirm previous findings that, in absence of the non-minimal coupling, the resulting density $\rho(r)$ features a steep central cusp and an overall shape mirroring the outcomes of $N-$body simulations in the standard $\Lambda$CDM cosmology, as described by the classic NFW or Einasto profiles. Most importantly, we find that the non-minimal coupling causes the density distribution to develop an inner core and a shape closely following, out to several core scale radii, the Burkert profile. In fact, we highlight that the resulting mass distributions can fit, with an accuracy comparable to the Burkert's one, the co-added rotation curves of dwarf, DM-dominated galaxies. Finally, we show that non-minimally coupled DM halos are consistent with the observed scaling relation between the core radius $r_0$ and core density $\rho_0$, in terms of an universal core surface density $\rho_0\times r_0$ among different galaxies.

Aims. The main purpose of this work is to provide a method to derive tabulated observational constraints on the halo mass function (HMF) by studying the magnification bias effect on high-redshift submillimeter galaxies. Under the assumption of universality, we parametrize the HMF according to two traditional models, namely the Sheth and Tormen (ST) and Tinker fits and assess their performance in explaining the measured data within the {\Lambda} cold dark matter ({\Lambda}CDM) model. We also study the potential influence of the halo occupation distribution (HOD) parameters in this analysis and discuss two important aspects regarding the HMF parametrization. Methods. We measure the cross-correlation function between a foreground sample of GAMA galaxies with redshifts in the range $0.2<z<0.8$ and a background sample of H-ATLAS galaxies with redshifts in the range $1.2<z<4.0$ and carry out an MCMC algorithm to check this observable against its mathematical prediction within the halo model formalism. Results. If all HMF parameters are assumed to be positive, the ST fit only seems to fully explain the measurements by forcing the mean number of satellite galaxies in a halo to increase substantially from its prior mean value. The Tinker fit, on the other hand, provides a robust description of the data without relevant changes in the HOD parameters, but with some dependence on the prior range of two of its parameters. When the normalization condition for the HMF is dropped and we allow negative values of the $p_1$ parameter in the ST fit, all the involved parameters are better determined, unlike the previous models, thus deriving the most general HMF constraints. While all cases are in agreement with the traditional fits within the uncertainties, the last one hints at a slightly higher number of halos at intermediate and high masses, raising the important point of the allowed parameter range.

Besides the spirals induced by the Lindblad resonances, planets can generate a family of tightly wound spirals through buoyancy resonances. The excitation of buoyancy resonances depends on the thermal relaxation timescale of the gas. By computing timescales of various processes associated with thermal relaxation, namely, radiation, diffusion, and gas-dust collision, we show that the thermal relaxation in protoplanetary disks' surface layers ($Z/R\gtrsim0.1$) and outer disks ($R\gtrsim100$ au) is limited by infrequent gas-dust collisions. The use of isothermal equation of state or rapid cooling, common in protoplanetary disk simulations, is therefore not justified. Using three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations, we show that the collision-limited slow thermal relaxation provides favorable conditions for buoyancy resonances to develop. Buoyancy resonances produce predominantly vertical motions, whose magnitude at the $^{12}$CO emission surface is of order of $100~{\rm m~s}^{-1}$ for Jovian-mass planets, sufficiently large to detect using molecular line observations with ALMA. We generate synthetic observations and describe characteristic features of buoyancy resonances in Keplerian-subtracted moment maps and velocity channel maps. Based on the morphology and magnitude of the perturbation, we propose that the tightly wound spirals observed in TW Hya could be driven by a (sub-)Jovian-mass planet at 90 au. We discuss how non-Keplerian motions driven by buoyancy resonances can be distinguished from those driven by other origins. We argue that observations of multiple lines tracing different heights, with sufficiently high spatial/spectral resolution and sensitivity to separate the emission arising from the near and far sides of the disk, will help constrain the origin of non-Keplerian motions.

In order to pinpoint the place of the (U)LIRGs in the local Universe we examine the properties of a sample of 67 such systems and compare them with those of 268 ETGs and 542 LTGs from the DustPedia database. We make use of multi-wavelength photometric data and the CIGALE SED fitting code to extract their physical parameters. The median SEDs as well as the values of the derived parameters were compared to those of the local ETGs and LTGs. In addition to that, (U)LIRGs were divided into seven classes, according to the merging stage of each system, and variations in the derived parameters were investigated. (U)LIRGs occupy the `high-end' on the dust and stellar mass, and SFR in the local Universe with median values of 5.2$\times10^7~M_{\odot}$, 6.3$\times10^{10}~M_{\odot}$ and 52$~M_{\odot}$yr$^{-1}$, respectively. The PDR-dust emission in (U)LIRGs is 11.7% of the total dust luminosity, significantly higher than ETGs (1.6%) and the LTGs (5.2%). The median value of the dust temperature in (U)LIRGs is 32 K, which is higher compared to both the ETGs (28 K) and the LTGs (22 K). Small differences, in the derived parameters, are seen for the seven merging classes of our sample of (U)LIRGs with the most evident one being on the star-formation rate, where in systems in late merging stages the median SFR reaches up to 99 M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ compared to 26 M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ for the isolated ones. In contrast to the local normal galaxies where old stars dominate the stellar emission, the young stars in (U)LIRGs contribute with 64% of their luminosity to the total stellar luminosity. The fraction of the dust-absorbed stellar luminosity is extremely high in (U)LIRGs (78%) compared to 7% and 25% in ETGs and ETGs, respectively. The fraction of the stellar luminosity used to heat up the dust grains is very high in (U)LIRGs, while 74% of the dust emission comes from the young stars.

LOPES, the LOFAR prototype station, was an antenna array for cosmic-ray air showers operating from 2003 - 2013 within the KASCADE-Grande experiment. Meanwhile, the analysis is finished and the data of air-shower events measured by LOPES are available with open access in the KASCADE Cosmic Ray Data Center (KCDC). This article intends to provide a summary of the achievements, results, and lessons learned from LOPES. By digital, interferometric beamforming the detection of air showers became possible in the radio-loud environment of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). As a prototype experiment, LOPES tested several antenna types, array configurations and calibration techniques, and pioneered analysis methods for the reconstruction of the most important shower parameters, i.e., the arrival direction, the energy, and mass-dependent observables such as the position of the shower maximum. In addition to a review and update of previously published results, we also present new results based on end-to-end simulations including all known instrumental properties. For this, we applied the detector response to radio signals simulated with the CoREAS extension of CORSIKA, and analyzed them in the same way as measured data. Thus, we were able to study the detector performance more accurately than before, including some previously inaccessible features such as the impact of noise on the interferometric cross-correlation beam. These results led to several improvements, which are documented in this paper and can provide useful input for the design of future cosmic-ray experiments based on the digital radio-detection technique.

