Papers for Monday, Mar 29 2021

Gravitational waves (GWs) from merging black holes and neutron stars directly measure the luminosity distance to the merger, which, when combined with an independent measurement of the source's redshift, provides a novel probe of cosmology. The proposed next generation of ground-based GW detectors, Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer, will detect tens of thousands of binary neutron stars (BNSs) out to cosmological distances ($z>2$), beyond the peak of the star formation rate (SFR), or "cosmic noon." At these distances, it will be challenging to measure the sources' redshifts by observing electromagnetic (EM) counterparts or statistically marginalizing over a galaxy catalog. We argue that even in the absence of an EM counterpart or galaxy catalog, the BNS redshift distribution will be measured by independent observations of short gamma ray bursts (GRBs), kilonovae, and known BNS host galaxies. As a simple example, we consider the case in which the BNS rate is \textit{a priori} known to follow the SFR and explore how combining this redshift distribution with measurements of GW distances can constrain cosmology and modified gravity theories. We find that $\mathcal{O}(10,000)$ events (to be expected within a year of observation with Cosmic Explorer) would yield a sub-tenth percent measurement of the combination $H_0^{2.8}\Omega_M$ in a flat $\Lambda$CDM model. Beyond $\Lambda$CDM, this method would enable a 5\% measurement of the dark energy equation of state parameter $w$ given a sub-percent prior measurement on $H_0$ and $\Omega_M$. Alternatively, fixing the background cosmology and instead probing modified GW propagation, we expect to constrain the running of the Planck mass parameter $c_M$ to $\pm0.02$.

We investigate the dynamical evolution of an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH) in a nuclear star cluster hosting a supermassive black hole (SMBH) and both a spherical and a flattened disk-like distribution of stellar-mass objects. We use a direct N-body ($\varphi$GPU) and an orbit-averaged (N-ring) numerical integrator to simulate the orbital evolution of stars and the IMBH. We find that the IMBH's orbit gradually aligns with the stellar disk if their mutual initial inclination is less than 90 degrees. If it is larger than 90 degrees, i.e. counterrotating, the IMBH does not align. Initially, the rate of orbital reorientation increases linearly with the mass of the IMBH and it is orders of magnitude faster than ordinary (i.e. Chandrasekhar) dynamical friction. The semimajor axes of the IMBH and the stars are approximately conserved. This suggests that the alignment is predominantly driven by orbit-averaged gravitational torques of the stars, a process which may be called resonant dynamical friction. The stellar disk is warped by the IMBH, and ultimately increases its thickness. This process may offer a test for the viability of IMBH candidates in the Galactic Center. Resonant dynamical friction is not limited to IMBHs; any object much more massive than disk particles may ultimately align with the disk. This may have implications for the formation and evolution of black hole disks in dense stellar systems and gravitational wave source populations for LIGO, VIRGO, KAGRA, and LISA.

In ground-based astronomy, starlight distorted by the atmosphere couples poorly into single-mode waveguides but a correction by adaptive optics, even if only partial, can boost coupling into the few-mode regime allowing the use of photonic lanterns to convert into multiple single-mode beams. Corrected wavefronts result in focal patterns that couple mostly with the circularly symmetric waveguide modes. A mode-selective photonic lantern is hence proposed to convert the multimode light into a subset of the single-mode waveguides of the standard photonic lantern, thereby reducing the required number of outputs. We ran simulations to show that only two out of the six waveguides of a 1x6 photonic lantern carry >95% of the coupled light to the outputs at $D/r_0 < 10$ if the wavefront is partially corrected and the photonic lantern is made mode-selective.

Double detonations in sub-Chandrasekhar mass carbon-oxygen white dwarfs with helium shell are a potential explosion mechanism for a Type Ia supernova (SNe Ia). It comprises a shell detonation and subsequent core detonation. The focus of our study is on the effect of the progenitor metallicity on the nucleosynthetic yields. For this, we compute and analyse a set of eleven different models with varying core and shell masses at four different metallicities each. This results in a total of 44 models at metallicities between 0.01$Z_\odot$ and 3$Z_\odot$. Our models show a strong impact of the metallicity in the high density regime. The presence of $^{22}$Ne causes a neutron-excess which shifts the production from $^{56}$Ni to stable isotopes such as $^{54}$Fe and $^{58}$Ni in the $\alpha$-rich freeze-out regime. The isotopes of the metallicity implementation further serve as seed nuclei for additional reactions in the shell detonation. Most significantly, the production of $^{55}$Mn increases with metallicity confirming the results of previous work. A comparison of elemental ratios relative to iron shows a relatively good match to solar values for some models. Super-solar values are reached for Mn at 3$Z_\odot$ and solar values in some models at $Z_\odot$. This indicates that the required contribution of SNe Ia originating from Chandrasekhar mass WDs can be lower than estimated in orevious work to reach solar values of [Mn/Fe] at [Fe/H]$=0$. Our galactic chemical evolution models suggest that SNe Ia from sub-Chandrasekhar mass white dwarfs, along with core-collapse supernovae, could account for more than 80% of the solar Mn abundance. Using metallicity-dependent SN Ia yields helps to reproduce the upward trend of [Mn/Fe] as a function of metallicity for the solar neighborhood. These chemical evolution predictions, however, depend on the massive star yields adopted in the calculations.

We present an analysis of spectropolarimetric observations of the low-mass weak-line T Tauri stars TWA 25 and TWA 7. The large-scale surface magnetic fields have been reconstructed for both stars using the technique of Zeeman Doppler imaging. Our surface maps reveal predominantly toroidal and non-axisymmetric fields for both stars. These maps reinforce the wide range of surface magnetic fields that have been recovered, particularly in pre-main sequence stars that have stopped accreting from the (now depleted) central regions of their discs. We reconstruct the large scale surface brightness distributions for both stars, and use these reconstructions to filter out the activity-induced radial velocity jitter, reducing the RMS of the radial velocity variations from 495 m/s to 32 m/s for TWA 25, and from 127 m/s to 36 m/s for TWA 7, ruling out the presence of close-in giant planets for both stars. The TWA 7 radial velocities provide an example of a case where the activity-induced radial velocity variations mimic a Keplerian signal that is uncorrelated with the spectral activity indices. This shows the usefulness of longitudinal magnetic field measurements in identifying activity-induced radial velocity variations.

