Papers for Monday, Feb 15 2021

We aim at estimating the dust scale height of protoplanetary disks from millimeter continuum observations. First, we present a general expression of intensity of a ring in a protoplanetary disk, and show that we can constrain the dust scale height by the azimuthal intensity variation. Then, we apply the presented methodology to the two distinct rings at 68 au and at 100 au of the protoplanetary disk around HD 163296. We constrain the dust scale height by comparing the DSHARP high-resolution millimeter dust continuum image with radiative transfer simulations using RADMC-3D. We find that h_d/h_g > 0.57 at the inner ring and h_d/h_g < 0.40 at the outer ring with the 2 sigma uncertainties, where h_d is the dust scale height and h_g is the gas scale height. This indicates that the dust is flared at the inner ring and settled at the outer ring. We further constrain the ratio of turbulence parameter alpha to gas-to-dust-coupling parameter St from the derived dust scale height; alpha/St > 0.48 at the inner ring, and alpha/St < 0.19 at the outer ring. This result shows that the turbulence is stronger or the dust is smaller at the inner ring than at the outer ring.

We study the evolution of cosmological perturbations in dark-matter models with elastic and velocity-independent self interactions. Such interactions are imprinted in the matter-power spectrum as dark acoustic oscillations, which can be experimentally explored to determine the strength of the self scatterings. Models with self interactions have similarities to warm dark matter, as they lead to suppression of power on small scales when the dark-matter velocity dispersion is sizable. Nonetheless, both the physical origin and the extent of the suppression differ for self-interacting dark matter from conventional warm dark matter, with a dark sound horizon controlling the reduction of power in the former case, and a free-streaming length in the latter. We thoroughly analyze these differences by performing computations of the linear power spectrum using a newly developed Boltzmann code. We find that while current Lyman-$\alpha$ data disfavor conventional warm dark matter with a mass less than 5.3 keV, when self interactions are included at their maximal value consistent with bounds from the Bullet Cluster, the limits are relaxed to 4.4 keV. Finally, we make use of our analysis to set novel bounds on light scalar singlet dark matter.

We present deep (250 ks) Chandra observations of the nearby galaxy group NGC 1600, which has at its centre an ultramassive black hole (17$\pm$1.5 billion M$_{\odot}$). The exceptionally large mass of the black hole coupled with its low redshift makes it one of only a handful of black holes for which spatially resolved temperature and density profiles can be obtained within the Bondi radius with the high spatial resolution of Chandra. We analyzed the hot gas properties within the Bondi accretion radius R$_B$=1.2" - 1.7"= 0.38 - 0.54 kpc. Within a $\sim\!3$ kpc radius, we find two temperature components with statistical significance. Both the single temperature and two temperature models show only a very slight rise in temperature towards the centre, and are consistent with being flat. This is in contrast with the expectation from Bondi accretion for a temperature profile which increases towards the centre, and appears to indicate that the dynamics of the gas are not being determined by the central black hole. The density profile follows a relatively shallow $\rho\propto~r^{-[0.61\pm0.13]}$ relationship within the Bondi radius, which suggests that the true accretion rate on to the black hole may be lower than the classical Bondi accretion rate.

In the context of intra-cluster medium turbulence, it is essential to be able to split the turbulent velocity field in a compressive and a solenoidal component. We describe and implement a new method for this aim, i.e., performing a Helmholtz-Hodge decomposition, in multi-grid, multi-resolution descriptions, focusing on (but not being restricted to) the outputs of AMR cosmological simulations. The method is based on solving elliptic equations for a scalar and a vector potential, from which the compressive and the solenoidal velocity fields, respectively, are derived through differentiation. These equations are addressed using a combination of Fourier (for the base grid) and iterative (for the refinement grids) methods. We present several idealised tests for our implementation, reporting typical median errors in the order of $1\unicode{x2030}$-$1\%$, and with 95-percentile errors below a few percents. Additionally, we also apply the code to the outcomes of a cosmological simulation, achieving similar accuracy at all resolutions, even in the case of highly non-linear velocity fields. We finally take a closer look to the decomposition of the velocity field around a massive galaxy cluster.

We use FIRE-2 simulations to examine 3-D variations of gas-phase elemental abundances of [O/H], [Fe/H], and [N/H] in 11 Milky Way (MW) and M31-mass galaxies across their formation histories at $z \leq 1.5$ ($t_{\rm lookback} \leq 9.4$ Gyr), motivated by characterizing the initial conditions of stars for chemical tagging. Gas within $1$ kpc of the disk midplane is vertically homogeneous to $\lesssim 0.008$ dex at all $z \leq 1.5$. We find negative radial gradients (metallicity decreases with galactocentric radius) at all times, which steepen over time from $\approx -0.01$ dex kpc$^{-1}$ at $z = 1$ ($t_{\rm lookback} = 7.8$ Gyr) to $\approx -0.03$ dex kpc$^{-1}$ at $z = 0$, and which broadly agree with observations of the MW, M31, and nearby MW/M31-mass galaxies. Azimuthal variations at fixed radius are typically $0.14$ dex at $z = 1$, reducing to $0.05$ dex at $z = 0$. Thus, over time radial gradients become steeper while azimuthal variations become weaker (more homogeneous). As a result, azimuthal variations were larger than radial variations at $z \gtrsim 0.8$ ($t_{\rm lookback} \gtrsim 6.9$ Gyr). Furthermore, elemental abundances are measurably homogeneous (to $\lesssim 0.05$ dex) across a radial range of $\Delta R \approx 3.5$ kpc at $z \gtrsim 1$ and $\Delta R \approx 1.7$ kpc at $z = 0$. We also measure full distributions of elemental abundances, finding typically negatively skewed normal distributions at $z \gtrsim 1$ that evolve to typically Gaussian distributions by $z = 0$. Our results on gas abundances inform the initial conditions for stars, including the spatial and temporal scales for applying chemical tagging to understand stellar birth in the MW.

Wide-field sub-millimetre surveys have driven many major advances in galaxy evolution in the past decade, but without extensive follow-up observations the coarse angular resolution of these surveys limits the science exploitation. This has driven the development of various analytical deconvolution methods. In the last half a decade Generative Adversarial Networks have been used to attempt deconvolutions on optical data. Here we present an autoencoder with a novel loss function to overcome this problem in the sub-millimeter wavelength range. This approach is successfully demonstrated on Herschel SPIRE COSMOS data, with the super-resolving target being the JCMT SCUBA-2 observations of the same field. We reproduce the JCMT SCUBA-2 images with surprisingly high fidelity, and quantify the point source flux constraints using this autoencoder.

The Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) is an unbiased, massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey, designed to measure the expansion history of the universe through low-resolution ($R\sim750$) spectra of Lyman-Alpha Emitters. In its search for these galaxies, HETDEX will also observe a few 10$^{5}$ stars. In this paper, we present the first stellar value-added catalog within the internal second data release of the HETDEX Survey (HDR2). The new catalog contains 120,571 low-resolution spectra for 98,736 unique stars between $10 < G < 22$ spread across the HETDEX footprint at relatively high ($b\sim60^\circ$) Galactic latitudes. With these spectra, we measure radial velocities (RVs) for $\sim$42,000 unique FGK-type stars in the catalog and show that the HETDEX spectra are sufficient to constrain these RVs with a 1$\sigma$ precision of 28.0 km/s and bias of 3.5 km/s with respect to the LAMOST surveys and 1$\sigma$ precision of 27.5 km/s and bias of 14.0 km/s compared to the SEGUE survey. Since these RVs are for faint ($G\geq16$) stars, they will be complementary to Gaia. Using t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE), we also demonstrate that the HETDEX spectra can be used to determine a star's T${\rm{eff}}$, and log g and its [Fe/H]. With the t-SNE projection of the FGK-type stars with HETDEX spectra we also identify 416 new candidate metal-poor ([Fe/H] $< -1$~dex) stars for future study. These encouraging results illustrate the utility of future low-resolution stellar spectroscopic surveys.