Today, thanks in particular to the results of the ESA Planck mission, the concordance cosmological model appears to be the most robust to describe the evolution and content of the Universe from its early to late times. It summarizes the evolution of matter, made mainly of dark matter, from the primordial fluctuations generated by inflation around $10^{-30}$ second after the Big-Bang to galaxies and clusters of galaxies, 13.8 billion years later, and the evolution of the expansion of space, with a relative slowdown in the matter-dominated era and, since a few billion years, an acceleration powered by dark energy. But we are far from knowing the pillars of this model which are inflation, dark matter and dark energy. Comprehending these fundamental questions requires a detailed mapping of our observable Universe over the whole of cosmic time. The relic radiation provides the starting point and galaxies draw the cosmic web. JAXA's LiteBIRD mission will map the beginning of our Universe with a crucial test for inflation (its primordial gravity waves), and the ESA Euclid mission will map the most recent half part, crucial for dark energy. The mission concept, described in this White Paper, GAUSS, aims at being a mission to fully map the cosmic web up to the reionization era, linking early and late evolution, to tackle and disentangle the crucial degeneracies persisting after the Euclid era between dark matter and inflation properties, dark energy, structure growth and gravitation at large scale.

We analyse the effects of microlensing in the LIGO/Virgo frequency band due to a population of stellar-mass microlenses and study their implications for strongly lensed gravitational wave (GW) signals. We consider a wide range of strong lensing magnifications and the corresponding surface densities of the microlens population found in lensing galaxies, and use them to generate realisations of the amplification factor. The methodologies for simulating amplification curves for both type-I (minima) and type-II (saddle) images are also discussed. We find that, on average, the presence of microlens population introduces a net amplification (de$-$amplification) in minima (saddle points) type of images in the LIGO frequency range. With increasing microlens density, the overall scatter and distortions increase and become significant from relatively lower frequencies. Comparison between IMFs suggests that although the differences are not significant in typical cases, the bottom-heavy IMF tends to show a steeper rise in the scatter due to microlensing at higher frequencies compared to a bottom-light IMF. However, with the increase in the strong lensing magnification, the effects of microlensing become increasingly significant regardless of other parameters, such as the microlens density, type of images or the IMF of the population. Hence, for microlensing features to be notable in GW signal, the strong lensing magnification needs to be substantial. In some extreme cases of strong lensing magnification ($\sim100$), the mismatch between lensed and unlensed waveforms of compact binary coalescences can reach as high as $\sim6\%$. While for most of the typical microlens densities and strong lensing magnifications the mismatch remains less than $1\%$ (showing that the waveforms will not miss detection by LIGO/Virgo, in general), nevertheless their inferred source parameters may still be affected.

We forecast the constraints on cosmological parameters in the interacting dark energy model using the mock data generated for neutral hydrogen intensity mapping (IM) experiments. In this work, we consider only the interacting dark energy model with the energy transfer rate $Q=\beta H\rho_{\rm c}$, and take BINGO, FAST, SKA1-MID, and Tianlai as typical examples of the 21 cm IM experiments. We find that the Tianlai cylinder array will play an important role in constraining the interacting dark energy model. Assuming perfect foreground removal and calibration, and using the Tianlai-alone data, we obtain $\sigma(H_0)=0.10$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$, $\sigma(\Omega_{\rm m})=0.0013$, and $\sigma(\sigma_8)=0.0015$ in the I$\Lambda$CDM model, which are much better than the results of Planck+optical BAO (i.e. optical galaxy surveys). However, the Tianlai-alone data cannot provide very tight constraint on the coupling parameter $\beta$, compared with Planck+optical BAO, while the Planck+Tianlai data can give a rather tight constraint of $\sigma(\beta)=0.00052$, due to the parameter degeneracies being well broken by the data combination. In the I$w$CDM model, we obtain $\sigma(\beta)=0.00058$ and $\sigma(w)=0.006$ from Planck+Tianlai. In addition, we also make a detailed comparison among BINGO, FAST, SKA1-MID, and Tianlai in constraining the interacting dark energy model. We show that the future 21 cm IM experiments will provide a useful tool for exploring the nature of dark energy, and will play a significant role in measuring the coupling between dark energy and dark matter.

We model the quiescent luminosity of accreting neutron stars with several equation of states (EOSs), including the effect of pion condensation and superfluidity. As a consequence of comparison with the observations, we show that the results with Togashi EoS (the strong direct Urca process is forbidden) and TM1e EoS (mass at direct Urca process is $2.06 M_\odot$) can explain the observations well by considering pion condensation and the effect of superfluidity, while LS220 EoS and TM1 EoS can explain the observations well by considering the baryon direct Urca process and the effect of superfluidity. Besides, we compare the results with the observations of a neutron star RX J0812.4-3114 which has the low average mass accretion rate ($\langle\dot{M}\rangle\sim(4-15)\times 10^{-12}~M_\odot ~\rm yr^{-1}$) but high thermal luminosity ($L_q^\infty\sim(0.6-3)\times10^{33}~\rm erg ~ s^{-1}$), and we suggest that a low-mass neutron star ($<1M_\odot$) with minimum cooling can explain the lower limit of the observation of thermal luminosity of RX J0812.4-3114, which is qualitatively consistent with the previous work~\cite{Zhao2019}. However, to explain its upper limit, some other heating mechanisms besides standard deep crustal heating may be needed.

We performed deep observations to search for radio pulsations in the directions of 375 unassociated Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) gamma-ray sources using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) at 322 and 607 MHz. In this paper we report the discovery of three millisecond pulsars (MSPs), PSR J0248+4230, PSR J1207$-$5050 and PSR J1536$-$4948. We conducted follow up timing observations for around 5 years with the GMRT and derived phase coherent timing models for these MSPs. PSR J0248$+$4230 and J1207$-$5050 are isolated MSPs having periodicities of 2.60 ms and 4.84 ms. PSR J1536-4948 is a 3.07 ms pulsar in a binary system with orbital period of around 62 days about a companion of minimum mass 0.32 solar mass. We also present multi-frequency pulse profiles of these MSPs from the GMRT observations. PSR J1536-4948 is an MSP with an extremely wide pulse profile having multiple components. Using the radio timing ephemeris we subsequently detected gamma-ray pulsations from these three MSPs, confirming them as the sources powering the gamma-ray emission. For PSR J1536-4948 we performed combined radio-gamma-ray timing using around 11.6 years of gamma-ray pulse times of arrivals (TOAs) along with the radio TOAs. PSR J1536-4948 also shows evidence for pulsed gamma-ray emission out to above 25 GeV, confirming earlier associations of this MSP with a >10 GeV point source. The multi-wavelength pulse profiles of all three MSPs offer challenges to models of radio and gamma-ray emission in pulsar magnetospheres.