We demonstrate that cosmic string loops may provide a joint resolution of two mysteries surrounding recently observed black holes. For a string tension in an appropriate range, large radius string loops have the potential to provide the nonlinearities in the early universe which seed supermassive black holes. The more numerous smaller radius string loops can then seed intermediate mass black holes, including those with a mass in the region between 65 and 135 solar masses in which standard black hole formation scenarios predict no black holes are able to form, but which have recently been detected by the LIGO/VIRGO collaboration. We find that there could be as many as $10^6$ of intermediate mass black holes per galaxy, providing a tantalizing target for gravitational wave observatories to look for.

LB-1 has variously been proposed as either an X-ray dim B-type star plus black hole (B+BH) binary, or a Be star plus an inflated stripped star (Be+Bstr) binary. The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on board HST was used to obtain a flux-calibrated spectrum that is compared with non-LTE spectral energy distributions (SED) and line profiles for the proposed models. The Hubble data, together with the Gaia EDR3 parallax, provide tight constraints on the properties and stellar luminosities of the system. In the case of the Be+Bstr model we adopt the published flux ratio for the Be and Bstr stars, re-determine the T$_{eff}$ of the Bstr using the silicon ionization balance, and infer Teff for the Be star from the fit to the SED. We derive stellar parameters consistent with previous results, but with greater precision enabled by the Hubble SED. While the Be+Bstr model is a better fit to the HeI lines and cores of the Balmer lines in the optical, the B+BH model provides a better fit to the Si iv resonance lines in the UV. The analysis also implies that the Bstr star has roughly twice solar silicon abundance, difficult to reconcile with a stripped star origin. The Be star on the other hand has a rather low luminosity, and a spectroscopic mass inconsistent with its possible dynamical mass. The fit to the UV can be significantly improved by reducing the T$_{eff}$ and radius of the Be star, though at the expense of leading to a different mass ratio. In the B+BH model, the single B-type spectrum is a good match to the UV spectrum. Adopting a mass ratio of 5.1$\pm$0.1 (Liu et al. 2020) implies a BH mass of $\sim$21$^{+9}_{-8}M_{\odot}$.

We propose a new method for fitting the full-shape of the Lyman-$\alpha$ (Ly$\alpha$) forest three-dimensional (3D) correlation function in order to measure the Alcock-Paczynski (AP) effect. Our method preserves the robustness of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) analyses when it comes to measuring the position of the acoustic peak, while also providing extra cosmological information from a broader range of scales. We compute forecasts for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) using the Ly$\alpha$ auto-correlation and its cross-correlation with quasars, and show how this type of analysis improves cosmological constraints. The DESI Ly$\alpha$ BAO analysis is expected to measure $H(z_\mathrm{eff})r_\mathrm{d}$ and $D_\mathrm{M}(z_\mathrm{eff})/r_\mathrm{d}$ with a precision of $\sim0.9\%$ each, where $H$ is the Hubble parameter, $r_\mathrm{d}$ is the comoving BAO scale, $D_\mathrm{M}$ is the comoving angular diameter distance and the effective redshift of the measurement is $z_\mathrm{eff}\simeq2.3$. By fitting the AP parameter from the full shape of the two correlations, we show that we can obtain a precision of $\sim0.5-0.6\%$ on each of $H(z_\mathrm{eff})r_\mathrm{d}$ and $D_\mathrm{M}(z_\mathrm{eff})/r_\mathrm{d}$. Furthermore, we show that a joint full-shape analysis of the Ly$\alpha$ auto-correlation and its cross-correlation with quasars can measure the linear growth rate times the amplitude of matter fluctuations on scales of $8\;h^{-1}$Mpc, $f\sigma_8(z_\mathrm{eff})$. Such an analysis could provide the first ever measurement of $f\sigma_8(z_\mathrm{eff})$ at redshift $z_\mathrm{eff}>2$. By combining this with the quasar auto-correlation in a joint analysis of the three high-redshift two-point correlation functions, we show that DESI will be able to measure $f\sigma_8(z_\mathrm{eff}\simeq2.3)$ with a precision of $5-12\%$, depending on the smallest scale fitted.

We determine the ability of Cosmic Explorer, a proposed third-generation gravitational-wave observatory, to detect eccentric binary neutron stars and to measure their eccentricity. We find that for a matched-filter search, template banks constructed using binaries in quasi-circular orbits are effectual for eccentric neutron star binaries with $e_{7} \leq 0.004$ ($e_{7} \leq 0.003$) for CE1 (CE2), where $e_7$ is the binary's eccentricity at a gravitational-wave frequency of 7~Hz. We show that stochastic template placement can be used to construct a matched-filter search for binaries with larger eccentricities and construct an effectual template bank for binaries with $e_{7} \leq 0.05$. We show that the computational cost of both the search for binaries in quasi-circular orbits and eccentric orbits is not significantly larger for Cosmic Explorer than for Advanced LIGO and is accessible with present-day computational resources. We investigate Cosmic Explorer's ability to distinguish between circular and eccentric binaries. We estimate that for a binary with a signal-to-noise ratio of 8 (800), Cosmic Explorer can distinguish between a circular binary and a binary with eccentricity $e_7 \gtrsim 10^{-2}$ ($10^{-3}$) at 90\% confidence.

We measure the transverse baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) signal in the local Universe using a sample of blue galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) survey as a cosmological tracer. The method is weakly dependent on a cosmological model and is suitable for 2D analyses in thin redshift bins to investigate the SDSS data in the interval $z {\in} [0.105, 0.115]$. We detect the transverse BAO signal ${\theta}_{BAO} = 19.8^{\deg} {\pm} 1.05^{\deg}$ at $z_{eff} = 0.11$, with a statistical significance of $2.2 {\sigma}$. Additionally, we perform tests that confirm the robustness of this angular BAO signature. Supported by a large set of log-normal simulations, our error analyses include statistical and systematic contributions. In addition, considering the sound horizon scale calculated by the Planck Collaboration, $r_{s}^{Planck}$, and the ${\theta}_{BAO}$ value obtained here, we obtain a measurement of the angular diameter distance $D_{A}(0.11) = 258.31 {\pm} 13.71 \,Mpc/h$. Moreover, combining this ${\theta}_{BAO}$ measurement at low redshift with other BAO angular scale data reported in the literature, we perform statistical analyses for the cosmological parameters of some Lambda cold dark matter (${\Lambda}$CDM) type models.