The relative role of turbulence, magnetic fields, self-gravity in star formation is a subject of intensive debate. We present IRAM 30m telescope observations of the $^{13}$CO (1-0) emission in the Serpens G3-G6 molecular cloud and apply to the data a set of statistical methods. Those include the probability density functions (PDFs) of column density and the Velocity Gradients Technique (VGT). We combine our data with the Planck 353 GHz polarized dust emission observations, Hershel H$_2$ column density. We suggest that the Serpens G3-G6 south clump is undergoing a gravitational collapse. Our analysis reveals that the gravitational collapse happens at volume density $n_{\rm HI}\ge10^3$ $\rm cm^{-3}$. We estimate the plane-of-the-sky magnetic field strength of approximately 120 $\mu G$ using the traditional Davis-Chandrasekhar-Fermi method and 100 $\mu G$ using a new technique proposed in Lazarian et al.(2020). We find the Serpens G3-G6 south clump's total magnetic field energy significantly surpasses kinetic energy and gravitational energy. We conclude that the gravitational collapse could be successfully triggered in a supersonic and sub-Alfv\'{e}nic cloud.

We present a new characterization of the relations between star-formation rate, stellar mass and molecular gas mass surface densities at different spatial scales across galaxies (from galaxy wide to kpc-scales). To do so we make use of the largest sample combining spatially-resolved spectroscopic information with CO observations, provided by the EDGE-CALIFA survey, together with new single dish CO observations obtained by APEX. We show that those relations are the same at the different explored scales, sharing the same distributions for the explored data, with similar slope, intercept and scatter (when characterized by a simple power-law). From this analysis, we propose that these relations are the projection of a single relation between the three properties that follows a distribution well described by a line in the three-dimension parameter space. Finally, we show that observed secondary relations between the residuals and the considered parameters are fully explained by the correlation between the uncertainties, and therefore have no physical origin. We discuss these results in the context of the hypothesis of self-regulation of the star-formation process.

In the first paper of this series (Rhea et al. 2020), we demonstrated that neural networks can robustly and efficiently estimate kinematic parameters for optical emission-line spectra taken by SITELLE at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. This paper expands upon this notion by developing an artificial neural network to estimate the line ratios of strong emission-lines present in the SN1, SN2, and SN3 filters of SITELLE. We construct a set of 50,000 synthetic spectra using line ratios taken from the Mexican Million Model database replicating Hii regions. Residual analysis of the network on the test set reveals the network's ability to apply tight constraints to the line ratios. We verified the network's efficacy by constructing an activation map, checking the [N ii] doublet fixed ratio, and applying a standard k-fold cross-correlation. Additionally, we apply the network to SITELLE observation of M33; the residuals between the algorithm's estimates and values calculated using standard fitting methods show general agreement. Moreover, the neural network reduces the computational costs by two orders of magnitude. Although standard fitting routines do consistently well depending on the signal-to-noise ratio of the spectral features, the neural network can also excel at predictions in the low signal-to-noise regime within the controlled environment of the training set as well as on observed data when the source spectral properties are well constrained by models. These results reinforce the power of machine learning in spectral analysis.

In this pilot study, we investigate the use of a deep learning (DL) model to temporally evolve the dynamics of gas accreting onto a black hole in the form of a radiatively inefficient accretion flow (RIAF). We have trained a machine to forecast such a spatiotemporally chaotic system -- i.e. black hole weather forecasting -- using a convolutional neural network (CNN) and a training dataset which consists of numerical solutions of the hydrodynamical equations, for a range of initial conditions. We find that deep neural networks seem to learn well black hole accretion physics and evolve the accretion flow orders of magnitude faster than traditional numerical solvers, while maintaining a reasonable accuracy for a long time. For instance, CNNs predict well the temporal evolution of a RIAF over a long duration of $8\times 10^4 GM/c^3$, which corresponds to 80 dynamical times at $r=100 GM/c^2$. The DL model is able to evolve flows from initial conditions not present in the training dataset with good accuracy. Our approach thus seems to generalize well. Once trained, the DL model evolves a turbulent RIAF on a single GPU four orders of magnitude faster than usual fluid dynamics integrators running in parallel on 200 CPU cores. We speculate that a data-driven machine learning approach should be very promising for accelerating not only fluid dynamics simulations, but also general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic ones.

The underlying distribution of galaxies' dust SEDs (i.e., their spectra re-radiated by dust from rest-frame $\sim$3$\mu$m-3mm) remains relatively unconstrained due to a dearth of FIR/(sub)mm data for large samples of galaxies. It has been claimed in the literature that a galaxy's dust temperature -- observed as the wavelength where the dust SED peaks ($\lambda_{peak}$) -- is traced most closely by its specific star-formation rate (sSFR) or parameterized 'distance' to the SFR-M$_\star$ relation (the galaxy 'main sequence'). We present 0.24" resolved 870$\mu$m ALMA dust continuum observations of seven $z=1.4-4.6$ dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) chosen to have a large range of well-constrained luminosity-weighted dust temperatures. We also draw on similar resolution dust continuum maps from a sample of ALESS submillimeter galaxies from Hodge et al. (2016). We constrain the physical scales over which the dust radiates and compare those measurements to characteristics of the integrated SED. We confirm significant correlations of $\lambda_{peak}$ with both L$_{IR}$ (or SFR) and $\Sigma_{\rm IR}$ ($\propto$SFR surface density). We investigate the correlation between $\log_{10}$($\lambda_{peak}$) and $\log_{10}$($\Sigma_{\rm IR}$) and find the relation to hold as would be expected from the Stefan-Boltzmann Law, or the effective size of an equivalent blackbody. The correlations of $\lambda_{peak}$ with sSFR and distance from the SFR-M$_\star$ relation are less significant than those for $\Sigma_{\rm IR}$ or L$_{IR}$; therefore, we conclude that the more fundamental tracer of galaxies' luminosity-weighted integrated dust temperatures are indeed their star-formation surface densities in line with local Universe results, which relate closely to the underlying geometry of dust in the ISM.

We studied the weak-lined T Tauri star Hubble 4, a known long-period binary, and its starspot phenomena. We used optical radial velocity (RV) data taken over a span of 14 years (2004-2010, 2017-2019) at the McDonald Observatory 2.7m Harlan J. Smith telescope and single epoch imaging from the HST/WFC3 instrument. The observed and apparent RV variations show contributions, respectively, from the binary motion as well as from a large spot group on one of the stars, presumed to be the primary. Fitting and removing the orbital signal from the RVs, we found the lower bound on the lifetime of a previously identified large spot group on the surface of the star to be at least 5.1 years. A $\sim5$ year lower limit is a long, but not unprecedented, duration for a single spot group. The later epoch data indicate significant spot evolution has occurred, placing an upper bound on the spot group lifetime at 12 years. We find that pre-main sequence evolutionary models for the age of Taurus ($\sim2$ Myr), combined with component mass estimates from the literature, permit us to reproduce the HST relative photometry and the binary-induced contribution to the apparent RV variations. The long-lived star spot we find on Hubble 4 has significant implications for dynamo models in young stars, as it adds evidence for long lifetimes of magnetic field topologies. There are also significant implications for young star exoplanet searches as long-lived coherent RV signals may be spot-induced and not the result of planetary motion. (This paper includes data taken at The McDonald Observatory of The University of Texas at Austin.)