The sunspot groups have been observed since 1610 and their numbers have been used for evaluating the amplitude of solar activity. Daniel M\"ogling recorded his sunspot observations for more than 100 days in 1626 - 1629 and formed a significant dataset of sunspot records before the Maunder Minimum. Here, we have analysed his original manuscripts in the Universit\"ats- und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt (ULBD) to review M\"ogling's personal profile and observational instruments and derive number and positions of the sunspot groups. In his manuscript, we have identified 134 days with an exact sunspot group number and 3 days of additional descriptions. Our analyses have completely revised their observational dates and group number, added 19 days of hitherto overlooked observations, and removed 8 days of misinterpreted observations. We have also revisited sunspot observations of Schickard and Hortensius and revised their data. These results have been compared with the contemporary observations. Moreover, we have derived the sunspot positions from his sunspot drawings and located them at 2{\deg}-23{\deg} in the heliographic latitude in both solar hemispheres. Contextualised with contemporary observations, these results indicate their temporal migration to lower heliographic latitudes and emphasise its location in the declining phase of Solar Cycle -12 in the 1620s. His observations were probably conducted using a pinhole and camera obscura, which made M\"ogling likely underestimate the sunspot group number by >~ 33% - 52 %. This underestimation should be noted upon their comparison with the modern datasets.

We compute the probability density distribution of maxima for a scalar random field in the presence of local non-gaussianities. The physics outcome of this analysis is the following. If we focus on maxima whose curvature is larger than a certain threshold for gravitational collapse, our calculations illustrate how the fraction of the Universe's mass in the form of primordial black holes (PBHs) changes in the presence of local non-gaussianities. We find that previous literature on the subject exponentially overestimate, by many orders of magnitude, the impact of local non-gaussianities on the PBH abundance. We explain the origin of this discrepancy, and conclude that, in realistic single-field inflationary models with ultra slow-roll, one can obtain the same abundance found with the gaussian approximation simply changing the peak amplitude of the curvature power spectrum by no more than a factor of two. We comment about the relevance of non-gaussianities for second-order gravitational waves.

We report photometric and spectroscopic observations of the eclipsing SU UMa-type dwarf nova ASASSN-18aan. We observed the 2018 superoutburst with 2.3 mag brightening and found the orbital period ($P_{\rm orb}$) to be 0.149454(3) d, or 3.59 hr. This is longward of the period gap, establishing ASASSN-18aan as one of a small number of long-$P_{\rm orb}$ SU UMa-type dwarf novae. The estimated mass ratio, ($q=M_2/M_1 = 0.278(1)$), is almost identical to the upper limit of tidal instability by the 3:1 resonance. From eclipses, we found that the accretion disk at the onset of the superoutburst may reach the 3:1 resonance radius, suggesting that the superoutburst of ASASSN-18aan results from the tidal instability. Considering the case of long-$P_{\rm orb}$ WZ Sge-type dwarf novae, we suggest that the tidal dissipation at the tidal truncation radius is enough to induce SU UMa-like behavior in relatively high-$q$ systems such as SU UMa-type dwarf novae, but that this is no longer effective in low-$q$ systems such as WZ Sge-type dwarf novae. The unusual nature of the system extends to the secondary star, for which we find a spectral type of G9, much earlier than typical for the orbital period, and a secondary mass $M_2$ of around 0.18 M$_{\odot}$, smaller than expected for the orbital period and the secondary's spectral type. We also see indications of enhanced sodium abundance in the secondary's spectrum. Anomalously hot secondaries are seen in a modest number of other CVs and related objects. These systems evidently underwent significant nuclear evolution before the onset of mass transfer. In the case of ASASSN-18aan, this apparently resulted in a mass ratio lower than typically found at the system's $P_{\rm orb}$, which may account for the occurrence of a superoutburst at this relatively long period.

We introduce a novel approach to reconstruct dark matter mass maps from weak gravitational lensing measurements. The cornerstone of the proposed method lies in a new modelling of the matter density field in the Universe as a mixture of two components:(1) a sparsity-based component that captures the non-Gaussian structure of the field, such as peaks or halos at different spatial scales; and (2) a Gaussian random field, which is known to well represent the linear characteristics of the field.Methods. We propose an algorithm called MCALens which jointly estimates these two components. MCAlens is based on an alternating minimization incorporating both sparse recovery and a proximal iterative Wiener filtering. Experimental results on simulated data show that the proposed method exhibits improved estimation accuracy compared to state-of-the-art mass map reconstruction methods.

We construct empirical models of star-forming galaxy evolution assuming that individual galaxies evolve along well-known scaling relations between stellar mass, gas mass and star formation rate following a simple description of chemical evolution. We test these models by a comparison with observations and with detailed Magneticum high resolution hydrodynamic cosmological simulations. Galaxy star formation rates, stellar masses, gas masses, ages, interstellar medium and stellar metallicities are compared. It is found that these simple lookback models capture many of the crucial aspects of galaxy evolution reasonably well. Their key assumption of a redshift dependent power law relationship between galaxy interstellar medium gas mass and stellar mass is in agreement with the outcome of the complex Magneticum simulations. Star formation rates decline towards lower redshift not because galaxies are running out of gas, but because the fraction of the cold ISM gas, which is capable of producing stars, becomes significantly smaller. Gas accretion rates in both model approaches are of the same order of magnitude. Metallicity in the Magneticum simulations increases with the ratio of stellar mass to gas mass as predicted by the lookback models. The mass metallicity relationships agree and the star formation rate dependence of these relationships is also reproduced. We conclude that these simple models provide a powerful tool for constraining and interpreting more complex models based on cosmological simulations and for population synthesis studies analyzing integrated spectra of stellar populations.