We present simulations of the multi-phase interstellar medium (ISM) at solar neighbourhood conditions including thermal and non-thermal ISM processes, star cluster formation, and feedback from massive stars: stellar winds, hydrogen ionising radiation computed with the novel TreeRay radiative transfer method, supernovae (SN), and the injection of cosmic rays (CR). N-body dynamics is computed with a 4th-order Hermite integrator. We systematically investigate the impact of stellar feedback on the self-gravitating ISM with magnetic fields, CR advection and diffusion and non-equilibrium chemical evolution. SN-only feedback results in strongly clustered star formation with very high star cluster masses, a bi-modal distribution of the ambient SN densities, and low volume-filling factors (VFF) of warm gas, typically inconsistent with local conditions. Early radiative feedback prevents an initial starburst, reduces star cluster masses and outflow rates. Furthermore, star formation rate surface densities of $\Sigma_{\dot{M}_\star} = 1.4-5.9 \times 10^{-3}$ $\mathrm{M}_\odot\,\mathrm{yr}^{-1}\,\mathrm{kpc}^{-2}$, VFF$_\mathrm{warm} = 60-80$ per cent as well as thermal, kinetic, magnetic, and cosmic ray energy densities of the model including all feedback mechanisms agree well with observational constraints. On the short, 100 Myr, timescales investigated here, CRs only have a moderate impact on star formation and the multi-phase gas structure and result in cooler outflows, if present. Our models indicate that at low gas surface densities SN-only feedback only captures some characteristics of the star-forming ISM and outflows/inflows relevant for regulating star formation. Instead, star formation is regulated on star cluster scales by radiation and winds from massive stars in clusters, whose peak masses agree with solar neighbourhood estimates.

A substantial fraction of Cataclysmic Variables (CVs) reveals non-solar abundances. A comprehensive list of CVs which includes those that have been examined for these abundances is given. Three possible sources of these non-solar abundances on the secondary are accretion during the red giant common envelope phase, an Evolved Main Sequence secondary and nova-processed material. Use of the secondary's cross-section just on the escaping nova material to change the abundances of its convective region has been the killing objection for considering nova-processed material. The key element, ignored in other studies, is that a thermonuclear runaway on a white dwarf causes a strong propagating shock wave which not only ejects material, but also produces a large amount of non-ejected material which forms a common envelope. This nova-produced common envelope contains a large amount of non-solar material. We demonstrate that the secondary has the capacity and time to re-accrete enough of this material to acquire a significant non-solar convective region. This same envelope interacting with the binary will produce a Frictional Angular Momentum Loss which can be the Consequential Angular Momentum Loss needed for the average CV white dwarf mass, WD mass accretion rates, the period minimum, the orbital period distribution, and the space density of CVs problems. This interaction will decrease the orbital period which can cause the recently observed sudden period decreases across nova eruptions. A simple, rapid evolutionary model of the secondary that includes the swept-up nova-produced material and the increasing convective region is developed and applied to individual CVs.

In several previous studies, quasars exhibiting broad emission lines with >1000 km/s velocity offsets with respect to the host galaxy rest frame have been discovered. One leading hypothesis for the origin of these velocity-offset broad lines is the dynamics of a binary supermassive black hole (SMBH). We present high-resolution radio imaging of 34 quasars showing these velocity-offset broad lines with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), aimed at finding evidence for the putative binary SMBHs (such as dual radio cores), and testing the competing physical models. We detect exactly half of the target sample from our VLBA imaging, after implementing a 5 detection limit. While we do not resolve double radio sources in any of the targets, we obtain limits on the instantaneous projected separations of a radio-emitting binary for all of the detected sources under the assumption that a binary still exists within our VLBA angular resolution limits. We also assess the likelihood that a radio-emitting companion SMBH exists outside of our angular resolution limits, but its radio luminosity is too weak to produce a detectable signal in the VLBA data. Additionally, we compare the precise sky positions afforded by these data to optical positions from both the SDSS and Gaia DR2 source catalogs. We find projected radio/optical separations on the order of 10 pc for three quasars. Finally, we explore how future multi-wavelength campaigns with optical, radio, and X-ray observatories can help discriminate further between the competing physical models.

We investigate more than 1000 star cluster models (about half of all the cluster models in MOCCA-Survey Database I), and obtain the local rate density of white dwarf (WD) tidal disruption events (TDEs) in globular clusters (GCs) and young massive clusters (YMCs). We find that WD TDEs in a star cluster happen 1000 times more efficiently than predicted previously. We take into account WD TDEs in GCs, YMCs, and dwarf galaxies, and obtain the total WD TDE rate density in the local universe as $\sim 5.0 \times 10^2~{\rm yr}^{-1}~{\rm Gpc}^{-3}$, 90 % of which happens in GCs. The total WD TDE rate density is 50 times larger than estimated before. Our results show that thermonuclear explosions induced by WD TDEs can be observed at a rate of $\lesssim 550~{\rm yr}^{-1}$ by the next generation optical surveys, such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. We also find that massive WDs are preferentially disrupted due to mass segregation, and that 20 % of exploding WDs have $\gtrsim 1.0 M_\odot$ despite of small population of such WDs. Such explosions can be as luminous and long as type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), in contrast to previous arguments that such explosions are observed as more rapid and faint transients than SNe Ia due to their small radioactive mass ($\lesssim 0.1 M_\odot$) and ejecta mass ($\lesssim 0.6 M_\odot$).