Solar flare termination shocks have been suggested as one of the viable mechanisms for accelerating electrons and ions to high energies. Observational evidence of such shocks, however, remains rare. Using radio dynamic spectroscopic imaging of a long-duration C1.9 flare obtained by the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), Chen et al. (2015) suggested that a type of coherent radio bursts, referred to as "stochastic spike bursts", were radio signature of nonthermal electrons interacting with myriad density fluctuations at the front of a flare termination shock. Here we report another stochastic spike burst event recorded during the extended energy release phase of a long-duration M8.4-class eruptive flare on 2012 March 10. VLA radio spectroscopic imaging of the spikes in 1.0--1.6 GHz shows that, similar to the case of Chen et al. (2015), the burst centroids form an extended, ~10''-long structure in the corona. By combining extreme ultraviolet imaging observations of the flare from two vantage points with hard X-ray and ultraviolet observations of the flare ribbon brightenings, we reconstruct the flare arcade in three dimensions. The results show that the spike source is located at ~60 Mm above the flare arcade where a diffuse supra-arcade fan and multitudes of plasma downflows are present. Although the flare arcade and ribbons seen during the impulsive phase do not allow us to clearly understand how the observed spike source location is connected to the flare geometry, cooling flare arcade observed two hours later suggest that the spikes are located in the above-the-loop-top region, where a termination shock presumably forms.

More than a decade has passed since the definition of Globular Cluster (GC) changed, and now we know that they host Multiple Populations (MPs). But few GCs do not share that behaviour and Ruprecht 106 is one of these clusters. We analyzed thirteen member red giant branch stars using spectra in the wavelength range 6120-6405 Angstroms obtained through the GIRAFFE Spectrograph, mounted at UT2 telescope at Paranal, as well as the whole cluster using C, V, R and I photometry obtained through the Swope telescope at Las Campanas. Atmospheric parameters were determined from the photometry to determine Fe and Na abundances. A photometric analysis searching for MPs was also carried out. Both analyses confirm that Ruprecht 106 is indeed one on the few GCs to host Simple Stellar Population, in agreement with previous studies. Finally, a dynamical study concerning its orbits was carried out to analyze the possible extra galactic origin of the Cluster. The orbital integration indicates that this GC belongs to the inner halo, while an Energy plane shows that it cannot be accurately associated with any known extragalactic progenitor.

We present observations of main-belt comet 259P/Garradd from four months prior to its 2017 perihelion passage to five months after perihelion using the Gemini North and South telescopes. The object was confirmed to be active during this period, placing it among seven MBCs confirmed to have recurrent activity. We find an average net pre-perihelion dust production rate for 259P in 2017 of dM/dt = 4.6+/-0.2 kg/s (assuming grain densities of rho = 2500 kg/m^3 and a mean effective particle size of a_d = 2 mm) and a best-fit start date of detectable activity of 2017 April 22+/-1, when the object was at a heliocentric distance of r_h = 1.96-/+0.03 au and a true anomaly of nu = 313.9+/-0.4 deg. We estimate the effective active fraction of 259P's surface area to be from f_act ~ 7x10^-3 to f_act ~ 6x10^-2 (corresponding to effective active areas of A_act ~ 8x10^3 m^2 to A_act ~ 7x10^4 m^2) at the start of its 2017 active period. A comparison of estimated total dust masses measured for 259P in 2008 and 2017 shows no evidence of changes in activity strength between the two active apparitions. The heliocentric distance of 259P's activity onset point is much smaller than those of other MBCs, suggesting that its ice reservoirs may be located at greater depths than on MBCs farther from the Sun, increasing the time needed for a solar irradiation-driven thermal wave to reach subsurface ice. We suggest that deeper ice on 259P could be a result of more rapid ice depletion caused by the object's closer proximity to the Sun compared to other MBCs.

We study the gravitational fragmentation of circumstellar discs accreting extremely metal-poor ($Z \leq 10^{-3}$ Zsun) gas, performing a suite of three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations using the adaptive mesh refinement code Enzo. We systematically follow the long-term evolution for 2000 years after the first protostar's birth, for the cases of $Z = 0$, $10^{-5}$, $10^{-4}$, and $10^{-3}$ Zsun. We show that evolution of number of self-gravitating clumps qualitatively changes with $Z$. Vigorous fragmentation induced by dust cooling occurs in the metal-poor cases, temporarily providing about 10 self-gravitating clumps at $Z = 10^{-5}$ and $10^{-4}$ Zsun. However, we also show that the fragmentation is a very sporadic process; after an early episode of the fragmentation, the number of clumps continuously decreases as they merge away in these cases. The vigorous fragmentation tends to occur later with the higher $Z$, reflecting that the dust-induced fragmentation is most efficient at the lower density. At $Z = 10^{-3}$ Zsun, as a result, the clump number stays smallest until the disc fragmentation starts in a late stage. We also show that the clump mass distribution also depends on the metallicity. A single or binary clump substantially more massive than the others appear only at $Z = 10^{-3}$ Zsun, whereas they are more evenly distributed in mass at the lower metallicities. We suggest that the disc fragmentation should provide the stellar multiple systems, but their properties drastically change with a tiny amount of metals.

We study the development of activity in the incoming long-period comet C/2017 K2 over the heliocentric distance range 9 < r_H < 16 AU. The comet continues to be characterized by a coma of sub-millimeter and larger particles ejected at low velocity. In a fixed co-moving volume around the nucleus we find that the scattering cross-section of the coma is related to the heliocentric distance by a power law with heliocentric index $s = 1.14\pm0.05$. This dependence is significantly weaker than the inverse square variation of the insolation as a result of two effects. These are, first, the heliocentric dependence of the dust velocity and, second, a lag effect due to very slow-moving particles ejected long before the observations were taken. A Monte Carlo model of the photometry shows that dust production beginning at r_H ~ 35 AU is needed to match the measured heliocentric index, with only a slight dependence on the particle size distribution. Mass loss rates in dust at 10 AU are of order 1000 kg/s, while loss rates in gas may be much smaller, depending on the unknown dust to gas ratio. Consequently, the ratio of the non-gravitational acceleration to the local solar gravity may, depending on the nucleus size, attain values comparable to values found in short-period comets at much smaller distances. Non-gravitational acceleration in C/2017 K2 and similarly distant comets, while presently unmeasured, may limit the accuracy with which we can infer the properties of the Oort cloud from the orbits of long-period comets.

We report the non-thermal pressure fraction (Pnt/Ptot) obtained from a three-dimensional triaxial analysis of 16 galaxy clusters in the CLASH sample using gravitational lensing (GL) data primarily from Subaru and HST, X-ray spectroscopic imaging from Chandra, and Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) data from Planck and Bolocam. Our results span the approximate radial range 0.015R200m-0.4R200m (35-1000 kpc). At cluster-centric radii smaller than 0.1R200m (250 kpc) the ensemble average Pnt/Ptot is consistent with zero with an upper limit of nine per cent, indicating that heating from active galactic nuclei and other relevant processes does not produce significant deviations from hydrostatic equilibrium (HSE). The ensemble average Pnt/Ptot increases outside of this radius to approximately 20 per cent at 0.4R200m (1000 kpc), as expected from simulations, due to newly accreted material thermalizing via a series of shocks. Also in agreement with simulations, we find significant cluster-to-cluster variation in Pnt/Ptot and little difference in the ensemble average Pnt/Ptot based on dynamical state. We conclude that on average, even for diverse samples, HSE-derived masses in the very central regions of galaxy clusters typically require only modest corrections due to non-thermal motions.