We investigate how different galaxy properties - luminosities in u, g, r, J, K-bands, stellar mass, star formation rate and specific star formation rate trace the environment in the local universe. We also study the effect of survey flux limits on galaxy clustering measurements. We measure the two-point correlation function (2pCF) and marked correlation functions (MCFs) using the aforementioned properties as marks. We use nearly stellar-mass-complete galaxy sample in the redshift range 0.1 < z < 0.16 from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey with a flux limit of r < 19.8. Further, we impose a brighter flux limit of r < 17.8 to our sample and repeat the measurements to study how this affects galaxy clustering analysis. We compare our results to measurements from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) with flux limits of r < 17.8 and r < 16.8. We show that the stellar mass is the best tracer of galaxy environment, the K-band luminosity being a good substitute, although such a proxy sample misses close pairs of evolved, red galaxies. We also confirm that the u-band luminosity is a good, but not a perfect proxy of star formation rate in the context of galaxy clustering. We observe an effect of the survey flux limit on clustering studies - samples with a higher flux limit (smaller magnitude) miss some information about close pairs of starburst galaxies.

Any rotorcraft on Mars will fly in a low pressure and dusty environment. It is well known that helicopters on Earth become highly-charged due, in part, to triboelectric effects when flying in sandy conditions. We consider the possibility that the Mars Helicopter Scout (MHS), called Ingenuity, flying at Mars as part of the Mars2020 Perseverance mission, will also become charged due to grain-rotor triboelectric interactions. Given the low Martian atmospheric pressure of ~ 5 Torr, the tribocharge on the blade could become intense enough to stimulate gas breakdown near the surface of the rotorcraft. We modeled the grain-blade interaction as a line of current that forms along the blade edge in the region where grain-blade contacts are the greatest. This current then spreads throughout the entire connected quasi-conductive regions of the rotorcraft. Charge builds up on the craft and the dissipative pathway to remove charge is back into the atmosphere. We find that for blade tribocharging currents that form in an ambient atmospheric dust load, system current balance and charge dissipation can be accomplished via the nominal atmospheric conductive currents. However, at takeoff and landing, the rotorcraft could be in a rotor-created particulate cloud, leading to local atmospheric electrical breakdown near the rotorcraft. We especially note that the atmospheric currents in the breakdown are not large enough to create any hazard to Ingenuity itself, but Ingenuity operations can be considered a unique experiment that provides a test of the electrical properties of the Martian near-surface atmosphere.

From Rybicki's analysis using the Fourier slice theorem, mathematically it is possible to reproduce uniquely an edge-on axisymmetric galaxy's 3D light distribution from its 2D surface brightness. Utilizing galaxies from a cosmological simulation, we examine the ability of Syer and Tremaine's made-to-measure method and Schwarzschild's method for stellar dynamical modeling to do so for edge-on oblate axisymmetric galaxies. Overall, we find that the methods do not accurately recover the 3D distributions, with the made-to-measure method producing more accurate estimates than Schwarzschild's method. Our results have implications broader than just luminosity density, and affect other luminosity-weighted distributions within galaxies, for example, age and metallicity.

Radio galaxies play an important role in the seeding of cosmic rays and magnetic fields in galaxy clusters. Here, we simulate the evolution of relativistic electrons injected into the intracluster medium by radio galaxies. Using passive tracer particles added to magnetohydrodynamical adaptive-mesh simulations, we calculate the evolution of the spectrum of relativistic electrons taking into account energy losses and re-acceleration mechanisms associated with the dymamics of the intracluster medium. Re-acceleration can occur at shocks via diffusive shock acceleration, and in turbulent flows via second-order Fermi re-acceleration. Relativistic electrons from radio galaxies are found to fill the intracluster medium over scales of several $100 \rm ~Myr$, and they create a stable reservoir of fossil electrons which remains available for further re-acceleration by shock waves and turbulent gas motions. In the near future, deep radio observations (especially at low frequencies) are likely to probe such mechanisms in galaxy clusters.

In this work we model two non-linear directly interacting scenarios in dark sector of the universe with the dimensionless parameter $\alpha$ and $\beta$, which dominate the energy exchange between dark energy and dark matter. The central goal of this investigation is to research the interacting model and discuss the cosmological implications based on the current observational datasets. The class of the interaction is generally characterized by a coupling function $Q\propto H(z)\rho_x$, $x$ denotes the energy density of dark matter or dark energy. The constrained results we obtained indicate that the direct interaction in cosmic dark sector is favored by various observational data and the key effects on CMB power spectrum and linear matter power spectrum appear compared to $\Lambda$CDM standard paradigm. Finally, we discuss in depth the effect of different neutrino mass hierarchy on matter power spectrum and the variation of the ratio of CMB temperature power spectrum $C_{\ell}^{TT}$ and matter power spectrum $P(k)$ when the $\Delta N_{eff}= N-3.046$ from 0.5 to 2, respectively.

Mixed space-time spectral analysis was applied for the detection of seismic waves passing through the west-end building of the Virgo interferometer. The method enables detection of every single passing wave, including its frequency, length, direction, and amplitude. A thorough analysis aimed to improving sensitivity of the Virgo detector was made for the data gathered by 38 seismic sensors, in the two-week measurement period, from 24 January to 6 February 2018, and for frequency range 5--20 Hz. Two dominant seismic-wave frequencies were found: 5.5 Hz and 17.1 Hz. The possible sources of these waves were identified, that is, the nearby industrial complex for the frequency 5.5 Hz and a small object 100 m away from the west-end buiding for 17.1 Hz. The obtained results are going to be used to provide better estimation of the newtonian noise near the Virgo interferometer.

The origin and nature of the cosmic rays is still uncertain. However, a big progress has been achieved in recent years due to the good quality data provided by current and recent cosmic-rays observatories. The cosmic ray flux decreases very fast with energy in such a way that for energies $\gtrsim 10^{15}$ eV, the study of these very energetic particles is performed by using ground based detectors. These detectors are able to detect the atmospheric air showers generated by the cosmic rays as a consequence of their interactions with the molecules of the Earth's atmosphere. One of the most important observables that can help to understand the origin of the cosmic rays is the composition profile as a function of primary energy. Since the primary particle cannot be observed directly, its chemical composition has to be inferred from parameters of the showers that are very sensitive to the primary mass. The two parameters more sensitive to the composition of the primary are the atmospheric depth of the shower maximum and the muon content of the showers. Past and current cosmic-rays observatories have been using muon counters with the main purpose of measuring the muon content of the showers. Motivated by this fact, in this work we study in detail the estimation of the number of muons that hit a muon counter, which is limited by the number of segments of the counters and by the pile-up effect. We consider as study cases muon counters with segmentation corresponding to the underground muon detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory that are currently taking data, and the one corresponding to the muon counters of the AGASA Observatory, which stopped taking data in 2004.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are mysterious transient phenomena. The study of repeating FRBs may provide useful information about their nature due to their re-detectability. The two most famous repeating sources are FRBs 121102 and 180916, with a period of 157 days and 16.35 days, respectively. Previous studies suggest that the periodicity of FRBs is likely associated with neutron star (NS) binary systems. Here we propose a new model that the periodic repeating FRBs are due to the interaction of an NS with its planet in a highly elliptical orbit. The periastron of the planet is very close to the NS so that it would be partially disrupted by tidal force every time it passes through the periastron. Fragments generated in the process will fall toward the NS and finally collide with the compact star to give birth to observed FRBs. The model can naturally explain the repeatability of FRBs with a period ranging from a few days to several hundred days, but it generally requires that the eccentricity of the planet orbit should be large enough. Taking FRBs 121102 and 180916 as examples, it is shown that the main features of the observed repeating behaviors can be satisfactorily accounted for.