Research for possible biosignature gases on habitable exoplanet atmosphere is accelerating. We add isoprene, C5H8, to the roster of biosignature gases. We found that formation of isoprene geochemical formation is highly thermodynamically disfavored and has no known abiotic false positives. The isoprene production rate on Earth rivals that of methane (~ 500 Tg yr-1). On Earth, isoprene is rapidly destroyed by oxygen-containing radicals, but its production is ubiquitous to a diverse array of evolutionarily distant organisms, from bacteria to plants and animals-few, if any at all, volatile secondary metabolite has a larger evolutionary reach. While non-photochemical sinks of isoprene may exist, the destruction of isoprene in an anoxic atmosphere is mainly driven by photochemistry. Motivated by the concept that isoprene might accumulate in anoxic environments, we model the photochemistry and spectroscopic detection of isoprene in habitable temperature, rocky exoplanet anoxic atmospheres with a variety of atmosphere compositions under different host star UV fluxes. Limited by an assumed 10 ppm instrument noise floor, habitable atmosphere characterization using JWST is only achievable with transit signal similar or larger than that for a super-Earth sized exoplanet transiting an M dwarf star with an H2-dominated atmosphere. Unfortunately, isoprene cannot accumulate to detectable abundance without entering a run-away phase, which occurs at a very high production rate, ~ 100 times Earth's production rate. In this run-away scenario isoprene will accumulate to > 100 ppm and its spectral features are detectable with ~ 20 JWST transits. One caveat is that some spectral features are hard to be distinguished from that of methane. Despite these challenges, isoprene is worth adding to the menu of potential biosignature gases.

As one of the most spectacular energy release events in the solar system, solar flares are generally powered by magnetic reconnection in the solar corona. As a result of the re-arrangement of magnetic field topology after the reconnection process, a series of new loop-like magnetic structures are often formed and are known as flare loops. A hot diffuse region, consisting of around 5-10 MK plasma, is also observed above the loops and is called a supra-arcade fan. Often, dark, tadpole-like structures are seen to descend through the bright supra-arcade fans. It remains unclear what role these so-called supra-arcade downflows (SADs) play in heating the flaring coronal plasma. Here we show a unique flare observation, where many SADs collide with the flare loops and strongly heat the loops to a temperature of 10-20 MK. Several of these interactions generate clear signatures of quasi-periodic enhancement in the full-Sun-integrated soft X-ray emission, providing an alternative interpretation for quasi-periodic pulsations that are commonly observed during solar and stellar flares.

Galaxy triplets are interesting laboratories where we can study the formation and the evolution of small and large systems of galaxies. This study aims to investigate signs of interaction between the members of nine isolated galaxy triplet systems (27 galaxies) selected from the "SDSS-based catalogue of Isolated Triplets" (SIT) with members brighter than 17.0 ($m_r\le$ 17.0) in the $r-$band, and mean projected separation between the members of $r_p \leq$ 0.1 Mpc. In this work, we performed a one-dimensional (1D) fitting of the surface brightness profiles and a two-dimensional (2D) modeling of the sample galaxies. In the 1D fitting, we examined the far outer part of the light profiles of disk galaxies (22 galaxies) and categorized them into type I (simple exponential), type II (down-bending), and type III (up-bending). This fitting results showed that 55$\%$ of disk galaxies in our sample represent type III i.e are in state of interaction. In the 2D modeling, we fit smooth axisymmetric profiles to the 27 galaxies and found that 70$\%$ exhibit asymmetric features and signs of interactions in their residual images. Thus, we conclude that galaxy triplets, with projected separations ($r_p \leq$ 0.1 Mpc) between their members, are physically bounded systems that show pronounced signs of interactions.

We present the analysis of an optical data cube of the central region of NGC 1448, obtained with the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE). Chandra X-ray data indicate that the active galactic nucleus (AGN) is not located at the apparent stellar nucleus of the galaxy, but at a projected distance of $1.75$ $\pm$ $0.22$ arcsec ($139 \pm 17$ pc). This is probably caused by the high interstellar extinction in the surroundings of the AGN, which corresponds to the true nucleus of the galaxy, as also proposed by previous studies. The morphology and classification of the optical line-emitting regions indicate two ionization cones, around an axis with a position angle of $PA_{cones}$ = -50{\deg} $\pm$ 7{\deg}, with emission-line spectra characteristic of Seyfert galaxies. The stellar and gas kinematics are consistent with a stellar and gas rotating disc around the nucleus, with a velocity amplitude of 125 km s$^{-1}$. Two probable outflows from the AGN were detected along the region of the two ionization cones. The AGN position does not coincide with the brightest line-emitting region at the centre of NGC 1448. That may be a consequence of the high obscuration from the AGN towards the observer (the AGN is actually Compton thick), mostly caused by a nearly edge-on torus. An additional hypothesis is that the AGN reduced its luminosity, during the last 440 yr, to nearly half of the value in the past. In this case, the brightest line-emitting region corresponds to a "light echo" or a "fossil" of the AGN in the past.

Forecasting the arrival time of CMEs and their associated shocks is one of the key aspects of space weather research. One of the commonly used models is, due to its simplicity and calculation speed, the analytical drag-based model (DBM) for heliospheric propagation of CMEs. DBM relies on the observational fact that slow CMEs accelerate whereas fast CMEs decelerate, and is based on the concept of MHD drag, which acts to adjust the CME speed to the ambient solar wind. Although physically DBM is applicable only to the CME magnetic structure, it is often used as a proxy for the shock arrival. In recent years, the DBM equation has been used in many studies to describe the propagation of CMEs and shocks with different geometries and assumptions. Here we give an overview of the five DBM versions currently available and their respective tools, developed at Hvar Observatory and frequently used by researchers and forecasters. These include: 1) basic 1D DBM, a 1D model describing the propagation of a single point (i.e. the apex of the CME) or concentric arc (where all points propagate identically); 2) advanced 2D self-similar cone DBM, a 2D model which combines basic DBM and cone geometry describing the propagation of the CME leading edge which evolves self-similarly; 3) 2D flattening cone DBM, a 2D model which combines basic DBM and cone geometry describing the propagation of the CME leading edge which does not evolve self-similarly; 4) DBEM, an ensemble version of the 2D flattening cone DBM which uses CME ensembles as an input and 5) DBEMv3, an ensemble version of the 2D flattening cone DBM which creates CME ensembles based on the input uncertainties. All five versions have been tested and published in recent years and are available online or upon request. We provide an overview of these five tools, of their similarities and differences, as well as discuss and demonstrate their application.