Isolated neutron stars are prime targets for continuous$-$wave (CW) searches by ground$-$based gravitational$-$wave interferometers. Results are presented from a CW search targeting ten pulsars. The search uses a semi$-$coherent algorithm, which combines the maximum$-$likelihood $\mathcal{F}-$statistic with a hidden Markov model (HMM) to efficiently detect and track quasi$-$monochromatic signals which wander randomly in frequency. The targets, which are associated with TeV sources detected by the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.), are chosen to test for gravitational radiation from young, energetic pulsars with strong $\mathrm{\gamma}-$ray emission, and take maximum advantage of the frequency tracking capabilities of HMM compared to other CW search algorithms. The search uses data from the second observing run of the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational$-$Wave Observatory (aLIGO). It scans 1$-$Hz sub$-$bands around $f_*$, 4$f_*$/3, and 2$f_*$, where $f_*$ denotes the star's rotation frequency, in order to accommodate a physically plausible frequency mismatch between the electromagnetic and gravitational$-$wave emission. The 24 sub$-$bands searched in this study return 5,256 candidates above the Gaussian threshold with a false alarm probability of 1$\%$ per sub$-$band per target. Only 12 candidates survive the three data quality vetoes which are applied to separate non$-$Gaussian artifacts from true astrophysical signals. CW searches using the data from subsequent observing runs will clarify the status of the remaining candidates.

The distributions and abundances of molecules in protoplanetary disks are powerful tracers of the physical and chemical disk structures. The abundance ratios of HCN and its isomer HNC are known to be sensitive to gas temperature. Their line ratios might therefore offer a unique opportunity to probe the properties of the emitting gas. Using the 2D thermochemical code DALI, we ran a set of disk models accounting for different stellar and disk properties, with an updated chemical network for the nitrogen chemistry. These modeling results were then compared with observations, including new ALMA observations of HNC $J=3-2$ for the TW Hya disk and HNC $J=1-0$ for 29 disks in Lupus. Similar to CN, HCN and HNC have brighter line emission in models with larger disk flaring angles and higher UV fluxes. HNC and HCN are predicted to be abundant in the warm surface layer and outer midplane region, which results in ring-shaped emission patterns. However, the precise emitting regions and emission morphology depend on the probed transition, as well as on other parameters such as C and O abundances. The modeled HNC-to-HCN line intensity ratio increases from $<0.1$ in the inner disk to up to 0.8 in the outer disk regions, which can be explained by efficient HNC destruction at high temperatures. Disk-integrated HNC line fluxes from current scarce observations and its radial distribution in the TW Hya disk are broadly consistent with our model predictions. The HNC-to-HCN flux ratio robustly increases with radius (decreasing temperature), but its use as a chemical thermometer in disks is affected by other factors, including UV flux and C and O abundances. High-spatial resolution ALMA disk observations of HNC and HCN that can locate the emitting layers would have the great potential to constrain both the disk thermal and UV radiation structures, and also to verify our understanding of the nitrogen chemistry.

Polarisation is a decisive method to study the inner region of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) since it is not affected by contrast issues similarly to how classical imaging is. When coupled to high angular resolution (HAR), polarisation can help to disentangle the location of the various polarising mechanisms and then give an insight on the physics taking place on the core of AGNs. We obtained a new data set of HAR polarimetric images of the archetypal Seyfert 2 nucleus of NGC 1068 observed with SPHERE/VLT and we aim in this paper at presenting the polarisation maps and at spatially separating the location of the polarising mechanisms, thus deriving constraints on the organisation of the dust material in the inner region of this AGN. We then compared these measurements to radiative transfer simulations of scattering and dichroic absorption processes, using the Monte-Carlo code MontAGN. We establish a detailed table of the relative importance of the polarising mechanism as a function of the aperture and of the wavelength. We are able to separate the dominant polarising mechanisms in the three regions of the ionisation cone, the extended envelop of the torus and the very central bright source of the AGN. Thus, we estimate the contribution of the different polarisation mechanisms to the observed polarisation flux in these regions. Dichroic absorption is estimated to be responsible for about 99 % of the polarised flux coming from the photo-centre. However, this contribution would be restricted to this location only, double scattering process being the most important contributor to polarisation in the equatorial plane of the AGN and single scattering being dominant in the polar outflow bi-cone.

The core mass of galaxy clusters is an important probe of structure formation. Here, we evaluate the use of a Single-Halo model (SHM) as an efficient method to estimate the strong lensing cluster core mass, testing it with ray-traced images from the `Outer Rim' simulation. Unlike detailed lens models, the SHM represents the cluster mass distribution with a single halo and can be automatically generated from the measured lensing constraints. We find that the projected core mass estimated with this method, M$_{\rm SHM}$, has a scatter of $8.52\%$ and a bias of $0.90\%$ compared to the "true" mass within the same aperture. Our analysis shows no systematic correlation between the scatter or bias and the lens-source system properties. The bias and scatter can be reduced to $3.26\%$ and $0.34\%$, respectively, by excluding models that fail a visual inspection test. We find that the SHM success depends on the lensing geometry, with single giant arc configurations accounting for most of the failed cases due to their limiting constraining power. When excluding such cases, we measure a scatter and bias of $3.88\%$ and $0.84\%$, respectively. Finally, we find that when the source redshift is unknown, the model-predicted redshifts are overestimated, and the M$_{\rm SHM}$ is underestimated by a few percent, highlighting the importance of securing spectroscopic redshifts of background sources. Our analysis provides a quantitative characterization of M$_{\rm SHM}$, enabling its efficient use as a tool to estimate the strong lensing cluster core masses in the large samples, expected from current and future surveys.

The scalar field theory of cosmological inflation constitutes nowadays one of the preferred scenarios for the physics of the early universe. In this paper we aim at studying the inflationary universe making use of a numerical lattice simulation. Various lattice codes have been written in the last decades and have been extensively used for understating the reheating phase of the universe, but they have never been used to study the inflationary phase itself far from the end of inflation (i.e. about 50 e-folds before the end of inflation). In this paper we use a lattice simulation to reproduce the well-known results of some simple models of single-field inflation, particularly for the scalar field perturbation. The main model that we consider is the standard slow-roll inflation with an harmonic potential for the inflaton field. We explore the technical aspects that need to be accounted for in order to reproduce with precision the nearly scale invariant power spectrum of inflaton perturbations. We also consider the case of a step potential, and show that the simulation is able to correctly reproduce the oscillatory features in the power spectrum of this model. Even if a lattice simulation is not needed in these cases, that are well within the regime of validity of linear perturbation theory, this sets the basis to future work on using lattice simulations to study more complicated models of inflation.

An alternative scheme is described to estimate the layer 1 LAXPC 20 background for faint sources where the source contribution to the 50-80 keV count rate is less than 0.25 counts/sec (15 milli-crabs or $6 \times 10^{-11}$ ergs/s/cm$^2$). We consider 12 blank sky observations and based on their 50-80 keV count rate in 100 second time-bins, generate four template spectra which are then used to estimate the background spectrum and lightcurve for a given faint source observation. The variance of the estimated background subtracted spectra for the 12 blank sky observations is taken as the energy dependent systematic uncertainty which will dominate over the statistical one for exposures longer than 5 ksecs. The estimated 100 second time bin background lightcurve in the 4-20 keV band with a 3\% systematic error matches with the blank sky ones. The 4-20 keV spectrum can be constrained for a source with flux $\gtrapprox 1$ milli-crab. Fractional r.m.s variability of 10\% can be determined for a $\sim 5$ milli-crab source lightcurve binned at 100 seconds. To illustrate the scheme, the lightcurves, and spectra of three different blank sky observations, three AGN sources (Mrk 0926, Mrk 110, NGC 4593), and LMC X-1 are shown.