A common feature of electromagnetic emission from solar flares is the presence of intensity pulsations that vary as a function of time. Known as quasi-periodic pulsations (QPPs), these variations in flux appear to include periodic components and characteristic time-scales. Here, we analyse a GOES M3.7 class flare exhibiting pronounced QPPs across a broad band of wavelengths using imaging and time-series analysis. We identify QPPs in the timeseries of X-ray, low frequency radio and EUV wavelengths using wavelet analysis, and localise the region of the flare site from which the QPPs originate via X-ray and EUV imaging. It was found that the pulsations within the 171 \.A, 1600 \.A, soft X-ray (SXR), and hard X-ray (HXR) light curves yielded similar periods of $\sim$122 s, $\sim$131s, $\sim$123 s, and $\sim$137 s, respectively, indicating a common progenitor. The low frequency radio emission at 2.5 MHz contained a longer period of $\sim$231 s. Imaging analysis indicates that the location of the X-ray and EUV pulsations originates from a HXR footpoint linked to a system of nearby open magnetic field lines. Our results suggest that intermittent particle acceleration, likely due to 'bursty' magnetic reconnection, is responsible for the QPPs. The precipitating electrons accelerated towards the chromosphere produce the X-ray and EUV pulsations, while the escaping electrons result in low frequency radio pulses in the form of type III radio bursts. The modulation of the reconnection process, resulting in episodic particle acceleration, explains the presence of these QPPs across the entire spatial range of flaring emission.

Open clusters are central elements of our understanding of the Galactic disk evolution, as an accurate determination of their parameters leads to an unbiased picture of our Galaxy's structure. Extending the analysis towards fainter magnitudes in cluster sequences has a significant impact on the derived fundamental parameters, such as extinction and total mass. We perform a homogeneous analysis of six open stellar clusters in the Galactic disk using kinematic and photometric information from the Gaia DR2 and VVV surveys: NGC6067, NGC6259, NGC4815, Pismis18, Trumpler23, and Trumpler20. We implement two coarse-to-fine characterization methods: first, we employ Gaussian mixture models to tag fields around each open cluster in the proper motion space, and then we apply an unsupervised machine learning method to make the membership assignment to each cluster. For the studied clusters, with ages in the $\sim$120-1900 Myr range, we report an increase of $\sim$45 % new member candidates on average in our sample. The data-driven selection approach of cluster members makes our catalog a valuable resource for testing stellar evolutionary models and for assessing the cluster low-to-intermediate mass populations. This study is the first of a series intended to homogeneously reveal open cluster near-infrared sequences.

Accurate estimation of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) angular power spectrum is enticing due to the prospect for precision cosmology it presents. Galactic foreground emissions, however, contaminate the CMB signal and need to be subtracted reliably in order to lessen systematic errors on the CMB temperature estimates. Typically bright foregrounds in a region lead to further uncertainty in temperature estimates in the area even after some foreground removal technique is performed and hence determining the underlying full-sky angular power spectrum poses a challenge. We explore the feasibility of utilizing artificial neural networks to predict the angular power spectrum of the full sky CMB temperature maps from the observed angular power spectrum of the partial sky in which CMB temperatures in some bright foreground regions are masked. We present our analysis at large angular scales with two different masks. We produce unbiased predictions of the full-sky angular power spectrum and the underlying theoretical power spectrum using neural networks. Our predictions are also uncorrelated to a large extent. We further show that the multipole-multipole covariances of the predictions of the full-sky spectra made by the ANNs are much smaller than those of the estimates obtained using the method of pseudo-$C_l$.

Collisionless shocks are ubiquitous in the Universe and often associated with strong magnetic field. Here we use large-scale particle-in-cell simulations of non-relativistic perpendicular shocks in the high-Mach-number regime to study the amplification of magnetic field within shocks. The magnetic field is amplified at the shock transition due to the ion-ion two-stream Weibel instability. The normalized magnetic-field strength strongly correlates with the Alfv\'enic Mach number. Mock spacecraft measurements derived from PIC simulations are fully consistent with those taken in-situ at Saturn's bow shock by the Cassini spacecraft.

Intensity mapping of the 21cm signal of neutral hydrogen will yield exciting insights into the Epoch of Reionisation and the nature of the first galaxies. However, the large amount of data that will be generated by the next generation of radio telescopes, such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), as well as the numerous observational obstacles to overcome, require analysis techniques tuned to extract the reionisation history and morphology. In this context, we introduce a one-point statistic, to which we refer as the local variance, $\sigma_\mathrm{loc}$, that describes the distribution of the mean differential 21cm brightness temperatures measured in two-dimensional maps along the frequency direction of a light-cone. The local variance takes advantage of what is usually considered an observational bias, the sample variance. We find the redshift-evolution of the local variance to not only probe the reionisation history of the observed patches of the sky, but also trace the ionisation morphology. This estimator provides a promising tool to constrain the midpoint of reionisation as well as gaining insight into the ionising properties of early galaxies.

We study the bar instability in collisionless, rotating, anisotropic, stellar systems, using N-body simulations and also the matrix technique for calculation of modes with the perturbed collisionless Boltzmann equation. These methods are applied to spherical systems with an initial Plummer density distribution, but modified kinematically in two ways: the velocity distribution is tangentially anisotropic, using results of Dejonghe, and the system is set in rotation by reversing the velocities of a fraction of stars in various regions of phase space, a la Lynden-Bell. The aim of the N-body simulations is first to survey the parameter space, and, using those results, to identify regions of phase space (by radius and orbital inclination) which have the most important influence on the bar instability. The matrix method is then used to identify the resonant interactions in the system which have the greatest effect on the growth rate of a bar. Complementary series of N-body simulations examine these processes in relation to the evolving frequency distribution and the pattern speed. Finally, the results are synthesised with an existing theoretical framework, and used to consider the old question of constructing a stability criterion.