We study the evolution of six exoplanetary systems with the stellar evolutionary code MESA and conclude that they will likely spin-up the envelope of their parent stars on the red giant branch (RGB) or later on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) to the degree that the mass loss process might become non-spherical. We choose six observed exoplanetary systems where the semi-major axis is 1-2AU, and use the binary mode of MESA to follow the evolution of the systems. In four systems the star engulfs the planet on the RGB, and in two systems on the AGB, and the systems enter a common envelope evolution (CEE). In two systems where the exoplanet masses are Mp~10MJ, where MJ is Jupiter mass, the planet spins-up the envelope to about 10% of the break-up velocity. Such envelopes are likely to have significant non-spherical mass loss geometry. In the other four systems where Mp~MJ the planet spins-up the envelope to values of 1-2% of break-up velocity. Magnetic activity in the envelope that influences dust formation might lead to a small departure from spherical mass loss even in these cases. In the two cases of CEE on the AGB the planet deposits energy to the envelope that amounts to >10% of the envelope binding energy. We expect this to cause a non-spherical mass loss that will shape an elliptical planetary nebula in each case.

We examine the robustness of the color-color selection of quiescent galaxies (QGs) against contamination of dusty star-forming galaxies using the latest submillimeter data. We selected 18,304 QG candidates out to $z\sim$ 3 using the commonly adopted $NUV-r-J$ selection based on the high-quality multi-wavelength COSMOS2015 catalog. Using extremely deep 450 and 850 $\mu$m catalogs from the latest JCMT SCUBA-2 Large Programs, S2COSMOS, and STUDIES, as well as ALMA submillimeter, VLA 3 GHz, and $Spitzer$ MIPS 24 $\mu$m catalogs, we identified luminous dusty star-forming galaxies among the QG candidates. We also conducted stacking analyses in the SCUBA-2 450 and 850 $\mu$m images to look for less-luminous dusty galaxies among the QG candidates. By cross-matching to the 24 $\mu$m and 3 GHz data, we were able to identify a sub-group of "IR-radio-bright" QGs who possess a strong 450 and 850 $\mu$m stacking signal. The potential contamination of these luminous and less-luminous dusty galaxies accounts for approximately 10% of the color-selected QG candidates. In addition, there exists a spatial correlation between the luminous star-forming galaxies and the QGs at a $\lesssim60$ kpc scale. Finally, we found a high QG fraction among radio AGNs at $z<$ 1.5. Our data show a strong correlation between QGs and radio AGNs, which may suggest a connection between the quenching process and the radio-mode AGN feedback.

A CCD photometry of the dwarf nova MASTER OT J172758.09 +380021.5 was carried out in 2019 during 134 nights. Observations covered three superoutbursts, five normal outbursts and quiescence between them. The available ASASSN and ZTF data for 2014-2020 were also examined. Spectral observations were done in 2020 when the object was in quiescence. Spectra and photometry revealed that the star is an H-rich active ER UMa-type dwarf nova with a highly variable supercycle of ~50-100 d that implies a high and variable mass-transfer rate. This object demonstrated peculiar behaviour: short-lasted superoutbursts (a week); a slow superoutburst decline and cases of rebrightenings; low frequency (from none to a few) of the normal outbursts during the supercycle. In 2019 a mean period of positive superhumps was found to be 0.05829 d during the superoutbursts. Late superhumps with a mean period of 0.057915 d which lasted about ~20 d after the end of superoutburst and were replaced by an orbital period of 0.057026 d or its orbital-negative superhump beat period were detected. An absence of eclipse in the orbital light curve and its moderate amplitude are consistent with the orbital inclination of about 40 degr found from spectroscopy. The blue peaks of the V-Ic and B-Rc of superhumps during the superoutburst coincided with minima of the light curves, while B-Rc of the late superhumps coincided with a rising branch of the light curves. We found that a low mass ratio q=0.08 could explain most of the peculiarities of this dwarf nova. The mass-transfer rate should be accordingly higher than what is expected from gravitational radiation only, this assumes the object is in a post-nova state and underwent a nova eruption relatively recently -- hundreds of years ago. This object would provide probably the first observational evidence that a nova eruption can occur even in CVs near the period minimum.

This paper explores methods for constructing low multipole temperature and polarisation likelihoods from maps of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies that have complex noise properties and partial sky coverage. We use the Planck 2018 High Frequency Instrument (HFI) maps and the updated SRoll2 maps (Delouis et al. 2019) to test our methods. We present three likelihood approximations based on quadratic cross spectrum estimators: (i) a variant of the simulation-based likelihood (SimBaL) techniques used in the Planck legacy papers to produce a low multipole EE likelihood; (ii) a semi-analytical likelihood approximation (momento) based on the principle of maximum entropy; (iii) a density-estimation "likelihood-free" scheme (DELFI). Approaches (ii) and (iii) can be generalised to produce low multipole joint temperature-polarisation (TTTEEE) likelihoods. We present extensive tests of these methods on simulations with realistic correlated noise. We then analyse the Planck data and confirm the robustness of our method and likelihoods on multiple inter- and intra-frequency detector set combinations of SRoll2 maps. The three likelihood techniques give consistent results and support a low value of the optical depth to reoinization, tau, from the HFI. Our best estimate of tau comes from combining the low multipole SRoll2 momento (TTTEEE) likelihood with the CamSpec high multipole likelihood and is tau = 0.0627+0.0053-0.0059. This is consistent with the value of tau reported by Pagano et al. (2020), though slightly higher by approximately 0.5 sigma.

Core-collapse simulations of massive stars are performed using the equation of state (EOS) based on the microscopic variational calculation with realistic nuclear forces. The progenitor models with the initial masses of $15M_\odot$, $9.6M_\odot$, and $30M_\odot$ are adopted as examples of the ordinary core-collapse supernova with a shock stall, the low-mass supernova with a successful explosion, and the black hole formation, respectively. Moreover, the neutrinos emitted from the stellar collapse are assessed. Then, the variational EOS is confirmed to work well in all cases. The EOS dependences of the dynamics, thermal structure, and neutrino emission of the stellar collapse are also investigated.

The IDIA Visualisation Laboratory based at the University of Cape Town is exploring the use of virtual reality technology to visualise and analyse astronomical data. The iDaVIE software suite currently under development reads from both volumetric data cubes and sparse multi-dimensional catalogs, rendering them in a room-scale immersive environment that allows the user to intuitively view, navigate around and interact with features in three dimensions. This paper will highlight how the software imports from common astronomy data formats and processes the information for loading into the Unity game engine. It will also describe what tools are currently available to the user and the various performance optimisations made for seamless use. Applications by astronomers will be reviewed in addition to the features we plan to include in future releases.