Helioseismic waves observable at the solar surface can be used to probe the properties of the Sun's interior. By measuring helioseismic travel times between different location on the surface, flows and other interior properties can be inferred using so-called sensitivity kernels which relate the amount of travel-time shift with variations in interior proporties. In particular, sensitivity kernels for flows have been developed in the past, using either ray or Born approximation, and have been used to infer solar interior flows such as the meridional circulation which is of particular interest for understanding the structure and dynamics of the Sun. Here we introduce a new method for deriving three-dimensional sensitivity kernels for large-scale horizontal flows in the solar interior. We perform global-Sun wave-propagation simulations through 784 small flow perturbations placed individually in the interior of a simulated Sun, and measure the shifts in helioseismic travel times caused by these perturbations. Each measurement corresponds to a linear equation connecting the flow perturbation velocities and the sensitivity kernels. By solving the resulting large set of coupled linear equations, we derive three-dimensional sensitivity kernels for horizontal flows which have a longitudinal component (parallel to the wave's travel direction) and a transverse component (perpendicular to the wave's travel direction). The kernels exhibit a "banana" shape, similar to kernels derived using Born approximation methods, and show that transverse components are not negligible in inversions for interior flows.

The next generation of galaxy surveys will allow us to test some fundamental aspects of the standard cosmological model, including the assumption of a minimal coupling between the components of the dark sector. In this paper, we present the Javalambre Physics of the Accelerated Universe Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS) forecasts on a class of unified models where cold dark matter interacts with a vacuum energy, considering future observations of baryon acoustic oscillations, redshift-space distortions, and the matter power spectrum. After providing a general framework to study the background and linear perturbations, we focus on a concrete interacting model without momentum exchange by taking into account the contribution of baryons. We compare the J-PAS results with those expected for DESI and Euclid surveys and show that J-PAS is competitive to them, especially at low redshifts. Indeed, the predicted errors for the interaction parameter, which measures the departure from a $\Lambda$CDM model, can be comparable to the actual errors derived from the current data of cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropies.

We analyze about 12 years of Fermi-LAT data in the direction of the Andromeda galaxy (M31). We robustly characterize its spectral and morphological properties against systematic uncertainties related to the modeling of the Galactic diffuse emission. We perform this work by adapting and exploiting the potential of the skyFACT adaptive template fitting algorithm. We reconstruct the gamma-ray image of M31 in a template-independent way, and we show that flat spatial models are preferred by data, indicating an extension of the $\gamma$-ray emission of about 0.3-0.4 degree for the bulge of M31. This study also suggests that a second component, extending to at least 1 degree, contributes to the observed total emission. We quantify systematic uncertainties related to mis-modeling of Galactic foreground emission at the level of 2.9%.

Stars form in cold dense cores showing subsonic velocity dispersions. The parental molecular clouds display higher temperatures and supersonic velocity dispersions. The transition from core to cloud has been observed in velocity dispersion, but temperature and abundance variations are unknown. We aim to study the transition from cores to ambient cloud in temperature and velocity dispersion using a single tracer. We use NH3 (1,1) and (2,2) maps in L1688 from the Green Bank Ammonia Survey, smoothed to 1', and determine the physical properties from fits. We identify the coherent cores and study the changes in temperature and velocity dispersion from cores to the surrounding cloud. We obtain a kinetic temperature map tracing the extended cloud, improving from previous maps tracing mostly the cores. The cloud is 4-6 K warmer than the cores, and shows a larger velocity dispersion (diff. = 0.15-0.25 km/s). Comparing to Herschel-based measurements, we find that cores show kinetic temperature $\approx$1.8 K lower than the dust temperature; while the gas temperature is higher than the dust temperature in the cloud. We find an average p-NH3 fractional abundance (with respect to H2) of $(4.2\pm0.2) \times 10^{-9}$ towards the coherent cores, and $(1.4\pm0.1) \times 10^{-9}$ outside the core boundaries. Using stacked spectra, we detect two components, one narrow and one broad, towards cores and their neighbourhoods. We find the turbulence in the narrow component to be correlated to the size of the structure (Pearson-r=0.54). With these unresolved regional measurements, we obtain a turbulence-size relation of ${\sigma}_{v,NT}\propto r^{0.5}$, similar to previous findings using multiple tracers. We discover that the subsonic component extends up to 0.15 pc beyond the typical coherent boundaries, unveiling larger extents of the coherent cores and showing gradual transition to coherence over ~0.2 pc.

Both observations and numerical simulations suggest that Alfvenic waves may carry sufficient energy to sustain the hot temperatures of the solar atmospheric plasma. However, the thermalization of wave energy is inefficient unless very short spatial scales are considered. Phase mixing is a mechanism that can take energy down to dissipation lengths, but it operates over too long a timescale. Here, we study how turbulence, driven by the nonlinear evolution of phase-mixed torsional Alfven waves in coronal loops, is able to take wave energy down to the dissipative scales much faster than the theory of linear phase mixing predicts. We consider a simple model of a transversely nonuniform cylindrical flux tube with a constant axial magnetic field. The flux tube is perturbed by the fundamental mode of standing torsional Alfven waves. We solved the three-dimensional (3D) ideal magnetohydrodynamics equations numerically to study the temporal evolution. Initially, torsional Alfven waves undergo the process of phase mixing because of the transverse variation of density. After only few periods of torsional waves, azimuthal shear flows generated by phase mixing eventually trigger the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHi), and the flux tube is subsequently driven to a turbulent state. Turbulence is very anisotropic and develops transversely only to the background magnetic field. The obtained power law for the energy cascade to small scales is compatible with theoretical predictions of nearly 2D weak Alfvenic turbulence. After the onset of turbulence, the effective Reynolds number decreases in the flux tube much faster than in the initial linear stage governed by phase mixing alone. We conclude that the nonlinear evolution of torsional Alfven waves, and the associated KHi, is a viable mechanism for the onset of turbulence in coronal loops.

With its large effective area at hard X-rays, high time resolution and having co-aligned other instruments, AstroSat/LAXPC was designed to usher in a new era in rapid variability studies and wide spectral band measurements of the X-ray binaries. Over the last five years, the instrument has successfully achieved to a significant extent these Science goals. In the coming years, it is poised to make more important discoveries. This paper highlights the primary achievements of AstroSat/LAXPC in unraveling the behavior of black hole and neutron star systems and discusses the exciting possibility of the instrument's contribution to future science.

FIRST (Fibered Imager foR a Single Telescope instrument) is a post-AO instrument that enables high contrast imaging and spectroscopy at spatial scales below the diffraction limit. FIRST achieves sensitivity and accuracy by a unique combination of sparse aperture masking, spatial filtering by single-mode fibers and cross-dispersion in the visible. The telescope pupil is divided into sub-pupils by an array of microlenses, coupling the light into single-mode fibers. The output of the fibers are rearranged in a non redundant configuration, allowing the measurement of the complex visibility for every baseline over the 600-900 nm spectral range. A first version of this instrument is currently integrated to the Subaru Extreme AO bench (SCExAO). This paper focuses on the on-going instrument upgrades and testings, which aim at increasing the instrument's stability and sensitivity, thus improving the dynamic range. FIRSTv2's interferometric scheme is based on a photonic chip beam combiner. We report on the laboratory characterization of two different types of 5-input beam combiner with enhanced throughput. The interferometric recombination of each pair of sub-pupils is encoded on a single output. Thus, to sample the fringes we implemented a temporal phase modulation by pistoning the segmented mirrors of a Micro-ElectroMechanical System (MEMS). By coupling high angular resolution and spectral resolution in the visible, FIRST offers unique capabilities in the context of the detection and spectral characterization of close companions, especially on 30m-class telescopes.