We present the latest results of an ongoing multiplicity survey of exoplanet hosts, which was initiated at the Astrophysical Institute and University Observatory Jena, using data from the second data release of the ESA-Gaia mission. In this study the multiplicity of 289 targets was investigated, all located within a distance of about 500 pc from the Sun. In total, 41 binary, and 5 hierarchical triple star systems with exoplanets were detected in the course of this project, yielding a multiplicity rate of the exoplanet hosts of about 16 %. A total of 61 companions (47 stars, a white dwarf, and 13 brown dwarfs) were detected around the targets, whose equidistance and common proper motion with the exoplanet hosts were proven with their precise Gaia DR2 astrometry, which also agrees with the gravitational stability of most of these systems. The detected companions exhibit masses from about 0.016 up to 1.66 M$_\odot$ and projected separations in the range between about 52 and 9555 au.

We present the results the photometric observations of the Type IIP supernova SN 2012aw obtained for the time interval from 7 till 371 days after the explosion. Using the previously published values of the photospheric velocities we've computed the hydrodynamic model which simultaneously reproduced the photometry observations and velocity measurements. We found the parameters of the pre-supernova: radius $R = 500 R_\odot$, nickel mass $M(^{56}$Ni$)$ $\sim 0.06 M_\odot$, pre-supernova mass $25 M_\odot$, mass of ejected envelope $23.6 M_\odot$, explosion energy $E \sim 3 \times 10^{51}$ erg. The model progenitor mass $M=25 M_\odot$ significantly exceeds the upper limit mass $M=17 M_\odot$, obtained from analysis the pre-SNe observations. This result confirms once more that the 'Red Supergiant Problem' must be resolved by stellar evolution and supernova explosion theories in interaction with observations.

One important feature of sunspots is the presence of light bridges. These structures are elongated and bright (as compared to the umbra) features that seem to be related to the formation and evolution of sunspots. In this work, we studied the long-term evolution and the stratification of different atmospheric parameters of three light bridges formed in the same host sunspot by different mechanisms. To accomplish this, we used data taken with the GREGOR Infrared Spectrograph installed at the GREGOR telescope. These data were inverted to infer the physical parameters of the atmosphere where the observed spectral profiles were formed of the three light bridges. We find that, in general, the behaviour of the three light bridges is typical of this kind of structure with the magnetic field strength, inclination, and temperature values between the values at the umbra and the penumbra. We also find that they are of a significantly non-magnetic character (particularly at the axis of the light bridges) as it is deduced from the filling factor. In addition, within the common behaviour of the physical properties of light bridges, we observe that each one exhibits a particular behaviour. Another interesting result is that the light bridge cools down, the magnetic field decreases, and the magnetic field lines get more inclined higher in the atmosphere. Finally, we studied the magnetic and non-magnetic line-of-sight velocities of the light bridges. The former shows that the magnetic component is at rest and, interestingly, its variation with optical depth shows a bi-modal behaviour. For the line-of-sight velocity of the non-magnetic component, we see that the core of the light bridge is at rest or with shallow upflows and clear downflows sinking through the edges.

In this study, we use the SWIFT/BAT AGN sample, which has received extensive multiwavelength follow-up analysis as a result of the BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey (BASS), to develop a diagnostic for nuclear obscuration by examining the relationship between the line-of-sight column densities ($N_{\rm{H}}$), the 2-10 keV-to-$12\,\rm{\mu m}$ luminosity ratio, and WISE mid-infrared colors. We demonstrate that heavily obscured AGNs tend to exhibit both preferentially ''redder'' mid-infrared colors and lower values of $L_{\rm{X,\,Obs.}}$/$L_{12\,\rm{\mu m}}$ than less obscured AGNs, and we derive expressions relating $N_{\rm{H}}$ to the $L_{\rm{X,\,Obs.}}$/$L_{12\,\rm{\mu m}}$ and $L_{22\,\rm{\mu m}}$/$L_{4.6\,\rm{\mu m}}$ luminosity ratios as well as develop diagnostic criteria using these ratios. Our diagnostic regions yield samples that are $\gtrsim80$% complete and $\gtrsim60$% pure for AGNs with log($N_{\rm{H}})\geq24$, as well as $\gtrsim85$% pure for AGNs with $\rm{log}(N_{\rm{H}})\gtrsim23.5$. We find that these diagnostics cannot be used to differentiate between optically star forming galaxies and active galaxies. Further, mid-IR contributions from host galaxies that dominate the observed $12~\rm{\mu m}$ emission can lead to larger apparent X-ray deficits and redder mid-IR colors than the AGNs would intrinsically exhibit, though this effect helps to better separate less obscured and more obscured AGNs. Finally, we test our diagnostics on two catalogs of AGNs and infrared galaxies, including the XMM-Newton XXL-N field, and we identify several known Compton-thick AGNs as well as a handful of candidate heavily obscured AGNs based upon our proposed obscuration diagnostics.

We present results of our analysis of up to 15 years of photometric data from eight AM CVn systems with orbital periods between 22.5 and 26.8 min. Our data has been collected from the GOTO, ZTF, Pan-STARRS, ASAS-SN and Catalina all-sky surveys and amateur observations collated by the AAVSO. We find evidence that these interacting ultra-compact binaries show a similar diversity of long term optical properties as the hydrogen accreting dwarf novae. We found that AM CVn systems in the previously identified accretion disc instability region are not a homogenous group. Various members of the analysed sample exhibit behaviour reminiscent of Z Cam systems with long super outbursts and standstills, SU UMa systems with regular, shorter super outbursts, and nova-like systems which appear only in a high state. The addition of TESS full frame images of one of these systems, KL Dra, reveals the first evidence for normal outbursts appearing as a precursor to super outbursts in an AM CVn system. Our results will inform theoretical modelling of the outbursts of hydrogen deficient systems.