Coronal holes are the observational manifestation of the solar magnetic field open to the heliosphere and are of pivotal importance for our understanding of the origin and acceleration of the solar wind. Observations from space missions such as the Solar Dynamics Observatory now allow us to study coronal holes in unprecedented detail. Instrumental effects and other factors, however, pose a challenge to automatically detect coronal holes in solar imagery. The science community addresses these challenges with different detection schemes. Until now, little attention has been paid to assessing the disagreement between these schemes. In this COSPAR ISWAT initiative, we present a comparison of nine automated detection schemes widely-applied in solar and space science. We study, specifically, a prevailing coronal hole observed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly instrument on 2018 May 30. Our results indicate that the choice of detection scheme has a significant effect on the location of the coronal hole boundary. Physical properties in coronal holes such as the area, mean intensity, and mean magnetic field strength vary by a factor of up to 4.5 between the maximum and minimum values. We conclude that our findings are relevant for coronal hole research from the past decade, and are therefore of interest to the solar and space research community.

Spectral lines from formaldehyde (H2CO) molecules at cm wavelengths are typically detected in absorption and trace a broad range of environments, from diffuse gas to giant molecular clouds. In contrast, thermal emission of formaldehyde lines at cm wavelengths is rare. In previous observations with the 100m Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT), we detected 2 cm formaldehyde emission toward NGC7538 IRS1 - a high-mass protostellar object in a prominent star-forming region of our Galaxy. We present further GBT observations of the 2 cm and 1 cm H2CO lines to investigate the nature of the 2 cm H2CO emission. We conducted observations to constrain the angular size of the 2 cm emission region based on a East-West and North-South cross-scan map. Gaussian fits of the spatial distribution in the East-West direction show a deconvolved size (at half maximum) of the 2 cm emission of 50" +/- 8". The 1 cm H2CO observations revealed emission superimposed on a weak absorption feature. A non-LTE radiative transfer analysis shows that the H2CO emission is consistent with quasi-thermal radiation from dense gas (~10^5 to 10^6 cm^-3). We also report detection of 4 transitions of CH3OH (12.2, 26.8, 28.3, 28.9 GHz), the (8,8) transition of NH3 (26.5 GHz), and a cross-scan map of the 13 GHz SO line that shows extended emission (> 50").

Flickering is a universal phenomenon in accreting astronomical systems which still defies detailed physical understanding. It is particularly evident in cataclysmic variables (CVs). Attempting to define boundary conditions for models, the strength of the flickering is measured in several thousand light curves of more than 100 CVs. The flickering amplitude is parameterized by the FWHM of a Gaussian fit to the magnitude distribution of data points in a light curve. This quantity requires several corrections before a comparison between different sources can be made. While no correlations of the flickering strength with simple parameters such as component masses, orbital inclination or period were detected, a dependence on the absolute magnitude of the primary component and on the CV subtype is found. In particular, flickering in VY Scl tpye novalike variables is systematically stronger than in UX UMa type novalikes. The broadband spectrum of the flickering light source can be fit by simple models but shows excess in the $U$ band. When the data permitted to investigate the flickering strength as a function of orbital phase in eclipsing CVs, such a dependence was found, but it is different for different systems. Surprisingly, there are also indications for variations of the flickering strength with the superhump phase in novalike variables with permanent superhumps. In dwarf novae, the flickering amplitude is high during quiescence, drops quickly at an intermediate magnitude when the system enters into (or returns from) an outburst and, on average, remains constant above a given brightness threshold.

Ultraluminous X-ray sources are considered amongst the most extremely accreting objects in the local Universe. The recent discoveries of pulsating neutron stars in ULXs strengthened the scenario of highly super-Eddington accretion mechanisms on stellar mass compact objects. In this work, we present the first long-term light curve of the source NGC 4559 X7 using all the available Swift, XMM-Newton, Chandra and NuSTAR data. Thanks to the high quality 2019 XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observations, we investigated in an unprecedented way the spectral and temporal properties of NGC 4559 X7. The source displayed flux variations of up to an order of magnitude and an unusual flaring activity. We modelled the spectra from NGC 4559 X7 with a combination of two thermal components, testing also the addition of a further high energy cut-off powerlaw. We observed a spectral hardening associated with a luminosity increase during the flares, and a spectral softening in the epochs far from the flares. Narrow absorption and emission lines were also found in the RGS spectra, suggesting the presence of an outflow. Furthermore, we measured hard and (weak) soft lags with magnitudes of a few hundreds of seconds whose origin is possibly be due to the accretion flow. We interpret the source properties in terms of a super-Eddington accretion scenario assuming the compact object is either a light stellar mass black hole or a neutron star.

Upcoming measurements of the high-redshift 21 cm signal from the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) are a promising probe of the astrophysics of the first galaxies and of cosmological parameters. In particular, the optical depth $\tau$ to the last scattering surface of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) should be tightly constrained by direct measurements of the neutral hydrogen state at high redshift. A robust measurement of $\tau$ from 21 cm data would help eliminate it as a nuisance parameter from CMB estimates of cosmological parameters. Previous proposals for extracting $\tau$ from future 21 cm datasets have typically used the 21 cm power spectra generated by semi-numerical models to reconstruct the reionization history. We present here a different approach which uses convolution neural networks (CNNs) trained on mock images of the 21 cm EoR signal to extract $\tau$. We construct a CNN that improves upon on previously proposed architectures, and perform an automated hyperparameter optimization. We show that well-trained CNNs are able to accurately predict $\tau$, even when removing Fourier modes that are expected to be corrupted by bright foreground contamination of the 21 cm signal. Typical random errors for an optimized network are less than $3.06\%$, with biases factors of several smaller. While preliminary, this approach could yield constraints on $\tau$ that improve upon sample-variance limited measurements of the low-$\ell$ EE observations of the CMB, making this approach a valuable complement to more traditional methods of inferring $\tau$.