Focal plane X-ray polarimetry is intended for relatively bright sources with a negligible impact of background. However this might not be always possible for IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) when observing faint extended sources like supernova remnants. We present for the first time the expected background of IXPE by Monte Carlo simulation and its impact on real observations of point and extended X-ray sources. The simulation of background has been performed by Monte Carlo based on GEANT4 framework. The spacecraft and the detector units have been modeled, and the expected background components in IXPE orbital environment have been evaluated. We studied different background rejection techniques based on the analysis of the tracks collected by the Gas Pixel Detectors on board IXPE. The estimated background is about 2.9 times larger than the requirement, yet it is still negligible when observing point like sources. Albeit small, the impact on supernova remnants indicates the need for a background subtraction for the observation of the extended sources.

We present a multiwavelength study of galaxies around D4UD01, a spectroscopically confirmed protocluster at z = 3.24 to investigate environmental trends. 450 galaxies are selected based on Ks band detection with photometric redshifts (photo-z) at 3.0 < z < 3.4, among which ~ 12% are classified as quiescent galaxies. The quiescent galaxies are among the most massive and reddest ones in the entire sample. We identify a large photo-z galaxy overdensity in the field, which lies close to the previously spectroscopically confirmed sources of the protocluster. We find that the quiescent galaxies are largely concentrated in the overdense protocluster region with a higher quiescent fraction, showing a sign of environmental quenching. Galaxies in the protocluster are forming faster than the field counterparts as seen in the stellar mass function, suggesting early and accelerated mass assembly in the overdense regions. Although weak evidence of suppressed star-formation is found in the protocluster, the statistics are not significant enough to draw a definite conclusion. Our work shed light on how the formation of massive galaxies is affected in the dense region of a protocluster when the Universe was only 2 Gyr old.

The ESA-Ariel mission will include a tier dedicated to exoplanet phase curves corresponding to ~10% of the science time. We present here the current observing strategy for studying exoplanet phase curves with Ariel. We define science questions, requirements and a list of potential targets. We also estimate the precision of phase curve reconstruction and atmospheric retrieval using simulated phase curves. Based on this work, we found that full-orbit phase variations for 35-40 exoplanets could be observed during the 3.5-yr mission. This statistical sample would provide key constraints on atmospheric dynamics, composition, thermal structure and clouds of warm exoplanets, complementary to the scientific yield from spectroscopic transits/eclipses measurements.

The ejecta velocities of type-Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), as measured by the Si II $\lambda 6355$ line, have been shown to correlate with other supernova properties, including color and standardized luminosity. We investigate these results using the Foundation Supernova Survey, with a spectroscopic data release presented here, and photometry analyzed with the SALT2 light-curve fitter. We find that the Foundation data do not show significant evidence for an offset in color between SNe Ia with high and normal photospheric velocities, with $\Delta c = 0.005 \pm 0.014$. Our SALT2 analysis does show evidence for redder high-velocity SN Ia in other samples, including objects from the Carnegie Supernova Project, with a combined sample yielding $\Delta c = 0.017 \pm 0.007$. When split on velocity, the Foundation SN Ia also do not show a significant difference in Hubble diagram residual, $\Delta HR = 0.015 \pm 0.049$ mag. Intriguingly, we find that SN Ia ejecta velocity information may be gleaned from photometry, particularly in redder optical bands. For high-redshift SN Ia, these rest-frame red wavelengths will be observed by the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Our results also confirm previous work that SN Ia host-galaxy stellar mass is strongly correlated with ejecta velocity: high-velocity SN Ia are found nearly exclusively in high-stellar-mass hosts. However, host-galaxy properties alone do not explain velocity-dependent differences in supernova colors and luminosities across samples. Measuring and understanding the connection between intrinsic explosion properties and supernova environments, across cosmic time, will be important for precision cosmology with SNe Ia.

Young Massive Clusters (YMCs) and Super Star Clusters (SSCs) represent an extreme mode of star formation. Far-infrared imaging of the Magellanic Clouds has identified one potential embedded SSC, HSO BMHERICC J72.971176-69.391112 (HH in short), in the south-west outskirts of the Large Magellanic Cloud. We present Gemini Flamingos 2 and GSAOI near-infrared imaging of a 3'x3' region around HH in order to characterize the stellar content of the cluster. The stellar content is probed down to 1.5 Msun. We find substantial dust extinction across the cluster region, extending up to A_K of 3. Deeply embedded stars are associated with ALMA-detected molecular gas suggesting that star formation is ongoing. The high spatial resolution of the GSAOI data allows identification of the central massive object associated with the 13CO ALMA observations and to detect fainter low-mass stars around the H30alpha ALMA source. The morphology of the molecular gas and the nebulosity from adjacent star formation suggest they have interacted covering a region of several pc. The total stellar content in the cluster is estimated from the intermediate- and high-mass stellar content to be at least 10000 Msun, less than R136 with up to 100 000 Msun within 4.7 pc radius, but places it in the regime of a super star cluster. Based on the extinction determination of individual stars we estimate a molecular gas mass in the vicinity of HH of 6600 Msun, suggesting more star formation can be expected.

Two states of the slow solar wind are identified from in-situ measurements by Parker Solar Probe (PSP) inside 50 solar radii from the Sun. At such distances the wind measured at PSP has not yet undergone significant transformation related to the expansion and propagation of the wind. We focus in this study on the properties of the quiet solar wind with no magnetic switchbacks. The two states differ by their plasma beta, flux and magnetic pressure. PSP's magnetic connectivity established with Potential Field Source Surface (PFSS) reconstructions, tested against extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and white-light imaging, reveals the two states correspond to a transition from a streamer to an equatorial coronal hole. The expansion factors of magnetic field lines in the streamer are 20 times greater than those rooted near the center of the coronal hole. The very different expansion rates of the magnetic field result in different magnetic pressures measured by PSP in the two plasma states. Solar wind simulations run along these differing flux tubes reproduce the slower and denser wind measured in the streamer and the more tenuous wind measured in the coronal hole. Plasma heating is more intense at the base of the streamer field lines rooted near the boundary of the equatorial hole than those rooted closer to the center of the hole. This results in a higher wind flux driven inside the streamer than deeper inside the equatorial hole.

Genetic Algorithm (GA) -- motivated by the natural evolutionary process -- is a robust method to estimate the optimal solutions of problems involving one or more objective functions. In this article, for the first time, we apply GA to reconstruct the cleaned CMB temperature anisotropy map over large angular scales of the sky using (internal) linear combination (ILC) of observations from the final-year WMAP and Planck satellite missions. To avoid getting trapped into a local minimum, we implement the GA with generous diversity in the populations. This is achieved by introducing a small but significant amount of mutation of genes during crossover and selecting pairs with diverse fitness coefficients. We find that the new GA-ILC method produces a cleaned CMB map which agrees very well with the CMB map obtained using the exact and analytical expression of weights in the ILC method. By performing extensive Monte Carlo simulations of the CMB reconstruction using the GA-ILC algorithm we find that residual foregrounds in the cleaned map are minimal and mostly tend to occupy localized regions along the central galactic plane. The CMB angular power spectrum shows no indication of any bias in the entire multipole range $2 \leq \ell \leq 32$ studied in this work. The error in the CMB angular power spectrum is minimal as well and given entirely by the cosmic variance induced error. Our results agree well with those obtained by various other reconstruction methods by different research groups. This problem-independent robust GA-ILC method provides a flexible way towards the complex and challenging task of CMB component reconstruction in cosmology.