The observed emission lines of Be stars originate from a circumstellar Keplerian disk that are generally well explained by the Viscous Decretion Disk model. In an earlier work we performed the modeling of the full light curve of the bright Be star $\omega$ CMa (Ghoreyshi et al. 2018) with the 1-D time-dependent hydrodynamics code SINGLEBE and the Monte Carlo radiative-transfer code HDUST. We used the V -band light curve that probes the inner disk through four disk formation and dissipation cycles. This new study compares predictions of the same set of model parameters with time-resolved photometry from the near UV through the mid-infrared, comprehensive series of optical spectra, and optical broad-band polarimetry, that overall represent a larger volume of the disk. Qualitatively, the models reproduce the trends in the observed data due to the growth and decay of the disk. However, quantitative differences exist, e.g., an overprediction of the flux increasing with wavelength, too slow decreases in Balmer emission-line strength that are too slow during disk dissipation, and the discrepancy between the range of polarimetric data and the model. We find that a larger value of the viscosity parameter alone, or a truncated disk by a companion star, reduces these discrepancies by increasing the dissipation rate in the outer regions of the disk.

Results of analysis of 60010 data photometric observations from the AAVSO international database are presented, which span 120 years of monitoring. The periodogram analysis shows the best fit period of 70.74d, a half of typically published periods for smaller intervals. Contrary to expectation for deep/shallow minima, the changes between them are not so regular. There may be series of deep (or shallow) minima without alternations. There may be two acting periods of 138.5 days and 70.74, so the beat modulation may be expected. The dependence of the phases of deep minima argue for two alternating periods with a characteristic life-time of a mode of 30years. These phenomenological results better explain the variability than the model of chaos.

Context. Supermassive black holes in the centres of radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) can produce collimated relativistic outflows (jets). Magnetic fields are thought to play a key role in the formation and collimation of these jets, but the details are much debated. Aims. We study the innermost jet morphology and magnetic field strength in the AGN 3C 345 with an unprecedented resolution using images obtained within the framework of the key science programme on AGN polarisation of the Space VLBI mission RadioAstron. Methods. We observed the flat spectrum radio quasar 3C 345 at 1.6 GHz on 2016 March 30 with RadioAstron and 18 ground-based radio telescopes in full polarisation mode. Results. Our images, in both total intensity and linear polarisation, reveal a complex jet structure at 300 $\mu$as angular resolution, corresponding to a projected linear scale of about 2 pc or a few thousand gravitational radii. We identify the synchrotron self-absorbed core at the jet base and find the brightest feature in the jet 1.5 mas downstream of the core. Several polarised components appear in the Space VLBI images that cannot be seen from ground array-only images. Except for the core, the electric vector position angles follow the local jet direction, suggesting a magnetic field perpendicular to the jet. This indicates the presence of plane perpendicular shocks in these regions. Additionally, we infer a minimum brightness temperature at the largest $(u,v)$-distances of $1.1\times 10^{12}$ K in the source frame, which is above the inverse Compton limit and an order of magnitude larger than the equipartition value. This indicates locally efficient injection or re-acceleration of particles in the jet to counter the inverse Compton cooling or the geometry of the jet creates significant changes in the Doppler factor, which has to be $>11$ to explain the high brightness temperatures.

Apart from the familiar structure firmly-rooted in the general relativistic field equations where the energy--momentum tensor has a null divergence i.e., it conserves, there exists a considerable number of extended theories of gravity allowing departures from the usual conservative framework. Many of these theories became popular in the last few years, aiming to describe the phenomenology behind dark matter and dark energy. However, within these scenarios, it is common to see attempts to preserve the conservative property of the energy--momentum tensor. Most of the time, it is done by means of some additional constraint that ensures the validity of the standard conservation law, as long as this option is available in the theory. However, if no such extra constraint is available, the theory will inevitably carry a non-trivial conservation law as part of its structure. In this work, we review some of such proposals discussing the theoretical construction leading to the non-conservation of the energy--momentum tensor.

We study the large scale dynamo process in a system forced by helical magnetic energy. The dynamo process is basically nonlinear, but can be linearized with pseudo scholars $\alpha$ & $\beta$ and large scale magnetic field ${\overline{\bf B}}$. A coupled semi-analytic equations based on statistical mechanics are used to investigate the exact evolution of $\alpha$\&$\beta$. This equation set requires only magnetic helicity and magnetic energy. They are fundamental physics quantities that can be obtained from the dynamo simulation or observation without any artificial modification or assumption. $\alpha$ effect is thought to be related to magnetic field amplification. However, in reality it converges to $zero$ very quickly without a significant contribution to ${\overline{\bf B}}$ field amplification. Conversely, $\beta$ effect for the magnetic diffusion maintains a negative value, which plays a key role in the amplification with Laplacian $\nabla^2\rightarrow -k^2$. In addition, negative magnetic diffusion accounts for the attenuation of plasma kinetic energy when the system is saturated. The negative magnetic diffusion is from the interaction of advective term $-{\bf U}\cdot\nabla {\bf B}$ and the strongly helical field. When plasma velocity field $\bf U$ is divided into the poloidal component ${\bf U}_{pol}$ and toroidal one ${\bf U}_{tor}$ in the absence of reflection symmetry, they interact with ${\bf B}\cdot\nabla {\bf U}$ and $-{\bf U}\cdot\nabla {\bf B}$ to produce $\alpha$ effect and (negative) $\beta$ effect, respectively. We discussed this process using the theoretical method and intuitive field structure model.

We investigate an interpolation/extrapolation method that, given scattered observations of the Fourier transform, approximates its inverse. The interpolation algorithm takes advantage of modelling the available data via a shape-driven interpolation based on Variably Scaled Kernels (VSKs), whose implementation is here tailored for inverse problems. The so-constructed interpolants are used as inputs for a standard iterative inversion scheme. After providing theoretical results concerning the spectrum of the VSK collocation matrix, we test the method on astrophysical imaging benchmarks.

It is well known that positive values of redshift drift is a signature of dark energy within the conventionally studied Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) universe models. Here we show -- without making assumptions on the metric tensor of the Universe -- that redshift drift is a promising direct probe of violation of the strong energy condition within the theory of general relativity.

In the present paper, we construct spontaneously scalarized rotating black hole solutions in dynamical Chern-Simons (dCS) gravity by following the scalar field evolution in the decoupling limit. For the range of parameters where the Kerr black hole becomes unstable within dCS gravity the scalar field grows exponentially until it reaches an equilibrium configuration that is independent of the initial perturbation. Interestingly, the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry of the scalar field is broken and a strong maximum around only one of the rotational axes can be observed. The black hole scalar charge is calculated for two coupling functions suggesting that the main observations would remain qualitatively correct even if one considers coupling functions/coupling parameters producing large deviations from the Kerr solution beyond the decoupling limit approximation.