The analysis of exoplanetary atmospheres often relies upon the observation of transit or eclipse events. While very powerful, these snapshots provide mainly 1-dimensional information on the planet structure and do not easily allow precise latitude-longitude characterisations. The phase curve technique, which consists of measuring the planet emission throughout its entire orbit, can break this limitation and provide useful 2-dimensional thermal and chemical constraints on the atmosphere. As of today however, computing performances have limited our ability to perform unified retrieval studies on the full set of observed spectra from phase curve observations at the same time. Here, we present a new phase curve model that enables fast, unified retrieval capabilities. We apply our technique to the combined phase curve data from the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes of the hot-Jupiter WASP-43 b. We tested different scenarios and discussed the dependence of our solution to different assumptions in the model. Our more comprehensive approach suggests that multiple interpretation of this dataset are possible but our more complex model is consistent with the presence of thermal inversions and a metal rich atmosphere, contrasting with previous data analyses, although this likely depends on the Spitzer data reduction. The detailed constraints extracted here demonstrate the importance of developing and understanding advanced phase curve techniques, which we believe will unlock access to a richer picture of exoplanet atmospheres.

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, scheduled for launch in the early 2030s, is a gravitational wave observatory in space designed to detect sources emitting in the milli-Hertz band. In contrast to the present ground based detectors, the LISA data are expected to be a signaldominated, with strong and weak gravitational wave signals overlapping in time and in frequency. Astrophysical population models predict a sufficient number of signals in the LISA band to blend together and form an irresolvable foreground noise. In this work, we present a generic method for characterizing the foreground signals originating from a given astrophysical population of coalescing compact binaries. Assuming idealized detector conditions and perfect data analysis technique capable of identifying and removing the bright sources, we apply an iterative procedure which allows us to predict the different levels of foreground noise.

Jupiter co-orbital comets have orbits that are not long-term stable. They may experience flybys with Jupiter close enough to trigger tidal disruptions like the one suffered by comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. Our aim was to study the activity and dynamical evolution of the Jupiter co-orbital comet P/2019 LD2 (ATLAS). We present results of an observational study carried out with the 10.4m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) that includes image analyses using a MC dust tail fitting code to characterize its activity, and spectroscopic studies to search for gas emission. We also present N-body simulations to explore its orbital evolution. Images of LD2 obtained on 2020 May 16 show a conspicuous coma and tail. The spectrum does not exhibit any evidence of CN, C2, or C3 emission. The comet brightness in a 2.6 arcsec aperture is r'=19.34+/-0.02 mag, with colors (g'-r')=0.78+/-0.03, (r'-i')=0.31+/-0.03, and (i'-z')=0.26+/-0.03. The temporal dependence of the dust loss rate can be parameterized by a Gaussian having a FWHM of 350 days and a maximum of 60 kg/s reached on 2019 August 15. The total dust loss rate is 1.9e09 kg. LD2 is now following what looks like a short arc of a quasi-satellite cycle that started in 2017 and will end in 2028. On 2063 January 23, it will experience a very close encounter with Jupiter at 0.016 au. Its probability of escaping the solar system during the next 0.5 Myr is 0.53+/-0.03. LD2 is a kilometer-sized object, in the size range of the Jupiter-family comets, with a typical comet-like activity likely linked to sublimation of crystalline water ice and clathrates. Its origin is still an open question. We report a probability of LD2 having been captured from interstellar space during the last 0.5 Myr of 0.49+/-0.02, 0.67+/-0.06 during the last 1 Myr, 0.83+/-0.06 over 3 Myr, and 0.91+/-0.09 during the last 5 Myr.

We introduce an axion-inflation model embedded in the Left-Right symmetric extension of the SM in which $W_R$ is coupled to the axion. This model merges three milestones of modern cosmology, i.e., inflation, cold dark matter, and baryon asymmetry. Thus, it can naturally explain the observed coincidences among cosmological parameters, i.e., $\eta_{B}\approx P_{\zeta}$ and $\Omega_{DM} \simeq 5~\Omega_{B}$. The source of asymmetry is spontaneous CP violation in the physics of inflation, and the lightest right-handed neutrino is the cold dark matter candidate with mass $m_{N_1}\sim 1~GeV$. The introduced mechanism does not rely on the largeness of the unconstrained CP-violating phases in the neutrino sector nor fine-tuned masses for the heaviest right-handed neutrinos. It has two unknown fundamental scales, i.e. scale of inflation $\Lambda_{\rm inf}=\sqrt{HM_{Pl}}$ and left-right symmetry breaking $\Lambda_{F}$. Sufficient matter asymmetry demands $\Lambda_{\rm inf}\approx\Lambda_{F}$. The baryon asymmetry and dark matter today are remnants of a pure quantum effect (chiral anomaly) in inflation, which, thanks to flavor effects, are memorized by cosmic evolution.

We present a margin-free finite mixture model which allows us to simultaneously classify objects into known classes and to identify possible new object types using a set of continuous attributes. This application is motivated by the needs of identifying and possibly detecting new types of a particular kind of stars known as variable stars. We first suitably transform the physical attributes of the stars onto the simplex to achieve scale invariance while maintaining their dependence structure. This allows us to compare data collected by different sky surveys which can have different scales. The model hence combines a mixture of Dirichlet mixtures to represent the known classes with the semi-supervised classification strategy of Vatanen et al. (2012) for outlier detection. In line with previous work on semiparametric model-based clustering, the single Dirichlet distributions can be seen as providing the baseline pattern of the data. These are then combined to effectively model the complex distributions of the attributes for the different classes. The model is estimated using a hierarchical two-step procedure which combines a suitably adapted version of the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm with Bayes' rule. We validate our model on a reliable sample of periodic variable stars available in the literature (Dubath et al., 2011) achieving an overall classification accuracy of 71.95%, a sensitivity of 86.11% and a specificity of 99.79% for new class detection.