Near field acoustical signals from fireballs (ranges<200 km), when detected by dense ground networks, may be used to estimate the orientation of the trajectory of a fireball (Pujol et al., 2005) as well as fragmentation locations (Kalenda et al., 2014; Edwards and Hildebrand, 2004). Distinguishing ballistic arrivals (from the cylindrical shock of the fireball)from fragmentation generated signals (quasi-spherical sources) remains a challenge, but are obtainable through analysis of the acoustic path and the timing observed at ground instruments. Here we describe an integrated computer code, termed the Bolide Acoustic Modelling program or BAM, to estimate fireball trajectories and energetics. We develop a new methodology for measuring energy release from bolide fragmentation episodes solely from acoustic measurements and incorporate this into BAM. We also explore the sensitivity of seismo-acoustic fireball solutions and energy estimates to uncertainty in the underlying atmospheric model. Applying BAM to the Stubenberg meteorite producing fireball, we find the total fireball energy from ballistic arrivals to be approximately $5 \times 10^{10}$J which compares favorably to the optical estimate of $4.36 \times 10^{10}$J. The combined fragmentation energy of the Stubenberg event from acoustic data was found to be $1.47^{+0.28}_{-0.12} \times 10^{10}$J, roughly one third of the ballistic or optical total energy. We also show that measuring fireball velocities from acoustic data alone is very challenging but may be possible for slow, deeply penetrating fireballs with shallow entry angles occurring over dense seismic/infrasound networks.

Aromatic Infrared Bands (AIBs) are a set of bright and ubiquitous emission bands, observed in regions illuminated by stellar ultraviolet photons, from our galaxy all the way out to cosmological distances. The forthcoming James Webb Space Telescope will unveil unprecedented spatial and spectral details in the AIB spectrum; significant advancement is thus necessary now to model the infrared emission of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, their presumed carriers, with enough detail to exploit the information content of the AIBs. This requires including anharmonicity in such models, and to do so systematically for all species included, requiring a difficult compromise between accuracy and efficiency. We propose a new recipe using minimal assumptions on the general behaviour of band positions and widths with temperature, which can be defined by a small number of empirical parameters. We explore here the performances of a full quantum method, AnharmoniCaOs, relying on an ab initio potential, and Molecular Dynamics simulations using a Density Functional based Tight Binding potential to determine these parameters for the case of pyrene, for which high temperature gas-phase data are available. The first one is very accurate and detailed, but it becomes computationally very expensive for increasing T; the second trades some accuracy for speed, making it suitable to provide approximate, general trends at high temperatures. We propose to use, for each species and band, the best available empirical parameters for a fast, yet sufficiently accurate spectral model of PAH emission properly including anharmonicity. Modelling accuracy will depend critically on these empirical parameters, allowing for an incremental improvement in model results, as better estimates become gradually available.

A rare opportunity to distinguish internal and environmental effects on galaxy evolution is afforded by "Supergroups", systems which are rich and massive but include several comparably rich substructures, surrounded by filaments. We present here a multiwavelength photometric and spectroscopic study of the galaxy population in the Supergroup Abell 1882 at $z$=0.139, combining new data from the MMT and Hectospec with archival results from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), NED, the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) and Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). These provide spectroscopic classifications for 526 member galaxies, across wide ranges of local density and velocity dispersion. We identify three prominent filaments along which galaxies seem to be entering the Supergroup (mostly in E-W directions). Abell 1882 has a well-populated red sequence, containing most galaxies with stellar mass $>$ $10^{10.5}$ $M_{sun}$, and a pronounced color-density relation even within its substructures. Thus, galaxy evolution responds to the external environment as strongly in these unrelaxed systems as we find in rich and relaxed clusters. From these data, local density remains the primary factor with a secondary role for distance from the inferred center of the entire structure's potential well. Effects on star formation, as traced by optical and near-UV colors, depend on galaxy mass. We see changes in lower-mass galaxies (M $<$ $10^{10.5}$ $M_{sun}$) at four times the virial radius of major substructures, while the more massive $NUV$ Green Valley galaxies show low levels of star formation within two virial radii. Suppression of star formation ("quenching") occurs in the infall regions of these structures even before galaxies enter the denser group environment.

In this study, we focus on improving EUHFORIA (European Heliospheric Forecasting Information Asset), a recently developed 3D MHD space weather prediction tool. EUHFORIA consists of two parts, covering two spatial domains; the solar corona and the inner heliosphere. For the first part, the semi-empirical Wang-Sheeley-Arge (WSA) model is used by default, which employs the Potential Field Source Surface (PFSS) and Schatten Current Sheet (SCS) models to provide the necessary solar wind plasma and magnetic conditions above the solar surface, at 0.1 AU, that serve as boundary conditions for the inner heliospheric part. Herein, we present the first results of the implementation of an alternative coronal model in EUHFORIA, the so-called MULTI-VP model. We compared the output of the default coronal model with the output from MULTI-VP at the inner boundary of the heliospheric domain of EUHFORIA in order to understand differences between the two models, before they propagate to Earth. We also compared the performance of WSA+EUHFORIA-heliosphere and MULTI-VP+EUHFORIA-heliosphere against in situ observations at Earth. In the frame of this study, we considered two different high-speed stream cases, one during a period of low solar activity and one during a period of high solar activity. We also employed two different magnetograms, i.e., GONG and WSO. Our results show that the choice of both the coronal model and the magnetogram play an important role on the accuracy of the solar wind prediction. However, it is not clear which component plays the most important role for the modeled results obtained at Earth. A statistical analysis with an appropriate number of simulations is needed to confirm our findings.

Radio relics are elongated sources related to shocks driven by galaxy cluster merger events. Although these objects are highly polarized at GHz frequencies ($\gtrsim 20\%$), high-resolution studies of their polarization properties are still lacking. We present the first high-resolution and high-sensitivity polarimetry study of the merging galaxy cluster CIZA J2242.8+5301 in the 1-4 GHz frequency band. We use the $QU$-fitting approach to model the Stokes $I$, $Q$ and $U$ emission, obtaining best-fit intrinsic polarization fraction ($p_0$), intrinsic polarization angle ($\chi_0$), Rotation Measure (RM) and wavelength-dependent depolarization ($\sigma_{\rm RM}$) maps of the cluster. Our analysis focuses on the northern relic (RN). For the first time in a radio relic, we observe a decreasing polarization fraction in the downstream region. Our findings are possibly explained by geometrical projections and/or by decreasing of the magnetic field anisotropy towards the cluster center. From the amount of depolarization of the only detected background radio galaxy, we estimate a turbulent magnetic field strength of $B_{\rm turb}\sim5.6~\mu$Gauss in the relic. Finally, we observe Rotation Measure fluctuations of about 30 rad m$^{-2}$ around at the median value of 140.8 rad m$^{-2}$ at the relic position.

The short period variable star MG1-688432 has been discovered to exhibit occasional extremely high energy optical outbursts as high as 10^31 joules. Outbursts are typically of several hours duration. These events are often highly structured, resembling sequential associated releases of energy. Twenty years of time sequence photometry is presented, indicating a basic sinusoidal light curve of mean period 6.65d, with some phase shifting and long-term temporal trends in amplitude and mean brightness. Spectroscopy reveals a peculiar star, best resembling a K3 subgiant that has evolved off the main sequence moderately red-ward of the giant branch. Spectroscopic and radial velocity analyses indicate a binary system orbiting its barycenter with an unseen companion to the K3IV primary. This is not an eclipsing system with the inclination of the orbit precluding eclipse by the secondary. The system is at a distance of 1.5kpc and analysis of GAIA observations leads to the conclusion that the HR diagram position of MG1-688432 is established by an intrinsic feature of the system, most likely either the stellar evolutionary state of the observed star or the presence of small (non-gray) dust within the system. Two mechanisms that might give rise to the system are 1) impacts with tidally disrupted planetary debris, and 2) magnetically induced chromospheric activity. An intriguing idea that requires further investigation suggests that the unseen companion is perhaps a white dwarf star which has encountered a planet and tidally shredded it to produce a debris and dust veil that modulates the brightness of the primary.