General Relativity predicts only two tensor polarization modes for gravitational waves while at most six possible polarization modes of gravitational waves are allowed in the general metric theory of gravity. The number of polarization modes is totally determined by the specific modified theory of gravity. Therefore, the determination of polarization modes can be used to test gravitational theory. We introduce a concrete data analysis pipeline for a single space-based detector such as LISA to detect the polarization modes of gravitational waves. Apart from being able to detect mixtures of tensor and extra polarization modes, this method also has the added advantage that no waveform model is needed and monochromatic gravitational waves emitted from any compact binary system with known sky position and frequency can be used. We apply the data analysis pipeline to the reference source J0806.3+1527 of TianQin with 90-days' simulation data, and we show that $\alpha$ viewed as an indicative of the intrinsic strength of the extra polarization component relative to the tensor modes can be limited below 0.5 for LISA and below 0.2 for Taiji. We investigate the possibility to detect the nontensorial polarization modes with the combined network of LISA, TianQin and Taiji and find that $\alpha$ can be limited below 0.2.

WOMBAT (the WOllongong Methodology for Bayesian Assimilation of Trace-gases) is a fully Bayesian hierarchical statistical framework for flux inversion of trace gases from flask, in situ, and remotely sensed data. WOMBAT extends the conventional Bayesian-synthesis framework through the consideration of a correlated error term, the capacity for online bias correction, and the provision of uncertainty quantification on all unknowns that appear in the Bayesian statistical model. We show, in an observing system simulation experiment (OSSE), that these extensions are crucial when the data are indeed biased and have errors that are correlated. Using the GEOS-Chem atmospheric transport model, we show that WOMBAT is able to obtain posterior means and uncertainties on non-fossil-fuel CO$_2$ fluxes from Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) data that are comparable to those from the Model Intercomparison Project (MIP) reported in Crowell et al. (2019, Atmos. Chem. Phys., vol. 19). We also find that our predictions of out-of-sample retrievals from the Total Column Carbon Observing Network are, for the most part, more accurate than those made by the MIP participants. Subsequent versions of the OCO-2 datasets will be ingested into WOMBAT as they become available.

The rotating neutron star properties are studied with a phase transition to quark matter. The density-dependent relativistic mean-field model (DD-RMF) is employed to study the hadron matter, while the Vector-Enhanced Bag model (vBag) model is used to study the quark matter. The star matter properties like mass, radius,the moment of inertia, rotational frequency, Kerr parameter, and other important quantities are studied to see the effect on quark matter. The maximum mass of rotating neutron star with DD-LZ1 and DD-MEX parameter sets is found to be around 3$M_{\odot}$ for pure hadronic phase and decreases to a value around 2.6$M_{\odot}$ with phase transition to quark matter, which satisfies the recent GW190814 constraints. For DDV, DDVT, and DDVTD parameter sets, the maximum mass decreases to satisfy the 2$M_{\odot}$. The moment of inertia calculated for various DD-RMF parameter sets decreases with the increasing mass satisfying constraints from various measurements. Other important quantities calculated also vary with the bag constant and hence show that the presence of quarks inside neutron stars can also allow us to constraint these quantities to determine a proper EoS. Also, the theoretical study along with the accurate measurement of uniformly rotating neutron star properties may offer some valuable information concerning the high-density part of the equation of state.

We study implications of perturbative unitarity for quasi-single field inflation. Analyzing high energy scattering, we show that non-Gaussianities with $|f_{\rm NL}|\gtrsim1$ cannot be realized without turning on interactions which violate unitarity at a high energy scale. Then, we provide a relation between $f_{\rm NL}$ and the scale of new physics that is required for UV completion. In particular we find that for the Hubble scale $H\gtrsim 6\times 10^{9}$ GeV, Planck suppressed operators can easily generate too large non-Gaussanities and so it is hard to realize successful quasi-single field inflation without introducing a mechanism to suppress quantum gravity corrections. Also we generalize the analysis to the regime where the isocurvature modes are heavy and the inflationary dynamics is captured by the inflaton effective theory. Requiring perturbative unitarity of the two-scalar UV models with the inflaton and one heavy scalar, we clarify the parameter space of the $P(X,\phi)$ model which is UV completable by a single heavy scalar.

We have investigated neutralino dark matter in the framework of minimal supersymmetric Standard Model focusing on the coannihilatioin region. In this region, where the particle whose mass is tightly degenerated with the neutralino dark matter exists, we can solve the Lithium problem in the case of lepton flavor being violated. It turns out that Sommerfeld enhancement is important in the coannihilation region so that the dark matter signal becomes large enough to be observed by the current sensitivity of indirect experiments.

The Hubble parameter inferred from cosmic microwave background observations is consistently lower than that from local measurements, which could hint towards new physics. Solutions to the Hubble tension typically require a sizable amount of extra radiation $\Delta N^{}_{\rm eff}$ during recombination. However, the amount of $\Delta N^{}_{\rm eff}$ in the early Universe is unavoidably constrained by Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), which causes problems for such solutions. We present a possibility to evade this problem by introducing neutrino self-interactions via a simple Majoron-like coupling. The scalar is slightly heavier than $1~{\rm MeV}$ and allowed to be fully thermalized throughout the BBN era. The rise of neutrino temperature due to the entropy transfer via $\phi \to \nu\overline{\nu}$ reactions compensates the effect of a large $\Delta N^{}_{\rm eff}$ on BBN. Values of $\Delta N^{}_{\rm eff}$ as large as $0.7$ are in this case compatible with BBN. We perform a fit to the parameter space of the model.

Amongst the available technologies for earthquake research, remote sensing has been commonly used due to its unique features such as fast imaging and wide image-acquisition range. Nevertheless, early studies on pre-earthquake and remote-sensing anomalies are mostly oriented towards anomaly identification and analysis of a single physical parameter. Many analyses are based on singular events, which provide a lack of understanding of this complex natural phenomenon because usually, the earthquake signals are hidden in the environmental noise. The universality of such analysis still is not being demonstrated on a worldwide scale. In this paper, we investigate physical and dynamic changes of seismic data and thereby develop a novel machine learning method, namely Inverse Boosting Pruning Trees (IBPT), to issue short-term forecast based on the satellite data of 1,371 earthquakes of magnitude six or above due to their impact on the environment. We have analyzed and compared our proposed framework against several states of the art machine learning methods using ten different infrared and hyperspectral measurements collected between 2006 and 2013. Our proposed method outperforms all the six selected baselines and shows a strong capability in improving the likelihood of earthquake forecasting across different earthquake databases.