We report on the development and extensive characterization of co-sputtered tantala-zirconia thin films, with the goal to decrease coating Brownian noise in present and future gravitational-wave detectors. We tested a variety of sputtering processes of different energies and deposition rates, and we considered the effect of different values of cation ratio $\eta =$ Zr/(Zr+Ta) and of post-deposition heat treatment temperature $T_a$ on the optical and mechanical properties of the films. Co-sputtered zirconia proved to be an efficient way to frustrate crystallization in tantala thin films, allowing for a substantial increase of the maximum annealing temperature and hence for a decrease of coating mechanical loss. The lowest average coating loss was observed for an ion-beam sputtered sample with $\eta = 0.485 \pm 0.004$ annealed at 800 $^{\circ}$C, yielding $\overline{\varphi} = 1.8 \times 10^{-4}$. All coating samples showed cracks after annealing. Although in principle our measurements are sensitive to such defects, we found no evidence that our results were affected. The issue could be solved, at least for ion-beam sputtered coatings, by decreasing heating and cooling rates down to 7 $^{\circ}$C/h. While we observed as little optical absorption as in the coatings of current gravitational-wave interferometers (0.5 parts per million), further development will be needed to decrease light scattering and avoid the formation of defects upon annealing.

Silicon microstrip detectors are widely used in experiments for space astronomy. Before the detector is assembled, extensive characterization of the silicon microstrip sensors is indispensable and challenging. This work electrically evaluates a series of sensor parameters, including the depletion voltage, bias resistance, metal strip resistance, total leakage current, strip leakage current, coupling capacitance, and interstrip capacitance. Two methods are used to accurately measure the strip leakage current, and the test results match each other well. In measuring the coupling capacitance, we extract the correct value based on a SPICE model and two-port network analysis. In addition, the expression of the measured bias resistance is deduced based on the SPICE model.

The dynamics of fluids deep in stellar interiors is a subject that bears many similarities with geophysical fluid dynamics, with one crucial difference: the Prandtl number. The ratio of the kinematic viscosity to the thermal diffusivity is usually of order unity or more on Earth, but is always much smaller than one in stars. As a result, viscosity remains negligible on scales that are thermally diffusive, which opens the door to a whole new region of parameter space, namely the turbulent low P\'eclet number regime (where the P\'eclet number is the product of the Prandtl number and the Reynolds number). In this review, I focus on three instabilities that are well known in geophysical fluid dynamics, and have an important role to play in stellar evolution, namely convection, stratified shear instabilities, and double-diffusive convection. I present what is known of their behavior at low Prandtl number, highlighting the differences with their moderate and high Prandtl number counterparts.

In an environment with high-density neutrinos formed in a core-collapse supernova (CCSN), the neutrinos exhibit nonlinear and complex oscillation behaviors due to their self-interactions. The onset of this nonlinear oscillation can be investigated by linearizing the evolution equation for small perturbations around the flavor eigenstates. While the condition under which the flavor eigenstates are unstable has been investigated in many studies, how the perturbations evolve in spacetime has yet to be elucidated. In this paper, we analytically and correctly derive the asymptotic behaviors of the linear perturbations in 4-dimensional spacetime in the linear regime for a 2-beam neutrino model using the recently proposed Lefschetz thimble formulation. The result suggests that the perturbations grow in the directions between the two neutrino beams. We also briefly discuss the possible effects of neutrino flavor conversion on the explosion mechanism of a CCSN. In particular, the result implies that the flavor instability in the preshock region may propagate into the postshock region, contrary to the previous study focusing on the group velocity in 1-dimensional space. How to treat the case of a more realistic continuous spectrum is also discussed.

We study the gravitational field sourced by localized scalar fields (lumps) in higher-derivative theories of gravity. By working in a static and spherically symmetric configuration, we find the linearized spacetime metrics generated by scalar lumps for several Lagrangians: the vanishing potential, i.e. free massive scalar field, a polynomial potential, and the tachyon potential in open string field theory. We perform the analysis for different theories of gravity: Einstein's general relativity, four-derivative gravity, and ghost-free nonlocal gravity. We discuss the limit of validity of our analysis and comment on possible future applications in the context of astrophysical compact objects.

While the standard, six-parameter, spatially flat $\Lambda$CDM model has been highly successful, certain anomalies in the cosmic microwave background bring out a tension between this model and observations. The statistical significance of any one anomaly is small. However, taken together, the presence of two or more of them imply that according to standard inflationary theories we live in quite an exceptional universe. We revisit the analysis of the PLANCK collaboration using loop quantum cosmology, where an unforeseen interplay between the ultraviolet and the infrared makes the \emph{primordial} power spectrum scale dependent at very small $k$. Consequently, we are led to a somewhat different $\Lambda$CDM universe in which anomalies associated with large scale power suppression and the lensing amplitude are both alleviated. The analysis also leads to new predictions for future observations. This article is addressed both to cosmology and LQG communities, and we have attempted to make it self-contained.

Upon embedding the axion-inflation in the minimal left-right symmetric gauge extension of the SM with gauge group $SU(2)_L\times SU(2)_R \times U(1)_{B-L}$, [arXiv:2012.11516] proposed a new particle physics model for inflation. In this work, we present a more detailed analysis. As a compelling consequence, this setup provides a new mechanism for simultaneous baryogenesis and right-handed neutrino creation by the chiral anomaly of $W_R$ in inflation. The lightest right-handed neutrino is the dark matter candidate. This setup has two unknown fundamental scales, i.e., the scale of inflation and left-right symmetry breaking $SU(2)_R\times U(1)_{B-L}\rightarrow U(1)_{Y}$. Sufficient matter creation demands the left-right symmetry breaking scale happens shortly after the end of inflation. Interestingly, it prefers left-right symmetry breaking scales above $10^{10}~GeV$, which is in the range suggested by the non-supersymmetric SO(10) Grand Unified Theory with an intermediate left-right symmetry scale. Although $W_R$ gauge field generates equal amounts of right-handed baryons and leptons in inflation, i.e. $B-L=0$, in the Standard Model sub-sector $B-L_{SM}\neq 0$. A key aspect of this setup is that $SU(2)_R$ sphalerons are never in equilibrium, and the primordial $B-L_{SM}$ is conserved by the Standard Model interactions. This setup yields a deep connection between CP violation in physics of inflation and matter creation (visible and dark); hence it can naturally explain the observed coincidences among cosmological parameters, i.e., $\eta_{B}\simeq 0.3 P_{\zeta}$ and $\Omega_{DM}\simeq 5\Omega_{B}$. The $SU(2)_R$-axion inflation comes with a cosmological smoking gun; chiral, non-Gaussian, and blue-tilted gravitational wave background, which can be probed by future CMB missions and laser interferometer detectors.