The formation of vortex structures at reflection of electron beam from the double layer of the Jupiter ionosphere is investigated in this paper. And also the influence of these vortex structures on the formation of dense upward electron fluxes, accelerated by the double layer potential along the Io flux tube is studied. Then a phase transition to the cyclotron superradiance mode becomes possible for these electrons. The conditions of the vortex perturbations formation are considered. The nonlinear equation is found that describes the vortex dynamics of electrons and its consequences are studied.

Laboratory experiments revealed that CO$_{2}$ ice particles stick less efficiently than H$_{2}$O ice particles, and there is an order of magnitude difference in the threshold velocity for sticking. However, the surface energies and elastic moduli of CO$_{2}$ and H$_{2}$O ices are comparable, and the reason why CO$_{2}$ ice particles were poorly sticky compared to H$_{2}$O ice particles was unclear. Here we investigate the effects of viscoelastic dissipation on the threshold velocity for sticking of ice particles using the viscoelastic contact model derived by Krijt et al. We find that the threshold velocity for sticking of CO$_{2}$ ice particles reported in experimental studies is comparable to that predicted for perfectly elastic spheres. In contrast, the threshold velocity for sticking of H$_{2}$O ice particles is an order of magnitude higher than that predicted for perfectly elastic spheres. Therefore, we conclude that the large difference in stickiness between CO$_{2}$ and H$_{2}$O ice particles would mainly originate from the difference in the strength of viscoelastic dissipation, which is controlled by the viscoelastic relaxation time.

We derive ages, metallicities, and individual element abundances of early- and late-type galaxies (ETGs and LTGs) out to 1.5 R$_e$. We study a large sample of 1900 galaxies spanning $8.6 - 11.3 \log M/M_{\odot}$ in stellar mass, through key absorption features in stacked spectra from the SDSS-IV/MaNGA survey. We use mock galaxy spectra with extended star formation histories to validate our method for LTGs and use corrections to convert the derived ages into luminosity- and mass-weighted quantities. We find flat age and negative metallicity gradients for ETGs and negative age and negative metallicity gradients for LTGs. Age gradients in LTGs steepen with increasing galaxy mass, from $-0.05\pm0.11~\log$ Gyr/R$_e$ for the lowest mass galaxies to $-0.82\pm0.08~\log$ Gyr/R$_e$ for the highest mass ones. This strong gradient-mass relation has a slope of $-0.70\pm0.18$. Comparing local age and metallicity gradients with the velocity dispersion $\sigma$ within galaxies against the global relation with $\sigma$ shows that internal processes regulate metallicity in ETGs but not age, and vice versa for LTGs. We further find that metallicity gradients with respect to local $\sigma$ show a much stronger dependence on galaxy mass than radial metallicity gradients. Both galaxy types display flat [C/Fe] and [Mg/Fe], and negative [Na/Fe] gradients, whereas only LTGs display gradients in [Ca/Fe] and [Ti/Fe]. ETGs have increasingly steep [Na/Fe] gradients with local $\sigma$ reaching $6.50\pm0.78$ dex/$\log$ km/s for the highest masses. [Na/Fe] ratios are correlated with metallicity for both galaxy types across the entire mass range in our sample, providing support for metallicity dependent supernova yields.

We consider the direct $s$-channel gravitational production of dark matter during the reheating process. Independent of the identity of the dark matter candidate or its non-gravitational interactions, the gravitational process is always present and provides a minimal production mechanism. During reheating, a thermal bath is quickly generated with a maximum temperature $T_{\rm max}$, and the temperature decreases as the inflaton continues to decay until the energy densities of radiation and inflaton oscillations are equal, at $T_{\rm RH}$. During these oscillations, $s$-channel gravitational production of dark matter occurs. We show that the abundance of dark matter (fermionic or scalar) depends primarily on the combination $T_{\rm max}^4/T_{\rm RH} M_P^3$. We find that a sufficient density of dark matter can be produced over a wide range of dark matter masses: from a GeV to a ZeV.

Displaced vertices at colliders, arising from the production and decay of long-lived particles, probe dark matter candidates produced via freeze-in. If one assumes a standard cosmological history, these decays happen inside the detector only if the dark matter is very light because of the relic density constraint. Here, we argue how displaced events could very well point to freeze-in within a non-standard early universe history. Focusing on the cosmology of inflationary reheating, we explore the interplay between the reheating temperature and collider signatures for minimal freeze-in scenarios. Observing displaced events at the LHC would allow to set an upper bound on the reheating temperature and, in general, to gather indirect information on the early history of the universe.

Early dark energy (EDE) that becomes subdominant around the epoch of matter-radiation equality can be used to ease the Hubble tension. However, there is a theoretical problem that why the energy scale of EDE is in coincidence with that of matter-radiation equality when their physics are completely unrelated. Sakstein and Trodden [Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 161301 (2020)] proposed a mechanism to solve this coincidence problem with $\mathcal{O}({\rm eV})$-mass neutrino. In this paper, in order to solve the coincidence problem, we propose a new scenario for EDE, in which the onset and ending of EDE are triggered by the radiation-matter transition. The specific example we study is a $k$-essence model. The cosmic evolution equations can be recast into a two-dimensional dynamical system and its main properties are analyzed. Our results suggest that $k$-essence seems unable to realize the new scenario for EDE. However, an EDE model with different scenario is realized in $k$-essence. In this model, the ending of EDE can be triggered by the radiation-matter transition while the onset depends on the initial conditions of the scalar field. Therefore, the obtained model can only be used to solve half of the coincidence problem. The full resolution in the framework of our initial proposed scenario is worthy of more research.

We present the gas-phase infrared spectra of the phenyl cation, phenylium, in its perprotio C$_6$H$_5^+$ and perdeutero C$_6$D$_5^+$ forms, in the 260-1925 cm$^{-1}$ (5.2-38 $\mu$m) spectral range, and investigate the observed photofragmentation. The spectral and fragmentation data were obtained using Infrared Multiple Photon Dissociation (IRMPD) spectroscopy within a Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometer (FTICR MS) located inside the cavity of the free electron laser FELICE (Free Electron Laser for Intra-Cavity Experiments). The $^1$A$_1$ singlet nature of the phenylium ion is ascertained by comparison of the observed IR spectrum with DFT calculations, using both harmonic and anharmonic frequency calculations. To investigate the observed loss of predominantly [2C,nH] (n=2-4) fragments, we explored the potential energy surface (PES) to unravel possible isomerization and fragmentation reaction pathways. The lowest energy pathways toward fragmentation include direct H elimination, and a combination of facile ring-opening mechanisms ($\leq2.4$ eV), followed by elimination of H or CCH$_2$. Energetically, all H-loss channels found are more easily accessible than CCH$_2$-loss. Calculations of the vibrational density of states for the various intermediates show that at high internal energies, ring opening is the thermodynamically the most advantageous, eliminating direct H-loss as a competing process. The observed loss of primarily [2C,2H] can be explained through entropy calculations that show favored loss of [2C,2H] at higher internal energies.

A charged particle in a magnetic field possesses discrete energy levels associated with particle rotation around the field lines. A bound complex of particles with a nonzero net charge possesses an analogous levels associated with its center-of-mass motion and, in addition, the levels associated with internal degrees of freedom, that is with relative motions of its constituent particles. The center-of-mass and internal motions are mutually dependent, which complicates theoretical studies of the binding energies, radiative transitions and other properties of the complex ions moving in quantizing magnetic fields. In this work, we present a detailed derivation of practical expressions for the numerical treatment of such properties of the hydrogenlike ions moving in strong quantizing magnetic fields, which follows and supplements the previous works of Bezchastnov et al. Second, we derive asymptotic analytic expressions for the binding energies, oscillator strengths, and photoionization cross sections of the moving hydrogenlike ions in the limit of an ultra-strong magnetic field.